scholarly journals How to Incorporate Non-Epistemic Values into a Theory of Classification

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. C. Reydon ◽  
Marc Ereshefsky

AbstractNon-epistemic values play important roles in classificatory practice, such that philosophical accounts of kinds and classification should be able to accommodate them. Available accounts fail to do so, however. Our aim is to fill this lacuna by showing how non-epistemic values feature in scientific classification, and how they can be incorporated into a philosophical theory of classification and kinds. To achieve this, we present a novel account of kinds and classification (the Grounded Functionality Account), discuss examples from biological classification where non-epistemic values play decisive roles, and show how this account accommodates the role of non-epistemic values.

1966 ◽  
Vol 15 (03/04) ◽  
pp. 519-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Levin ◽  
E Beck

SummaryThe role of intravascular coagulation in the production of the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon has been evaluated. The administration of endotoxin to animals prepared with Thorotrast results in activation of the coagulation mechanism with the resultant deposition of fibrinoid material in the renal glomeruli. Anticoagulation prevents alterations in the state of the coagulation system and inhibits development of the renal lesions. Platelets are not primarily involved. Platelet antiserum produces similar lesions in animals prepared with Thorotrast, but appears to do so in a manner which does not significantly involve intravascular coagulation.The production of adrenal cortical hemorrhage, comparable to that seen in the Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, following the administration of endotoxin to animals that had previously received ACTH does not require intravascular coagulation and may not be a manifestation of the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Liliane Campos

By decentring our reading of Hamlet, Stoppard’s tragicomedy questions the legitimacy of centres and of stable frames of reference. So Liliane Campos examines how Stoppard plays with the physical and cosmological models he finds in Hamlet, particularly those of the wheel and the compass, and gives a new scientific depth to the fear that time is ‘out of joint’. In both his play and his own film adaptation, Stoppard’s rewriting gives a 20th-century twist to these metaphors, through references to relativity, indeterminacy, and the role of the observer. When they refer to the uncontrollable wheels of their fate, his characters no longer describe the destruction of order, but uncertainty about which order is at work, whether heliocentric or geocentric, random or tragic. When they express their loss of bearings, they do so through the thought experiments of modern physics, from Galilean relativity to quantum uncertainty, drawing our attention to shifting frames of reference. Much like Schrödinger’s cat, Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are both dead and alive. As we observe their predicament, Campos argues, we are placed in the paradoxical position of the observer in 20th-century physics, and constantly reminded that our time-specific relation to the canon inevitably determines our interpretation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kossowska

One might assume that the desire to help (here described as Want) is the essential driver of helping declarations and/or behaviors. However, even if desire to help is low, helping behavior may still occur if the expectancy regarding the perceived effectiveness of helping is high. We tested these predictions in a set of three experimental studies. In all three, we measured the desire to help (Want) and the Expectancy that the aid would be impactful for the victim; in addition, we manipulated Expectancy in Study 3. In Studies 1 and 3, we measured the participants’ declaration to help while in Study 2, their helping behavior was examined. In all three studies, we used variations of the same story about a victim. The results supported our hypothesis. Thus, the studies help to tease apart the determinants of helping behavior under conditions of lowered desire to do so, an issue of great importance in public policymaking.


Transfers ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ueli Haefeli ◽  
Fritz Kobi ◽  
Ulrich Seewer

Based on analysis of two case studies in the Canton of Bern, this article examines the question of knowledge transfer from history to transport policy and planning in the recent past in Switzerland. It shows that for several reasons, direct knowledge transfer did not occur. In particular, historians have seldom become actively involved in transport planning and policy discourses, probably partly because the academic system offers no incentive to do so. However, historical knowledge has certainly influenced decision-making processes indirectly, via personal reflection of the actors in the world of practice or through Switzerland's strongly developed modes of political participation. Because the potential for knowledge transfer to contribute to better policy solutions has not been fully utilized, we recommend strengthening the role of existing interfaces between science and policy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 343-376
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Rodrigues De Paula

Tis paper aims to describe the syntax of the constructions that present the verbal extensions {-ik-} and {-uk-} and their allomorphs in Shimakonde, a Bantu language classifed as P23 in the Guthrie classifcation (GUTHRIE 1967-71). Tis language is spoken in the northern regions of Mozambique and Tanzania. Tese verbal extensions are reported in literature under the labels of stative, impositive, pseudo-passive, neuter, and quasi-passive (DOKE, 1947; SATYO, 1985; MCHOMBO, 1993; DUBINSKY SIMANGO, 1996; BENTLEY KULEMEKA, 2001; LIPHOLA, 2001; NGUNGA, 2004; KHUMALO, 2009; LEACH, 2010; LANGA, 2013). Te addition of the {-ik-} or {-uk-} morphemes to the verb structure usually demotes or suppresses the external argument, turning a basically transitive predicate into an intransitive one. Tis paper aims to investigate in Shimakonde if alternations from a dyadic to a monadic predicate, through the use of one of the aforementioned morphemes, are instances of the phenomenon known in literature as causative/ anticausative alternation (HASPELMATH, 1987, 1993; LEVIN RAPPAPORT HOVAV, 1992, 1995; NAVES, 1998, 2005; VAN HOUT, 2004; OLIVEIRA, 2011; KALLULLI, 2007). In order to do so, I analyze the grammatical role of this morpheme with two Shimakonde native consultants from different Mozambique districts (Mocimboa da Praia and Montepuez). Te feldwork activities consisted of translations of sentences from Portuguese to Shimakonde, testing the grammaticality of the proposed sentences. In order to examine the data that were collected, I adopted the Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2006) refnement of the verbal categories by Levin Rappaport Hovav (1992, 1995). One of the results obtained is that the verbal extensions display an atelic reading (giving rise to stative interpretation) or a telic reading (giving rise to anticausative or passive interpretation). To account for the different interpretations in these constructions, I propose distinct associations between Asp head and Voice head in accordance with Kratzer (1996), Pylkkänen (2002), van Hout (2004), and Oliveira (2010).


Author(s):  
Lisa Waddington

This chapter examines the role of the judiciary with regard to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It considers the relationship which the judiciary have or appear to perceive themselves as having with the CRPD and explores some of the factors seemingly prompting courts to refer to it. The first section reflects on: whether judges are able to choose to refer to the Convention or have a legal duty to do so; the significance of the fact that the CRPD is international law; and whether judges appear to see themselves merely as domestic actors, or as agents or trustees of the CRPD. The second section explores whether judges are referring to the CRPD in response to arguments raised before the court or doing so of their own volition. Also considered are the relevance of amicus curiae interventions; reasons for referral related to the domestic legal system; and the role of particularly engaged individuals.


Author(s):  
Ethan Kleinberg

This article attempts to understand Levinas as a reader of Jewish texts, with particular attention paid to his Talmudic commentaries. To do so, the entangled relation between oral and written texts is explored; one must be able to properly “read” but also “write,” and there is the related issue of the methodology and training to be able to do so properly. Levinas offers commentary on each issue. Several interpretations of Talmudic texts and an important discussion of reading Scripture are analyzed in order to elucidate Levinas’s reading strategies, what this tells us about his relation to the larger tradition of Talmudic commentary, and Levinas’s particular historical moment, especially the role of the Holocaust for his approach to reading the Talmud and traditional texts.


Sociology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 1011-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Laurence

Extensive research has demonstrated that neighbourhood ethnic diversity is negatively associated with intra-neighbourhood social capital. This study explores the role of segregation and integration in this relationship. To do so it applies three-level hierarchical linear models to two sets of data from across Great Britain and within London, and examines how segregation across the wider-community in which a neighbourhood is nested impacts trust amongst neighbours. This study replicates the increasingly ubiquitous finding that neighbourhood diversity is negatively associated with neighbour-trust. However, we demonstrate that this relationship is highly dependent on the level of segregation across the wider-community in which a neighbourhood is nested. Increasing neighbourhood diversity only negatively impacts neighbour-trust when nested in more segregated wider-communities. Individuals living in diverse neighbourhoods nested within integrated wider-communities experience no trust-penalty. These findings show that segregation plays a critical role in the neighbourhood diversity/trust relationship, and that its absence from the literature biases our understanding of how ethnic diversity affects social cohesion.


2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 484-499
Author(s):  
Helen Traill

The question of what community comes to mean has taken on increasing significance in sociological debates and beyond, as an increasingly politicised term and the focus of new theorisations. In this context, it is increasingly necessary to ask what is meant when community is invoked. Building on recent work that positions community as a practice and an ever-present facet of human sociality, this article argues that it is necessary to consider the powerful work that community as an idea does in shaping everyday communal practices, through designating collective space and creating behavioural expectations. To do so, the article draws on participant observation and interviews from a community gardening site in Glasgow that was part of a broader research project investigating the everyday life of communality within growing spaces. This demonstrates the successes but also the difficulties of carving out communal space, and the work done by community organisations to enact it. The article draws on contemporary community theory, but also on ideas from Davina Cooper about the role of ideation in social life. It argues for a conceptual approach to communality that does not situate it as a social form or seek it in everyday practice, but instead considers the vacillation between the ideation and practices of community: illustrated here in a designated community place. In so doing, this approach calls into focus the frictions and boundaries produced in that process, and questions the limits of organisational inclusivity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 141-150
Author(s):  
Honorine Harlé ◽  
Pascal Le Masson ◽  
Benoit Weil

AbstractIn industry, there is at once a strong need for innovation and a need to preserve the existing system of production. Thus, although the literature insists on the necessity of the current change toward Industry 4.0, how to implement it remains problematic because the preservation of the factory is at stake. Moreover, the question of the evolution of the system depends on its innovative capability, but it is difficult to understand how a new rule can be designed and implemented in a factory. This tension between preservation and innovation is often explained in the literature as a process of creative destruction. Looking at the problem from another perspective, this article models the factory as a site of creative heritage, enabling creation within tradition, i.e., creating new rules while preserving the system of rules. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the model. The paper shows that design in the factory relies on the ability to validate solutions. To do so, the design process can explore and give new meaning to the existing rules. The role of innovation management is to choose the degree of revision of the rules and to make it possible.


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