scholarly journals The Epistemological Power of Taste

Author(s):  
LOUISE RICHARDSON

Abstract It is generally accepted that sight—the capacity to see or to have visual experiences—has the power to give us knowledge about things in the environment and some of their properties in a distinctive way. Seeing the goose on the lake puts me in a position to know that it is there and that it has certain properties. And it does this by, when all goes well, presenting us with these features of the goose. One might even think that it is part of what it is to be a perceptual capacity that it has this kind of epistemological power, such that a capacity that lacked this power could not be perceptual. My focus in this essay is the sense of taste—the capacity to taste things or to have taste experiences. It has sometimes been suggested that taste lacks sight-like epistemological power. I argue that taste has epistemological power of the same kind as does sight, but that as a matter of contingent fact, that power often goes unexercised in our contemporary environment. We can know about things by tasting them in the same kind of way as we can know about things by seeing them, but we often do not. I then consider the significance of this conclusion. I suggest that in one way, it matters little, because our primary interest in taste (in marked contrast to our other senses) is not epistemic but aesthetic. But, I end by suggesting, it can matter ethically.

Author(s):  
Steven M. Le Vine ◽  
David L. Wetzel

In situ FT-IR microspectroscopy has allowed spatially resolved interrogation of different parts of brain tissue. In previous work the spectrrscopic features of normal barin tissue were characterized. The white matter, gray matter and basal ganglia were mapped from appropriate peak area measurements from spectra obtained in a grid pattern. Bands prevalent in white matter were mostly associated with the lipid. These included 2927 and 1469 cm-1 due to CH2 as well as carbonyl at 1740 cm-1. Also 1235 and 1085 cm-1 due to phospholipid and galactocerebroside, respectively (Figs 1and2). Localized chemical changes in the white matter as a result of white matter diseases have been studied. This involved the documentation of localized chemical evidence of demyelination in shiverer mice in which the spectra of white matter lacked the marked contrast between it and gray matter exhibited in the white matter of normal mice (Fig. 3).The twitcher mouse, a model of Krabbe’s desease, was also studied. The purpose in this case was to look for a localized build-up of psychosine in the white matter caused by deficiencies in the enzyme responsible for its breakdown under normal conditions.


Author(s):  
Simon King ◽  
C. Barry Carter

Surface-steps formed during the cleavage of MgO on {100} planes, the smaller steps of which may be of atomic height, have been observed in Reflection-Electron Microscopy investigations to be accurately aligned along <001> directions. Steps of atomic height also have been identified on MgO smoke-particle platelets; these steps may be curved or straight, with the straight steps showing evidence for faceting along <001>. Reference also is made to faceting along <011> and <012> directions. Straight steps ∼2 unit cells high, with edges along <100> also have been imaged by High-Resolution Profile-Imaging at the peripheries of MgO smoke microcubes. After etching in aqua-regia and annealing in air, however, high densities of “large” steps several unit cells high, as well as numerous holes, are formed. It is faceting in these foils that is reported here.As can be seen in fig 1, obvious faceting of the surface-step traces is extremely rare in these foils, in marked contrast to substrates such as LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, on which surface-step traces facet readily after a similar preparation treatment.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dexter Dunphy

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the issue of corporate sustainability. It examines why achieving sustainability is becoming an increasingly vital issue for society and organisations, defines sustainability and then outlines a set of phases through which organisations can move to achieve increasing levels of sustainability. Case studies are presented of organisations at various phases indicating the benefits, for the organisation and its stakeholders, which can be made at each phase. Finally the paper argues that there is a marked contrast between the two competing philosophies of neo-conservatism (economic rationalism) and the emerging philosophy of sustainability. Management schools have been strongly influenced by economic rationalism, which underpins the traditional orthodoxies presented in such schools. Sustainability represents an urgent challenge for management schools to rethink these traditional orthodoxies and give sustainability a central place in the curriculum.


Author(s):  
Keith DeRose

In this chapter the contextualist Moorean account of how we know by ordinary standards that we are not brains in vats (BIVs) utilized in Chapter 1 is developed and defended, and the picture of knowledge and justification that emerges is explained. The account (a) is based on a double-safety picture of knowledge; (b) has it that our knowledge that we’re not BIVs is in an important way a priori; and (c) is knowledge that is easily obtained, without any need for fancy philosophical arguments to the effect that we’re not BIVs; and the account is one that (d) utilizes a conservative approach to epistemic justification. Special attention is devoted to defending the claim that we have a priori knowledge of the deeply contingent fact that we’re not BIVs, and to distinguishing this a prioritist account of this knowledge from the kind of “dogmatist” account prominently championed by James Pryor.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Seok Ki Choi

Unintended exposure to harmful reactive organophosphates (OP), which comprise a group of nerve agents and agricultural pesticides, continues to pose a serious threat to human health and ecosystems due to their toxicity and prolonged stability. This underscores an unmet need for developing technologies that will allow sensitive OP detection, rapid decontamination and effective treatment of OP intoxication. Here, this article aims to review the status and prospect of emerging nanotechnologies and multifunctional nanomaterials that have shown considerable potential in advancing detection methods and treatment modalities. It begins with a brief introduction to OP types and their biochemical basis of toxicity followed by nanomaterial applications in two topical areas of primary interest. One topic relates to nanomaterial-based sensors which are applicable for OP detection and quantitative analysis by electrochemical, fluorescent, luminescent and spectrophotometric methods. The other topic is directed on nanotherapeutic platforms developed as OP remedies, which comprise nanocarriers for antidote drug delivery and nanoscavengers for OP inactivation and decontamination. In summary, this article addresses OP-responsive nanomaterials, their design concepts and growing impact on advancing our capability in the development of OP sensors, decontaminants and therapies.


A cylindrical specimen chamber and camera have been used to study the high-angle Kikuchi patterns obtained by reflexion of electrons, of energy 6 to 50 keV, from the cleavage surfaces of crystals with the sodium chloride structure. Angles of scattering ranging from 0 to 164° were covered. The relative intensity of the pattern at different scattering angles was measured using a photographic technique. The intensity distribution was found to become less steep as the energy of the incident electrons decreased. In photographs taken with a large value of the glancing angle of incidence, defect bands were found, starting near the shadow edge of the pattern; these changed to excess bands at higher angles of scattering. The most striking feature of the results is the remarkable intensity and clarity at the highest scattering angles of the pattern produced by crystals such as lead sulphide and potassium iodide, the constituents of which have a relatively high elastic scattering cross-section. In marked contrast, a relatively low intensity and low clarity was found at these angles for lithium fluoride under the same experimental conditions. An investigation of the width of Kikuchi bands, visible over the whole available angular range, showed that the electrons forming these bands had the same energy as that of the incident electrons within the experimental error of 10%. A possible mechanism is discussed by means of which electrons can be diffused through large angles with high efficiency, relative to small angles, and with relatively little loss of energy.


1937 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Jacques

When 0.1 M NaI is added to the sea water surrounding Valonia iodide appears in the sap, presumably entering as NaI, KI, and HI. As the rate of entrance is not affected by changes in the external pH we conclude that the rate of entrance of HI is negligible in comparison with that of NaI, whose concentration is about 107 times that of HI (the entrance of KI may be neglected for reasons stated). This is in marked contrast with the behavior of sulfide which enters chiefly as H2S. It would seem that permeability to H2S is enormously greater than to Na2S. Similar considerations apply to CO2. In this respect the situation differs greatly from that found with iodide. NaI enters because its activity is greater outside than inside so that no energy need be supplied by the cell. The rate of entrance (i.e. the amount of iodide entering the sap in a given time) is proportional to the external concentration of iodide, or to the external product [N+]o [I-lo, after a certain external concentration of iodide has been reached. At lower concentrations the rate is relatively rapid. The reasons for this are discussed. The rate of passage of NaI through protoplasm is about a million times slower than through water. As the protoplasm is mostly water we may suppose that the delay is due chiefly to the non-aqueous protoplasmic surface layers. It would seem that these must be more than one molecule thick to bring this about. There is no great difference between the rate of entrance in the dark and in the light.


1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Stephen Parkinson ◽  
Anthony Bladon

Now that the microcomputer has gained wide acceptance as a teaching tool, it seems appropriate to review the extent to which phoneticians can make use of the new technology. Educational applications will be our primary interest in this survey. Many of these applications involve phonetics word-processing, and of course this has direct relevance for the current debate in this Journal concerning the possibility of a standard for computerization of the IPA.


1990 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 1479 ◽  
Author(s):  
PCH Eichinger ◽  
JH Bowie

Allyl vinyl ether is reported to undergo a facile Wittig rearrangement to yield penta-1,4-dien-3-ol under base- catalysed conditions in the condensed phase. In marked contrast, the Wittig rearrangement is not a major reaction in the gas phase. Instead, initial rearrangement occurs by a Claisen process and subsequent fragmentations involve some of the most complex interconversions yet proposed for negative ions.


1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-52
Author(s):  
Ellen Wright Clayton

AbstractMany individuals with mental illness wish to avoid psychotropic drugs, a type of treatment that may relieve their symptoms only at the risk of unpleasant, even permanent, side effects. In marked contrast to the widely-held view that most patients may refuse any treatment and that even patients with mental illness may reject other psychoactive interventions such as electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery, the courts and legislatures have been slow to recognize any right to refuse psychotropic drugs. This Article demonstrates that many of the justifications offered for forcing patients to take unwanted medications are inadequate and that unless treatment refusals are reviewed outside mental institutions, patients’ rights will rarely receive appropriate deference. The author analyzes the federal and state litigation to determine whether the courts have fashioned meaningful relief for the mentally ill. The Article concludes that two recent United States Supreme Court decisions have made it impossible for the federal courts to provide adequate protection. By contrast, several state courts have responded to the needs and rights of patients with mental illness.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document