scholarly journals Assertions, Handicaps, and Social Norms

Episteme ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-363
Author(s):  
Peter J. Graham

AbstractHow should we undertand the role of norms – especially epistemic norms – governing assertive speech acts? Mitchell Green (2009) has argued that these norms play the role of handicaps in the technical sense from the animal signals literature. As handicaps, they then play a large role in explaining the reliability – and so the stability (the continued prevalence) – of assertive speech acts. But though norms of assertion conceived of as social norms do indeed play this stabilizing role, these norms are best understood as deterrents and not as handicaps. This paper explains the stability problem for the maintenance of animal signals, and so human communication; the mechanics of the handicap principle; the role of deterrents and punishments as an alternative mechanism; and the role of social norms governing assertion for the case of human communication.

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-418
Author(s):  
Claudia Bianchi

According to Mitchell Green, speech act theory traditionally idealizes away from crucial aspects of conversational contexts, including those in which the speaker’s social position affects the possibility of her performing certain speech acts. In recent times, asymmetries in communicative situations have become a lively object of study for linguists, philosophers of language and moral philosophers: several scholars view hate speech itself in terms of speech acts, namely acts of subordination (acts establishing or reinforcing unfair hierarchies). The aim of this paper is to address one of the main objections to accounts of hate speech in terms of illocutionary speech acts, that is the Authority Problem. While the social role of the speaker is the focus of several approaches (Langton 2018a, 2018b; Maitra 2012; Kukla 2014; Green 2014, 2017a, 2017b), the social role of the audience has too often been neglected. The author will show that not only must the speaker have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to perform speech acts of subordination, but also the audience must typically have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to either license or object to the speaker’s authority, and her acts of subordination.


TAPPI Journal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEEYUSH TRIPATHI ◽  
MARGARET JOYCE ◽  
PAUL D. FLEMING ◽  
MASAHIRO SUGIHARA

Using an experimental design approach, researchers altered process parameters and material prop-erties to stabilize the curtain of a pilot curtain coater at high speeds. Part I of this paper identifies the four significant variables that influence curtain stability. The boundary layer air removal system was critical to the stability of the curtain and base sheet roughness was found to be very important. A shear thinning coating rheology and higher curtain heights improved the curtain stability at high speeds. The sizing of the base sheet affected coverage and cur-tain stability because of its effect on base sheet wettability. The role of surfactant was inconclusive. Part II of this paper will report on further optimization of curtain stability with these four variables using a D-optimal partial-facto-rial design.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Weber ◽  
Martin McCullagh

<p>pH-switchable, self-assembling materials are of interest in biological imaging and sensing applications. Here we propose that combining the pH-switchability of RXDX (X=Ala, Val, Leu, Ile, Phe) peptides and the optical properties of coumarin creates an ideal candidate for these materials. This suggestion is tested with a thorough set of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. We first investigate the dependence of pH-switchabiliy on the identity of the hydrophobic residue, X, in the bare (RXDX)<sub>4</sub> systems. Increasing the hydrophobicity stabilizes the fiber which, in turn, reduces the pH-switchabilty of the system. This behavior is found to be somewhat transferable to systems in which a single hydrophobic residue is replaced with a coumarin containing amino acid. In this case, conjugates with X=Ala are found to be unstable and both pHs while conjugates with X=Val, Leu, Ile and Phe are found to form stable β-sheets at least at neutral pH. The (RFDF)<sub>4</sub>-coumarin conjugate is found to have the largest relative entropy value of 0.884 +/- 0.001 between neutral and acidic coumarin ordering distributions. Thus, we posit that coumarin-(RFDF)<sub>4</sub> containing peptide sequences are ideal candidates for pH-sensing bioelectronic materials.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shubham Deolka ◽  
Orestes Rivada Wheelaghan ◽  
Sandra Aristizábal ◽  
Robert Fayzullin ◽  
Shrinwantu Pal ◽  
...  

We report selective formation of heterobimetallic PtII/CuI complexes that demonstrate how facile bond activation processes can be achieved by altering reactivity of common organoplatinum compounds through their interaction with another metal center. The interaction of the Cu center with Pt center and with a Pt-bound alkyl group increases the stability of PtMe2 towards undesired rollover cyclometalation. The presence of the CuI center also enables facile transmetalation from electron-deficient tetraarylborate [B(ArF)4]- anion and mild C-H bond cleavage of a terminal alkyne, which was not observed in the absence of an electrophilic Cu center. The DFT study indicates that the role of Cu center acts as a binding site for alkyne substrate, while activating its terminal C-H bond.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindel White ◽  
John Michael Kelly ◽  
Azim Shariff ◽  
Ara Norenzayan

Four experiments (total N = 3591) examined how thinking about Karma and God increases adherence to social norms that prescribe fairness in anonymous dictator games. We found that (1) thinking about Karma decreased selfishness among karmic believers across religious affiliations, including Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and non-religious Americans; (2) thinking about God also decreased selfishness among believers in God (but not among non-believers), replicating previous findings; and (3) thinking about both karma and God shifted participants’ initially selfish offers towards fairness (the normatively prosocial response), but had no effect on already fair offers. These supernatural framing effects were obtained and replicated in high-powered, pre-registered experiments and remained robust to several methodological checks, including hypothesis guessing, game familiarity, demographic variables, between- and within-subjects designs, and variation in data exclusion criteria. These results support the role of culturally-elaborated beliefs about supernatural justice as a motivator of believer’s adherence to prosocial norms.


Author(s):  
Nikolai Petrov ◽  
Nikolai Petrov ◽  
Inna Nikonorova ◽  
Inna Nikonorova ◽  
Vladimir Mashin ◽  
...  

High-speed railway "Moscow-Kazan" by the draft crosses the Volga (Kuibyshev reservoir) in Chuvashia region 500 m below the village of New Kushnikovo. The crossing plot is a right-bank landslide slope with a stepped surface. Its height is 80 m; the slope steepness -15-16o. The authors should assess the risk of landslides and recommend anti-landslide measures to ensure the safety of the future bridge. For this landslide factors have been analyzed, slope stability assessment has been performed and recommendations have been suggested. The role of the following factors have been analyzed: 1) hydrologic - erosion and abrasion reservoir and runoff role; 2) lithologyc (the presence of Urzhum and Northern Dvina horizons of plastically deformable rocks, displacement areas); 3) hydrogeological (the role of perched, ground and interstratal water); 4) geomorphological (presence of the elemental composition of sliding systems and their structure in the relief); 5) exogeodynamic (cycles and stages of landslide systems development, mechanisms and relationship between landslide tiers of different generations and blocks contained in tiers). As a result 6-7 computational models at each of the three engineering-geological sections were made. The stability was evaluated by the method “of the leaning slope”. It is proved that the slope is in a very stable state and requires the following measures: 1) unloading (truncation) of active heads blocks of landslide tiers) and the edge of the plateau, 2) regulation of the surface and groundwater flow, 3) concrete dam, if necessary.


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