Conceptual Engineering without Bedrock and without Fixed Points

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Cappelen
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Change ◽  
Fixed Points ◽  
Asymmetric Structure ◽  
Empirical Claim ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Normative Concepts

This chapter considers whether there are any limits to conceptual engineering, developing the idea that there are no safe spaces from conceptual change. First, it considers Chalmers’s argument for bedrock concepts. It argues that Chalmers’s claim that there is an asymmetric structure in the space of disputes is an (implausible) empirical claim. Second, it considers Eklund’s claim to the effect that our thinnest normative concepts are irreplaceable, and this is a limit to conceptual engineering, and shows that Eklund doesn’t establish this. It ends by revisiting some old worries, defending the choice of the term ‘conceptual engineering’, and responding to the claim that by making conceptual engineering inscrutable and out of control, it has been debunked rather than defended. However, conceptual engineering is very hard for us to do, but so is (almost) everything that is important to us.

Choosing Normative Concepts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Eklund
Keyword(s):  
Normative Realism ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Normative Concepts ◽  
Better Than

Theorists working on metaethics and the nature of normativity typically study goodness, rightness, what ought to be done, etc. In their investigations they employ and consider our actual normative concepts. But the actual concepts of goodness, rightness, and what ought to be done are only some of the possible normative concepts. There are other possible concepts, ascribing different properties. In this book, the consequences of this are explored, for example for the debate over normative realism and for the debate over what it is for concepts and properties to be normative. In recent years, conceptual engineering—the project of considering how our concepts can be replaced by better ones—has become a central topic in philosophy. The present work applies this proposed methodology to central normative concepts and discusses the special complications that arise in this case. For example, how should we, in the context, understand talk of a concept being better than another?

Corollaries of Externalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Cappelen
Keyword(s):  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Meaning Change ◽  
Lack Of Control ◽  
Alternative Theories

This chapter, which continues the argument of the previous one, elaborates the Austerity Framework, considers how it relates to some alternative theories of conceptual engineering, and responds to some objections. First, it introduces the principle that underlies the author’s theory: Inscrutable—Lack of Control—Will Keep Trying. This principle says that the processes that underlie meaning change are inscrutable, and accordingly we typically lack control over meaning change. However, despite this, we are compelled to keep trying, because conceptual engineering is a worthwhile enterprise. The author goes on to argue that there are no safe spaces from conceptual engineering, and that meaning change is not a luminous condition. In closing, the chapter considers some similarities and some differences between the Austerity Framework and Sally Haslanger’s theory of conceptual engineering, and it closes by considering some objections.

Some Metaphilosophical Issues

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Eklund
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Quantifier Variance ◽  
Normative Concept ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Normative Concepts ◽  
Applied Philosophy

This chapter discusses three metaphilosophical issues. First, the themes that have been the focus of the discussion relate to the trend of considering conceptual engineering, or conceptual ethics: how can we improve on the concepts we currently have? In fact, consideration of thin normative concepts presents distinctive theoretical questions: what do or can we mean when we ask whether some possible thin normative concept is better than another? Second, much contemporary metaethics focuses on accounting for our actual normative terms and concepts and is a kind of applied philosophy of language: but what is the broader philosophical upshot of such discussions? Third, the book’s main themes parallel the discussion of quantifier variance in metaontology. The similarities between these parallels are explored.

Artefact in 20Å-Resolution Electron Images of Negatively Stained Twodimensional Membrane Protein Crystals

1982 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 92-93
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Dorset ◽  
Barbara Moss
Keyword(s):  
Electron Scattering ◽  
Cross Correlation ◽  
Transmission Function ◽  
Group Symmetry ◽  
Asymmetric Structure ◽  
Object Model ◽  
Phase Object ◽  
Computing Systems ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Plane Group

A number of computing systems devoted to the averaging of electron images of two-dimensional macromolecular crystalline arrays have facilitated the visualization of negatively-stained biological structures. Either by simulation of optical filtering techniques or, in more refined treatments, by cross-correlation averaging, an idealized representation of the repeating asymmetric structure unit is constructed, eliminating image distortions due to radiation damage, stain irregularities and, in the latter approach, imperfections and distortions in the unit cell repeat. In these analyses it is generally assumed that the electron scattering from the thin negativelystained object is well-approximated by a phase object model. Even when absorption effects are considered (i.e. “amplitude contrast“), the expansion of the transmission function, q(x,y)=exp (iσɸ (x,y)), does not exceed the first (kinematical) term. Furthermore, in reconstruction of electron images, kinematical phases are applied to diffraction amplitudes and obey the constraints of the plane group symmetry.

Cell surface changes during aging of human bladder epithelium examined by lectin probes and SEM

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 966-967
Author(s):  
J. Jacob ◽  
M.F.M. Ismail
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Ultrastructural Changes ◽  
Pokeweed Mitogen ◽  
Asymmetric Structure ◽  
Luminal Surface ◽  
Bladder Epithelium ◽  
Aldehyde Groups ◽  
Cell Surface Changes ◽  
Phosphate Buffered Saline ◽  
Surface Changes

Ultrastructural changes have been shown to occur in the urinary bladder epithelium (urothelium) during the life span of humans. With increasing age, the luminal surface becomes more flexible and develops simple microvilli-like processes. Furthermore, the specialised asymmetric structure of the luminal plasma membrane is relatively more prominent in the young than in the elderly. The nature of the changes at the luminal surface is now explored by lectin-mediated adsorption visualised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Samples of young adult (21-31 y old) and elderly (58-82 y old) urothelia were fixed in buffered 2% glutaraldehyde for 10 m and washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) containing Ca++ and Mg++ at room temperature. They were incubated overnight at 4°C in 0.1 M ammonium chloride in PBS to block any remaining aldehyde groups. The samples were then allowed to stand in PBS at 37°C for 2 h before incubation at 37°C for 30 m with lectins. The lectins used were concanavalin A (Con A), wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM) at a concentration of 500 mg/ml in PBS at pH 7.A.

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