Insight and Understanding

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
Ernest Sosa

In this chapter we explore a particular sort of understanding, understanding why, and a related sort of knowledge why—firsthand knowledge why—and the place of this in the humanities, including philosophy. We focus on one dimension of the humanities, not the whole, and on the humanistic side of philosophy, though there’s a lot more to philosophy than that. I’ll be arguing for the importance of firsthand intuitive insight. And that in turn will bear interestingly on two questions in the epistemology of the humanities, including philosophy. First question: Given that firsthand intuitive insight has special value and standing in the humanities, how is the epistemic standing of our own beliefs affected when we encounter the disagreement of others? Second, if firsthand intuitive insight is shown to have such special standing and value, how if at all does this affect what epistemological standards are properly operative in humanistic domains? Eventually, we will come to these two questions about the humanities, one about the place of disagreement, and the other about the proper epistemic standards. But first we take up the place and value of intuitive insight.

Author(s):  
David M. Wittman

Galilean relativity is a useful description of nature at low speed. Galileo found that the vertical component of a projectile’s velocity evolves independently of its horizontal component. In a frame that moves horizontally along with the projectile, for example, the projectile appears to go straight up and down exactly as if it had been launched vertically. The laws of motion in one dimension are independent of any motion in the other dimensions. This leads to the idea that the laws of motion (and all other laws of physics) are equally valid in any inertial frame: the principle of relativity. This principle implies that no inertial frame can be considered “really stationary” or “really moving.” There is no absolute standard of velocity (contrast this with acceleration where Newton’s first law provides an absolute standard). We discuss some apparent counterexamples in everyday experience, and show how everyday experience can be misleading.


2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (03) ◽  
pp. 879-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Ebrahimi

Nanosystems are devices that are in the size range of a billionth of a meter (1 x 10-9) and therefore are built necessarily from individual atoms. The one-dimensional nanosystems or linear nanosystems cover all the nanosized systems which possess one dimension that exceeds the other two dimensions, i.e. extension over one dimension is predominant over the other two dimensions. Here only two of the dimensions have to be on the nanoscale (less than 100 nanometers). In this paper we consider the structural relationship between a linear nanosystem and its atoms acting as components of the nanosystem. Using such information, we then assess the nanosystem's limiting reliability which is, of course, probabilistic in nature. We consider the linear nanosystem at a fixed moment of time, say the present moment, and we assume that the present state of the linear nanosystem depends only on the present states of its atoms.


1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-559
Author(s):  
Alice Bee Kasakoff

Imagine a fourfold table in which one dimension is “present versus past” and the other “exotic versus home.” Traditionally, social and cultural anthropology’s domain has been the exotic’s present and history’s domain the home’s past. A third box, the home’s present, has been occupied by sociology, while the fourth, the exotic’s past, has usually been the province of anthropologists too because other disciplines—with the exception, perhaps, of ethnohistorians—are usually even less interested in exotic peoples’ past than in their present. These domains are now in flux. I argue, in what follows, that only when the oversimplified ideas about time and space that have created them are seriously questioned will anthropology find a secure “place” in social science history.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ana Inés Renta Davids ◽  
Manel Fandos-Garrido ◽  
José Miguel Jiménez-González ◽  
Ángel Pío González-Soto

<p>The study draws on findings from a survey of adults in non-formal continuing education under the professional training for employment framework in Spain. Quantitative analysis was carried out to a sample of 425 respondents from three different educational providers. Firstly, a factor analysis was conducted to fourteen motives for participation items. A two-dimension model of motivation to participate was identified: one dimension oriented towards job-improvement and the other dimension oriented towards learning. Secondly, a variance analysis was conducted according to demographics variables. Results showed significant statistical differences in the first dimension according to demographic variables. This might indicates an instrumental motivation in participation in work-related training among different groups who try to cope with different types of drawbacks.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lauren Ray ◽  
Peter Mende-Siedlecki ◽  
Ana P. Gantman ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel

Over the past few decades, two-factor models of social cognition have emerged as the dominant framework for understanding impression formation. Despite the differences in the labels, there is wide agreement that one dimension reflects sociability potential, and the other, competence. One way in which the various two-factor models do clearly differ, however, is in the way the dimensions incorporate or produce evaluations of morality. Aristotle saw morality as the most important basis on which to form positive evaluations, because competence and sociability could only be virtuous, sincere, and trustworthy if expressed through a moral character. This chapter highlights research demonstrating the unique and possibly primary role of morality in social cognition. We clarify the dynamic, interactive, and conjoint effects of morality on social perception, and argue morality, competence, and sociability are three influential and interactive dimensions of social perception.


1973 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendell J. Goesling

A color-form sorting task was given to 40 institutionalized male retardates divided into two groups equated in mental age. Part I, a preference test, required that 8 stimulus figures, varying in color (red or green) and form (triangle or square), be sorted into 2 bins each marked by a comparison stimulus-figure resembling test stimuli on only one dimension. In Part II, stimuli were again presented but with the instructions to shift the basis of categorization. The procedure with both groups differed only in the method of stimulus presentation; one group received 8 figures simultaneously, the other successively. Retardates in general preferred color to form in categorization and ability to shift dimensions is facilitated by successive presentation.


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (Special) ◽  
pp. 578-595
Author(s):  
N. Konno

In this paper we consider limit theorems, symmetry of distribution, and absorption problems for two types of one-dimensional quantum random walks determined by $2 \times 2$ unitary matrices using our PQRS method. The one type was introduced by Gudder in 1988, and the other type was studied intensively by Ambainis et al. in 2001. The difference between both types of quantum random walks is also clarified.


2019 ◽  
pp. 98-131
Author(s):  
Johannes Lenhard

This chapter shows that—and how—simulation models are epistemically opaque. Nevertheless, it is argued, simulation models can provide a means to control dynamics. Researchers can employ a series of iterated (experimental) runs of the model and can learn to orient themselves within the model—even if the dynamics of the simulation remain (at least partly) opaque. Admittedly, such an acquaintance with the model falls short of the high epistemic standards usually ascribed to mathematical models. This lower standard is still sufficient, however, when the aim is controlled intervention in technological contexts. On the other hand, opacity has to be accepted if the option for control is to remain in any way open. This chapter closes by discussing whether epistemic opacity restricts simulation-based science to a pragmatic—“weak”—version of scientific understanding.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrnoosh Ghadimi ◽  
Sasan Zangenehtabar ◽  
Shahin Homaeigohar

Nanomaterials, i.e., those materials which have at least one dimension in the 1–100 nm size range, have produced a new generation of technologies for water purification. This includes nanosized adsorbents, nanomembranes, photocatalysts, etc. On the other hand, their uncontrolled release can potentially endanger biota in various environmental domains such as soil and water systems. In this review, we point out the opportunities created by the use of nanomaterials for water remediation and also the adverse effects of such small potential pollutants on the environment. While there is still a large need to further identify the potential hazards of nanomaterials through extensive lab or even field studies, an overview on the current knowledge about the pros and cons of such systems should be helpful for their better implementation.


1933 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Sheppard ◽  
W. J. Clapson

Abstract 1. A relation of simple form between compressive force and equivalent two-way tensile forces is developed. 2. Based on this relation, a new method for determining the compression stress strain of rubber is outlined, which avoids difficulties and errors inherent in direct compression. It consists in applying tensile forces simultaneously in two directions, and, from these and the strained dimensions, in computing the compressive force that would have produced the same deformation. 3. The mode of applying the two-way tensiles is to inflate a hollow sphere of rubber; the experimental data required to determine the compression stress strain are pressure of gas in, and dimensions of, the inflating hollow sphere. 4. The method has been applied to cold-cured pure-gum rubber in the form of toy balloons which, in its ordinary elongation stress strain, shows a breaking elongation of about 650 to 700 per cent and a tensile of 30 to 40 kg. per square centimeter. While the numerical values obtained on this stock have no special significance, as they will vary from stock to stock, the following are examples: breaking compression, about 97.3 per cent; breaking compressive force, 6000 to 9000 kg. per square centimeter (on original cross section); hysteresis, 29 to 35 per cent of work of compression to near rupture. 5. As a common measuring stick by which to gage degree of strain in deformations of different types—e. g., increasing one dimension (and diminishing the other two) as against diminishing one dimension (and increasing the other two)—energy seems the best. Energy at break for ordinary elongation stress strain was 50 to 70 kg. cm. per cubic centimeter, and for compression stress strain was 89 to 103 kg. cm. per cubic centimeter. 6. The compression stress-strain data may, if desired, be expressed in terms of two-way tensiles vs. two-way elongations. Energy of compression may be computed either as twice the area subtended between such a curve and the strain axis, or as the area between the compression stress strain and the strain axis. 7. It is strongly indicated that the compression stress strain of rubber is continuous with the ordinary elongation stress strain when both are plotted in the same units, and that the complete stress strain should accordingly be considered as a single continuous curve having an elongation branch and a compression branch with the origin as dividing point. 8. The analytic features of the complete stress strain are described. 9. Granting the observed concavity of the upper part of the elongation stress strain, and the thesis of continuity between elongation and compression, a point of inflection is bound to exist theoretically. 10. Implications of the thesis of continuity are: (1) An equation for the stress-strain curve must fit the complete curve; it is not sufficient that it fit the elongation branch only. (2) It is impossible to compute the compression stress strain from the ordinary (one-way) elongation stress-strain data. The two sets of data are related empirically. 11. When compressive force and equivalent two-way tensiles are based on actual cross sections, stress conditions at a point are expressed and we have the simple rule: Pressure at a point is numerically equal to the transverse tensions which, substituted therefor, will maintain the same strain.


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