Motivating the Relevant Alternatives Approach

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Rysiew
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Alternatives ◽  
The Core ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
Rule Out

Knowing that p requires being able to ‘rule out’ the relevant not-p alternatives. Such is the core claim of the Relevant Alternatives (RA) theorist. Of course, to endorse the core claim is not to have a complete and satisfactory account of knowing: any RA theorist has some explaining to do. Most obviously, anyone who endorses the core claim must ultimately provide an account of ‘ruling out’ and ‘relevance’. And some who‘ve been critical of the whole RA approach have done so because of a scepticism about the prospects of cashing these notions out in a satisfactory way.

Reliabilism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin I. Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Visual Observation ◽  
Identical Twin ◽  
Psychological Process ◽  
Evil Demon ◽  
Relevant Alternatives ◽  
Twin Sister ◽  
Justified Belief ◽  
Visual Identification ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Rule Out

Reliabilism is an approach to the nature of knowledge and of justified belief. Reliabilism about justification, in its simplest form, says that a belief is justified if and only if it is produced by a reliable psychological process, meaning a process that produces a high proportion of true beliefs. A justified belief may itself be false, but its mode of acquisition (or the way it is subsequently sustained) must be of a kind that typically yields truths. Since random guessing, for example, does not systematically yield truths, beliefs acquired by guesswork are not justified. By contrast, identifying middle-sized physical objects by visual observation is presumably pretty reliable, so beliefs produced in this manner are justified. Reliabilism does not require that the possessor of a justified belief should know that it was reliably produced. Knowledge of reliability is necessary for knowing that a belief is justified, but the belief can be justified without the agent knowing that it is. A similar reliabilist account is offered for knowledge, except that two further conditions are added. First, the target belief must be true and, second, its mode of acquisition must rule out all serious or ‘relevant’ alternatives in which the belief would be false. Even an accurate visual identification of Judy does not constitute knowledge unless it is acute enough to exclude the possibility that it is her twin sister Trudy instead. One major virtue of reliabilism is its ability to secure knowledge against threats of scepticism. In place of excessive requirements often proposed by sceptics, reliabilism substitutes more moderate conditions. People do not need infallible or certainty-producing processes to have justified beliefs, according to reliabilism, only fairly reliable ones. Processes need not exclude radical alternatives like Descartes’ evil demon in order to generate knowledge; they need only exclude realistic possibilities like the presence of an identical twin.

scholarly journals Use of thermodynamic chemical potential diagrams (µCaO, µCO2) to understand the weathering of cement by a slightly carbonated water

Cerâmica ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (331) ◽  
pp. 356-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Blandine ◽  
G. Bernard ◽  
B. Essaïd
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Chemical Potential ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Continuous Solid Solution ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chemical Potentials ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Cement System ◽  
Calcium Silicates ◽  
Hydrated Calcium

Cement is a ubiquitous material that may suffer hazardous weathering. The chemical weathering of cement in natural environment is mostly characterized by the leaching of CaO and the addition of CO2. The different weathering zones that develop at the expense of the cement may be predicted by the help of chemical potential phase diagrams; these diagrams simulate the behaviour of systems open to some chemical elements. Some components have a so-called inert status, that is to say the system is closed for these components, their amount in the system remains constant; some other components have a mobile status, that is to say these components can be exchanged with the outside of the system, their amount can vary from one sample zone to another. The mobile components are represented in the model by their chemical potentials (linked to their concentrations) that are variable in the external environment. The main features of the weathering of a cement system open to CaO and CO2 are predicted in a phase diagram with µCaO et µCO2 as diagram axes. From core to rim, one observes the disappearance of portlandite, ettringite and calcium monosulfoaluminate, the precipitation of calcite and amorphous silica, the modification of the composition of the CSH minerals (hydrated calcium silicates) that see a decrease of their c/s ratio (CaO/SiO2) from the core to the rim of the sample. For the CSH minerals, we have separated their continuous solid solution into three compositions defined by different CaO/SiO2 ratios and called phases 1, 2 and 3: CaO = 0.8, 1.1, 1.8 respectively for one mole of SiO2 knowing that H2O varies in the three compositions.

Righting Epistemology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bredo Johnsen
Keyword(s):  
David Hume ◽  
Epistemic Justification ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Equilibrium Theory ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Nelson Goodman ◽  
The Core ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
The World ◽  
Rule Out

David Hume launched a historic revolution in epistemology, but allies appeared only in the twentieth century, in the persons of Sir Karl Popper, Nelson Goodman, and W. V. Quine. Hume’s second great contribution to the field was to propose reflective equilibrium theory as the framework within which to understand epistemic justification. The core of this book comprises an account of these developments from Hume to Quine, and an extension of reflective equilibrium theory that renders it a general theory of epistemic justification concerning our beliefs about the world. In chapters on Sextus, Descartes, Wittgenstein, and various aspects of Hume’s epistemology, the author defends new readings of those philosophers’ writings on skepticism and notes significant relationships among their views. Finally, in appendices on Hilary Putnam’s “Brains in a Vat” and Fred Dretske’s contextualism, the author shows that both fail to rule out the possible truth of radical skeptical hypotheses. This is not surprising, since those hypotheses are in fact possible. They do not, however, have any epistemological significance, since epistemic justification is a function of the extent to which our bodies of beliefs are in reflective equilibrium, and no extant conception of knowledge is of any epistemological interest.

Pointing the way

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-763
Author(s):  
Dana H. Ballard ◽  
Mary M. Hayhoe ◽  
Polly K. Pook ◽  
Rajesh P. N. Rao
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
The Core ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
The Way

The majority of commentators agree that the time to focus on embodiment has arrived and that the disembodied approach that was taken from the birth of artificial intelligence is unlikely to provide a satisfactory account of the special features of human intelligence. In our Response, we begin by addressing the general comments and criticisms directed at the emerging enterprise of deictic and embodied cognition. In subsequent sections we examine the topics that constitute the core of the commentaries: embodiment mechanisms, dorsal and ventral visual processing, eye movements, and learning.

Foucault's Challenge to Critical Theory

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen K. White
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
New Social Movements ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Core ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
Core Problem

Power, subjectivity, otherness, and modernity are concepts that contemporary political theorists increasingly find to be closely interwoven. In search of an adequate comprehension of the interrelationships among these concepts, I examine the work of Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas. I argue that Foucault, although he is provocatively insightful on a number of key points, ultimately provides a less satisfactory account than Habermas. The core problem is Foucault's inability to conceptualize juridical subjectivity, something which is necessary if he is going to connect his notion of aesthetic subjectivity with his endorsement of new social movements.

scholarly journals Nearby Young Moving Groups: Statistical Methods and Challenges for Assigning Membership

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (S314) ◽  
pp. 27-32
Author(s):  
L. Malo ◽  
J. Gagne ◽  
R. Doyon ◽  
D. Lafreniere ◽  
E. Artigau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Neighborhood ◽  
Age Dating ◽  
Membership Probability ◽  
The Core ◽  
Global Properties ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Indicator Measurement ◽  
Moving Groups ◽  
Rule Out

AbstractYoung associations, being sparsely populated and relatively close to the Sun, their members are found all over the sky. In the Solar Neighborhood, young moving groups are found within 100 pc with ages ranging from 5 to 120 Myr. While known members of these groups were identified mostly through the Hipparcos data, only the most massive members have been fully characterized so far, and defined the core members. In the last decades, several new candidate members have been identified, using different approaches. Based on the global properties of the core members (kinematics and over luminosity), those methods used several criteria to establish the membership, from qualitative manner to quantitive methods using reduced chi-squared or membership probability. A full confirmation of the membership for those numerous candidates requires radial velocity and parallax measurements to confirm their kinematics, age-dating indicator measurement to assess their youth and multiplicity follow-up to rule out binary objects. In this proceeding, we summarize a general recipe to assign membership, describe the numerous challenges for assigning membership, and end with a discussion on the appropriateness and reliability of the BANYAN I and II tools to assess membership.

scholarly journals Translating the principles of good governance: in search of accountability in Spanish and German

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Breeze
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Private Company ◽  
European Directives ◽  
The Core ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
Corporate Social

Abstract Good governance is a key factor in underpinning the integrity and efficiency of an institution, whether it is a private company or a national or international organisation. The core principles of good governance are now often defined as fairness, accountability, responsibility and transparency. Although these terms are familiar to all those involved in corporate social responsibility/sustainability and business ethics, and are frequently discussed in the European Parliament and European directives, they often pose a challenge to the translator, since obvious equivalents for all of them do not exist in all EU languages. In this paper, I take the example of accountability, and examine the way that it is represented in both Spanish and German in the EUROPARL7 parallel corpus of European Parliament Proceedings, available in the Sketch Engine corpus platform. Accountability in English can be defined as an assurance that individuals or organizations will be evaluated on their performance or behaviour related to something for which they are responsible, or more simply, as being responsible for explaining what you do and able to give a satisfactory account of it to those whom your actions affect. The English term accountability thus differs from responsibility and transparency, although it overlaps with both. However, not all languages allow us to distinguish easily between the concepts they designate. In fact, the majority of Spanish translations of accountability found in EUROPARL7 simply use responsabilidad, while others make reference to rendir cuentas or rendición de cuentas, and a few actually use transparencia. In German, the picture is less confused, with the closer term Rechenschaftspflicht employed as the usual translation, but an abundance of alternatives such as Verantwortlichkeit and Auskunftspflicht also appear. In my conclusions, I discuss the rationale that may underlie the different choices, point to problems that might arise from poor translations, and suggest reasons we should strive to maintain clear definitions of these key concepts.

scholarly journals Quantity implicature and access to scalar alternatives in language acquisition

2015 ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Alan Clinton Bale ◽  
Neon Brooks ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Number Word ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Relevant Alternatives ◽  
Knowing That

When faced with a sentence like "Some of the toys are on the table," adults, but not preschoolers, compute a scalar implicature, taking the sentence to imply that not all the toys are on the table. This paper explores the hypothesis that children fail to compute scalar implicatures because they lack knowledge of the relevant scalar alternatives to words like "some." Four-year-olds were shown pictures in which three out of three objects fit a description (e.g., three animals reading), and were asked to evaluate statements that relied on context-independent alternatives (e.g., knowing that "all" is an alternative to "some" for the utterance "Some of the animals are reading") or contextual alternatives (e.g., knowing that the set of all three visible animals is an alternative to a set of two for the utterance "Only the cat and the dog are reading"). Children failed to reject the false statements containing context-independent scales even when the word "only" was used (e.g., "only some"), but correctly rejected equivalent statements containing contextual alternatives (e.g., "only the cat and dog"). These results support the hypothesis that children’s difficulties with scalar implicature are due to a failure to generate relevant alternatives for specific scales. Consequences for number word learning are also discussed.

Thought and Talk about Knowledge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Gerken
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Competence ◽  
Relevant Alternatives ◽  
The Core ◽  
Traditional Epistemology ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Knowledge Ascriptions ◽  
Folk Epistemology ◽  
Epistemological Framework

Chapter 1 outlines the core assumptions of the epistemological framework to be defended. For example, a variety of a relevant-alternatives framework that appeals to normal circumstances is adopted, as is a competence epistemology according to which S may obtain knowledge and warranted belief only by exercising a cognitive competence. Moving from the epistemological framework to our folk epistemology, the ways in which the term ‘knowledge’ is central to our folk epistemology are considered. Special emphasis is given to knowledge ascriptions’ social and communicative functions. Thus, Chapter 1 introduces some core assumptions of a fairly traditional epistemology.

James, Intentionality, and Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Jackman
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Traditional Account ◽  
The World ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

William James was always gripped by the problem of intentionality (or “knowing”), that is, of how our thoughts come to be about the world. Nevertheless, coming up with a sympathetic reading of James’s account requires appreciating that James’s approach to analyzing a phenomenon is very different from that which most contemporary philosophers have found natural. In particular, rather than trying to give necessary and sufficient conditions for a thought’s being about an object, James presented an account of intentionality that focused on certain core cases (particularly those where we actually see or handle the objects of our thoughts), and explained the extension of our “knowing” talk to other cases (objects and events in the past, unobservables, etc.) in terms of various pragmatically relevant relations that can be found between those cases and the “core.” Once this account of intentionality is in place, a number of features of James’s approach to truth come in to clearer focus, and can seem less problematic than they would if one presupposed a more traditional account of intentionality and analysis.

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