Imaginability, Possibility, and the Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Levin
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Research ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Gettier Cases ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Standard Practice ◽  
General Thesis ◽  
Imaginative Resistance ◽  
The Many ◽  
Trolley Cases

IntroductionIt is standard practice in philosophical inquiry to test a general thesis (of the form ‘F iff G’ or ‘F only if G’) by attempting to construct a counterexample to it. If we can imagine or conceive of an F that isn't a G, then we have evidence that there could be an F that isn't a G — and thus evidence against the thesis in question; if not, then the thesis is (at least temporarily) secure. Or so it is standardly claimed.But there is increasing skepticism about how seriously to take what we can imagine or conceive as evidence for (or against) a priori philosophical theses, given the many historical examples of now-questionable theses that once seemed impossible to doubt — and also the recent experimental research suggesting that our verdicts on Gettier cases, trolley cases, and the scenarios depicted in other familiar thought-experiments may be affected by cultural, situational, and other adventitious factors.

scholarly journals Thought Experiments between Theology, Empirical Science, and Fictional Narrative

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Marco Buzzoni ◽  
Valentina Savojardo
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Scientific Thought ◽  
Fictional Narrative ◽  
The Many ◽  
Ernst Troeltsch

Starting from Fehige’s and Polkinghorne’s analyses of the analogies between theological and scientific thought experiments (TEs), the main aim of this paper is to clarify the distinctive character of theological TEs. For this purpose, we shall compare theological TEs with empirical and, although only in passing, with narrative TEs. In order to facilitate the comparison between scientific and theological TEs, the first part of the paper provides a brief outline of an account regarding TEs in the empirical sciences from the viewpoint of a functional, not material, a priori, which is in line with, if not the full letter, the spirit of Kant’s a priori. On the basis of this view, we shall investigate the most important difference (which is the source of many others) between theological and empirical TEs. In spite of the many similarities, the most important difference between empirical and theological TEs lies in the fact that theological TEs consider both empirical-descriptive and moral-normative contents from the point of view of a search for an absolute meaning beyond all relative and finite meanings. If we—developing a suggestion by Ernst Troeltsch—interpret this claim from the point of view of a purely functional “religious a priori”, we may conclude that theological TEs, which express a search for an absolute meaning, do not possess a priori contents, not even moral.

scholarly journals Aplikasi Simple Hand Washing Station terhadap Perilaku Cuci Tangan dalam Pencegahan Penularan Covid-19 di Desa Dilem Kecamatan Kepanjen

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-216
Author(s):  
Yuyud Wahyudi ◽  
Lilis Sulistiya Nengrum ◽  
Icca Presilia Anggreyanti
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Research ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
P Value ◽  
Test Design ◽  
Paired Sample ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Many ◽  
Global Threat

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that is now a global threat where this virus causes many people to die every day in various countries, one of which is Indonesia, this disease is caused by SARS-CoV-2. The many impacts caused by COVID-19 make Simple Handwashing Station (SHS) one of the prevention efforts that can build proper handwashing behavior. Based on the results of research conducted from 13-18 April 2020 which is divided into 4 strategic points in Dilem Village. This study uses a Quasi-experimental research design with a One Group Pre Post-test design approach with a sample of residents of Dilem Village precisely RT 5 and 6 RW 1 Lemah Dhuwur. The analysis technique uses Paired Sample T-Test with the results that show that there is an influence of the application of simple handwashing station on the proper handwashing behavior of the residents of Dilem Village with a P-value <0.05, based on these results it can be concluded that there is an effect of the application of simple hand washing station for handwashing behavior in preventing COVID-19 transmission in Dilem Village Kepanjen District, with this result it is expected to be able to add a simple handwashing station in several other strategic points in Dilem Village in COVID-19 prevention.

scholarly journals How to tell about errors not boringly: methodological analysis of expounding the basis of data processing

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2 (131)) ◽  
pp. 104-115
Author(s):  
Oksana Lozovenko ◽  
Yevgeny Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Basic Skills ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Measured Quantity ◽  
General View ◽  
True Value ◽  
Training Interval ◽  
The Mean

The authors continue to report about results they have obtained in the process of creating a special introductory one-semester Laboratory Physics course «Search for Physics laws». It is known that the teaching experience and the results of the performed tests show that most students do not acquire the basic skills for conducting an experimental research. This course was built on the basis of the algorithm of systematic construction of students’ skills for carrying out an experimental research. The authors have used Galperin’s stepwise teaching procedure which was developed on the assumption that learning any kind of knowledge involves different kinds of actions. The authors have analysed different ways of how to expound the basic ideas of data analysis, and shown their connection with the point, syncretic and training-interval paradigms. Action diagrams are provided for each type of expounding. As an example of using the training-interval paradigm for teaching first-year students of a technical university, a specially designed lab session is presented in the article. The topic of the session is “The concept of a confidence interval”. Laboratory Work 1 “The Buffon-de Morgan Experiment”. This lab session meets several important requirements: a) the number of computations is minimised; b) a directly measurable quantity is considered; c) students are provided with a “fulcrum” in the form of a priori known true value of a quantity. A general view on measuring physics quantities is summarised in four quite unexpected for students “unpleasant axioms”: 1) none of measured values coincides with the true value of a quantity; 2) the mean of measured values does not coincide with the true value of a quantity; 3) even if, by a lucky chance, one of measured values or the mean coincided with the true value of a quantity, we would never know about it; 4) a confidence interval catches the true value of a measured quantity only in 68% of cases. The authors claim that the presented lab lesson allows demonstrating the equity of these “axioms” clearly and vividly, and that the organised laboratory sessions in the new way are significantly more successful in improving students’ basic skills of error analysis than traditional laboratory sessions.

The Impact of the Court of Justice of the European Union on Neighbouring Countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 349-396
Author(s):  
Arie Reich ◽  
Hans-W. Micklitz
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Third ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Legal Integration

The concluding chapter sums up the overall findings of the project through three different strands of analysis: the first breaks down the eleven jurisdictions into three groups based on the relative quantity and impact of Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) citations found in these jurisdictions. By drawing conclusions from all the country reports through a comparative and macro-perspective, the goal is to distil the insights of the entire project and formulate policy recommendations in the light of EU external policy and legal integration objectives vis-à-vis its neighbourhood; the second examines the many factors that a priori could have an impact on whether judges are likely to cite the CJEU in their judgments, and then discusses what the research has found in relation to the actual role played by these factors; the third tries to place the current project into the context of overall research on the global reach of EU law, which can be ‘exported’ to non-members of the EU through various mechanisms, such as mutual and formal agreement or through more unilateral and spontaneous forms. They include modes of extraterritorial application of EU law, territorial extension, and the so-called ‘Brussels Effect’. The chapter concludes with some general observations and thoughts and formulates possible policy recommendations.

Experimental philosophy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Mallon ◽  
Shaun Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Experimental Techniques ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Philosophical View ◽  
The Right

Experimental philosophy is not a philosophy, it is a method that is supposed to contribute to philosophical inquiry. Characteristically, experimental philosophers use empirical techniques to investigate philosophically significant intuitions about cases. An intuition, in this context, is a spontaneous judgement a person makes about a case with little or no conscious reason for their judgement. Intuitions play a key role in much philosophical theorizing. The attempt to provide a conceptual analysis or definition for important philosophical concepts, e.g. knowledge, meaning, responsibility, has long been a major theoretical concern in philosophy. One prominent philosophical view holds that the meaning of our concepts is given by the folk theory (or set of common-sense beliefs) in which the concepts are embedded. Intuitions about cases are thought to reveal the contours of the folk theory and the meaning of the concept. As a result, in pursuing conceptual analyses, many philosophers rely on intuitions about cases to descry the folk theories in which those concepts are embedded. In addition to their role in conceptual analysis, philosophers invoke intuitions as evidence for substantive philosophical claims, perhaps in much the same way as empirical scientists invoke observation as evidence. For instance, the intuition that it is wrong to push one man in front of a speeding trolley to save five others is invoked as evidence that utilitarianism does not give the right theory of how we ought to act. Similarly, intuitions are used to support substantive claims about knowledge, meaning and responsibility. When philosophers use intuitions - whether in the service of conceptual analysis or in the effort to establish a more substantive philosophical claim - the traditional methodology looks a priori. That is, one arrives at one’s judgements without relying on evidence from sensory perception. For instance, to analyse the concept intentional a philosopher might consult their intuitions about whether the concept applies in various actual and possible circumstances, and a condition of adequacy upon the definition is that it best conforms to these intuitions. In contrast, experimental philosophers use experimental techniques to study intuitions about philosophically important concepts.

scholarly journals Distributions of Hyper-Local Configuration Elements to Characterize, Compare, and Assess Landscape-Level Spatial Patterns

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 420
Author(s):  
Tarmo K. Remmel
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Generic Model ◽  
Regular Grid ◽  
First Order ◽  
Local Configuration ◽  
Leibler Divergence ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
The Many

Even with considerable attention in recent decades, measuring and working with patterns remains a complex task due to the underlying dynamic processes that form these patterns, the influence of scales, and the many further implications stemming from their representation. This work scrutinizes binary classes mapped onto regular grids and counts the relative frequencies of all first-order configuration components and then converts these measurements into empirical probabilities of occurrence for either of the two landscape classes. The approach takes into consideration configuration explicitly and composition implicitly (in a common framework), while the construction of a frequency distribution provides a generic model of landscape structure that can be used to simulate structurally similar landscapes or to compare divergence from other landscapes. The technique is first tested on simulated data to characterize a continuum of landscapes across a range of spatial autocorrelations and relative compositions. Subsequent assessments of boundary prominence are explored, where outcomes are known a priori, to demonstrate the utility of this novel method. For a binary map on a regular grid, there are 32 possible configurations of first-order orthogonal neighbours. The goal is to develop a workflow that permits patterns to be characterized in this way and to offer an approach that identifies how relatively divergent observed patterns are, using the well-known Kullback–Leibler divergence.

Using Electronic Confederates for Experimental Research in Organizational Science

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25
Author(s):  
Keith Leavitt ◽  
Feng Qiu ◽  
Debra L. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Research Context ◽  
Dyadic Group ◽  
Research Platform ◽  
Efficient Alternative ◽  
The Many ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Organizational Science

Organizational scholars frequently rely on experiments using human confederates or descriptions of vignette characters to study a range of phenomena. Although experiments with confederates allow for realism and rigor, human confederates have several critical limitations. We present a novel and efficient alternative: the use of responsive electronic confederates for manipulating constructs in dyadic, group, and team contexts. Specifically, we (a) define electronic confederates in an organizational research context, identify their optimal qualities, and review studies that have used them; (b) discuss challenges of utilizing human confederates and how electronic confederates may address these; (c) identify boundary conditions around using electronic confederates and, within these conditions, identify the many types of inquiry that can be aided by electronic confederates; (d) discuss validation strategies for electronic confederates, while increasing their believability to study participants; (e) provide materials for two versions of an adaptable research platform involving electronic confederates; and (f) identify future opportunities for developing novel tools for behavioral research. Our article thus provides a toolkit for organizational researchers that empowers them to utilize electronic confederates in their own research.

scholarly journals Phenomenology and Experimental Psychology: On the Prospects and Limitations of Experimental Research for a Phenomenological Epistemology

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Berghofer
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Transcendental Phenomenology ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Phenomenological Conception

AbstractHusserl’s transcendental phenomenology is first and foremost a science of the structures of consciousness. Since it is intended to yield eidetic, i. e., a priori insights, it is often assumed that transcendental phenomenology and the natural sciences are totally detached from each other such that phenomenological investigations cannot possibly benefit from empirical evidence. The aim of this paper is to show that a beneficial relationship is possible. To be more precise, I will show how Husserl’s a priori investigations on consciousness can be supplemented by research in experimental psychology in order to tackle fundamental questions in epistemology. Our result will be a phenomenological conception of experiential justification that is in accordance with and supported by empirical phenomena such as perceptual learning and the phenomenon of blindsight. Finally, I shall shed light on the systematic limits of empirical research.

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