Aristotle on How Pleasure Perfects Activity (Nicomachean Ethics x.5 1175a29-b14): The Optimising-View

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Machek
Keyword(s):  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

AbstractThis article offers a new interpretation of Aristotle’s ambiguous and much-discussed claim that pleasure perfects activity (NE x.4). This interpretation provides an alternative to the two main competing readings of this claim in the scholarship: the addition-view, which envisages the perfection conferred by pleasure as an extra perfection beyond the perfection of activity itself; and the identity-view, according to which pleasure just is the perfect activity itself. The proposed interpretation departs from both these views in rejecting their assumption that pleasure cannot perfect the activity itself, and argues that pleasure makes activity perfect by optimising the exercise of one’s capacities for that activity. Those who build or play music with pleasure do so better than those who do not delight in these activities. The basis of this interpretation is Aristotle’s little-read remarks from the following chapter, i. e. NE x.5, about how pleasure “increases” the activity.

scholarly journals The aerodynamic puzzle of nasalized fricatives: Aerodynamic and perceptual evidence from Scottish Gaelic

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Warner ◽  
Daniel Brenner ◽  
Jessamyn Schertz ◽  
Andrew Carnie ◽  
Muriel Fisher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scottish Gaelic ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Instrumental Data ◽  
The World ◽  
Perceptual Evidence ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

AbstractScottish Gaelic is sometimes described as having nasalized fricatives (/ṽ/ distinctively, and [f̃, x̃, h̃], etc. through assimilation). However, there are claims that it is not aerodynamically possible to open the velum for nasalization while maintaining frication noise. We present aerodynamic data from 14 native Scottish Gaelic speakers to determine how the posited nasalized fricatives in this language are realized. Most tokens demonstrate loss of nasalization, but nasalization does occur in some contexts without aerodynamic conflict, e.g., nasalization with the consonant realized as an approximant, nasalization of [h̃], nasalization on the preceding vowel, or sequential frication and nasalization. Furthermore, a very few tokens do contain simultaneous nasalization and frication with a trade-off in airflow. We also present perceptual evidence showing that Gaelic listeners can hear this distinction slightly better than chance. Thus, instrumental data from one of the few languages in the world described as having nasalized fricatives confirms that the claimed sounds are not made by producing strong nasalization concurrently with clear frication noise. Furthermore, although speakers most often neutralize the nasalization, when they maintain it, they do so through a variety of phonetic mechanisms, even within a single language.

Deliberate Presleep Control of Dream Content: An Experimental Study

1977 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 660-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Griffin ◽  
D. Foulkes
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Dream Content ◽  
Reliable Evidence ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

29 subjects attempted, over a period of 10 nights, to influence their dreams using techniques described in Garfield's book, Creative Dreaming (1974). A target suggestion was selected from a list of six suggestions compiled by, or for, each subject. Subjects kept daily records during the experiment both of their efforts at dream influence and of the dreams they recalled. Four judges attempted to identify from the dream material the target suggestion on each subject's suggestion list. The results indicated that the judges were unable to do so at better than chance levels. Thus analysis indicated no reliable evidence that conscious presleep suggestions become incorporated into dream content.

Getting Time Right: Using Cox Models and Probabilities to Interpret Binary Panel Data

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Shawna K. Metzger ◽  
Benjamin T. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
Cox Model ◽  
Interstate Conflict ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Cox Models ◽  
Binary Time Series ◽  
Covariate Effects ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Better Than

Abstract Logit and probit (L/P) models are a mainstay of binary time-series cross-sectional (BTSCS) analyses. Researchers include cubic splines or time polynomials to acknowledge the temporal element inherent in these data. However, L/P models cannot easily accommodate three other aspects of the data’s temporality: whether covariate effects are conditional on time, whether the process of interest is causally complex, and whether our functional form assumption regarding time’s effect is correct. Failing to account for any of these issues amounts to misspecification bias, threatening our inferences’ validity. We argue scholars should consider using Cox duration models when analyzing BTSCS data, as they create fewer opportunities for such misspecification bias, while also having the ability to assess the same hypotheses as L/P. We use Monte Carlo simulations to bring new evidence to light showing Cox models perform just as well—and sometimes better—than logit models in a basic BTSCS setting, and perform considerably better in more complex BTSCS situations. In addition, we highlight a new interpretation technique for Cox models—transition probabilities—to make Cox model results more readily interpretable. We use an application from interstate conflict to demonstrate our points.

Making Non-Transitive Betterness Behave

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 495-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Vong
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Principle ◽  
Normative Reason ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

It is exceedingly plausible that the normative reason involving relations, ‘more reason to do than’ and ‘is rationally preferred to’, are transitive. Many philosophers and economists use the plausibility of covariation between these reason involving relations and the ‘better than’ relation to argue – or more often, to insist – that the ‘better than’ relation is also transitive. But Rachels, Temkin and Baumann provide powerful arguments for non-transitive betterness. Conversely, some defenders of non-transitive betterness, such as Friedman, use the covariation of betterness and reason to argue that the reason involving relations are also non-transitive. I will argue that both types of covariation argument are overly hasty. To do so, I will present two functions that input a non-transitive axiological ranking and output a transitive deontic ranking. I then argue that an ethical principle involving these functions has independent plausibility and avoids important objections associated with non-transitive betterness.

scholarly journals Kulturelle verdier og barnevernet: Ulike forståelser av «barnets beste»

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-111
Author(s):  
Mari Rysst
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Immigrant Families ◽  
Psychological Anthropology ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Child Protection Services ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Parenting Values

In this chapter I discuss cultural values related to child protection services (CPS). More precisely, I focus on professionals working in CPS and their relationship and meetings with families of immigrant origins. These meetings often reflect different cultural values and understandings of “the best interest of the child” and may cause tensions and misunderstandings. In the Norwegian CPS system, professionals have to draw on professional and personal experiences in decisions concerning the “best interest of the child”. This chapter uses concepts and perspectives from psychological anthropology to throw light on these processes. This is because these perspectives show how ideas and experiences are internalized and embodied as dispositions in habitus that may motivate certain actions when professionals and immigrant families meet. I also discuss whether some reactions and advice from professionals may be understood as ethnocentric because Norwegian parenting values are presented as “better” than parenting values from other countries.

Hypocrisy and Consequentialism

Utilitas ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldon Soifer ◽  
Béla Szabados
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

Consequentialism has trouble explaining why hypocrisy is a term of moral condem-nation, largely because hypocrites often try to deceive others about their own selfishness through the useof words or deeds which themselves have good consequences. We argue that consequentialist attempts to deal with the problem by separating the evaluation of agent and action, or by the directevaluation of dispositions, or by focusing on long-term consequences such as reliability and erosion of trust, all prove inadequate to the challenge. We go on to argue, however, that a version of consequentialism which values the fulfilment of desires, rather than mental states, is able to explain why hypocrisy is generally wrong, and indeed can do so better than its Kantian rivals.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Perfect Table Fuzzy Rainbow Tradeoff

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byoung-Il Kim ◽  
Jin Hong
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Analysis ◽  
Digital Documents ◽  
Time Memory Tradeoff ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

Cryptanalytic time memory tradeoff algorithms are tools for inverting one-way functions, and they are used in practice to recover passwords that restrict access to digital documents. This work provides an accurate complexity analysis of the perfect table fuzzy rainbow tradeoff algorithm. Based on the analysis results, we show that the lesser known fuzzy rainbow tradeoff performs better than the original rainbow tradeoff, which is widely believed to be the best tradeoff algorithm. The fuzzy rainbow tradeoff can attain higher online efficiency than the rainbow tradeoff and do so at a lower precomputation cost.

Advanced Bridge Automation

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (04) ◽  
pp. 276-285
Author(s):  
Edward Denham
Keyword(s):  
Human Error ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Propulsion Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Key Technologies ◽  
Routine Tasks ◽  
Information Management Systems ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

The past thirty years have seen great advances in many areas of the technologies used in naval vessels. Propulsion systems, machinery automation, and information management systems have all undergone revolutionary changes. The bridges of these ships have similarly seen the advent of many new sources of navigational and environmental data. The process of correlating and interpreting all of this information has until now remained very labor-intensive, subject to human error at many stages of the process. In response to this challenge, a suite of new equipment has been developed for distributing, displaying, correlating, and logging shipboard data. This equipment automates most of the low-level, routine tasks involved in navigating a vessel at sea, significantly reducing the stress and workload of bridge personnel. This gives the humans on the bridge more time for doing the job that they do so much better than machines: making decisions. This paper focuses on the key technologies that are used in these new products and the advances in bridge design and automation they make possible. The benefits of these new capabilities to system designers, to shipbuilders, and to ship operators are also explored.

Caretaker or liberator?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyn Fives
Keyword(s):  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Moral Conflicts ◽  
General Account ◽  
Role Of Parents ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Do So

Are parents caretakers or liberators? Is the role of parents to act in a paternalistic fashion so as to take care of their children or is it instead to set their children free? In this chapter, I argue that those who defend the caretaker thesis do so on the basis of assumptions characteristic of the liberal view on paternalism. It is assumed that paternalism entails interfering with another’s liberty, that it does not involve moral conflicts, and that it is justified treatment of those who lack the qualities of an agent. In addition, no clear distinction is made between children who lack the qualities of an agent and children who are merely incompetent. What is more, the same assumptions underlie the liberation thesis. Indeed, both the caretaker thesis and the liberation thesis are questionable because they operate with a definition of paternalism that is highly problematic. I also want to make one further argument here. Namely, even an adequate conceptualisation of paternalism is insufficient as a general account of parental power, as there are non-paternalistic forms of parental power as well.

scholarly journals Large-Scale Estimates of LGBQ-Heterosexual Disparities in the Presence of Potentially Mischievous Responders: A Preregistered Replication and Comparison of Methods

AERA Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 233285841988889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Cimpian ◽  
Jennifer D. Timmer
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Survey Development ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Past ◽  
Development Methodology ◽  
Data Validity ◽  
Regression Adjustment ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

Although numerous survey-based studies have found that students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ) have elevated risk for many negative academic, disciplinary, psychological, and health outcomes, the validity of the types of data on which these results rest have come under increased scrutiny. Over the past several years, a variety of data-validity screening techniques have been used in attempts to scrub data sets of “mischievous responders,” youth who systematically provide extreme and untrue responses to outcome items and who tend to falsely report being LGBQ. We conducted a preregistered replication of Cimpian et al. with the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey to (1) estimate new LGBQ-heterosexual disparities on 20 outcomes; (2) test a broader, mechanistic theory relating mischievousness effects with a feature of items (i.e., item response-option extremity); and (3) compare four techniques used to address mischievous responders. Our results are consistent with Cimpian et al.’s findings that potentially mischievous responders inflate LGBQ-heterosexual disparities, do so more among boys than girls, and affect outcomes differentially. For example, we find that removing students suspected of being mischievous responders can cut male LGBQ-heterosexual disparities in half overall and can completely or mostly eliminate disparities in outcomes including fighting at school, driving drunk, and using cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy. Methodologically, we find that some methods are better than others at addressing the issue of data integrity, with boosted regressions coupled with data removal leading to potentially very large decreases in the estimates of LGBQ-heterosexual disparities, but regression adjustment having almost no effect. While the empirical focus of this article is on LGBQ youth, the issues discussed are relevant to research on other minority groups and youth generally, and speak to survey development, methodology, and the robustness and transparency of research.

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