scholarly journals Deus Ex Machina: A Cautionary Tale for Naturalists

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cailin O’Connor ◽  
Nathan Fulton ◽  
Elliott Wagner ◽  
P. Kyle Stanford
Keyword(s):  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Incremental Approach ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ethical Project

AbstractIn this paper we critically examine and seek to extend Philip Kitcher’s Ethical Project to weave together a distinctive naturalistic conception of how ethics came to occupy the place it does in our lives and how the existing ethical project should be revised and extended into the future. Although we endorse his insight that ethical progress is better conceived of as the improvement of an existing state than an incremental approach towards a fixed endpoint, we nonetheless go on to argue that the metaethical apparatus Kitcher constructs around this creative metaethical proposal simply cannot do the work that he demands of it. The prospect of fundamental conflict between different functions of the ethical project requires Kitcher to appeal to a particular normative stance in order to judge specific changes in the ethical project to be genuinely progressive, and we argue that the virtues of continuity and coherence to which he appeals can only specify rather than justify the normative stance he favors. We conclude by suggesting an alternative approach for ethical naturalists that seems to us ultimately more promising than Kitcher’s own.

scholarly journals Same Water, Difference Dreams: Salient Lessons of the Sino-Japanese War for Future Naval Warfare

MCU Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-50
Author(s):  
Andrew Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Naval Warfare ◽  
Operational Level ◽  
The Future ◽  
Chinese Military ◽  
And Training

American officers considering the role of the sea Services in a future war must understand the history and organizational culture of the Chinese military and consider how these factors shape the Chinese approach to naval strategy and operations. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 remains a cautionary tale full of salient lessons for future conflict. A review of recent Chinese publications highlights several consistent themes that underpin Chinese thinking about naval strategy. Chinese authors assess that the future requires that China inculcate an awareness of the maritime domain in its people, that it build institutions that can sustain seapower, and that, at the operational level, it actively seeks to contest and gain sea control far from shore. Careful consideration of the Sino-Japanese War can support two priority focus areas from the Commandant’s Planning Guidance: “warfighting” and “education and training.”

Privacy Nudges

2015 ◽  
pp. 256-264
Author(s):  
Barbara Sandfuchs
Keyword(s):  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Sensitive Data ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Scholarly Attention

To fight the risks caused by excessive self-disclosure especially regarding sensitive data such as genetic ones, it might be desirable to prevent certain disclosures. When doing so, regulators traditionally compel protection, for example by prohibiting the collection and/or use of genetic data even if citizens would like to share these data. This chapter provides an introduction into an alternative approach which has recently received increased scholarly attention: privacy protection by the use of nudges. Such nudges may in the future provide an alternative to compelled protection of genetic data or complement the traditional approach. This chapter first describes behavioral psychology's findings that citizens sometimes act irrational. This statement is consequently explained with the insights that these irrationalities are often predictable. Thus, a solution might be to correct them by the use of nudges.

scholarly journals The Story of the End of the World: An Alternative Approach to the Future at the Japanese Museum of Science and Innovation

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Shea
Keyword(s):  
Tohoku Earthquake ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
End Of The World

The following discussion is a critical assessment of the “Story of the End of the World: 73 Questions We Must Answer”, an exhibition at the Miraikan. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on the 11th of March 2011 created the necessity for collective catharsis regarding various threats posed by the future. I will argue that the outcome of the exhibition differs significantly in content, presentation and meaning to the more conventional visions of the future presented elsewhere in the museum.

scholarly journals Application of Reliability Theory to Insurance

1971 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Straub
Keyword(s):  
Stability Criterion ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Reliability Theory ◽  
Exact Calculation ◽  
Stanford University ◽  
Risk Models ◽  
Loss Probabilities ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Elegant Proof

1. There is a general rule applicable to all insurance and reinsurance fields according to which the level of the so-called technical minimum premium should be fixed such that a certain stability criterion is satisfied for the portfolio under consideration. The two bestknown such criteria are(i) the probability that there is a technical loss in any of the future years should be less than a given percentage(ii) the probability that the company gets “ruined” i.e. initial reserves plus accumulated premiums minus accumulated claims becomes negative at any time of a given period in the future should be less than a tolerated percentage.Confining ourselves to criterion (i) in the present paper we may then say that the problem of calculating technical minimum premiums is broadly spoken equivalent with the problem of estimating loss probabilities. Since an exact calculation of such probabilities is only possible for a few very simple and therefore mostly unrealistic risk models and since e.g. Esscher's method is not always very easy to apply in practice it might be worthwhile to describe in the following an alternative approach using results and techniques from Reliability Theory in order to establish bounds for unknown loss probabilities.It would have been impossible for me to write this paper without having had the opportunity of numerous discussions with the Reliability experts R. Barlow and F. Proschan while I was at Stanford University. In particular I was told the elegant proof of theorem 3 given below by R. Barlow recently.

Thinking Like An Archaeologist and Thinking Like an Engineer

2015 ◽  
pp. 20-30
Author(s):  
Paul E. Minnis
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

In this chapter it is argued that an alternative approach for archaeology, namely, utilitarian-perspective archaeology, may be a useful adjunct to more standard protocols for dealing with serious problems facing humanity. The value of utilitarian archaeology is illustrated through consideration of how prehistoric information might help to assure a sustainable agricultural future. Specifically, the archaeological record throughout the world documents: (1) the presence of little known or now extinct crops that might be used in the future, and (2) the diversity of farming strategies that could be models for farming, especially in locations that are now considered marginal for agriculture.

Voices Prophesying Everything

Futures ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 68-84
Author(s):  
Mat Paskins
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Past ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Future ◽  
Current Practices

This chapter intervenes in critical debates about the recording and documenting of histories of the future by critiquing, and offering an alternative approach to, current practices. It argues that many histories of the future rely on an extremely selective range of empirical sources which secure particular versions of, and narratives about, the future. Instead, this chapter identifies and examines the multifarious form of the periodical as a vital source material for reconstructing the past. Juxtaposing numerous techniques of representing the future, the periodical enables different ways of imagining, predicting, and resisting possible futures to collide against and compete with each other in a variety of rapidly shifting contexts. Reading the diversity of modes for presenting futures in periodicals can help us to consider how different representations of the future, with a wide range of temporalities, are woven into one another within ordinary public discourse.

scholarly journals Metaphor, induction and innovation: Getting outside the box

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 166-190
Author(s):  
Inesa Sahakyan
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Future ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Creativity And Innovation ◽  
Peircean Semiotics ◽  
Outside The Box ◽  
Changing World

Today more than ever innovation seems vital for us to anticipate the future and adapt to our rapidly changing world. But what is innovation and how is it accomplished? How can the mind generate innovative ideas? To gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the human capacity to innovate, the present study aims at answering two basic questions: first, ‘what makes innovation possible?’ and second, ‘why are innovative ideas unusual?’. These questions are addressed within the framework of Peircean semiotics, in particular in the light of Peirce’s conception of inference. Different types of inferences are studied to determine the mode of reasoning which is central to innovative thought. While creativity and innovation are often analysed through the prism of abduction, this study puts forward an alternative approach drawing a parallel between modes of inferences and types of hypoicons. It claims that what makes innovation possible is metaphoric reasoning underlying induction.

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