scholarly journals Ethic of responsibility and the future of nature

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Miso Kulic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Second Nature ◽  
Essential Question ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Free Thought ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
The One

The question of science is the one that concerns the very foundations of our reality and, in addition to that, it is a question that deals not only with our natural reality, with what was once called the "natural nature", but also with social and technological reality produced by science itself, which for a long time now is our second nature. Science has become not only the instrument by which we try to understand the reality of nature, through the process of creating reality, forming and transforming nature, it has become the reality in which we live itself, and without which, as it seems, we could hardly go on living. However, even though science as an instrument for understanding reality has become the reality which we have produced ourselves, we are still, paradoxically enough, far from answering the essential question: What is science? Since the question of science is at the same time the one of the production of reality, it is obvious that the question "what is science?" does not amount to a self-evident question asked by a scientist regarding his scientific field. It is not only a question concerning the nature of scientific knowledge, or of scientific methods of scientific results achieved. What is at stake here is the insight concerning social and political usage of science, that the reality, which is produced by the sciences, reveals to us even in the forms of its deification, manipulation, ideologization and virtualization. Is persevering in its science-Enlightenment paradigm of human emancipation or does it, on the wave of critical self-reflection spanning all the way through the 20th century, more and more question, as Paul Feyerabend (Against Method) does, the extent of constraints imposed on free thought which it produces itself? Of course, the other side of the questioning itself belongs here too: scientific progress can be evaluated regardless of its consequences, of the dangerous threats it poses to our future: nuclear annihilation, ecological pollution or climate changes which endanger the survival of the living world ? 

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS FOR ASSESSMENT AND SELECTION OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE FOR MINE RECONNAISSANCE

ScienceRise ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 44-50
Author(s):  
Vadym Neroba
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Comparative Assessment ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Special Equipment ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
The One ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Technological Product

Object of research: comparative assessment and selection of an unmanned aerial vehicle for mine reconnaissance sample. Investigated problem: substantiation of the methodological apparatus for comparative assessment and selection of an unmanned aerial vehicle for mine reconnaissance sample, taking into consideration the presence of both quantitative and qualitative indicators. Main scientific results: the methods of comparative assessment and selection of an unmanned aerial vehicle for mine reconnaissance sample is developed. The technique is based on an expert method, which allows a drone sample to be evaluated and selected objectively, taking into consideration the presence of both quantitative and qualitative indicators. At the same time, group interaction and discussion of experts are realized. When the judgments do not coincide, an artificial consensus is not imposed. The number of experts is not limited. The experts are not linked in any way. The need to ensure transitive consistency (10–12 %) makes it possible to record attempts by an expert (experts) to artificially overestimate the indicators of one of the drone samples (or the one being evaluated), therefore, the indicators of another sample will automatically deteriorate. The principle of impartiality and fairness is maintained. A well-trained objective coordinator is not required, and the reality is that the absence of the disrupting the problem solution possibility is due to a change in the psychological situation among the experts. Area of practical use of research results: humanitarian demining in the interests of ensuring the detection of mines for various purposes by sappers from a safe distance. At the same time, an increase within the probability of mines detecting is ensured due to special equipment installed onboard the drone. Innovative technological product: a technique has been developed that allows not only assessing the drone samples for mine reconnaissance objectively, but making an objective choice of a sample for specific requirements also. Scope of application of the innovative technological product: clearance of the terrain remaining after the end of hostilities. With the help of unmanned aerial vehicles, a significant acceleration of the demining process is possible, especially in those territories where mines are installed and being for a sufficiently long time.

scholarly journals The Scientific Analysis of Hungarian Public Administration. New Trends and Methods.

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Ádám Rixer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
The Other ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
The Real ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The One

The purpose of this paper is to introduce those scientific methods and new paradigms that are to overcome the one-sided jurisprudential methods of analysis of public administration. On the one hand, as it has been obvious for a long time, a sort of inter- or multidisciplinary method is needed for a strong scientific and material framework which allows further conclusions. And on the other hand, beyond multi- and interdisciplinarity, it is unavoidable to reestablish the philosophic synthesis between the legal norms regulating public administration and the facts of the real operation. Probably this direction will/may be the basis and the realiser of the change of paradigm (also) in Hungarian sciences of public administration. In general it may be stated that due to the crises social sciences more and more shall start examining the real meaning of things, the broader examination frameworks of the analysed phenomena, instead of descriptive questions analysing the ways of operation. In the era of crises, when everyday experiences falsify our expectations, legal and political science become more radical: it shall examine and revise the validity of its preassumptions – which it had considered firm before.

Alkohol im Tank – Bio-Kraftstoffe und die Grenzen moderner Mobilität

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (136) ◽  
pp. 455-468
Author(s):  
Hartwig Berger
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Food Market ◽  
The One ◽  
The Third World

The article discusses the future of mobility in the light of energy resources. Fossil fuel will not be available for a long time - not to mention its growing environmental and political conflicts. In analysing the potential of biofuel it is argued that the high demands of modern mobility can hardly be fulfilled in the future. Furthermore, the change into using biofuel will probably lead to increasing conflicts between the fuel market and the food market, as well as to conflicts with regional agricultural networks in the third world. Petrol imperialism might be replaced by bio imperialism. Therefore, mobility on a solar base pursues a double strategy of raising efficiency on the one hand and strongly reducing mobility itself on the other.

Making it abstract, making it contestable: Gender/sex as a politicized concept

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Mazzuca ◽  
Matteo Santarelli
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Biological Feature ◽  
Dynamic Approach ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Cultural Construct ◽  
Science Framework ◽  
The One

The concept of gender has been the battleground of scientific and political speculations for a long time. On the one hand, some accounts contended that gender is a biological feature, while on the other hand some scholars maintained that gender is a socio-cultural construct (e.g., Butler, 1990; Risman, 2004). Some of the questions that animated the debate on gender over history are: how many genders are there? Is gender rooted in our biological asset? Are gender and sex the same thing? All of these questions entwine one more crucial, and often overlooked interrogative. How is it possible for a concept to be the purview of so many disagreements and conceptual redefinitions? The question that this paper addresses is therefore not which specific account of gender is preferable. Rather, the main question we will address is how and why is even possible to disagree on how gender should be considered. To provide partial answers to these questions, we suggest that gender/sex (van Anders, 2015; Fausto-Sterling, 2019) is an illustrative example of politicized concepts. We show that no concepts are political in themselves; instead, some concepts are subjected to a process involving a progressive detachment from their supposed concrete referent (i.e., abstractness), a tension to generalizability (i.e., abstraction), a partial indeterminacy (i.e., vagueness), and the possibility of being contested (i.e., contestability). All of these features differentially contribute to what we call the politicization of a concept. In short, we will claim that in order to politicize a concept, a possible strategy is to evidence its more abstract facets, without denying its more embodied and perceptual components (Borghi et al., 2019). So, we will first outline how gender has been treated in psychological and philosophical discussions, to evidence its essentially contestable character thereby showing how it became a politicized concept. Then we will review some of the most influential accounts of political concepts, arguing that currently they need to be integrated with more sophisticated distinctions (e.g., Koselleck, 2004). The notions gained from the analyses of some of the most important accounts of political concepts in social sciences and philosophy will allow us to implement a more dynamic approach to political concepts. Specifically, when translated into the cognitive science framework, these reflections will help us clarifying some crucial aspects of the nature of politicized concepts. Bridging together social and cognitive sciences, we will show how politicized concepts are abstract concepts, or better abstract conceptualizations.

scholarly journals On Performance of Sparse Fast Fourier Transform Algorithms Using the Aliasing Filter

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1117
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Zhikang Jiang ◽  
Jie Chen
Keyword(s):  
Fourier Transform ◽  
Fast Fourier Transform ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Long Time ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Binary Tree Search ◽  
The One ◽  
Sparse Fast Fourier Transform ◽  
L1 And L2

Computing the sparse fast Fourier transform (sFFT) has emerged as a critical topic for a long time because of its high efficiency and wide practicability. More than twenty different sFFT algorithms compute discrete Fourier transform (DFT) by their unique methods so far. In order to use them properly, the urgent topic of great concern is how to analyze and evaluate the performance of these algorithms in theory and practice. This paper mainly discusses the technology and performance of sFFT algorithms using the aliasing filter. In the first part, the paper introduces the three frameworks: the one-shot framework based on the compressed sensing (CS) solver, the peeling framework based on the bipartite graph and the iterative framework based on the binary tree search. Then, we obtain the conclusion of the performance of six corresponding algorithms: the sFFT-DT1.0, sFFT-DT2.0, sFFT-DT3.0, FFAST, R-FFAST, and DSFFT algorithms in theory. In the second part, we make two categories of experiments for computing the signals of different SNRs, different lengths, and different sparsities by a standard testing platform and record the run time, the percentage of the signal sampled, and the L0, L1, and L2 errors both in the exactly sparse case and the general sparse case. The results of these performance analyses are our guide to optimize these algorithms and use them selectively.

scholarly journals Bottom-Up Generation of Peak Demand Scenarios in Water Distribution Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Enrico Creaco ◽  
Giacomo Galuppini ◽  
Alberto Campisano ◽  
Marco Franchini
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Peak Demand ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Cross Correlations ◽  
User Demand ◽  
One Year ◽  
The One ◽  
Best Fit

This paper presents a two-step methodology for the stochastic generation of snapshot peak demand scenarios in water distribution networks (WDNs), each of which is based on a single combination of demand values at WDN nodes. The methodology describes the hourly demand at both nodal and WDN scales through a beta probabilistic model, which is flexible enough to suit both small and large demand aggregations in terms of mean, standard deviation, and skewness. The first step of the methodology enables generating separately the peak demand samples at WDN nodes. Then, in the second step, the nodal demand samples are consistently reordered to build snapshot demand scenarios for the WDN, while respecting the rank cross-correlations at lag 0. The applications concerned the one-year long dataset of about 1000 user demand values from the district of Soccavo, Naples (Italy). Best-fit scaling equations were constructed to express the main statistics of peak demand as a function of the average demand value on a long-time horizon, i.e., one year. The results of applications to four case studies proved the methodology effective and robust for various numbers and sizes of users.

scholarly journals Two Conceptions of Second Nature

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg W. Bertram
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Open Future ◽  
Second Nature ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Cognitive Activities ◽  
The Open Future ◽  
The One ◽  
First Nature

AbstractThe concept of second nature promises to provide an explanation of how nature and reason can be reconciled. But the concept is laden with ambiguity. On the one hand, second nature is understood as that which binds together all cognitive activities. On the other hand, second nature is conceived of as a kind of nature that can be changed by cognitive activities. The paper tries to investigate this ambiguity by distinguishing a Kantian conception of second nature from a Hegelian conception. It argues that the idea of a transformation from a being of first nature into a being of second nature that stands at the heart of the Kantian conception is mistaken. The Hegelian conception demonstrates that the transformation in question takes place within second nature itself. Thus, the Hegelian conception allows us to understand the way in which second nature is not structurally isomorphic with first nature: It is a process of ongoing selftransformation that is not primarily determined by how the world is, but rather by commitments out of which human beings are bound to the open future.

Martyrs and Life-Writing in Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
pp. 374-385
Author(s):  
Koen De Temmerman ◽  
Danny Praet
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Narrative Representations ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Narrative Frame ◽  
Traditional Scholarship ◽  
The One

This chapter explores martyr accounts. Scholars traditionally divide these texts into two types: narrative representations of the suffering and death of martyrs (the so-called passiones) on the one hand, and dramatic representations of the trial preceding this (the so-called acta or praxeis), on the other. The exact semantic range of both labels is debated, but in any case the distinction does not capture the textual reality in its full complexity: even the predominantly narrative texts often contain an interrogation scene, whereas most so-called acta always have a narrative frame, however minimal it may be. In addition, there is no formal unity across the board. This chapter first addresses some of the intellectual premisses that in traditional scholarship on martyr acts were for a long time conducive of historical questions, much to the detriment of the study of these texts as narratives in their own right. The chapter then observes that many martyr acts recount not only the deaths of their protagonists but also cover (parts of) their preceding lives, and it explores how these texts adopt and adapt narrative and rhetorical protocols from traditional life-writing to shape the lives of their protagonists. Finally, attention is paid briefly to the thematic cluster of erotic love, desire, marriage, and the preservation of chastity that drives many such narrative elaborations. It is concluded that whereas research on these texts has long been driven by historical interests, they are also treasure-troves for scholars interested in narrative in general and life-writing in particular.

True Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-461
Author(s):  
Peter Baumann ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Long Time ◽  
The One ◽  
True Knowledge ◽  
Epistemic Pluralism

That knowledge is factive, that is, that knowledge that p requires that p, has for a long time typically been treated as a truism. Recently, however, some authors have raised doubts about and arguments against this claim. In a recent paper in this journal, Michael Shaffer presents new arguments against the denial of the factivity of knowledge. This article discusses one of Shaffer’s objections: the one from “inconsistency and explosion.” I discuss two potential replies to Shaffer’s problem: dialetheism plus paraconsistency and epistemic pluralism. This is not to be understood so much as a criticism of Shaffer’s view but rather as a request to develop his very promising objection from inconsistency and explosion further.

A Liberating Experience. On Becoming a Work of Art

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-430
Author(s):  
Maja Tabea Jerrentrup
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Film Clips ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The One ◽  
Body Painting ◽  
Dimensional Surface

Abstract The art of bodypainting that is fairly unknown to a wider public turns the body into a canvas - it is a frequently used phrase in the field of bodypainting that illustrates the challenge it faces: it uses a three-dimensional surface and has to cope with its irregularities, but also with the model’s abilities and characteristics. This paper looks at individuals who are turned into art by bodypainting. Although body painting can be very challenging for them - they have to expose their bodies and to stand still for a long time while getting transformed - models report that they enjoy both the process and the result, even if they are not confident about their own bodies. Among the reasons there are physical aspects like the sensual enjoyment, but also the feeling of being part of something artistic. This is enhanced and preserved through double staging - becoming a threedimentional work of art and then being staged for photography or film clips. This process gives the model the chance to experience their own body in a detached way. On the one hand, bodypainting closely relates to the body and on the other hand, it can help to over-come the body.

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