scholarly journals Seeing Matters: The Remarkable Relevance of the Object-Representation Relationship to Science … and to Society!

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Martin Rosseinsky

The basic relationship between consciously-experienced representations, and material objects they represent, is hotly debated in some circles. But is it practically important? To investigate this, I introduce new symbolic notation, capable of labelling object, brain-perception, and conscious representation. Simple physics-based reasoning argues against identity of object and representation (rejecting e.g., direct realism). Nevertheless, a pivotal concern of the direct-realism school remains: how do we have knowledge of the world, if it’s only experienced indirectly? I sketch an indirect-school response, and review recent theoretical results showing how it simply doesn’t work in the dynamically-conventional setting (which is the hallmark of modern mainstream science). After illustrating how dynamically-conventional dysfunctions affect the foundations of science itself, I point to an experimentally-based resolution of knowledge-problems (and of the direct/indirect debate itself). Because the foundational problems for science affect its standing in society (for example, in its conflict with postmodernist ‘post-Truth’), the object-representation debate does turn out to have a practical significance, far beyond its conventional, academic/abstract/technical, framing.

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-287
Author(s):  
Moritz von Kalckreuth

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to discuss the relation between our experience in everyday life and ontological reflection. While many accounts in contemporary ontology still defend the idea that the world consists only of material objects, some new views on everyday metaphysics or social ontology which try to articulate the specific properties of the objects used and found in ordinary life have been established during the last years. In the critical ontology of Nicolai Hartmann, the social and cultural dimension of our life is situated in the sphere of spiritual being [Geistiges Sein]. By investigating the methodical relation of phenomenology and critical ontology as well as specific entities (objective spirit, cultural objects), it is established that Hartmann offers a wide and methodologically reflected view which could be able to satisfy the practical significance of these entities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 54-60
Author(s):  
Mikhail Jurievich Rudiuk ◽  
Anastasiia Vladislavovna Gerasimova ◽  
Ekaterina Mikhailovna Pomozova

The authors' task was to analyze the development of quality management systems at the current stage in Russia, as well as at the previous stage in the USSR. As a result, we came to the conclusion that the factors stimulating the implementation of ISO 9000 standards are the need to promote products on the world market, as well as the possibility of receiving orders from the state. In the future, strict adherence to these standards will allow enterprises to significantly reduce the likelihood of lawsuits from consumers, which is important in the context of the development of the legislative framework and increased control over the business. The practical significance of the article is the possibility of familiarizing management and personnel with quality services, whose task is to prepare for certification for compliance with ISO 9000 standards in how this process took place in other companies. The originality of this work is to summarize the experience of implementation of ISO 9000 standards at enterprises and to analyze the factors contributing to or hindering this process.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micael Davi Lima de Oliveira ◽  
Kelson Mota Teixeira de Oliveira

According to the World Health Organisation, until 16 June, 2020, the number of confirmed and notified cases of COVID-19 has already exceeded 7.9 million with approximately 434 thousand deaths worldwide. This research aimed to find repurposing antagonists, that may inhibit the activity of the main protease (Mpro) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as partially modulate the ACE2 receptors largely found in lung cells, and reduce viral replication by inhibiting Nsp12 RNA polymerase. Docking molecular simulations were performed among a total of 60 structures, most of all, published in the literature against the novel coronavirus. The theoretical results indicated that, in comparative terms, paritaprevir, ivermectin, ledipasvir, and simeprevir, are among the most theoretical promising drugs in remission of symptoms from the disease. Furthermore, also corroborate indinavir to the high modulation in viral receptors. The second group of promising drugs includes remdesivir and azithromycin. The repurposing drugs HCQ and chloroquine were not effective in comparative terms to other drugs, as monotherapies, against SARS-CoV-2 infection.


Author(s):  
Severin Schroeder

One aspect of Schopenhauer’s doctrine that the world is will, which can be assessed independently of his more ambitious metaphysical ideas, is the claim that our own agency provides us with a full understanding of causation which then permeates and structures our experience of the world in general. In this chapter, the author argues that this claim can be defended against Hume’s well-known objections because they are based on a volitional theory of voluntary action, which Schopenhauer rightly rejected. Schopenhauer quite plausibly located an immediate experience of causation between at least some kinds of motives and our consequent actions. However, he was wrong in suggesting that this experience might be the source of our understanding of causation since intentional action already presupposes that understanding and cannot provide it. It is more plausible to argue that an understanding of causation is derived from our bodily encounters with material objects.


Author(s):  
Guoqing Ma

Abstract Island studies play an important role in the development of anthropology. It is of academic value and practical significance to understand the island world as the field where multiple modernization forces and globalization interwine. This paper explores the intricate and diverse connections between continental and marine culture from a perspective of “viewing the world through the island”. In terms of overall diversity and exoteric mobility, this paper reviews the various aspects of island studies, examines the internal and external transformation of islands within land-sea interaction, and analyzes the dynamic historical process of the island world’s involvement in the global network, which blends and integrates various cultural elements of the external world. In the context of globalization, the island world is undergoing dramatic changes and in coping with them generating its new features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-529
Author(s):  
Britt Halvorson ◽  
Ingie Hovland

AbstractWhat do Christians do when they read? How can Christian reading be understood anthropologically? Anthropologists of Christianity have offered many ethnographic descriptions of the interplay among people, words, and material objects across Christian groups, but descriptions of Christian reading have often posited an androgynous reader. In response to this we begin from the observation that while reading cannot be done without words, it also cannot be done without a body. We propose that an analytic approach of placing language and materiality (including bodies) together will help clarify that reading texts is an embodied practice, while not undermining the importance of working with words. We draw inspiration from the recent interest in bringing linguistic anthropology and materiality studies together into the same analytic frame of “language materiality.” We explore a language-materiality approach to reading by comparing how the biblical story of Mary and Martha was read by Protestant women in two historical situations: 1920s Norway and the 1950s United States. We argue that in these cases the readers’ gendered, raced, and classed bodies were central to the activity of reading texts, including their bodies’ material engagements with the world, such as carrying out women's work. We suggest that paying attention to embodied reading—that is, readers’ social entanglements with both language and materiality—yields a fuller analysis of what reading is in particular historical situations, and ultimately questions the notion of a singular Protestant semiotic ideology that works consistently toward purification.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 648-655
Author(s):  
Yu Han ◽  
Mengnan Li ◽  
Huijing Ma ◽  
Hailan Yang

AbstractCervical insufficiency (CI) is a mainly disease leading to recurrent abortions and preterm birth which may present in about 1% of obstetric populations. Recurrent pregnancy losses caused by CI incur serious economic burdens on society as well as huge psychological burdens to family members. However, many patients even clinicians in some areas of the world still remain confused about this disease. At the same time, the etiology of CI is still uncertain and it is still a controversial disease in diagnosis and treatment. This article summarizes the potential risk factors associated with CI, which could be worthy of attention and helpful for future research. It also reviews the methods for diagnosis and treatment of CI to better understand this noteworthy disease, as well as presents the related consensus and controversies according to the newly updated guidelines, which has practical significance for conducting more in-depth investigations in the future.


1950 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-438
Author(s):  
Willard M. Dow

Abstract A theoretical analysis is made of the flow through a perforated pipe with a closed end for the special case of a constant linear rate of discharge along the length of the pipe. The results of the fluid-flow considerations are applicable to many practical manifold systems. The practical significance of the results with respect to pipe burners for gaseous fuels is emphasized as the results make possible the design of simple high-capacity and extended-range pipe burners of industrial importance. The capacity of commercially available pipe burners may be increased several hundred per cent. The validity of the theoretical results was verified by experiment.


2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Byrne

If by the term ‘matter’ is meant the extended, movable, and corporeal stuff out of which perceptible objects are made, then, according to one interpretative tradition, there is nothing in Aristotle's account of the world that corresponds to matter in the above sense of physical stuff. Aristotle does indeed describe certain things as extended, movable, and corporeal: for example, the five elements, earth, water, air, fire, and ether, as well as everything made out of them. He also has the concept of a material cause, that is, the raw materials out of which something can be made or generated, and he makes frequent use of this concept in his analysis of perceptible substances. Still, the fact that Aristotle thought about what perceptible substances are made of is insufficient evidence for attributing to him the concept of matter as physical stuff. In addition, we would want to know whether he thought that all perceptible substances are extended, movable, and corporeal precisely because they are made out of matter, and whether any aspect of their behavior is to be explained simply by virtue of their nature as material objects.


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