The law of similars: current biases in its application

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (40) ◽  
pp. 187-187
Author(s):  
Giovanna Silvestri
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Preliminary Screening ◽  
Materia Medica ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
High Dilutions ◽  
Therapeutic Properties ◽  
The Law ◽  
Experimental Findings

Background and Aims. Homeopathic prescription is based on the so-called law of similars, i.e. 1) on a patient sharing symptoms with the artificial and reversible disease caused by a drug taken in the state of health in a proving (Materia Medica Pura); 2) on systematic observations of pathogenetic effects due to accidental drug abuse (toxicology). However, in contemporary homeopathy, distortions in the application of the law are not infrequent, and they will be considered here. Methods. Two main biases are described and analyzed: 1) the shift towards the law of the same, concerning methods like isopathy and homotoxicology; 2) the a priori attribution of therapeutic properties to high dilutions of a given substance. The first twist can be retraced to the extension of the concept of drainage. Drainage is aimed to restore a blocked function by making use of a drug with affinity for a given anatomic district or a specific function – tropism. To some extent this technique is compatible with classical homeopathy, though not based on the law of similars. In any case, drainage has limited effects and typically precedes the use of a simillimum identified within a holistic view. The second kind of distortion is due to the influence of the ancient doctrine of signaturae. In the Organon S. Hahnemann warns against the temptation of ascribing to remedies any effect or property without a preliminary screening through proving. However, while doctrine of signaturae was regarded by classical masters as a further support to experimental findings, rather than being used to infer ex novo substance properties, several homeopaths have expanded its application to the point of using it as an alternative approach to Materia Medica. Conclusions. In a picture of contemporary homeopathy based on these premises, we can draw a line which goes from methods combining isopathy and drainage, acting only on a local level, to approaches somewhat related to the doctrine of signaturae, postulating a priori essences of remedies apart from experimental research. Classical homeopathy (centered on the original concept of simillimum) lies at the middle. The two opposite ends of the picture remind of the Cartesian dichotomy of reductionism. This classification, far from representing a continuum, hints at the danger of an allopathic drift of homeopathy. We fear that any attempt to reconcile strongly heterogeneous principles and views in the so-called “integrated” approach to disease is a chimera, and that it would benefit market rather than the “true art of healing” as originally conceived.

Piekrastes pārvaldība Latvijā: pārvaldības ietvara attīstības pārskats

2021 ◽  
pp. 222-237
Author(s):  
Maija Štokmane ◽  
◽  
Raimonds Ernšteins ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Zone ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Horizontal Integration ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Coastal Governance ◽  
History Of

The coastal territory is a complex socio-ecological system (SES), which needs to be governed using an integrated approach. Integrated coastal management (ICM) is considered as the main approach in coastal governance, offering a holistic view of the coastal zone by integrating different governance sectors and governance levels, but ICM is not a fixed approach and should be adopted to meet each particular unique national and local situation. Full scale ICM in Latvia is not applied, but the following problems are recognized as most significant in the coastal territory: the lack of qualitative infrastructure and the lack of good governance; the local level coastal SES is studied, monitored and evaluated insufficiently as well as good practice examples are not communicated enough. In the current study, the exploration of the legisla-tive regulations and planning documents was conducted, therefore, the main research methods are docu-ment studies and expert interviews. Both the vertical and horizontal integration were assessed for the coastal governance, as well as overview of ICM developments in the modern history of Latvia. In order to understand the situation of the coastal governance in Latvia, the scheme of coastal dune protection zone was prepared, based on Latvian coastal legislation, however it is often difficult to depict different protec-tion zones in practice in such a dynamic and changing territory as a coastal zone.

scholarly journals Legislative regulation of powers of local government bodies in the field of environmental protection

2021 ◽  
pp. 96-100
Author(s):  
M.M. Slivka ◽  
N.V. Lesko
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Primary Control ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Legislative Regulation ◽  
The Law

The article is devoted to the study of legislative regulation of the powers of local governments in the field of environmental protection and the development of proposals for their improvement. It is noted that local governments occupy an separate and independent place in the mechanism of public administration, which indicates their special administrative and legal status. It is emphasized that local self-government bodies should be endowed with a sufficient amount of powers that would allow them to protect the interests of the administrative-territorial community in the field of environmental protection as effectively as possible. It is stated that the Constitution as the Basic Law of the state, taking into account the global importance of the issue of environmental protection should clearly and without any ambiguity in interpretation contain an article according to which local governments will be empowered to exercise primary control over environmental protection. natural environment at the local level and bringing perpetrators to justice. It is proposed to supplement Article 15 of the Law of Ukraine «On Environmental Protection», which defines the powers of local councils in the field of environmental protection, paragraph «й» of the following content: "decide to bring to administrative responsibility those guilty of violating legislation in the field of environmental protection environment of individuals and / or legal entities ". It is highlighted that based on the analysis of Part 4 of Art. 42 of the Law of Ukraine «On Local Self-Government in Ukraine», village, town, city mayor have a wide range of powers, but among these powers there are no ones that would give them the right to monitor compliance with environmental legislation in the region and bring perpetrators to justice. It is emphasized that local governments are given broad powers in terms of controling the activities of economic entities and they should be included as a subject of a lawsuit in accordance with Art. 16 of the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" in case of violations in the field of environmental impact assessment.

Knowledge, belief, and moral psychology

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mikhail
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Moral Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Representations ◽  
Knowledge Attributions ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Strong Case ◽  
Synthetic A Priori ◽  
The Law

Abstract Phillips et al. make a strong case that knowledge representations should play a larger role in cognitive science. Their arguments are reinforced by comparable efforts to place moral knowledge, rather than moral beliefs, at the heart of a naturalistic moral psychology. Conscience, Kant's synthetic a priori, and knowledge attributions in the law all point in a similar direction.

scholarly journals Kataphysical inquiry, onto-relationality and elemental forms in T.F. Torrance’s doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
Priori Knowledge

The doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T.F. Torrance rests on the fundamental methodological axiom that knowledge is developed according to the nature (kata physin) of the object of scientific inquiry. To know God through the incarnate Son, who is ‘of one nature with the Father’, is to know God in strict accordance with God’s nature and hence in a theologically scientific way. In Torrance’s kataphysical method, a priori knowledge of God is excluded, for epistemology follows ontology. Because the fundamental aspects of reality are relational rather than atomistic, a scientific theological approach to the doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ requires that he be investigated within the nexuses of ‘being-constituting’ interrelations, or ‘onto-relations’, which disclose his identity as incarnate Saviour of the world. Following the principle of logical simplicity, the vast and scattered array of Torrance’s thought can be reduced to a minimal number of elemental forms that succinctly describe in a unitary, non-dualist manner the onto-relations that constitute the identity of the incarnate Son. The primary elemental forms of Torrance’s doctrine of mediation are the Nicene homoousion and the Chalcedonian doctrine of the hypostatic union. Two additional elemental forms that readily arise as corollaries of the doctrine of the hypostatic union are the doctrines of incarnational redemption and the ‘vicarious humanity’ of Jesus Christ. These elemental forms provide a conceptual lens for a theologically holistic view of the mediation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T.F. Torrance.Die leer van die versoening van Christus in die wetenskaplike teologie van T.F. Torrance berus op die fundamentele metodologiese aanname dat kennis volgens die aard(kataphysin) van die voorwerp van wetenskaplike ondersoek verwerf word. Om God deur die vleesgeworde Seun (wat een in wese met die Vader is) te ken, is om Hom in noue ooreenstemming met sy wese en daarom op ’n teologies-wetenskaplike wyse te ken. Volgens Torrance se katafisiese metode is aprioriese kennis van God nie moontlik nie, omdat die ontologie aan die epistemologie voorafgaan. Aangesien die fundamentele kenmerke van die werklikheid relasioneel eerder as atomisties is, vereis ’n wetenskaplik-teologiese benadering tot die leer van die versoening van Christus dat die ondersoek binne die kader van ‘wesensbepalende’ verhoudings of ‘onto-verhoudings’ plaasvind. Dit is immers laasgenoemde wat Christus se identiteit as vleesgeworde Verlosser van die wêreld blootlê. Deur die beginsel van logiese eenvoud toe te pas, kan die omvangryke en sporadiese idees van Torrance gereduseer word tot ’n kleiner aantal kernelemente wat op ’n unitêre, ondubbelsinnige wyse die ‘onto-verhoudings’ wat die identiteit van die vleesgeworde Seun verteenwoordig, duidelik beskryf. Die vernaamste kernelemente van Torrance se leer oor die middelaarskap is die Niceaanse homoousion en die Chalcedoniese leer van die wesenseenheid. Twee opvallende, parallelle kernelemente by die leer van die wesenseenheid is die leer van die verlossing op grond van die vleeswording en die plaasvervangende mensheid van Jesus Christus. Hierdie kernelemente verskaf ’n konsepsuele lens waardeur ’n teologiese, holistiese beskouing van die middelaarskap van Jesus Christus in die wetenskaplike teologie van T.F. Torrance ondersoek kan word. 

The Idea of Cause

Philosophy ◽  
1929 ◽  
Vol 4 (16) ◽  
pp. 453-466
Author(s):  
A. C. Ewing
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
Material Bodies ◽  
Do So ◽  
Generalized Statement

Some modern thinkers have supposed that “cause” is an outworn notion, or at least that it is one of which modern science has no need. This is due mainly to the discovery that, while the scientist can give us general laws as to what in fact happens, he cannot help us to discern the reason for the laws or the inward nature of the forces on which they depend. He can tell us the “that” but not the “why”; he cannot show us in a single case that the effect follows necessarily a priori from the nature of the cause, that any other effect than the one which actually takes place would be logically impossible. He has studied the law of gravitation, but this law does not enable him to see why material bodies should attract each other in this fashion; it is only a generalized statement of the fact that they do. He knows that certain substances, if absorbed by eating, will nourish and others destroy our tissues; but he cannot say why they should do so. He can no doubt analyse them further and discover that, for example, meat is nourishing because it contains a large proportion of nitrogenous matter, but he could not tell a priori whether this nitrogenous matter would be likely to nourish or to poison us. Only where mathematics can be applied do we see necessity in such a way that any alternative becomes inconceivable to us; but mathematics alone can never establish from a quantity present here and now what quantity there will be at a later time or in another part of space. Mathematics can show, e.g., that, if there is 2 + 2 here and now, there must be 4 here and now, not that, if there is 2 + 2 here and now, there will be 4 in an hour's time or a mile away; and therefore it cannot be made the sole basis of any causal law whatever.

After MOX: The Contemporary Shipment of Radioactive Substances in the Law of the Sea

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Nadelson
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Radioactive Substances ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
The Law ◽  
Irradiated Nuclear Fuel

AbstractThe transport of hazardous cargo has long juxtaposed maritime interests in maintaining navigation rights against the concerns of coastal States over the threat the exercise of such rights poses to the waters off their coast. The shipment of highly radioactive substances has emerged as the most recent, and perhaps starkest reflection of this conflict. Drawing upon contemporary events, this article will examine the continuing controversy over the shipment of highly radioactive cargo and its implications for the law of the sea. First, the origins of the issue in the emergence of radioactive transport itself will be surveyed. Next the international legal regime governing the transport of such cargo will be evaluated, highlighting the different responses at the international, national and regional level. This article will then conclude by considering the prospects for resolution resulting from the recent debate over the Code for the Safe Carriage of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel (INF Code), suggesting the need to formulate alternative approach to shipboard controls in responding to contemporary issues of vessel-source pollution.

scholarly journals Approximation Framework of Embodied Energy of Safety: Insights and Analysis

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 4230
Author(s):  
Zijia Zhong ◽  
Lei Zhu ◽  
Stanley Young
Keyword(s):  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Motor Vehicle Crash ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Motor Vehicle Crashes ◽  
Vehicle Crashes ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
State And Local

Transportation safety, as a critical component of an efficient and reliable transportation system, has been extensively studied with respect to societal economic impacts by transportation agencies and policy officials. However, the embodied energy impact of safety, other than induced congestion, is lacking in studies. This research proposes an energy equivalence of safety (EES) framework to provide a holistic view of the long-term energy and fuel consequences of motor vehicle crashes, incorporating both induced congestion and impacts from lost human productivity resulting from injury and fatal accidents and the energy content resulting from all consequences and activities from a crash. The method utilizes a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) to national energy consumed in a framework that bridges the gap between safety and energy, leveraging extensive studies of the economic impact of motor vehicle crashes. The energy costs per fatal, injury, and property-damage-only (PDO) crashes in gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) in 2017 were found to be 200,259, 4442, and 439, respectively, which are significantly greater than impacts from induced congestion alone. The results from the motor vehicle crash data show a decreasing trend of EES per crash type from 2010 and 2017, due primarily in part to a decreasing ratio of total energy consumed to GDP over those years. In addition to the temporal analysis, we conducted a spatial analysis addressing national-, state-, and local-level EES comparisons by using the proposed framework, illustrating its applicability.

scholarly journals What Limits Our Capacity to Process Nested Long-Range Dependencies in Sentence Comprehension?

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 446
Author(s):  
Yair Lakretz ◽  
Stanislas Dehaene ◽  
Jean-Rémi King
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Capacity Limitation ◽  
Capacity Limit ◽  
Alternative Approach

Sentence comprehension requires inferring, from a sequence of words, the structure of syntactic relationships that bind these words into a semantic representation. Our limited ability to build some specific syntactic structures, such as nested center-embedded clauses (e.g., “The dog that the cat that the mouse bit chased ran away”), suggests a striking capacity limitation of sentence processing, and thus offers a window to understand how the human brain processes sentences. Here, we review the main hypotheses proposed in psycholinguistics to explain such capacity limitation. We then introduce an alternative approach, derived from our recent work on artificial neural networks optimized for language modeling, and predict that capacity limitation derives from the emergence of sparse and feature-specific syntactic units. Unlike psycholinguistic theories, our neural network-based framework provides precise capacity-limit predictions without making any a priori assumptions about the form of the grammar or parser. Finally, we discuss how our framework may clarify the mechanistic underpinning of language processing and its limitations in the human brain.

Integrative Governance

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Stout ◽  
Jeannine M. Love
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Constructive Conflict ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Micro Level

Public encounters, the micro-level relational process of face-to-face contact between public professionals and community members, are argued to have a meaningful effect on the outcomes of governance activities. In turn, the specific characteristics of these encounters are constrained by institutionalized macro-level structures, yet the variety of contexts and associated relational styles have not been carefully explored. Therefore, in this article, public encounters are considered in light of a particular governance typology to (a) clearly differentiate macro-level contexts, (b) clearly differentiate the associated styles of relating in each type of public encounter, (c) describe the ways in which these interactions hinder or foster productive processes and outcomes, and (d) identify a preferred approach for potentially more fruitful results. In this way, the article provides a theoretical platform for future analysis of empirical cases. This theoretical analysis reveals the pathological dynamics in public encounters produced by typical approaches to governance and offers an alternative approach that may produce more effective public encounters. Specifically, using the method of integration described by Progressive Era scholar Mary Follett, we argue fruitful public encounters entail a relational disposition, a cooperative style of relating, a collaborative mode of association, and a method for achieving integration that enables constructive conflict through disintegration of a priori positions; collaborative discovery of facts and values; revaluation of desires and methods through dialogue; creative and integrative determinations; collective responsibility; and experientially founded commitment.

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