Objections to Jeremy Simon’s Response to Lucretius’s Symmetry Argument

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 171-176
Author(s):  
Abe Witonsky ◽  
Sarah Whitman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Symmetry Argument ◽  
Time Periods

The first century B.C. poet Lucretius put forth an argument for why death is not bad for the person who has died. This argument is commonly referred to as Lucretius’s “symmetry argument” because of its assumption that the period before we were born is symmetrical to the period after we die. Jeremy Simon objects to the symmetry argument, claiming that the two periods are not relevantly symmetrical: being born earlier than we actually are born would not guarantee us more life, whereas extending our lifespan past the time we actually would die would guarantee us more life. Simon believes this difference between the two time periods also explains why it is reasonable for people to wish for a later death but not for an earlier birth. We raise several objections to Simon’s response. Our main objection is that insofar as people do not wish for an earlier birth, it is not because they fear losing more life, but rather is a result of being concerned about losing what is important about life, namely its unique content.

scholarly journals Replaying the tape of life in the twenty-first century

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 20150057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Orgogozo
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
First Century ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Phenotypic Differences ◽  
Diverse Species ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Life On Earth

Should the tape of life be replayed, would it produce similar living beings? A classical answer has long been ‘no’, but accumulating data are now challenging this view. Repeatability in experimental evolution, in phenotypic evolution of diverse species and in the genes underlying phenotypic evolution indicates that despite unpredictability at the level of basic evolutionary processes (such as apparition of mutations), a certain kind of predictability can emerge at higher levels over long time periods. For instance, a survey of the alleles described in the literature that cause non-deleterious phenotypic differences among animals, plants and yeasts indicates that similar phenotypes have often evolved in distinct taxa through independent mutations in the same genes. Does this mean that the range of possibilities for evolution is limited? Does this mean that we can predict the outcomes of a replayed tape of life? Imagining other possible paths for evolution runs into four important issues: (i) resolving the influence of contingency, (ii) imagining living organisms that are different from the ones we know, (iii) finding the relevant concepts for predicting evolution, and (iv) estimating the probability of occurrence for complex evolutionary events that occurred only once during the evolution of life on earth.

Passing at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

Neo-Passing ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
First Century ◽  
World War ◽  
American Life ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Twenty First Century

Has passing “passed out” in the twenty-first century? Or has it taken new forms? The introduction to part 1 considers the elasticity of the phenomenon of passing. Beginning with the story of Lieutenant William J. French, who passed as white until it was discovered after his suicide in 1932 that he was black, to new possibilities in race relations that opened in the aftermath of World War II, to the beginning of the twenty-first century when Americans began to recognize and accept mixed-race identities, this essay shows how passing adapts to the specific conditions of various time periods. New histories of passing show that the old and the new have much in common. Most important, these histories remind us of the paramount importance of race in American life.

scholarly journals Can Electronic Reverse-Auctions Destroy Business Relationships?

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Smith Jr
Keyword(s):  
Sole Source ◽  
First Century ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Business Relationships ◽  
Reverse Auction ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The Waves ◽  
Thought Leaders

The fast-paced world of business in the early twenty-first century has created ever decreasing time periods between the waves of cycles. This phenomenon can lead to dramatic changes in prevailing practices in very short periods of time. In fact, it almost appears that management thought leaders are in direct conflict in some situations. Such a shift has occurred in recent years in terms of thoughts about the relationships between business buyers and sellers. Japanese businesses lead the movement towards trust-based relationships becoming sole-source arrangements in the 1980s. Management gurus worldwide were applauding this practice. By the late 1990s the antithesis was occurring as thought leaders began advocating not only the avoidance of sole-sourcing but the use of what could be viewed as a practice that made long-term relationships between buyers and sellers impossible. This was the dawning of the era of the electronic reverse auction. Is this a good thing or a curse?

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