Purposes and duties in scientific modelling

More people than ever are paying attention to philosophical questions about epidemiological models, including their susceptibility to the influence of social and ethical values, sufficiency to inform policy decisions under certain conditions, and even their fundamental nature. One important question pertains to the purposes of epidemiological models, for example, are COVID-19 models for ‘prediction’ or ‘projection’? Are they adequate for making causal inferences? Is one of their goals, or virtues, to change individual responses to the pandemic? In this essay, we offer our perspective on these questions and place them in the context of other recent philosophical arguments about epidemiological models. We argue that clarifying the intended purpose of a model, and assessing its adequacy for that purpose, are moral-epistemic duties, responsibilities which pertain to knowledge but have moral significance nonetheless. This moral significance, we argue, stems from the inherent value-ladenness of models, along with the potential for models to be used in political decision making in ways that conflict with liberal values and which could lead to downstream harms. Increasing conversation about the moral significance of modelling, we argue, could help us to resist further eroding our standards of democratic scrutiny in the COVID-19 era.

Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By: The Ecolinguistics of Tholkappiyam

The term “ecolinguistics” is relatively a recent discussion with Eliar Haugen (1972) bringing up the concept of “The ecology of Language”. Since then, various methods and approaches to the field have been suggested to study the language-ecology interaction, primarily from the west. As a result, ecolinguistics is conceived as a new-born western discipline. However, Ecolinguistics, as the term suggests is the specialized study of language-ecology interaction. The “feeling” of the existence of the necessary relationship between language and ecology even before makes us ask the question if the concept of ecolinguistics has not been discussed by linguists before 20th Century. The ancient Tamil linguistic treatise called Tholkappiyam (dated between 6th BCE to 8th CE) presents the fundamental nature of the relationship between ecology, language and culture through the theory called Tinai. The paper primarily draws attention to look into the linguistic philosophy of Tholkappiyam through an ecological perspective. From the ecolinguistic perspective, the paper analyses Tinai based on three criteria: Ecosophy, Aspects of Language-ecology-culture interaction and the theoretical framework of Tinai. Having analysed from the aforementioned criteria, the paper advocates that the framework of Tinai can contribute to the ecolinguistic studies parallel to the philosophies of Edward Sapir (1912) and Hagege (1985).

THE 1982 UNITED NATIONS LAW OF THE SEA CONVENTION: UNRESOLVED ISSUES REMAIN

Despite the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) being generally viewed as one of the major successes of United Nations treaty-making, unresolved issues remain. These range from maritime boundary disputes to straight baselines to artificial islands to military activities in the exclusive economic zone to environmental issues. Four decades have altered the fundamental nature of the regime relating to the law of the sea and have created major implementational challenges. The oceans are becoming more crowded by competitive human activities and, as technology progresses and geopolitical shifts occur, it has become imperative that the unresolved issues be resolved. In so doing UNCLOS’s initial vision can be augmented. This article focuses on five of the more problematic unresolved issues.

Book Review: Towards an Ethics of Autism - A Philosophical Exploration

“Towards an Ethics of Autism: A Philosophical Exploration” is an intricate ten-years exploration book of Kristien Hen on the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence (philosophical) and moral principles (ethical) interpretations to better understand the concept of autism.

Deadly Disease vs. Chronic Illness: Competing Understandings of HIV in the HIV Non-Disclosure Debate

Over the past several decades, understandings of what it means to have contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have shifted so that an infection once viewed as deadly and ultimately terminal is now largely regarded as chronic and manageable, at least in the West. Yet, the shift has not been complete. There are arenas of discourse where understandings of what health implications HIV carries with it are contested. One such space is the debate concerning the appropriate response to cases of HIV non-disclosure, that is, situations where individuals who are HIV-positive do not disclose their health status to intimate partners. This paper examines the competing constructions of HIV found within this debate, particularly as it has unfolded in Canada. Those who oppose the criminalization of non-disclosure tend to construct HIV as an infection that is chronic and manageable for those who have contracted it, not unlike diabetes. Those who support criminalization have mobilized a discourse that frames the infection as harmful and deadly. We use the case of the HIV non-disclosure debate to make the argument that representations of health conditions can become mired in larger social problems debates in ways that lead to contests over how to understand the fundamental nature of those conditions.

Structure of the Atom

Structure of the Atom describes the quantum-mechanical model of the atom, which explains the fundamental nature of energy and matter, in terms of how electrons are arranged within atoms and how that arrangement determines the ultimate chemical and physical properties of elements. A discussion of atomic spectra, the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, and the quantum numbers of an atomic orbital is provided. Other topics include the determination of quantum numbers from energy levels, the shapes of atomic orbitals, electron filling order, and the determination of the complete electron configuration of the elements.

The Changing Meanings of āśraya in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa(bhāṣya)

The term āśraya (“support” or “basis”) is used in manifold ways in the Abhidharmakośa and its bhāṣya (AKBh). This comes from the fact that its basic meaning, indicating anything on which something else depends or rests, is quite generic. Despite the plasticity of its usage, we can find some recurring and distinct technical applications of the term in the AK(Bh), which I explore in my paper. First, I look at its usage of characterising a member of various asymmetric dependence relationships on which the arising and sometimes also the persistence of the other relatum depends. Through examining the nature of various āśraya-āśrita dependence relations the AK(Bh) discusses, I show that āśraya stands for an entity that determines the fundamental nature of the thing it supports. In the second half of the paper, I move on to those occurrences of the term where āśraya has a specific referent. While āśraya can refer to the six sense faculties (indriya) individually, it can also stand for them collectively pointing towards its widespread meaning as ‘psychophysical basis’. In this context, the focus often shifts either to the material or the mental elements that make up a sentient being. I will dedicate special attention to the discussion of the transformation of the basis (āśrayaparāvṛtti), where, on my reading, it is more natural to interpret āśraya as referring primarily to the mind (citta), with its bodily connotations being marginal.