Marjorie Grene has argued in a number of contexts that any attempt to reduce the explanation of human actions to “mechanistic” explanations is doomed to failure in advance because it is absurd. “This argument examines the status of the reductivist thesis in its own terms and reduces it to absurdity …” ; “the attempt to reduce human purposive, or ‘intentional,‘ action to physiology and ultimately to physics and chemistry is an absurdity rather than simply a confusion”. I wish to show (...) that this argument is fallacious because it involves a petitio principii; and if Plato can be credited with introducing the same argument in the Theaetetus, as she suggests, so much the worse for Plato. (shrink)

To carry on reasoning in the face of the implications of skepticism is what Fred Parker calls “sceptical thinking.” Not to be confused with the engineered vacillation leading to a tranquillizing suspense of judgement, it involves the double perspective of someone conducting a life, believing and reasoning as we do, while acutely aware that the whole endeavor is, in a sense, untenable. If, as Sir Philip Sidney famously said, an imaginative writer “nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth,” then the dilemma (...) posed by skepticism might be less embarrassing for that kind of writer than for philosophers. The latter purport to offer tenets valued according to their truth, however variously defined; the former, on the other hand, create “speaking pictures,” or verbal imitations. Skeptically thinking imaginative writers can create speaking pictures of a life in which knowledge is unavailable though people must reason, believe, and act. In a famous letter Keats went so far as to deem a kind of ataraxy to be a condition of the highest art, adducing Shakespeare’s “Negative Capability... of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason”. Parker does not discuss the possibility that negative capability might conduce to the highest flights of literature. He is concerned with the unresolved tensions of skeptical thinking that he sees as complicating key works of literature in the Hanoverian reigns. For their authors and readers, the negativity of skepticism was “disillusioning and destabilizing” if not ameliorated by a humor like Sterne’s or an irony like Hume’s. Humor or irony arises from the oddity that skepticism is put in its place only when we give up and allow nature to reassert itself. Not heroic measures, but backgammon and making merry with friends prevail over doubt. Sometimes, when the confrontation with skepticism gives rise to the precept of following nature, skepticism can result in “a surprising confidence of assertion”. (shrink)

Книгу характеризует широкий охват затронутых проблем, глубина анализа, оригинальность подхода, многоаспектность освещения материала. Для специалистов.

The usual definition of (non-contextual) hidden variables is found to be too restrictive, in the sense that, according to it, even some classical systems do not admit hidden variables. A more general concept is introduced and the term “approximate hidden variables” is used for it. This new concept avoids the aforementioned problems, since all classical systems admit approximate hidden variables. Standard quantum systems do not admit approximate hidden variables, unless the corresponding Hilbert space is 2-dimensional. However, an appropriate non-standard quantum (...) system, which arises by focussing on momentum and position and neglecting the remaining observables, admits approximate hidden variables. Systems associated with JBW-algebras (resp. von Neumann algebras) and satisfying some mild conditions admit approximate hidden variables iff they are classical, that is, iff the corresponding JBW-algebra (resp. von Neumann algebra) is associative (resp. commutative). (shrink)

The article presents an approach to the formation of a decision support system in the management of energy consumption of production technological systems. Such systems allow the company to detect and respond in a timely manner to the appearance of hidden energy losses, to carry out organizational measures aimed at energy saving and to optimize the timing and scope of repair and restoration work. The approach is based on the modeling of stationary sections of energy consumption, presented in the form (...) of precedents, their accumulation and subsequent analysis in the space of influential technological parameters. In addition to the base of precedents, the system includes software modules for assessment and formation of the profile of hidden energy losses, modules of technical condition, forecast and formation of precedents. The analysis of precedents consists in the selection of similar cases of energy consumption, the formation of efficient energy consumption functions and the calculation of energy losses with its help. Hidden energy losses can be calculated in real time for all technological systems of the enterprise. This allows you to build a profile of energy losses of the enterprise. The advantage of this approach in comparison with the known ones is that it allows to adapt to technological systems with different energy sources. The article emphasizes that the method can work with the energy manager with both linear and nonlinear dependence of energy consumption on process parameters. However, the limitations of this approach are noted. Thus, the determination of latent energy losses and technical condition of the equipment requires the participation of qualified specialists of the enterprise, who must be able to analyze the results and propose measures to eliminate energy losses. (shrink)

In the last decade literature focused on a “less is more” approach has been primarily represented by clinical cases describing the excesses of an aggressive, redundant, non-personalized, and non-respectful medicine. Most of these articles focus on a “more is worse” approach and centre around the downstream negative consequences of medical overuse. Having identified a gap in the literature on the experience and practice of less, rather than the harms of excess, we carried out an exploratory qualitative study into how a (...) “less is more” approach works in practice. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted to allow us to examine the realm of lived experience as a valid data source and as a path from which to understand a “less is more” approach “from the bedside.” A Phenomenology of Practice was chosen as a more specific frame for this research because of its added focus on action and practical application in professional settings. Seventy stories written by physicians, patients, nurses, caregivers, and other health professionals have been received and analysed. These stories were gathered as part of a project called “Slow Stories” which aimed to collect clinical cases that have been positively resolved by adopting a “less is more” approach to patient care. After having conducted an in-depth analysis, separately and as a group, the researchers identified five key phenomenological themes; Time to relate is time to heal; Doing more does not mean doing better; Settings for a slow medicine; Slow care at the end of life; and Personalized vs. standardized treatment. Each of these themes offers insights into how a “less is more” approach can be used in practice and illustrates how a “less is more” strategy can play a significant role in positively resolving certain clinical cases. (shrink)

In teaching introductory ethics courses it is a struggle to find ways to ground the theoretical approach in a context accessible to students. Two way to provide this context are to use feature films and service learning. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages. Feature films provide students with a consistentnarrative, the filmmaker’s intentions, and identical experiences. Service learning provides students with an open encounter with uncertain meaning, concrete human problems, and at best similar experiences. The benefits and weaknesses of each (...) approach depend upon the objectives of the course. Films allow for greater clarity in interpretation of ethical theory, while service makes possible an appreciation of the ambiguities of ethical actions. (shrink)

In a series of articles, Snyder has developed the idea of simultaneous situations and that concept's implications for physics and psychology . In recent articles , he develops the application of the concept to the Einstein, Poldsky, and Rosen Gedankenexperiment that utilized spacelike separated events to solve the problem that arises in Bohr's complimentarity interpretation of quantum mechanics. In the course of his most recent article , Snyder made several criticisms of Garrison in order to strenghten Snyder's argument for a (...) cognitive-interpretive activity in the gedankenexperiment. These criticisms are addressed and Snyder's Einsteinian realism is contrasted with Garrison's verificationist stance. (shrink)