Mathematical Models Of Games Of Chance: Epistemological Taxonomy And Potential In Problem-Gambling Research,
2015
University of Bucharest
Mathematical Models Of Games Of Chance: Epistemological Taxonomy And Potential In Problem-Gambling Research, Catalin Barboianu
UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal
Games of chance are developed in their physical consumer-ready form on the basis of mathematical models, which stand as the premises of their existence and represent their physical processes. There is a prevalence of statistical and probabilistic models in the interest of all parties involved in the study of gambling – researchers, game producers and operators, and players – while functional models are of interest more to math-inclined players than problem-gambling researchers. In this paper I present a structural analysis of the knowledge attached to mathematical models of games of chance and the act of mathematical modeling, arguing that such …
Newton On Indivisibles,
2015
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Newton On Indivisibles, Antoni Malet, Marco Panza
MPP Published Research
Though Wallis’s Arithmetica infinitorum was one of Newton’s major sources of inspiration during the first years of his mathematical education, indivisibles were not a central feature of his mathematical production.
Wallis On Indivisibles,
2015
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Wallis On Indivisibles, Antoni Malet, Marco Panza
MPP Published Research
The present chapter is devoted, first, to discuss in detail the structure and results of Wallis’s major and most influential mathematical work, the Arithmetica Infinitorum (Wallis 1656). Next we will revise Wallis’s views on indivisibles as articulated in his answer to Hobbes’s criticism in the early 1670s. Finally, we will turn to his discussion of the proper way to understand the angle of contingence in the first half of the 1680s. As we shall see, there are marked differences in the status that indivisibles seem to enjoy in Wallis’s thought along his mathematical career. These differences correlate with the changing …
Why Ontologize?,
2015
Connecticut College
A Teleological Exploration Of The Plausibility Of Moral Knowledge,
2015
Liberty University
A Teleological Exploration Of The Plausibility Of Moral Knowledge, Kevin Lebel King Jr.
Masters Theses
Natural selection seems to offer a compelling case for the development of evaluative judgments independent of evaluative facts. If such a case can be made, then how do moral judgments correlate to moral facts? It seems that there would be no tight connection from judgments to truth and moral judgments would be unwarranted. Gilbert Harman realized the implications of a probable non-moral genealogy. Richard Joyce goes on to provide a probable non-moral genealogy that would epistemically undermine moral judgments as Harman thought. Joyce argues that in a naturalistic world natural selection can account for moral judgments, but that the truth …
Aquinas The Pacifist? A Comparative Study,
2015
Liberty University
Aquinas The Pacifist? A Comparative Study, Lloyd George Pemberton
Masters Theses
It is claimed by some scholars that when recent analytical tools of interpretation are placed upon the Summa Theologica, a presumption against harm emerges from the mind of Thomas Aquinas as he formulated his just war theory. This presumption against harm is thereby construed as Aquinas having an affinity toward pacifism. The present thesis offers a comparative study between two scholars, Richard Miller and Gregory Reichberg. Miller supports this claim while Reichberg finds it unjustifiable. The thesis lays out the arguments put forth by both, ultimately siding with Reichberg as making the better case. In addition, I offer my own …
Engaging The History Of Religion - From An Islamic Studies Perspective,
2015
Aga Khan University
Engaging The History Of Religion - From An Islamic Studies Perspective, Leif Stenberg, Susanne Olsson
Faculty & Staff Publications
No abstract provided.
'Listen To What You Say': Rwanda’S Postgenocide Language Policies,
2015
University of Massachusetts Boston
'Listen To What You Say': Rwanda’S Postgenocide Language Policies, Lynne Tirrell
New England Journal of Public Policy
Freedom of expression is considered a basic human right, and yet most countries have restrictions on speech they deem harmful. Following the genocide of the Tutsi, Rwanda passed a constitution (2003) and laws against hate speech and other forms of divisionist language (2008, 2013). Understanding how language shaped “recognition harms” that both constitute and fuel genocide also helps account for political decisions to limit “divisionist” discourse. When we speak, we make expressive commitments, which are commitments to the viability and value of ways of speaking. This article explores reasons a society would decide to say, “We don’t talk that way …
Remembering The Philosopher Ted Cohen (1939-2014),
2015
Marquette University
Remembering The Philosopher Ted Cohen (1939-2014), Curtis L. Carter
Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications
No abstract provided.
The Pythagorean Table Of Opposites, Symbolic Classification, And Aristotle,
2015
Marquette University
The Pythagorean Table Of Opposites, Symbolic Classification, And Aristotle, Owen Goldin
Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications
At Metaphysics A 5 986a22-b2, Aristotle refers to a Pythagorean table, with two columns of paired opposites. I argue that 1) although Burkert and Zhmud have argued otherwise, there is sufficient textual evidence to indicate that the table, or one much like it, is indeed of Pythagorean origin; 2) research in structural anthropology indicates that the tables are a formalization of arrays of “symbolic classification” which express a pre-scientific world view with social and ethical implications, according to which the presence of a principle on one column of the table will carry with it another principle within the same column; …
The Problem Of Nomological Impossibility For Epistemic Structural Realism,
2015
Western Michigan University
The Problem Of Nomological Impossibility For Epistemic Structural Realism, Patrick Manzanares
The Hilltop Review
The philosophical view known as Epistemic Structural Realism appeals to the concept of ‘structure’ in order to defend a version of Scientific Realism that nevertheless respects historical considerations of ontological discontinuity between successive scientific theories. It seems that the structures of some scientific theories are only continuous with the structures of successor theories when the former are characterized as nomologically impossible idealizations of the latter, since this continuity involves allowing some quantity in the formal structure of the successor theory to tend towards some physically unrealizable limit. But if this is the case, then the earlier theory cannot be physically …
Technology And The Glass Imagination: Isolation And Closeness From The Window To The Screen,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Technology And The Glass Imagination: Isolation And Closeness From The Window To The Screen, Sarah Elizabeth Welsh
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In computer and cell phone screens, as in 19th-century architecture, glass employs a frame to show a specific picture, and keeps us at a distance from what lies behind it. Glass' dichotomies in technology (transparency and reflection, isolation and closeness) have become stronger metaphors for our experience with technology. This paper will look at the similarities between the language and metaphors created by glass in 19th-century architecture and 21st century technology, and glass' role in connecting us to and alienating us from the world 'outside.' In so doing, the role of glass in the imagination and its impact on modernity …
Three Faces Of Human Exceptionalism: Genius, Saint, Monster,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Three Faces Of Human Exceptionalism: Genius, Saint, Monster, Mary Clare Feldmann Mckinley
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
An exposition of the artistic genius invokes the perennial challenge to determine intersections between ethics (or morality) and aesthetics. As the human figure of the aesthetic realm, the genius meets its match in two counterparts of the ethical realm: the saint and the monster. Indeed, the genius shares traits with both figures, drawing closer to the saint in its communicative capacity while also revealing a prodigious nature more akin to the monster. This dissertation poses the following question: between the saint and the monster, does the genius resonate more with one than with the other? As one strategy to find …
Nepantla And Ubuntu Ethics Para Nosotros: Beyond Scrupulous Adherence Toward Threshold Perspectives Of Participatory/Collaborative Research Ethics,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Nepantla And Ubuntu Ethics Para Nosotros: Beyond Scrupulous Adherence Toward Threshold Perspectives Of Participatory/Collaborative Research Ethics, Monique Antoinette Guishard
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Participatory Action Research (PAR) refers less to a method and more to a continuum of approaches to collaborative inquiry. Within PAR, ideally, some phenomenon has been identified as a mutual area of concern to researchers and community members; working together they design, conduct, analyze, and disseminate the findings of a shared piece of research and coordinate action(s) aimed at using research to redress injustice. If PAR is embraced holistically boundaries inevitably blur as research team members become enmeshed in each other's lives. This blurring while momentous can give rise to ethical quandaries that IRB centered research ethics are inadequate to …
Traumatic Familiarity: Fictions And Theories Of Community In The Eighteenth Century,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Traumatic Familiarity: Fictions And Theories Of Community In The Eighteenth Century, Andrew Scott Dicus
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation addresses a crisis of modern collective identity by employing a dialectic of philosophical and literary "realisms." While both philosophical and novelistic discourses are premised on twin gestures (aspiration for correspondence between representation and reality), they arrive at radically different claims about how rational, self-governing individuals constitute - and are constituted by - "legitimate" social bodies. By foregrounding the internal complexity and empirical immersion of "real" individuals negotiating "realistic" social encounters, eighteenth-century novelists engage in a sustained critique of emerging concepts of "legitimate" community. Penetrating even the most basic foundations of social knowledge, such as the capacity to distinguish …
Leveraging Capacity: Technical Solutions To Hunger In The Era Of Neoliberalism,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Leveraging Capacity: Technical Solutions To Hunger In The Era Of Neoliberalism, Elizabeth Perry Bullock
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Leveraging Capacity: Technical Solutions to Hunger in the Era of Neoliberalism takes the Global Seed Vault and the value of "global crop diversity" as a point of departure for raising questions about the influence of digital technology on the seed and about the solution to hunger known as "global food security." Discussions about food security among food studies scholars highlight either the failures of global public health advocates to regulate the food and beverage industry or they view food security, like earlier campaigns against global hunger, as an instrument for U.S. foreign policy. On either side of this debate, the …
Saving Moral Realism: Against Blackburn's Projectivism,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Saving Moral Realism: Against Blackburn's Projectivism, Paul James Cummins
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the argumentative dialectic between moral realists and non-cognitivist moral antirealists each side in the debate is typically thought to enjoy a different prima facie advantage over its rival. Moral realism gains plausibility from its truth-conditional semantics because it can explain the meaning of moral judgments on the same basis as ordinary propositions. However, many moral philosophers doubt moral realism because the theory is committed to the existence of moral properties, which are, in J. L. Mackie's term, "queer." Moral antirealism denies that these moral properties exist, and this is a principal reason why many moral philosophers endorse the theory. …
Representation Without Thought: Confusion, Reference, And Communication,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Representation Without Thought: Confusion, Reference, And Communication, Elmar Geir Unnsteinsson
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Philosophy of mind has been dominated, since Frege, by a puzzle-driven methodology. This tradition aims to provide a coherent system for describing specific semantic features of all conceivable cases where the speaker is confused about the identity of an object. The first chapter develops a theory on which confused identity is a mental state of an agent who either believes falsely that a = b or believes falsely that a ≠ b. Many influential arguments in philosophy are puzzle-driven; Kripke on semantic and speaker reference, Reimer and Kaplan on demonstratives. I show in detail how these and other arguments …
Dramatic Form And Embodiment: Robert Browning And The Epistemology Of Romantic Drama,
2015
CUNY Graduate Center
Dramatic Form And Embodiment: Robert Browning And The Epistemology Of Romantic Drama, Laura Helen Wallace
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Browning's famous distinction between the subjective and the objective poet, Shelley and Shakespeare, as well as his own abandonment of the lyric in favour of dramatic poetry, has been commonly interpreted as an epistemological demarcation that separates Browning, as a Victorian poet, from his Romantic predecessors. Defining Shelley as the subjective poet who looks through the individual soul toward "not what man sees, but what God sees--the Ideas of Plato" (283), and Shakespeare as the objective poet who looks, not to his own soul, but upon the material world, choosing "to produce things external" and to "deal with the doings …
The Problem Of Infinity In Meditation Iii,
2015
Pepperdine University, Seaver College
The Problem Of Infinity In Meditation Iii, Peter B. Creech
Global Tides
In Meditation III, Rene Descartes’ main argument for the existence of God hinges on our perception of infinity. All ideas or beings must have as much formal reality, according to Descartes, as those that they in turn create or produce. Because we as human beings can perceive of infinity, yet we do not observe anything that is actually infinite, this perception must come from a God who has at least as much formal reality as we. In this paper I argue that the human mind is incapable of perceiving anything that is actually infinite. We hold a concept of infinity, …
