Philosophy of Science | Open Access Articles

International Terrorism:Role ,Responsibility And Operation Of Media Channles, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr Nov 2008

International Terrorism:Role ,Responsibility And Operation Of Media Channles, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

"Terrorism" is a term that cannot be given a stable defintion. Or rather, it can, but to do so forstalls any attempt to examine the major feature of its relation to television in the contemporary world. As the central public arena for organising ways of picturing and talking about social and political life, TV plays a pivotal role in the contest between competing defintions, accounts and explanations of terrorism. Which term is used in any particular context is inextricably tied to judgemements about the legitimacy of the action in question and of the political system against which it is directed. …

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Doing Away With Morgan's Canon, Simon Fitzpatrick Mar 2008

Doing Away With Morgan's Canon, Simon Fitzpatrick

Simon Fitzpatrick

Morgan's canon is a very widely endorsed methodological principle in animal psychology, believed to be vital for a rigorous, scientific approach to the study of animal cognition. In contrast I argue that Morgan's canon is unjustified, pernicious and unnecessary. I identify two main versions of the canon and show that they both suffer from very serious problems. I then suggest an alternative methodological principle that captures all of the genuine methodological benefits that Morgan's canon can bring but suffers from none of its problems.

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Computers, Gualtiero Piccinini Feb 2008

Computers, Gualtiero Piccinini

Gualtiero Piccinini

I offer an explication of the notion of computer, grounded in

the practices of computability theorists and computer scientists. I begin by

explaining what distinguishes computers from calculators. Then, I offer a

systematic taxonomy of kinds of computer, including hard-wired versus

programmable, general-purpose versus special-purpose, analog versus

digital, and serial versus parallel, giving explicit criteria for each kind.

My account is mechanistic: which class a system belongs in, and which

functions are computable by which system, depends on the system’s

mechanistic properties. Finally, I briefly illustrate how my account sheds

light on some issues in the history and philosophy of …

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Trapped In The Creation Museum, Stephen Asma Jan 2008

Trapped In The Creation Museum, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

Into the swampy debate over evolution has waded the new Creation Museum, in Petersburg, Ky. In an America divided between those who accept Darwin's theories and those who believe God created the world in six days, it seeks to win moderates and compromisers over to its side. Shortly after the museum opened last spring, I made a pilgrimage to witness this quirky new spectacle of Americana...

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David Sedley, Creationism And Its Critics In Antiquity, David Depew Dec 2007