1,721,052 research outputs found
Ethical and cognitive challenges in the COVID-19 emergency
No full textThe global emergency caused by the spread of COVID-19 raises critical challenges for individuals and communities on many different levels. In particular, politicians, scientists, physicians, and other professionals may face new ethical dilemmas and cognitive constraints as they make critical decisions in extraordinary circumstances. Philosophers and cognitive scientists have long analyzed and discussed such issues. An example is the debate on moral decision making in imaginary scenarios, such as the famous “Trolley Problem”. Similarly, dramatic and consequential decisions are realized daily in the current crisis. Focusing on Italy, we discuss the clinical ethical guidelines proposed by the Italian Society of Anesthesiology, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI), highlighting some crucial ethical and cognitive concerns surrounding emergency decision making in the current situation
Scientific Change, Belief Dynamics and Truth Approximation
No full textTwo of the best known formal approaches are the post-Popperian theories of verisimilitude (for short: PPV) and the AGM theory of belief dynamics (for short: AGM).2 Our main purpose in this paper is the analysis of some conceptual (dis)similarities and relations between PPV and AGM. In the first two sections the emergence of the logic of scientific change in contemporary philosophy of science is shortly described and the basic features of the instrumental view of theory change are illustrated. While all the versions of PPV share the thesis according to which verisimilitude, or truth approximation, is the basic aim of science, this cognitive goal does not play any explicit role within the current versions of AGM. In spite of this, we will ask whether the methods for belief change proposed within AGM are an effective tool for truth approximation. After a brief presentation of the basic elements of PPV and AGM, it will be argued that a positive answer to the above question can be given
Merely a logician's toy? Belief revision confronting scientific theory change. Recensione del volume di Erik J. Olsson and Sebastian Enqvist (a cura di), Belief Revision Meets Philosophy of Science
No full textApproaching deterministic and probabilistic truth: an unified account
Full text linkThe basic problem of a theory of truth approximation is defining when a theory is
“close to the truth” about some relevant domain. Existing accounts of truthlikeness or
verisimilitude address this problem, but are usually limited to the problem of approaching
a “deterministic” truth by means of deterministic theories.Ageneral theory of truth
approximation, however, should arguably cover also cases where either the relevant
theories, or “the truth”, or both, are “probabilistic” in nature. As a step forward in
this direction, we first present a general characterization of both deterministic and
probabilistic truth approximation; then, we introduce a new account of verisimilitude
which provides a simple formal framework to deal with such issue in a unified way.
The connections of our account with some other proposals in the literature are also
briefly discussed
Modern radar techniques and the hazard of meteoroids to space platforms
No full textModern radar techniques, and in particular ground based radars, are a powerful tool to observe space objects (natural meteoroids and artificial space debris) on account of their all-weather and day-and-night performance. Natural meteoroids are an important component of the near-Earth space environment and represent a potential risk for all Earth-orbiting space platforms, which could significantly increase in coincidence of enhanced (outburst or storm) activity of meteoroid streams. A review of the currently active meteoroid streams suggests that a few streams have shown a quasi-periodic outburst activity in the two last centuries and may even undergo a storm activity in the next few years. The Leonids, the most intense of meteor showers, present a potentially serious damage to spacecraft in November of 1998 and 1999, after the perihelion passage of the parent body. Impact probability values of storm meteoroids on space platforms in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) were calculated using the data recorded during systematic observational campaigns carried out by the FS radar facility Bologna-Lecce in Italy. Meteoroid flux predictions and directionality, and investigation on impact parameters at very high velocities (up to 71 km/s) for penetration, charge production and plasma generation, are relevant aspects to develop strategies for safe deployment of the near Earrth-orbiting space platforms.JCR Journalope
Supercritical carbon dioxide recovery system applied to cement industries
Full text linkThe paper addresses the potential heat-to-power application of supercritical CO2 (sCO2) plants to the cement industry, thereby reducing their electricity demand and improving energy efficiency. The research was conducted as part of the European project CO2OLHEAT (G.A. 101022831), which involves the installation of a 2 MW Waste-Heat-to-Power (WH2P) skid based on a sCO2 cycle in a cement plant, the first of its kind with a MW-scale power output. The paper summarizes technologies and processes employed in the Italian cement production sector, detecting where the waste heat can be successfully extracted to feed the recovery plant without compromising the industrial process. Moreover, the paper discusses the national cement market and explores the potential advantages and limitations of integrating sCO2 recovery plants within the national cement context, considering production and energy-related data. The final finding reveals the percentage of recoverable electricity per technological class for the cement production sector in Italy with a potential application of the sCO2 recovery plant, aiming at identifying the potential market penetration of the CO2OLHEAT installation
Giochi di altruismo. L’approccio evoluzionistico alla cooperazione umana
Full text linkIl problema dell’origine e dell’evoluzione della cooperazione sociale, che rappresenta il tema centrale del libro di Ridley, verrà brevemente illustrato nel primo paragrafo. Subito dopo vedremo come questo problema è stato affrontato dai biologi e dagli psicologi evoluzionisti (secondo paragrafo) e dai teorici dei giochi (terzo paragrafo). Infine, nel quarto paragrafo, mostreremo che i temi affrontati da Ridley non riguardano solo gli scienziati sociali e i filosofi delle scienze sociali, ma hanno implicazioni di notevole portata anche per la (filosofia) politica
The Whole Truth about Linda: Probability, Verisimilitude and a Paradox of Conjunction
Full text linkThe logical problem of verisimilitude amounts to the preliminary definition
of an appropriate notion of verisimilitude, allowing for a comparison of any
two hypotheses with regards to their closeness to the truth. The epistemic
problem of verisimilitude, on the other hand, amounts to the definition of an
appropriate notion of expected verisimilitude by which the estimated closeness to the truth of any two hypotheses could be compared on the basis of the available data. We will outline the formal background to briefly address both problems in turn, introducing the basic traits of a theory of verisimilitude and expected verisimilitude for hypotheses expressed in a propositional language. Then, we will come back to the conjunction paradox and provide a novel verisimilitudinarian analysis of the Linda’s story and the paradox of conjunction
How to Believe Long Conjunctions of Beliefs: Probability, Quasi-Dogmatism and Contextualism
Full text linkAccording to the so-called Lockean thesis, a rational agent believes a proposition just in case its probability is sufficiently high, i.e., greater than some suitably fixed threshold. The Preface paradox is usually taken to show that the Lockean thesis is untenable, if one also assumes that rational agents should believe the conjunction of their own beliefs: high probability and rational belief are in a sense incompatible. In this paper, we show that this is not the case in general. More precisely, we consider two methods of computing how probable must each of a series of propositions be in order to rationally believe their conjunction under the Lockean thesis. The price one has to pay for the proposed solutions to the paradox is what we call “quasi-dogmatism”: the view that a rational agent should believe only those propositions which are “nearly certain” in a suitably defined sense
Verisimilitude and belief change for nomic conjunctive theories
Full text link<p>In this paper, we address the problem of truth approximation through theory change, asking whether revising our theories by newly acquired data leads us closer to the truth about a given domain. More particularly, we focus on "nomic conjunctive theories", i.e., theories expressed as conjunctions of logically independent statements concerning the physical or, more generally, nomic possibilities and impossibilities of the domain under inquiry. We define both a comparative and a quantitative notion of the verisimilitude of such theories, and identify suitable conditions concerning the (partial) correctness of acquired data, under which revising our theories by data leads us closer to "the nomic truth", construed as the target of scientific inquiry. We conclude by indicating some further developments, generalizations, and open issues arising from our results.</p>
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