320 research outputs found
Animals: A History
No full text© 2019, The author(s). The attached document (embargoed until 11/02/2021) is an author produced version of a paper published in BRITISH JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it
Kidnapping an ugly child: is Willliam James a pragmaticist?
No full textSince the term ‘pragmatism’ was first coined, there have been debates about who is or is not a ‘real’ pragmatist, and what that might mean. The division most often drawn in contemporary pragmatist scholarship is between William James and Charles Peirce. Peirce is said to present a version of pragmatism which is scientific, logical and objective about truth, whereas James presents a version which is nominalistic, subjectivistic and leads to relativism. The first person to set out this division was in fact Peirce himself, when he distinguished his own ‘pragmaticism’ from the broad pragmatism of James and others. Peirce sets out six criteria which defines ‘pragmaticism’: the pragmatic maxim; a number of ‘preliminary propositions’; prope-positivism; metaphysical inquiry; critical common-sensism; and scholastic realism. This paper sets out to argue that in fact James meets each of these criteria, and should be seen as a ‘pragmaticist’ by Peirce’s own lights.© 2019, BSHP. The attached document (embargoed until 04/03/2019) is an author produced version of a paper published in BRITISH JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it
Absolutism, Relativism and Anarchy: Alain Locke and William James on Value Pluralism
No full textThis paper aims to compare the pluralistic theories of James and Locke on the three criteria by which Locke proposes that any pluralistic axiology should be assessed: normativity, objectivity and loyalty. A pluralistic account of value must be able to account for the normativity of particular value systems without appealing to universal standards. It must be able to provide some objective ground for value so that different values can be constructively compared across cultures, without becoming monistic. And it must provide an account which still allows people to find their particular values meaningful and motivating, whilst at the same time encouraging tolerance for differing values. The conclusion of the paper will be that, despite Locke's accusation of anarchism, James's appeal to a limited form of realism means that his theory is better placed to meet these three criteria
A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass
No full textFrederick Douglass (1818–1895) was a prolific writer and public speaker whose impact on American literature and history has been long studied by historians and literary critics. Yet as political theorists have focused on the legacies of such notables as W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, Douglass\u27s profound influence on Afro-modern and American political thought has often been undervalued. In an effort to fill this gap in the scholarship on Douglass, editor Neil Roberts and an exciting group of established and rising scholars examine the author\u27s autobiographies, essays, speeches, and novella. Together, they illuminate his genius for analyzing and articulating core American ideals such as independence, liberation, individualism, and freedom, particularly in the context of slavery. The contributors explore Douglass\u27s understanding of the self-made American and the way in which he expanded the notion of individual potential by arguing that citizens had a responsibility to improve not only their own situations but also those of their communities. A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass also considers the idea of agency, investigating Douglass\u27s passionate insistence that every person in a democracy, even a slave, possesses an innate ability to act. Various essays illuminate Douglass\u27s complex racial politics, deconstructing what seems at first to be his surprising aversion to racial pride, and others explore and critique concepts of masculinity, gender, and judgment in his oeuvre. The volume concludes with a discussion of Douglass\u27s contributions to pre– and post–Civil War jurisprudence.
Neil Roberts is associate professor of Africana studies, political theory, and the philosophy of religion at Williams College. His book Freedom as Marronage is the recipient of awards from the American Political Science Association Foundations of Political Theory section and Choice magazine, and the Association for College and Research Libraries selected the work as a Top 25 book for 2015. He is president of the Caribbean Philosophical Association.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_cr/1000/thumbnail.jp
Characterisation of the Fpr2 null mouse
No full textPhDA novel Fpr2-/- mouse colony was used to explore the biology of Fpr2, a GPCR
related to the human FPR2/ALX receptor that recognises lipoxin A4 (LXA4)
annexin A1 (AnxA1) and serum amyloid A (SAA). Southern blotting, PCR and
radio-ligand binding confirmed receptor deletion in the mouse Fpr2-/- colony.
A GFP target/reporter strategy was employed in generating this novel transgenic
to monitor promoter activity in living cells. This study revealed a propensity of
Fpr2 for granulocytes, as well as a distinct role in macrophage (Mφ) maturation.
Characterisation of Fpr2-/- Mφ revealed selective ERK phosphorylation triggered
by the AnxA1-derived peptide Ac2-26, W peptide and Compound 43 (C43).
Despite this Fpr-dependent signalling cascade via ERK, it was not a functional
prognostic for cell migration in vitro or in vivo. Formyl peptide (fMLP) and serum
amyloid A (SAA) chemotactic action was attenuated in Fpr2-/- Mφ, as well as the
pro-phagocytic effects of Ac2-26 and LXA4.
There was no observable naïve phenotype associated with Fpr2 depletion. To
investigate the patho-physiology of Fpr2, acute and chronic inflammatory models
were investigated in vivo to dissect different aspects of the receptor during
disease progression. Notably Fpr2-/- mice exhibited stimulus specific
discrepancies in inflammatory response. An acute IL-1β-induced air pouch model
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revealed predominantly anti-migratory pharmacology of Fpr2 ligands, with a
notable exception of SAA, discovered to be anti-migratory in the absence of Fpr2.
Analysis of the full time-course of the zymosan peritonitis pointed to a subtle role
for Fpr2 in neutrophil and monocyte migration as well as Mφ maturation. Of
interest, exudate levels of SAA were augmented in Fpr2-/- mice revealing complex
regulatory receptor/ligand circuits active during on-going inflammatory reactions.
Finally, Fpr2-/- mice displayed pronounced arthritic responses upon treatment with
the K/BxN arthrogenic serum, in comparison to their wild type controls. We
conclude that Fpr2 can serve varied regulatory functions during the host response
to inflammatory insult
High accuracy of home-based community rapid HIV testing in rural Malawi.
No full textOBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of rapid HIV antibody tests when used as part of a home-based community wide counseling and testing strategy in northern Malawi. DESIGN: A cross-sectional population survey of HIV infection, 2007 to 2008. METHODS: Adults aged 15 years or older in a demographic surveillance area were counseled and then offered an HIV test at their home by government-certified counselors. Two initial rapid tests (Determine and Uni-Gold) were performed on all samples and a third, tie-breaker test (SD Bioline) used to resolve discordant results. All people who wanted to know were posttest-counseled and informed of their results with referral to local clinical services if found to be HIV-positive. Laboratory quality control comprised retesting all positive and every tenth negative venous blood sample collected. RESULTS: A total of 10,819 adults provided venous blood samples for HIV testing, of whom 7.5% (813) were HIV-positive. The accuracy of the parallel testing strategy used was high with 99.6% sensitivity, 100.0% specificity, 99.9% positive predictive value, and 99.9% negative predictive value. CONCLUSION: Face-to-face rapid testing by health personnel with minimum training at the client's home performs well when used on a wide scale in the community setting
The effect of category variability in perceptual categorization
No full textExemplar and distributional accounts of categorization make differing predictions for the classification of a critical exemplar precisely halfway between the nearest exemplars of 2 categories differing in variability. Under standard conditions of sequential presentation, the critical exemplar was classified into the most similar, least variable category, consistent with an exemplar account. However, if the difference in variability is made more salient, then the same exemplar is classified into the more variable, most likely category, consistent with a distributional account. This suggests that participants may be strategic in their use of either strategy. However, when the relative variability of 2 categories was manipulated, participants showed changes in the classification of intermediate exemplars that neither approach could account for
Sequence effects in categorization of simple perceptual stimuli
No full textCategorization research typically assumes that the cognitive system has access to a (more or less noisy) representation of the absolute magnitudes of the properties of stimuli and that this information is used in reaching a categorization decision. However, research on identification of simple perceptual stimuli suggests that people have very poor representations of absolute magnitude information and that judgments about absolute magnitude are strongly influenced by preceding material. The experiments presented here investigate such sequence effects in categorization tasks. Strong sequence effects were found. Classification of a borderline stimulus was more accurate when preceded by a distant member of the opposite category than by a distant member of the same category. It is argued that this category contrast effect cannot be accounted for by extant exemplar or decision-bound models of categorization. The effect suggests the use of relative magnitude information in categorization. A memory and contrast model illustrates how relative magnitude information may be used in categorization
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Ten Spurs
No full textAnnual publication of The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference held by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. This volume includes the ten literary non-fiction pieces selected from the conference submissions as well as illustrations, author biographies, and additional commentary about the inspiration behind each of the stories
Looking forward through the past: identification of 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology
No full textPriority question exercises are becoming an increasingly common tool to frame future agendas in conservation and ecological science. They are an effective way to identify research foci that advance the field and that also have high policy and conservation relevance. To date, there has been no coherent synthesis of key questions and priority research areas for palaeoecology, which combines biological, geochemical and molecular techniques in order to reconstruct past ecological and environmental systems on time-scales from decades to millions of years. We adapted a well-established methodology to identify 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. Using a set of criteria designed to identify realistic and achievable research goals, we selected questions from a pool submitted by the international palaeoecology research community and relevant policy practitioners. The integration of online participation, both before and during the workshop, increased international engagement in question selection. The questions selected are structured around six themes: human-environment interactions in the Anthropocene; biodiversity, conservation and novel ecosystems; biodiversity over long time-scales; ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycling; comparing, combining and synthesizing information from multiple records; and new developments in palaeoecology. Future opportunities in palaeoecology are related to improved incorporation of uncertainty into reconstructions, an enhanced understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics and processes and the continued application of long-term data for better-informed landscape management.Synthesis. Palaeoecology is a vibrant and thriving discipline, and these 50 priority questions highlight its potential for addressing both pure (e.g. ecological and evolutionary, methodological) and applied (e.g. environmental and conservation) issues related to ecological science and global change.Peer reviewe
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