The expression ‘a university without research is a dignified high school’ is becoming a both local and global concern in the academia. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which collaborative research methodologies can enhance integration of faculties of arts and humanities in the universities in Malawi for knowledge development and transfer. It has been argued over and over that universities are spotlighted by their outstanding work in research, developing and sharing ideas, new inventions and creativity (...) within the spectrum of partnership development. While striving for partnership through collaborative research approaches, research activities still remain an area of concern in institutions that offer diverse tertiary education in Malawi. The question of how can these institutions or faculties engage each other in collaborative research methodologies in the quest of knowledge development and transfer remains crucial and relevant The study analyzed strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the existing research methods in Arts and Humanities and how the two disciplines can create a space for amalgamation so that research findings can benefit both disciplines. The study reveals that collaboration in various disciplines is a challenge owing to variations of conceptual analyses and the deficiency of technical no-how of both teaching staff and students as well as tools for data collection and analysis as may be emphasized in each of the areas of study; Arts and Humanities. Furthermore, while other institutions of higher learning have research ethics committees for checks and balances as a collaborative tool, some institutions do not know that this committee plays a crucial role in the field of research. Within this backdrop, there is need to develop research collaborations within an institution or with other institutions of higher learning that have a well-defined research profile for mutual benefits as far as collaborative research methodologies are concerned. (shrink)

The victories of the Go-playing artificial intelligence “AlphaGo” against professional player Lee Sedol in 2016 had a profound impact on public and academic perceptions of AI. This event shocked observers, as the ability of a machine to defeat a world champion human in a highly complex game seemed to indicate that a machine had achieved human-like—or more than human—intelligence. But why was AlphaGo so readily anthropomorphized by academic and non-academic audiences alike? Drawing from existing analyses of reactions to and arguments (...) concerning AlphaGo and AI generally, this paper argues that “generative” cognitive science—a school of thought exemplified by the linguistic work of Noam Chomsky—offers two novel contributions to this subject. First, generativism sheds light on an irrational double standard in the study of the human mind in contrast to the study of non-cognitive systems—“methodological dualism”—which, I argue, has been transferred to evaluations of AlphaGo and other AI. Second, by exposing this irrational double standard in perceptions of AI, I employ generativism’s more well-known arguments concerning the nature of human intelligence and its scientific study to the evaluation of AI, exposing deficient interpretations widely used in the case of AlphaGo and AI generally. (shrink)

Many foundational concepts in machine learning have been criticized as inadequate. Philosophers have therefore taken it upon themselves to sort out the conceptual terrain—with conceptual engineering being the method of choice. This paper takes a step back to provide theoretical and methodological grounding for future work on conceptual engineering in machine learning. To this end, we consider the functional roles of concepts in machine learning, the underlying causes and types of deficiency, and map out criteria for the successful (...) propagation of reengineered concepts within and beyond the machine learning community. Moreover, we discuss how the space of viable conceptual revisions in machine learning is constrained by the need for operationalization, and how tensions can occur between the sociopolitical desirability and the computational implementability of relevant conceptual engineering projects. Overall, our goal is to delineate how conceptual work in philosophy ought to be if the goal is for our contribution to permeate through the science and practice of machine learning. (shrink)

At the heart of Mizrahi’s project lies a sociological narrative concerning the recent history of philosophers’ negative attitudes towards scientism. Critics (e.g. de Ridder (2019), Wilson (2019) and Bryant (2020)), have detected various empirical inadequacies in Mizrahi’s methodology for discussing these attitudes. Bryant (2020) points out one of the main pertinent methodological deficiencies here, namely that the mere appearance of the word ‘scientism’ in a text does not suffice in determining whether the author feels threatened by it. Not all (...) philosophers use the term in ‘inherently negative’ (29) or pejorative ways. In this paper, I not only corroborate Bryant’s critical claim, but argue that Mizrahi’s response to this part of Bryant’s objection is inadequate. (shrink)

“Tianrenheyi” (Unity of Heaven and Humanity) is a core proposition in the Chinese intellectual tradition. However, within the Confucian system it has often been moralized and interpreted under the assumption that humanity occupies the center of the cosmos. This has led, in civilizational practice, to ecological imbalance, technological risk, and systemic crises. From the perspective of scientific-philosophical inquiry, this paper critically examines the philosophical foundations and methodological deficiencies of Confucian Tianrenheyi, identifying its a priori assumptions, moralization, and anthropocentric bias (...) as harmful to modern civilizational governance. -/- The study further proposes the Lao-Yang Tianrenheyi model based on the Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology, transforming Tianrenheyi from a purely philosophical ideal into a scientific, systemic, and operational civilizational model. Its core lies in the cosmogenic chain of Dao-sheng-wanwu (Dao generates all things) and Dao-fa-ziran (Dao follows natural law): Galaxy → Sun → Earth → Moon → Life → Civilization. Humanity functions as a node within the system, and civilizational development must follow natural constraints and hierarchical adaptation. -/- Employing textual analysis, philosophical critique, cosmological evolution theory, complex systems theory, and natural cybernetics, this paper systematically analyzes the historical development, philosophical deficiencies, and modern dilemmas of Confucian Tianrenheyi. By contrasting it with the Lao-Yang model, it offers scientific-philosophical insights. The findings demonstrate that Lao-Yang Tianrenheyi is decentralized, non-moralized, and verifiable, providing scientific foundations for ecological governance, technological system control, and risk management in modern civilization. -/- The paper further proposes future research directions, including modeling the cosmogenic chain, civilizational simulation, interdisciplinary applications, and long-term strategies for synchronizing civilization with cosmic law. This study demonstrates a possible path for integrating classical philosophy with modern scientific methodology, offering a theoretical and practical framework for the sustainable development of global civilization. (shrink)

The conservative idea that it is a philosopher’s job to clarify common sense beliefs about ordinary concepts is being weeded out from the population and replaced by a revisionist agenda: philosophers should not merely describe but also analyze and suggest ways to improve our concepts. This project is called "conceptual engineering." The conceptual engineering literature is growing rapidly as more philosophers undertake normative conceptual work. However, many philosophers are practicing conceptual engineering untethered to an explicit methodology. Analyses addressing how we (...) should engineer a concept and what should be considered successful are scarce. The thesis of this dissertation is that Carnapian Explication solves this methodological deficiency. (shrink)

Education has long been regarded as a civilizational enterprise that can, in principle, be completed. Despite deep disagreements among educational theories, most share a common implicit premise: educational goals are definable, assessable, and achievable given sufficient institutional design and resource investment. This paper calls that premise itself into question. -/- Rather than asking how education might be improved, this paper elevates the problem to a structural level by examining whether educational goals possess logical closure. Focusing on education’s central modern task—the (...) intergenerational transmission of reason—the paper advances and defends four negative conclusions: -/- (1) if educational goals include the formation of subjects capable of understanding and critically reflecting on the structure of education itself, then such goals are structurally non-closable; -/- (2) reason is not an object that can be stably replicated across generations, resulting in a structural mismatch in intergenerational transmission; -/- (3) institutionalized education, due to its intrinsic reflexive constraints, cannot fulfill the self-transcending tasks assigned to it; and -/- (4) the assumption that education functions as a mechanism of civilizational self-repair is structurally untenable. -/- These conclusions do not point to failures of educational practice, methodological deficiencies, or insufficient resources. Rather, they negate a long-standing but largely unexamined civilizational belief. The paper proposes no alternative models or reform programs. Its sole purpose is to clarify the missions that education cannot, in principle, be required to accomplish, thereby establishing a clear structural boundary for subsequent explanatory research. (shrink)

Current health care standards, in many countries, Australia included, are regrettably poor. Surprisingly, practitioners and treating teams alike in mental health and disability sectors, in particular, make far too many basic care-related mistakes, in addition to the already abundant diagnostic mistakes that cause and amplify great harm. In part, too many practitioners also fail to distinguish adverse effects for what they are and all too often treat adverse effects, instead, as comorbidities. Diagnostic failures are dangerous, the result of which generates (...) and perpetuates harms that are extremely costly in terms of patient welfare, in addition to the financial burden placed on everyone. In this essay, I contend that the authority bestowed upon psychiatry is misplaced. Subsequently, this misplaced authority affects the governing and investigatory institutions reliant and informed by psychiatry. The examination process undertaken in this investigation traces the metaphysics of psychiatric disorders relative to the Diagnostic-Statistical-Manual (DSM) in all its iterations and to the epistemological construction process that serves to underpin the fundamentals of psychiatric practice. There exists a crisis of confidence in psychiatric practice and I urge drastic reform be undertaken to arrest the damage. (shrink)

Epistemology has become one of the most important disciplines for the world of knowledge in the twenty-first century, particularly in the field of higher education; but it is not always part of the curricula. For this reason, we analyze its origins and concepts (between theory of knowledge and philosophy of science), as well as its scope, exposing the reasons related to its usefulness inside and outside high tertiary, since the discipline allows to reflect on the knowledge gestated in the sciences (...) with a philosophical perspective, mediating its comparative, critical, and rational approach. It is concluded that the advantages associated with its internalization and dissemination, as well as its gravitating influence for the good shaping, development and understanding of scientific research, allow us to determine that any university institution that dispenses with its contribution would be incomplete or deficient. The work is bibliographic, with descriptive-prescriptive scope, and logical-hermeneutic methodology, developed through analysis aimed at the transformation of our institutions, in line with the epistemologies for peace. -/- (Español / SPANISH) La epistemología ha devenido en una de las disciplinas más importantes para el mundo del conocimiento en el siglo XXI, en particular en el ámbito de la educación superior; no obstante, no siempre forma parte de los planes de estudio. Por esto, analizamos sus orígenes y conceptos (entre teoría del conocimiento y filosofía de la ciencia), así como su alcance, exponiendo los motivos relativos a su utilidad dentro y fuera de la educación terciaria, ya que la disciplina permite reflexionar acerca de los conocimientos gestados en las ciencias con una perspectiva filosófica, mediando su enfoque comparativo, crítico y racional. Se concluye que las ventajas asociadas a su internalización y difusión, así como su influencia gravitante para la buena configuración, desarrollo y comprensión de las investigaciones científicas, permiten determinar que cualquier institución universitaria que prescinda de su aporte sería incompleta o deficiente. El trabajo es del tipo bibliográfico, con un alcance descriptivo y prescriptivo, mediante una metodología lógico-hermenéutica, desarrollada a través de análisis tendientes a la transformación de nuestras instituciones, en consonancia con las epistemologías para la paz. (shrink)

This paper critically explores the ethical dimensions of Behavioral Public Policy (BPP), a domain grounded in the understanding that human rationality is bounded and that this limitation often leads to behaviors deemed irrational. By applying the behavioral lens, which posits that people operate under bounded rationality, BPP aims to craft interventions that safeguard individuals against their biases. However, this approach raises significant ethical concerns, both in the scientific underpinnings of BPP and its application through policy interventions. Accordingly, this paper examines (...) two distinct ethical dimensions of BPP, both as a scientific discipline and through its intervention methodologies. The analysis of the first dimension argues that, viewing bounded rationality as only instrumental in decision-making processes, risks oversimplifying ethical complexities. Such simplification may ignore the moral and value-based rationalities underlying decisions, potentially misattributing instances of immorality and akrasia (the failure to act according to one's judgment) to mere deficiencies in rational thinking. Secondly, the paper examines the impact of BPP on moral behavior and character development, addressing ethical concerns like the evidentiary basis of BPP research, the bounded rationality of choice architects themselves, and the morality of behavior changes induced by policy. Overall, this article provides a much-needed examination of the moral considerations associated with behavioral strategies in public policy and its epistemological foundations, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of their ethical implications . (shrink)

The relevance of the study is due to the especially sharp of late issue of the competition in world markets, which requires strengthening of innovation component from the economy of any country, including Ukraine. Ukrainian enterprises with innovation activity are able to maintain high growth rate in the long term. The main component in the effectiveness and efficiency of carrying out innovative processes at an enterprise is its innovation potential, including professional staff that is quite difficult to estimate given the (...) rapid changes of the fulfilled tasks. -/- The purpose of writing this article is the analysis of existing approaches to the evaluation of the innovative potential of enterprises and their improvement taking into account the peculiarities of service enterprises, the formulation of the task of innovation management and the main directions of development of innovation potential of an enterprise. We applied system approach, methods of analysis and synthesis and the method of modeling when carrying out research. -/- The task of innovation management of an enterprise was formulated. A methodological approach to the evaluation of the innovation potential of enterprises in the sphere of services is attached. This approach will allow the heads of the enterprises in the sphere of services to monitor creativity and collective intelligence of the employees, to assess an enterprise on innovation and make timely decisions to eliminate the deficiencies. It was stressed that special measurements, quantitative evaluation of the intellectual, professional, educational, and other qualitative characteristics of the potential of employees is quite a difficult task, to perform which the expert methods are used based on interviews, surveys of executives, business owners and prominent managers. The main directions of stimulating the development of the innovation potential of an enterprise were formulated. -/- A conclusion was made that under current conditions, in the absence of perfect methods of evaluation of innovation potential of the services industry, review and comprehensive application of different methods proposed in economic literature will allow obtaining more reliable information for justified management decision–making regarding the management of the innovation potential of an enterprise, introducing relevant changes into the components of the innovation potential to ensure its adequacy to the set innovation goals and increasing a general level of competitiveness in the given industry and in the global market as a whole. -/- The scientific novelty of the research lies in improving the methodological approach to the evaluation of the innovation potential of an enterprise on the basis of the complex of main indicators specific to services and consideration, during the evaluation of personnel, of the innovation potential of an enterprise. -/- The proposed approach allows analyzing the level of innovation potential of enterprises in the different spheres of activity: production, services, state government, commercial and others, where the innovation potential acts not only as a set of available and adequately allocated resources, but also as approved management decision or immaterial object. -/- Since under modern conditions we tackle dynamic market of goods and services and the businesses need to respond quickly to these variable factors of influence, further studies might be directed to determining the capacity and speed of the enterprises to respond to these changes, in particular the ability of the staff to work efficiently and to realize the innovation potential under these conditions. (shrink)

Modern physics achieves extraordinary explanatory and predictive success through sophisticated mathematical formalisms, yet it repeatedly encounters persistent breakdowns at singularities, measurement limits, and boundaries of theoretical unification. This generates a core tension: mathematics appears simultaneously indispensable and insufficient-remarkably precise within established domains while faltering precisely where ontological questions become most pressing. Despite extensive philosophical discussion, there remains a lack of an ontological framework capable of explaining why formal description succeeds so broadly while remaining structurally limited, without interpreting these limits as (...) failures or incompleteness of physics itself. This paper proposes that the Three-Circle Ontology offers such a framework by situating physical theories within rendered, constraint-consistent domains rather than treating them as direct access to ontological ground. On this account, physics operates within structured possibilities governed by invariant constraints, while its mathematical formalisms describe rendered outcomes rather than reality-in-itself. The paper does not critique physics, reject mathematics, advance a theory of everything, or endorse an information-based metaphysics. Its primary contribution is a reframing of mathematical physics as a form of structurally constrained description, whose successes and breakdowns reflect ontological rendering boundaries rather than epistemic deficiency or methodological limitation. (shrink)

Winds of change, from the political perspective in Mexico, invite us to reformulate the methodological vision for the direction of public policy in the field of social development, directing their actions towards the construction of a methodological proposal that allows us to direct ourselves towards achieving higher levels of Well-being Social in our country, as a desirable objective of public policy and which is expected to be inclusive, participatory and democratic. -/- In this sense, it is important to (...) recognize that the current debate, in the academic and political sphere, questions what is being well? What is the life that is worth living? And that, additionally, the recognition of the satisfaction of life goals, at an individual and collective level, which invites us to reflect, if the current economic and social policy and strategy has produced results in what we envision as social welfare? Is a new approach necessary to solve the problem? What strategy should it be to consider the new methodological approach that seeks social welfare? And what components should be considered in the measurement of social welfare? This document is an invitation to review the concept of social welfare, as a proposal whose purpose is to correct the deficiencies or historical deficiencies suffered by the population, in the elemental enjoyment of social rights, a situation that causes social backwardness, marginalization, and that it is aimed at the impossibility of participating in the social decisions of the community and in collective decisions, such as: speaking, proposing, being heard and demanding compliance with fundamental human rights such as: health, food, housing, employment and security, among others. These deficiencies in the enjoyment of social and human rights are seen in the presence of social exclusion, and that together these social deficiencies explain the degree of multidimensional poverty suffered by the population in rural and urban areas. It is here that he invites us to reflect: what is the problem that social welfare seeks to solve? Multidimensional poverty, social exclusion, social backwardness or social inequality? And consequently, how to define the components to identify social welfare? -/- The document is made up of three sections: i) Social welfare: A retrospective look; ii) Social Welfare, an integrative view: The contribution of Sen, Naussbam, Rawls, Actis Di Pasquale and Keyes; and iii) Social Welfare: The recognition of limits in economic development -/- The first section presents a review of the proposals, which in the area of economic development have been presented since 1968 in the Human Condition Project, until the 2015 proposal of Sustainable Development Goals. -/- In the second section, the contributions of (Rawls, 1995), (Sen, 1982), (Nussbaum, 2011), (Keyes, 1998) , (Actis Di Pasquale, 2015) and (Actis Di Pasquale, 2017) are presented in order to present an integrative approach to the concept of social welfare. And finally, the third section presents the recognition of limits in development, as well as an invitation for action from a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective in the study of social welfare. -/- August 2020 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24147.20006/1 LicenseCC BY-SA 4.0 -/- . (shrink)

SNODENT is a dental diagnostic vocabulary incompletely integrated in SNOMED-CT. Nevertheless, SNODENT could become the de facto standard for dental diagnostic coding. SNODENT's manageable size, the fact that it is administratively self-contained, and relates to a well-understood domain provides valuable opportunities to formulate and test, in controlled experiments, a series of hypothesis concerning diagnostic systems. Of particular interest are questions related to establishing appropriate quality assurance methods for its optimal level of detail in content, its ontological structure, its construction and (...) maintenance. This paper builds on previous–software-based methodologies designed to assess the quality of SNOMED-CT. When applied to SNODENT several deficiencies were uncovered. 9.52% of SNODENT terms point to concepts in SNOMED-CT that have some problem. 18.53% of SNODENT terms point to SNOMED-CT concepts do not have, in SNOMED, the term used by SNODENT. Other findings include the absence of a clear specification of the exact relationship between a term and a termcode in SNODENT and the improper assignment of the same termcode to terms with significantly different meanings. An analysis of the way in which SNODENT is structurally integrated into SNOMED resulted in the generation of 1081 new termcodes reflecting entities not present in the SNOMED tables but required by SNOMED's own description logic based classification principles. Our results show that SNODENT requires considerable enhancements in content, quality of coding, quality of ontological structure and the manner in which it is integrated and aligned with SNOMED. We believe that methods for the analysis of the quality of diagnostic coding systems must be developed and employed if such systems are to be used effectively in both clinical practice and clinical research. (shrink)

This paper defends the existence of a largely overlooked cognitive virtue within the framework of telic virtue epistemology: doxastic courage. Doxastic courage is an exercise of doxastic control that mediates between the vices of excessive doubt and reckless belief. On this view, doxastic courage focuses on one’s own reflective assessment of the strength of the justification for their beliefs, assessing when it is prudent to risk being wrong to achieve truth. I argue that doxastic courage operates as an Aristotelian mean (...) between four vices of belief including: hyperbolic doubt (excessive skeptical suspension), gullibility (deficient skeptical suspension), anti-expertise (deficient self-confidence), and dogmatism (excessive self-confidence). Using lessons from Cartesian methodological skepticism, I demonstrate how doxastic courage enables one to critically assess defeaters without succumbing to skepticism or unfounded ‘certainty.’ I argue that Cartesian and skeptical doubts, in being excessively timid, do not access the aim of cognitive prosperity that is implicit in theories of justified belief. With this telos in mind, doxastic courage is meant to support a nuanced balance that fosters intellectual growth without compromising necessary rigor. (shrink)

The crisis of truth in an era of knowledge systems supported by data at scale and operated together with algorithms cannot be explained solely through deficiencies in data, methods, or computational models. Behind this technical infrastructure lies a layer of epistemic intention on the part of agents that determines whether knowledge is offered in service of truth or directed toward sustaining identity, institutional power, or strategic advantage. Using The Cohesive Tetrad as a conceptual lens, this article develops a research architecture (...) for truth governance under minimal human dignity axioms. It introduces Epistemic Intention Purification and Intention-Trace Alignment as key constructs that connect Sabda (Revelatory Word, the authoritative source of norm and telos), Logos as disciplined reasoning, Qualia as lived experience, and Mistika as the intentional spiritual calibration of intention, with akhlak as the observable surface where their convergence is tested. Methodologically, the article proposes a normative conceptual design, formulates axioms, articulates the internal relations among the pillars of the Tetrad, and compares the resulting architecture with data-centered, rule-centered, and virtue-centered approaches in philosophy of science and public ethics. The analysis shows that monolingual regimes of truth tend to generate characteristic structural failure modes, whereas the Tetrad yields a non-reductive matrix that can host multiple methodologies while keeping akhlak as the locus of verification. The article concludes that, under the stated axioms, Epistemic Intention Purification and Intention-Trace Alignment provide a coherent and practically relevant framework for truth governance in law, public policy, and artificial intelligence, while remaining open to empirical testing and intercultural refinement. (shrink)

This paper examines the diagnostic and explanatory capacity of the frameworks designated as experimental justice and legal poetics through their application to an unintended empirical event: the peer-review process of a theoretical manuscript. By treating reviewer reports not as administrative decisions but as empirical data, the study identifies a specific apperceptive effect operating within contemporary academic discourse. The analysis reveals two symmetrical forms of cognitive resistance. In the first, a theoretical model is perceived as an “insightful description of immediate reality,” (...) thereby losing its status as theory. In the second, the same model is reduced to an alleged deficiency in formal bibliographic compliance. The paper argues that the attribution of “heterodoxy” to such work arises from a paradoxical form of success: when a theoretical model accurately anticipates or coincides with the historical materialization of its object, it becomes so self-evident to the observer that it ceases to be recognized as theoretical at all. The study concludes that legal poetics provides an effective methodological instrument for identifying and analyzing these institutionalized blind spots, in which the apparent immediacy of an artifact obscures the logic of its own construction. (shrink)

Local participation is always beneficial for sustainable action and environmental problems resulting from urban implementation due to the failure of social and institutional change necessary for a successful transformation of rural life to urban life ahead of the rapid movement of the population. Despite good legal practice and comprehensive guidelines, evidence suggests that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or more broadly Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) have not yet been found satisfactory in Nigeria, as the current system amounts to (...) duplication of efforts and cost. However, ESHIA has been developed and integrated to help manage project activities, facilities, and operations sustainably, so that both economic and ecological profits are accrued (sustainable development) or ensure that any development project does not result in excessive deterioration of and/or the irreversible adverse effect on any component of the environment – a recite for sustainable development. A literature review was done by using a variety of search engines including Research Gate, Google Scholar, Academia, Mendeley, SSRN search strategy to retrieve research publications, “grey literature” and expert working group reports. The thrust of this study is to evaluate the potential benefits of ESHIA as a tool for sustainable environmental development. The evaluation and implementation of EIA are one of the strengths of these tools. Indeed, EIA is the first and foremost management tool employed to help mitigate adverse, potential, and associated impacts of proposed major developments in our environment. EIA is a regulatory requirement that is efficiently used to improve performance, project design, enhancing decision-making, and facilitating policy programs in a sustainable environment. An evaluation of the EIA systems reveals several weaknesses of the EIA system. These include the inadequate capacity of EIA approval authorities, deficiencies in screening and scoping, poor EIA quality, insufficient public participation, and weak monitoring, and erratic government policies. Overall, most EIA study rarely meets the objectives of being a project planning tool to contribute to achieving sustainable development and mitigate the impact of the development project. The study recommends some directions for the future to ensure that entire content of the EIA are religiously implemented, review the existing EIA act, increase the expertise of EIA consultants, create a liaison office with an international organisation and with sister agency, ESHIA must enjoy Improved budgetary provision, time latitude, spatial contexts and methodological improvements for outcome measures to achieve results that are relevant to sustainable development by improving project design, enhancing decision making and facilitating policy programs. (shrink)

Since the 1990s the effects of globalization on law and legal developments has been a central topic of scholarly debate. To date, the debate is however marked by three substantial deficiencies which this chapter seeks to remedy through a reconceptualization of global law as a law of inter-contextuality expressed through inter-legality and materialized through a particular body of legal norms which can be characterized as connectivity norms. The first deficiency is a historical and empirical one. Both critics as well (...) as advocates of ‘non-state law’ share the assumption that ‘law beyond the state’ and related legal norms have gained in centrality when compared with previous historical times. While global law, including both public and private global governance law as well as regional occurrences such as EU law, has undergone profound transformations since the structural transformations which followed the de-colonialization processes of the mid-twentieth century, we do not have more global law relatively to other types of law today than in previous historical times. The second deficiency is a methodological one. The vast majority of scholarship on global law is either of an analytical nature, drawing on insights from philosophy, or empirically observing the existence of global law and the degree of compliance with global legal norms at a given moment in time. While both approaches bring something to the table they remain static approaches incapable of explaining and evaluating the transformation of global law over time. The third deficiency is a conceptual-theoretical one. In most instances, global law is understood as a unitary law producing singular legal norms with a planetary reach, or, alternatively, a radical pluralist perspective is adopted dismissing the existence of singular global norms. Both of these approaches however misapprehend the structural characteristics, function and societal effects of global law. Instead a third positon between unitary and radical pluralist perspectives can be adopted through an understanding of global law and its related legal norms as a de-centred kind of inter-contextual law characterised by inter-legality. (shrink)

Christian apologetics has developed a wide range of argumentative strategies aimed at explaining, justifying, and defending the rational credibility of Christian belief. Classical, evidential, and presuppositional approaches each operate within established epistemic norms and exert genuine rational force. Yet these arguments are frequently pressed beyond their proper scope and treated as capable of issuing adjudicative judgments under conditions of refusal. This paper argues that such usage reflects a methodological overextension rather than an epistemic deficiency. The problem is not (...) that rational normativity has failed, but that apologetic argument is routinely asked to perform adjudicative work for which it does not, simply as argument, possess standing. Drawing on Propositional Apologetics: Authority, Judgment, and the Conditions of Belief, the paper develops a jurisdiction-first constraint on apologetic judgment, rather than a new apologetic method or theory of authority. “Binding” is restricted to adjudicative force: the claimed right to address refusal as culpable, irrational, or exclusion-worthy, rather than merely incorrect or implausible. The analysis distinguishes belief from judgment, epistemic warrant from adjudicative standing, and explanation from adjudication, without denying the legitimacy of conditional epistemic norms, epistemic culpability in appropriate cases, or rational critique. Through a limited, illustrative engagement with modern philosophy, the paper clarifies how adjudicative judgment may persist even where authority is displaced or untheorised, and why apologetic arguments may continue to exert rational pressure while nonetheless lacking the standing to adjudicate refusal. Classical, evidential, and presuppositional apologetics are accordingly situated as forms of explanatory and diagnostic reasoning whose normative force remains non-adjudicative. The paper concludes with a negative but decisive result: apologetic arguments cannot, simply as arguments, license condemnatory or exclusionary judgment under refusal. Any such judgment presupposes an authority claim that apologetics alone does not supply. Making this boundary explicit constrains apologetic practice without weakening its rational force, clarifying what apologetics can rightly claim—and where its jurisdiction ends. ________________________________________. (shrink)

Vision is an important metaphor in ethical and political questions of knowledge. The feminist philosopher Donna Haraway points out the “perverse” nature of an intrusive, alienating, all-seeing vision (to which we might cry out “stop looking at me!”), but also encourages us to embrace the embodied nature of sight and its promises for genuinely situated knowledge. Current technologies of machine vision – surveillance cameras, drones (for war or recreation), iPhone cameras – are usually construed as instances of the former rather (...) than the latter, and for good reasons. However, although in no way attempting to diminish the real suffering these technologies have brought about in the world, I make the case for understanding technologies of computer vision as material instances of embodied seeing and situated knowing. Furthermore, borrowing from Iris Murdoch’s concept of moral vision, I suggest that these technologies direct our labor towards self-reflection in ethically significant ways. My approach draws upon paradigms in computer vision research, phenomenology, and feminist epistemology. Ultimately, this essay is an argument for directing more philosophical attention from merely criticizing technologies of vision as ethically deficient towards embracing them as complex, methodologically and epistemologically important objects. (shrink)

The author considers the model-theoretic character of proofs and disproofs by means of attempted counterexample constructions, distinguishes this proof format from formal derivations, then contrasts two approaches to semantic tableaux proposed by Beth and Lambert-van Fraassen. It is noted that Beth's original approach has not as yet been provided with a precisely formulated rule of closure for detecting tableau sequences terminating in contradiction. To remedy this deficiency, a technique is proposed to clarify tableau operations.

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) is considered a syndrome of impaired health and performance due to low energy availability (LEA) relative to energy needs in physical activity. Although REDs has been studied from physiological and psychological perspectives, currently, there is little research from a sociological or socio-cultural perspective. The current study sought to address that gap, by investigating the embodied experiences of REDs, specifically in relation to sporting identity and identity work, from the perspective of 20 UK-based endurance (...) athletes who self-identified as having experienced REDs. Twelve participants took part in semi-structured interviews designed to explore their experiences of REDs, and eight completed personal wellbeing diaries. Our findings cohere around three key elements in identity work, drawing on micro-sociological interactionist perspectives that highlight the importance of: materialistic, associative, and vocabularic forms of identification. The findings offer novel insights into what can be a highly distressing experience, corporeally and psychologically, by focusing on how identity-related issues can contribute to REDs. (shrink)

The Deficiencies of Present Leadership and the Need for a Universal Governing Principle -/- Leadership, especially among heads of state and government agencies, plays a crucial role in shaping the trajectory of societies. However, despite advancements in governance, economics, and technology, the world continues to face persistent problems such as corruption, inequality, environmental destruction, and political instability. These issues arise from a fundamental deficiency in leadership: the absence of a decision-making framework based on the universal law of balance in (...) nature. Without this foundation, leaders make choices that disrupt societal and environmental equilibrium, leading to unintended consequences and systemic failures. -/- The Absence of a Universal Governing Principle -/- Most leaders base their decisions on political ideologies, economic models, or personal beliefs rather than a universally accepted principle that ensures balance. This fragmented approach results in conflicting policies that often create more problems than they solve. A universal formula, grounded in the law of balance, would serve as an objective guide, ensuring that all policies align with natural laws and contribute to long-term stability. -/- Failure to Recognize Natural Limits -/- Many leaders pursue continuous economic growth and population expansion without acknowledging the natural limits of resources. The overexploitation of the environment, depletion of natural resources, and uncontrolled urbanization are direct results of this short-sighted approach. A leadership model that respects ecological balance would prioritize sustainability over unchecked expansion, preventing economic and environmental crises. -/- Inadequate Holistic Education -/- One of the fundamental flaws in current leadership is the lack of holistic education in decision-making. Leaders often emerge from educational systems that emphasize political strategies, economic theories, or legal frameworks while neglecting systems thinking and the universal law of balance. Without a proper understanding of how different systems interact, policymakers make fragmented decisions that fail to address the root causes of societal problems. -/- Influence of Dogma and False Beliefs -/- Political, religious, and ideological dogmas significantly influence leadership decisions, often leading to policies that contradict natural laws. When leaders govern based on personal or cultural biases rather than objective principles, they create imbalances in society. Corruption, social divisions, and policy failures often stem from these deeply ingrained dogmas, which prioritize ideology over empirical understanding. -/- Ignorance as a Root Cause of Leadership Failures -/- Ignorance is one of the most significant obstacles to effective leadership. When leaders lack knowledge of natural laws, scientific principles, or historical lessons, they make decisions that lead to detrimental outcomes. Ignorance manifests in several ways: -/- Economic Policies Based on False Assumptions – Many governments implement economic models that assume infinite growth is possible, leading to financial crises and economic inequality. For example, the 2008 global financial crisis resulted from ignorance of the systemic risks involved in unchecked financial speculation. -/- Environmental Mismanagement – Ignorance of ecological balance leads to deforestation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Policies that prioritize short-term economic gain over long-term environmental sustainability, such as excessive coal mining or deforestation in the Amazon, exemplify this. -/- Public Health Crises – The mishandling of pandemics and healthcare crises often stems from ignorance of scientific data. Governments that ignored early warnings about COVID-19 experienced severe outbreaks, unnecessary deaths, and economic downturns. -/- Education that integrates the universal law of balance would ensure that leaders make informed decisions based on reality rather than ignorance or misinformation. -/- Lack of Integrated Feedback Mechanisms -/- A well-functioning governance system must incorporate continuous feedback mechanisms to adapt to societal needs. However, most governments operate within rigid structures that resist change, leading to governance failures that escalate into crises. Leadership should function as a homeostatic system, constantly adjusting to maintain societal equilibrium. This would involve direct engagement with the population, data-driven policymaking, and responsiveness to changing circumstances. -/- Disregard for Systemic Defects -/- Governance, like any system, must be free from defects to function effectively. However, corruption, misinformation, and inefficiency persist as major flaws in government institutions. Instead of addressing these defects at their root cause, many leaders implement superficial solutions that fail to restore balance. A leadership framework based on the universal law of balance would prioritize eliminating these systemic defects, ensuring that policies work as intended without hidden inefficiencies. -/- Short-Term Focus Over Long-Term Stability -/- The modern political cycle often prioritizes short-term success over long-term stability. Election-driven governance encourages leaders to focus on immediate political gains rather than policies that ensure long-term societal balance. This short-termism results in unsustainable economic policies, infrastructural neglect, and reactive crisis management instead of proactive problem-solving. -/- The Solution: Reprogramming Leadership with the Universal Law of Balance -/- To address these deficiencies, leadership must be reprogrammed to align with the universal law of balance in nature. This transformation requires integrating a holistic, foundational education system that teaches decision-making based on natural laws. Such an education system would train future leaders to: -/- 1. Understand and apply the law of balance – ensuring that all policies contribute to societal and environmental equilibrium. -/- 2. Recognize natural limits – prioritizing sustainability over short-term economic growth. -/- 3. Eliminate systemic defects – addressing corruption, misinformation, and inefficiencies at their root. -/- 4. Incorporate continuous feedback – adapting policies based on real-time societal needs. -/- 5. Remove dogmatic influences – making decisions based on objective principles rather than ideological biases. -/- 6. Prioritize long-term stability – ensuring that governance decisions contribute to the well-being of future generations. -/- Conclusion -/- The deficiencies in present leadership stem from the absence of a decision-making framework rooted in the universal law of balance in nature. Without this guiding principle, leaders continue to make decisions that create societal and environmental imbalances. Ignorance further exacerbates these issues, as uninformed decision-making leads to flawed policies and governance failures. The solution lies in reprogramming leadership through a holistic education system that instills a deep understanding of natural laws, ensuring that all governance decisions align with principles of balance and sustainability. Only by adopting this approach can societies achieve long-term stability and prevent the recurring problems that plague governance today. -/- . (shrink)

Plato seems to have been pessimistic about how most people stand with regard to virtue. However, unlike the Stoics, he did not conclude that most people are vicious. Rather, as we know from discussions across several dialogues, he countenanced decent ethical conditions that fall short of genuine virtue, which he limited to the philosopher. Despite Plato's obvious interest in this issue, commentators rarely follow his lead by investigating in detail such conditions in the dialogues. When scholars do investigate what kind (...) of virtue, if any, Plato thinks is open to non-philosophers, they typically look to the Republic. But in the Republic Plato sets out an ideal city; therefore, the virtue available to non-philosophers there is likely different from what he thinks is available to them in the real world. If we want to determine Plato's thoughts about the virtue of actual non-philosophers, we must look elsewhere. In this paper, I set my sights on the Phaedo. (shrink)

Political science is divided between methodological individualists, who seek to explain political phenomena by reference to individuals and their interactions, and holists (or nonreductionists), who consider some higher-level social entities or properties such as states, institutions, or cultures ontologically or causally significant. We propose a reconciliation between these two perspectives, building on related work in philosophy. After laying out a taxonomy of different variants of each view, we observe that (i) although political phenomena result from underlying individual attitudes and (...) behavior, individual-level descriptions do not always capture all explanatorily salient properties, and (ii) nonreductionistic explanations are mandated when social regularities are robust to changes in their individual-level realization. We characterize the dividing line between phenomena requiring nonreductionistic explanation and phenomena permitting individualistic explanation and give examples from the study of ethnic conflicts, social-network theory, and international-relations theory. (shrink)

This article examines the methodology of a core branch of contemporary political theory or philosophy: “analytic” political theory. After distinguishing political theory from related fields, such as political science, moral philosophy, and legal theory, the article discusses the analysis of political concepts. It then turns to the notions of principles and theories, as distinct from concepts, and reviews the methods of assessing such principles and theories, for the purpose of justifying or criticizing them. Finally, it looks at a recent debate (...) on how abstract and idealized political theory should be, and assesses the significance of disagreement in political theory. The discussion is carried out from an angle inspired by the philosophy of science. (shrink)

The political theory of migration has largely occurred within a paradigm of methodological nationalism and this has led to the neglect of morally salient agents and causes. This article draws on research from the social sciences on the transnationalism, globalization and migration systems theory to show how methodological nationalist assumptions have affected the views of political theorists on membership, culture and distributive justice. In particular, it is contended that methodological nationalism has prevented political theorists of migration from (...) addressing the roles of non-state agents and of transnational economic, social and political structures. These agents and structures contribute to the asymmetrical distribution of goods and opportunities and thus have important implications for debates about migration and distributive justice. (shrink)

Contemporary philosophy of science provides influential accounts of falsifiability, paradigm change, research programmes, and probabilistic confirmation. However, these frameworks do not supply a unified quantitative representation of structural completeness, nor a general dynamical principle governing theory refinement. Empirical adequacy, explanatory scope, regime coverage, symmetry realization, and multiscale coherence are typically treated as distinct virtues rather than formally integrated dimensions. In addition, ontological modelling and epistemic evaluation are rarely represented within a single structured framework. This paper identifies structural gaps in existing (...) approaches and argues that a general account of scientific development requires (i) a bounded completeness functional defined on structured theory-space, and (ii) a dynamical descent principle governing refinement. We articulate minimal formal requirements for such a representation without presupposing specific physical content, thereby motivating the construction of a quantitative theory of scientific structure. (shrink)

Vegetarian and vegan diets are becoming increasingly popular as people become more aware of the benefits they offer to human health and the environment. Even though vegetarian diets have been associated with a decreased risk of death and chronic illnesses, followers of these diets might not acquire adequate nutrients, which could limit the benefits to their health. The main nutrients to be concerned about are iron, calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin D, iodine, and selenium. Anyone following a vegetarian or vegan diet (...) needs to take vitamin B12 supplements. To avoid vitamin B12 deficiency, adults should take 50 μg - 100 μg of cyanocobalamin orally once a day or twice a week at 2000 μg. Iodine supplements are recommended for pregnant and lactating women, as well as vegetarians and vegans who are unable to consume sea vegetables or iodine-fortified foods. Adults should take 150 μg of iodine supplements every day. Understanding the entire spectrum of effects of a vegetarian diet - not just the nutritional ones-is essential. In addition to providing more reliable data, studies in this area may assist in eliminating all factors that could deter people from adopting a vegetarian diet or negatively impact the quality of life of those who already do so. (shrink)

One of the central questions in the metaphysics of pregnancy is this: Is the foetus a part of the mother? In this paper I aim not to answer this question, but rather to raise methodological concerns regarding how to approach answering it. I will outline how various areas attempt to answer whether the foetus is a part of the mother so as to demonstrate the methodological problems that each faces. My positive suggestion will be to adopt a method (...) of reflective equilibrium. The aim of this is to ensure that pregnancy be included in the tribunal of experience that our theories are held up against such that our theories can accommodate what we say about pregnancy, whilst also ensuring that what we say about pregnancy be theoretically informed. That way, we rethink pregnancy in light of our theories as well as rethinking our theories in light of pregnancy. (shrink)

Social scientists use many different methods, and there are often substantial disagreements about which method is appropriate for a given research question. In response to this uncertainty about the relative merits of different methods, W. E. B. Du Bois advocated for and applied “methodological triangulation”. This is to use multiple methods simultaneously in the belief that, where one is uncertain about the reliability of any given method, if multiple methods yield the same answer that answer is confirmed more strongly (...) than it could have been by any single method. Against this, methodological purists believe that one should choose a single appropriate method and stick with it. Using tools from voting theory, we show Du Boisian methodological triangulation to be more likely to yield the correct answer than purism, assuming the scientist is subject to some degree of diffidence about the relative merits of the various methods. This holds even when in fact only one of the methods is appropriate for the given research question. (shrink)

This chapter takes the form of a discussion between the editors of this volume and Steven Lukes, one the most eminent critics of methodological individualism. The focus is on Lukes’ interpretation of methodological individualism in terms of linguistic exclusivism (i.e., naive reductionism), the multiple-realization problem, Boudon’s and Elster’s micro-foundationalist approach, ontological individualism, and the rationality of human action.

Political philosophy has long been criticised for its state-centricity. A recent version of this objection asserts that the discipline perpetuates a problematic methodological nationalism. Critics argue that political philosophers are widely disposed to interpret political phenomena from the perspective of the nation-state, and that this is detrimental to normative theorising. In this paper I argue that the objection to methodological nationalism should be dropped, at least in its current form. Specifically, I reconstruct three variants of the objection, and (...) – borrowing insights from the ‘hard’ sciences and Elisabeth Camp’s account of perspectives – ultimately show that methodological nationalism is not the kind of thing that can be decisively objected to in a widely-persuasive manner. Therefore, I recommend that sweeping objections to nation-state-centricity be generally replaced with traditional targeted analysis of specific claims made in specific contexts. Despite the fine-grained nature of this approach, I show that it remains a fruitful way of addressing pervasive problems in the discipline. (shrink)

Questions surrounding deep disagreement have gained significant attention in recent years. One of the central debates is metaphysical, focusing on the features that make a disagreement deep. Proposals for what makes disagreements deep include theories about hinge propositions and first epistemic principles. In this paper, I criticize this metaphysical discussion by arguing that it is methodologically flawed. Deep disagreement is a technical or semi-technical term, but the metaphysical discussion mistakenly treats it as a common-sense concept to be analyzed and captured (...) by our pre-theoretical intuitions. Since the literature on deep disagreement is subject to this fundamental confusion and deep disagreement is not a helpful umbrella term either, I propose eliminating the notion of deep disagreement from the philosophical discourse. Instead of analyzing the nature of deep disagreement, we should develop theories about different forms of disagreement, including disagreement about hinge propositions and disagreement about epistemic principles, and, in particular, a theory of rationally irresolvable disagreement. (shrink)

This article comprises an up-to-date critical review of the field known as Economic Methodology or Philosophy of Economics (EM/PE). Two edited volumes (Kincaid and Ross 2021; Heilmann and Reiss 2021), a special issue of the Journal of Economic Methodology (2021), and a recent bibliometric analysis of the field (Claveau et al. 2021) constitute the basis of the review. Drawing on these sources, we identify a number of problematic trends in current EM/PE research. We claim that these trends could be interpreted (...) as two kinds of biases, namely a micro-level bias and a mainstream bias. We discuss the respective details of these biases and their normative implications for the discipline. (shrink)

This paper revisits one of the key ideas developed in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In particular, it explores the methodological form of incommensurability which may be found in the original edition of Structure. It is argued that such methodological incommensurability leads to a form of epistemic relativism. In later work, Kuhn moved away from the original idea of methodological incommensurability with his idea of a set of epistemic values that provides a basis for rational theory choice, (...) but do not constitute an algorithm for such choice. The paper also explores the sceptical basis for the epistemic relativism of the original view that Kuhn proposes in Structure. It suggests that the main sceptical rationale for such relativism may be avoided by a particularist and naturalist conception of epistemic normativity. When this approach is combined with the appeal to external methodological standards endorsed by the later Kuhn and his critics, the epistemic relativism of Structure may be completely repudiated. (shrink)

Scientific methodology is often implicitly framed around the assumption that progressive improvement in models and theories should converge toward a single, fundamental description of reality. This assumption underlies many realist interpretations of scientific success. However, actual scientific practice presents a persistent tension: across disciplines, scientists rely on multiple models, idealizations, simulations, and effective theories that achieve high explanatory and predictive success without converging ontologically or reducing to a unified fundamental account. Despite extensive discussion of realism, instrumentalism, and pluralism, there remains (...) a gap in philosophical analysis: the absence of a coherent ontological framework explaining why plural modeling, approximation, and non-fundamental explanations are not merely pragmatic compromises, but methodologically legitimate features of science. Without such a framework, scientific success appears to conflict with prevailing ontological expectations. This paper proposes that the Three-Circle Ontology offers a structural interpretation of scientific methodology grounded in constraint satisfaction rather than ontological convergence. By distinguishing foundational reality, structural possibility, and rendered scientific practice, the framework clarifies how diverse models can succeed without mirroring reality or collapsing into relativism. The paper does not propose new scientific methods, nor does it challenge the empirical achievements of science. Its primary contribution is a reframing of scientific methodology as navigation within structured possibility spaces, rather than as a progressive revelation of reality itself. (shrink)

Descartes intended to revolutionize seventeenth-century philosophy and science. But first he had to persuade his contemporaries of the truth of his ideas. Of all his publications, Meditations on First Philosophy is methodologically the most ingenuous. Its goal is to provoke readers, even recalcitrant ones, to discover the principles of “first philosophy.” The means to its goal is a reconfiguration of traditional methodological strategies. The aim of this chapter is to display the methodological strategy of the Meditations. The text’s (...) method is more subtle and more philosophically significant than has generally been appreciated. Descartes’ most famous work is best understood as a response to four somewhat separate philosophical concerns extant in the seventeenth century. Section 1 describes these. Section 2 discusses how Descartes uses and transforms them. A clearer sense of the Meditations’ methodological strategy provides a better understanding of exactly how Descartes intended to revolutionize seventeenth-century thought. (shrink)

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is a syndrome of impaired health and performance that occurs as a result of low energy availability (LEA). Whilst many health effects associated with RED-S have been widely studied from a physiological perspective, further research exploring the psychological antecedents and consequences of the syndrome is required. Therefore, the aim of this study was to qualitatively explore athlete experiences of RED-S. Twelve endurance athletes (female n= 10, male n= 2; M age = 28.33 years) (...) reporting past or current experiences of RED-S, associated with periods of LEA, took part in semi-structured interviews designed to explore: contexts and mechanisms underpinning the onset of RED-S; the subjective experience of RED-S; and contexts and mechanisms influencing “recovery” from RED-S. Regardless of how RED-S was initiated, all athletes experienced a multitude of physiological impairments, accompanied by significant psychological distress. This paper contributes novel understanding of the complex interplay between physiological and psychological components of RED-S from the perspective of information-rich cases. The findings suggest that system-wide educational prevention and awareness interventions are vital for athletes and support personnel, such as coaches, parents, dieticians, psychologists, and sports medicine staff. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that neuroscience has been harmed by the widespread adoption of seriously inadequate methodologies or philosophies of science - most notably inductivism and falsificationism. I argue that neuroscience, in seeking to understand the human brain and mind, needs to follow in the footsteps of evolution.

Methodological naturalism arises as a topic in metaethics in two ways. One is the issue of whether we should be methodological naturalists when doing our moral theorising, and another is whether we should take a naturalistic approach to metaethics itself. Interestingly, these can come apart, and some naturalist programs in metaethics justify a non-scientific approach to our moral theorising. This paper discusses the range of approaches that fall under the general umbrella of methodological naturalism, and how naturalists (...) view the role of science in ethics and metaethics. It discusses how naturalism interacts with the use of intuitions, using conceptual analysis, and reflective equilibrium methods. Finally, it discusses some ways using scientific investigation can make distinctive contributions to ethics and metaethics. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue (i) that there are certain methodological practices that are epistemically significant, and (ii) that we can test for the success of these practices empirically by examining case-studies in the history of science. Analysing a particular episode from the history of medicine, I explain how this can help us resolve specific cases of underdetermination. I conclude that, while the anti-realist is (more or less legitimately) able to construct underdetermination scenarios on a case-by-case basis, he will (...) have to abandon the strategy of using algorithms to do so, thus losing the much needed guarantee that there will always be rival cases of the required kind. (shrink)

Vitamin D deficiency is a public health concern affecting many individuals as it is highly prevalent in all parts of the world. Recent studies have reported an association of vitamin D deficiency with cardiometabolic alterations such as dyslipidemia. The study aimed to evaluate vitamin D and lipid profile levels among the Libyan adult population and investigate the correlation of vitamin D deficiency with the alteration of lipid profile levels. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Janzour Hospital among (...) 193 subjects (107 males and 86 females) whose ages ranged between 20 and 50 years over three months from Sept to Dec 2023. Vitamin D, cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein levels were estimated. The total mean vitamin D levels were 8.31±4.74, 23.83±2.78, and 42.67±7.95 ng/dl for deficiency, insufficiency, and sufficiency, respectively. The findings revealed significant alterations in cholesterol (increase), triglyceride (increase), LDL-cholesterol (increase), and HDL-cholesterol (decrease) among subjects who had vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency as compared to subjects having vitamin D sufficiency. Vitamin D levels were negatively correlated with cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL cholesterol, and they were positively associated with HDL cholesterol. The incidence of dyslipidemia is higher in the vitamin D deficiency group than in the insufficiency and sufficiency groups. It is essential to frequently monitor lipid profiles among vitamin D-deficient individuals to avoid subsequent disorders or damages associated with the alterations of lipid profile patterns. (shrink)

What could philosophical or justice perspectives contribute to climate (and other applied philosophy) policy discussions? This question is important for philosophers on government policy committees. This article identifies two novel concerns about such contexts (which I call ‘contingent selection’ and ‘committee deference’) and systematizes some potential methodologies before arguing for a previously unrecognized methodology that focuses on disciplinary convergence. After supporting this methodology by providing several justifications, the Appendix explains how to apply it when evaluating a carbon budget. This methodology (...) and its application are meant to be of interest to both theorists and practitioners. [Open access]. (shrink)

Until recently, experimental philosophy has been associated with the questionnaire-based study of intuitions; however, experimental philosophers now adapt a wide range of empirical methods for new philosophical purposes. New methods include paradigms for behavioural experiments from across the social sciences as well as computational methods from the digital humanities that can process large bodies of text and evidence. This book offers an accessible overview of these exciting innovations. The volume brings together established and emerging research leaders from several areas of (...) experimental philosophy to explore how new empirical methods can contribute to philosophical debates. Each chapter presents one or several methods new to experimental philosophy, demonstrating their application in a key area of philosophy and discussing their strengths and limitations. Methods covered include eye tracking, virtual reality technology, neuroimaging, statistical learning, and experimental economics as well as corpus linguistics, visualisation techniques and data and text mining. The volume explores their use in moral philosophy and moral psychology, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and the history of ideas. Methodological Advances in Experimental Philosophy is essential reading for undergraduates, graduate students and researchers working in experimental philosophy. (shrink)

Several metaphysical naturalists argue that the success of science, together with the claim that scientists adhere to methodological naturalism, amounts to strong evidence for metaphysical naturalism. I call this the scientific-success argument. It is argued that the scientific-success argument is similar to the no-miracles argument for realism in philosophy of science. On the no-miracles argument, the success of science is taken as strong evidence that scientific theories are true. Based on this similarity, some considerations relevant to one argument may (...) also be relevant to the other. One particular consideration is explored. The selectionist response to the no-miracles argument states that on an evolutionary model of science, in which scientific theories are accepted only after surviving a rigorous selection process, the no-miracles argument fails. The selectionist response also applies to the scientific-success argument. If scientific theories are selected for success, we do not need to explain the success of science by appealing to metaphysical naturalism. (shrink)

This study reflects on Harold Kincaid and Jule Zahle’s view that there is no necessary association between methodological individualism and agent-based models because the analysis of social phenomena in terms of the latter cannot always be regarded as an implementation of the former. Their view remains in contention with the standpoint of several philosophers of science and social scientists, including Chen and Di Iorio. Kincaid and Zahle’s main argument against such a standpoint is that agent-based simulation is compatible with (...) holistic explanations that are at odds with methodological individualism. The following study argues that Kincaid and Zahle’s conclusion remains untenable since it stems from inaccurate historical assumptions concerning the tradition of methodological individualism and the way the individualism-holism debate is understood within this tradition. (shrink)

Must philosophers incorporate tools of experimental science into their methodological toolbox? I argue here that they must. Tallying up all the resources that are now part of standard practice in analytic philosophy, we see the problem that they do not include adequate resources for detecting and correcting for their own biases and proclivities towards error. Methodologically sufficient resources for error- detection and error-correction can only come, in part, from the deployment of specific methods from the sciences. However, we need (...) not imagine that the resulting methodological norms will be so empirically demanding as to require that all appeals to intuition must first be precertified by a thorough vetting by teams of scientists. Rather, I sketch a set of more moderate methodological norms for how we might best include these necessary tools of experimental philosophy. (shrink)

John Rawls’ method of reflective equilibrium is the most influential methodology in contemporary ethics.This paper argues that this influence is undeserved, for two reasons. First, reflective equilibrium fails to accomplish two tasks that give us reason to care about methodology. On the one hand, it fails to explain how (or whether) moral knowledge is possible.This is because the method is explicitly oriented towards the distinct (and less interesting) task of characterizing our moral sensibilities. On the other hand, the method fails (...) to provide an informative way of adjudicating central methodological debates in ethics. Second, where Rawls’ method –and the background methodology he uses to motivate it –do have substance, that substance is implausible. The role of dispositions in the method entails that it endorses obviously irrational inferences. Further, the method makes substantively implausible distinctions between the dispositions that are allowed to play a methodological role. Rawls' background methodology appeals to the idea of a psychology in ‘wide reflective equilibrium’. However, both formal and empirical path-dependence considerations strongly suggest that there is nothing even minimally determinate that is someone’s psychology in ‘wide reflective equilibrium’. I close by exploring salient attempts to salvage the spirit of reflective equilibrium by abandoning elements of Rawls’ approach. I argue that none of these attempts succeed. I conclude that appeal to the method of reflective equilibrium is not a helpful means of addressing pressing methodological questions in ethics. In a slogan, reflective equilibrium is methodologically irrelevant. (shrink)