Crucial Premise Research Articles

How can you be so sure? Illusionism and the obviousness of phenomenal consciousness

Illusionism is the thesis that phenomenal consciousness does not exist, but merely seems to exist. Many opponents to the thesis take it to be obviously false. They think that they can reject illusionism, even if they conceded that it is coherent and supported by strong arguments. David Chalmers has articulated this reaction to illusionism in terms of a “Moorean” argument against illusionism. This argument contends that illusionism is false, because it is obviously true that we have phenomenal experiences. I argue that this argument fails (or is dialectically irrelevant) by showing that its defenders cannot maintain that its crucial premise (properly understood) has the kind of support needed for the argument to work, without begging the question against illusionism.

Research and Reflection on Constructing a Unified and Open Transportation Market——Taking Zhejiang Province as an Example

With the continuous expansion of the market scale since the reform and opening-up policy, the necessity and imperatives of building a unified national market have kept increasing daily. Building a unified and open transport market is the crucial premise and essential support for a unified national market. As a developed province along the east coast, Zhejiang has preliminarily explored building a unified and open transportation market in recent years. This paper mainly studies and thinks on constructing a unified and open transport market in Zhejiang from the current situation and its main problems. It also puts forward relevant measures and suggestions.

Olson, Kristi A. The Solidarity Solution: Principles for a Fair Income Distribution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 240. $74.00 (cloth).

Olson, Kristi A. <i>The Solidarity Solution: Principles for a Fair Income Distribution</i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 240. $74.00 (cloth).

Why the Good is supremely good: a defence of the Monologion proof

AbstractThe opening chapters of Anselm's Monologion contain a ‘proof’ of a perfect being, which has received far less attention than the more famous Proslogion proof, and the ontological arguments derived from it. I wish to rectify this by developing an argument in defence of a crucial premise of the Monologion proof. This premise states that ‘the Good’, i.e. that in virtue of which numerically distinct things may all be good, must itself be a supremely good thing (if it exists). I motivate the argument before considering objections to both premises, as well as putative ‘parodies’ of my argument. Part of the motivation of my argument will involve the claim that the Good, if it is good at all, must be a paradigm good thing. I conclude that theists have a second kind of ontological argument at their disposal.

MnxOy embedded within CNT supporting porous carbon for enhanced lithium storage

Achievement of improved structural stability and conductivity for Mn-based oxides is the crucial premise for them to be high-performance anodes of lithium-ion batteries due to their large volume effect and poor intrinsic conductivity. Herein, the lithium storage performance of the MnxOy nanoparticles containing dominant MnO and slight MnO2 and Mn3O4 has been significantly improved by embedding them into a CNT supporting porous carbon. This composite is therefore denoted as CNT/MnxOy/C. The comparison results of the electrochemical performance of thus CNT/MnxOy/C with CNT/Mn3O4 and pure Mn3O4 nanoparticles demonstrate that the well-designed synergistic effect of high conductive CNT support and flexible spongy porous carbon is responsible for its improved performance, which efficiently enhances not only the structural stability but also the electrochemical kinetics of the CNT/MnxOy/C. As a result, this CNT/MnxOy/C anode shows outstanding performance, obtaining high capacities of 936.5 and 410.5 mAh g-1 at 200 and 1000 mA g-1 after 260 and 800 cycles, respectively. Moreover, this strategy proposed here will be hopefully instructive in constructing other advanced metal oxide nanomaterials toward improved performance of lithium-ion battery anodes.

The closure of systems of penal sanction norms as systems of constitutive rules

This article analyses the status of the principle of penal legality as a residual closure rule. It does so in the same sense in which Alchourrón and Bulygin use this notion but rejects its characterization as a rule that would qualify every action that is not “prohibited according to penal law” as “permitted according to penal law”. The crucial premise supporting this rejection can be found in the proposition that penal sanction norms have the status of constitutive rules, the function of which, in Hohfeld’s terminology, is to institute liabilities-to-punishment that are correlative to punitive powers. This position finds decisive support in Hart’s conception of rules that establish legal sanctions as secondary rules of adjudication, which back up some corresponding set of primary rules of obligation. On this basis, to serve as a residual closure rule for a system of penal sanction norms, the principle of legality must also be understood as a constitutive rule

Fewer Mistakes and Presumed Consent.

"Opt-out" organ procurement policies based on presumed consent are typically advertised as being superior to "opt-in" policies based on explicit consent at securing organs for transplantation. However, Michael Gill (2004) has argued that presumed consent policies are also better than opt-in policies at respecting patient autonomy. According to Gill's Fewer Mistakes Argument, we ought to implement the procurement policy that results in the fewest frustrated wishes regarding organ donation. Given that the majority of Americans wish to donate their organs, it is plausible that a presumed consent policy would result in fewer frustrated wishes compared to the current opt-in policy. It follows that we ought to implement a policy of presumed consent. In this paper, I first consider and find wanting an objection to the Fewer Mistakes Argument developed recently by Douglas MacKay (2015). I also consider an objection put forth by James Taylor (2012) but argue that there is a methodological reason to prefer my own argument to Taylor's. Finally, I argue for two theses: first, that Gill's major argument in favor of the crucial premise of the Fewer Mistakes Argument is flawed, and second, that the major premise of the Fewer Mistakes Argument is false.

La genealogía en cuestión: Cuerpos, textos, y reproducción en el Quijote de Cervantes by Clea Gerber

Reviewed by: La genealogía en cuestión: Cuerpos, textos, y reproducción en el Quijote de Cervantes by Clea Gerber William H. Clamurro (bio) Clea Gerber. La genealogía en cuestión: Cuerpos, textos, y reproducción en el Quijote de Cervantes. Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2018. 316 pp. ISBN: 978-84-16978-67-0. The book under review is a fascinating work that combines erudition and imagination. Gerber takes up the implications of the well-known and playful meta-fictional statements in the prologue to the 1605 Don Quijote wherein Cervantes begins the subtle game of seemingly denying authorship of the book that is being presented, as he confronts his alleged case of writer's block before the task of writing what he is in fact deftly writing. In the process, of course, no reader is "fooled" by this pose. But rather, by means of this crafty feint, Cervantes opens up the question of the locus of authority. Gerber, however, is intrigued by the idea of paternity and non-paternity, the concept of the book being the offspring of the supposed author, and from this she traces and teases out the possibilities of human-biological generation in juxtaposition to the authoring and thus to the generation of literature. As she states on the first page of the "Introducción" (section one), "esta investigación propone un acercamiento al campo semántico que asocia cuerpos humanos y textuales en torno al eje vida-muerte-reproducción en la novela cervantina" (15). The book is then structured as follows: section two, "El programa del primer prólogo," centers on this crucial premise, the intentionally ambiguous statement or game that Cervantes himself sets forth, that he is not the father but only the step-father of the book being offered up to the public. The key point is that Gerber takes the idea of authorship, or "literary paternity," and continues to link it intimately with the plausible associations to biological paternity. This perspective becomes the basic theoretical and critical procedure of her study. After this introduction and section two, which clearly set out the book's thesis and critical approach, section three—"El Quijote de 1605: Construir un cuerpo textual"—pursues the suggestions of the instances of bodies in life and in death as they are presented in the story and thus as they suggest the dynamics of the creative, authorial process. As Gerber points out, there is a paucity of references to actual human birth in Don Quijote; rather, we find an abundance of creations in the literary (oral and textual) realms: "proliferan personajes e instancias ficcionales, orales o escritas, atribuidas a distintos personajes e instancias narradoras" (76). [End Page 203] The next section (four) deals with the 1614 Avellaneda part two of Don Quijote, which Gerber prefers to call a "continuación alógrafa," although the familiar terms "espuria" and "apócrifa" are also occasionally used in reference to the 1614 book. What is of special value in Gerber's treatment of the Avellaneda sequel is not only a detailed reading of the ways in which it differs from the Cervantine version and Cervantes's vision, but also how the intrusion of this unwanted (by Cervantes) continuation influenced what the authentic Part II of 1615 contains and how, as Gerber sees it, important elements of the 1615 second part developed as a reaction to the Avellaneda. In line with the basic and initial premise of textual creation and the familiar concept of biological reproduction, Gerber notes that "El libro de 1614 es de hecho el primero en intentar construir a partir del Quijote de 1605 una 'familia textual' (156). This concept is explored and elaborated in great detail in section five, "De 1605 a 1615: La construcción de una familia textual." In general, one of the strengths of Gerber's study is the sensitive and imaginative manner in which she juxtaposes the first and second (1605 and 1615) Cervantine texts—as different as they are, one from the other—with the intervening 1614 Avellaneda sequel. In brief, Gerber stresses the notion that the 1614 intervention seems to have either missed or consciously...

Gesetze des Denkens? Von Husserls und Freges Psychologismus-Kritik zu einem transzendentalen Kern der Logik

Husserl and Frege reject logical psychologism, the view that logical laws are psychological 'laws of thought'. This paper offers an account of these famous objections and argues that their crucial premise, the necessity of logical laws, is justified with reference to a problematic metaphysics. However, this premise can be established in a more plausible way, namely via a transcendental argument which starts from the practice of rational criticism. This argument is developed through a discussion of Quine's holism, which at first appears to make the idea of the necessity of logical laws even less plausible, but eventually turns out to speak in favor of this view.

Engineering MnO/C microsphere for enhanced lithium storage

Designing an anode material with high energy density is the crucial premise for the high-performance lithium-ions batteries (LIBs), however, it remains a formidable challenge. Hence, we synthesize microsphere-like MnO/C composite through successive hydrothermal process and annealing treatment. Benefiting from the introduction of conductive carbon, the conductivity of the as-prepared MnO/C composite can be obviously enhanced and the mechanical stress generated from the repetitive expansion/shrinkage during charge/discharge process can be effectively relieved, which can greatly facilitate the rate property and cycling stability of electrode. Therefore, the as-prepared microsphere-like MnO/C composite exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance when served as anode material for LIBs (1524.1 mAh g−1 after 150 cycles at 0.2 A g−1 and 1366.3 mAh g−1 after 250 cycles even at 1 A g−1). This work proves the great potential of microsphere-like MnO/C composite as high performance anode material for LIBs.

Reconsidering the Alleged Cases of Knowledge from Falsehood*

AbstractA number of philosophers have recently proposed several alleged cases of “knowledge from falsehood,” i.e., cases of inferential knowledge epistemised by an inference with a false crucial premise. This paper examines such cases and argues against interpreting them as cases of knowledge from falsehood. Specifically, I argue that the inferences in play in such cases are in no position to epistemise their conclusions.

Tip/tilt Alignment for a Fizeau Interferometer via Defocus-Based Sub-Spot Separation

It is a crucial premise for Fizeau interferometric imaging that all the optical axes of sub-apertures are well aligned. What is challenging in tip/tilt alignment of such interferometers is the superposition of all the sub-aperture spots on the focal plane for generation of fringes. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a simple tip/tilt alignment scheme via defocus-based sub-spot separation (TADS). The focal interference function is divided into sparse defocused sub-spots at a long defocusing distance. Then the servo-control technology with a centroid extracting algorithm is used to align all the sub-aperture optical axes, each corresponding to a defocused sub-spot. The pointing correction performance using TADS has been verified through closed-loop experiments performed on a Fizeau telescope array testbed newly built in our laboratory. Compared with the current means, the proposed TADS eliminates the requirement of complex hardware design and the limitation of sub-aperture amounts, which is compatible with most existing segmented mirrors and telescope arrays.

Why Virtue Is not Quite Enough: Descartes on Attaining Happiness

Abstract Descartes explicitly states that virtue is sufficient for attaining happiness. In this paper I argue that, within the framework he develops, this is not exactly true: more than virtuous action is needed to secure happiness. I begin by analyzing, in Section 2, the Cartesian notion of virtue in order to show the way in which it closely connects to what, for Descartes, forms the very essence of morality – the correct use of our free will. Section 3, in turn, discusses Descartes’s view of happiness and its relation to the highest good. Thereby is laid the foundation for Section 4, which offers a reconstruction of the argument that virtue leads to happiness. Section 5 concludes the discussion by suggesting how and why Descartes leaves a crucial premise – an intellectual insight that consists of three main elements – unmentioned when he claims that virtue is sufficient for happiness.

The Irish Context of Berkeley's ‘Resemblance Thesis’

AbstractIn this paper, we focus on Berkeley's reasons for accepting the ‘resemblance thesis’ which entails that for one thing to represent another those two things must resemble one another. The resemblance thesis is a crucial premise in Berkeley's argument from the ‘likeness principle’ in §8 of the Principles. Yet, like the ‘likeness principle’, the resemblance thesis remains unargued for and is never explicitly defended. This has led several commentators to provide explanations as to why Berkeley accepts the resemblance thesis and why he also takes his opponents to do so too. We provide a contextual answer to this question, focusing on epistemological discussions concerning resemblance and representation in Early Modern Irish Philosophy. We argue that the resemblance thesis is implicit in early responses to William Molyneux's famous example of the ‘man born blind made to see’ and trace the ‘Molyneux man’ thought experiment as it is employed by Irish thinkers such as William King and Berkeley himself. Ultimately, we conclude that Berkeley's acceptance of the resemblance thesis can be explained by the Irish intellectual climate in which he was writing.

Bayesian comparison of the cosmic duality scenarios

The cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR), $D_{\rm L}(1+z)^{-2}/D_{\rm A}=\eta=1$, with $D_{\rm L}$ and $D_{\rm A}$, being the luminosity and angular diameter distances, respectively, is a crucial premise in cosmological scenarios. Many investigations try to test CDDR through observational approaches, even some of these ones also consider a deformed CDDR, i.e., $\eta=\eta(z)$. In this paper, we use type Ia supernovae luminosity distances and galaxy cluster measurements (their angular diameter distances and gas mass fractions) in order to perform a Bayesian model comparison between $ \eta(z) $ functions. We show that the data here used are unable to pinpoint, with a high degree of Bayesian evidence, which $\eta(z)$ function best captures the evolution of CDDR.

Indicators to measure the performance of sustainable urban entrepreneurship: an empirical case study applied to Portuguese cities and towns

PurposeUrban sustainability is an inseparable dimension of today's cities; thus, the role played by creativity, and consequently sustainable urban entrepreneurship and the networks it raises, gives rise to the pro-activity of these two constructs toward a tripartition (economic, social and environmental). This study aims to measure sustainable urban entrepreneurship through a composite of existing indicators in the literature of cities.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors followed a quantitative research by applying exploratory factor analysis. The sample contains 308 towns and cities in Portugal, and the data were collected using secondary databases (e.g. INE; PORDATA).FindingsThrough quantitative research, this study identified the key indicators that mediate sustainable urban entrepreneurship in cities, as a methodological tool for them to evaluate their sustainable entrepreneurial capacity.Practical implicationsThe results obtained here provide information to show that sustainable urban entrepreneurship is an essential construct for cities, allowing a solution to many of their urban problems by its association with creative economy and its influence on the revitalization of urban spaces by urban regeneration, and by the importance of networks in these, the latter being another fundamental construct.Originality/valueThis research makes important contributions to studies considering the sustainability construct in urban entrepreneurship area. It will help to fill part of the gap in existing studies involving the cities’ aspects in entrepreneurship field. Consequently, the main contribution of this study lies in identifying the indicators that contribute to cities' tripartite sustainable balance by assuming sustainable urban entrepreneurship as a crucial premise.

Explaining Symptoms in Systemic Therapy. Does Triadic Thinking Come Into Play?

The main aim of this study is to explore the breadth of the inference field and the type of etiopathogenetic contents of symptom explanations provided by the client and therapist in the first two psychotherapy sessions conducted using a systemic approach. Does the therapist use triadic explanations of psychopathology as suggested by her approach? And do clients resort almost exclusively to monadic and dyadic explanations as did the university students in our previous study? What kind of explanations do they propose? The coding system “1 to 3: from the monad to the triad” was applied to the transcripts of 25 individual systemic therapies conducted by the same therapist. This manual allows coding of the inference field of symptom explanations according to three categories: monadic, dyadic, and triadic. These three broad categories are also used to analyze the etiopathogenetic content of each explanation: traumatic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. Our findings showed that clients and their therapist actually used different inference fields: clients resorted almost exclusively to monadic and dyadic explanations, whereas their therapist included the triadic explanatory level. Moreover, the therapist provided more interpersonal explanations than her clients. Hence, the dissonance between client and therapist about the inference fields – a crucial premise of one of the most accepted ideas of therapeutic change according to systemic therapies – is proven, at least among our participants. Thanks to this dissonance, clients and therapists can create a new story, potentially able to change clients’ feelings, without disconfirming their emotions.

Different Arenas, Different Deliberative Quality? Using a Systemic Framework to Evaluate Online Deliberation on Immigration Policy in Germany

One major strand of contemporary research on political participation addresses online deliberation. Over time, online deliberation has become increasingly pluralistic. Our study applies a framework derived from systemic deliberative theory to evaluate different online deliberation processes on German immigration policy. A crucial premise of the systemic deliberative theory is that the quality of deliberation varies systematically between different arenas within a political system. We differentiate between highly formal, semi‐formal, and informal deliberative arenas (arenas 1–3) and develop seven theory‐driven hypotheses concerning the quality of deliberative procedures in arenas 1–3 that we test through quantitative content analysis. Our study confirms the overarching expectation: processes’ deliberative quality varies systematically between arenas. The highest level of (aggregated) deliberative quality is displayed in arena 1—deliberations, that is, on the government‐run consultation platform. The more fine‐grained analysis of different dimensions of deliberative quality reveals that the patterns observed with regards to certain dimensions of deliberative quality (e.g., constructiveness and reciprocity) do not conform with our theory‐driven hypotheses. We discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of these findings. Future collaborations of theoretical and empirical scholars of deliberative democracy must address the specifics of online communication and the function of emotional communication in different deliberative arenas.

Breathing Life into the Union’s Common Values: On the Judicial Application of Article 2 TEU in the EU Value Crisis

AbstractThe EU faces one of the deepest crises since its formation. A dangerous rule of law backsliding in several Member States undermines the Union’s common values and puts Europe to the test. This raises the question of how to substantially address violations of EU values in judicial proceedings before the Court of Justice. Unfortunately, relying on fundamental freedoms, EU secondary legislation and even the Charter will not help much to resolve this value crisis. This Article takes a different path and calls for engaging with Article 2 TEU itself. Yet this proposal rests on a crucial premise: The judicial applicability of the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU. Based on recent jurisprudential developments, this Article will elaborate a framework for the operationalization of Article 2 TEU values and demonstrate how their judicial applicability can be construed. The judgments of Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses, Minister for Justice and Equality (“L.M.”) and Commission v. Poland will be at the heart of this proposal.

Modularist explanations of experience and other illusions.

Debates about modularity invariably involve a crucial premise about how visual illusions are experienced. This paper argues that these debates are wrongheaded, and that experience of illusions is orthogonal to the core issue of the modularity hypothesis: informational encapsulation.