True Description Research Articles

Realismo epistemológico, referencia y verosimilitud

This paper attempts to determine the commitements of the realist view of scientific theories. First, it distinguishes between ontological realism and epistemological realismo Then, it affirms that the latter is committed with the concepts of reference and truthlikeness. It rejects the so-called referential realism, and against this, it maintains that it is not possible to perform genuine acts of reference by means of false descriptions, Every act of reference needs a true description, It exemplifies this thesis with the problem of identifying elementary particles. Finally, it concludes by analysing the condítions which are necessary and sufficient for the conservation of the reference when a change of theory takes place.

Evaluation of the Dorchester Ultrasound power Meter

Summary An evaluation of an ultrasound power meter was carried out to provide a true description of the equipment and to give some indication of its advantages and disadvantages during use.

Estimating model variance in the case of undermodeling

A reliable quality estimate of a given model is a prerequisite for any reasonable use of the model. The model error consists of two different contributions: the bias error and the random error. In this contribution, it is shown that the size (variance) of the random error can be reliably estimated in the case where a true system description cannot be achieved in the model structure used. This consistent error estimate can differ considerably from the conventionally used variance estimate, which could thus be misleading. >

Was Schopenhauer an Idealist?

Was Schopenhauer an Idealist? DALE E. SNOW and JAMES J. SNOW ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUERENDORSESIDEALISMin the opening lines of his major work, The World as Will and Representation: "The world is my representation: this is a truth valid with reference to every living and knowing being..." (WR 1: 3)- However, Schopenhauer is quick to point out that idealism is true if and only if the world is viewed from one of two possible angles or perspectives; if viewed from the other side, the world is will. "This will alone constitutes the other aspect of the world, for this world is, on the one side, entirely representation , just as on the other, it is entirely will" (ibid.). The implicit suggestion is that there is a world that can be viewed, as it were, in two ways: either as will, or as representation; viewed from the latter perspective, idealism is true. However, as we hope to show, given Schopenhauer's elaborate metaphysics of the will and the role played by der Wille and der WiUe zum Leben in his philosophy, there are good reasons to ask (and attempt to answer) the question: Is Schopenhauer an idealist? We wish to take issue with the views espoused by Schopenhauer's most recent English-language commentators concerning his idealism. It will be our contention in this paper that while Schopenhauer's central questions and initial assumptions are closely tied to the controversies which culminated in the birth of post-Kantian idealism in the early decades of the nineteenth century, the answers arrived at in the metaphysics of the will take him far beyond the conceptual framework of idealism. We will also show, We would like to thank ProfessorJohn Atwell,not only for his commentson earlier drafts of this paper, but more importantly for both engendering and continuing to encourage our interest in Schopenhauer. We would also like to thank the editor as wellas two anomymous referees for thisjournal, who provided severalvaluablesuggestions. We have used English translations wherever possible;all other translationsfrom the German are our own. Frequently cited worksare abbreviated in the followingmanner, withthe citationsin the body of the text: WR I and WR ~ = Vols. 1and 2 of The Worldas Will and Representation, 2 vols., trans. E. F.J. Payne (NewYork: Dover, 1969). Nachlass= Arthur Schopenhauer:Manuscript Remainsin 4 volumes,ed. Arthur Hiibscher, tr. E. F.J. Payne(Oxford: St. Martin'sPress 1985-89). WN = On the FourfoldRoot of the Principleof SufficientReasonand On the Will in Nature, tr. Mme. Karl Hillebrand (London: George Belland Sons, 1897). [633] 634 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 29:4 OCTOBER 1991 albeit secondarily, that whereas Schopenhauer saw himself as the direct philosophical heir of Kant and the only true disciple of the Kantian philosophy (indeed, he was a more assiduous and sensitive student of Kant than Fichte, Schelling, or Hegel), it is nevertheless the case that he saw Kant through the clouded spectacles of his time. 1. Schopenhauer considered his most important philosophical discovery to have been that the essence, inner essence, core, or kernel of the world is the thing in itself and that the thing in itself is will. Although Schopenhauer claimed that this discovery is made through inner experience, he thought that its truth is independently confirmed by the fact that such a view has explanatory force superior to any alternative philosophical explanation. For "philosophy is nothing but the correct and universal understanding of experience itself" (WR 2: 183), so the physical world presents in a veiled form the truths of metaphysics. Indeed, Schopenhauer goes to considerable length to show that der WiUe zum Leben pervades the entire natural world. "Every glance at the world,'~Schopen hauer tells us, confirms and establishes that der WiUe zum Leben, far from being an arbitrary hypostasis or even an empty expression, is the only true description of the world's innermost nature .... In animal nature, it then becomes obvious that Wille zum Leben is the keynote of its being, its only unchangeable and unconditioned quality. Let us consider this universal craving for life, and see the infinite eagerness, ease, and exuberance with which der Wille zum Leben presses impetuously into existence under millions of forms everywhere and at every moment...

Towards CIM optimization

This paper describes initial work carried out in constructing a strategy-based quantitative technique, which aims not only to formulate a strategy for Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) investment (incorporating elements of a financial justification for the investment), but also identifies means of monitoring investment performance against strategy. The approach is further extended through the use of simulation to deal with problems when the relevant probability distributions can be postulated. Simultaneous considerations of the revenues, production costs, salvage values and economics (many of the costs and system characteristics for individual firms) require considerable effort. The framework for computer implementation of the methodology and the various sources from which the needed information may be obtained for a successful implementation of the methodology are discussed. Together with earlier works and feasibility studies, a schematic representation of the information flows among various functions and activities in a typical manufacturing business system have been carried out 1,2. In addition, a management information system should also identify the costs of capacity, lead time performance, flexibility performance, and the cost of product driven by technology. A computer aided model is an additional tool that decision makers can use to consolidate all efforts to realistically consider many of the tangible and intangible elements. The model does have implicit in its design the capability to play out alternative strategies of operations for the manager. This evolutionary development of an optimization model for the operational evaluation of an integrated manufacturing system does not seek to answer any identifiable problem, but to provide the mechanism for future investigations. It is therefore intended to be a generalized model applicable to various manufacturing environments elected by the user. Many operational research techniques have been applied over the years to investigate problems indentified in the management of the manufacturing environment. Commonly, the techniques have sought to achieve an optimum solution to the problem being investigated. However, very often the expected level of optimization is not necessarily achieved when applied to the real production environment where the original problem resides. Ultimately, it is feasible to consider the progression from this model in operation as a simulation and optimization tool, playing out hypothetical environments, to provide a true description in real time of the system in operation. With increasing computational power becoming cost effective, the multiple parameters in a manufacturing environment can be re-permutated in a realistic time-frame to give true emulation of the system in operation.

Self-induced effective gauge fields in the copper-oxygen plane of high-Tc perovskites: A lattice and a continuum formulation.

We present an exact formulation of the self-induced effective gauge fields both in the Hubbard model and in the true continuum description of the Cu-O planes of the high-${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$ perovskites. We bypass the solution of the ground state in favor of the chirality order parameter as the intrinsic variable. The constraint of gauge symmetry greatly narrows the admissible forms for the gauge fields. We find that these fields can produce broken-symmetry chiral ground states on a lattice, but the intrinsic frustration in the continuum form of the gauge field seems to rule out such a state in the real Cu-O plane.

The Duhemian historiographical project

Duhem regarded the history of physical science as carrying a twofold lesson for the practicing physicist. First, history revealed the slow, groping, yet continuous development of physical theory toward a true description of the relations among natural entities. Second, history also unmasked false explanations and metaphysical beliefs that might seduce the unwary scientist into following an unfruitful line of research. This paper brings forth the central images underlying Duhem's historiographical project and uses the papers by S. Menn and W. A. Wallace to ask what Duhem's enterprise actually meant in practice. I argue that the main question is the following: What is to count as the proper space of historical meaning and explanation? ‘Strong’ Duhemians, such as S. Menn, purchase the longue duree at the cost of making historical agents into completely passive transmitters of conceptual homologies; ‘weak’ Duhemians, such as W. A. Wallace, shorten the temporal distance between agents and permit thereby a modicum of conflict and negotiation within physical theory while still seeking to preserve long-term conceptual genealogies. Both positions, it is argued, allow insufficient room for actors' categories to determine the space of cultural analysis.

Water trees in cables-experimental findings and theoretical explanations

Experimental results on service-aged high voltage cables and results of experiments in which full-size cables were used are reconsidered. The results are discussed in connection with the model concept of the water treeing phenomenon. It is shown that water treeing is primarily a result of dielectrophoretic forces on water molecules that lead to a local supersaturation of the water molecules and, as a consequence, to the creation and growth of water trees. The important point in this process is the formation of a liquid phase. It is concluded that the size distribution of water trees, the influence of soluble particles, or the influence of a temperature gradient across the insulation can be understood on the basis of a model concept involving dielectrophoresis and precipitation phenomena as the important points. A numerical growth simulation based on this model concept leads to a true description of the size distributions of water trees found in cables.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A mathematical model of osteoarthosis

Osteoarthrosis is modeled by a set of differential equations, i.e. equations giving the rate of deterioration of a given factor as a function of the state of the system. Here the system is the assembly of the factors and their deterioration rates, and the factors are the entities relevant to the model such as, for example, shock absorbance of the cartilage. The results are forecasted deteriorations of the factors. If laboratory and clinical findings corroborate our model, it may be accepted as a true description of the illness.

Individual Differences in Technical Troubleshooting

The analysis of individual differences in component skills is used in examining the characteristics of more and less successful troubleshooters of electronics equipment. In one study, mental models of devices are explored. Skilled individuals' models are much more aligned with a true functional description of the device. Less-skilled individuals exhibit several consistent deficits in their models. In the remaining two studies, skill in executing a simple troubleshooting procedure is examined. Skilled troubleshooters were not only more successful, but results suggested that their errors were computational in nature, whereas less-skilled troubleshooters evidenced conceptual deficits as well. The findings are discussed in terms of new conceptualizations of testing and training complex skill.

New random field theory for the concentrational phase transitions with appearance of long-range order. Application to the impurity dipole systems

The simple random field theory is presented for the description of the equilibrium properties of impurity systems with concentrational phase transition. The theory essentially differs from earlier appraoches, based on random mean field approximations, because it explicitly takes into consideration the thermal fluctuations of internal fields. The application of the theory to well-known model systems shows that it gives at least qualitatively true description of the impurity systems with concentrational phase transitions. The developed general formalism was used for the analysis of concentrational phase transition in highly polarized dielectrical crystals with dipole impurities. The experimental situations in KTaO 3 and other systems are discussed. The theory permits also to describe the equilibrium cooperative properties of the systems without long-range order (spin and dipole glasses in particular).

CORRECT AND INCORRECT USE OF RECRUITMENT RATES FOR MARINE MAMMALS

AbstractAdults of long‐lived, birth‐pulse populations (e.g., many cetaceans, polar bears and walrus) may not breed every year because of parental care, long gestation periods or nutritional constraints. Estimates of adult annual recruitment rates for such populations are necessarily an oversimplification since these rates are applied to both breeding and non‐breeding females.The weighted mean of age‐specific recruitment is insufficient for non‐stable age projections of multi‐annual populations beyond the first time interval. Restated, conventional or collapsed Leslie matrix and life‐table projections are not adequate for non‐stable age simulations of populations with multi‐annual reproduction cycles.These difficulties may be avoided by employing a parameterization that accommodates a dynamic age structure and proportion of breeding females within a given age class. This parameterization is a true description of the multiple‐year reproduction schedule.Examples, broadly mimicking the life history of polar bears, were used to identify potential qualitative errors that may occur from using overly simplified projection models.

The physical deformities of Anne Boleyn and Richard III: myth and reality

The physical deformities of Anne Boleyn and Richard III: myth and reality But...in thirty round frames that made an arc were the inhabitants of the unknown worlds, of whom only the Physiologus and the vague reports of travelers speak slightly. Many of them were unfamiliar....For example, brutes with six fingers on each hand; sirens...the hairy men of India...Pygmies,...These and other wonders were carved on that doorway.1 Fiction can stimulate historians to take another look at familiar evidence or to seek insights in unusual sources. In his Defense of Poetry, Sir Philip Sidney argued that as poetry was not limited to facts revealed in old records, it had a greater capacity for moral instruction and for delighting its readers than history.2 Relevant to Sidney's claim is the above quotation from Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, a best-selling, twentieth-century murder mystery set in a fourteenth-century abbey. Eco's description of the "wonders...carved on that doorway" is directly responsible for this re-examination of the charges that Anne Boleyn and Richard III were disfigured. It is fitting that fiction has led to this latest attempt to refute the allegations of their deformities, which are almost certainly fictional but which have been accepted as historically valid. A problem basic to this investigation is its reliance on the absence of evidence for its arguments. Caution is called for and will be taken, but it must be emphasized that in early modern Europe a deep insensitivity to the suffering of a person born with a physical abnormality, something as minor as an unusual tuft of hair around his navel, caused him to be characterized as a monster.3 Thus, in considering a royal deformity, like an extra fingernail or uneven shoulders, there is strong reason for accepting the lack of reference to it during the lifetime of the individual involved as compelling in itself. Before turning to the accounts of Anne's and Richard's disfigurement, further comments about how their contemporaries perceived and treated monsters will be useful. Monster literature was ubiquitous and popular at all levels of society. It flowed from three sources: 1) the scientific works of Aristotle and other ancients; 2) references to the birth of monsters as portents or divine signs by pagans, like Cicero, and 1 My thanks to Sir Geoffrey Elton, Cambridge University, for his critical review of this paper and suggestions about its structure: I am grateful for his assistance and encouragement. Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, tr. William Weaver, New York, 1980, 405. 2 Sidney: A Defence of Poetry, ed. Jan Van Dorsten, New York, 1966, 11-30. 3 John Barker, The True Description of a Monsterous Chylde (London: W. Gryffith, 1564). 136 R.M. Warnicke Christians like St Augustine; 3) the descriptions of races in the East and in Africa by Alexander the Great, Solinus, and Pliny, among others.4 Drawing upon these sources, writers produced a wide range of publications: broadsides, sermons, and treatises. To generate the greatest possible interest the works contained drawings of an assortment of real and imaginary subjects, such as grotesque pigs, fish, and humans, especially babies with birth defects. Siamese twins loomed large in this literature, partly because clergymen were confronted with the serious theological problem of whether to baptize both heads.5 Writers argued that monsters were born when God deliberately interfered with natural forces, for nature left alone could be viewed as mightier than He. In addition,they often claimed that deformities were a sign that the Almighty had visited the sins of parents upon their offspring. Since occasionally people with unimpeachable morality had handicapped children, other causes could be added or substituted, such as portents of a disaster, an unfavourable position of the stars at conception, or a mother's focussing during her pregnancy on something hideous, the characteristics of which developed in her baby.6 Fascinated by grotesque creatures, early modern Christians displayed them in towns and fairs, a custom that has been continued in the exhibition of fat ladies, giants, and thin men at carnivals. Modern medicine, which has revealed many causes of birth defects, makes it necessary...

Pain, Private Language and the Mind-Body Problem

What I will call the Warner-Nagel thesis is the claim that, even with a true and exhaustive scientific description of the world, we will have failed to capture a fundamental and important aspect of it: the qualitative character of experience. Of the two, Nagel's thesis is stronger. For he claims that objective science cannot capture the qualitative character of our experience (facts of experience) because science moves away from facts which are accessible from only one point of view, and towards facts which are intersubjective or public. 1 Since understanding what it is like to be an X, requires facts which are accessible from only one point of view, X's, the methodology of science is simply unsuited for the sort of understanding required to capture the qualitative character of a thing's experiences. Hence reductionist programs were ill conceived from the very beginning: there is something about consciousness that cannot be captured in scientific accounts of the mind.

Bulimia

In a literary synopsis we inform about eating addiction or binges already known in antiquity and differentiated as bulimos (fames bovina) respectively as kynorexia (fames canina), partially in a still true description. The syndrome, occurring increasingly since one decade, consists of periodically pathological and excessive devouring of food, mostly consecutive restrictive diet and/or vomiting, use of laxatives, depressivity, experience of shame and guilt s.o. At a prevalency of 5% of the (psychiatric) patients mainly women (95%) are concerned, showing a postpubertary begin of disease. In spite of certain connexions to the anorexia nervosa we have to define the bulimia as its counterpart. The different etiological conceptions suppose an epilepsy-like disorder, an attachment to the (endogenic) depression or the presumption of neuro-endocrine events. Largely it is applied to intra- and interpsychical neurotic conflictuality, though actually behavioristical aspects seem to be preferred. The therapeutic intentions comprise anticonvulsives and antidepressives in view of medicamentous treatment; the psychical treatment comprises psychoanalysis, outpatient and inpatient clinical psychotherapy and all actually usual methods up to self-help groups.

Application of Multiple Spuds (Dowels) to Development of Sliding Resistance for Gravity-Based Platforms

Application of Multiple Spuds (Dowels) to Development of Sliding Resistance for Gravity-Based Platforms

Hempel's ravens, the natural classification of hypotheses and the growth of knowledge

1. Most solutions offered to Hempel's paradoxes of confirmation have been formal. They have argued that since a true description of scientific justification cannot disobey basic logic, it follows that if it seemingly does so, then either the description is not entirely true or the logic employed not quite basic. Scientific justification is rendered formally consistent, intuitively sound and free of paradox by suggesting new explications of confirmation or modified logics of enquiry culminating in a notion of empirical support whose invariance under transformations of logical equivalence does not yield counterintuitive conclusions. In short they regard the paradoxes as not really being there at all, but as unfortunate and avoidable consequences of bad philosophy. I maintain that solutions of this kind have at most succeeded in shifting the problem to other levels of discourse, (leaving us with impossible methodology or with incomprehensible syntax) and that none have really solved the problem 1. Our interest in the present essay lies however in two of the less populated and far less popular group of writers who have argued that Hempel's paradoxes are a symptom of real incongruity between method and logic. They claim that confirmation by nature eludes basic logic and is therefore not expected to obey the Equivalence-Principle strictly. For them the paradoxes express not so much a puzzle to be solved, but rather facts of life to be studied, fenced in and understood. My reasons for choosing Hempel's Ravens of 1945 as my point of departure are by no means historical. I believe that they are symptomatic of what could be regarded as the central problem of the philosophy of science namely the problem of the rationality of science. For many, even today, the rationality of science means preserving the objective and logical character of the Realm of Justification, which in turn means for most of them simply its formalization. (By "Realm of Justification" I do not wish to imply justificationism of any kind, it is but a name for the activity involved in the treating of hypotheses following and opposed to their discovery.) The paradoxes are an embarrassment to the formalist for they lie at the

The Theory of Categories by Franz Brentano

nooK REVIEWS 493 ideal is easily enough asserte.d, but it is more difficult to deal with the limitations and imperfections which reality consistently presents. The social strategist deals in imperfect (sinful) reality, and his strategy will reflect an awareness of that imperfection and sin; Roman Catholics optimistic about human nature frequently back away from the relative evil which realistic efficient strategy so often involves. Posner is a good reminder that strategy is inevitably realistic or it is doomed to fail. Finally, what is to be said about Posner's picture of human nature' He accurately describes contemporary Americans, but perhaps we are not typically human. We are maybe homo economicus, but is that a true description of all humans T Are all humans over the ages "rational maximizers of our satisfactions "' Because Americans do meet this description , an economic ethic for social justice is attractive and presumably consistent. But the real ethical question is not whether we are rational maximizers of our satisfactions, but whether we ought to be such. Again, Posner does not address such fundamental ethical questions. If he proposes to continue speaking of his work as an ethic, he must speak more directly to a set of issues which underlie his present theory and which perennially invite the insights of all thoughtful persons, including economists. St. Thomas House University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia WILLIAM J. FINAN, O.P. The Theory of Categories. By FRANZ BRENTANO. Translated by Roderick Chisholm and Norbert Guterman. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981. Melbourne International Philosophy Series, volume 18, Pp. 275. $49.50. Although the title of Brentano's study of the categories might call Kant to mind, the book in fact develops from Aristotle's ideas and seldom refers to Kant at all. The Kantian revival at the end of the nineteenth century left Brentano cold. Instead, he drew his inspiration from his Dominican training and from his teacher, the great Aristotelian scholar, Adolph Trendelenburg. Brentano was too original a thinker simply to repeat Aristotle, but he claimed just to be carrying on where that master left off. Writers since Aristotle have just confused the issue, Brentano says; and a true understanding of the categories will not be achieved until one starts from Aristotle, at the same time feeling free to correct his ideas when necessary. 494 BOOK REVIEWS The Theory of the Categories thus takes its place along with Brentano's four Aristotelian studies, three of which have recently been translated by Rolf George. The relationship is especially close with Brentano's first book, his dissertation On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle, published in 1862. Two-thirds of this early book is taken up with the senses of being that Aristotle distinguishes according to the figures of the categories . The Theory of the Categories consists of essays written at the other end of his life, between 1907 and 1917, the year of his death. Yet it is almost as if Brentano here, in one of his last books, is determined to complete and modify his dissertation, and the editor has therefore appropriately entitled the first third of the book on categories "The Strict and Extended Senses of Being" to indicate the continuity with the earlier work. Unlike the four Aristotle studies, however, The Theory of Categories is intended primarily as a contribution to systematic rather than to historical philosophy. The Aristotle volumes discuss one passage from the classic works after another, and they are copiously footnoted to Aristotle and bis commentators, so that their main interest for contemporary readers lies in the way they elucidate Aristotelian texts. The book on categories, on the other hand, dispenses by and large with citations from Aristotle and other thinkers and deals with issues as they arise for Brentano's own system. The difference between the early and the late work is also partly the result of a change in Brentano. In the years since On the Several Senses, Brentano's thinking on epistemology and metaphysics had gone through several stages and had become increasingly independent and creative. By writing this late book on an Aristotelian theme, Brentano thereby provided us a measure of the distance he had come since his first...

Teaching Verbs Using a Hierarchical System

The mastery of the meaning and use of verbs is the most difficult area of language learning. The accurate meaning of a verb is fully comprehended only when it is placed in a set of verbs with similar meanings and differences of contextual features. The case is argued, using specific references, for the verb as the centre of importance in syntax. Evidence is also given to indicate that the concept denoted by a verb rarely has a full equivalent from one language to another. Each verb has a denotation, connotations, and, possibly, uses in idiom. A diagrammatic representation of verbs shows the hierarchical arrange ment with the set of verbs divided into families, groups and clusters. Diagrams can show a two-dimensional system of relationships. Lan guage, however, does not follow an exact taxonomy, and the relation ships are often blurred. An explanation of this is given and it is shown that a multi-dimensional representation is required for a true descrip tion. The method of overcoming this difficulty is described. A semantic field chart illustrates the relationship between verbs in a group of clus ters. The chart has to be supplemented by a written definition of a verb in order to ascertain the focus and collocations of the verb. The development of teaching verbs is then outlined. The first 250 verbs, in order of frequency of use in English, can be arranged in twenty-two groups, and an example of this is given.

He is Nothing but a Cheat! (A Not-so-fictitious Story)

Not-so fictitious stories bring together real life experiences of gifted children in story form. None of the stories are completely true but most of the incidents within each story have actually occurred. Thus a not-so-fictitious story is a composite of real incidents tied together by fiction rather than a true description of the life of any one gifted child. Since not-so-fictitious stories are reality based, they can be useful for discussions or role playing for parents, teachers or students.