Search results for " Philosophy of Science"

Aspects of a theory of bullshit

2016

This paper addresses the question whetherbullshitis a reasonable pragmatic category. In the first part of the paper, drawing on the insights of Harry Frankfurt’s seminal essay, bullshit is defined as an act of insincere asserting where the speaker shows (a) a loose concern for the truth, and (b) does not want the addressee to become aware of condition (a). The author adds to this definition the condition (c) requiring that the bullshitter expresses morecertaintythan is adequate with respect to condition (a). In the second part of the paper, it is discussed whether the above definition can cope with special types of bullshit considered to be a challenge to Frankfurt’s definition. These areev…

Vida fabricada

2019

Des que la biologia es va secularitzar i inicia l’escrutini molecular de la vida, la possibilitat de la sintesi artificial de cel·lules vivents en un laboratori fou palpable. La biologia sintetica contemporania aspira a dissenyar i fabricar noves formes de vida amb la intencio d’obtenir beneficis socials i economics, tot i que no s’ha de descartar que tambe obtindrem, per la via sintetica, recompenses cientifiques en termes d’una major comprensio de la complexitat biologica a les quals no podriem accedir per la via analitica. Es clar, per tant, que biologia sintetica es un terme que desperta expectatives, pero no es menys cert que tambe provoca inquietud. El Forum Economic Mundial ha situat…

Aquinas, education and the theory of illumination

2020

The CoVid-19 pandemic has profoundly disrupted schooling and education more generally through the shift from face to face teaching in classrooms and lecture theatres to an online mode of teaching a...

What do we mean by diversity? : the path towards quantification

2018

The concept of biological diversity has evolved from a simple count of species to more sophisticated measures that are sensitive to relative abundances and even to evolutionary divergence times between species. In the course of this evolution, diversity measures have often been borrowed from other disciplines. Biological reasoning about diversity often implicitly assumed that measures of diversity had certain mathematical properties, but most of biologys traditional diversity measures did not actually possess these properties, a situation which often led to mathematically and biologically invalid inferences. Biologists now usually transform the traditional measures to the «effective number …

Biological parameters in breast cancer.

1996

Aging, longevity, inflammation, and cancer.

2005

Cancer rates increase sharply with age in both sexes, and the majority of cases of cancer occur in patients over the age of 65 years. However, the incidence and mortality for cancer level off around 85-90 years of age, followed by a plateau, or even a decline in the last decades of life. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that centenarians are endowed with a peculiar resistance to cancer. Tumor progression is a complex process that depends on interactions between tumor and host cells. One aspect of the host response, the inflammatory response, is of particular interest because it includes the release of proinflammatory cytokines, some of which may promote tumor growth and hence infl…

Visual-motion suppression in congenital pendular nystagmus.

2009

Patients with a congenital pendular nystagmus are known not to experience oscillopsia in a normal visual environment. The data of a 31-year-old female patient suffering from a congenital pendular nystagmus are presented. The aim of the fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) experiment was to analyze the regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCGM) during minimal as well as maximal nystagmus. Video-oculography showed a maximum in frequency of the horizontal pendular nystagmus during gaze to the left, whereas the zone of minimal nystagmus was 10 degrees to the right. Two sessions with an 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose tracer were performed to analyze cerebral blood-glucose utilizati…

Looking for Immunological Risk Genotypes

2004

Several functional markers of the immune system may be used either as markers of successful aging or conversely as markers of unsuccessful aging. Particularly, a combination of high CD8 and low CD4 and poor T cell proliferation has been associated with a higher two-year mortality in very old subjects. Therefore, genetic determinants of longevity should reside in those polymorphisms for the immune system genes that regulate immune responses. Concerning these changes in T cell subpopulations, how much they depend on the immunogenetic background and how much they depend on individual antigenic load, such as chronic infections, should be assessed. As previously demonstrated in our population, t…

X-Linked Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

1995

We report on a family with a severe form of X-linked dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Two brothers, the elder requiring heart transplantation, and a maternal cousin presented elevated creatine kinase levels, increased right ventricular diameters and electrocardiographic abnormalities. All complained of exertional cramping myalgia, but none had muscle weakness or a pathological electromyogram. Muscle biopsies of these individuals revealed a mild myopathic picture with atrophic type I and hypertrophic type II fibers. Immunofluorescence using N- and C-terminal antibodies (dys-2, dys-3) against the dystrophin protein showed preserved, but reduced intensity of staining of the sarcolemmal membranes.…

The importance of the social environment for physically active lifestyle — results from an international study

2001

Physically active lifestyles are regularly associated with improved health and quality of life. Differences in lifestyles in society can partly be understood through the differences in the social and physical environment. This study examines the relationships between reported physical activity, and the extent of perceived support for physical activity in the physical and policy environment (e.g. facilities, programmes and other opportunities), and in the social environment. The data for the study come from a cross-cultural health policy study called MAREPS. In total, 3342 adults, 18 years or older, from six countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland) were inte…