Search results for "Philosophy of Science"
showing 10 items of 808 documents
Disentangling nutrition facts from fiction : towards healthy and sustainable consumption in industrialized societies
2020
Over the last centuries, in the context of industrialization, globalization and urbanization, profound dietary changes have occurred. Ubiquitous access to cheap, readily available and highly palatable unhealthy products, together with aggressive marketing that forcefully impacts social norms, have led to overconsumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. This has not only been associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, but also with detrimental effects on the world’s natural resources. Broader and braver public health measures favoring the availability and affordability of healthy, minimally processed foods should be implemented in conjunct…
Frank H. Knight on social values in economic consumption: an archival note
2020
We reproduce an unpublished address on “Social Values in Economic Consumption” which Knight prepared for a SSRC Conference in June 1931. This material sheds new light on Knight in two respects. First, anticipating what is known as the relative income hypothesis, Knight indicated that a general increase in income, not only leaves the individual’s relative position in society unaltered but makes her/his situation worse off due to the peculiar characteristics of the market for “personal services.” Second, this address provides further evidence of how, in spite of some substantial methodological differences, Knight’s research interests converged with those of the institutionalists.
Resistencias, novedades y negociaciones : la terminología química durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX en España
2010
En este artículo se analiza la nueva terminología química en España durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX. Pretendemos mostrar que el estudio de la historia de la terminología permite conocer mejor los mecanismos de negociación, apropiación y resistencia de las comunidades locales, y ofrece nuevas claves para repensar las relaciones entre centro y periferias científicas. Las fuentes principales del estudio son los manuales de química publicados entre 1788 y 1845 en España. Estructuraremos la discusión en torno a cuatro temas que forman parte de las cuestiones generalmente analizadas en los estudios sobre la circulación del conocimiento: apropiaciones, controversias, novedades y resistencia…
Correlation and Truth
2013
The concept of correlation is the building block of almost any Bayesian attempt to capture or explicate any interesting aspect of scientific reasoning in terms of probabilities. This paper discusses one particularly simple correlation measure which is highly significant for almost any such attempt within the philosophy of science or epistemology. In particular, it shows how this correlation measure is related to central attempts to capture essential aspects of scientific reasoning such as confirmation, coherence, and the explanatory power of hypotheses. This intimate connection between correlation and scientific reasoning necessitates answering the question of how correlation and truth are …
The meaning and reliability of accurate empathy ratings: a rejoinder.
1972
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: ADAM SMITH’S THEORY OF SENTIMENTAL LAW AND ECONOMICS
2020
For Adam Smith, a crime is not the result of a rational calculation of loss and gain but the consequence of envy and a vain desire to parade wealth to attract the approbation of others, combined with a natural systematic bias in overestimating the probability of success. Similarly, Smith does not conceive of legal sanctions as a rational deterrent but as deriving from the feeling of resentment. While the prevailing approach of the eighteenth century is a rational explanation of crime and a utilitarian use of punishment, Adam Smith instead builds his theory of criminal behavior and legal prosecution consistently on the sentiments. A well-functioning legal system is thus an unintended consequ…
Universality of the Triangular Theory of Love: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Triangular Love Scale in 25 Countries
2021
The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale – STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale. In total, we examined more than 11,000 respondents, but as a result of applied exclusion criteria, the final analyses were based on a sample of 7332 participants from 25 countries (from all inhabited continents). We tested configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance, all of which confirmed the cultural universality of the theoretical construct of love …
Cross-national variation of gender differences in adolescent subjective health in Europe and North America
2005
The cross-national consistency and variation of gender differences in subjective health complaints was examined in a sample of 125732 11- to 15-year-olds from 29 European and North American countries, participating in the WHO collaborative study 'Health behaviour in school-aged children (HBSC) 1997/98'. Health complaints were measured with the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Symptom Checklist. Gender differences in health complaints were analysed through multilevel logistic regression analysis. The results indicated a very robust pattern of increasing gender differences across age, with 15-year-old girls as a group at increased risk for health complaints across all countries. The m…
The Bachelardian Tradition in the Philosophy of Science
2005
To present either Bachelard's epistemology or philosophy of science means, in some ways, to undertake the characterization of an original philosophical approach, one that perhaps begins with August...
Robots that look like humans: A brief look into humanoid robotics
2018
This article provides a brief overview of the technology of humanoid robots. First, historical development and hardware progress are presented mainly on human-size full-body biped humanoid robots, together with progress in pattern generation of biped locomotion. Then, «whole-body motion» – coordinating leg and arm movements to fully leverage humanoids’ high degrees of freedom – is presented, followed by its applications in fields such as device evaluation and large-scale assembly. Upper-body humanoids with a mobile base, which are mainly utilized for research on human-robot interaction and cognitive robotics, are also introduced before addressing current issues and perspectives.