Towards MKM in the Large: Modular Representation and Scalable Software Architecture

MKM has been defined as the quest for technologies to manage mathematical knowledge. MKM "in the small" is well-studied, so the real problem is to scale up to large, highly interconnected corpora: "MKM in the large". We contend that advances in two areas are needed to reach this goal. We need representation languages that support incremental processing of all primitive MKM operations, and we need software architectures and implementations that implement these operations scalably on large knowledge bases. We present instances of both in this paper: the MMT framework for modular theory-graphs that integrates meta-logical foundations, which forms the base of the next OMDoc version; and TNTBase, a versioned storage system for XML-based document formats. TNTBase becomes an MMT database by instantiating it with special MKM operations for MMT.Comment: To appear in The 9th International Conference on Mathematical Knowledge Management: MKM 201

Fluid Mechanics, Models, and Realism: Philosophy at the Boundaries of Fluid Systems

Philosophy of science has long drawn conclusions about the relationships between laws, models, and theories from studies of physics. However, many canonical accounts of the epistemic roles of laws and the nature of theories derived their scientific content from either schematized or exotic physical theories. Neither Theory-T frameworks nor investigation on interpretations of quantum mechanics and relativity reflect a majority of physical theories in use. More recently, philosophers of physics have begun developing accounts based in versions of classical mechanics that are both homelier than the exotic physical theories and more mathematically rigorous than the Theory-T frameworks of the earlier canon. Some, including Morrison (1999, 2015), Rueger (2005), and Wilson (2017), have turned to the study of fluid flows as a way to unpack the complex relationships among laws, models, theories, and their implications for scientific realism. One important result of this work is a resurgence of interest in the relationship between the differential equations that express mechanical laws and the boundary conditions that constrain the solutions to those equations. However, many of these accounts miss a crucial set of distinctions between the roles of mathematical boundary conditions modeling physical systems, and the roles of physical conditions at the boundary of the modeled system. In light of this systematic oversight, in this dissertation I show that there is a difference between boundary conditions and conditions at the boundary. I use that distinction to investigate the roles of boundary conditions in the models of fluid mechanics. I argue that boundary conditions are in some cases more lawlike than previously supposed, and that they can play unique roles in scientific explanations. Further, I show that boundaries are inherently mesoscale features of physical systems, which provide explanations that cannot be inferred from microscale dynamics alone. Finally, I argue that an examination of the domain of application of boundary conditions supports a form of realism

Intertheory: Disability, Accommodation, and the Writing of Composition

Combining approaches from composition studies, legal studies, and disability studies, this project theorizes a new model of accommodation in composition (and beyond): complex accommodation. Complex accommodation frames disability as critical kairos; in other words, I argue that the encounter of disability and attendant necessity for accommodation creates a moment of practical and theoretical dissonance in composition that may reveal under-critiqued norms in individual classrooms, writing programs, and the field as a whole. This project provides the theoretical grounding and articulation of complex accommodation while also creating practical accommodational heuristics for instructors and writing programs

The City Electric

Michael Degani explores how electricity and its piracy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has become a key site for urban Tanzanians to enact, experience, and debate their social contract with the state

The City Electric

Michael Degani explores how electricity and its piracy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has become a key site for urban Tanzanians to enact, experience, and debate their social contract with the state

On Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Surplus Structure and Artifacts in Scientific Theories

Although logical empiricism is now mostly decried, their naturalist claim that the content of a theory can be read off from its structure, without any philosophical considerations needed, still supports traditional strategies to escape cases of underdetermination. The appeal to theoretical equivalence or to theoretical virtues, for instance, both assume that there is a neutral standpoint from which the structure of the theories can be analyzed, the physically relevant from the superfluous separated, and a comparison made between their theoretical content and virtues. In my dissertation, I examine the presuppositions upon which such strategies depend. I argue that the methodological principle underlying them, according to which theories with no superfluous structure should be preferred, is unpractical, for what constitutes relevant structure is determined by epistemic considerations about the aim of scientific theories. In chapter 1, I analyze the claim that theories with ordinary bosons and fermions are theoretically equivalent to theories with exotic `paraparticles\u27. I argue that this claim does not do justice to the latter, as the proof is formulated in a vocabulary parochial to the former and thus favors one of the theory while giving an impoverished version of the second. In chapter 2, I examine recent arguments to the effects that any interpretation of Quantum Mechanics that can offer a no-go theorem against paraparticles possesses an explanatory advantage over other interpretations and should, as such, be favored over others. Given that most physicists consider paraparticles as surplus structure whose non-observation does not require an explanation, I evaluate arguments of both sides and suggest a third way to approach the question. Finally, in chapter 3, I turn my attention to methods for excluding another kind of unphysical structure, mathematical artifacts, from rival dark matter models. Simulations are our only window into what rival models predict about the universe’s structure. But for them to play a useful role in generating knowledge, we need to distinguish reliably between real predictions and artifacts. I argue that robustness analysis fails to fulfill this task. I propose in its place another methodology, that of crucial simulations

Legislative hope and utopia

Legislation, inspired by utopian ideals of rationality and justice, has long been experienced as a source of hope but frequently fails in meeting expectations. Current legislation is mainly focused on realising short-term policy goals without offering hope. This contribution aims to investigate how legislation relates to hope and what role utopian thought plays with respect to that and evaluates current legislative policy on its hope-inspiring properties. To this end, this contribution analyses the features of utopias and investigates how these find expression in legislation. It then evaluates to what extent utopianism may inspire hope or may lead to disappointment or even despair. Conceptions of time, knowledge and identity seem of relevance, connected to substantive reasoning and the constitutive function of legislation. The author's contention is that legislative hope hinges on a balance between effectiveness, room for substantive reasoning and the quality of the political aspect of the legislative process

Becoming Sonic: Ambient Poetics and the Ecology of Listening in Four Militant Sound Investigations

This dissertation Becoming Sonic: Ambient Poetics and the Ecology of the Ear in Four Militant Sound Investigations offers a critical and historical analysis of acoustic ecology and soundscape recording —the sounds, noises, and silences that make up our ambient sonic environment and are found and recorded “in the field” by artists to create recordings and performances are then experienced by listeners. Field recording captures the diverse and often unwanted or inconsequential sounds of a space, which can then be used to bring attention to the often unheard and unconscious processes that stratify space. By stratification I am referring to the processes of urban planning, architecture, business, policies, and governance that shape and grid the environment. Analyzing four case studies by the sound collective Ultra-Red, sound activist Christopher DeLaurenti, and field recording artist Chris Watson, that explore the soundscapes of housing redevelopment, using a food bank, public sex in parks, and the slow violence of ecological devastation, this dissertation builds on and analyzes the sonic environmental and spatial implications of ecology by both critiquing acoustic ecology and employing it as a concept to explore the political, aesthetic, and epistemological consequences of soundscape recording. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine what sound indicates through cultural practice and how it can be used and deployed to create different understandings of the places we live and act. This research articulates a poetics of listening to space that constructs worlds and questions how the environment can be used for aesthetic purposes, how the sounds of the city and ‘nature’ influence artists, how artists practice and experience sound by listening, and what kind of knowledges these aesthetic practices produce. In order to accomplish this, it relies on critical approaches to ecology, space and urbanism (Gilles Deleuze and Fèlix Guattari, David Harvey, Nigel Thrift, and Edward Soja); ecologies of sound and listening (Steve Goodman, Murray Schafer, Susan Bickford, Frances Dyson); and affective politics (Brian Massumi, Erin Manning). This dissertation makes substantiative use of interviews, newspaper articles, and artist’s writings and statements to elucidate its investigation

Authenticity Online: Using Webnography to Address Phenomenological Concerns

In this paper, I will aim to describe a webnography-based approach to exploring issues of the authenticity of being in online spaces. Early studies held the prevailing view that online communities were exotic places and fundamentally different to the norms of everyday communication, but the issue of authenticity still demands inquiry, and using Heidegger's categories of angst and resoluteness as moods of authentic existence, it will be argued that the extent of authenticity in being online can be assessed using ethnography