Leibniz's Infinitesimals: Their Fictionality, Their Modern Implementations, And Their Foes From Berkeley To Russell And Beyond

Many historians of the calculus deny significant continuity between infinitesimal calculus of the 17th century and 20th century developments such as Robinson's theory. Robinson's hyperreals, while providing a consistent theory of infinitesimals, require the resources of modern logic; thus many commentators are comfortable denying a historical continuity. A notable exception is Robinson himself, whose identification with the Leibnizian tradition inspired Lakatos, Laugwitz, and others to consider the history of the infinitesimal in a more favorable light. Inspite of his Leibnizian sympathies, Robinson regards Berkeley's criticisms of the infinitesimal calculus as aptly demonstrating the inconsistency of reasoning with historical infinitesimal magnitudes. We argue that Robinson, among others, overestimates the force of Berkeley's criticisms, by underestimating the mathematical and philosophical resources available to Leibniz. Leibniz's infinitesimals are fictions, not logical fictions, as Ishiguro proposed, but rather pure fictions, like imaginaries, which are not eliminable by some syncategorematic paraphrase. We argue that Leibniz's defense of infinitesimals is more firmly grounded than Berkeley's criticism thereof. We show, moreover, that Leibniz's system for differential calculus was free of logical fallacies. Our argument strengthens the conception of modern infinitesimals as a development of Leibniz's strategy of relating inassignable to assignable quantities by means of his transcendental law of homogeneity.Comment: 69 pages, 3 figure

The Faculty Notebook, September 2008

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

The Effectiveness of Training for Displaced Workers with Long Prior Job Tenure

Workers displaced from long-tenure jobs often have difficulty finding new employment and can take a substantial drop in earnings when they find reemployment. These losses are large and persistent, and can easily dwarf the transitory losses from the initial period of nonemployment. Policy response for these long-term problems has centred on education, training and skill development. This paper surveys and assesses a variety of strategies that have been employed to determine training effectiveness, using results from field experiments and from econometric work based on non-experimental data. Findings from this large research enterprise are not encouraging. Both experimental and non-experimental research shows that the returns to training for displaced workers are low, almost surely less than the (well-estimated) returns to formal schooling which lie in the 6-9% range. On a cost-benefit basis, the body of evidence does not show that training pays off for most of the displaced population. Alternative means to compensate the losers from economic adjustment might include modified or expanded EI coverage, without any necessary link to training expenditures, and perhaps consideration of alternative policies, such as Wage Insurance. Since evidence on training programs for displaced workers gives only limited promise, it is important to search for other creative ways to ensure that the costs of economic restructuring do not fall disproportionately on a narrow group.labour market adjustment, training, displaced workers

A study of the potential impacts of space utilization

Because the demand for comprehensive impact analysis of space technologies will increase with the use of space shuttles, the academic social sciences/humanities community was surveyed in order to determine their interests in space utilization, to develop a list of current and planned courses, and to generate a preliminary matrix of relevant social sciences. The academic scope/focus of a proposed social science space-related journal was identified including the disciplines which should be represented in the editorial board/reviewer system. The time and funding necessary to develop a self-sustaining journal were assessed. Cost income, general organizational structure, marking/distribution and funding sources were analyzed. Recommendations based on the survey are included

Walking, making, thinking

As a writer deeply interested in sense of place, and in the effects of environment upon the psychology and self-identity of characters in my work, I have come to recognise the relationship between key areas of my creative practice and theories of, and approaches in, psychogeography. Employing my working definition of psychogeography – ‘looking at place and our relationship to it’ as ‘a two-way thing’ (‘The Walking Dead’ 351) – this thesis articulates the creation of my own walking methods and their role in my practice research and outputs. The publications submitted have been produced at various stages in the evolution of my creative writing-walking practice, demonstrating a research trajectory. The publications and related practice research projects range from creative experiment and conscious practice-as-research texts and events, to critical works which define, discuss and disseminate my methods, including their application to creative writing and wider subject areas. In the following sections I outline the place of my research within the current field; situate relevant methodologies, including my own ambulant methods; offer an introduction to the research; and present the submitted publications within the context of practice research projects. I close by summarising the contribution the research presents to the field and its application to other disciplines

ILR Faculty Publications 2008-09

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty's research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journals.Faculty_Publications_2008_09.pdf: 36 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Feminist Judging Matters: How Feminist Theory and Methods Affect the Process of Judgment

The word “feminism” means different things to its many supporters (and undoubtedly, to its detractors). For some, it refers to the historic struggle: first to realize the right of women to vote and then to eliminate explicit discrimination against women from the nation\u27s laws. For others, it is a political movement, the purpose of which is to raise awareness about and to overcome past and present oppression faced by women. For still others, it is a philosophy--a system of thought--and a community of belief centering on attaining political, social, and economic equality for women, men, and people of any gender. For us, the editors of Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court, feminism is all of those things and more. Feminism is both a movement and a mode of inquiry. In its best and most capacious form, feminism embraces justice for all and seeks to ally itself with rights-based movements for people of color, the poor, immigrants, refugees, religious minorities, disabled individuals, LGBTQ+ people, and other historically marginalized groups. This essay presents feminism as the foundation for a developing form of rich, complex, and practical legal scholarship--the lens and the means through which we may approach and resolve many legal problems. First, this essay explores the intellectual foundations of feminist legal theory and situates the United States and international feminist judgments projects within that scholarly tradition. It next considers how the feminist judgments projects move beyond traditional academic scholarship to bridge the gap between the real-world practice of law and feminist theory, a move that made the publication of Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court an especially fitting topic for the 10th Annual Conference held at the University of Baltimore Center on Applied Feminism. When they write feminist judgments (using feminist perspectives or methods to produce revised versions of actual court opinions), feminist authors translate feminist theory into the language of law practice and judging. Their translations demonstrate the potential for lawyers to incorporate feminist theory and methods into oral and written arguments, for law students to gain deeper insights from and to learn the practical utility of feminist theory, and for judges to recognize how incorporating feminist perspectives may transform the reasoning or outcome of a case without changing the law or the facts of the underlying lawsuit. Finally, this essay uses contemporary examples of feminist judging to illustrate that the gap between feminist theory and judicial decision making is narrowing, a real-world advance that suggests a widening judicial audience for Feminist Judgments

Clio's Claim: The Role of Historical Research in Library and Information Science

History offers each librarian a direct opportunity to participate in the cooperative research effort. The writing of history requires no facility with esoteric research tools. The proper use of sources requires care, intelligence, patience, and, frequently, pure luck. These are not talents beyond the abilities of most librarians. Further, the dispersion of resources in library history is such that individual librarians, through testing hypotheses suggested by other research on their own records, can make a significant contribution to library and information science research. The existence of numerous journals for the publication of such "little history" should serve as an encouragement. Library historians may not receive credits toward promotion through their research activities, but they can realize their professional commitment through their contribution to our greater understanding of the development of the profession

History of the Academy of Accounting Historians: 1989-1998

This paper describes the evolution of The Academy of Accounting Historians from 1989 through 1998. It is a continuation of a history of the first 15 years of The Academy that appeared in the December 1989 issue of this journal by the same authors