Internalism and the Frege-Geach Problem

According to the established understanding of the Frege-Geach problem, it is a challenge exclusively for metaethical expressivism. In this paper, I argue that it is much wider in scope: The problem applies generally to views according to which moral sentences express moral judgments entailing that one is for or against something, irrespective of what mental states the judgments consist in. In particular, it applies to motivational internalism about moral judgments. Most noteworthy, it applies to cognitivist internalism according to which moral judgments consist in motivating beliefs. Hence, in order for a metaethical view to evade the Frege-Geach problem, it should avoid stating that moral judgments are motivating

Aesthetic Internalism and two Normative Puzzles

One of the most discussed views in metaethics is Moral Internalism, according to which there is a conceptually necessary connection between moral judgments and motivation to act. Moral Internalism is regarded to yield the prime argument against Moral Cognitivism and for Moral Non-Cognitivism. In this paper, I investigate the significance of the corresponding claim in metaaesthetics. I pursue two lines of argument. First, I argue that Aesthetic Internalism – the view that there is a conceptually necessary connection between aesthetic value judgments and motivation to act – is mistaken. It follows, I maintain, that the most important argument against Aesthetic Cognitivism, and for Aesthetic Non-Cognitivism, is flawed, and that the latter view presumably is incorrect. Second, I argue that considerations with regard to Aesthetic Internalism give rise to two normative puzzles with relevance for the normative domain in general. The most plausible solution to these puzzles entails, I maintain, that we need to revise the established view about normative judgments. Moreover, I propose a novel externalist account of aesthetic value judgments

Moral Reality: A Defence of Moral Realism

The main aim of this thesis is to defend moral realism. In chapter 1, I argue that moral realism is best understood as the view that moral sentences have truth-value, there are moral properties that make some moral sentences true, and moral properties are not reducible to non- moral properties. Realism is contrasted with non-cognitivism, error-theory and reductionism, which, in brief, deny, and, respectively. In the introductory chapter, it is also argued that there are some prima facie reasons to assume that non-cognitivism and error-theory are erroneous. In chapters 2 and 3, I suggest that the two main forms of reductionism, analytic and synthetic reductionism, are mistaken. In chapter 4, I argue that the considerations in the previous chapters in relation to non-cognitivism, error-theory and reductionism provide support to moral realism. It is also suggested that these considerations make it plausible to hypothesise that moral properties depend on non- moral properties in a way I refer to as ‘the realist formula’. The realist formula confirms moral realism since it implies that moral properties are not reducible to non- moral properties. In chapters 5, 6 and 7, I argue that moral realism, much owing to the realist formula, is able to explain significant meta-ethical issues regarding moral disagreement, moral reason and moral motivation. Among other things, externalism concerning moral motivation is defended. The explanatory value of moral realism in relation to these meta-ethical issues is taken to suggest that this view is preferable to non-cognitivism, error-theory and reductionism. Some of the meta-ethical issues discussed in these chapters, particularly moral disagreement and motivation, have been thought to provide support to non-cognitivism and error-theory. I maintain that since realism, unlike reductionism, is able to counter these arguments, it justifies us in upholding the view that moral sentences have truth-value and the view that there are moral properties. In chapter 8, various objections against realism with regard to the dependence of moral properties on non- moral properties are responded to. In chapter 9, I consider an influential argument to the effect that moral properties are not involved in causal explanations. I maintain that this argument fails and that it therefore is reasonable to assume that moral properties are natural properties. However, the discussions in chapters 8 and 9 also suggest that moral realism might face problems that cannot be thoroughly discussed in this thesi

A Dual Aspect Account of Moral Language

It is often observed in metaethics that moral language displays a certain duality in as much as it seems to concern both objective facts in the world and subjective attitudes that move to action. In this paper, I defend The Dual Aspect Account which is intended to capture this duality: A person’s utterance of a sentence according to which φing has a moral characteristic, such as “φing is wrong,” conveys two things: The sentence expresses, in virtue of its conventional meaning, the belief that φing has a moral property, and the utterance of the sentence carries a generalized conversational implicature to the effect that the person in question has an action-guiding attitude in relation to φing. This account has significant advantages over competing views: (i) As it is purely cognitivist, it does not have the difficulties of expressivism and various ecumenical positions. (ii) Yet, in spite of this, it can explain the close, “meaning-like,” connection between moral language and attitudes. (iii) In contrast to other pragmatic accounts, it is compatible with any relevant cognitivist view. (iv) It does not rest on a contentious pragmatic notion, such as conventional implicature. (v) It does not imply that utterances of complex moral sentences, such as conditionals, convey attitudes. In addition, the generalized implicature in question is fully calculable and cancellabl

Moving change to the top of the agenda – learning from the on-ground decision-makers.

This paper draws on innovation decision-making theory and a number of extension research and evaluation projects in which the authors have participated to explore the pathway to practice change and how it can be influenced. It suggests that a major factor influencing the rate of adoption, is the ability of decision-makers to ‘play’ with the new approach and so make a decision based on confidence that it will work for them. The authors build on a number of papers on decision-making which describe the stages through which people move in the adoption process. Reference is made to authors who overlay these stages with the capacity and motivation for change – and the impact of contextual factors such as structural changes in agriculture, available finances, farm size and climate. The findings are pulled together in a tabulated checklist to guide project teams in ways that best foster play – and hence more rapid applicable adoption of innovations. It is concluded that providing the best information on its own is rarely enough - providing space to play with that information is critical if adoption is to be accelerated

Inferring Students’ Self-Assessed Concentration Levels in Daily Life Using Biosignal Data From Wearables

The ability to concentrate well is an important determinant of students’ learning outcomes but remains poorly understood. In this work we investigated whether there exists a mapping between students’ biosignals and perceived concentration levels. If we succeed in this mapping, a wearable can function as a Concentration Tracker, a novel feature that is missing from current wearables. For this, a wearable wristband was used to record students’ heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, skin conductivity and acceleration from body changes. Additionally, students self-assessed their concentration levels using a smartphone application. We improved the accuracy by utilizing a big amount of unlabelled biodata from outside the study sessions. Our best boosted regression tree model predicted students’ concentration level with only 1.7% NMAE error. The predictions for a user not in the training set were much weaker; the best model, a convolutional neural network, achieved a prediction NMAE error of 30.7%. This implies that the users generated biosignals highly individually. Thus, models are not well transferable from one user to another without rooting them in user-specific data. Contrary to stress research, our results showed that skin conductivity had mostly a negative correlation with students’ concentration levels. Also diverging from stress reactions, skin temperature had mainly a positive correlation. Conductivity and temperature were the two dominant predictors. Further, the results suggest that an element of deep, effortless concentration was present in the learning experience of the subjects. Altogether, our work demonstrates that a concentration tracking wearable for improving learning is technically achievable

Is routine pathological examination required in South African children undergoing adenotonsillectomy?

Objective. We aimed to determine the incidence of abnormalpathological findings in the tonsils and/or adenoids of children undergoing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy, and the incidence of tuberculosis of the tonsils and adenoids; suggest criteria to identify children at risk for adenotonsillar tuberculosis; and investigate the association between HIV and adenotonsillar abnormality, the cost-effectiveness of routine pathological examination of adenotonsillectomy specimens, and criteria to decide which specimens to send for histological examination.Methods. We undertook an 8-month prospective study on all children (.12 years) undergoing consecutive tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy (T&A) at Red Cross War Memorial Childrenfs Hospital. Patients were assessed pre-operatively and tonsil sizes graded pre- and intra-operatively. Blood was taken for HIV testing, and all tonsils and adenoids were examined histologically. A cost-benefit analysis was done to determine the cost-effectiveness of adenotonsillectomy routine pathology.Results. A total of 344 tonsils were analysed from 172 children (102 boys, 70 girls); 1 patient had nasopharyngeal tuberculosis, and 1 lymphoma of the tonsils; 13 (7.6%) patients had clinically asymmetrically enlarged tonsils but no significant abnormal  pathological finding. The average cost of detecting a clinically significant abnormality was R22 744 (R45 488 € 2 abnormalities).Conclusions. The following criteria could improve cost-effectiveness of pathological examination of adenotonsillectomy specimens: positive tuberculosis contact at home, systemic symptoms of fever and weight loss, cervical lymphadenopathy >3 cm, suspicious nasopharyngealappearance, HIV-positive patient, rapid tonsillar enlargement or significant tonsillar asymmetry. On our evidence, routine pathological investigation for South African children does not seem to be justified

A paradox concerning rate of information

A natural definition of the rate of transmission of information is given, arising out of the usual theory. We call it the “Riemannian” rate of transmission. It is shown that the definition leads to a paradox if taken in conjunction with the notion of (time-unlimited) band-limited white noise. A mathematical model can hardly contain both these notions at the same time. The Riemannian rate of transmission does however lead to sensible results if used in conjunction with periodic band-limited white noise. In particular it leads to the Hartley-Wiener-Tuller-Sullivan-Shannon formula without the necessity of introducing Shannon's notion of “dimension rate.” The discussion refers to matrix signal-to-noise ratios and to the entropy of singular multivariate normal distributions

Farmers’ perceptual, emotional and behavioural responses to environmental policy changes

Environmental policies purposefully encourage environmental protection by redirecting human decision-making and activities. Achieving the right human responses to environmental policy is therefore critically important. This paper discusses the regulatory framework and pastoral farmers’ adaptation to a new regulation, consisting of rules, designed to protect the pristine waters of Lake Taupo from land based non-point source nitrogen emissions. The lake is an internationally recognised treasure and New Zealand icon, however, its water quality has been deteriorating over decades because of rising nitrogen levels, 37% of which comes from pastoral farming activities in the catchment. The paper discusses agricultural extension in the context of emotional, perceptual and behavioural change.Key words: farmer adaptation, policy impact, water quality, farming practices, extensio