Resisting the Great Endarkenment: On the Future of Philosophy

Elijah Millgram’s book The Great Endarkenment takes philosophy to task for failing to note the kinds of creatures we are (serial hyperspecializers) and what that means for philosophy. In this commentary, I will complicate the picture he draws, while suggesting a more hopeful path forward. First, I argue that we are not actually serial hyperspecializers. Nevertheless, we are hyperspecializers, and this is the main source of the looming endarkenment. I will suggest that a proper understanding of expertise, particularly the requirement that experts (at least experts whose success is not readily assessable) be required to explicate their judgments helps to mitigate the threat of siloed expertise and endarkenment. Further, I argue that grappling directly with the institutional structures that encourage narrow and isolated hyperspecialists in academia can be a way to avoid endarkenment problems. The current landscape of academia, with its valorization of narrow disciplinary expertise, is neither necessary nor sustainable. In order to change this landscape, we need to understand how current incentives construct epistemic niches, and what we might change in order to reshape the ecology of academia

Examining the uses of shared data

Background
 Many initiatives and repositories exist to encourage the sharing of research data, and thousands of microarray gene expression datasets are publicly available. Many studies reuse this data, but it is not well understood which datasets are reused and for what purpose.

 Materials and Methods
 We trained a machine-learning algorithm to automatically classify full-text gene expression microarray studies into two classes: those that generated original microarray data (n=900) and those which only reused data (n=250). We then compared the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms of two classes to identify MeSH topics which were over- or under-represented by publications with reused data.

 Results
 Studies on humans, mice, chordata, and invertebrates were equally likely to be conducted using original or shared microarray data, whereas shared data was used in a relatively high proportion of studies involving fungi (odds ratio (OR)=2.4), and a relatively low proportion involving rats, bacteria, viruses, plants, or genetically-altered or inbred animals (OR<0.05). Unsurprisingly, when we looked at Major MeSH terms to represent the primary purpose of the studies, statistical and computational methods clearly dominated. The only biomedical topics with a relatively high proportion of data reuse Major MeSH terms were Promoter Regions, Evolution, and Protein Interaction Mapping.

 Discussion
 Identifying areas of particularly successful microarray data reuse—such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae datasets and studies of promoter regions and evolution—can highlight best practices to be used when developing research agendas, tools, standards, repositories, and communities in areas which have yet to receive major benefits from shared data.
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On the origin of the Trojan asteroids: Effects of Jupiter's mass accretion and radial migration

We present analytic and numerical results which illustrate the effects of Jupiter's accretion of nebular gas and the planet's radial migration on its Trojan companions. Initially, we approximate the system by the planar circular restricted three-body problem and assume small Trojan libration amplitudes. Employing an adiabatic invariant calculation, we show that Jupiter's thirty-fold growth from a $10 M_\oplus$ core to its present mass causes the libration amplitudes of Trojan asteroids to shrink by a factor of about 2.5 to $\sim 40$ of their original size. The calculation also shows that Jupiter's radial migration has comparatively little effect on the Trojans; inward migration from 6.2 to 5.2 AU causes an increase in Trojan libration amplitudes of $\sim4$. In each case, the area enclosed by small tadpole orbits, if made dimensionless by using Jupiter's semimajor axis, is approximately conserved. Similar adiabatic invariant calculations for inclined and eccentric Trojans show that Jupiter's mass growth leaves the asteroid's eccentricities and inclinations essentially unchanged, while one AU of inward migration causes an increase in both of these quantities by $\sim 4$. Numerical integrations confirm and extend these analytic results. We demonstrate that our predictions remain valid for Trojans with small libration amplitudes even when the asteroids have low, butComment: Submitted to Icarus - 13 Fig

State of the field: Why novel prediction matters

It has become commonplace to say that novel predictive success is not epistemically special. Its value over accommodation, if it has any, is taken to be superficial or derivative. We argue that the value of predictive success is indeed instrumental. Nevertheless, it is a powerful instrument that provides significant epistemic assurances at many different levels. Even though these assurances are in principle dispensable, real science is rarely (if ever) in the position to confidently obtain them in other ways. So we argue for a pluralist instrumental predictivism: novel predictive success is important for inferences from data to phenomena, from phenomena to theories, and from theories to frameworks. Ignoring it would deprive science of a crucial tool

Adjusting sensibilities: researching artistic value 'on the edge'.

An understanding of the relationship between systems of production and systems of value in the visual arts is essential to the production of new sustainable approaches to creativity. Contexts for working situated on the margins such as remote rural locations focus tensions between conflicting systems of value that require us to adjust our sensibilities. This paper traces these issues through an ongoing three year research project, On the Edge (OTE) (August 2001 - 4, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB)). Key stages of generative metaphor, originally identified by Schön, are used as an analytical tool to reveal the process of developing the research methodology

Court opens door to domestic violence victim to sue police for negligence

This week the Victorian Supreme Court refused an application by the State of Victoria to strike out a claim by Tara Smith and her three children. Smith claims Victoria Police officers were negligent because they failed to prevent numerous breaches of protection orders by her ex-partner, the father of the children. As a result, Smith and the children have suffered ongoing psychological harm. In refusing to strike out Smith's claim, the court has accepted that it is arguable police could owe a common law duty of care to specific victims of domestic violence to protect them from preventable harm. This is an important decision, because no Australian case has determined the question of whether police owe a duty of care to victims of domestic violence. Finding a duty of care is the first step in a civil action for damages in negligence. Without a duty of care there can be no liability in negligence, no matter how careless the defendant is

Legal responses to non-consensual smartphone recordings in the context of domestic and family violence

The increasingly ubiquitous use of smartphones is further complicating the legal response to domestic and family violence (‘DFV’). Perpetrators can now use smartphone recording facilities to record private conversations and activities of their (ex-)partners. Such behaviour may be a criminal offence of breach of a domestic and family violence protection order or stalking. On the other hand, those who have experienced DFV can record perpetrators and use the recordings in legal proceedings. The use of non-consensual smartphone recordings as evidence in DFV related cases is increasing and courts must determine when recordings are admissible. A key factor in making such determinations is whether the recording contravenes state-based criminal laws and listening and surveillance devices law. Drawing on reported experiences of the use of smartphone recordings in the context of DFV we show why further consideration and legal reform is needed if the law is to keep pace with this issue

Many Children with Married Parents Are Low Income

Recent public policy initiatives have encouraged low-income parents to marry as a means of attaining economic security. But, the data tell a more complex story. Marriage does not guarantee economic security. Not only do the majority of children in single-parent families have parents who were previously married, but over a quarter of children with married parents are low income

The New Poor: Regional Trends in Child Poverty Since 2000

Child poverty has risen substantially in the last five years after hitting a low in 2000. The largest increases have been seen in the Midwest, where 2.8 million children live in poverty. The regional increase has been the driving force behind the overall increase at the national level. This report examines regional differences in the family characteristics of children who experienced the greatest increases in poverty between 2000 and 2004

Marriage Not Enough to Guarantee Economic Security

Recent public policy initiatives have encouraged low-income parents to marry as a way to become economically stable. But, the data tell a more complex story. Marriage does not guarantee economic security. Not only do the majority of children in single-parent families have parents who were previously married, more than one in four children with married parents is low income. Even when married, some demographic groups are particularly likely to be low income, which is defined as earning less than twice the poverty level—the minimum necessary to meet families' most basic needs. Among Latinos, more than half of children with married parents are low income. In rural and suburban areas, the majority of low-income children have married parents. Despite high levels of employment, many married parents remain low income. Among children with low-income married parents, a full 95 percent have at least one parent who is employed, and 41 percent have two employed parents