The Epistemological Importance of Trust in Science

I argue that trust is epistemically important because it is the foundation of social practices that confer significant epistemic benefits on scientific communities. I begin by showing the limitations of the dominant rational choice account of trust, which maintains that trust is rational when the truster has good reason to believe that it is in the trusted's self-interest to act trustworthily. These limitations motivate my alternative account of trust, which recognizes non-self-interested motivations for acting trustworthily, such as having a sense of duty. The first part of the account captures the cognitive aspect of trust. When we trust, we take a particular cognitive attitude towards the claim that the trusted will do what we expect her to do; I argue that this cognitive attitude can be either belief or acceptance, in the sense outlined by Michael Bratman. The second part of my account captures the emotional and moral aspects of trust by providing a framework to understand the connection between trust and betrayal—the feeling that usually results from being let down by a person one trusts. I provide an account of betrayal as a reactive emotion that connects it to beliefs about relational obligations. Thus when we trust, we depend on the trusted because we believe that our relationship with the trusted morally obliges her to act as expected. Using this account of trust, I argue that scientific communities can garner significant epistemic benefits when scientists are trustworthy and when they trust each other. Applying a framework adapted from Alvin Goldman's work on social epistemology, I argue that trust fosters epistemically beneficial sharing between scientists. These arguments are supported by a case study of the role that trust played in the achievements made by the community of early 20th Century Drosophilists. Finally, using recent examples of scientific fraud in cloning research and public policy responses to much-publicized 'crises in trust', I argue that the epistemic success of science results, in part, from science's ability to balance competition and cooperation, trust and distrust, self-interest and other-interest

Reactive ion beam figuring of optical aluminium surfaces

Ultra-smooth and arbitrarily shaped reflective optics are necessary for further progress in EUV/XUV lithography, x-ray and synchrotron technology. As one of the most important technological mirror optic materials, aluminium behaves in a rather difficult way in ultra-precision machining with such standard techniques as diamond-turning and subsequent ion beam figuring (IBF). In particular, in the latter, a strong surface roughening is obtained. Hence, up to now it has not been possible to attain the surface qualities required for UV or just visible spectral range applications. To overcome the limitations mainly caused by the aluminium alloy structural and compositional conditions, a reactive ion beam machining process using oxygen process gas is evaluated. To clarify the principle differences in the effect of oxygen gas contrary to oxygen ions on aluminium surface machining, we firstly focus on chemical-assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE) and reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) experiments in a phenomenological manner. Then, the optimum process route will be explored within a more quantitative analysis applying the concept of power spectral density (PSD) for a sophisticated treatment of the surface topography. Eventually, the surface composition is examined by means of dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) suggesting a characteristic model scheme for the chemical modification of the aluminium surface during oxygen ion beam machining. Monte Carlo simulations were applied to achieve a more detailed process conception

The No‐Miracles Argument for Realism: Inference to an Unacceptable Explanation

I argue that a certain type of naturalist should not accept a prominent version of the no-miracles argument (NMA). First, scientists (usually) do not accept explanations whose explanans-statements neither generate novel predictions nor unify apparently disparate established claims. Second, scientific realism (as it appears in the NMA) is an explanans that makes no new predictions and fails to unify disparate established claims. Third, many proponents of the NMA explicitly adopt a naturalism that forbids philosophy of science from using any methods not employed by science itself. Therefore, such naturalistic philosophers of science should not accept the version of scientific realism that appears in the NMA

Carnap, Tarski, and Quine's Year Together: Logic, Science, and Mathematics

During the academic year 1940-1941, several giants of analytic philosophy congregated at Harvard: Russell, Tarski, Carnap, Quine, Hempel, and Goodman were all in residence. This group held both regular public meetings as well as private conversations. Carnap took detailed diction notes that give us an extensive record of the discussions at Harvard that year. Surprisingly, the most prominent question in these discussions is: if the number of physical items in the universe is finite (or possibly finite), what form should the logic and mathematics in science take? This question is closely connected to an abiding philosophical problem, one that is of central philosophical importance to the logical empiricists: what is the relationship between the logico-mathematical realm and the natural, material realm? This problem continues to be central to analytic philosophy of logic, mathematics, and science. My dissertation focuses on three issues connected with this problem that dominate the Harvard discussions: nominalism, the unity of science, and analyticity. I both reconstruct the lines of argument represented in Harvard discussions and relate them to contemporary treatments of these issues

From Instantons to Sphalerons: Time-Dependent Periodic Solutions of SU(2)-Higgs Theory

We solve numerically for periodic, spherically symmetric, classical solutions of SU(2)-Higgs theory in four-dimensional Euclidean space. In the limit of short periods the solutions approach tiny instanton-anti-instanton superpositions while, for longer periods, the solutions merge with the static sphaleron. A previously predicted bifurcation point, where two branches of periodic solutions meet, appears for Higgs boson masses larger than $3.091 M_W$.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX with eps figure

Simplified laboratory assessment of subgrade performance parameters for mechanistic design of pavement foundations

With the increasing agenda for sustainability, the UK is attempting to move away from the empirical design of pavement foundations to develop a performance specification approach to facilitate analytical design. For analytical design the measurement of the subgrade performance parameters of resilient modulus and resistance to permanent deformation are required. These parameters ideally need to be assessed concurrently under loading and environmental conditions similar to those the materials will experience in the field. To date, measurement of these parameters is largely confined to research laboratories using cyclic triaxial testing with advanced on sample strain measurement. This apparatus is considered too complicated for routine commercial use, hence this potentially limits the implementation of laboratory performance evaluation for routine pavement foundation design. A previous program of cyclic triaxial testing on clay subgrades indicated a series of useful correlations between strength and permanent deformation behavior (via a threshold stress), and material resilient modulus at this threshold. This paper reviews the previous work and utilizing these correlations presents data from tests on three different clay materials performed to develop simplified equipment and procedures for the routine measurement of the required design parameters. It is shown that simple pseudo-static tests can measure a subgrade modulus for a simplified performance based design. It re-evaluates the previous data (in the light of the recent work) to show a boundary correlation that may allow a shear strength based parameter to control (in design) the onset of permanent deformation, and details how long-term subgrade water content changes can be accommodated

Press Reports of Animal Hoarding

This article explores how the press reports nonhuman animal hoarding and hoarders. It discusses how 100 articles from 1995 to the present were content analyzed. Analysis revealed five emotional themes that include drama, revulsion, sympathy, indignation, and humor. While these themes draw readers\u27 attention and make disparate facts behind cases understandable by packaging them in familiar formats, they also present an inconsistent picture of animal hoarding that can confuse readers about the nature and significance of this behavior as well as animal abuse, more generally

Semiclassical Study of Baryon and Lepton Number Violation in High-Energy Electroweak Collisions

We make use of a semiclassical method for calculating the suppression exponent for topology changing transitions in high-energy electroweak collisions. In the Standard Model these processes are accompanied by violation of baryon and lepton number. By using a suitable computational technique we obtain results for s-wave scattering in a large region of initial data. Our results show that baryon and lepton number violation remains exponentially suppressed up to very high energies of at least 30 sphaleron masses (250 TeV). We also conclude that the known analytic approaches inferred from low energy expansion provide reasonably good approximations up to the sphaleron energy (8 TeV) only.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures. Phys.Rev.D journal version (two references added

The process of setting micronutrient recommendations: a cross-European comparison of nutrition-related scientific advisory bodies

Copyright @ The Authors 2010Objective: To examine the workings of the nutrition-related scientific advisory bodies in Europe, paying particular attention to the internal and external contexts within which they operate. Design: Desk research based on two data collection strategies: a questionnaire completed by key informants in the field of micronutrient recommendations and a case study that focused on mandatory folic acid (FA) fortification. Setting: Questionnaire-based data were collected across thirty-five European countries. The FA fortification case study was conducted in the UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic and Hungary. Results: Varied bodies are responsible for setting micronutrient recommendations, each with different statutory and legal models of operation. Transparency is highest where there are standing scientific advisory committees (SAC). Where the standing SAC is created, the range of expertise and the terms of reference for the SAC are determined by the government. Where there is no dedicated SAC, the impetus for the development of micronutrient recommendations and the associated policies comes from interested specialists in the area. This is typically linked with an ad hoc selection of a problem area to consider, lack of openness and transparency in the decisions and over-reliance on international recommendations. Conclusions: Even when there is consensus about the science behind micronutrient recommendations, there is a range of other influences that will affect decisions about the policy approaches to nutrition-related public health. This indicates the need to document the evidence that is drawn upon in the decisions about nutrition policy related to micronutrient intake.This work has been carried out within the EURRECA Network of Excellence (www.eurreca.org) which is financially supported by the Commission of the European Communities, specific Research, Technology and Development (RTD) Programme Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources, within the Sixth Framework Programme, contract no. 036196