"Indirect Information": the Debate on Testimony in Social Epistemology and Its Role in the Game of Giving and Asking for Reasons

We’ll sketch the debate on testimony in social epistemology by reference to the contemporary debate on reductionism/anti-reductionism, communitarian epistemology and inferentialism. Testimony is a fundamental source of knowledge we share and it is worthy to be considered in the ambit of a dialogical perspective, which requires a description of a formal structure which entails deontic statuses and deontic attitudes. In particular, we’ll argue for a social reformulation of the “space of reasons”, which establishes a fruitful relationship with the epistemological view of Wilfrid Sellars

Chemical evolution models with a new stellar nucleosynthesis

Numerical models for the chemical evolution of the Galaxy have been computed with the new stellar yields published by Maeder (1992). These metallicity dependent yields represent an important improvement in the chemical evolution of galaxies but there are still uncertainties in the stellar evolution which prevent completely satisfactory results. {}From the comparison of the model predictions with the corresponding observational constraints we find that Maeder's nucleosynthesis reproduces the oxygen and carbon abundances and provides consistent $\Delta$Y/$\Delta$(O/H) ratios if a significant amount of gas is accreted by the galactic disc during its whole lifetime. The lower mass limit for the black hole formation (M$_{bh}$) must be larger than 22.5 M$_{\odot}$ to avoid oxygen underproduction.Comment: 6 pages, MNRAS LaTex style, figures available on request from [email protected]

Simulated Clinical Trias: some design issues

Simulation is widely used to investigate real-world systems in a large number of fields, including clinical trials for drug development, since real trials are costly, frequently fail and may lead to serious side effects. This paper is a survey of the statistical issues arising in these simulated trials. We illustrate the broad applicability of this investigation tool by means of examples selected from the literature. We discuss the aims and the peculiarities of the simulation models used in this context, including a brief mention of the use of metamodels. Of special interest is the topic of the design of the virtual experiments, stressing similarities and differences with the design of real life trials. Since it is important for a computerized model to possess a satisfactory range of accuracy consistent with its intended application, real data provided by physical experiments are used to confirm the simulator : we illustrate validating techniques through a number of examples. We end the paper with some challenging questions on the scientificity, ethics and effectiveness of simulation in the clinical research, and the interesting research problem of how to integrate simulated and physical experiments in a clinical context.Simulation models; pharmacokinetics; pharmacodynamics; model validation; experimental design, ethics. Modelli di simulazione; farmacocinetica; farmacodinamica; validazione; disegno degli esperimenti; etica.

Autonomy of Reason?

My contribution is a review of the Proceedings of the V Meeting of Italian-American Philosophy Autonomy of Reason? Autonomie der Vernunft? (Riccardo Dottori ed., Yearbook of Philosophical Hermeneutics I/2009, Lit Verlag, Münster) that toke place in Rome (October 2007). American and European philosophers established a fruitful dialog aiming to show the complexity of the notion of “Reason” and, in particular, the possibility of its “Autonomy”. As we will see in the following discussion, human reason seems to be characterized by somewhat vague borders

Communication, Language and Autonomy

In my contribution I want to describe a notion of autonomy in social terms namely in discursive practices. I already presented autonomy as grounded on the Sellarsian “metaphor” of the game of giving and asking for reasons reinterpreted by Robert Brandom. The model was centered mostly on practices of justification starting from an inferentialist view of the propositional content. However, I think that together with speech acts in ordinary language we must provide a description of the role of prelinguistic practices for autonomy. This further step is implied by the fact that it is important to clarify the dimension of “readiness” to give or ask for reasons on which Swindler rightly insists in his Introduction to my book Autonomy. A Matter of Content. Autonomy develops in a language game that is connected with cooperation. The language game I want to point out is similar to the functional approach of Wittgenstein but starts from a Fregean perspective and takes into consideration neurobiological processes which bridge the gap between brain and world and represent the “motor” of our activity in the world

Monitoring the Socio-Economic Conditions in Chile

This report describes the socio-economic situation in Chile based on a large set of distributional, labor and social statistics computed from microdata of the Encuesta de Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional (CASEN) from 1990 to 2000. The report also draws from other data sources and the existing literature. Chile had an outstanding economic performance during the 1990s, in particular in the first half of the decade, achieving a remarkable reduction in poverty, which contrasts with the experience of its neighbors in the Southern Cone. Poverty reduction was mainly due to economic growth, since inequality has remained very high.income, poverty, inequality, education, labor, wage, employment, Chile