Thinking intuitively: the rich (and at times illogical) world of concepts

Intuitive knowledge of the world involves knowing what kinds of things have which properties. We express it in generalities such as “ducks lay eggs”. It contrasts with extensional knowledge about actual individuals in the world, which we express in quantified statements such as “All US Presidents are male”. Reasoning based on this intuitive knowledge, while highly fluent and plausible may in fact lead us into logical fallacy. Several lines of research point to our conceptual memory as the source of this logical failure. We represent concepts with prototypical properties, judging likelihood and argument strength on the basis of similarity between ideas. Evidence that our minds represent the world in this intuitive way can be seen in a range of phenomena, including how people interpret logical connectives applied to everyday concepts, studies of creativity and emergence in conceptual combination, and demonstrations of the logically inconsistent beliefs that people express in their everyday language

1998 BUSINESS ANALYSIS SUMMARY FOR GENERAL LIVESTOCK FARMS

This report has three purposes: 1)to provide statistical information about the financial results on dairy farms during 1998; 2)to provide production costs for comparative analysis and forward planning; and 3)to provide information on the trends in resource use, income and costs during the last few years.Livestock Production/Industries,

Intra-abdominal abscess and intractable sinus - a rare late complication after splenectomy

Intra-abdominal abscess and an intractable abdominal wall sinus forty years after splenectomy is rare, which has not been described previously in the surgical literature. We report the management of a patient who had presented with an intractable sinus on his left hypochondrium forty years after having undergone splenectomy and cholecystectomy, which persisted for more than two years despite repeated surgery and courses of antibiotics and compromised quality of life significantly from pain. A sinogram and computerised tomographic scan followed by exploration and laying open of the sinus delivered multiple silk sutures used for ligation of splenic pedicle, led to complete resolution of the sinus. It is important to avoid using non-absorbable silk sutures during splenectomy when splenectomy is undertaken in a contaminated field. Appropriate imaging and exploration is mandatory for its resolution

Improved diamond coring bits developed for dry and chip-flush drilling

Two rotary diamond bit designs, one operating with a chip-flushing fluid, the second including auger section to remove drilled chips, enhance usefulness of tool for exploratory and industrial core-drilling of hard, abrasive mineral deposits and structural masonry

The Rumsfeld Effect: The unknown unknown

A set of studies tested whether people can use awareness of ignorance to provide enhanced test consistency over time if they are allowed to place uncertain items into a “don’t know” category. For factual knowledge this did occur, but for a range of other forms of knowledge relating to conceptual knowledge and personal identity, no such effect was seen. Known unknowns would appear to be largely restricted to factual kinds of knowledge

Transcendence and Immanence: Deciphering Their Relation through the Transcendentals in Aquinas and Kant

This article examines the relationship between the conspicuous and complicated terms of transcendence and immanence, which may equally be defined as essentially connected, or diametrically opposed. Recent developments in two largely unrelated sets of scholarship— the re-evaluation of secularisation, and the relationship between medieval and modern philosophy—provide a helpful means to arrive at a clearer understanding of this challenging problem. Charles Taylor and Jan Aertesn act as foci for these developments, particularly through their respective concerns with epistemic framing in relation to transcendence and immanence, and the role of transcendentals in medieval philosophy. This examination brings these two concepts together, examining the idea of transcendentals offered by both Aquinas, a thinker of the transcendent frame, and Kant, a thinker of the immanent frame. From this juxtaposition we can offer two contrasting understandings of the relationship between transcendence and immanence from within both the transcendent and immanent frames. Finally, two brief literary examples demonstrate how these two ways of reading transcendence and immanence may be employed in the contextual understanding of religious writing. To understand the unity and division between transcendence and immanence is to better comprehend two primary terms in the study of religion, and to appreciate a fundamental development in the history of religion in the West