Three essays on applied epistemology

This dissertation contains three essays, each of which discusses a distinct way in which the particular status our beliefs have should affect the way we treat others. In the first essay, I begin with an account of epistemic damage—a proposal about how to measure epistemic harm. Second, I give an account of expected epistemic damage, which allows us to draw a principled line from epistemic harm to moral blameworthiness. Third, I use the notion of expected epistemic damage to solve a dilemma I pose for the dominant account of lying. I critique, and offer a replacement for, a widely-accepted necessary condition on lying—that the speaker believes the negation of what they assert. In the second essay, I argue that when people behave in a way that we believe is morally impermissible but toward which they are morally indifferent, we ought to pay them to forgo that behavior. People have legal entitlements to act in some ways that others regard as morally impermissible. But people exercise these entitlements, nevertheless. When they do, others have a defeasible reason to stop them. The circumstances will dictate whether they should, and, if so, the best method: one might convince them that what they are doing is wrong; one might explain that people will dislike them if they persist; one might ask them nicely, or threaten them. Or, one could pay them. In the third essay, I address arguments in both the philosophical and legal literature according to which statistical evidence cannot alone be sufficient evidence for a judgment in a civil trial or a conviction in a criminal trial. I argue that this dominant view is mistaken. Broadly, the argument relies on the presumption that any probative evidence ought to be given its due. I argue that the very many arguments presented against the sufficiency of statistical evidence are not strong enough to overcome this presumption.Philosoph

A critical analysis of the third circuit's test for due process violations in denials of defense witness immunity requests

textSeveral Supreme Court cases in the latter half of the 20th Century established a criminal defendant's due process right to put forward an effective defense. To put forward an effective defense, one must be able to introduce exculpatory evidence on one's behalf. A defendant's witness may claim the right against self-incrimination, in which case the defendant may request immunity for the witness so that he will testify. If that request is denied, a defendant's due process right to put forward an effective defense may be implicated. The refusal to grant defense witness immunity is one instance of suppression of evidence. In a string of cases in the Third Circuit, the courts have implemented a test for determining under what conditions a due process violation occurs in this situation. But, there is significant reason to believe that in implementing the test the court has relied on incorrect assumptions. This paper discusses how the court has relied on unwarranted assumptions to make due process determinations, and concludes that in so doing it has imposed too high a standard for a due process violation. First, the court interprets the test as a test for a due process violation, when there is reason to believe that the court articulating the test meant it to be a test for the appropriateness of judicially created immunity as the remedy for an existing due process violation. Second, the court makes an unwarranted assumption that any strong governmental interest countervails against a grant of witness immunity. Third, the court imposes too high a standard for determining what counts as a strong governmental interest because it does not give sufficient weight the context of the determination. These three unwarranted assumptions suggest that the court has imposed too high a standard for determining due process violations.Philosoph

Exploring the personal philosophies of volunteerism among professors at a Malaysian research university

Many argue that the changing nature of research universities globally is making the academic profession demanding. Academics are expected to do more, produce more, and ‘justify their existence’ at their respective universities often in the form of outcomes-based performance measures that are historically foreign to the academic profession. At the same time, they may have to engage in volunteerism outside the academy. Despite much existing research on volunteerism within the context of higher education, a few studies have been conducted on volunteerism among senior academics in non-Western countries, in an attempt to understand how academics balance these pluralistic roles and responsibilities, and the personal philosophy behind their ongoing engagement in volunteerism. To address this gap, this study explored the personal volunteerism philosophies of university professors from a leading research university in Malaysia. Using a purposeful sampling approach, the authors conducted in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with seven professors from different academic departments who have regular engagement in volunteering activities beyond their internal academic obligations. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. From the analysis, three factors were found to contribute to the formulation of the personal philosophies about volunteerism. These were: (a) individual orientation and exposure; (b) religious beliefs; and (c) work related identities. Volunteerism was found to foster recognition for academics in their related field of expertise. The study concludes with suggestions for enhancing the volunteerism experiences of academics and implications for future research

Toward functional community engagement in academia: the Nigerian university experience

Academics who choose to engage in community service to fulfil their internal professional obligations often face challenges that force them to turn to private consultancy work outside of their university obligations. This is often for better remuneration and personal fulfilment, rather than a perceived importance to scholarly engagement in service to the immediate community. Although much research has been conducted on community engagement in higher education, few studies have explored how such work is sustained, especially among academics in non-Western universities. In response, this study sets out to explore sustainable community engagement among academics in Nigeria, where academic community engagement has recently been given a renewed emphasis by policy makers. The study utilized a qualitative case study approach, by way of in-depth interviews with nine professors from diverse academic fields of study in a community-based Nigerian university. The findings point to several potential strategies for making community engagement more sustainable, including incorporating community engagement into university policies, providing a more supportive institutional culture, facilitating engagement through reward and recognition of engaging academics, conducting continuous research into community problems, and encouraging engagement based on academics’ area of specialization. Implications to practice and suggestions for future research are also presented

Photonic Characterisation of Indium Tin Oxide as a Function of Deposition Conditions

Indium tin oxide (ITO) has recently gained prominence as a photonic nanomaterial, for example, in modulators, tuneable metasurfaces and for epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) photonics. The optical properties of ITO are typically described by the Drude model and are strongly dependent on the deposition conditions. In the current literature, studies often make several assumptions to connect the optically measured material parameters to the electrical properties of ITO, which are not always clear, nor do they necessarily apply. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the structural, electrical, and optical properties of ITO and showed how they relate to the deposition conditions. We use guided mode resonances to determine the dispersion curves of the deposited material and relate these to structural and electrical measurements to extract all relevant material parameters. We demonstrate how the carrier density, mobility, plasma frequency, electron effective mass, and collision frequency vary as a function of deposition conditions, and that the high-frequency permittivity ((Formula presented.)) can vary significantly from the value of (Formula presented.) = 3.9 that many papers simply assume to be a constant. The depth of analysis we demonstrate allows the findings to be easily extrapolated to the photonic characterisation of other transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), whilst providing a much-needed reference for the research area

Decay of Metastable Topological Defects

We systematically analyze the decay of metastable topological defects that arise from the spontaneous breakdown of gauge or global symmetries. Quantum-mechanical tunneling rates are estimated for a variety of decay processes. The decay rate for a global string, vortex, domain wall, or kink is typically suppressed compared to the decay rate for its gauged counterpart. We also discuss the decay of global texture, and of semilocal and electroweak strings.Comment: 43 pages, harvmac, HUTP-92/A018, CALT-68-178

Vortices and bags in 2+1 dimension

We consider the effect of the (heavy) fundamental quarks on the low energy effective Lagrangian description of nonabelian gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions. We show that in the presence of the fundamental charges, the magnetic $Z_N$ symmetry becomes local. We construct the effective Lagrangian representing this local symmetry in terms of magnetic vortex fields, and discuss its physical consequences. We show that the finite energy states described by this Lagrangian have distinct bag-like structure. The point-like quarks are confined to the region of space where the value of the vortex field is much smaller than in the surrounding vacuum.Comment: 26 pages, laTe

An Organic Vortex Laser

Optical vortex beams are at the heart of a number of novel research directions, both as carriers of information and for the investigation of optical activity and chiral molecules. Optical vortex beams are beams of light with a helical wavefront and associated orbital angular momentum. They are typically generated using bulk optics methods or by a passive element such as a forked grating or a metasurface to imprint the required phase distribution onto an incident beam. Since many applications benefit from further miniaturization, a more integrated yet scalable method is highly desirable. Here, we demonstrate the generation of an azimuthally polarized vortex beam directly by an organic semiconductor laser that meets these requirements. The organic vortex laser uses a spiral grating as a feedback element that gives control over phase, handedness, and degree of helicity of the emitted beam. We demonstrate vortex beams up to an azimuthal index <i>l</i> = 3 that can be readily multiplexed into an array configuration

Observing the Evolution of the Universe

How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed

Presence of Avian Influenza Viruses in Waterfowl and Wetlands during Summer 2010 in California: Are Resident Birds a Potential Reservoir?

Although wild waterfowl are the main reservoir for low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIv), the environment plays a critical role for the circulation and persistence of AIv. LPAIv may persist for extended periods in cold environments, suggesting that waterfowl breeding areas in the northern hemisphere may be an important reservoir for AIv in contrast to the warmer southern wintering areas. We evaluated whether southern wetlands, with relatively small populations (thousands) of resident waterfowl, maintain AIv in the summer, prior to the arrival of millions of migratory birds. We collected water and fecal samples at ten wetlands in two regions (Yolo Bypass and Sacramento Valley) of the California Central Valley during three bi-weekly intervals beginning in late July, 2010. We detected AIv in 29/367 fecal samples (7.9%) and 12/597 water samples (2.0%) by matrix real time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (rRT-PCR). We isolated two H3N8, two H2N3, and one H4N8 among rRT-PCR positive fecal samples but no live virus from water samples. Detection of AIv RNA in fecal samples was higher from wetlands in the Sacramento Valley (11.9%) than in the Yolo Bypass (0.0%), but no difference was found for water samples (2.7 vs. 1.7%, respectively). Our study showed that low densities of hosts and unfavorable environmental conditions did not prevent LPAIv circulation during summer in California wetlands. Our findings justify further investigations to understand AIv dynamics in resident waterfowl populations, compare AIv subtypes between migratory and resident waterfowl, and assess the importance of local AIv as a source of infection for migratory birds