818 research outputs found
Psychological Eudaimonism and Interpretation in Greek Ethics
Plato extends a bold, confident, and surprising empirical challenge. It is implicitly a claim about the psychological — more specifically motivational — economies of human beings, asserting that within each such economy there is a desire to live well. Call this claim ‘psychological eudaimonism’ (‘PE’). Further, the context makes clear that Plato thinks that this desire dominates in those who have it. In other words, the desire to live well can reliably be counted on (when accompanied with correct beliefs about the role of morality or virtue in living well) to move people be virtuous.
As we will argue, this general claim appears in not only Plato but Aristotle and the Stoics as well. But it is one we might wonder about, in three ways. First, we might wonder about its warrant. After all, the claim is universal in scope; yet it is about a highly contingent fact about the motivational propensities of individual human organisms, and there is abundant variability in the individual forms human nature takes. What grounds could the ancients have for their confidence that there are no outliers (assuming, as we do, that they do not merely misspeak in framing general claims as universal ones)? Second, we might wonder about its truth. For were it true, it would entail something remarkable about the nature of rationality that we (post-)moderns would be wise to heed. And third, we might wonder about its relationship with normative eudaimonism. By ‘normative eudaimonism’ (‘NE’) we mean the claim that we have conclusive reason to act in ways that conduce to our own eudaimonia.
As we will show, the key to these three questions is the first. If we consider what justification the ancients have for their claim, we can see why that claim must be true. Moreover, as we will also show, it must be true because of the nature of practical rationality as the ancients understood it — that is, in terms of normative eudaimonism. We will show this by marshalling unexpected resources: Donald Davidson’s work in understanding how we interpret others and in so doing make sense of them as rational beings. If we couple Davidson’s account of interpretation with the eudaimonist structure of practical rationality essential to these ancient ethical theories, psychological eudaimonism is a consequence.
The paper proceeds as follows. In Section I, we lay out the textual basis for ascribing PE to Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. In Section II, we introduce Davidson’s account of interpretation. This allows us to appropriate that account in Section III to the particular purposes of normative eudaimonism, to support the claim that we must ascribe the desire to live well to those whom we would see as rational. Finally, in Section IV we consider challenges to this strategy
Virtue Ethics and the Interests of Others
In recent decades "virtue ethics" has become an accepted theoretical structure for thinking about normative ethical principles. However, few contemporary virtue ethicists endorse the commitments of the first virtue theorists---the ancient Greeks, who developed their virtue theories within a commitment to eudaimonism. Why? I believe the objections of modern theorists boil down to concerns that eudaimonist theories cannot properly account for two prominent moral requirements on our treatment of others. ;First, we think that the interests and welfare of at least some others ought to give us non-instrumental reason for acting---that is, reason independent of consideration of our own welfare. Second, we think others are entitled to what we might call respect, just in virtue of their being persons. Eudaimonist accounts either cannot account for these intuitions at all, or they give the wrong sort of account. ;My dissertation assesses the resources of eudaimonism to meet these lines of criticism. Chapter 2, 3, and 4 survey the views of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, to discover insights that are important for a successful response. In Chapters 5 and 6, I offer my own account, based on what I call empathic identification. This is the habit or disposition of seeing things, in effect, through the eyes of others. Empathic identification is a process through which the interpersonal transmission of reasons for actions between persons becomes possible. I argue first that our interest in our own eudaimonia justifies us in identifying empathically with others as a general habit or disposition. Second, I argue that empathic identification explains our intuitions about the respect others are due. So empathic identification generates the right sort of explanation of our intuitions about the constraints others and their interests impose upon us after all, and renders eudaimonist virtue ethics a viable form of ethical theor
The Social Sciences, Information Retrieval, and the Library: Some Recent Trends and Future Prospects
Paper by Frank M. LeBa
TWO-STEP BUCKETING TO ACHIEVE HIGH PERFORMANCE DATA STRUCTURES
A variety of techniques and strategies are presented for protecting a data structure, e.g., a hash table, from an attacker who wishes to force worst-case performance. Many data structures are designed with fast and efficient insertion and lookup functionality under normal use-case scenarios. However, when forced into a worst-case context, the performance of the data structure is undermined and services relying on the data structure are impacted. The techniques presented maintain the high performance under normal use-case while protecting the data structure from malicious use
EFFICIENT SELF-ADJUSTING HASH TABLE
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an efficient self-adjusting hash table. An aspect may include hash tables that include hints that describe where objects may be found in the hash table. Additionally or alternatively, an aspect may include, hash flooding of the hash tables by using multiple hash functions. Additionally or alternatively, an aspect may include iterating through elements of a hash table using iteration information that may be stored when a hash table has a low densit
PARALLEL, SPACE-EFFICIENT HASH TABLE RESIZE
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for parallel, space-efficient hash table resize. An aspect may include a hash table that may be resized by incrementally de-allocating buckets of an old hash table and incrementally allocating buckets of a new hash table. Additionally or alternatively, an aspect may include a hash table that may be resized by re-allocating buckets from the old hash table to the new hash table and then re-arranging the buckets of the new hash table. Additionally or alternatively, an aspect may include a hash table with chaining that may be resized by copying the elements of the old hash table to corresponding buckets of the new hash table and indicating which elements are not necessarily in a final position. After copying, final positions may be determined for the buckets that are indicated as not necessarily in a final position. Additionally or alternatively, an aspect may include parallezing algorithms for resizing hash tables
An Uterine Electromyographic Activity as a Measure of Labor Progression
Understanding the physiology of the uterus during term and preterm parturition is essential to solving clinical problems related to gestation and labor. The uterus is a smooth muscle organ. It undergoes specific changes during gestation and is known for its unique contractility during the labor
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