Quine’s Naturalized Epistemology, Epistemic Normativity and the Gettier Problem

In this paper, it is argued that there are (at least) two different kinds of ‘epistemic normativity’ in epistemology, which can be scrutinized and revealed by some comparison with some naturalistic studies of ethics. The first kind of epistemic normativity can be naturalized, but the other not. The doctrines of Quine’s naturalized epistemology is firstly introduced; then Kim’s critique of Quine’s proposal is examined. It is argued that Quine’s naturalized epistemology is able to save some room for the concept of epistemic normativity and therefore his doctrine can be protected against Kim’s critique. But, it is the first kind of epistemic normativity that can be naturalized in epistemology. With the assistance of Goldman’s fake barn case, it is shown that the concept of epistemic normativity that is involved in the concept of knowing, which cannot be fully naturalized. The Gettier problem indicates that Quine only gets partially right idea concerning whether epistemology can (and should) be natualized

Truth-Maker Theory and the Stopped Clock: Why Heathcote Fails to Solve the Gettier Problem

Adrian Heathcote has proposed a truth-making account of knowledge that combines traditional conditions of justified true belief with the truth-making condition, which would jointly provide us with the sufficient condition of knowledge, and this truth-maker account of knowledge in turn explains why a gettiered justified true belief fails to be regarded as a genuine instance of knowledge. In this paper, by the comparison of two different casual models that are illustrated by the thermometer and the clock respectively, however, it will be argued that Heathcote’s truth-making account of knowledge fails to cope with the Gettier case of the stopped clock and therefore is called for some further remedy

Semilinear reaction–diffusion systems of several components

AbstractThe homogeneous Dirichlet boundary value problemuit−Δui=∏j=1nujpij,i=1,2,…,nin a bounded domain Ω⊂RN is considered, where pij⩾0(1⩽i,j⩽n) are constants. Denote by I the identity matrix and P=(pij), which is assumed to be irreducible. We find out that whether or not I−P is a so-called M-matrix plays a fundamental role in the blow-up theorems

Intrinsic Regulators of Actomyosin Contractility Engendering Pulsatile Behaviors

Actomyosin contractility regulates various biological processes including cell migration, muscle contraction, and tissue morphogenesis. Cell cortex underlying a membrane, which is a representative actomyosin network in eukaryote cells, exhibits dynamic contractile behaviors. Interestingly, the cell cortex shows reversible aggregation of actin and myosin called pulsatile contraction in diverse cellular phenomena, such as embryogenesis and tissue morphogenesis. While contractile behaviors have been studied in several in vitro experiments and computational studies, none of them demonstrated the pulsatile contraction of actomyosin networks observed in vivo. Here, we used an agent-based computational model based on Brownian dynamics to identify factors facilitating the pulsatile contraction of actomyosin networks. We first tested effects of several important parameters on the morphology, stress generation, and dynamic properties of actomyosin networks in order to understand how they regulate contraction of actomyosin networks. We found that the pulsatile contraction only occurs when there is a subtle balance between force generation from motors, force relaxation via actin turnover, and force sustainment via network connectivity. Our study provides critical insights into understanding the mechanisms and roles of the pulsatile contraction in cells