The Universal Plausibility Metric (UPM) & Principle (UPP)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mere possibility is not an adequate basis for asserting scientific plausibility. A precisely defined universal bound is needed beyond which the assertion of <it>plausibility</it>, particularly in life-origin models, can be considered operationally falsified. But can something so seemingly relative and subjective as plausibility ever be quantified? Amazingly, the answer is, "Yes." A method of objectively measuring the plausibility of any chance hypothesis (The Universal Plausibility Metric [UPM]) is presented. A numerical inequality is also provided whereby any chance hypothesis can be definitively falsified when its UPM metric of ξ is < 1 (The Universal Plausibility Principle [UPP]). Both UPM and UPP pre-exist and are independent of any experimental design and data set.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>No low-probability hypothetical plausibility assertion should survive peer-review without subjection to the UPP inequality standard of formal falsification (ξ < 1).</p

Rethinking Epistemic Relativism

‘Relativism’ is often treated as a dirty word in philosophy. Showing that a view entails relativism is almost always considered tantamount to showing that it is nonsensical. However, relativistic theories are not entirely unappealing – they have features which might be tempting if they weren’t thought to be outweighed by problematic consequences. In this paper I argue that it’s possible to secure the intuitively appealing features of at least one kind of relativism – epistemic relativism – without having to accept any problematic consequences. I do this by defending what I call 'stratified relativism'

Relativism

The most up to date reference book on the topic of relativism in philosoph

Making sense of science for policy under conditions of complexity and uncertainty

Merit, Expertise and Measuremen

Optimal power scheduling of thermal units considering emission constraint for GENCOs' profit maximization

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. In this paper, authors propose a novel method to determine an optimal solution for profit based unit commitment (PBUC) problem considering emission constraint, under a deregulated environment. In a restructured power system, generation companies (GENCOs) schedule their units with the aim of maximizing their own profit by relaxing demand fulfillment constraints without any regard to social benefits. In the new structure, due to strict reflection of power price in market data, this factor should be considered as an important ingredient in decision-making process. In this paper a social-political based optimization algorithm called imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) in combination with a novel meta-heuristic constraint handling technique is proposed. This method utilizes operation features of PBUC problem and a penalty factor approach to solve an emission constrained PBUC problem in order to maximize GENCOs profit. Effectiveness of presented method for solving non-convex optimization problem of thermal generators scheduling in a day-ahead deregulated electricity market is validated using several test systems consisting 10, 40 and 100 generation units

The Nature of Religious Dialogue, the Diversity Argument and Religious Pluralism

In this paper I make initial attempts to distinguish ‘dialogue’ from other forms of intellectual engagement across boundaries of disagreement. From there I consider an argument from the diversity of religions, modelled on atheological arguments elsewhere in philosophy of religion. I use this argument to explore defensible responses and provide some argumentation for a kind of pluralism about the diversity of religions that differs from Hick’s