Master\u27s Recital

List of performers and performances

Contra Leiter’s Anti-Skeptical Interpretation of Nietzsche’s Perspectivism

Nietzsche, in his work On the Genealogy of Morals, argues that human cognition is analogous in certain significant respects to the perspectival nature of optical vision. Because of this analogy, his account of human cognition is often referred to as perspectivism. Brian Leiter argues that Nietzsche’s use of this optical perspective metaphor undermines interpretations that take perspectivism to have radically skeptical implications. In this paper, I examine Leiter’s argument and show that the considerations he raises based on the optical perspective metaphor are insufficient to undermine the claim that perspectivism entails radical skepticism

Nietzsche\u27s Theory of Cognition: An Interpretation and Defense of Perspectivism

Friedrich Nietzsche has long been recognized as a pivotal thinker in the history of moral philosophy, but until the last quarter century his importance for our understanding of the concepts of truth and knowledge had been largely ignored in English-language scholarship. In my dissertation, I add to the growing discussion on Nietzsche\u27s theory of human cognition. While more attention has recently been given to this dimension of Nietzsche\u27s thought, several key aspects have been largely ignored or insufficiently treated including the effects that the ethical or evaluative domain have on the way we cognize the world, the role that radical skepticism plays in motivating Nietzsche\u27s theory, and the connections between Nietzsche\u27s views on cognition and his larger philosophical project. What is distinctive about my project is the connection I draw between Nietzsche\u27s critique of the unconditional will to truth in On the Genealogy of Morals and Beyond Good and Evil and his treatments of epistemological issues. Without understanding this connection, one cannot understand how Nietzsche\u27s distinctive positions on truth, knowledge, and cognition relate his overall project. My dissertation sets out to answer four main questions regarding Nietzsche\u27s theory of cognition, each question corresponding to a chapter of the completed work. In Chapter One I ask what the relationship is between Nietzsche\u27s views on truth, knowledge, and cognition and his larger philosophical project of overcoming nihilism. Here I argue that Nietzsche\u27s views on cognition follow directly from his analysis of the nihilism of post-Christian Europe and that his project of overcoming that nihilism requires a complete revaluation of human knowing. Chapter Two asks what Nietzsche\u27s relationship is with skepticism and to what extent can Nietzsche be labeled a skeptic. I show that Nietzsche can be squarely placed in the skeptical tradition in philosophy that includes the Ancient Greek skeptics and the modern heuristic skeptic, Descartes. Nietzsche, however, rejects Descartes attempts to escape radical skepticism, and so can be properly labeled a radical skeptic himself. The next chapter asks what Nietzsche\u27s model is for how human cognition functions given that it is not designed to aim for truth (as it is traditionally understood, i.e. correspondence). I explore the ways that his favored metaphors of textual interpretation and optical perspective function in elucidating what goes on when we think, highlighting these metaphors strengths and weaknesses. I ultimately conclude that cognition is a practical endeavor with theoretical objects, leading Nietzsche to reject the Kantian distinction between the practical and theoretical employments of reason. Finally I ask, given Nietzsche\u27s model of how human cognition functions, how should we evaluate competing knowledge claims between individuals? It has been argued that Nietzsche\u27s pespectivism leads to an unacceptable global relativism regarding, if not truth, then at least epistemic justification. I argue that Nietzsche does not need to abandon the most radical of his conclusions, and he can still account for how and why some positions on theoretical and philosophical matters are better than others, and so an unacceptable anything goes kind of relativism does not follow from his views. After answering these four main questions regarding Nietzsche\u27s views on truth, knowledge, and cognition, I look at how a metaphysics is possible for Nietzsche given his skepticism. I argue that one of the ways a philosopher can create the conditions for overcoming nihilism and affirming life is to create a metaphysics that is both ruthlessly honest to one\u27s cognitive commitments and an artistically creative outpouring of one\u27s abundant, healthy drives. I show in this final chapter how a metaphysics that is self-aware of its epistemic limitations fits into some of the contemporary interpretations of Nietzsche\u27s positive project

The Lifetime Learning Tax Credits: Assessment of Usage Patterns among Adult Learners Pursuing Postsecondary Education

Using data from the 1999 National Household Educational Survey (NHES) 6697 adult learners were analyzed and correlations were determined between use of the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit (LLTC) and a variety of demographic variables. Variables examined include: prior educational level household income, race, gender, age, and adults, stated reason for pursuing higher education. Results indicate that most LLTC users live in households from higher income brackets than are representative of the U.S. population overall Adults who have undergraduate degrees most often claim the LLT~ while households with adults who have high school diplomas comprise 49 percent of the U.S. population but less than 5 percent of LLTC users. Minorities appear to be underrepresented as a group of LLTC users. Also, LLTC is used more often for business and career advancement and less often for personal development The results raise the question~ Is this tax credit meeting its intended goal of providing greater access to postsecondary education or is it providing relief to those already engaged in adult education experiences

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Antimicrobial activity of T4 bacteriophage conjugated indium tin oxide surfaces

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. We report the antimicrobial activity of bare and surface functionalized indium tin oxide (ITO) conjugated with T4 bacteriophage towards E. coli. A ∼ 103-fold reduction (99.9%) in the bacterial concentration was achieved within 2 h exposure of E. coli to the bare as well as the amine, carboxylic and methyl functionalized ITO/T4 surfaces. Despite the known differences in bacteriophage loading of these ITO/T4 systems, the almost identical extent of antimicrobial activity of all of the ITO/T4 systems resulted from the release of a comparable amount of infective T4 from the systems. As anticipated, a single dose of immobilized bacteriophage was sufficient to eliminate further surge of bacterial population. Upon the 2 h eradication of the ‘1st batch’ of E. coli population, all of the ITO/T4 systems, each system with 102-fold more suspended bacteriophage (due to propagation of the phage at the expense of the ‘1st batch’ E. coli death), reduced the ‘2nd batch’ of E. coli concentration by ∼104-fold in just 30 min, suggesting the potential of immobilized bacteriophage systems as solution to the issues of antimicrobial agent depletion. All of the ITO/T4 systems maintained their antimicrobial activity in the presence of model food components. The antimicrobial activity was however, affected by pH; at pH 5 whereby the bacteria's growth was physiologically inhibited, generally no reduction in E. coli concentration was detected. The present work provides an understanding of the mode of antimicrobial activity exhibited by an immobilized bacteriophage based substrate and demonstrates efficacy in the presence of food components

Combined Angioplasty and Pharmacological Intervention Versus Thrombolysis Alone in Acute Myocardial Infarction (CAPITAL AMI Study)

ObjectivesWe compared a strategy of tenecteplase (TNK)-facilitated angioplasty with one of TNK alone in patients presenting with high-risk ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).BackgroundPrevious trials show that thrombolysis followed by immediate angioplasty for the treatment of STEMI does not improve ischemic outcomes compared with thrombolysis alone and is associated with excessive bleeding complications. Since the publication of these trials, however, significant pharmacological and technological advances have occurred.MethodsWe randomized 170 patients with high-risk STEMI to treatment with TNK alone (84 patients) or TNK-facilitated angioplasty (86 patients). The primary end point was a composite of death, reinfarction, recurrent unstable ischemia, or stroke at six months.ResultsAt six months, the incidence of the primary end point was 24.4% in the TNK-alone group versus 11.6% in the TNK-facilitated angioplasty group (p = 0.04). This difference was driven by a reduction in the rate of recurrent unstable ischemia (20.7% vs. 8.1%, p = 0.03). There was a trend toward a lower reinfarction rate with TNK-facilitated angioplasty (14.6% vs. 5.8%, p = 0.07). No significant differences were observed in the rates of death or stroke. Major bleeding was observed in 7.1% of the TNK-alone group and in 8.1% of the TNK-facilitated angioplasty group (p = 1.00).ConclusionsIn patients presenting with high-risk STEMI, TNK plus immediate angioplasty reduced the risk of recurrent ischemic events compared with TNK alone and was not associated with an increase in major bleeding complications