Defeating Naturalism: Defending and Reformulating Plantinga\u27s EAAN

Abstract: During the past two decades, Alvin Plantinga has formulated an argument against naturalism that focuses on naturalism’s acceptance of contemporary evolutionary theory. Plantinga argues that given naturalism and evolution, our cognitive faculties have been developed to produce beliefs that meet the Darwinian requirement of survival and reproduction. Plantinga argues that accepting this will lead a naturalist to have a defeater for all of their beliefs, including their belief in naturalism. In this paper, I survey and respond to two types of objections that have been given as a response to Plantinga’s argument. The first objection that I interact with is an objection given by Michael Bergmann. Bergmann argues that a naturalist can continue to hold on to both their naturalism and their belief that their faculties are reliable, even if the probability of their faculties being reliable is low. The second objection that I interact with is an objection that can be seen in the work of Jerry Fodor and Stephen Law. This objection argues that beliefs that enable survival and reproduction will likely be truth conducive and thus, the chance of having reliable faculties is high. I respond to this argument by first reiterating Plantinga’s traditional response to this objection. After I clarify and defend this traditional response, I then reformulate Plantinga’s argument to specifically address metaphysical beliefs. Not only does this give the non-naturalist two different responses to this objection, but I take it that the reformulation could be seen as even more persuasive than the traditional formulation

Re-Learning American History Shapes Americans’ Cultural Exchanges

Citizens of the United States need to develop a better understanding of the symbols used by other cultures

The Lifestyle of the Urban Tribe

It was once the norm for people to get married in their early twenties, perhaps right after college or maybe during college. Once married, there was the need to start a family as soon as possible. However, nowadays, people appear to be substituting (at least for this period of time after college) the traditional family structure with a new one – the “urban tribe.” This paper takes a critical approach to examining portrayals of rituals in “urban tribes” in two television shows – Will & Grace and Friends in which we argue that the progressive elements of these shows counter the master narratives of traditional family values and that these counter stories act as resistance to the given context of family

The effects of phosphorus and nitrogen on phytoplankton dominance in tropical fish ponds

Nine ponds were used to determine the effects of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) loading on: the phytoplankton dominance in tropical fish ponds. Three ponds received triple superphosphate (TSP), three received triple superphosphate plus urea (TSPUrea) and the rest served as the control. Addition of both phosphorus and nitrogen (TSP-Urea treatment) resulted in higher total phytoplankton than the TSP treatment and the control (P < 0.05). In general, blue-green algae formed the dominant group in TSPUrea treatment ponds followed by dinoflagellates, green algae, euglenoids and diatoms. In TSP-Urea treatment ponds, green algae was the most abundant group followed by blue-green, dinoflagellates, euglenoids and diatoms. Addition of combined nitrogen and phosphorus to the ponds not only significantly increased (P <0.05) total phytoplankton densities, but also caused a shift from bluegreen algal dominance to green algae. TSP treatment ponds showed significantly higher: blue-green algae than TSP-Urea treatment in the early culture cycle. However, as the ponds became more productive with time, blue-green algae also appeared to be common in TgP-Urea treatment in spite of high N: P ratios. The blue-green algae increased linearly with the increase of total phytoplankton in all treatments (r2 = 0.58. P < 0.01)

A Study of the Communities of Aquatic Macro-Invertebrates of the Merging of the Mississippi and Chippewa Rivers, Using a Biplate Substrate Sampler

Using a biplate substrate sampler, aquatic macro-invertebrates were collected during the fall, winter and spring seasons at the confluence of the Mississippi and Chippewa Rivers along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The substrate sampler proved very desirable in pointing out extreme community variations which existed between the two rivers. It was found that the members of a downstream community were a blend of the communities present in upstream tributaries. However, as compared with upstream communities, a shift in dominant organisms occurred. Striking seasonal changes appeared in the invertebrate populations as well as the environment of the rivers. All sampling revealed clean water communities were present and suggested the absence of aquatic pollution

Plant Secondary Compounds; Their Impact on Forage Nutritive Value and upon Animal Production

Both the anti-nutritional and beneficial effects of secondary compounds in a range of temperate and tropical forages have been reviewed. Major secondary compounds in temperate and tropical forage plants occur in the phenolic fraction and include condensed and hydrolysable tannins, phenolic monomers and lignin. Condensed tannins (CT) bind to plant protein by pH-reversible hydrogen bonding. In temperate legume forages this reduces rumen protein degradation and can increase the absorption of essential amino acids (EAA) from the small intestine, with reactivity depending on CT concentration, molecular weight and chemical structure. Low concentrations of CT in Lotus corniculatus (20-40g/kg DM) increased EAA absorption by 62% and increased wool growth (15%) and ovulation rate (25%) in grazing sheep and increased milk production in ewes and dairy cows, all without changing voluntary feed intake (VFI). High concentrations of CT in Lotus pedunculatus (80- 100 g/kg DM) depressed VFI and depressed rates of body and wool growth in grazing sheep. Sulla, containing 80-120 g CT/kg DM, was particularly effective for counteracting the effects of parasitism and for promoting high rates of body growth in parasitised lambs. CT is present in tropical species such as Leucaena and Acacia at higher concentrations (60-200 g/kg DM) than in temperate species. Action of CT reduced rumen protein degradation in sheep fed tropical forages, but as yet there is no convincing evidence that this leads to increases in EAA absorption from the small intestine or that CT increases animal production. Further research is needed in these areas with tropical forages, particularly on the relationship between CT structure and its reactivity with proteins. Increasing CT concentration did not depress rumen microbial protein synthesis in sheep fed either temperate or tropical forages, until CT concentration exceeded 130 g/kg DM. Effect of CT upon undegraded, dietary protein release in the small intestine and upon endogenous protein secretion is defined as a future research area. Flavonoids have been detected in tropical legume forages in the same concentrations as CT. They have anti-nutritional effects in terms of causing amino acid loss during their excretion as conjugates in the urine and by disturbing blood acid/base balance, leading to reduced VFI. Research currently in progress with other secondary compounds in both temperate and tropical forages is reviewed. This includes sesquiterpene lactones in chicory, acubin in plantain, isoflavones in red clover and coumarin and dihydro-coumarin in glyricidia. The nutritional and anti-nutritional effects of these compounds for both ruminants and non-ruminants is discussed

Conservation tillage : costs and returns (1993)

This publication briefly describes tillage systems and estimates costs and returns on a typical farm.Reviewed October 1, 1993