My brain made me do it: The exclusion argument against free will, and what’s wrong with it

We offer a critical assessment of the “exclusion argument” against free will, which may be summarized by the slogan: “My brain made me do it, therefore I couldn't have been free”. While the exclusion argument has received much attention in debates about mental causation (“could my mental states ever cause my actions?”), it is seldom discussed in relation to free will. However, the argument informally underlies many neuroscientific discussions of free will, especially the claim that advances in neuroscience seriously challenge our belief in free will. We introduce two distinct versions of the argument, discuss several unsuccessful responses to it, and then present our preferred response. This involves showing that a key premise – the “exclusion principle” – is false under what we take to be the most natural account of causation in the context of agency: the difference-making account. We finally revisit the debate about neuroscience and free will

COVID-19 second wave mortality in Europe and the United States

This paper introduces new methods to analyze the changing progression of COVID-19 cases to deaths in different waves of the pandemic. First, an algorithmic approach partitions each country or state's COVID-19 time series into a first wave and subsequent period. Next, offsets between case and death time series are learned for each country via a normalized inner product. Combining these with additional calculations, we can determine which countries have most substantially reduced the mortality rate of COVID-19. Finally, our paper identifies similarities in the trajectories of cases and deaths for European countries and U.S. states. Our analysis refines the popular conception that the mortality rate has greatly decreased throughout Europe during its second wave of COVID-19; instead, we demonstrate substantial heterogeneity throughout Europe and the U.S. The Netherlands exhibited the largest reduction of mortality, a factor of 16, followed by Denmark, France, Belgium, and other Western European countries, greater than both Eastern European countries and U.S. states. Some structural similarity is observed between Europe and the United States, in which Northeastern states have been the most successful in the country. Such analysis may help European countries learn from each other's experiences and differing successes to develop the best policies to combat COVID-19 as a collective unit.Comment: Accepted manuscript. New appendix relative to v

Toxic effects of low concentrations of Cu on nodulation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)

Although Cu is phytotoxic at Cu(2+) activities as low as 1-2 mu M, the effect of Cu(2+) on the nodulation of legumes has received little attention. The effect of Cu(2+) on nodulation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. cv. Caloona) was examined in a dilute solution culture system utilising a cation exchange resin to buffer solution Cu(2+). The nodulation process was more sensitive to increasing Cu(2+) activities than both shoot and root growth; whilst a Cu(2+) activity of 1.0 mu M corresponded to a 10% reduction in the relative yield of the shoots and roots, a Cu(2+) activity of 0.2 mu M corresponded to a 10% reduction in nodulation. This reduction in nodulation with increasing Cu(2+) activity was associated with an inhibition of root hair formation in treatments containing >= 0.77 mu M Cu(2+), rather than to a reduction in the size of the Rhizobium population. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Evaluation of extractants for estimation of the phytoavailable trace metals in soils

Despite its environmental (and financial) importance, there is no agreement in the literature as to which extractant most accurately estimates the phytoavailability of trace metals in soils. A large dataset was taken from the literature, and the effectiveness of various extractants to predict the phytoavailability of Cd, Zn, Ni, Cu, and Pb examined across a range of soil types and contamination levels. The data suggest that generally, the total soil trace metal content, and trace metal concentrations determined by complexing agents (such as the widely used DTPA and EDTA extractants) or acid extractants (such as 0.1 M HCl and the Mehlich 1 extractant) are only poorly correlated to plant phytoavailability. Whilst there is no consensus, it would appear that neutral salt extractants (such as 0.01 M CaCl2 and 0.1 M NaNO3) provide the most useful indication of metal phytoavailability across a range of metals of interest, although further research is required

Realism: a critical analysis of some arguments by Michael Dummett

CHAPTER ONE This thesis is a critical analysis of arguments which Michael Dummett has developed against realism. Dummett characterizes realism as the thesis that the meaning of sentences should be analyzed in terms of the notions oftruth and falsity which obey the classical principle of bivalence. Before examining Dummett's arguments against realism, I consider the two models Dummett proposes for analyzing the content of assertions and examine his thesis that the realist notion of truth is induced for some sentences by their use as constituents in compound sentences. CHAPTER TWO I begin the examination of Dummett's arguments against realism by noting that Dummett allows in his recent work that a Tarskian truth-theory, couched in terms of a non-classical notion of truth, may act within a theory of meaning as the theory of reference yielding an inductive specification of truth- conditions. I then present Dummett's distinction between modest and full- blooded theories of meaning and suggest that the difference between them lies in the fact that the latter type possesses, while the former type lacks, a theory of sense, which Dummett conceives of as a series of correlations between practical abilities and T-sentences. I then consider the manifestation form of the argument against realism and argue that it fails on several counts. I then consider the acquisition form of the argument and point out the disputable assumptions about language-acquisition on which it is based. In the concluding section I question whether a theory of meaning which makes due allowance for idealization in the study of semantic competence should require a theory of sense of the kind Dummett suggests and question why the theory of reference should be responsive to the particular practical abilities which Dumniett emphasizes. CHAPTER THREE In this chapter I complete the discussion of Dummett's arguments against realism and argue that Dummett has no satisfactory line of defence against my principal reaction to the manifestation form of the argument against realism. I then present Dummett's distinction between demonstrations and canonic al proofs his general distinction between between direct and indirect verifications. Then consider Dummett's attempts to characterize mathematical truth in terms of canonical proof and general truth in terms of direct verification. I conclude by outlining a problem which confronts a verificationist theory meaning of the kind Dummett espouses and show that there is a flaw in his argument that a verificationist theory of meaning leads to a rejection of classical logic. CHAPTER FOUR I begin this chapter by examining Dummett's claim that reductionism is neither necessary nor sufficient for anti-realism. I argue that there is a sense in which reductionism is necessary and claim that there is a way of uniformly characterizing anti-realist positions on a number of subjects in terms of the thesis that a sentence is true in virtue of the evidence existing for it. I then consider Dummett's claim that a realist interpretation of counterfactuals involves asserting the unrestricted validity of the law of conditional excluded middle. I conclude by arguing that the anti-realist cannot acknowledge the defeasibility of evidence for empirically undecidable sentences and at the same time meet a legitimate demand that he explain in terms which do not beg any questions his conception of truth for such sentences

An Atlas of Spectrophotometric Landolt Standard Stars

We present CCD observations of 102 Landolt standard stars obtained with the R-C spectrograph on the CTIO 1.5 m telescope. Using stellar atmosphere models we have extended the flux points to our six spectrophotometric secondary standards, in both the blue and the red, allowing us to produce flux-calibrated spectra that span a wavelength range from 3050 \AA to 1.1 \micron. Mean differences between UBVRI spectrophotometry computed using Bessell's standard passbands and Landolt's published photometry is found to be 1% or less. Observers in both hemispheres will find these spectra useful for flux-calibrating spectra and through the use of accurately constructed instrumental passbands be able to compute accurate corrections to bring instrumental magnitudes to any desired standard photometric system (S-corrections). In addition, by combining empirical and modeled spectra of the Sun, Sirius and Vega, we calculate and compare synthetic photometry to observed photometry taken from the literature for these three stars.Comment: Added referee's comments, minor corrections, replaced Table 1