Truth­-Makers

During the realist revival in the early years of this century, philosophers of various persuasions were concerned to investigate the ontology of truth. That is, whether or not they viewed truth as a correspondence, they were interested in the extent to which one needed to assume the existence of entities serving some role in accounting for the truth of sentences. Certain of these entities, such as the Sätze an sich of Bolzano, the Gedanken of Frege, or the propositions of Russell and Moore, were conceived as the bearers of the properties of truth and falsehood. Some thinkers however, such as Russell, Wittgenstein in the Tractatus, and Husserl in the Logische Untersuchungen, argued that instead of, or in addition to, truth-bearers, one must assume the existence of certain entities in virtue of which sentences and/or propositions are true. Various names were used for these entities, notably 'fact', 'Sachverhalt', and 'state of affairs'. (1) In order not to prejudge the suitability of these words we shall initially employ a more neutral terminology, calling any entities which are candidates for this role truth-makers

What's wrong with contemporary philosophy?

Philosophy in the West divides into three parts: Analytic Philosophy (AP), Continental Philosophy (CP), and History of Philosophy (HP). But all three parts are in a bad way. AP is sceptical about the claim that philosophy can be a science, and hence is uninterested in the real world. CP is never pursued in a properly theoretical way, and its practice is tailor-made for particular political and ethical conclusions. HP is mostly developed on a regionalist basis: what is studied is determined by the nation or culture to which a philosopher belongs, rather than by the objective value of that philosopher's work. Progress in philosophy can only be attained by avoiding these pitfall

Wahrmacher

Als zu Beginn des Jahrhunderts der Realismus wieder ernst genommen wurde, gab es viele Philosophen, die sich mit der Ontologie der Wahrheit befaßten. Unabhängig von der Bestimmung der Wahrheit als Korrespondenzbeziehung wollten sie herausfinden, inwieweit zur Erklärung der Wahrheit von Sätzen besondere Entitäten herangezogen werden müssen. Einige dieser Entitäten, so zum Beispiel Bolzanos ‘Sätze an sich’, Freges ‘Gedanken’ oder die ‘propositions’ von Russell und Moore, wurden als Träger der Eigenschaften Wahrheit und Falschheit aufgefaßt. Einige Philosophen jedoch, wie Russell, Wittgenstein im ›Tractatus‹ und Husserl in den ›Logischen Untersuchungen‹, argumentierten, zusätzlich zu den Wahrheitsträgern bzw. an ihrer Stelle müßten Entitäten angenommen werden, auf Grund deren Sätze und/oder ‘Propositionen’ wahr sind. Solchen Entitäten gab man verschiedene Namen, insbesondere ‘fact’, ‘Tatsache’, ‘state of affairs’ und ‘Sachverhalt’. 1 Wir wollen einer Entscheidung über die Angebrachtheit dieser Ausdrücke nicht vorgreifen und daher zunächst eine neutralere Terminologie verwenden: Alle Entitäten, die für diese zweite Rolle in Frage kommen, wollen wir ‘Wahrmacher’ nennen

The Role of a Full-time Mathematics Support Tutor

In September 2016, Maynooth University appointed a Mathematics Support Centre (MSC) University Tutor on a three year contract, a unique position on the island of Ireland. In this paper, we briefly explore the important role of MSCs and their tutors. We describe the University Tutors activities for the 2016-17 academic year and we discuss the benefits of establishing such a position. We also advocate for the establishment of more contract positions

Motivating Mature Students of Mathematics

This paper considers mature students who take a pre-degree Certificate in Science at a university in Ireland. In particular, it focuses on typical challenges that these students face in their mathematics education, and discusses some motivational techniques their lecturer used in an attempt to address student concerns. It situates these techniques within the general theory and considers how to measure their impact

Mathematics support centre attendees and their use of online resources

In this paper we consider survey results which focus on student use of online resources, where all respondents were attendees of a Mathematics Support Centre. We see that while most respondents are engaging with online resources, some are not using resources in an appropriate fashion. We discuss how these preliminary findings might inform discussions on the merits, or otherwise, of institutions providing training for students on their use of online materials. We also identify several areas of potential further research

Computer Science Students’ Perspectives on the Study of Mathematics

In 2019, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Maynooth University commenced a project which sought to address, through the provision of mathematics learning supports, the issues of poor engagement and retention of computer science students studying mathematics. In this paper, we present preliminary engagement and performance data along with interviews conducted with eight students. We discuss how the quantitative data seemed to indicate that computer science students were engaging at similar levels to their peers, but several factors, including the quality of this engagement and their mathematical backgrounds may explain their poor exam performance. It also emerged that, while students were largely negative about their experiences in large lectures and their awareness of the relevance of mathematics to computer science, they were generally positive about smaller teaching situations such as tutorials, mathematics support drop-in and opportunities to work with their peers

Access, Disability and Mature Student Opinion on Academic Mathematics Supports

In this paper we report on the main themes which emerged from analysis of a survey of students registered with the Access, Disability and Mature Student offices at Maynooth University. The survey focussed on the students’ experiences of mathematics and the mathematics academic supports available to them. The majority of student feedback was positive, for example their engagement with the Mathematics Support Centre, improved understanding of mathematics and the influence of tutors and peers. However, some issues emerged in relation to impact on learning, such as inflexible departmental structures with fixed deadlines and a lack of student awareness of the supports available. In addition to discussing the main results, we outline how the findings will guide the future provision of such supports

Mediterranean ocean Forecasting System: Toward Environmental Predictions-MFSTEP Executive Summary

Objectives: The Project aims at the further development of an operational forecasting system for the Mediterranean Sea based upon three main components: a) a Real Time-RT Observing system; b) a numerical forecasting system at the basin scale and for the sub-regional/shelf areas; c) the forecast products dissemination/exploitation system. The Observing system component consists of: • a SOOP-VOS system with RT data dissemination and test of new sensors that collect multidisciplinary data; • a moored buoy network (M3A) designed to serve the RT validation of the basin scale models and the calibration of the ecosystem models; • a satellite RT data analysis system using several satellites for sea surface elevation, sea surface temperature and sea surface winds; • a high space-time resolution network of autonomous subsurface profiling floats (Array for Real-Time Geostrophic Oceanography-ARGO); • a basin scale glider autonomous vehicle experiment; The sampling strategy is continuously assessed by the Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) activities and a RT data management and delayed mode archiving system has been organized

Modulation of DNA loop lifetimes by the free energy of loop formation

Storage and retrieval of the genetic information in cells is a dynamic process that requires the DNA to undergo dramatic structural rearrangements. DNA looping is a prominent example of such a structural rearrangement that is essential for transcriptional regulation in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and the speed of such regulations affects the fitness of individuals. Here, we examine the in vitro looping dynamics of the classic Lac repressor gene-regulatory motif. We show that both loop association and loop dissociation at the DNA-repressor junctions depend on the elastic deformation of the DNA and protein, and that both looping and unlooping rates approximately scale with the looping J factor, which reflects the system's deformation free energy. We explain this observation by transition state theory and model the DNA-protein complex as an effective worm-like chain with twist. We introduce a finite protein-DNA binding interaction length, in competition with the characteristic DNA deformation length scale, as the physical origin of the previously unidentified loop dissociation dynamics observed here, and discuss the robustness of this behavior to perturbations in several polymer parameters