Bertrand Russell et Harold Joachim

Cet article est en partie biographique, en partie philosophique. Il retrace les échanges entre Russell et le philosophe néo-hégélien britannique Harold Joachim, depuis l’époque où Russell était étudiant dans les années 1890 jusqu’à son compte-rendu cinglant de la conférence de Joachim prononcée à l’occasion de sa leçon inaugurale en tant que professeur Wykeham de Logique à Oxford en 1920. La partie philosophique s’attache à évaluer le principal argument de Russell à l’encontre de la théorie cohérentiste de la vérité de Joachim, selon lequel une telle théorie est équivalente à la doctrine des relations internes. Cet article fait usage de lettres de Russell à Joachim récemment découvertes.The paper is partly biographical and partly philosophical. It traces Russell’s philosophical interactions with the British neo-hegelian philosopher, Harold Joachim, from Russell’s days as an undergraduate in the 1890s to his scathing review of Joachim’s inaugural lecture as Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford in 1920. The philosophical part attempts to evaluate Russell’s main argument against Joachim’s coherence theory of truth, that it is equivalent to the doctrine of internal relations. The paper makes use of Russell’s recently discovered letters to Joachim

Inbreeding Depression and Competition in the square-stemmed monkey-flower (Mimulus ringens)

Matings between biologically related individuals often produce offspring with reduced fitness, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. The magnitude of inbreeding depression can play an important role in determining the overall fitness, and persistence, of populations, and is often considered one of the key factors driving the evolution of mating systems and their associated traits. Recent research has shown that the strength of inbreeding depression is often highly sensitive to environmental conditions, such as the availability of abiotic resources or variation in the strengths of ecological interactions between organisms. In plant populations, drought, plant density, herbivory, and infection by pathogens, among other factors, have all been shown to influence inbreeding depression in important fitness-related traits. However, the effects of interspecific competition on inbreeding depression are much less clear, as studies have yielded mixed results, leading some authors to conclude that interspecific competition is unimportant in models of mating system evolution. Mimulus ringens is a perennial plant native to North American wetlands and grows in competition with both an invasive plant, purple loosestrife: Lythrum salicaria) and its native congener, winged loosestrife: L. alatum). Additionally, it utilizes a mixed mating system and exhibits inbreeding depression in several stages of its lifecycle. Here, common garden experiments reveal that inbreeding depression in several important fitness-related traits varies between different competitive environments. Furthermore, a greenhouse experiment shows that the magnitude of inbreeding depression is altered by the density of M. ringens individuals, and this relationship is altered by the presence of purple loosestrife as a competitor. A mating system-explicit model of population growth in M. ringens is developed, and shows that variation in competition leads to differences in inbreeding depression in important fitness components, ultimately influencing cumulative estimates of inbreeding depression across the lifecycle. The model demonstrates that competition influences how mating systems affect population growth, the sensitivity of population growth to inbreeding depression in certain fitness components, and the range of outcrossing rates over which natural selection may strongly act on inbreeding depression. Ultimately, we conclude that interspecific competition does alter inbreeding depression and should be considered in future studies of mating system evolution

Commentary on: Marcin Koszowy\u27s Polish logical studies from an informal logic perspective

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Scandium Triflate-Catalyzed Aromatic Aldehydic C-H Activation

Herein described is a scandium triflate-catalyzed C-H activation of commercially available aromatic aldehydes achieved in low yields. The reaction occured in a one-pot synthesis over a two-hour duration and required minimal purification. Inclusion of a fluorine-tagged phenol allowed for reaction monitoring via 19FNMR

The development of the simulated transactions doctrine as means of combating impermissible tax avoidance

Tax avoidance may be an inevitable consequence of taxation; however, it remains a great drain on the fiscus. There are many ways in which the Commissioner may attack avoidance arrangements in order to lessen the drain on the fiscus. One manner in which the Commissioner may attack avoidance arrangements is through the doctrine of simulated transactions. Given that the simulated transactions doctrine is ordinarily a contract law doctrine and not strictly speaking a tax law mechanism one might wonder how this area of law might develop into an antiavoidance mechanism. This contribution sought to understand how the doctrine may develop as an anti-avoidance mechanism through an analysis of the development of the case law in regards to the development of the doctrine in order to ascertain how it has developed into a common-law anti-avoidance rule. In this regard selected cases were discussed which highlighted firstly the genesis of the simulated transactions doctrine in our law (Chapter 2) and selected cases were discussed that highlighted the simulated transactions doctrine's development and use as an anti-avoidance mechanism (Chapter 3) and finally the courts acceptance and treatment of this development and how this development was discussed in the literature was also discussed (Chapter 4) It was concluded that whilst the doctrine can be developed quite extensively as an anti-avoidance mechanism the courts are unlikely to develop same into a broad common-law General Anti-Avoidance Rule

Relative identity

The work defends a theory of relative identity roughly similar to Geach's. It is held that statements of the form 'a is the same as b' are incomplete until a general noun is specified after 'same'; and that items which are identical with respect to one general noun may be distinct with respect to another. These theses are referred to respectively as (D) and (R). Chapter One contrasts the theory of absolute identity with theories of relative identity, places the latter in their historical context, and suggests why they have some initial plausibility despite the universal acceptance of the absolute theory. Chapters Two, Three, Four and Five concern the nature of the general nouns which may be used to complete identity statements. We are particularly concerned with general nouns which convey criteria by which identity claims may be judged and with the structure of the system of classes which these nouns name. Certain over-simple assumptions of Wiggins about this structure are rejected in Chapter Five. Chapters Six and Seven consider the thesis (D): in conjunction with (R) in Chapter Six, and independently in Chapter Seven Whilst {R) does not entail (D), as has often been supposed, it is convenient to accept both principles in a context free,(R )-relative identity theory in or1der to obtain a closer match with natural language identity statements than is possible for the absolute theory. In Chapter Seven it is argued that whilst Wiggins' theory, which excludes (R} but includes (D), cannot be proven false it represents no more than a new way of stating the absolute theory and can be made redundant by Perry's alternative theory which keeps the classical identity operator. In Chapter Eight various general objections to (R} are rejected: arguments which seek to show that relations which satisfy (R) fail certain conditions on identity relations. Forms of symmetry, transitivity and reflexivity and a non-Leibniz substitutivity principal are developed for (H)-relative identities. On the other hand, Geach's general argument in favour of (H)-relative identity as a means of keeping one's ontology minimal is rejected on familiar grounds. Chapters Nine and Ten deal with particular examples of (H). In Chapter Nine it is maintained that (R)-relative identity theory solves the problem of constitutivity and resolves its associated 'paradoxes' such as the ship of Theseus. It is demonstrated that arguments to show that the relation between an item and its constituents is not identity are based on absolutist principles. In Chapter Ten the standard absolutist treatment of examples of (H) is rejected as invalid

Communication System For Firefighters

Currently firefighters use two-way radios to communicate on the job, and they are forced to write reports based on their memory because there is not an easy way to record the communications between two-way radios. Firefighters need a system to automatically document what happened while they were responding to a call. To save them a significant amount of time when creating reports, our solution is to implement an application that allows firefighters to take pictures, record video and communicate in real time with their team of on-site responders. The proposed system will use a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) hosted on the fire truck itself to act as an access point (AP) to which the firefighters can connect. This AP will also save communication between firefighters to a local storage location. Upon return to the fire station, the AP will route all of the information stored locally to a larger database. For now, Wi-Fi will be our communication medium, with a prediction that our technology can eventually be extended to include radio signal

The effects of depressive symptoms on memory distortion for orthographic associates : a behavioral and EEG investigation

While everyone is prone to memory errors, individuals with cognitive biases like negative attention bias may differ in their susceptibility to memory distortion. Negative attention bias, which is frequently comorbid with depressive symptoms, has been associated with increased false memory for negative stimuli. Across two experiments, we used lists of orthographically associated words to analyze responses to novel emotional stimuli between individuals with depressive symptoms and healthy controls. In Experiment 1, participants encoded neutral words that were orthographically associated with neutral, negative, or positive critical lures. Then, they completed a recognition memory test on the words shown during encoding (old items) and the critical lures (novel items). We did not find differences in false alarms to novel stimuli between groups. However, we did find significant differences in response times to correct rejections of novel stimuli and greater false alarm confidence in the depressive symptom group. In Experiment 2, we used electroencephalography to further investigate the mechanisms through which each group may complete this task. Using only lists associated with negative and neutral critical lures, the depressive symptom group showed greater hit and false alarm rates, and quicker overall response times than controls. The EEG results suggested that the behavioral differences might arise from separate memory retrieval strategies, with the depressive group utilizing an earlier, familiarity-based retrieval strategy and the control group utilizing a later, recollection-based retrieval strategy. These experiments are an important first step in understanding mechanisms underlying the relationship between depressive symptoms and emotional stimuli on memory distortion.Psycholog