Is Metaphysics Difficult?

The difficulty of philosophy reflects the nature of Reality. Here it is proposed that the inability of determinedly scholastic philosophers to solve philosophical problems is a clear indication that neither philosophy nor Reality is as complicated as they believe and that its conceptual simplification cannot be achieved when we reject nondualism and endorse extreme and partial world-theories

Getting to the Core of Role: Defining Interpreters' Role Space

This article describes a new model of interpreted interactions that will help students as well as experienced practitioners define and delineate the decisions that they make. By understanding the dimensions that comprise the concept we call role, interpreters can more effectively allow participants to have successful communicative interactions

Re-visiting Role: Arguing for a multi-dimensional analysis of interpreter behaviour

In this paper, the authors present the outline of a new model of interpreted interactions. This model draws upon the fields of conversational analysis and classical sociological theory to define and delimit the behaviours of interpreters that contribute to successful interpreted interactions

Aristotle, Nagarjuna and the Law of Non-Contradiction in Buddhist Philosophy

There is a widespread view that Buddhist philosophy embodies logical contradictions such that there would be 'true' contradictions, This article explains that this is not the case and that Buddhist philosophy, more generally the Perennial philosophy, denies all contradictions for the sake of a doctrine of Unity

From Metaphysics to Mysticism

Mysticism claims of its logical scheme that it is Euclidean, that from its first axiom or principle the remainder of its doctrine follows, but it makes this claim in so many languages and in such a variety of obscure and self-contradictory ways that it is difficult to discern how this could be possible, and it is rarely considered a plausible claim in metaphysics. I believe it is plausible, and in this essay I try to explain why

POTENTIAL HEALTHCARE SAVINGS FROM PLANT STEROL ENRICHED FOODS IN CANADA

Increased consumption of foods containing plant sterols has the potential to reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and thus reduce costs associated with treating that disease in a significant way. This paper reports the results of an investigation of the potential monetary benefits of allowing foods enriched with plant sterols to be marketed in Canada. The objective of this research was to estimate the annual savings that would accrue to Canada’s single-payer publicly funded health care system if plant sterols were approved for use. If foods containing plant sterols are consumed at a sufficient rate, a reduction in CHD should follow. This research employs a variation of traditional cost-of-illness analysis entailing four steps: (i) estimation of a “success rate” (proportion of persons who would consume plant sterols at the necessary rate); (ii) presumption of blood cholesterol reduction due to plant sterol consumption; (iii) assumption of reduction in CHD that follows from blood cholesterol reduction; (iv) calculation of cost savings associated with reduced incidence of CHD. Calculations were carried out for four scenarios: ideal, optimistic, pessimistic, and very pessimistic. It was estimated that between $38 million (very pessimistic scenario) and$2.45 billion (ideal scenario) could be saved annually by Canada’s health care system with plant sterol enriched food products being made available for sale.coronary heart disease, cost of illness analysis, health care costs, success rate, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, I18,

[2.2](4,7)Isobenzofuranophanes - Synthesis, Characterisation and Reactivity

The isomeric Diels-Alder adducts 3, obtained by cycloaddition of tetraphenylcyclopentadienone to the 4,5:12,13-bis-(oxanorbornadieno)[2.2]paracyclophanes syn,syn- and anti,-syn-2[Note ][The stereochemical descriptors syn and anti refer to the orientation of the oxygen bridge in the oxabicyclo[2.2.1]heptadiene subunits with respect to the [2.2]paracyclophaneskeleton.], yield the unstable isobenzofuranophane 4 by consecutive extrusion of carbon monoxide and tetraphenylbenzene when heated to 180°C. The molecular ion of 4 was observed in the EI mass spectrum. The stable tetraphenyl-substituted analogue 10 was synthesized independently from the previously unknown 4,5,12,13-tetrabenzoyl[2.2]paracyclophane (9). UV/Vis as well as fluorescence spectra and an X-ray crystal structure analysis of 9 are reported

The Marketing of Philosophy: A Preliminary Report

A tongue-in-cheek marketing review of university philosophy prompted by a slow-down in sales and mounting criticism of the product. These problems are diagnosed as the consequence of an inward-looking culture that encourages a narrow and fixed focus on selling the traditional product while discouraging examination of its competitors

The Metaphysics of Consciousness

Some time ago, in an article for the Journal of Consciousness Studies, David Chalmers challenged his peers to identify the ingredient missing from our current theories of consciousness, the absence of which prevents us from solving the 'hard' problem and forces us to make do with nonreductive theories. Here I respond to this challenge. I suggest that consciousness is a metaphysical problem and as such can be solved only within a global metaphysical theory. Such a theory would look very like the information theory proposed by Chalmers, but with the addition of an extra phenomenon that would allow it to become fundamental