Degree supervaluational logic

Supervaluationism is often described as the most popular semantic treatment of indeterminacy. There???s little consensus, however, about how to fill out the bare-bones idea to include a characterization of logical consequence. The paper explores one methodology for choosing between the logics: pick a logic that norms belief as classical consequence is standardly thought to do. The main focus of the paper considers a variant of standard supervaluational, on which we can characterize degrees of determinacy. It applies the methodology above to focus on degree logic. This is developed first in a basic, single-premise case; and then extended to the multipremise case, and to allow degrees of consequence. The metatheoretic properties of degree logic are set out. On the positive side, the logic is supraclassical???all classical valid sequents are degree logic valid. Strikingly, metarules such as cut and conjunction introduction fail

Eligibility and inscrutability

The philosophy of intentionality asks questions such as: in virtue of what does a sentence, picture, or mental state represent that the world is a certain way? The subquestion I focus upon here concerns the semantic properties of language: in virtue of what does a name such as ‘London’ refer to something or a predicate such as ‘is large’ apply to some object? This essay examines one kind of answer to this “metasemantic”1 question: interpretationism, instances of which have been proposed by Donald Davidson, David Lewis, and others. I characterize the “twostep” form common to such approaches and briefl y say how two versions described by David Lewis fi t this pattern. Then I describe a fundamental challenge to this approach: a “permutation argument” that contends, by interpretationist lights, there can be no fact of the matter about lexical content (e.g., what individual words refer to). Such a thesis cannot be sustained, so the argument threatens a reductio of interpretationism. In the second part of the article, I will give what I take to be the best interpretationist response to the inscrutability paradox: David Lewis’s appeal to the differential “eligibility” of semantic theories. I contend that, given an independently plausible formulation of interpretationism, the eligibility response is an immediate consequence of Lewis’s general analysis of the theoretical virtue of simplicity. In the fi nal sections of the article, I examine the limitations of Lewis’s response. By focusing on an alternative argument for the inscrutability of reference, I am able to describe conditions under which the eligibility result will deliver the wrong results. In particular, if the world is complex enough and our language suffi ciently simple, then reference may be determinately secured to the wrong things

The Labor Market Effects of the 1960s Riots

Between 1964 and 1971, hundreds of riots erupted in American cities, resulting in large numbers of injuries, deaths, and arrests, as well as in considerable property damage that was concentrated in predominantly black neighborhoods. There have been few studies of a systematic, econometric nature that examine the impact of the riots on the relative economic status of African Americans, or on the cities and neighborhoods in which the riots took. We present two complementary empirical analyses. The first uses aggregate, city-level data on income, employment, unemployment, and the area’s racial composition from the published volumes of the federal censuses. We estimate the “riot effect” by both ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares. The second empirical approach uses individual-level census data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series for 1950, 1970, and 1980. The findings suggest that the riots had negative effects on blacks’ income and employment that were economically significant and that may have been larger in the long run (1960-1980) than in the short run (1960- 1970). We view these findings as suggestive rather than definitive for two reasons. First, the data are not detailed enough to identify the precise mechanisms at work. Second, the wave of riots may have had negative spillover effects to cities that did not experience severe riots; if so, we would tend to underestimate the riots’ overall effect.

A Comparison of Grassland Management Systems for Beef Cattle Using Self-Contained Farmlets: Effects of Contrasting Nitrogen Inputs and Management Strategies on the Farm Economy

The financial implications of manipulating nitrogen (N) inputs and management strategies for beef production systems were assessed. One-hectare grassland farmlets were grazed to a target sward height by beef steers; herbage surplus to grazing requirements was cut for silage. Three systems were compared: ‘CN’, conventional mineral N application to a grass monoculture and broadcast slurry; ‘TN’, tactical mineral N application at fortnightly intervals to a grass monoculture with slurry injection and the early housing of cattle; ‘GC’, a mixed grass/white clover sward with no mineral N addition and slurry injection. Comparisons were made on two contrasting soil types: a freely-draining sandy loam (site 1) and a poorly drained clay (site 2). Financial budgets for 1999-2000 show that estimated gross profit margins (gross outputs minus variable costs), after deducting contractor’s charges for sward preparation and fertiliser spreading, were highest for treatment CN at both sites Î(€1552, €1356 and €1461 ha-1 for site 1 and €1562, €1281 and €1287 ha-1 for site 2, for treatments CN, TN and GC, respectively). Treatment TN was penalised by increased costs associated with an extended housed period and the need to purchase additional silage for winter feeding which cost €242 ha-1 at site 1 and €250 ha-1 at site 2. Savings in N fertiliser for TN in comparison with CN (€44 ha-1 at site 1 and €39 ha-1 at site 2) were more than offset by the increased costs of fortnightly fertiliser applications (€54 ha-1 at site 1 and €46 ha-1 at site 2). Treatment GC benefited from zero costs for the purchase and spreading of mineral N fertiliser but was penalised by increased variation in forage DM production which resulted in a shortfall in winter fodder requirements with a replacement cost of €250 at site 1 and €435 at site 2. The best overall economic performance after the allocation of all possible relevant costs (variable, fixed and capital) in terms of the relative net profit margin, was for GC at site 1 and for CN at site 2 (-€1358, -€2399 and -€1304 ha-1 at site 1 and -€1122, -€2810 and - €1380 ha-1 at site 2, for CN, TN and GC, respectively). The opportunity costs of reducing N surpluses at the gross profit margin level (after contractor’s charges) for treatments TN and GC over treatment CN were calculated at €2.29 kg-1 N surplus for TN and €0.67 kg-1 N surplus for GC at site 1, with corresponding values of €4.91 and €1.57 at site 2.Farmlets, Systems, Beef cattle, Nitrogen, Slurry, Animal production, Economics, UK, Farm Management,

Tackling Arithmophobia : Teaching How to Read, Understand, and Analyze Financial Statements

This discussion presents different ideas on how to teach accounting and practical finance to law students

Life Projects: Passion versus Rationality

Philosophers of all ages and locales have ruminated on what it means to live a meaningful life. This particular essay seeks to tackle the same question but with more particularity. Is a meaningful life ethically good, rational, or even successful? Susan Wolf’s work The Meanings of Lives gives a nuanced but affirmative answer. This essay counters Wolf’s answer to that question. Although Wolf’s notion of having a project does make for a meaningful life, this paper argues that her objective and subjective criteria are too restricting. What makes life meaningful is not the outcome or nature of the project, but rather that one feels “called” to a particular project and takes an active interest in it, even if the project seems absurd or futile. In order to support that claim, this essay forwards Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, as well as other critical appraisals of both Wolf and Kierkegaard

Fostering the Mobilization of Knowledge from Professional Development to the Classroom

This study examined the extent to which professional knowledge, acquired from professional development programs in education, was mobilized in elementary school classrooms. The author investigated the alignment of participants’ perceptions and actions with the aims of professional development providers, studied teachers\u27 in-depth experiences of that professional development, and noted the key aspects of professional development that related to knowledge mobilization. The project acquired data from four elementary school teachers employing semi-structured interviews, multiple classroom observations and teacher-generated and published documents. Participants’ perceptions of professional development were influenced by the following factors: impact on income, personal/professional growth and professional collaboration. Additionally, their experiences revealed that these factors compete with each other in complex ways to influence the mobilization of professional knowledge

Report of the Committee to Cooperate with Certified Public Accountants

The principal point of friction between the two professions has been in the phase of federal income taxation. A broad policy was outlined on the national level, and the two joint committees in this state adopted a statement of principles relating to the practice in the field of federal income taxation