What About a Reductionist Approach? Comments on Terry Horgan

In his work, Horgan argues for the compatibilism of agency, mental state-causation, and physical causal-closure. We generally assume a causally closed physical world that seems to exclude agency in the sense of mental state-causation in addition to physical causation. However, Horgan argues for an account of agency that satisfies the experience of our own as acting persons and that is compatible with physical causal-closure. Mental properties are causal properties but not identical with physical properties because there are different ontological levels. In this commentary, I shall reconsider the essential issues of this compatibilism (1), focus on a problem for Horgan's conception of agent causation that arises from the causal argument for ontological reductionism (2), and propose to embed Horgan's conception of agency within a reductionist approach in order to vindicate the indispensable character of agency (3

Modeling the influence of thermal modification on the electrical conductivity of wood

A model has been developed aiming at the description of the effect of thermal modification on the electrical conductivity of wood. The intention was to calculate the moisture content (MC) of thermally modified timber (TMT) through the parameters electrical resistance R, wood temperature T, and CIE Lab color data, which are known to correlate well with the intensity of a heat treatment. Samples of Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) and beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) samples were thermally modified in laboratory scale at 11 different heat treatment intensities and the resistance characteristics of the samples were determined. Within the hygroscopic range, a linear relationship between the resistance characteristics and the mass loss (ML) through the heat treatment was established. Based on this, a model was developed to calculate MC from R, T, and ML. To validate this model, color values of 15 different TMTs from industrial production were determined for estimation of their ML and fed into the model. MC of the 15 arbitrarily heat-treated TMTs was calculated with an accuracy of ± 3.5% within the hygroscopic range. The material-specific resistance characteristics based on experimental data led to an accuracy of ± 2.5%. © 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Marrying the Merits of Nagelian Reduction and Functional Reduction

This paper points out the merit of Nagelian reduction, namely to propose a model of inter-theoretic reduction that retains the scientific quality of the reduced theory and the merit of functional reduction, namely to take multiple realization into account and to offer reductive explanations. By considering Lewis and Kim's proposal for local reductions, we establish that functional reduction fails to achieve a theory reduction and cannot retain the scientific quality of the reduced theory. We improve on that proposal by showing how one can build functional sub-types that are coextensive with physical realizer types and thereby obtain a theory reduction that is explanatory and that vindicates the scientific quality of the special science

What About a Reductionist Approach? Comments on Terry Horgan

In his work, Horgan argues for the compatibilism of agency, mental state-causation, and physical causal-closure. We generally assume a causally closed physical world that seems to exclude agency in the sense of mental state-causation in addition to physical causation. However, Horgan argues for an account of agency that satisfies the experience of our own as acting persons and that is compatible with physical causal-closure. Mental properties are causal properties but not identical with physical properties because there are different ontological levels. In this commentary, I shall reconsider the essential issues of this compatibilism (1), focus on a problem for Horgan’s conception of agent causation that arises from the causal argument for ontological reductionism (2), and propose to embed Horgan’s conception of agency within a reductionist approach in order to vindicate the indispensable character of agency (3)

Trafikmodeller til brug for analyse af transport i Øresundsregionen

I 2008 startede Projektet ”Infrastruktur- og Byudvikling Øresund” (IBU), som skal udrede spørgsmål vedrørende den fremtidige infrastruktur og transport i Øresundsregionen. Der findes i dag ingen tra- fikmodel, som alene kan håndtere analysebehovet. Nærværende artikel beskriver eksisterende danske, svenske og europæiske trafikmodeller, som vurderes relevante i forhold til brug ved analyser i IBU- projektet. På baggrund af en vurdering af fordele og ulemper i forhold til modellernes anvendelse i IBU-projektet anbefales det, at belyse den lokale og regionale persontrafik i Øresundsregionen med udgangspunkt i den svenske nationale trafikmodel (SAMPERS) og trafikmodellen for Hovedstads- området i Danmark (OTM). Artiklen beskriver, hvorledes de to modeller kan kombineres og udvides til at dække Region Skåne og Østdanmark. Den europæiske trafikmodel TRANS-TOOLS anbefales til beskrivelse af den internationale persontrafik, hvorimod godsmodellen for Øresundsregionen (GORM) forslås anvendt til analyse af godstransport