78,265 research outputs found
Phenomenology as an instrument of critique
The present paper aims at showing that the phenomenological method is a crucial methodological element of every research that is based on the interpretation of utterances or texts based on experiences, like religious studies. Following the neophenomenological school, the notion of “phenomenon” is understood in a radically relative way: “A phenomenon for a person at a given point of time is a state of affairs for which this person cannot — in spite of trying to vary the presuppositions she makes as much as possible — withdraw the belief that it is a fact” (Schmitz, 2003: 1). Starting from this notion, phenomenology may fruitfully criticise two common strategies: reduction and construction. The first one tries to reduce experiences to allegedly more fundamental processes like electrical impulses in neural nets. Here the phenomenologist must object that in doing so without preceding phenomenological analysis the reductionist will lose large parts of potentially important information. As to the second strategy, constructions — in the sense of presuppositions, ready-made concepts etc. — are present in all texts that are meant to express an experience. In order to describe the underlying experience more adequately, the phenomenological researcher has to remove as many constructions as possible. In this way she does not only produce a description that is ”closer” to the experience (though she can never hope to fully grasp it), but she also paves the way for comparison and dialogue across religions and cultures
Coronavirus and Power: The Impact on International Politics. Egmont European Policy Brief No. 126 March 2020
This will change everything. It is an
understandable feeling. When people
pass through an ordeal, they want to
believe that when all is over there will be
some compensation. Things may indeed
change, but perhaps not as radically as
may seem likely today in the midst of the
crisis – and not all change will be for the
better. What change could the corona
crisis bring to international politics
Proton and Neutron Irradiation Tests of Readout Electronics of the ATLAS Hadronic Endcap Calorimeter
The readout electronics of the ATLAS Hadronic Endcap Calorimeter will have to
withstand the about ten times larger radiation environment of the future
high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) compared to their design values. The GaAs ASIC
which comprises the heart of the readout electronics has been exposed to
neutron and proton radiation with fluences up to ten times the total expected
fluences for ten years of running of the HL-LHC. Neutron tests were performed
at the NPI in Rez, Czech Republic, where a 36 MeV proton beam is directed on a
thick heavy water target to produce neutrons. The proton irradiation was done
with 200 MeV protons at the PROSCAN area of the Proton Irradiation Facility at
the PSI in Villigen, Switzerland. In-situ measurements of S-parameters in both
tests allow the evaluation of frequency dependent performance parameters - like
gain and input impedance - as a function of the fluence. The linearity of the
ASIC response has been measured directly in the neutron tests with a triangular
input pulse of varying amplitude. The performance measurements and expected
performance degradations under HL-LHC conditions are presented.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, talk given at IEEE/NSS 2012 in Anaheim, C
Can Program Explanations Save the Causal Efficacy of Beliefs?
Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit offered the "program\ud
explanation account� (PEA) in order to vindicate the causal\ud
relevance of mental states such as beliefs. According to\ud
J&P, a property F of a cause-event c (potentially a mental\ud
property) can be causally relevant for an effect-event e"s\ud
having property G because "e had G because c had F� is\ud
an informative, non-redundant program explanation. If\ud
PEA succeeded, the causal relevance of beliefs would be\ud
vindicated and mental property epiphenomenalism would\ud
be avoided.1 However, it doesn"t succeed
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