The role of intuition in philosophical practice

This dissertation examines the recent arguments against the “Centrality” thesis—the thesis that intuition plays central evidential roles in philosophical inquiry—and their implications for the negative program in experimental philosophy. Two types of objections to Centrality are discussed. First, there are some objections which turn out to only work against Centrality when it is taken as a potential form of philosophical exceptionalism. I respond by showing that negative experimental philosophy doesn’t need the assumption that philosophy is distinctive in its reliance on intuitions. Second, there are some objections which turn out to be related to some particular view concerning the nature of evidence. In response, I distinguish between several different versions of Centrality, and argue that the version of Centrality that experimentalists need remains innocuous. Though none of the arguments against Centrality works as intended, I agree with its opponents that negative experimental philosophers have mischaracterized philosophical practice in a way which has problematic consequences for at least some versions of their argument. Specifically, I contend that philosophical practice grants important evidential status to general intuitions and context-rich intuitions, but extant experimental studies have almost exclusively focused on case intuitions and context-poor intuitions. I conclude that those who work on the negative program of experimental philosophy need to more carefully examine how philosophers actually use intuition in their practice

Shame and the Scope of Moral Accountability

It is widely agreed that reactive attitudes play a central role in our practices concerned with holding people responsible. However, it remains controversial which emotional attitudes count as reactive attitudes such that they are eligible for this central role. Specifically, though theorists near universally agree that guilt is a reactive attitude, they are much more hesitant on whether to also include shame. This paper presents novel arguments for the view that shame is a reactive attitude. The arguments also support the view that shame is a reactive attitude in the sense that concerns moral accountability. The discussion thereby challenges both the view that shame is not a reactive attitude at all, suggested by philosophers such as R. Jay Wallace and Stephen Darwall, and the view that shame is a reactive attitude but does not concern moral accountability, recently defended by Andreas Carlsson and Douglas Portmore

The Communication Argument and the Pluralist Challenge

Various theorists have endorsed the “communication argument”: communicative capacities are necessary for morally responsible agency because blame aims at a distinctive kind of moral communication. I contend that existing versions of the argument, including those defended by Gary Watson and Coleen Macnamara, face a pluralist challenge: they do not seem to sit well with the plausible view that blame has multiple aims. I then examine three possible rejoinders to the challenge, suggesting that a context-specific, function-based approach constitutes the most promising modification of the communication argument

Insights into the role of nucleotide methylation in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease

Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a chronic liver disease characterized by fatty infiltration of the liver. In recent years, the MAFLD incidence rate has risen and emerged as a serious public health concern. MAFLD typically progresses from the initial hepatocyte steatosis to steatohepatitis and then gradually advances to liver fibrosis, which may ultimately lead to cirrhosis and carcinogenesis. However, the potential evolutionary mechanisms still need to be clarified. Recent studies have shown that nucleotide methylation, which was directly associated with MAFLD’s inflammatory grading, lipid synthesis, and oxidative stress, plays a crucial role in the occurrence and progression of MAFLD. In this review, we highlight the regulatory function and associated mechanisms of nucleotide methylation modification in the progress of MAFLD, with a particular emphasis on its regulatory role in the inflammation of MAFLD, including the regulation of inflammation-related immune and metabolic microenvironment. Additionally, we summarize the potential value of nucleotide methylation in the diagnosis and treatment of MAFLD, intending to provide references for the future investigation of MAFLD

The expansion of natural catastrophe exposures in East Asia (Pearl River Delta)

Pearl River Delta, being the world largest megacity, is undergoing rapid urbanisation. This study aims to predict and estimate the growth of the cities in Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, in terms of population in the year 2030. The method of doing so is similar to the method done by Bettencourt et al based on the article “Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities”. As the method was not applied to Pearl River Delta Economic Zone before, therefore it is interesting to see whether the result correlates with the result already achieved. The first step is to identify the urban indicators to be used in this study and find the relevant data from the statistical yearbooks of the cities. The population growth is related to scaling exponent, β. The β value determines the potential of city growth. The next step is to obtain the β value for each urban indicator. The result showed that for urban indicators associated with wealth and innovation, most of β value is high (> 2) instead of the β = 1-1.5 range in the article. For urban indicators associated with individual human needs, only partial of it exhibit similar characteristic with the article. The reason for such error may be the small number of sample size. The limitation of the study is no urban indicators associated with infrastructure is used, thus no comparison can be made with the article to verify its validity. The result also showed that those already established cities with high GDP and population such as Guangzhou will have less potential of growth and smaller developing cities such as Zhaoqing will have higher potential of growth. The next step is the apply the urban growth equation to predict the population size in year 2030. This is done using an iterative process to determine R value and then fix E value to obtain predicted population, N(t). The results showed that different urban indicators produced different population growth trend which lead to an inconclusive result. The time period is too short to see the trend of population growth in the long term to determine the point of time representing year 2030 for different β classification. The E value would affect the population growth trend thus it should not be fixed to same value for all cases. Preliminary population forecast is done using simple growth model to provide a rough population estimation. N(t) from preliminary forecast is used to adjust E value and predict values of urban indicators in year 2030.Bachelor of Engineering (Civil

How Blame Functions: Essays on Blame, Responsibility, and Moral Emotions

What it is for us to blame an individual, and when is our blame appropriate? While moral psychologists have proposed a variety of theoretical approaches, they only recently started to systematically investigate the function of blaming practices and its bearing on questions about blame’s nature and normativity. In developing their function-based approaches, moral psychologists have not, however, paid much attention to the possibility that blame may have multiple functions.My project aims to fill in this gap by developing a pluralist function-based approach to both the nature and the ethics of blame. Chapter 1 introduces the backgrounds and themes of the project. Chapter 2 directly engages with and challenges what I take to be a monist aim-based or function-based approach—the view that the aim of blame involves moral communication. Chapter 3 develops my pluralist function-based approach to the nature of blame. I suggest that blame is defined by a cluster of functions including protest, communication, and signaling. I contend that these functions are not merely accidentally associated with each other; instead, they, when realized together, have a distinct value of contributing to various first-order normative aims in an efficient and non-alienating way. Chapter 4 applies this approach to a kind of practical conflict about blame. Sometimes we face conflicting considerations about whether to blame because, I argue, blame cannot fulfill its multiple functions at the same time. In Chapters 5 and 6, I turn to examine questions about the role of reactive attitudes in theorizing moral responsibility. I argue against an influential “response-dependence” view that grounds facts about responsibility in facts about reactive attitudes; and I defend an inclusive view about the scope of reactive attitudes, according to which the controversial attitude of shame should count as a reactive attitude. The conclusion is that a pluralist function-based approach has various theoretical advantages, and reactive attitudes should play an important but limited role in this approach