The Duplicity of Online Behavior

People commonly believe that any form of deception, no matter how innocuous it is and no matter whether the deceiving person intended it otherwise, is always morally wrong. In this paper, I will argue that deceiving in real-time is morally distinguishable from deceiving on-line because online actions aren’t as fine-grained as actions occurring in real-time. Our failure to detect the fine-grained characteristics of another avatar leads us to believe that that avatar intended to do a moral harm. Openly deceiving someone on Facebook or Twitter is not a way to build wholesome virtual friendships but to destroy them. This paper will show how the traditional understanding of the doing / allowing distinction fails to apply in cyberspace

What Is It Like To Be Immortal?

The idea of an eternal and immortal life like the one we lead now seems quite appealing because (i) it will be sufficiently like our own earth-bound life and (ii) we will have the same kinds of desires we have now to want to live an eternal life. This paper will challenge the view that we have a conception of what the conscious experience of an immortal is like, regardless of whether we might want to live it. Given that for us to conceive of an immortal life we must project onto it our own view of what it is like to live our own life and given that an immortal life may not be anything like the life we live, we cannot conceive of what it is like to be immortal

The Inaccuracy of Partial Truth in Yablovian If-Thenism

Yablo has argued for an alternative form of if-thenism that is more conducive with his figurative fictionalism. This commentary sets out to challenge whether the remainder, ρ, tends to be an inaccurate representation of the conditions that are supposed to complete the enthymeme from φ to Ψ. Whilst by some accounts the inaccuracies shouldn't set off any alarm bells, the truth of ρ is too inexact. The content of ρ, a partial truth, must display a sensitivity to the contextual background conditions for subtraction to work properly in Yablo's view. Using a toy example, I argue that Yablo's subtraction model tends to yield partial truths as remainders that fail to rule out inaccurate expressions that may prove to be problematic for it

Help! Virtue Profiles and Horses for Courses

Glen Pettigrove addresses the proportionality principle in ethics, the principle that “our actions, attitudes, or emotions should be proportional to the degree of value present in the object or events to which they are responding” [p. 1]. He argues this is inconsistent with some familiar features of common-sense morality. In response, he brings virtuous character into the picture, a move we support but wish to modify. We show that certain helping actions should be guided by whether one has the virtue profile most suited to the situation from amongst a surrounding network of people

Ordinary Truth in Tarski and Næss

Alfred Tarski seems to endorse a partial conception of truth, the T-schema, which he believes might be clarified by the application of empirical methods, specifically citing the experimental results of Arne Næss (1938a). The aim of this paper is to argue that Næss’ empirical work confirmed Tarski’s semantic conception of truth, among others. In the first part, I lay out the case for believing that Tarski’s T-schema, while not the formal and generalizable Convention-T, provides a partial account of truth that may be buttressed by an examination of the ordinary person’s views of truth. Then, I address a concern raised by Tarski’s contemporaries who saw Næss’ results as refuting Tarski’s semantic conception. Following that, I summarize Næss’ results. Finally, I will contend with a few objections that suggest a strict interpretation of Næss’ results might recommend an overturning of Tarski’s theory

Ultrafast electronic processes in doped metal-halide perovskite semiconductors

Electronic doping of semiconductors is an important topic in optoelectronics. Introducing small amounts of electron-rich or -poor dopants into the crystal structure of the semiconductor increases its conductivity and shifts the Fermi level, enabling efficient transistor, diode and photovoltaic device architectures. This thesis discusses the effects of doping in metal-halide perovskites, a novel group of semiconducting materials highly relevant for optoelectronic applications. The properties of the doped materials are studied in this work with a variety of spectroscopic techniques, notably including terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. The analysis of terahertz transmission through thin films has proven to be an excellent tool for investigating optoelectronic properties of novel semiconductors. As the relation between the conductivity of the material and the THz transmission function is generally complicated, simple analytical expressions have been developed to enable straightforward calculations of frequency-dependent conductivity from experimental data in the regime of optically thin samples. However, significant deviations of the calculated photoconductivity from its actual value are observed in this thesis in semiconductors with high background conductivity when using these expressions. An alternative analytical formula is therefore developed, which greatly improves the accuracy of the estimated value of the photoconductivity while remaining simple to implement experimentally. This improvement of data analysis methodology is highly relevant for studies of photoexcited charge-carrier dynamics in electrically-doped semiconductors, such as tin-iodide perovskites, where the commonly used expression for photoconductivity would result in an underestimate of charge-carrier mobility by over 50%. Tin-iodide perovskites are an important group of semiconductors for photovoltaic applications, as they exhibit higher intrinsic charge-carrier mobilities and lower toxicity than their lead-based counterparts. The spontaneous but controllable p-type doping in these materials provides an interesting opportunity to obtain novel insight into the effect of electronic doping on the dynamic processes, particularly on the intraband transitions of hot charge carriers in metal-halide perovskites. Using a new experimental technique, this thesis reveals that newly photogenerated charge carriers relax within the bands of FA0.83Cs0.17SnI3 on a sub-picosecond timescale when a large, already fully thermalized (cold) population of charge carriers is present. Such rapid dissipation of the initial charge-carrier energy suggests that the propensity of tin-halide perovskites towards unintentional self-doping resulting from tin vacancy formation makes these materials less suited to implementation in hot-carrier solar cells than their lead-based counterparts. Finally, an investigation of charge-carrier trapping and conduction in films of MAPbBr3 perovskite chemically doped with bismuth is presented in this thesis. Successful chemical doping of metal halide perovskites with small amounts of heterovalent metals has attracted research attention because of its potential to improve long-term material stability and tune absorption spectra. However, some additives have been observed to impact negatively on optoelectronic properties, highlighting the importance of understanding charge-carrier behaviour in doped metal-halide perovskites. It is here found that the addition of bismuth has no effect on either the bandgap or exciton binding energy of the MAPbBr3 host. However, a substantial enhancement of electron-trapping defects upon bismuth doping is observed, which results in an ultrafast charge-carrier decay component, enhanced infrared emission and a notable decrease in charge-carrier mobility. Such defects arise from the current approach to bismuth-doping through the addition of BiBr3 salt, which may enhance the presence of bromide interstitials

MODEL DESCRIBING STATIC AND DYNAMIC DISPLACEMENTS OF SILOS WALL DURING THE FLOW OF LOOSE MATERIAL

Correct evaluation of wall displacements is a key matter when designing silos. This issue is important from both the standpoint of design engineer (load-bearing capacity of structures) and end-consumer (durability of structures). Commonplace methods of silo design mainly focus on satisfying limit states of load-bearing capacity. Current standards fail to specify methods of dynamic displacements analysis. Measurements of stressacting on silo walls prove that the actual stress is sum of static and dynamic stresses. Janssen came up with differential equation describing state of static equilibrium in cross-section of a silo. By solving the equation static stress of granular solid on silo walls can be determined. Equations of motion were determined from equilibrium equations of feature objects. General solution, describing dynamic stresses was presented as parametric model. This paper presents particular integrals of differential equation, which enable analysing displacements and vibrations for different rigidities of silo walls, types of granular solid and its flow rate

Future intentions, plans, and the problem of Buridan's Ass

Suppose that: 1. an agent, S, is able to choose only one option, x or y; 2. S prefers neither x nor y in comparison to the other; and 3. S prefers having at least one of x or y to having none.1 Call this “the problem of Buridan’s Ass.” A theory of practical reasoning is supposed to tell us what to do. Which option, x or y, should S choose? Which theory of practical reasoning tells S to choose that option? While we are capable of overcoming the above situation, it seems that our choosing to act did not rely upon a theory of practical reasoning. In response to the puzzle above, I show how Davidson’s theory faces a pair of difficulties, which are the result of his overly weak conception of the role of intentions and plans in practical reasoning. On one hand, Davidson’s theory seems unable to accommodate the possibility of a future intention in the face of equally desirable future options, and, on the other hand, his theory cannot ensure that rational intentions are agglomerative. Upon further inspection, however, it appears that Davidson’s theory is not an overly weak conception since he does seem to rule out the role of plans in practical reasoning. But even including plans in practical reasoning, as Bratman’s theory of intention does, fails to solve the seemingly insoluble problem of equipollent preference