Does Suppositional Reasoning Solve the Bootstrapping Problem?

In a 2002 article Stewart Cohen advances the “bootstrapping problem” for what he calls “basic justification theories,” and in a 2010 followup he offers a solution to the problem, exploiting the idea that suppositional reasoning may be used with defeasible as well as with deductive inference rules. To curtail the form of bootstrapping permitted by basic justification theories, Cohen insists that subjects must know their perceptual faculties are reliable before perception can give them knowledge. But how is such knowledge of reliability to be acquired if not through perception itself? Cohen proposes that such knowledge may be acquired a priori through suppositional reasoning. I argue that his strategy runs afoul of a plausible view about how epistemic principles function; in brief, I argue that one must actually satisfy the antecedent of an epistemic principle, not merely suppose that one does, to acquire any justification by its means – even justification for a merely conditional proposition

Pathways to social evolution: reciprocity, relatedness, and synergy

Many organisms live in populations structured by space and by class, exhibit plastic responses to their social partners, and are subject to non-additive ecological and fitness effects. Social evolution theory has long recognized that all of these factors can lead to different selection pressures but has only recently attempted to synthesize how these factors interact. Using models for both discrete and continuous phenotypes, we show that analyzing these factors in a consistent framework reveals that they interact with one another in ways previously overlooked. Specifically, behavioral responses (reciprocity), genetic relatedness, and synergy interact in non-trivial ways that cannot be easily captured by simple summary indices of assortment. We demonstrate the importance of these interactions by showing how they have been neglected in previous synthetic models of social behavior both within and between species. These interactions also affect the level of behavioral responses that can evolve in the long run; proximate biological mechanisms are evolutionarily stable when they generate enough responsiveness relative to the level of responsiveness that exactly balances the ecological costs and benefits. Given the richness of social behavior across taxa, these interactions should be a boon for empirical research as they are likely crucial for describing the complex relationship linking ecology, demography, and social behavior.Comment: 4 figure

Speaking of Music and the Counterpoint of Copyright: Addressing Legal Concerns in Making Oral History Available to the Public

Oral history provides society with voices and memories of people and communities experiencing events of the past first-hand. Such history is created through interviews; an interview, however, like any other type of intellectual property—once in a fixed form—is subject to copyright law. In order to make oral history available to the public, it is critically important that individuals generating and acquiring oral history materials clearly understand relevant aspects of copyright law. The varied nature of how one may create, use, and acquire oral history materials can present new, surprising, and sometimes baffling legal scenarios that challenge the experience of even the most skilled curators. This iBrief presents and discusses two real-world scenarios that raise various issues related to oral history and copyright law. These scenarios were encountered by curators at Yale University’s Oral History of American Music archive (OHAM), the preeminent organization dedicated to the collection and preservation of recorded memoirs of the creative musicians of our time. The legal concerns raised and discussed throughout this iBrief may be familiar to other stewards of oral history materials and will be worthwhile for all archivists and their counsel to consider when reviewing their practices and policies

Borges’s Two Refutations of Time

Jorge Luis Borges offers two proofs of the unreality of time. One of these is based on the idealism of Berkeley. The other is based on Leibniz’s principle of the identity of indiscernibles. Though the logic of both arguments is valid, neither of them is fully compelling in its premises

Somerset’s Case and Its Antecedents in Imperial Perspective

The article offers a look on the Somerset\u27s Case that served as a milestone in the campaign to abolish slavery in Great Britain. The case become famous in the Anglo-American law of slavery, with its proceedings widely circulated in periodicals. However, historians have argued about what the ruling was and its effects. It has been known in English slavery law that courts prior to the case generally agreed that English law governed status, but also limited slavery, for slaves who came to England

The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States. 1789-1800. Vol. 7, Cases: 1796-1797

In this review, the author expresses praise for DHSC 7, a document that covers court cases from 1796 to 1797. It highlights various particular cases while noting how effectively they are examined. Ultimately, the review advocates that students of legal history should consider the DHSC 7

Equal Enforcement for All

As a premise, there is no reason in this society, at this time, for individuals of any race or economic status to be involuntarily exposed to disproportionate environmental risks. This article argues that if there are disproportionate impacts and you want to do something about it, you tell the government to increase enforcement resources. You tell the government to make sure that there are no exceptions, and that the fact that an employer is a large, local employer and politically influential does not mean that it should get any breaks from anybody for any reason

Regulating Environmental and Safety Hazards of Agricultural Biotechnology for a Sustainable World

This Essay first presents an overview of key legal principles that support sustainability. This Essay then reviews the major alleged risks of agricultural biotechnology. It then describes the existing U.S. and European agricultural biotechnology regulatory system designed to control those risks. Next, this Essay analyzes the existing U.S. regulatory system using sustainability principles. In the course of that analysis, this Essay considers lessons to be derived from three case studies: the permitting of Starlink™ corn, the discovery of Mexican maize containing genetically engineered corn genes, and the possible permitting of transgenic salmon for ocean fish farming. This Essay also considers lessons from the broader regulatory history of pest-protected plants. Based on the analysis of sustainability issues related to agricultural biotechnology, this Essay concludes that despite the obvious, substantial benefits that agricultural biotechnology can confer on society, the United States needs to improve its regulatory process to ensure a proper weighing of the full social benefits and costs of agricultural biotechnology and to clarify liability rules governing the use of agricultural biotechnology. These reforms should provide both better public protection and increased public support for the agricultural biotechnology industry

The Changing Intersection of Environmental Auditing, Environmental Law and Enforcement Policy

This article examines the changing intersection of environmental auditing, environmental law, and enforcement policy. It will begin by reviewing the concept of environmental auditing and will then discuss sources of existing legal authority to require or encourage audits and their limitations. Next, the article examines EPA\u27s existing audit policies and the rationale behind them. It will consider the relationship between these audit policies, enforcement policy, and voluntary disclosures of environmental violations, which has recently been reviewed by the Department of Justice. The article will then consider two alternative models which might be used to establish the role of environmental auditing in environmental regulation. First, it will consider portions of the Community Right-to-Know legislation adopted by Congress in 1986, which can be considered a limited form of mandatory environmental auditing. Then, environmental auditing will be compared to the financial auditing process developed under the securities laws, which mandates broad financial auditing. The article will conclude by briefly describing recent legislative and U.S. Sentencing Commission proposals to broaden the use of environmental audits