Another Blow to Knowledge from Knowledge

A novel argument is offered against the following popular condition on inferential knowledge: a person inferentially knows a conclusion only if they know each of the claims from which they essentially inferred that conclusion. The epistemology of conditional proof reveals that we sometimes come to know conditionals by inferring them from assumptions rather than beliefs. Since knowledge requires belief, cases of knowing via conditional proof refute the popular knowledge from knowledge condition. It also suggests more radical cases against the condition and it brings to light the under-recognized category of inferential basic knowledge

Groundwater Irrigation System for Sustainable Agriculture

The aim of this project was to develop a prototype that may be a model to help relieve food insecurity in rural Liberia. This was accomplished by designing a groundwater extraction, recharge, and irrigation system to facilitate year-long crop-growth. The project was in partnership with BRAID Africa and a community in Zwedru, located in east Liberia, near the border of Côte D’Ivoire. During 2010 and 2011, a civil war broke out in Côte D’Ivoire and led to the citizens of the country taking refuge in Liberia (Leaf 2015). Many refugees have decided to stay in Liberia and are struggling to maintain food security as most subsist on rice with not even enough to sell. Currently, villagers in Zwedru only grow the rice in swamps during the rainy season and, with climate change, the rainy season is becoming increasingly unreliable (USAID 2012). The irrigation system that was designed for this project has allowed villagers to grow certain crops, such as cassava, okra, chard, and squash, during the dry season which will help alleviate food insecurity with the goal of providing a source of income for the farmers. This project was designed for a one hectare (2.47 acres) plot, which can be scaled up or down depending on land area and available resources

Safety culture in defence explosive ordnance: developing a safety climate measure

It is increasingly recognised within high-consequence industries that a positive safety culture is strongly linked to various safety outcomes and performance indicators. Explosive ordnance (EO) is an area that demands a high level of safety culture, indeed it is a reputational and operational necessity. This paper introduces a measure of safety climate tailored to the EO domain. The paper describes the background to the study, the development of items, and the subsequent factorial validation of scales on the basis of a sample of 272 EO personnel. The factor structure that emerged was very similar to the postulated structure of 14 climate dimensions. These 14 dimensions were shown to represent three meta-themes in the data: Safety Awareness and Responsibility (8 subscales), Safety Resources issues (3 subscales), and Safety System issues (3 subscales). The authors are confident that the EO Safety Survey is a valid, reliable and powerful tool that will support the goal of holistic reform of the EO domain. The EO Safety Survey will inform and enable tailored safety intervention efforts, improved compliance monitoring, and benchmarking studies that, collectively, will enhance the management of the human factors issues that impact on EO work

Design research: aesthetic epistemology and explanatory knowledge

The article explores the “what” and the “how” of design research. It discusses the epistemological assumptions of design and design research—the conception of true knowledge that underpins the quest to advance design knowledge through research. The article also examines the media and methods of doing design research—that is, the “how” of such research. As it developed over the past century, the design field has drawn extensively on three pivotal but often tacitly deployed epistemologies: the Platonic-Aristotelian, the pragmatic, and the postmodern. Platonic epistemology is latent in many commonplace design instruction texts. Pragmatic epistemology underscores the industrial-arts ethos of design. Postmodern epistemologies dominate in university programs—especially graduate and Ph.D. programs. The article considers how these competing epistemologies understand the role of imagination in the act of creation. The article then considers the role of explanation in the carrying out of research in creative design and arts fields. It addresses whether, and to what degree, design research ought to rely on explanatory words as its principal medium of research, or whether it is valid to substitute artifactual creation for intellectual explanation in the research process

The Stranger Society: The Case of Economic and Social Development in the Tropics

The economic and social prosperity of nations are usually attributed to functional requirements—such as honest government, effective transport and communication networks, health care and education—and development strategies such as investment in infrastructure. However, beyond a certain point peak economic and social success relies as much on human ingenuity as on capital investment. The article proposes that the world’s most prosperous societies have three recurring characteristics that foster such ingenuity: (1) they are all closely connected to trading portals, (2) they nourish paradoxical belief systems that underscore a proclivity for intellectual abstraction and pattern-based interaction, and (3) they are stranger societies that encourage high levels of interaction between unknown persons

Education, philosophy and political economy: the reclamation of the imagination

This is a philosophical argument in defence of a traditional approach to learning. The traditional approach focuses on hard work, persistence, durability, character, thinking and creation. The article takes issue with the post-modern style of education that is rooted, socially, in a mix of Keynesian economics, information accumulation, social media, and a glib existential now-ness. An education that does not instil in the young a work ethic and a respect for the production of knowledge (indeed production of all kinds) induces in them a sense that worldly goods are handed-out rather than made and created by great effort. A political economy and a society that assumes that will wither and decline

COVID-19: Social Disease and Public Prudence

The article profiles the social aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic including the social component of virus transmission, the parallels between national and regional social distancing habits, and the impact of COVID-19 on populations. The interaction of low-contact and high-contact cultures with the COVID-19 virus is analyzed. The public policy response is examined with particular reference to proportionality in decision-making. The article explores the role of mid-range, balanced policies and temperate, moderate actions in dealing with a serious public health issue