Evidentialism and Moral Encroachment

Moral encroachment holds that the epistemic justification of a belief can be affected by moral factors. If the belief might wrong a person or group more evidence is required to justify the belief. Moral encroachment thereby opposes evidentialism, and kindred views, which holds that epistemic justification is determined solely by factors pertaining to evidence and truth. In this essay I explain how beliefs such as ‘that woman is probably an administrative assistant’—based on the evidence that most women employees at the firm are administrative assistants—motivate moral encroachment. I then describe weaknesses of moral encroachment. Finally I explain how we can countenance the moral properties of such beliefs without endorsing moral encroachment, and I argue that the moral status of such beliefs cannot be evaluated independently from the understanding in which they are embedded

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Stratigraphy and Petrology of the Pungo River Formation, Central Coastal Plain of North Carolina

Up to 30 m of phosphatic sediments of early and middle Miocene Pungo River Formation were deposited in the north-south-trending Aurora Embayment of North Carolina. These sediments thin to approximately 10 to 15 m over the Cape Lookout High, a pre-Miocene feature which forms the southern boundary of the Aurora Embayment. The western and updip limit of the formation parallels a regional north-south structural hingeline or White Oak Lineament. The formation thins to a feather-edge at this lineament and thickens rapidly to the east and southeast. Deposition of the Pungo River Formation extended some unknown distance to the west of the White Oak Lineament, the present updip erosional limit. The Pungo River Formation consists of the four major sediment sequences in the Aurora Area (units A, B, C, and D as described by Riggs and others, 1982b) and three lateral facies (units BB, CC, and DD). Phosphate sedimentation was concentrated in units A, B, and C which are laterally correlative throughout most of the study area. However, the muddy phosphorite quartz sands of unit B and possibly the phosphorite quartz sands and carbonate sediments of unit C grade downdip to the southeast into an 11-m-thick diatomaceous facies (unit BB). Units A, B, and C grade into a slightly phosphatic, calcareous, quartz sand facies (unit CC) to the south, in the area of the Cape Lookout High, which probably represents a shoaling environment. Dolomitic unit D, of the northern and eastern portions of the Aurora Embayment, grades laterally into calcareous unit DD in the central portion of the embayment. Allochemical phosphate grains of the intraclastic variety dominate all sediment units in the formation. However, unit A contains abundant pelletal phosphate in the fine to very fine sand-size fraction. The highest phosphate concentrations occur along the upper shelflike basin margin in the west-central portion of the Aurora Embayment. Updip to the west, the phosphate concentration decreases within each unit which also thins due to subsequent erosion. Major facies changes within the sediment units have resulted in decreased phosphate contents downdip to the east and south within the Aurora Embayment. Within the Aurora Area, units A through C of the Pungo River Formation are generally characterized by the cyclic deposition consisting of decreasing terrigenous and increasing phosphate sedimentation upward through the units; the deposition of each unit culminated with the formation of a carbonate cap-rock. The depositional pattern of these regionally persistent and cyclical lithologies suggests that units A through C were deposited during a major transgression. The overlying unit D was deposited during the early stages of a subsequent regressive phase. Truncation of the units by erosion took place prior to the deposition of the Pliocene Yorktown Formation. Thus, this extensive erosion has produced an apparent offlap configuration of the Pungo River units that actually represents a major transgressive or onlap sediment sequence and an early stage regressive sequence

Miocene Seismic Stratigraphy, Structural Framework, and Sea-Level Cyclicity: North Carolina Continental Shelf

Preliminary interpretations of over 1000 km of high-resolution seismic reflection data, supplemented by over 100 9-m vibracores, have delineated the shallow stratigraphic and structural framework for several Miocene depositional sequences overlying the Carolina platform in the area of Onslow Bay, North Carolina. Comparison of the observed stratigraphy with published seismic, gravity, magnetic, and core hole data indicates that the distribution, thickness and depositional pattern of each sequence has been controlled by: 1) the regional tectonic framework; 2) several, local structural features; and 3) numerous, relative, sea-level functions. A broad zone of phosphate-rich, Miocene sediments and rocks crops out at mid-shelf across the northern segment of the Carolina Platform. This outcrop belt trends northeast-southwest, and extends from Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear to the middle shelf off Bogue Banks. Older Tertiary and Cretaceous sequences crop out southwest of Frying Pan Shoals owing to the presence of the Cape Fear Arch, a mid-Carolina Platform high. In the vicinity of Bogue Banks, the Miocene sequences abruptly change strike and run parallel to the north-south oriented White Oak Lineament. North of Bogue Banks, the Miocene depositional sequences thin and/or pinch out over the Cape Lookout High, which is presently thought to be a pre-Miocene, erosion-originated paleoptopographic feature. In southwestern Onslow Bay the Miocene sequences change strike and thicken along a third local structure, herein referred to as the Cape Fear Monocline. Several shallow Miocene outliers, which are the surficial expression of subbottom “flexures,� were also identified in this area. These structures are deformational in origin, and may be a consequence of differential movement along deep-seated structures within the Carolina Platform. The Miocene depositional sequences and associated unconformities indicate several cycles of relative sea-level change. Comparison of the Miocene relative sea-level cyclicity with the proposed global eustatic sea-level curve of Vail and others (1977) depicts a potentially strong correlation. However, the present lack of high-resolution biostratigraphic data precludes exact correlations