Eventuality-based interval semantics and Free Logic: what if there, like, is no future, man?

2019 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Future contingent propositions have famously been a source of trouble for philosophers and logicians committed to any variety of indeterminism on which facts about the future are not yet fixed. One possible answer to the problem involves presupposition—namely, that propositions lack truth-value when other propositions that they presuppose are false. This paper explores the plausibility of such an answer, beginning with a brief discussion of the problem of future contingent propositions and presupposition. From there, an in-depth discussion of Free Logic lays the groundwork of logical tools for the project, exploring the motivation for Free Logic's development and examples of Free Logic semantics. Subsequently, this paper discusses the history and usefulness of events-based semantics in analyzing English sentences. Using the tools of events-based semantics and formal logic, this paper formally models this approach to sentences in English by defining a semantics which can capture both tense and aspect of such sentences and which allows for truth-valueless future contingent propositions while preserving logical truths like the law of excluded middle

A Study of H2 Emission in Three Bipolar Proto-Planetary Nebulae: IRAS 16594-4656, Hen 3-401, and Rob 22

We have carried out a spatial-kinematical study of three proto-planetary nebulae, IRAS 16594-4656, Hen 3-401, and Rob 22. High-resolution H2 images were obtained with NICMOS on the HST and high-resolution spectra were obtained with the Phoenix spectrograph on Gemini-South. IRAS 16594-4656 shows a "peanut-shaped" bipolar structure with H2 emission from the walls and from two pairs of more distant, point-symmetric faint blobs. The velocity structure shows the polar axis to be in the plane of the sky, contrary to the impression given by the more complex visual image and the visibility of the central star, with an ellipsoidal velocity structure. Hen 3-401 shows the H2 emission coming from the walls of the very elongated, open-ended lobes seen in visible light, along with a possible small disk around the star. The bipolar lobes appear to be tilted 10-15 deg with respect to the plane of the sky and their kinematics display a Hubble-like flow. In Rob 22, the H2 appears in the form of an "S" shape, approximately tracing out the similar pattern seen in the visible. H2 is especially seen at the ends of the lobes and at two opposite regions close to the unseen central star. The axis of the lobes is nearly in the plane of the sky. Expansion ages of the lobes are calculated to be approximately 1600 yr (IRAS 16594-4656), 1100 yr (Hen 3-401), and 640 yr (Rob 22), based upon approximate distances

Exploring root rot pathogens in wheat-pea rotations in Kansas

In 2018, over 277,000 bushels of wheat were produced on 7.7 million acres of land in Kansas alone. Based on the price of wheat by the end of 2018, this accounted for $1.44 million. This wheat is normally rotated with soybeans or fallow, but recent interest has arisen regarding the growth of peas in northern Kansas. As of 2019, there are both research and commercial growing operations underway. Many plant diseases have been especially prevalent during the summer because of the high rainfall and heat. In order to assess the severity of pea disease in Kansas, as well as explore potential interconnectivity between wheat and pea pathogens, a survey was conducted, and efforts were made to isolate and culture fungal pathogens of both wheat and pea

Explanation through Analogical Reasoning in Aristotle's Natural Science

Analogy features prominently in Aristotle’s writing; yet, the scholarship rarely treats Aristotle’s scientific use of analogy—or its use in any area—apart from its literary merits. The few works that do discuss analogy in Aristotle’s scientific writings tend to make two simple characterizations. The first, the weaker reading, sees analogy as serving a didactic function only and as carrying no explanatory force. It takes analogy to be something along the lines of an example or illustration, something that supports or embellishes the argument or explanation, while not being integral to Aristotle’s investigation or causal accounts. On this view, Aristotle uses analogy to comfort or instruct the reader rather than as part of his methods of inquiry. The second, which offers a somewhat stronger reading, considers analogy to be a heuristic device towards the generation of genuine causal explanations. On this reading, analogy functions as something that guides Aristotle’s investigation and discovery of an explanation but is not itself part of that explanation and, therefore, does not carry any explanatory force itself. No doubt, both didactic and heuristic uses of analogies are part of Aristotle’s writings and are quite common forms of analogy in his corpus. As I argue in the present essay, however, there is a third, largely overlooked type of analogy at play in Aristotle’s scientific treatises, namely, reasoning by analogy. While didactic analogies illustrate a phenomenon that is explainable in other ways and heuristic analogies can help lead one to an explanation, in analogical reasoning, the analogy itself functions as the explanation. This makes reasoning by analogy a potentially powerful method of scientific investigation.Bachelor of Art

Performance Variability During a Multitrial List-Learning Task as a Predictor of Future Cognitive Decline in Healthy Elders

Introduction: In clinical settings, neuropsychological test performance is traditionally evaluated with total summary scores (TSS). However, recent studies demonstrated that indices of intraindividual variability (IIV) yielded unique information complementing TSS. This 18-month longitudinal study sought to determine whether IIV indices derived from a multitrial list-learning test (the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) provided incremental utility in predicting cognitive decline in older adults compared to TSS. Method: Ninety-nine cognitively intact older adults (aged 65 to 89 years) underwent neuropsychological testing (including the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) at baseline and 18-month follow-up. Participants were classified as cognitively stable (n = 65) or declining (n = 34) based on changes in their neuropsychological test performance. Logistic regression modeling tested the ability of baseline TSS indices (sum of Trials 1–5, immediate recall, and delayed recall) and IIV indices (lost access and gained access) to discriminate between stable and declining individuals. Results: Higher values of both lost access and gained access at baseline were associated with an increased risk for decline at 18-month follow-up. Further, the IIV indices provided predictive utility above and beyond the TSS indices. Conclusion: These results highlight the value of analyzing IIV in addition to TSS during neuropsychological evaluation in older adults. High levels of IIV may reflect impairment in anterograde memory systems and/or executive dysfunction that may serve as a prognostic indicator of cognitive decline

A disrupted circumstellar torus inside eta Carinae's Homunculus Nebula

We present thermal infrared images of the bipolar nebula surrounding eta Carinae at six wavelengths from 4.8 to 24.5 microns. These were obtained with the MIRAC3 camera system at the Magellan Observatory. Our images reveal new intricate structure in the bright core of the nebula, allowing us to re-evaluate interpretations of morphology seen in images with lower resolution. Complex structures in the core might not arise from a pair of overlapping rings or a cool (110 K) and very massive dust torus, as has been suggested recently. Instead, it seems more likely that the arcs and compact knots comprise a warm (350 K) disrupted torus at the intersection of the larger polar lobes. Some of the arcs appear to break out of the inner core region, and may be associated with equatorial features seen in optical images. The torus could have been disrupted by a post-eruption stellar wind, or by ejecta from the Great Eruption itself if the torus existed before that event. Kinematic data are required to rule out either possibility.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures (Fig. 1 in color); to appear in ApJ Letter

The Problem of Choice in Hollywood Cold War Cinema

The three films considered in this essay display a range of aesthetic and philosophical investments that exceed the purview of paranoia and the kinds of analysis to which that concept normally gives rise. Chapter 1 discusses John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate (1962), a film that places the paranoid mindset front and center and that wears its allusions to topical events on its sleeve. Set against the backdrop of international espionage and McCarthyism, The Manchurian Candidate effectively creates the sensation that external—and perhaps sinister—forces determine the events of the film, including the most intimate choices of the characters. This effect is achieved through the plot’s elliptical structure and Frankenheimer’s tactical manipulation of filmic and literary genres. The collision of normally distinct generic codes within individual scenes and the disorienting elision of time between them forces the audience to speculate about the causal relationships between the key—and not-so-key—events of the plot. Given the subject matter in The Manchurian Candidate, this has the effect that the audience is invited to participate in various degrees and kinds of totalizing analysis. Each loose end is a temptation to join the characters in their paranoid speculations. While Frankenheimer’s film overtly thematizes paranoia, its ultimate interest arguably lies in probing the under-examined choices that are a routine part of film spectatorship. Chapter 2 turns to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), a film that takes aim at the statistically-driven, rational-actor models that govern national decision-making in the nuclear age. By dealing with the inconceivable—or, as the film demonstrates, all-too-conceivable—choice to commence the annihilation of the Earth, Dr. Strangelove mines grim laughter from the tendency of utilitarian thought to exonerate of the ethical consequences of their actions those entrusted with the most impactful decisions. Delusional paranoia enters Dr. Strangelove as the disavowed twin of technocratic rationality, which—with consummate hypocrisy and poise—allows the military commanders to engage in the fantasy that they are not to blame for their disastrous choices. Chapter 3 examines how Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) approaches the problem of choice from what might be called an Aristotelian perspective, focusing on the relationship between quotidian habit and the ethical formation of the individual. In its shift away from overt depictions of Cold War tensions, the film turns to issues related to consumer culture, reproductive rights, and the moral mandates of organized religion. For Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), the consumer activity of everyday life is the foundation of ethical subjecthood, but one that exists in uneasy relation to the values of her Catholic upbringing. The two competing forces are set on a collision course when Rosemary conceives the progeny of Satan. Satanism and Catholicism work to overcome Rosemary’s freedom-through-consumption; at the same time, their perversely symbiotic theologies present Rosemary with the most significant decision she has ever faced: whether to mother her firstborn.Bachelor of Art