2,884 research outputs found
Scepticism about Scepticism
Skeptical arguments are intuitively gripping. Or at least they seem to be. They readily capture the imagination and curiosity of beginners in philosophy. The arguments are easy to state but seemingly impossible to answer. Furthermore there is a powerful pessimistic induction. Those who think they have a reply inevitably haven’t appreciated the force of skeptical arguments. So, at least, I believed for many years, along with most of my fellow philosophers. In this paper I reconsider epistemological skepticism within a framework in which the dependence of epistemic properties on non-epistemic properties plays a central role. I argue that a notable consequence of foregrounding dependence is that skeptical arguments no longer have even a prima facie grip on us. At very least, parity is established between skepticism and its opposite. The presumption in favor of skepticism is obliterated. At most, the main types of skeptical argument are refuted. It sounds unlikely, I know, given the history of failures to refute skepticism, and the number of papers and books that begin with similar bravado yet end up failing with panache. Nevertheless, let’s see
The education of Walter Kohn and the creation of density functional theory
The theoretical solid-state physicist Walter Kohn was awarded one-half of the
1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his mid-1960's creation of an approach to the
many-particle problem in quantum mechanics called density functional theory
(DFT). In its exact form, DFT establishes that the total charge density of any
system of electrons and nuclei provides all the information needed for a
complete description of that system. This was a breakthrough for the study of
atoms, molecules, gases, liquids, and solids. Before DFT, it was thought that
only the vastly more complicated many-electron wave function was needed for a
complete description of such systems. Today, fifty years after its
introduction, DFT (in one of its approximate forms) is the method of choice
used by most scientists to calculate the physical properties of materials of
all kinds. In this paper, I present a biographical essay of Kohn's educational
experiences and professional career up to and including the creation of DFT
Regimes of Precursor-Mediated Epitaxial Growth
A discussion of epitaxial growth is presented for those situations (OMVPE,
CBE, ALE, MOMBE, GSMBE, etc.) when the kinetics of surface processes associated
with molecular precursors may be rate limiting. Emphasis is placed on the
identification of various {\it characteristic length scales} associated with
the surface processes. Study of the relative magnitudes of these lengths
permits one to identify regimes of qualitatively different growth kinetics as a
function of temperature and deposition flux. The approach is illustrated with a
simple model which takes account of deposition, diffusion, desorption,
dissociation, and step incorporation of a single precursor species, as well as
the usual processes of atomic diffusion and step incorporation. Experimental
implications are discussed in some detail.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Microeconomic theory of the household and nutrition programs
Lack of food is no longer the major cause of malnutrition. Many households and individuals remain malnourished when income and supplies of food are adequate. Nutrition policy and programs must be based on a sound knowledge of household behaviour patterns. The microeconomic theory of the household focuses on the household's decisionmaking about scarce food resources based upon such considerations as: (i) the size of the family; (ii) the purchasing power of the family; (iii) the availability of healthful foods; (iv) the family's food preferences; (v) environmental variables (such as ethnic traditions and the homemaker's level of education); and finally (vi) family health (disease can limit the absorption of nutrients). Such determinants should be monitored to anticipate malnutrition problems unrelated to the food.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Poverty Lines,Health Economics&Finance,Inequality
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