Epistemological Aspects of Hope

Hope is an attitude with a distinctive epistemological dimension: it is incompatible with knowledge. This chapter examines hope as it relates to knowledge but also to probability and inductive considerations. Such epistemic constraints can make hope either impossible, or, when hope remains possible, they affect how one’s epistemic situation can make hope rational rather than irrational. Such issues are especially relevant to when hopefulness may permissibly figure in practical deliberation over a course of action. So I consider cases of second-order inductive reflection on when one should, or should not, be hopeful for an outcome with which one has a long record of experience: in other words, what is the epistemology behind when one should, if ever, stop hoping for outcomes which have failed one many times in the past

Hedged Assertion

Surprisingly little has been written about hedged assertion. Linguists often focus on semantic or syntactic theorizing about, for example, grammatical evidentials or epistemic modals, but pay far less attention to what hedging does at the level of action. By contrast, philosophers have focused extensively on normative issues regarding what epistemic position is required for proper assertion, yet they have almost exclusively considered unqualified declaratives. This essay considers the linguistic and normative issues side-by-side. We aim to bring some order and clarity to thinking about hedging, so as to illuminate aspects of interest to both linguists and philosophers. In particular, we consider three broad questions. 1) The structural question: when one hedges, what is the speaker’s commitment weakened from? 2) The functional question: what is the best way to understand how a hedge weakens? And 3) the taxonomic question: are hedged assertions genuine assertions, another speech act, or what

Epistemology Personalized

Recent epistemology has focused almost exclusively on propositional knowledge. This paper considers an underexplored area of epistemology, namely knowledge of persons: if propositional knowledge is a state of mind, consisting in a subject's attitude to a (true) proposition, the account developed here thinks of interpersonal knowledge as a state of minds, involving a subject's attitude to another (existing) subject. This kind of knowledge is distinct from propositional knowledge, but it exhibits a gradability characteristic of context-sensitivity, and admits of shifty thresholds. It is supported by a wide range of unexplored linguistic data and intuitive cases; and it promises to illuminate debates within epistemology, philosophy of religion, and ethics

Lying, accuracy and credence

Traditional definitions of lying require that a speaker believe that what she asserts is false. Sam Fox Krauss seeks to jettison the traditional belief requirement in favour of a necessary condition given in a credence-accuracy framework, on which the liar expects to impose the risk of increased inaccuracy on the hearer. He argues that this necessary condition importantly captures nearby cases as lies which the traditional view neglects. I argue, however, that Krauss's own account suffers from an identical drawback of being unable to explain nearby cases; and even worse, that account fails to distinguish cases of telling lies from cases of telling the truth

Formation and Reflection: The Dynamics of Theology in Christian Life

2001/10/25. Presents a view of theology he believes is a more authentic understanding embodied in the early church and shares how that view is rooted in Wesleyan theology and how it helps us to understand our history and future. The Paul T. Walls Lecture

Reconciliation as Holistic Redemptive Transformation

Reconciliation is a word often used in Christian circles, but almost as often, it is not defined. Sometimes it is used to indicate intimacy with God, sometimes it means merely being nice to other people, and sometimes it refers to an ambiguous concept of justice. To avoid this conceptual reductionism, we can look to the work of 20th-century theologian Karl Barth, who wrote exhaustively on the concept of reconciliation as an ecology of multi-dimensional salvation -- personal, communal, and societal. For Barth, reconciliation means restored relationship in a theological and holistic sense, such that all reality is redemptively transformed by God in the work of the Son and Spirit through the people of God. Dr. Langford will discuss this ecology of transformation as a framework for thinking about reconciliation in a theological sense

What is Primary: Teaching Archival Epistemology and the Sources Continuum

This essay explores the complex concept of primary sources and introduces a model that can be used to help determine the primacy of sources of knowledge

Brainstorm: Head Injuries and the NFL, Part 11: Microglial Cells

We are trying to understand the biology of CTE at the most intimate level possible, the level of cells and molecules. The last entry dealt with the tau protein and its role in mediating closed­-head neural damage. In this installment, let’s consider the role of microglial cells, a little wisp of a cell type with a great big job.https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/brainstorm/1022/thumbnail.jp

iOS Management = Confused

iOS management is convoluted and confusing. Apple’s fan boy mantra, “it just works” is actually the antithesis of my experience. It isn’t all thorns in my side; there are some useful features Apple’s provided, especially in Profile Manager. In this post I will explain my understanding of each management tool and how I tried to implement them. I offer concluding information on their resulting successes and failures. Furthermore, I ask Apple for a better solution; one integrated solution. I welcome your feedback, comments, and critiques. Did I miss something? Additionally, share your own successes and failures. This article was originally published on the now defunct MacLearning.org. The original is accessible through the Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20130927085619/http://maclearning.org/articles/83/i-os-management-confuse

Brainstorm: Head Injuries and the NFL, Part 6: Memory Loss

We are in the process of examining the relationship between neurological damage associated with repeated closed­-head injuries and the behaviors of CTE. We’ve been using the example of spearing, illustrating the effects of this banned football behavior on the biological integrity of the human brain. We discussed how damage to one such neurological circuit, the Papez Circuit, can lead to chronic changes in mood. Here we discuss changes in three cognitive gadgets: executive function, memory processing, and motor control.https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/brainstorm/1017/thumbnail.jp