A new contextualised reading of Fritz Zwicky's 1933 article ''The redshift of extragalactic nebulae'' about the virial analysis of the velocity dispersion of galaxies in the Coma cluster leads to a reconsideration of the traditional discourse on the introduction of dark matter. We argue that this component of matter was not only already on the stage of the scientific debates of the time, but also, in a more concealed form, played a central role in Zwicky's epistemic context. We thus reject the narration that dark matter is the result of a ``na{ï}ve'' astrophysical observation and emphasise the cosmological motivations that prompted Zwicky to presciently search for it. Moreover, with regard to its abundance, we argue that the discrepancy between the observed amount of luminous matter in the Coma Cluster and Zwicky's higher mass estimate derived from virial analysis was not, in fact, astonishing. What Zwicky described as a surprising excess of dark matter was of precisely the order of magnitude he had set out to identify. Consequently, we challenge the widespread view that dark matter was merely an ad hoc hypothesis introduced to rescue Newtonian theory. Instead, we suggest it may represent one of the earliest cosmological indications supporting a new emerging theory of gravitation: General Relativity. This reinterpretation contributes to ongoing debates in the philosophy of science concerning the epistemic status of ad hoc hypotheses.
In a brief reflection on the principles of human society, P. A. M. Dirac articulated a structural tension between two widely affirmed norms: that it is good and natural for parents to improve the prospects of their own children, and that justice requires that all children have equal opportunities in life. These principles, each compelling on its own, cannot be fully realized together. This paper reconstructs Dirac's dilemma, connects it to the dynamics of compounding advantage and inheritance, and situates it within the broader history of political philosophy, including the work of Rawls, Dworkin, Cohen, Brighouse and Swift, Nozick, Murphy and Nagel, and others. The paper argues that attempts to eliminate the resulting injustices entirely risk damaging the non--zero--sum structures that generate general prosperity, and defends a position of "managed inequality": a robust social floor and real mobility, combined with limits on extreme dynastic accumulation and an explicit acceptance of some residual, but constrained, inherited advantage.
The study aims to explore the impact mechanism of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication, introducing the mediating variable—flow experience—and the moderating variable—consumer–brand relationship norms. The study uses the approach of the experimental research. In Experiment 1, with the watch as the experimental product and the advertisement as the online scene, 62 subjects in the pre-experiment and 132 subjects in the formal experiment are recruited to verify the main effect of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication. In Experiment 2, with the tea bag as the experimental product and the online press conference as the online scene, 73 subjects in the pre-experiment and 185 subjects in the formal experiment are recruited to verify the mediating role of flow experience in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication. In Experiment 3, with the scented candle as the experimental product and the promotional video of the e-commerce store as the online scene, 81 subjects in the pre-experiment and 269 subjects in the formal experiment are recruited to verify the moderating role of consumer–brand relationship norms in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication/flow experience. The results show that brand ritual is more effective in promoting online word-of-mouth communication than random action, flow experience plays a completely mediating role in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication, and consumer–brand relationship norms play a moderating role in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication/flow experience. The study not only reveals the impact mechanism of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication, but also provides strong guidance for companies to utilize brand ritual, flow experience, and consumer–brand relationship norms to promote online word-of-mouth communication.
I consider the sense in which teleparallel gravity and symmetric teleparallel gravity may be understood as gauge theories of gravity. I first argue that both theories have surplus structure. I then consider the relationship between Yang-Mills theory and Poincare Gauge Theory and argue that though these use similar formalisms, there are subtle disanalogies in their interpretation.
Hatem Elshatlawy, Dean Rickles, Xerxes D. Arsiwalla
We propose a formal framework for understanding and unifying the concept of observers across physics, computer science, philosophy, and related fields. Building on cybernetic feedback models, we introduce an operational definition of minimal observers, explore their role in shaping foundational concepts, and identify what remains unspecified in their absence. Drawing upon insights from quantum gravity, digital physics, second-order cybernetics, and recent ruliological and pregeometric approaches, we argue that observers serve as indispensable reference points for measurement, reference frames, and the emergence of meaning. We show how this formalism sheds new light on debates related to consciousness, quantum measurement, and computational boundaries; by way of theorems on observer equivalences and complexity measures. This perspective opens new avenues for investigating how complexity and structure arise in both natural and artificial systems.
Humanity's unprecedented technological capacity and concurrent existential risks reveal a critical lacuna in the philosophical tradition: the absence of a systematic framework for the long-term future. This article argues that formulating such a framework is the central ethical imperative of our era. To defend this thesis, it synthesizes the normative ethics of Hans Jonas and Derek Parfit with the analytical framework of Nick Bostrom's work on existential risk and longtermism. The analysis further addresses the ontological challenge posed by posthumanism to the human 'subject' and explores the functional role of a secular cosmic purpose in motivating long-term action. The paper's main contribution is the articulation of a synthetic research agenda for a prospective philosophy, one that integrates axiology, risk management, and ontology to guide humanity through its perilous technological adolescence.
At each introduction of a new edition of psychiatric classifications, a vivid debate resurfaces and concerns their very validity: should classifications be based on etiology or should they be descriptive, based on observation, and not on some or other theories of etiopathogenesis? I shift the attention to the philosophical aspect of the debate. Psychiatric classifications employ (and have always employed) taxonomic methodology but in fact are not (and never were) based on biological mechanisms leading to mental disorders. Therefore I tried to catch the moment where certain observable features, recognized as symptoms, begins to be perceived as an ontologically independent entities and we start to think that nosological units must have a specific cause (e.g. a neuropathogenesis), which is simply reflected in the diagnostic picture. I tried to catch the moment, when by naming, classifying and diagnosing, we, in a sense, create objects. Then I show how from there we can slide into objectification: we can stop to see a person and start to an illness.
We consider the duality between General Relativity and the theory of Einstein algebras, in the extended setting where one permits non-Hausdorff manifolds. We show that the duality breaks down, and then go on to discuss a sense in which general relativity, formulated using non-Hausdorff manifolds, exhibits excess structure when compared to Einstein algebras. We discuss how these results bear on a class of algebraically-motivated deflationist views about spacetime ontology. We conclude with a conjecture concerning non-Hausdorff spacetimes with no bifurcate curves.
Isaac Newton, in popular imagination the Ur-scientist, was an outstanding humanist scholar. His researches on, among others, ancient philosophy, are thorough and appear to be connected to and fit within his larger philosophical and theological agenda. It is therefore relevant to take a closer look at Newton's intellectual choices, at how and why precisely he would occupy himself with specific text-sources, and how this interest fits into the larger picture of his scientific and intellectual endeavours. In what follows, we shall follow Newton into his study and look over his shoulder while reading compendia and original source-texts in his personal library at Cambridge, meticulously investigating and comparing fragments and commentaries, and carefully keeping track in private notes of how they support his own developing ideas. Indeed, Newton was convinced that precursors to his own insights and discoveries were present already in Antiquity, even before the Greeks, in ancient Egypt, and he puts a lot of time and effort into making the point, especially, and not incidentially, in the period between the first and the second edition of the Principia. A clear understanding of his reading of the classic sources therefore matters to our understanding of its content and gestation process. In what follows we will confine ourselves to the classical legacy, and investigate Newton's intellectual intercourse with it.
I use mechanized verification to examine several first- and higher-order formalizations of Anselm's Ontological Argument against the charge of begging the question. I propose three different but related criteria for a premise to beg the question in fully formal proofs and find that one or another applies to all the formalizations examined. I also show that all these formalizations entail variants that are vacuous, in the sense that they apply no interpretation to "than which there is no greater" and are therefore vulnerable to Gaunilo's refutation. My purpose is to demonstrate that mechanized verification provides an effective and reliable technique to perform these analyses; readers may decide whether the forms of question begging and vacuity so identified affect their interest in the Argument or its various formalizations. This version updates the paper that originally appeared as Chapter 13 in "Beyond Faith and Rationality: Essays on Logic, Religion and Philosophy" published by Springer to respond to criticisms by Oppenheimer and Zalta.
Uma conceituação de saúde específica permeia as discussões clínicas em suas mais diversas facetas e na psicologia, como nas ciências humanas em geral, a saúde torna-se – segundo uma noção positivista – um ideal a ser alcançado a partir de ferramentas clínicas com intuito terapêutico. Pensar a conceituação de saúde, a implicação desse conceito na construção de cada modo-de-ser e compreender a atuação do terapeuta diante dos ideais positivistas instaurados como verdades absolutas, compõe o caminho deste trabalho, bem como destacar os limites da técnica contemporânea, que forçosamente faz com que os fenômenos se mostrem a partir de suas imposições. Compreendeu-se que, segundo o olhar fenomenológico, o adoecer se dá por meio de restrições das possibilidades para a realização de uma existência, não sendo saúde, portanto, apenas a funcionalidade biológica de um corpo, mas, muito além disso, a abertura à liberdade ontológica de cada ser.
A partir de la conceptualización de la cesantía en edad avanzada y de la vejez, así como de los requisitos que se exigen en la actual Ley del Seguro Social para acceder a las prestaciones que se confieren en ambos seguros, en este trabajo se analizan las modificaciones que introduce la iniciativa con proyecto de Decreto por el que se reforman, adicionan y derogan diversas disposiciones de la Ley del Seguro Social y de la Ley de los Sistemas de Ahorro para el Retiro, aprobada y publicada en el Diario Oficial de la Federación del 16 de diciembre de 2020, y su inconvencionalidad al amparo del Convenio (número 102) sobre la seguridad social (norma mínima).
In this paper, I articulate three kinds of division that Plato and Aristotle acknowledge to be proper, valid methods of division, namely, diairesis (vertical division), parallel division, and chiasmus (cross-division). I attempt to explain the relationship among the three kinds of division, namely, how they transform from one to another. Starting with Plato’s division of constitution in the Statesman, I illuminate that from ostensible diairesis emerges a parallel division, and the parallel division causes a cross-division to occur. Thus, the sixfold division of constitution is not a diairesis (as it appears to be) but rather is a 3 x 2 cross-division. Inheriting the three kinds of division from Plato, Aristotle advances the form by providing a theoretical explanation to the transformation of the three kinds of division. In Topics Z6, Aristotle prescribes two conditions under which a parallel division can originate from or construct ostensible diairesis and how the parallel division further causes a cross-division to occur.
Beskrivelse: Kartlegging av traumeerfaringer og symptomer (KATES Barn) er et screeninginstrument for barn i alderen 7–17 år som gir foreløpig informasjon om mulig posttraumatisk stress. KATES Barn kommer i to deler; del 1 fanger opp traumatiske hendelser, og del 2 måler symptomer på posttraumatisk stress. Del 2 er delt opp i fire symptomkategorier tilpasset de diagnostiske endringene av traumediagnosen i DSM-5. KATES Barn er utviklet og validert av Sachser et al. (2017). Nasjonalt Kunnskapssenter om Vold og Traumatisk Stress var involvert i utviklingen av skalaen og ansvarlig for den norske oversettelsen.
Litteratursøk: Litteratursøket resulterte i en norsk artikkel og en svensk hovedoppgave som inneholdt relevant psykometrisk informasjon og ga grunnlag for vurderingen.
Psykometri: Resultatene tyder på tilstrekkelig/god indre konsistens for de fire skalaene. I det svenske utvalget fant man også tilstrekkelig test-retest-reliabilitet for totalskåren. Konfirmerende faktoranalyse på et blandet utvalg med barn fra Norge, USA og Tyskland viste at faktorstrukturen var i henhold til DSM-5s firefaktorteori for posttraumatisk stresslidelse (PTSD). Det ble også funnet støtte for konvergent validitet, og for konstruktvaliditet. De svenske normene gir begrenset informasjon om alder og geografi, og norske normer for testen mangler.
Konklusjon: Dokumentasjonsgrunnlaget er ikke tilstrekkelig til å konkludere sikkert om de psykometriske egenskapene til KATES Barn. Det trengs flere studier på skandinaviske utvalg, ikke minst normdata. Testen må derfor brukes med forsiktighet i Norge.