Philosophy of nanoscience and nanotechnology

Volume I: 1. Idealist Origins: 1920s and Before by Martin Davies and Stein Helgeby.- 2. John Anderson Arrives: 1930s by Mark Weblin.- 3. The Influence of Wittgenstein: 1940s by Graeme Marshall.- 4. Reconstruction and Enthusiasm by Brian F. Scarlett.- 5. Political Polarisation: 1960s by John Burnheim and Paul Crittenden.- 6. Turbulent Times: 1970s by Aubrey Townsend.- 7. Achievements of the 1980s by Lynda Burns.- 8. The Canberra Plan and the Diversification of Australasian Philosophy: 1990s by John Quilter.- 9. Philosophers in Schools: 2000s by Graham Oppy. Volume II: 10. From Conventionalism to Scientific Metaphysics by Brian Ellis.- 11. Metaphysics by John Bigelow.- 12. Epistemology by Stephen Hetherington.- 13. Philosophy of Language by Frederick Kroon with Appendix: The University of Melbourne, Philosophy of Language, and the Oxford Connection by Denis Robinson.- 14. Philosophy of Religion in Australasia: Philosophy of Religion in Australia by Peter Forrest and Philosophy of Religion in New Zealand by John Bishop & Ken Perszyk.- 15. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Music in Australasia: Aesthetics in Australasia: 1945-2005 by Ismay Barwell and Philosophy of Music in Australasia by Justine Kingsbury.- 16. Moral Philosophy in Australasia by Justin Oakley.- 17. Environmental Philosophy by Freya Matthews.- 18. Feminist Philosophy by Catriona Mackenzie.- 19. Black Swan: A History of Continental Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand by Robert Sinnerbrink & Matheson Russell.- 20. Logic by Ross Brady & Chris Mortensen.- 21. History and Philosophy of Science by Brian Ellis, Rod Home, David Oldroyd, Robert Nola, Howard Sankey, Keith Hutchison, Neil Thomason, John Wilkins, John Forge, Philip Catton & Ruth Barton.- 22. Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science since 1980 by Elizabeth Schier & John Sutton.

Mary Kate McGowanAssistant Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. She works in metaphysics, philosophy of language and philosophy of science. Forthcoming articles include ‘Gruesome Connections’ in Philosophical Quarterly and ‘Privileging Properties’ in Philosophical Studies.Anthony SkillenRecently retired as lecturer in the Philosophy Department of the University of Kent at Canterbury.Charles D. TarltonProfessor of Political Science at the University of Albany. In recent years he has written on Locke, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. He is currently engaged in an analysis of the structural ambiguities of Rousseau's Discours sur l'origine et les fondaments de l'inegalité parmi les hommes.Stephen J. BoulterSenior Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford Brookes University. His research areas include the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science and medieval philosophy.Gabriele De AnnaA tutor in the Philosophy Department at St Andrews and research fellow at the University of Padua, Italy. He has published papers in American, British and Italian journals and is the author of the forthcoming book, Realismo Metafisico e Rappresentazione Mentale (Padua: Il Poligrafo).Roy SorensenRoy Sorensen seeks Fame and Fortune as a Dartmouth College philosophy professor. He is the author of Blindspots, Thought Experiments and Pseudo-Problems, and most recently Vagueness and Contradiction.David BeiseckerAssistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has published articles in the philosophy of mind and language, with an eye towards writing a book on the metaphysics of mind and meaning.

Molecular and nanoscale materials and devices in electronics

Carbon dots (CDs)are nanoscale carbon materials with tunable opticalproperties, low toxicity, and modular functionalization, making thema promising material for biomedical applications. For safe and efficientapplications in theranostics, it is essential to assess how CDs interactwith biomolecules. Here, we focus on the effect of CDs on the structureand function of nucleic acids (NAs), relevant to NA structural stability,chromatin organization, and gene regulation. We performed more than150 μs of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, encompassinga diverse set of NA structures, from canonical DNA and RNA helicesthrough noncanonical motifs such as tetraloops and G-quadruplexes,up to nucleosomes. We simulated their interactions with graphiticCDs with two sizes and distinct surface chemistries: neutral hydrophobic(CD0), negatively charged (CD–), andpositively charged (CD+). We identified multiple nonspecificinteraction modes including stacking to bases, CH−π contacts,and electrostatic interactions with the NA backbone. All CD typesformed contacts with NAs, but only CD+ remained tightlybound and is therefore relevant for NA-related applications. The CDnonspecific binding did not compromise the global NA architecture,and we did not observe any intercalation or base-pair disruption.In the nucleosome, CD+ adsorb to DNA and occasionally bridgeadjacent DNA gyres, that may alter local chromatin dynamics. In summary,the surface charge and particle size emerged as the key determinantsof NA–CD interactions, providing atomistic guidance for therational design of CDs optimized for theranostic applications.

In its June 2011 report to President Barak Obama, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) noted that: ‘While the United States may not be able to compete in the long run to make goods for which low wage unskilled labor is the key input, this need not be true for sophisticated manufacturing linked to products and processes derived from scientific discovery and technological innovation’. Rather than focusing policy efforts on low technology manufacturing, PCAST argues that ‘advanced manufacturing provides the path forward to revitalizing US leadership in manufacturing and will best support economic productivity and ongoing knowledge production and innovation in the Nation’. In June 2011, President Obama announced the launching of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, an effort bringing together industry, universities, and the federal government to invest in such emerging technologies as nano-scale carbon materials, next-generation optoelectronics, flexible electronics, and nanotechnology enabled medical diagnostic devices and therapeutics. PCAST argues for a coherent innovation policy that manifests itself in a recommended ‘Advanced Manufacturing Initiative for America’s Future’ (‘AMI’) – a concerted government effort led by the US Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy, and coordinated by the Executive Office of the President. How does an AMI based on an ‘innovation policy’ harmonize with an Administration that has been consistently following an ‘industrial policy’ that financially – as well as through its regulatory policies – supports and influences specific manufacturing companies and industries that it deems as ‘winners’? The short answer is not well. Both ‘tilting the field’ and ‘playing the role of principal actor’ is how the Obama administration has actively supported ‘green’ technology companies, and this industrial policy could be expanded in a second term to other government designated ‘winners’ at the competitive expense of other industry sub-sectors of advanced manufacturing.

The need for a re‐examination of science teachers’ philosophical assumptions, as argued in this paper, is based on an overview of the body of the relevant literature. This overview suggests a lack of explicit specification of the philosophical position which has been taken into account in the development of most of the instruments employed in eliciting science teachers’ views about philosophy of science. It is further argued that this tendency appears to stem from the fact that most of the studies fail to recognize the existence of conflicting philosophical models of science. An analysis of the issues involved is proposed.

Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science is the second volume of a collection on Nietzsche and the Sciences, featuring essays addressing truth, epistemology, and the philosophy of science, with a substantial representation of analytically schooled Nietzsche scholars. This collection offers a dynamic articulation of the differing strengths of Anglo-American analytic and contemporary European approaches to philosophy, with translations from European specialists, notably Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, Paul Valadier, and Walther Ch. Zimmerli.This broad collection also features a preface by Alasdair MacIntyre. Contributions explore Nietzsche's contributions to the philosophy of language and epistemology, and include essays on the social history of truth and the historical and cultural analyses of Serres and Baudrillard, as well as new contributions to the philosophy of science, including theological and hermeneutical approaches, history of science, the philosophy of medicine, cognitive science, and technology.

In the past few years, there has been an increasing tendency in the application of formal and experimentalmethods to tackle philosophical issues.Weverymuch approve of this trend,whichweviewas part and parcel of the recent renewal of “scientific philosophy”: In our mind, the aim of a scientifically oriented philosophy is to adopt formal and experimental methods to address philosophical questions. A distinguishing feature of contemporary scientific philosophy is that the use of formal and experimental methods is not confined to areas such as the philosophy of science, of mathematics, or of physics. Quite the contrary: This research program applies its broad toolkit of formal and experimental practices to a very large range of philosophical areas. For instance, in the philosophy of cognitive science, the development ofmathematicalmodels of concepts representation has proved to be an innovative way to compare normative theories against empirical results. In the philosophy of economics, agent-based models have been used to explore the notion of causality used in economics. More generally, different areas of philosophy—from the philosophy of language to the philosophy of cognitive science, and from ethics to the philosophy of economics—have become increasingly scientific and characterized by a highly interdisciplinary approach. In tandem with this methodological turn, the dispute about whether philosophy should appeal to formal or experimental methods has made a comeback: Experimental philosophers defend the use of empirical methods as a means of exploring

An introduction and tutorial on multiple-scale analysis in solids

The Southern Journal of PhilosophyVolume 18, Issue 4 p. 447-462 HUME'S EMBODIED IMPRESSIONS* Earl R. MacCormac, Earl R. MacCormac Davidson College Earl R. MacCormac, a professor of philosophy at Davidson College, North Carolina, received a Ph. D. from Yale. In 1971 he received a Thomas Jefferson award (McConnell Foundation) for distinguished teaching. He has published Metaphor and Myth in Science and Religion, Duke University Press, 1976 and numerous articles on the philosophy of religion, language and science in such journals as The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Foundations of Language, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, and Religious Studies.Search for more papers by this author Earl R. MacCormac, Earl R. MacCormac Davidson College Earl R. MacCormac, a professor of philosophy at Davidson College, North Carolina, received a Ph. D. from Yale. In 1971 he received a Thomas Jefferson award (McConnell Foundation) for distinguished teaching. He has published Metaphor and Myth in Science and Religion, Duke University Press, 1976 and numerous articles on the philosophy of religion, language and science in such journals as The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Foundations of Language, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, and Religious Studies.Search for more papers by this author First published: Winter 1980 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.1980.tb01398.xCitations: 3 * I am indebted to Dr. Donald T. Campbell, Albert Schweitzer Professor at Syracuse University, and to anonymous referees of this journal for their extremely helpful criticisms of an earlier version of this paper. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume18, Issue4Winter 1980Pages 447-462 RelatedInformation

Introduction: Information is What Information Does

Quantum confinement and Anderson localization of carriers in semiconductor nanoparticles: toward design of molecular electronics materials

In theory, sources of knowledge might also originate from the outcomes of reflection or contemplation rather than just from experimental or study results. A philosopher engages in reflection or contemplation when attempting to understand or identify the core of something having to do with legal principles. What is meant by justice is the most important philosophical topic when discussing the nature of justice. That is a question that pertains to the field of science philosophy. According to its core, the philosophy of science is a branch of general philosophy that provides responses to a number of inquiries regarding the nature of science. Science philosophy examines the philosophical underpinnings, presumptions, and implications of science, including the social and natural sciences. Philosophy of science studies the philosophical foundations, assumptions and implications of science, including the natural sciences and social sciences. Philosophy of science is closely related to epistemology and ontology.

Reviewed by: Form and formalism in linguistics ed. by James McElvenny Margaret Thomas Form and formalism in linguistics. Ed. by James McElvenny. ( History and philosophy of the language sciences 1.) Berlin: Language Science, 2019. Pp. viii, 271. ISBN 9783961101832. $47 (Hb). The nine essays in this collection do not dwell on the well-known contrast between 'formalism' and 'functionalism' in linguistics as discussed in Newmeyer 1998, although they are not irrelevant to that debate. What they do dwell on is various senses of the word form and its derivatives, as they have been used in Euro-American history and philosophy of linguistics since the nineteenth century. Together, the chapters form a mosaic of scholarship on studies of language that variously incorporate diverse meanings of the terms 'form', 'formal', and 'formalism'. The assembly of chapters does, indeed, have a mosaic-like character in that it comprises independent, nonoverlapping texts. Chapter authors sometimes remark on how the edges of their topic approach those of other authors, but the individual contributions have not been forced into a unified tableau. The text presupposes some exposure to the history of western linguistics and to the history of philosophy. It would make bracing, but not impenetrable, reading for linguists without that background. Although only one of the nine authors has an affiliation in the United States, most chapters center on the work of well-known US-based scholars. Following a scene-setting preface by editor James McElvenny (iii–viii), Judith Kaplan's Ch. 1 (1–33) offers an analysis of 'formalism' in the sense of the diagrams or figures that comparativehistorical linguistics has used to visually communicate genealogical ('vertical') relationships among languages versus the ('horizontal') spread of features across languages spoken by adjacent populations. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Kaplan reports that scholars first conveyed these facts in words and verbal metaphors, then adopted lists, tables, and graphic displays. All of these are 'formal' moves in that they distill complex relationships (of descent and of influence) into tables, trees, waves, or Venn-diagram-like figures, where the strategic arrangement of data in twodimensional space implies a specific position of those data vis-à-vis neighboring data. [End Page 643] Kaplan concedes at the beginning of her analysis that these diagrams or figures 'highlight certain notions of relationship while removing others from view' (3), because they typically prioritize either genealogical descent (e.g. trees) or crosslinguistic spreading (e.g. waves), and rarely both. She demonstrates how visual aids both reveal and conceal by analyzing their use in twentieth-century textbooks directed at beginning linguists. The chapter ends with an exposition of digital-era efforts to visualize vertical and horizontal relationships simultaneously in n-dimensional space while remaining faithful to the complexities of the data. Kaplan singles out multi-dimensional scaling as one promising technique. Unfortunately, her account of it is hampered by poor reproduction of the examples she cites (one in full color), as they appear both on the printed page (26, 28) and in the online version of her chapter (available at http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/214). Kaplan's case study of graphic representation in comparative-historical linguistics stands alone at the head of this collection as the only paper that takes 'formal' to mean 'amenable to summarizing complex facts and relationships in graphic form'. The attention Kaplan pays to student textbooks, however, returns at the end of the book. In between, the remaining eight chapters seem to fall into three sections. Chs. 2 through 4 address specific figures in the history of linguistics who make provocative use of the concept of 'form', or the partially overlapping concept 'structure', in their analyses of language phenomena. James McElvenny contributes a study pairing Columbia University anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) with German philologist Georg von der Gabelentz (1840–1893) (35–58). Both scholars responded to the then-current claim that speakers of so-called 'primitive' languages freely and unsystematically alternate in their pronunciation of speech sounds, so that their words lack the fixity that characterizes languages not considered 'primitive'. Boas denied that 'alternating sounds' existed in the Native American languages that he studied. He attributed the...

Initially trained as a physicist, Kuhn became a leading and extraordinarily influential figure in the history of science. He saw his work in the history of science as contributing to a novel philosophical conception of the nature of science. At the outset of Structure, for example, Kuhn announces his intention to replace the “development-by-accumulation” model he associates with the philosophical tradition before him—including, in particular, what he calls “early logical positivism”—with a new model of radical conceptual discontinuity or incommensurability. Structure was written during Kuhn's tenure teaching philosophy and history of science at Berkeley, and, shortly after its publication, he took up a new post as professor of philosophy and history of science at Princeton. From 1983 until his death in 1996 Kuhn was professor of philosophy at MIT, where he attempted further to articulate his conception of incommensurability, taking account of developments in linguistics and philosophy of language.