Online research in philosophy

The environmental modeller faces a dilemma. Science often demands that more and more process representations are incorporated into models (particularly to avoid the possibility of making missing process errors in predicting future response). Testing the causal representations in environmental models (as multiple working hypotheses about the functioning of environmental systems) then depends on specifying boundary conditions and model parameters adequately. This will always be difficult in applications to a real system because of the heterogeneities, non-stationarities, complexities and epistemic uncertainties inherent (...) in environmental prediction. Thus, it can be difficult to define the information content of a data set used in model evaluation and any consequent measures of belief or verisimilitude. A limit of acceptability approach to model evaluation is suggested as a way of testing models, implying that thought is required to define critical experiments that will allow models as hypotheses to be adequately differentiated. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Academie des sciences. (shrink)

Recent research has explored the principles of service system viability based on systems inquiry invoking perspectives from Systems Theory and Cybernetics in particular Stafford Beer’s viable systems model (VSM). However based on Banathy & Jenlink (2004), Systems inquiry encompasses more than just Systems Theory and includes domains such as Systems Methodology and Systems Philosophy. Building on the extant literature, our work has the following particularities: 1) it is based on an explicit systems philosophy in which we explicitly define what we (...) view as viability and, 2) it involves a systems methodological approach to either analyze the viability of a service system or to design a viable service system. This is achieved by means of applying a systems modeling technique called SEAM (Systemic Enterprise Architecture Method). SEAM rests upon systemic principles and embodies conceptualizations from VSM. We apply SEAM to concretely model a utility company in Geneva, Switzerland in order to gain an understanding of how a service system maintains its identity and remains viable in its environment. (shrink)

Although we were required to lecture to large groups of over 170 students, the traditional lecture clashed with our commitment to teach in a way that was student-centred, relational and socially and politically transformative. In this context, and using an action research approach, we sought to turn our large-group lectures into a space that both met some of the historic aims of the lecture in passing on received knowledge, but also became a space for students to immediately engage in a (...) process of discussion and dialogue around the concepts and ideas raised. Although the literature suggested this was not possible in groups of over a hundred, we found that our students identified that the re-imagined lecture significantly aided their learning in a number of key respects. (shrink)

The developments in EMC modelling permit to estimate the disturbances in different kinds of circuits and installations, to define a protection philosophy and to evaluate its efficiency. Using some examples of modelling, the paper discusses whether these possibilities are useful for the standardization in progress in the European Community. It is shown that essential progress has been made in the last years in modelling field-to-transmission line coupling, crosstalk, antennas, and shielded enclosures and that these models can be applied to define (...) parameters and environments needed for standards. (shrink)

Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary effort to investigate the fundamental properties of living systems through the simulation and synthesis of life-like processes in artificial media. The field brings a powerful set of tools to the study of how high-level behavior can arise in systems governed by simple rules of interaction. This tenth volume marks two decades of research in this interdisciplinary scientific comunity, a period marked by vast advances in the life sciences. The field has contributed fundamentally to our understanding (...) of life itself through computer models, and has led to novel solutions to complex real-world problems -- from disease prevention to stock market prediction -- across high technology and human society. The proceedings of the biennial A-life conference -- which has grown over the years from a small workshop in Santa Fe to a major international meeting -- reflect the increasing importance of the work to all areas of contemporary science. (shrink)