The growth of science and a correspondingly scientific way of looking at evidence have for the last three centuries slowly been gaining ground over religious explanations of the cosmos and mankind's place in it. However, not only is secularism now under renewed attack from religious fundamentalism, but it has also been widely claimed that the scientific evidence itself points strongly to a universe deliberately fine-tuned for life to evolve in it. In addition, certain aspects of human life, like consciousness and the ability to recognise the existence of universal moral standards, seem completely resistant to evolutionary explanation. In this book Colin Howson analyses in detail the evidence which is claimed to support belief in God's existence and argues that the claim is not well-founded. Moreover, there is very compelling evidence that an all-powerful, all-knowing God not only does not exist but cannot exist, a conclusion both surprising and provocative.
Logic With Trees is a new and original introduction to modern formal logic. Unlike most texts, it also contains discussions on more philosophical issues such as truth, conditionals and modal logic. It presents the formal material with clarity, preferring informal explanations and arguments to intimidatingly rigorous development. Worked examples and excercises enable the readers to check their progress. Logic With Trees equips students with * a complete and clear account of the truth-tree system for first order logic * the importance of logic and its relevance to many different disciplines * the skills to grasp sophisticated formal reasoning techniques necessary to explore complex metalogic * the ability to contest claims that `ordinary' reasoning is well represented by formal first order logic The issues covered include a thorough discussion of truth-functional and full first order logic, using the truth-tree or semantic tableau approach. Completeness and Soundness proofs are given for both truth-functional and first order trees. Much use is made of induction, which is presented in a clear and consistent manner. There is also discussion of alternative deductive systems, an introduction to transfinite numbers and categoricity, the Lowenhein-Skolem theories and the celebrated findings of Godel and Church. The book concludes with an account of Kripke's attempted solution of the liar paradox and a discussion of the weakness of truth-functional account of conditionals. Particularly useful to those who favour critical accounts of formal reasoning, it will be of interest to students of philosophy at first level and beyond and also students of mathematics and computer science.
This volume offers a solution to one of the central, unsolved problems of Western philosophy, that of induction. It explores the implications of Hume's argument that successful prediction tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory.
In this clearly reasoned defense of Bayes's Theorem -- that probability can be used to reasonably justify scientific theories -- Colin Howson and Peter Urbach examine the way in which scientists appeal to probability arguments, and demonstrate that the classical approach to statistical inference is full of flaws. Arguing the case for the Bayesian method with little more than basic algebra, the authors show that it avoids the difficulties of the classical system. The book also refutes the major criticisms leveled against Bayesian logic, especially that it is too subjective. This newly updated edition of this classic textbook is also suitable for college courses.
Burt Lowell has been living as a recluse in an abandoned ghost town but someone puts a price on his head, and he wants to find out who, and why. Confronted by a gang of gunslicks, the trail leads to Rickard, a scheming ranch owner, but there is a more sinister figure behind him, the elusive railroad boss, Mossman. Riding for the rival Long Rail brand, Lowell sets off on a trail drive to Shoshone Flats where Mossman has opened a branch line. But where is he? The search for the truth becomes a quest for revenge. Somewhere down the tracks Lowell must find and confront Mossman on his own ground if he is to arrive at a final resolution
This volume offers a solution to one of the central, unsolved problems of Western philosophy, that of induction. It explores the implications of Hume's argument that successful prediction tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory.
This is the first text to examine the use of statistical methods in forensic science and bayesian statistics in combination. The book is split into two parts: Part One concentrates on the philosophies of statistical inference. Chapter One examines the differences between the frequentist, the likelihood and the Bayesian perspectives, before Chapter Two explores the Bayesian decision-theoretic perspective further, and looks at the benefits it carries. Part Two then introduces the reader to the practical aspects involved: the application, interpretation, summary and presentation of data analyses are all examined from a Bayesian decision-theoretic perspective. A wide range of statistical methods, essential in the analysis of forensic scientific data is explored. These include the comparison of allele proportions in populations, the comparison of means, the choice of sampling size, and the discrimination of items of evidence of unknown origin into predefined populations. Throughout this practical appraisal there are a wide variety of examples taken from the routine work of forensic scientists. These applications are demonstrated in the ever-more popular R language. The reader is taken through these applied examples in a step-by-step approach, discussing the methods at each stage.
This book introduces readers to a set of powerful and extremely flexible modeling techniques--starting at "square one"--and is ideal for students and scientists in behavior studies, ecology, anthropology, conservation biology, and related fields.
In the last twenty years one of the classical arenas for British historical writing - the politics of Victorian Britain - has ceased to be an obvious or self-evidently important subject. Facing up to this challenge, the historians who have contributed to this volume explore central aspects of that history. They continue to uphold the centrality of politics to Victorian Britain, but suggest that politics must be viewed more broadly, as a concern pervading almost all spheres oflife, just as Victorians themselves would have done. In this way politics penetrates into Victorian culture. 'Politics' can lead us into the ideas governing political action itself; political ideas; international relations; the eduction of men and women; the writing of history and of literature;engagement with past political theorists; and the ideas behind professionalization. Such are some of the themes taken up here.The specific occasion for these essays was as a tribute to the memory of the late Colin Matthew, one of the most eminent recent historians of Victorian Britain, who was himself determined to uphold the contemporary relevance of Victorian political tradition, and to explore the interface between 'politics' and 'culture'. Reflection on his intellectual achievement is a second distinctive component of this book.
According to one of Julia Margaret Cameron’s great-nieces, “we never knew what Aunt Julia was going to do next, nor did anyone else.” This is an accurate summation of the life of the British photographer (1815–1879), who took up the camera at age forty-eight and made more than twelve hundred images during a fourteen-year career. Living at the height of the Victorian era, Cameron was anything but conventional, experimenting with the relatively new medium of photography, promoting her own art though exhibition and sale, and pursuing the eminent personalities of her age—Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, Thomas Carlyle, and others—as subjects for her lens. For the first time, all known images by Cameron, one of the most important nineteenth-century artists in any medium, are gathered together in a catalogue raisonné. In addition to a complete catalogue of Cameron’s photographs, there is information on her life and times, initial experiments, artistic aspirations, techniques, small-format images, albums, commercial strategies, sitters, and sources of inspiration. Also provided are a selected bibliography of publications on Cameron, a list of exhibitions of her work held both in her time as well as our own, and a summary of important collections where her pictures can be found.
Hollywood in Crisis is a detailed study of the workings of the American film industry during the 1930s. Colin Schindler, looking at Hollywood as an agent of Roosevelt's New Deal and the attempts made by film moguls and movie makers to withstand the political turmoil that threatened to engulf America. Schindler illustrates how the studios and their products, from the glamour of MGM stars and escapist musicals to gangster movies and Westerns, even to the 'radical' films of the Warner studios, helped foster ideas of social unity and patriotism.
Challenging simplistic claims that Chinese corporations merely serve Communist Party goals, this book argues we cannot understand these corporations without tracing their dynamic evolution within a unique socio-political ecosystem. Vivid case studies illuminate the strange hybrid structures and networks that are essential for corporate success in the Chinese habitat. Tracing the reciprocal impacts between Chinese corporations and their environment, Colin S. C. Hawes reveals how corporations' political adaptations have raised serious obstacles for their international expansion and worsened China's environmental crisis. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that synthesizes insights from behavioural economics, science and Chinese philosophy, this book proposes innovative solutions to the damaging impacts of Chinese corporations. It makes a compelling case for redirecting the vital energy of corporations and government officials in more productive and sustainable directions.
The leading resource in the statistical evaluation and interpretation of forensic evidence The third edition of Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence for Forensic Scientists is fully updated to provide the latest research and developments in the use of statistical techniques to evaluate and interpret evidence. Courts are increasingly aware of the importance of proper evidence assessment when there is an element of uncertainty. Because of the increasing availability of data, the role of statistical and probabilistic reasoning is gaining a higher profile in criminal cases. That’s why lawyers, forensic scientists, graduate students, and researchers will find this book an essential resource, one which explores how forensic evidence can be evaluated and interpreted statistically. It’s written as an accessible source of information for all those with an interest in the evaluation and interpretation of forensic scientific evidence. Discusses the entire chain of reasoning–from evidence pre-assessment to court presentation; Includes material for the understanding of evidence interpretation for single and multiple trace evidence; Provides real examples and data for improved understanding. Since the first edition of this book was published in 1995, this respected series has remained a leading resource in the statistical evaluation of forensic evidence. It shares knowledge from authors in the fields of statistics and forensic science who are international experts in the area of evidence evaluation and interpretation. This book helps people to deal with uncertainty related to scientific evidence and propositions. It introduces a method of reasoning that shows how to update beliefs coherently and to act rationally. In this edition, readers can find new information on the topics of elicitation, subjective probabilities, decision analysis, and cognitive bias, all discussed in a Bayesian framework.
Bayesian Networks “This book should have a place on the bookshelf of every forensic scientist who cares about the science of evidence interpretation.” Dr. Ian Evett, Principal Forensic Services Ltd, London, UK Bayesian Networks for Probabilistic Inference and Decision Analysis in Forensic Science Second Edition Continuing developments in science and technology mean that the amounts of information forensic scientists are able to provide for criminal investigations is ever increasing. The commensurate increase in complexity creates diffculties for scientists and lawyers with regard to evaluation and interpretation, notably with respect to issues of inference and decision. Probability theory, implemented through graphical methods, and specifically Bayesian networks, provides powerful methods to deal with this complexity. Extensions of these methods to elements of decision theory provide further support and assistance to the judicial system. Bayesian Networks for Probabilistic Inference and Decision Analysis in Forensic Science provides a unique and comprehensive introduction to the use of Bayesian decision networks for the evaluation and interpretation of scientific findings in forensic science, and for the support of decision-makers in their scientific and legal tasks. Includes self-contained introductions to probability and decision theory. Develops the characteristics of Bayesian networks, object-oriented Bayesian networks and their extension to decision models. Features implementation of the methodology with reference to commercial and academically available software. Presents standard networks and their extensions that can be easily implemented and that can assist in the reader’s own analysis of real cases. Provides a technique for structuring problems and organizing data based on methods and principles of scientific reasoning. Contains a method for the construction of coherent and defensible arguments for the analysis and evaluation of scientific findings and for decisions based on them. Is written in a lucid style, suitable for forensic scientists and lawyers with minimal mathematical background. Includes a foreword by Ian Evett. The clear and accessible style of this second edition makes this book ideal for all forensic scientists, applied statisticians and graduate students wishing to evaluate forensic findings from the perspective of probability and decision analysis. It will also appeal to lawyers and other scientists and professionals interested in the evaluation and interpretation of forensic findings, including decision making based on scientific information.
We are a moral people and the very notion that Australians could have anything to do with genocide is unthinkableso claimed parliamentarians when Australia was asked to ratify the UNs Genocide Convention in 1949. The reality is that even decent democrats and people who consider themselves good colonists are capable of doing just thatkilling people because of who they were, forcibly removing their children in order to assimilate them and erase them from the landscape, and then, in the name of their protection, incarcerated them on reserves in a manner that caused them serious physical and mental harm. This confronting book addresses the whole issue of what happens to an indigenous minority who were considered other than human, an unworthy order of beings destined to die out.
Observing that the vast majority of surviving Northern Song poems are directly addressed to other people, Colin S. C. Hawes explores how literati of China's mid-Northern Song period developed a social and therapeutic tradition in poetry. These social poems, produced in group settings and exchanged with friends and acquaintances, are often lighthearted in tone and full of witty banter and wordplay. Hawes challenges previous scholars' dismissal of these poems as trivial and insignificant because they lacked serious political and moral content by arguing that the central function of poetry at the time was to release pent-up emotions and share them with others in a socially acceptable manner—what Hawes views as circulating emotional energy or qi. Focusing on the circle of poets around Ouyang Xiu (1007–72 CE) and Mei Yaochen (1002–60 CE), the most influential literary figures of the mid-Northern Song period and the creators of a distinctive Song poetic style, Hawes provides a number of translations of poems of the period. Several major functions of poetic composition are discussed, including poetry as a game, as therapy, as a means of building relationships, and as a way of finding solace in history and in the natural world. Ultimately, the Northern Song attitude toward poetic composition spread throughout Chinese society.
Automated Journalism at the Intersection of Politics and Black Culture: The Battle Against Digital Hegemony explores the unintentional inequities that erupt when AI assistance meets news media. Colin Campbell argues that while AI newswriting can streamline news production, it can also exacerbate racist discrimination and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Combining empirical research and personal experience, Campbell urgently argues for the necessity of ensuring that AI-produced media is mindful of Black, Brown, and minority experiences—as well as traditional journalistic concerns such as bias and accuracy. Media scholars will find this book especially salient.
Racism crushes bodies and souls. In Human Rights and Human Wrongs Colin Tatz – a world authority on racial conflict and abuse, a key figure in Aboriginal Studies in Australia and an author of major works on genocide, Aboriginal youth suicide, and Aboriginal and Islander sporting achievements – tells his personal story. Born and educated in South Africa, Tatz worked to expose and oppose that nation’s centuries-old apartheid regimes before leaving for what he thought would be a more enlightened nation, only to find in Australia striking parallels of that other dismal universe. As a researcher, writer and activist he has dedicated his life to confronting what people do to other people on the basis of their race or ethnicity. Here he also relates how alienation, his Jewishness and an intriguing problem with food have been, for him, propelling forces. Tatz’s story, ranging from Southern Africa to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Israel, is an important one for anyone genuinely interested in the struggle to achieve social justice for minorities and marginalised peoples.
Black and Asian Theatre in Britain is an unprecedented study tracing the history of ‘the Other’ through the ages in British theatre. The diverse and often contradictory aspects of this history are expertly drawn together to provide a detailed background to the work of African, Asian, and Caribbean diasporic companies and practitioners. Colin Chambers examines early forms of blackface and other representations in the sixteenth century, through to the emergence of black and Asian actors, companies, and theatre groups in their own right. Thorough analysis uncovers how they led to a flourishing of black and Asian voices in theatre at the turn of the twenty-first century. Figures and companies studied include: Ira Aldridge Henry Francis Downing Paul Robeson Errol John Mustapha Matura Dark and Light Theatre The Keskidee Centre Indian Art and Dramatic Society Temba Edric and Pearl Connor Tara Arts Yvonne Brewster Tamasha Talawa. Black and Asian Theatre in Britain is an enlightening and immensely readable resource and represents a major new study of theatre history and British history as a whole.
The agent-structure problem is a much discussed issue in the field of international relations. In his comprehensive 2006 analysis of this problem, Colin Wight deconstructs the accounts of structure and agency embedded within differing IR theories and, on the basis of this analysis, explores the implications of ontology - the metaphysical study of existence and reality. Wight argues that there are many gaps in IR theory that can only be understood by focusing on the ontological differences that construct the theoretical landscape. By integrating the treatment of the agent-structure problem in IR theory with that in social theory, Wight makes a positive contribution to the problem as an issue of concern to the wider human sciences. At the most fundamental level politics is concerned with competing visions of how the world is and how it should be, thus politics is ontology.
Keynes’s General Theory was the most influential piece of economic writing of the twentieth century, and is one of the least understood. Keynes wrote brilliantly for the popular press but tied himself in knots when trying to present his own theoretical ideas. He was seen at the time as a heretic and a paradox-monger. His ideas were accepted by much of the economics establishment, and then rejected by adversaries who had absorbed more of them than they cared to admit. Nowadays it is hard to tell what comes from Keynes and what doesn’t. The relevance of his ideas is not just to theoreticians. Political discussion often hinges on ideas associated with Keynes. Every voter is called on to express a quinquennial preference between balanced budgets and fiscal stimulation; yet nowhere can he or she find adequate guidance on the meaning of Keynes’s words, or on whether they are indeed paradoxes or instead a banal application of the laws of supply and demand to the economy as a whole. This Critical Study presents Keynes’s ideas in a clear and systematic way. 26 colour diagrams illustrate the theoretical relationships, and an initial chapter provides a primer on the basic concepts needed to understand Keynes’s work. Above all, as its title suggests, the book is critical. It looks at those aspects of Keynes’s doctrine which were seen as paradoxical when they appeared, and tries to examine the rationale for his rejection of ‘Classical’ theory. All this is presented in the context of the society of the 30s, struggling to rebuild itself after the disasters of war but confronted by hyperinflation and depression. A vivid picture emerges of the personalities involved, and there is a relatively sympathetic portrayal of the contributions of A. C. Pigou and Dennis Robertson to the topics raised by the General Theory.
An important and challenging book comprehensively spanning across the establishment of power systems, Rich Crime, Poor Crime is a vital read for academics, professionals and those interested in the fields of history, sociology, criminology, and politics.
The growth of science and a correspondingly scientific way of looking at evidence have for the last three centuries slowly been gaining ground over religious explanations of the cosmos and mankind's place in it. However, not only is secularism now under renewed attack from religious fundamentalism, but it has also been widely claimed that the scientific evidence itself points strongly to a universe deliberately fine-tuned for life to evolve in it. In addition, certain aspects of human life, like consciousness and the ability to recognise the existence of universal moral standards, seem completely resistant to evolutionary explanation. In this book Colin Howson analyses in detail the evidence which is claimed to support belief in God's existence and argues that the claim is not well-founded. Moreover, there is very compelling evidence that an all-powerful, all-knowing God not only does not exist but cannot exist, a conclusion both surprising and provocative.
In this clearly reasoned defense of Bayes's Theorem -- that probability can be used to reasonably justify scientific theories -- Colin Howson and Peter Urbach examine the way in which scientists appeal to probability arguments, and demonstrate that the classical approach to statistical inference is full of flaws. Arguing the case for the Bayesian method with little more than basic algebra, the authors show that it avoids the difficulties of the classical system. The book also refutes the major criticisms leveled against Bayesian logic, especially that it is too subjective. This newly updated edition of this classic textbook is also suitable for college courses.
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