Knowing failably and Moorean assertions

Knowledge-fallibilism is a species of a genus that I call knowledge-failabilism. Each is a theory of knowledge's nature. One apparent challenge to knowledge-failabilism's truth is the prima facie absurdity of Moorean assertions like ‘It's raining but I do not believe that it is.’ Does each such assertion convey an implicit and unfortunate contrast, even a contradiction? I argue that this Untenable Contrast analysis fails: no such contrast is present within the speaker's perspective at the pertinent time.     

Where is the Harm in Dying Prematurely? An Epicurean Answer

Philosophers have said less than is needed about the nature of premature death, and about the badness or otherwise of that death for the one who dies. In this paper, premature death’s nature is clarified in Epicurean terms. And an accompanying argument denies that we need to think of such a death as bad in itself for the one who dies. Premature death’s nature is conceived of as a death that arrives before ataraxia does. (Ataraxia’s nature is also clarified. It is a pervasive inner peace that is a kind of purity and completeness in how one is living.) Whatever harm we might attribute to a premature death is better attributed to a life’s being lived at that time without ataraxia. The paper ends by explaining how its Epicurean account, more so than comparativist or narrativist accounts, could allow a person to know that her death will not be premature.     

Aluminium precipitates in the primary silicon of as-sprayformed hypereutectic aluminium-silicon alloys

Precipitates have been observed in the primary silicon of as-spray-formed hypereutectic aluminium-silicon alloys with and without various alloy additions. The precipitates have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. They are aluminium based and generally adopt a spheroidal morphology, with diameters in the range of approximately 5-10nm, unless located on a stacking fault or grain boundary. Spray forming is a rapid solidification process and precipitation occurs because of the low solid solubility of aluminium in silicon (maximum of 0.016 +/- 0.003at.% at 1190 C). The morphology of the precipitates suggests that they form from aluminium or aluminium-rich liquid. The orientation relationships of several precipitates in one of the primary silicon grains have been determined.     

Abstract recall of a happy memory to repair sad mood in dysphoria: A possible link to negative cognition

The capacity to repair sad mood through the deliberate recall of happy memories has been found to be impaired in dysphoric individuals. Rumination, or adopting an abstract processing mode, has been proposed as a possible mechanism underpinning this effect. In low and high dysphoric participants, we examined the relative consequences of adopting an abstract or concrete processing mode during happy memory recall or engaging in distraction for (1) mood repair and (2) cognitive content. Recalling a happy memory in either an abstract or concrete way resulted in greater happiness than distraction. Engaging in abstract recall of a happy memory resulted in high dysphoric participants generating negative evaluations and negative generalisations. These findings raise the interesting possibility that abstract processing of positive memories has the potential to generate negative cognition.     

Concessive knowledge-attributions: fallibilism and gradualism

Any knowledge-fallibilist needs to solve the conceptual problem posed by concessive knowledge-attributions (such as ‘I know that p, but possibly not-p’). These seem to challenge the coherence of knowledge-fallibilism. This paper defuses that challenge via a gradualist refinement of what Fantl and McGrath (2009) call weak epistemic fallibilism.