What the Tortoise said to Achilles.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Practitioners and investigators often view clinical trials from very different perspectives-the former in terms of individuals and the latter in terms of groups. The following whimsical dialogue highlights the philosophical foundations of these contrasting perspectives and illustrates their potential impact on patient care and public policy. The title alludes to a piece by Lewis Carroll regarding Zeno's paradox, purportedly proving that the fleet-footed Achilles cannot outrun the plodding Tortoise in a foot race.
منابع مشابه
Intimations of Infinity, vol. 51, number 7
Overture The comments above (see the next page for who made them and when) represent one type of thinking about infinity. There are other types, as we will see, and they all create difficulties for students, philosophers, and even mathematicians. The purpose of this article is to show how a particular theory about how people come to understand mathematics, APOS Theory, can be helpful in underst...
متن کاملHow do we know that we know what we know?
How Science Works’ is now the focus of the national science specifications in English schools. This article is a brief introduction to the philosophy of science from the Greeks to the present day that underpins this notion. From September 2006, the emphasis for teaching science at GCSE is on ‘How Science Works’. This focus will also shape the revisions of the AS and A2 specifications from Septe...
متن کاملAchilles and the Tortoise Climbing up the Hyper-arithmetical Hierarchy Ecole Normale Supérieure De Lyon Achilles and the Tortoise Climbing up the Hyper-arithmetical Hierarchy
We pursue the study of the computational power of Piecewise Constant Derivative PCD systems started in PCD systems are dynamical systems de ned by a piecewise constant di erential equation and can be considered as computational machines working on a continuous space with a continuous time We prove that the languages recognized by rational PCD systems in dimension d k respectively d k k in nite ...
متن کاملWhat if Achilles and the tortoise were to bargain? An argument against interim agreements
Zeno’s paradoxes of motion, which claim that moving from one point to another cannot be accomplished in finite time, seem to be of serious concern when moving towards an agreement is concerned. Parkinson’s Law of Triviality implies that such an agreement cannot be reached in finite time. By explicitly modeling dynamic processes of reaching interim agreements and using arguments similar to Zeno’...
متن کاملHow Not to Miss a Missing Premise and How to Miss a Not-Missing One: The Case of Lewis Carrolls Tortoise
1. In Lewis Carroll's (1895) parable, Achilles tries to persuade the tortoise to accept the following argument [a 1 ]: A: Things that are equal to the same are equal to each other. B: The two sides of this triangle are things that are equal to the same. Z: So, the two sides of this triangle are equal to each other. Achilles fails because he encounters an infinite progression of hidden premises ...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The American journal of cardiology
دوره 106 4 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2010