In this paper I take a closer look at a recently published paradox by Göran Sundholm involving the notion of knowability. I point out that this paradox is not a novel, genuine paradox, but rather an important variant of the Knower Paradox. I briefly discuss further variations of the Knower Paradox, and in a final section I try to show that it is not unproblematic to assume that knowability is f...

Are moral terms semantically plastic—that is, would very slight changes in our patterns of use have shifted their meanings? This is a delicate question for moral realists. A 'yes' answer seems to conflict with the sorts of intuitions that support realism; but a 'no' answer seems to require a semantics that involves hefty metaphysical commitments. This tension can be illustrated by thinking abou...

Future research on protein folding must confront two serious dilemmas. (1) It may never be possible to observe at high resolution the very important structures that form in the first few milliseconds of the refolding reaction. (2) The energy functions used to predict structure from sequence will always be approximations of the true energy function. One strategy to resolve both dilemmas is to vi...

Optimists commonly report a higher availability of supportive others and more received social support than pessimists. However, these results are silent on the question of whether this effect is due to an overly optimistic view on their social environment or whether the social environment actually provides optimists with more support than pessimists. Accordingly, the present study tested in an ...

The social concepts of optimism, pessimism, and realism were investigated by assessing the prototypical acts (thoughts, feelings, goals, and actions) that laypersons assign to optimists, pessimists, and realists responding to a controllable and an uncontrollable situation. Optimists and realists, but not pessimists, were seen as adjusting their behavior to the situation. However, whereas optimi...

Ecological Marxists have succeeded in developing compelling ecological critiques of capitalism and principles for alternative ecosocialist political-economies. However, they devoted relatively little attention to strategic questions, such as: How might transitions take place? What are the challenges, trade-offs, risks would likely confront? And how may ecosocialists allied movements best strate...