Universal laws & the case of cholera

Universal Laws &the Case of Cholera

John P. McCaskey

The Case of Cholera

Venise, 1493

100s 200s 1500s 1600s 1700s

Lugduni Batavorum: 1592.

Lugduni Batavorum: 1746

A.D. 40

• Diarrhea• Vomiting• Flatulence• Turning of the intestines• Ejection both upwards and

downwards of bile that resembles water at first, but then looks as if meat had been washed in it, sometimes white, sometimes black or variegated.

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

18191829

C. accidentalisC. spontanea

Summer cholera Infants cholera Cholera with fever Cholera without fever Cholera from

poisoning Cholera from eating

something undigestible

Contagious cholera Non-contagious

cholera Indian /Asiatic cholera “True” cholera

C. spontaneaC. accidentalis

Epidemic C.C. Morbus=

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Epidemic C.C. Morbus ≠ ?

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Epidemic CholeraCholera Morbus

Broad Street Pump Epidemic

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Asiatic CholeraBilious CholeraEuropean CholeraCholera InfantumCholera Morbus

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Robert KochLouis Pasteur

Cholera OutbreakCairo

1. Is cholera produced by a specific infectious material that comes only from India?

7. Can the infectious material be found in vomit, or also in blood, urine, sweat, and breath?

16. Is evidence of the comma bacillus diagnostically valuable?

“True cholera”(wirklich,

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Asiatic Cholera Cholera:Cholera InfantumCholera Morbus

A Universal Exceptionless Scientific Law

A person kept away from the bacterium Vibrio cholerae cannot get cholera.

The Case of Tides

http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/66641.html http://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/03/tides-at-bay-of-fundy.html

https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/high-low-tide-blackpool.jpg https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/high-low-tide-blackpool.jpg

Principia (1687), Proposition LXVI

1687 1882Isaac Newton

William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)

1882William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)

Maximum amplitude of tides occurs when earth, sun and moon align.

Ohm’s Law

http://ruralmissouri.coop/09pages/09JanLightBulbMakers.html

http://airborn.com.au/photo1/davercon.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3_Resistors.jpg

18731827

Georg Ohm James Clerk Maxwell

1873 James Clerk Maxwell

In a resistor, current increases when voltage increases.

http://www.batesville.k12.in.us/physics/phynet/e%26m/current/labs/images/complete_circuit.gif

Cholera is a malady with vomiting, diarrhea, intestinal griping, no urination, spasms in the leg.

Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by Vibrio cholerae.

Tides are regular rising and falling of sea levels that occur about twice a day.

Tides are regular rising and falling of sea levels caused by gravitational forces.

Dew is moisture on the ground after nights when there was no rain.

Dew is droplets that appear on exposed objects in the morning or eveningdue to condensation.

Electrical resistance is a material’s opposition to the passage of electricity.

The resistance of a device is the ratio of voltage across it to current through it.

Cholera can be prevented by eliminating Vibrio cholerae.

Greatest amplitude of tides occurs when sun, moon, and earth align.

Nominal Definition

Definition by Formal Cause

Universal Statements

Dew will not form on surfaces warmer than the surrounding air.

Boundaries can be changed.

Personal and discretionary

Good, bad, better, worse

Evolve and mature

Boundaries differ in stability.

Concepts are Organic

Evolve and mature

ConceptualBoundaries

Clarity

Stability

Commu-nication

Inter-personal RelationsComplete

Consistency

Parsimony

ConceptualBoundaries

Clarity

Stability

Commu-nication

Inter-personal RelationsComplete

Consistency

Parsimony

Essentialized definitions• eliminate fuzziness • promote stability• enable universal laws

Clarity

Stability

epistemeCommu-nication

Inter-personal Relations

Consensus is• only one desideratum• not necessary• also organic

Evolve and mature

Scientific Knowledge

• Discretionary• Subjective• Arbitrary

• Intrinsic• Goal-Directed• Normative• Good / Bad

Objective

Philosophers of sciencecommonly concedethat early philosophersof science werehopelessly confused.

1973The Problem of Induction

All swans are white.

All emeralds are green.

Every spring exerts a force proportional to displacement.

Every red-hooded tanager (piranga rubriceps) has a red head.

Particular & universal propositions

Particular things & universal terms

Two Conceptions of Induction

?Induction is a proceeding from particulars to a universal.

Socratic Induction

Scholastic Induction

Prosecuting a wrongdoer, even if your own father.What is piety?

That’s an example. What is piety itself? Doing what pleases the gods.

But gods disagree.

And there are many kinds of disagreement:

Disagreement over which number is greater.

Disagreement over which thing is larger.

Disagreement over which thing is heavier.

Disagreement over just and unjust.

Disagreement over beautiful and ugly.

Disagreement over good and bad.

Piety is what pleases all gods.But is it pious because it pleases the gods or does it please the gods because it is pious?

What is loved vs. what loves.

What is the difference?

What is led vs. what leads.

What is seen vs. what sees.

So . . . what is admired vs. what admires.

I don’t know which.

Let’s start over. Isn’t everything pious also just but not vice versa?

Then p iety is a k ind of just ice. What kind?

Two things may be ascribed to Socrates: inductive reasoning and universal definitions.

Socratic Induction

A kind of inference that gains force the more it is like a complete enumeration, an argument that can be rendered as a syllogism.

A kind of inference inferior to deduction.

Positive instances determine reliability.

Particulars and universals are primarily propositions

A compare-and-contrast process for discovering properties that characterize all members of a kind, some of which are unique to the kind, some of which even define the kind.

Not an inference and not inferior to deduction.

Breadth and depth of comparisons determine reliability.

Particulars and universals are primarily things, concepts, or terms.

Scholastic Induction

Socratic Induction

Ampliation takes place at the propositional level.

Ampliation takes place at the conceptual level.

Tradition of Socratic Induction