What Functions Explain

What Functions Explain PDF Author: Peter McLaughlin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139428535
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
This 2001 book offers an examination of functional explanation as it is used in biology and the social sciences, and focuses on the kinds of philosophical presuppositions that such explanations carry with them. It tackles such questions as: why are some things explained functionally while others are not? What do the functional explanations tell us about how these objects are conceptualized? What do we commit ourselves to when we give and take functional explanations in the life sciences and the social sciences? McLaughlin gives a critical review of the debate on functional explanation in the philosophy of science. He discusses the history of the philosophical question of teleology, and provides a comprehensive review of the post-war literature on functional explanation. What Functions Explain provides a sophisticated and detailed Aristotelian analysis of our concept of natural functions, and offers a positive contribution to the ongoing debate on the topic.

What Functions Explain

What Functions Explain PDF Author: Peter McLaughlin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139428535
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
This 2001 book offers an examination of functional explanation as it is used in biology and the social sciences, and focuses on the kinds of philosophical presuppositions that such explanations carry with them. It tackles such questions as: why are some things explained functionally while others are not? What do the functional explanations tell us about how these objects are conceptualized? What do we commit ourselves to when we give and take functional explanations in the life sciences and the social sciences? McLaughlin gives a critical review of the debate on functional explanation in the philosophy of science. He discusses the history of the philosophical question of teleology, and provides a comprehensive review of the post-war literature on functional explanation. What Functions Explain provides a sophisticated and detailed Aristotelian analysis of our concept of natural functions, and offers a positive contribution to the ongoing debate on the topic.

Advanced R

Advanced R PDF Author: Hadley Wickham
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1498759807
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 669

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Book Description
An Essential Reference for Intermediate and Advanced R Programmers Advanced R presents useful tools and techniques for attacking many types of R programming problems, helping you avoid mistakes and dead ends. With more than ten years of experience programming in R, the author illustrates the elegance, beauty, and flexibility at the heart of R. The book develops the necessary skills to produce quality code that can be used in a variety of circumstances. You will learn: The fundamentals of R, including standard data types and functions Functional programming as a useful framework for solving wide classes of problems The positives and negatives of metaprogramming How to write fast, memory-efficient code This book not only helps current R users become R programmers but also shows existing programmers what’s special about R. Intermediate R programmers can dive deeper into R and learn new strategies for solving diverse problems while programmers from other languages can learn the details of R and understand why R works the way it does.

A Critical Overview of Biological Functions

A Critical Overview of Biological Functions PDF Author: Justin Garson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319320203
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
This book is a critical survey of and guidebook to the literature on biological functions. It ties in with current debates and developments, and at the same time, it looks back on the state of discourse in naturalized teleology prior to the 1970s. It also presents three significant new proposals. First, it describes the generalized selected effects theory, which is one version of the selected effects theory, maintaining that the function of a trait consists in the activity that led to its differential persistence or reproduction in a population, and not merely its differential reproduction. Secondly, it advances “within-discipline pluralism” (as opposed to between-discipline pluralism) a new form of function pluralism, which emphasizes the coexistence of function concepts within diverse biological sub-disciplines. Lastly, it provides a critical assessment of recent alternatives to the selected effects theory of function, namely, the weak etiological theory and the systems-theoretic theory. The book argues that, to the extent that functions purport to offer causal explanations for the existence of a trait, there are no viable alternatives to the selected effects view. The debate about biological functions is still as relevant and important to biology and philosophy as it ever was. Recent controversies surrounding the ENCODE Project Consortium in genetics, the nature of psychiatric classification, and the value of ecological restoration, all point to the continuing relevance to biology of philosophical discussion about the nature of functions. In philosophy, ongoing debates about the nature of biological information, intentionality, health and disease, mechanism, and even biological trait classification, are closely related to debates about biological functions.

What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter

What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter PDF Author: Justin Garson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108472591
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This accessible book presents a new theory of biological functions and connects it to contemporary problems in philosophy and science.

Discrete Mathematics

Discrete Mathematics PDF Author: Oscar Levin
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781534970748
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
This gentle introduction to discrete mathematics is written for first and second year math majors, especially those who intend to teach. The text began as a set of lecture notes for the discrete mathematics course at the University of Northern Colorado. This course serves both as an introduction to topics in discrete math and as the "introduction to proof" course for math majors. The course is usually taught with a large amount of student inquiry, and this text is written to help facilitate this. Four main topics are covered: counting, sequences, logic, and graph theory. Along the way proofs are introduced, including proofs by contradiction, proofs by induction, and combinatorial proofs. The book contains over 360 exercises, including 230 with solutions and 130 more involved problems suitable for homework. There are also Investigate! activities throughout the text to support active, inquiry based learning. While there are many fine discrete math textbooks available, this text has the following advantages: It is written to be used in an inquiry rich course. It is written to be used in a course for future math teachers. It is open source, with low cost print editions and free electronic editions.

NUMERICAL, SYMBOLIC AND STATISTICAL COMPUTING FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERS USING MATLAB

NUMERICAL, SYMBOLIC AND STATISTICAL COMPUTING FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERS USING MATLAB PDF Author: Ghosh, Pallab
Publisher: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN: 9387472523
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Numerical, analytical and statistical computations are routine affairs for chemical engineers. They usually prefer a single software to solve their computational problems, and at present, MATLAB has emerged as a powerful computational language, which is preferably used for this purpose, due to its built-in functions and toolboxes. Considering the needs and convenience of the students, the author has made an attempt to write this book, which explains the various concepts of MATLAB in a systematic way and makes its readers proficient in using MATLAB for computing. It mainly focuses on the applications of MATLAB, rather than its use in programming basic numerical algorithms. Commencing with the introduction to MATLAB, the text covers vector and matrix computations, solution of linear and non-linear equations, differentiation and integration, and solution of ordinary and partial differential equations. Next, analytical computations using the Symbolic Math Toolbox and statistical computations using the Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox are explained. Finally, the book describes various curve fitting techniques using the Curve Fitting Toolbox. Inclusion of all these advanced-level topics in the book stands it out from the rest. KEY FEATURES  Numerous worked-out examples to enable the readers understand the steps involved in solving the chemical engineering problems  MATLAB codes to explain the computational techniques  Several snapshots to help the readers understand the step-by-step procedures of using the toolboxes  Chapter-end exercises, including short-answer questions and numerical problems  Appendix comprising the definitions of some important and special matrices  Supplemented with Solutions Manual containing complete detailed solutions to the unsolved analytical problems  Accessibility of selected colour figures (including screenshots and results/outputs of the programs) cited in the text at www.phindia.com/Pallab_Ghosh. TARGET AUDIENCE • BE/B.Tech (Chemical Engineering) • ME/M.Tech (Chemical Engineering)

Handbook of Mathematical Functions

Handbook of Mathematical Functions PDF Author: Milton Abramowitz
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486612720
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 1068

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Book Description
An extensive summary of mathematical functions that occur in physical and engineering problems

Functions Modeling Change

Functions Modeling Change PDF Author: Eric Connally
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119498317
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
An accessible Precalculus text with concepts, examples, and problems The sixth edition of Functions Modeling Change: A Preparation for Calculus helps students establish a foundation for studying Calculus. The text covers key Precalculus topics, examples, and problems. Chapters examine linear, quadratic, logarithmic, exponential, polynomial, and rational functions. They also explore trigonometry and trigonometric Identities, plus vectors and matrices. The end of each chapter offers details on how students can strengthen their knowledge about the topics covered.

R for Data Science

R for Data Science PDF Author: Hadley Wickham
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1491910364
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
Learn how to use R to turn raw data into insight, knowledge, and understanding. This book introduces you to R, RStudio, and the tidyverse, a collection of R packages designed to work together to make data science fast, fluent, and fun. Suitable for readers with no previous programming experience, R for Data Science is designed to get you doing data science as quickly as possible. Authors Hadley Wickham and Garrett Grolemund guide you through the steps of importing, wrangling, exploring, and modeling your data and communicating the results. You'll get a complete, big-picture understanding of the data science cycle, along with basic tools you need to manage the details. Each section of the book is paired with exercises to help you practice what you've learned along the way. You'll learn how to: Wrangle—transform your datasets into a form convenient for analysis Program—learn powerful R tools for solving data problems with greater clarity and ease Explore—examine your data, generate hypotheses, and quickly test them Model—provide a low-dimensional summary that captures true "signals" in your dataset Communicate—learn R Markdown for integrating prose, code, and results

Persuasion

Persuasion PDF Author: Daniel J. O'Keefe
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483309711
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Persuasion: Theory and Research, Third Edition is a comprehensive overview of social-scientific theory and research on persuasion. Written in a clear and accessible style that assumes no special technical background in research methods, the Third Edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect developments in persuasion studies. New discussions of subjects such as reactance and the use of narratives as vehicles for persuasion, revised treatments of the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior, and two new chapters on social judgment theory and stage models provide your students with the most current work on persuasion in a clear, straightforward manner. In this edition, author Daniel J. O'Keefe has given special attention to the importance of adapting (tailoring) messages to audiences to maximize persuasiveness. Each chapter has a set of review questions to guide students through the chapter’s material and quickly master the concepts being introduced.