Towards an Account of Epistemic Luck for Necessary Truths

Modal epistemologists parse modal conditions on knowledge in terms of metaphysical possibilities or ways the world might have been. This is problematic. Understanding modal conditions on knowledge this way has made modal epistemology, as currently worked out, unable to account for epistemic luck in the case of necessary truths, and unable to characterise widely discussed issues such as the problem of religious diversity and the perceived epistemological problem with knowledge of abstract objects. Moreover, there is reason to think that this is a congenital defect of orthodox modal epistemology. This way of characterising modal epistemology is however optional. It is shown that one can non-circularly characterise modal conditions on knowledge in terms of epistemic possibilities, or ways the world might be for the target agent. Characterising the anti-luck condition in terms of epistemic possibilities removes the impediment to understanding epistemic luck in the case of necessary truths and opens the door to using these conditions to shed new light on some longstanding epistemological problems.     

Existence of Z-cyclic 3PDTWh(<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>) for Prime <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> ≡ 1 (mod 4)

A directed triplewhist tournament on p players over Z _p is said to have the three-person property if no two games in the tournament have three common players. We briefly denote such a design as a 3PDTWh(p). In this paper, we investigate the existence of a Z-cyclic 3PDTWh(p) for any prime p ≡ 1 (mod 4) and show that such a design exists whenever p ≡ 5, 9, 13 (mod 16) and p ≥ 29. This result is obtained by applying Weil’s theorem. In addition, we also prove that a Z-cyclic 3PDTWh(p) exists whenever p ≡ 1 (mod 16) and p < 10, 000 except possibly for p = 257, 769. Gennian Ge’s Research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 10471127, Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. R604001, and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry.     

Gradient Young measures generated by sequences in Sobolev spaces

Oscillatory properties of a weak convergent sequence of functions bounded inL ^p , 1 ≤p ≤ ∞, may be summarized by the parametrized measure it generates. When such a measure is generated by the gradients of a sequence of functions bounded inH ^1,p , it must have special properties. The purpose of this paper is to characterize such parametrized measures as the ones that obey Jensen’s inequality for all quasiconvex functions with the appropriate growth at infinity. We have found subtle differences between the casesp < ∞ andp = ∞. A consequence is that any measure determined by biting convergence is in fact generated by a sequence convergent in a stronger sense. We also give a few applications. Research groupTransitions and Defects in Ordered Materials, funded by the NSF, the AFOSR, and the ARO. The work of the second author is also supported by DGICYT (Spain) through “Programa de Perfeccionamiento y Movilidad del Personal Investigador” and through Grant PB90-0245.     

Series of independent random variables in rearrangement invariant spaces: An operator approach

This paper studies series of independent random variables in rearrangement invariant spacesX on [0, 1]. Principal results of the paper concern such series in Orlicz spaces exp(L _p ), 1≤p≤∞ and Lorentz spacesA _Ψ. One by-product of our methods is a new (and simpler) proof of a result due to W. B. Johnson and G. Schechtman that the assumptionL _p ⊂X, p<∞ is sufficient to guarantee that convergence of such series inX (under the side condition that the sum of the measures of the supports of all individual terms does not exceed 1) is equivalent to convergence inX of the series of disjoint copies of individual terms. Furthermore, we prove the converse (in a certain sense) to that result. Research supported by the Australian Research Council.     

Referential Opacity and Epistemic Logic

Referential opacity is the failure of substitutivity of identity (SI, for short) and in Quine’s view of existential generalization (EG, for short) as well. Quine thinks that its “solution” in epistemic and doxastic contexts, which relies on the notion of exportation, leads to undesirable results. But epistemic logicians such as Jaakko Hintikka and Wolfgang Lenzen provide another solution based on a different diagnosis: opacity is not, as in Quine’s view, due to the absence of reference, it is rather due to the plurality of references; therefore, one must stabilize the reference to restore SI and EG. However, Hintikka’s semantics remains classical in its treatment of existence, which makes EG non-applicable to possible objects, while in Lenzen’s system, EG is applicable by means of a particular quantifier. But this requires adding the predicate of existence to account for real objects. In this paper, I will show the advantages and disadvantages of both solutions and will end by providing an alternative approach to the problem of non-existent objects, which stays into the frame of possible worlds semantics, but introduces some more restrictions, eliminates the problematic predicate of existence, and applies a neutral quantifier to possible non-existent objects.     

Dominated estimates of convex combinations of commuting isometries

The principal result of this paper is that the convex combination of two positive, invertible, commuting isometries ofL _p(X,F, μ) 1<p<+∞, one of which is periodic, admits a dominated estimate with constantp/p−1. In establishing this, the following analogue of Linderholm’s theorem is obtained: Let σ and ε be two commuting non-singular point transformations of a Lebesgue Space with τ periodic. Then given ε>O, there exists a periodic non-singular point transformation σ′ such that σ′ commutes with τ and μ(x:σ′x≠σx}<ε. Byan approximation argument, the principal result is applied to the convex combination of two isometries ofL _p (0, 1) induced by point transformations of the form τx=x ^k,k>0 to show that such convex combinations admit a dominated estimate with constantp/p−1. Research supported in part by NSF Grant No. GP-7475. A portion of the contents of this paper is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation written under the direction of Professor R. V. Chacon of the University of Minnesota.     

Nonbelief and the Desire-As-Belief Thesis

I show the incompatibility of two theses: (a) to desire the truth of p amounts to believing a certain proposition about the value of p’s truth; (b) one cannot be said to desire the truth of p if one believes that p is true. Thesis (a), the Desire-As-Belief Thesis, has received much attention since the late 1980s. Thesis (b) is an epistemic variant of Socrates’ remark in the Symposium that one cannot desire what one already has. It turns out that (a) and (b) cannot both be true if it is possible for there to exist an agent who has a desire initially, say the desire for the truth of p, and then expands the corpus of propositions she believes to include p. This result provides a new route to the denial of (a).

Regulator constants and the parity conjecture

The p-parity conjecture for twists of elliptic curves relates multiplicities of Artin representations in p ^∞-Selmer groups to root numbers. In this paper we prove this conjecture for a class of such twists. For example, if E/ℚ is semistable at 2 and 3, K/ℚ is abelian and K ^∞ is its maximal pro-p extension, then the p-parity conjecture holds for twists of E by all orthogonal Artin representations of . We also give analogous results when K/ℚ is non-abelian, the base field is not ℚ and E is replaced by an abelian variety. The heart of the paper is a study of relations between permutation representations of finite groups, their “regulator constants”, and compatibility between local root numbers and local Tamagawa numbers of abelian varieties in such relations. T. Dokchitser is supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.     

Tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">pq</Emphasis>

A graph is half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on its vertex set, edge set, but not arc set. Let p and q be primes. It is known that no tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order 2p ² exist and a tetravalent half-arc-transitive graph of order 4p must be non-Cayley; such a non-Cayley graph exists if and only if p−1 is divisible by 8 and it is unique for a given order. Based on the constructions of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs given by Marušič (J. Comb. Theory B 73:41–76, 1998), in this paper the connected tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order 2pq are classified for distinct odd primes p and q.     

On the distribution of <Emphasis Type="Italic">αp</Emphasis> modulo one for primes <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> of a special form

A classical problem in analytic number theory is to study the distribution of αp modulo 1, where α is irrational and p runs over the set of primes. We consider the subsequence generated by the primes p such that p+2 is an almost-prime (the existence of infinitely many such p is another topical result in prime number theory) and prove that its distribution has a similar property.     

On mean approximation by polynomials with gaps on Caratheodory sets

The paper presents some new results on the possibility of approximation by polynomials with gaps. The approximations are done in the norm of the space L _p , 1 ≤ p < + ∞, on the Caratheodory sets in the complex plane. The lacunary versions of some results by Farell—Markushevich, S. Sinanian, A. L. Shahinian are obtained (Theorems 1, 3, 5). Similar approximations by the real parts of lacunary polynomials are given (Theorems 2, 4, 6). Dedicated to the memory of academician S. N. Mergelyan     

Farrell cohomology and Brown theorems for profinite groups

LetG be a profinite group which has an open subgroupH such that the cohomologicalp-dimensiond≔cd_p(H) is finite (p is a fixed prime). The main result of this paper expresses thep-primary part of high degree cohomology ofG in terms of the elementary abelianp-subgroups ofG: From the latter one constructs a natural profinite simplicial setA G, on whichG acts by conjugation. ThenH ⁿ(G,M)≅H _G ⁿ (AG,M) holds forn≧d+r and everyp-primary discreteG-moduleM (r≔p-rank ofG). If one uses profinite Farrell cohomology, which is introduced in this paper, the analogous fact holds in all degrees. These results are the profinite analogues of theorems by K.S. Brown for discrete groups.     

Third-Person Internalism: A Critical Examination of Externalism and a Foundation-Oriented Alternative

This paper starts with an examination of the major problems of foundation-oriented epistemology in Sect. 2. Then, in Sects. 3–4, it is argued that the externalistic re-definition of knowledge deprives this concept from useful applications to human’s epistemic practice. From the viewpoint of cultural evolution, the condition of justification is the most important ingredient of knowledge. An alternative foundation-oriented conception of knowledge called third-person internalism is developed in Sect. 2 and Sect. 5. It combines insights of externalism with the requirement of second-order justification. The application of third-person internalism to contextualistic positions leads to an important constraint on contextualism (Sect. 6). The final section (Sect. 7) sketches new prospects for a foundation-oriented epistemology which are based on epistemic optimality arguments.     

On finite groups whose Sylow subgroups have a bounded number of generators

Let G be a finite non-nilpotent group such that every Sylow subgroup of G is generated by at most δ elements, and such that p is the largest prime dividing |G|. We show that G has a non-nilpotent image G/N, such that N is characteristic and of index bounded by a function of δ and p. This result will be used to prove that G has a nilpotent normal subgroup of index bounded in terms of δ and p.     

Mapping problems, fundamental groups and defect measures

We study all the possible weak limits of a minimizing sequence, for p-energy functionals, consisting of continuous maps between Riemannian manifolds subject to a Dirichlet boundary condition or a homotopy condition. We show that if p is not an integer, then any such weak limit is a strong limit and, in particular, a stationary p-harmonic map which is C ^1,α continuous away from a closed subset of the Hausdorff dimension ≤ n − [p] − 1. If p is an integer, then any such weak limit is a weakly p-harmonic map along with a (n − p)-rectifiable Radon measure μ. Moreover, the limiting map is C ^1,α continuous away from a closed subset Σ=spt μ ∪ S with H ^{n − p} (S)=0. Finally, we discuss the possible varifolds type theory for Sobolev mappings. Partially supported by NSF Grant DMS 9626166     

Arc-transitive cubic cayley graphs on PSL(2, <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>)

For a prime p at least 5, let T = PSL(2, p). This paper gives a classification of the connected arc-transitive cubic Cayley graphs on T and a determination of the generated pairs (ā,−) of T such that o(ā) = 2 and o(−)= 3.     

On the prime graph of <Emphasis Type="Italic">PSL</Emphasis>(2, <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>) where <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> > 3 is a prime number

Let G be a finite group. We define the prime graph Γ(G) as follows. The vertices of Γ(G) are the primes dividing the order of G and two distinct vertices p, q are joined by an edge if there is an element in G of order pq. Recently M. Hagie [5] determined finite groups G satisfying Γ(G) = Γ(S), where S is a sporadic simple group. Let p > 3 be a prime number. In this paper we determine finite groups G such that Γ(G) = Γ(PSL(2, p)). As a consequence of our results we prove that if p > 11 is a prime number and p ≢ 1 (mod 12), then PSL(2, p) is uniquely determined by its prime graph and so these groups are characterizable by their prime graph. The third author was supported in part by a grant from IPM (No. 84200024).     

The martingale hardy type inequality for Marcinkiewicz-Fejér means of two-dimensional conjugate Walsh-Fourier series

The main aim of this paper is to prove that for any 0 < p ≤ 2/3 there exists a martingale f ∈ H _p such that Marcinkiewicz-Fejér means of the two-dimensional conjugate Walsh-Fourier series of the martingale f is not uniformly bounded in the space L _p .     

On the number of <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis><Subscript>π′</Subscript>-characters in a nilpotent π-block

Broué and Puig set the definition of nilpotent p-blocks, stated the existence of such blocks, and then proved that there is a unique Brauer character in a nilpotent p-block. The present paper, based on the works of Slattery and Robinson, generalizes the above idea to the π-block theory of a π-separable group, defines the nilpotency of a π-block, and proves that there is a unique B _π′-character in a nilpotent π-block. This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10771132) and Beijing Educational Committee (Grant No. Km200510028002)     

Dual space,carleson measure and sequence interpolation onA p (ϕ)(O<p<1)

LetD={z∈Σ:|z|<1} and ϕ be a normal function on [0,1). Forp∈(0,1) such a function ϕ is used to define a Bergman spaceA ^p (ϕ) onD with weight ϕ ^p (|·|)/(1-|·|²). In this paper, the dual space ofA ^p (ϕ) is given, four characteristics of Carleson measure onA ^p (ϕ) are obtained. Moreover, as an application, three sequence interpolation theorems inA ^p (ϕ) are derived. Supported by the Doctoral Program Foundation of Institute of Higher Education, P.R. China.