How not to argue about immigration

Let's not Argue about Semantics

What’s the best way to assess the performance of a semantic component in an NLP system? Tradition in NLP evaluation tells us that comparing output against a gold standard is a good idea. To define a gold standard, one first needs to decide on the representation language, and in many cases a first-order language seems a good compromise between expressive power and efficiency. Secondly, one needs...

How (not) to argue about is/ought inferences in the cognitive sciences

When scholars problematize is/ought inferences (IOI’s), they sometimes refer to Hume’s or Moore’s fallacy (e.g., Schneider, 2000; Schroyens, 2009; Elqayam and Evans, 2011). Although inferring “ought” from “is” can be problematic, we argue that, in the context of contemporary IOI’s in the cognitive sciences, invoking Hume or Moore might be misguided. This is because Hume’s and Moore’s arguments ...

Would You Argue with Albert Einstein about how to use Viscosity in the DLS Formula?

Five erroneous Ways to argue about resource economics

This paper examines several problematic aspects of George Reisman’s Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, specifically, five problems in the economics of natural resources. I argue first, that Reisman’s work lacks sufficient grounding in economic theory. Second, his exposition neglects important arguments in the environmental literature. Third, it avoids problems of uncertainty, leading to a fau...

David Oliver: Let's argue about statistics.

In his recent speech to the Conservative Party conference the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, used statistics enthusiastically. I counted at least 27 times that he mentioned numerical data. And he made several more assertions about numbers, such as, “Safer care doesn’t cost more; it costs less.” Not bad for a speech of 23 minutes. He used statistics to take credit on behalf of his government for...