This thesis provides a syntactic and semantic analysis of bare arguments and classifiers in Thai as well as accounting for its nominal word order. Adopting the Nominal Mapping Parameter (Chierchia 1998), it is argued that Thai nouns are names of kinds. Kinds are of type <s,e>, which are allowed to appear without overt determiners in argument position. For this reason, Thai nouns cannot directly combine with a quantifier without the help of a classifier. The study shows that Thai arguments behave like English bare arguments (bare plurals and mass nouns) in that they exhibit scopelessness and can be interpreted with different meanings such as weak indefinite, generic and kind interpretations. Unlike English bare arguments, the Thai counterparts may also have a definite interpretation. This is because Thai lacks an overt definite determiner. In addition, the thesis provides a unified analysis for the occurrence of Thai classifiers in different contexts. It is assumed that a classifier occurs in a quantified context to provide a portion of a kind (Krifka 1995, Chierchia 1998). The thesis further proposes that a classifier occurs in a non-quantified context where there is no overt numeral when the noun phrase is specific. A specific noun phrase includes those appearing with a demonstrative, the numeral ‘one’ or a modifier. As for the word order within the nominal domain, it is proposed that the noun, although merged at the bottom of the Specific Phrase underlyingly, always appears in the initial position to check an uninterpretable nominal feature in the Specific head.

This thesis provides a syntactic and semantic analysis of bare arguments and classifiers in Thai as well as accounting for its nominal word order. Adopting the Nominal Mapping Parameter (Chierchia 1998), it is argued that Thai nouns are names of kinds. Kinds are of type <s,e>, which are allowed to appear without overt determiners in argument position. For this reason, Thai nouns cannot directly combine with a quantifier without the help of a classifier. The study shows that Thai arguments behave like English bare arguments (bare plurals and mass nouns) in that they exhibit scopelessness and can be interpreted with different meanings such as weak indefinite, generic and kind interpretations. Unlike English bare arguments, the Thai counterparts may also have a definite interpretation. This is because Thai lacks an overt definite determiner. In addition, the thesis provides a unified analysis for the occurrence of Thai classifiers in different contexts. It is assumed that a classifier occurs in a quantified context to provide a portion of a kind (Krifka 1995, Chierchia 1998). The thesis further proposes that a classifier occurs in a non-quantified context where there is no overt numeral when the noun phrase is specific. A specific noun phrase includes those appearing with a demonstrative, the numeral ‘one’ or a modifier. As for the word order within the nominal domain, it is proposed that the noun, although merged at the bottom of the Specific Phrase underlyingly, always appears in the initial position to check an uninterpretable nominal feature in the Specific head.

En este trabajo se examina si de las consideraciones que Donald Davidson ha hecho del caso de la interpretación radical se sigue algo así como una refutación del escepticismo. Se argumenta que tal conclusión no se sigue de las posiciones acerca de la naturaleza del pensamiento y del lenguaje mantenidas por este filósofo americano, ni siquiera con la ayuda del así llamado argumento del intérprete omnisciente. También se rechaza la idea de que concebir su argumentación como un argumento trascendental modesto proporcione mejores resultados antiescépticos. Finalmente se defiende que el mejor modo de articular su posición es como un diagnóstico teórico del escepticismo al estilo del defendido por Michael Williams en su libro Unnatural Doubts. Desde este punto de vista lo que la filosofía davidsoniana haría sería reprochar al escéptico su adhesión al representacionismo y mostrar una alternativa al mismo que explique la posibilidad del pensamiento y del lenguaje. Concebida así la filosofía davidsoniana no constituiría una victoria definitiva ante el escepticismo, sino que más bien mostraría que su posición no es obligatoria y, al menos, garantizaría una presunción de inocencia para nuestras creencias ante el reto del escéptico global. / This work examines whether it follows a refutation of scepticism from Donald Davidson's work on radical interpretation. It is argued that such a conclusion does not follow from Donald Davidson's views on thought and language, not even with the help of the so called omniscient interpreter argument. This work also rejects that such views on language and thought lead to a better result against scepticism when interpreted as a modest transcendental argument. Finally it is claimed that the best way of articulating Davidson's antisceptical strategy is as a theoretical diagnosis of scepticism in a similar vein as Michael Williams has developed in his book Unnatural Doubts. From this point of view what Davidson's philosophy would do is, on the one hand, to reproach the sceptic his adherence to representationism and, on the other hand, to defend an alternative to this philosophical view that explains how thought and language are possible. Conceived of in this way, Davidson's philosophy would not constitute a definitive victory against scepticism. However it would show that scepticism is not compulsory and, at the very least, it would guarantee a presumption of innocence for our beliefs when they face the sceptical threat.

The aim of the paper is to investigate to what extent political parties in the Scandinavian parliaments express opinions on labor immigration in line with the policy preferences predicted by the Stolper-Samuleson theorem. A hypothesis derived from the theorem suggests that left wing parties traditionally connected to labor interests should favor restrictions on labor immigration to a greater extent than right wing parties traditionally connected to businesses and market interests. To establish any such trend, parties are placed on a left-right axis according to their given Rile scores. The findings indicate that there is some evidence for a left-right divide regarding parties' assumed factor interests labor and capital, but the basis for these findings are limited and inferences should be made with care.

Population dynamics is the dominant branch of mathematical biology. The first model for population dynamics was developed by Thomas Malthus. A more complicated model was developed by Pierre Fran&ccedil / ois Verhulst and it is called the logistic equation. Our aim in this thesis is to extend the models using piecewise constant arguments and to find the conditions when the models have fixed points, periodic solutions and chaos with investigation of stability of periodic solutions.

<p>1.1 billion people are today living without sustainable access to improved water. The debate over the water sector has been dominated by the discussion over whether public or private actors are the most competent to manage it. In this paper the arguments pro and contra the two positions are presented to try to overview the debate and to try to find new ways to approach the question of the people living without clean water. By examining possible alternatives towards the discussion of public and private actors, it might result in some new approaches on how to move closer towards a solution. One alternative is local, small- scale projects which focus on the situation of the targetgroup in most need. I have in this paper tried to find signs of that the debate is changing in a way that would bring positive outcomes for the people living without access to improved water. The debate is changing, both the private as well as the public sector is changing their ways of working and the alternative approach is increasing its influence. Hopefully the debate can move away from the discussion of ideology and acknowledge the strengths of each other to result in possible solutions of the water problems. With the increasing interest and concern for the question of water there is thus an opportunity for a change in the debate that would benefit the ones living without sustainable access to improved water.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to illustrate why Norway is not a member of the EU from a rational choice perspective. In order to fulfil this purpose, two questions will constitute the framework of the study. These are:</p><p>1. What are the arguments of the EU-opposers in the Norwegian EU-debate?</p><p>2. Is it rational for Norway to stand outside the EU?</p><p>The first question was answered by analyzing and mapping out the arguments of the Norweigan EU-opponents and then using a critical literature study to analyse them. To demarcate the study, only the arguments of the parliamentary parties that are opposing a Norwegian EU-membership, and the official organisation Nei til EU (No to the EU) were included. The second question was tested by using a rational choice theory and a number of keywords from the classical rational actor model; objectives, alternatives, consequences and choice. These keywords constituted the main analyzing instrument of the study and was applied on the empirical material.</p><p>The main arguments of the opposers of a Norweigan EU-membership, are widely spoken democracy, freedom of action, environment and solidarity. The debate is hard to map out because of its general character but is very homogeneous. The second question is answered partly in the light of the first one and the result shows that it is rational for Norway to stay outside the EU today, but the question may have to be reassessed in the future, and probably will be since the debate is still so fervent.</p>

This dissertation investigates nominal arguments in classifier languages (ClLs). There are two main goals. The first is to explore what is constant and what varies in the way ClLs form nominal arguments. The second goal is to understand the relationship between argument formation in classifier languages and argument formation more generally. Three classifier languages are the center of the discussion: Mandarin, a ClL without overt evidence of determiners, Yi, a head-final ClL which will be shown to have overt determiners, and Bengali, a ClL that has already been argued to have overt evidence of determiners. In addition to paying particular attention to these three ClLs, the discussion of nominal arguments also covers a wider range of ClLs and number marking languages (NMLs) from Romance, Germanic, and Slavic, as well as Hindi. In this dissertation we will argue for the following three points. First, numeral constructions (NCs) have identical syntax and semantics in ClLs and NMLs (possibly universally); specifically, we argue that NCs have a predicative interpretation and an argumental interpretation that arises via a choice function in the lexical entry of numerals. Secondly, we argue that language variation in the nominal domain is due primarily to two interrelated factors: what nouns denote (kinds or properties) and what low functional heads (i.e. number morphology (#) and classifiers) denote; we show how this variation in the nominal domain can be related to a more general macroparameter. Thirdly, we argue that determiners in ClLs are in fact expected, contrary to the standard view, but while they can combine with numeral-classifier phrases (ClPs) and numeral-less ClPs, they can never combine with bare nouns. The proposal is that bare nouns in ClLs are always argumental regardless of whether or not there are determiners. In the last chapter of this dissertation, we show that the developed analysis of nominal arguments and language variation yields an updated language typology of argument formation. With this proposed analysis of nominal arguments, we may be a few steps closer to a general theory of argument formation of wide cross-linguistic applicability. / Linguistics

The goal of this thesis is to investigate the literature on physician-assisted death (PAD) in the United States and argue for the legalization of PAD. This thesis discusses the historical and contemporary legal literature of PAD as well as the concerns voiced by opponents of PAD. This thesis addresses the concerns of PAD opponents and invalidating some concerns and and attenuating others. Proper implementation of PAD is proposed via Mandatory Psychiatric Review (MPR) and other psychological services. Further improvements needed in PAD policy are discussed as well as the current benefits of PAD.

This thesis consists of several independent papers in population ethics. I begin in Chapter 1 by critiquing some well-known 'impossibility theorems', which purport to show there can be no intuitively satisfactory population axiology. I identify axiological vagueness as a promising way to escape or at least mitigate the effects of these theorems. In particular, in Chapter 2, I argue that certain of the impossibility theorems have little more dialectical force than sorites arguments do. From these negative arguments I move to positive ones. In Chapter 3, I justify the use of a 'veil of ignorance', starting from three more basic normative principles. This leads to positive arguments for various kinds of utilitarianism - the best such arguments I know. But in general the implications of the veil depend on how one answers what I call 'the risky existential question': what is the value to an individual of a chance of non-existence? I chart out the main options, and raise some puzzles for non-comparativism, the view that life is incomparable to non-existence. Finally, in Chapter 4, I consider the consequences for population ethics of the idea that what is normatively relevant is not personal identity, but a degreed relation of psychological connectedness. In particular, I pursue a strategy based in population ethics for understanding the controversial 'time-relative interests' account of the badness of death.