http://hdl.handle.net/10222/11013 2013-05-19T16:19:37Z http://hdl.handle.net/10222/21402 Distinguishing input controls from ouput controls in Atlantic Canada's fisheries: explaining the decline and collapse of Newfoundland's Atlantic cod stocks Corkett, Christopher John The lobster and groundfish fisheries of Atlantic Canada have been managed in very different ways. The Atlantic lobster fishery has been managed by input controls in which regulations have been developed by a posteriori deductive argument to control the intensity of the gear used to catch lobsters. By contrast the Atlantic groundfish fisheries have been managed by output controls involving the a priori inductive arguments of stock assessment in which limits are put on the amount of groundfish coming out of a fishery. Karl Popper excludes induction from his theory of method since induction leads to logical inconsistencies such as a 'scientific' ethics (i.e. the notion that science can on its own tell us what should be done), a fisheries example of which is the use of reference points and harvest guidelines in an attempt to guide the normative use of data. It is mt thesis that the prejudicial nature of a fish stock assessment with its embedded monism of 'scientific' ethics is to be held responsible for the overfishing and collapse of Atlantic groundfish fisheries including Newfoundland's Atlantic cod stocks. If Atlantic Canada's groundfish fisheries are to be managed by sound and rational decisions, they will have to join the Atlantic lobster fishery as a well regulated institution capable of controlling the levels of effort used to catch fish. 2013-03-14T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10222/15767 Biological husbandry and the "nitrogen problem" Patriquin, David G. Since 1978, the author has been conducting research into the theory and practice of biological husbandry in collaboration with a farmer who stopped using pesticides and mineral fertilizers in 1976. Eggs are exported from the farm. About 60% of feed is grown on the farm in a legume-cereal rotation (faba beans-oats-clover-winter wheat), and plant and animal residues are recycled. Annual weeds function as a self-seeding cover crop, protecting the soil, conserving nutrients and fixing carbon where and when cultivated crops are not present. Yields average about 25% lower than those on conventional farms, but the farm is more profitable because of lower input costs. A nitrogen budget suggests that inputs of nitrogen are sufficient to sustain cereal yields equivalent to those of conventional systems. However, much of the annual input of N to cereal fields, in manure, is not available in the short term. Various laboratory and field studies suggest that as fertility or the biological activity of soils increases, problems related to immobilization of N by straw, phytoxicity and annual weeds decline, and that less manure is required to augment the N supply by a given amount. While N might be identified as the "limiting factor" for cereal production, alleviation of N shortages is dependent on intensifying cycling, rather than on increasing N inputs. This intensification is achieved by augmenting natural rhythms on the farm through appropriate tillage techniques, and by ensuring an abundance and high activity of the catalysts of the N cycle, i.e. of all of the farm biota. 1986-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10222/15671 Some notes on the Aristotelian origin of the distinction between a falsificationist's and verificationist's view of science: together with corrections to my earlier account Corkett, Christopher John It has not always been realised that Karl Popper's analytic distinction between the logically stronger falsificationist's view of science and the logically weaker verificationist's and inductivist's view of science is a modification of Aristotle's distnction between the notions 'all' and 'some'. This document traces this distinction anew in a way that corrects my earlier (Corkett, 1997) account in which a semantic rather than a logical view was taken of this distinction. For example: when writing the 1997 paperI was not aware that the universal law "All swans are white' represented a universal categorical proposition 'All S is P' where 'S' represented the subject 'swan' and the 'P' represented the predicate 'white'. In this document I try to cover some of the main points of my 1997 paper in a way that clarifies their origin in the Law of Tripartite Entailment, a logical rule unknown to me fifteen years ago. 2012-10-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10222/14525 A note on the Aristotelian origin of Popper's demarcation criterion together with its application to Atlantic Canada's fisheries Corkett, Christopher It has not always been realised that Karl Popper's demarcation criterion, the criterion he uses to distinguish an empirical science from its 'metaphysical' complement involves an interpretation of the classical theory of terms. From the beginning Popper's criterion never was an attempt to distinguish some subject matter called 'science' from some subject matter called 'metaphysics'. His criterion of falsifiability always was an attempt to distinguish the logical strength of a universal law from the logical weakness of its complement, a complement that can bear no fruit. For example: if the falsifiability criterion is applied to the management of the fisheries of Atlantic Canada we can distinguish the bold and sound management of Atlantic lobster from the weak and unsound management of Atlantic groundfish. In the early 1990's Newfoundland's fishery for Atlantic cod suffered a major collapse that has become one of the world's most prominent case studies of failure in fisheries management. Under Popper's analytic theory of demarcation a weak management with no problem solving potentiality is to be held responsible for the collape of Newfoundland's Atlantic cod fishery. Christopher is currently applying Karl Popper's non-inductive theory of method to the management of the world's commercial fisheries. 2012-03-26T00:00:00Z