Conceptual engineering is a methodology that consists in some combination of evaluating concepts or word meanings, identifying ways to improve them, applying these improvements, and/or implementing these changes in an individual or community (Cappelen 2018; Nado 2019; Eklund 2014). This might involve creating new or revised versions of representational devices or, in some cases, eliminating a word or concept altogether. There are many examples of conceptual engineering in both theory and practice. For example, we can understand the broadening of the concept marriage as an instance of ameliorative analysis:Footnote 1,Footnote 2 the project is to improve the concept such that, whereas it was previously applicable only to heterosexual relationships, it should instead be broadened so that it can include partnerships between individuals of any sex/gender, such as same-sex partnerships. Similarly, one way to understand Clark and Chalmers’ (1998) extended mind thesis is as a broadening of the concept belief: whereas our traditional belief concept applies only to states that are realized within the human body, the extension of the concept ought to be broadened such that, under the right conditions, it can include states supported by body-external devices such as smartphones and notebooks. Although a theorist could be interested solely in identifying which concepts we ought to employ, many conceptual engineers also believe that it is possible (and feasible) to successfully carry out plans to revise concepts in accordance with their ameliorative proposals. One commitment typical of engineers, then, is to treat the methodology of conceptual engineering as one that we can follow purposively; on this approach, concepts and word meanings are entities that agents can deliberately manipulate in stable and predictable ways. In what follows, I refer to this picture of conceptual engineering as the ‘Autonomy View’.

In conceptual engineering projects that maintain the Autonomy View, there are identified benefits of implementing the new concept within a target community or individual, which benefits motivate the engineering of the concept. With respect to the amelioration of marriage, for example, these benefits are primarily moral and political: conceptual engineering contributes to efforts to achieve equality for the LGBT+ community.Footnote 3 For Clark and Chalmers (1998, p. 14), the benefits are primarily theoretical: the broader concept of belief is alleged to be more unified and more useful in explanation. The question of how to implement a new concept in an individual or community once it has been created introduces its own set of problems. These problems may be important to defenders of the Autonomy View: if one has created a new concept with the aim of securing some ethical or theoretical benefit, one will likely be interested in the question of how to implement this concept such that this benefit is secured (or, indeed, whether such implementation is possible at all). However, although these questions are relevant to understanding conceptual engineering projects undertaken by defenders of the Autonomy View, they are not my primary concern in this paper. My focus is on the question of whether concepts can be deliberately created or revised in predictable ways; I set the issue of successful implementation of revised concepts (in either an individual or a community) to one side.Footnote 4 I take the Autonomy View, then, to be concerned specifically with the issue of conceptual revision or creation, rather than the further issue of implementation. Having said that, I think that different views of content individuation and conceptual engineering may draw the line between conceptual revision and implementation in different places; I return to this issue in Sect. 4.

Cappelen (2018) sets out a framework for understanding conceptual engineering—the ‘Austerity Framework’—that entails a number of consequences that are incompatible with the Autonomy View. Conceptual engineering, according to Cappelen, is not the kind of thing that we can deliberately engage in to achieve predictable outcomes (although, he thinks, we will keep trying to do so). Cappelen’s framework is based on a radical metasemantic externalism. One might initially think that it is only externalists that must reject the Autonomy View. However, pre-empting such a reaction, Cappelen poses a challenge to the internalist. He argues that there is no reason to think that internalists will have an easier time maintaining that deliberate conceptual engineering is possible—not until they provide arguments for claims concerning both our epistemic access to the facts that determine concepts and word meanings, and our ability to control such facts.

My aim in this paper is to meet Cappelen’s challenge. I will not try to show that all forms of internalism can maintain the Autonomy View. Rather, I will focus on a solution to Cappelen’s challenge for conceptual role theories in particular. I leave it open whether solutions are available to other internalist views (although I do note where my solutions have broader application). It may also be possible for some externalists to accept the Autonomy View. Koch (2018), for example, defends an externalist approach to conceptual engineering that maintains a significant degree of semantic control.Footnote 5 Whilst it is not my primary aim in this paper to argue against externalist approaches, I will offer reason for thinking that some kinds of internalist will have an easier time meeting Cappelen’s challenge.

The paper proceeds as follows. In Sect. 2, I outline Cappelen’s Austerity Framework; in Sect. 3, I set out his challenge to internalism. In Sect. 4, I introduce conceptual role theory and explain how the approach (or, some versions of it) can maintain the Autonomy View.

The austerity framework

Cappelen’s (2018) Austerity Framework is a radically externalist approach to conceptual engineering. There are features of the framework that I will not cover here; I shall simply outline those that are important for my purposes. One thing that should first be noted is that the framework does not deal in concepts at all (2018, p. 61). Rather, for Cappelen, conceptual engineering aims to alter linguistic meaning (more specifically, the intensions and extensions of expressions). However, his challenge to the internalist is just as much a challenge for an internalist theory of concepts as it is a challenge to an internalist theory of linguistic meaning. In Sect. 4, I will focus on the challenge as it applies to concepts and thought content; where relevant, I will explain how Cappelen’s argument can be extended from word meanings to concepts.Footnote 6

In the Austerity Framework, the supervenience base for meaning (‘metasemantic base’, in Cappelen’s terminology) comprises a range of features familiar from the externalist theories of Kripke (1980), Putnam (1975), Burge (1979), and Williamson (1994). That is, meaning is determined, in part, by external factors that include facts about our physical environment as well as facts about how expressions are used, and have been used, in a community (2018, p. 62ff). These factors are also taken by many externalists to individuate concepts. Cappelen’s Austerity Framework enthusiastically entails two controversial theses. The first he calls ‘Inscrutable’ (2018, p. 72):

Inscrutable: The facts and mechanisms that underlie conceptual engineering are too complex, unstable, and non-systematic for us to grasp.

One reason that Cappelen maintains Inscrutable is that we don’t have epistemic access to many of the facts in the metasemantic supervenience base—at least, not enough of it, and not for the majority of expressions. That is, we don’t have much access to things like facts about past usage, introductory events, chains of communication, complex patterns of use across a language community, and so on. The problems don’t end there, however. Cappelen points out that, even if we did have epistemic access to the facts in the supervenience base, it would not follow that we could know how changes to this base effect changes in meaning. To know this, we would also have to know something about the mechanisms of reference change. Cappelen argues that, even supposing that there is an algorithm that takes us from supervenience base to intension, we don’t know what this algorithm is. Plausibly, we will never know this because it would be too complex for us to grasp. It may even be that no such algorithm exists (2018, p. 67). Thus, according to the Austerity Framework, we lack the knowledge that we would need to accurately predict how meanings will change based on our attempts to change them.

The second thesis is ‘Lack of control’ (2018, pp. 72–73):

Lack of control: The process of conceptual engineering is largely beyond our control.

This thesis is, in part, a consequence of Inscrutable: we might be able to change some facts in the metasemantic supervenience base but, because of our epistemic limitations, we cannot do this in a way that would lead to predictable or controlled changes in meaning. In addition to this, Cappelen thinks that, even if we did have knowledge of the facts in the supervenience base, and of how changes to this base affect meaning, we would still lack any significant degree of control because this base includes many facts that we can’t change (such as facts about the past) or that are extremely difficult to change (such as facts about patterns of use across a whole community). Both Inscrutable and Lack of Control carry over quite straightforwardly to the content of concepts to the extent that one thinks that concepts have the same externalist supervenience base as linguistic meaning.

The Austerity Framework is, thus, quite at odds with the Autonomy View. On the latter, conceptual engineering is a matter of purposively planning and applying changes to the metasemantic supervenience base that will result in predictable changes at the level of meaning and concepts. According to the Austerity Framework, in contrast, although we can make changes to the metasemantic supervenience base that will generate changes in meaning, an agent (or group) cannot make deliberate changes with predictable outcomes. Cappelen allows that an individual’s plans (or beliefs, hopes, desires, etc.) regarding these changes may play a role in effecting semantic change, but they are just one small cog in a huge and chaotic machine whose inner workings are largely unknowable to us. According to Cappelen, the result is that, “you can engage in [conceptual engineering] without knowing that you are, you can think that you are doing it when you are not, and you do not know what changes to meaning you are making when you are making such changes.” (2018, p. 73)

Initially, Inscrutable and Lack of Control may seem like the idiosyncratic commitments of a radically externalist metasemantics. More boldly, we might venture that this could contribute support for internalism: that is, if we think that providing a framework that makes conceptual engineering (of the sort envisaged by the Autonomy View) possible is a desideratum on a good theory of concepts, and that only an internalist could provide such an account (cf. Cappelen 2018, p. 82). However, Cappelen argues that this kind of reaction is misguided. In the next section, I set out his challenge to internalism.

Cappelen’s challenge to internalism

Metasemantic internalism is the view that linguistic meaning and mental content, for an individual, are determined solely by factors internal to that individual. Internalism may appear to have an easier time avoiding commitment to Inscrutable and Lack of Control. This is because the factors that it appeals to—such as propositional attitudes or other mental sates—are factors that we might expect an individual to have a greater degree of power over. In this vein, Burgess and Plunkett write:

The textbook externalist thinks that our social and natural environments serve as heavy anchors, so to speak, for the interpretation of our individual thought and talk. The internalist, by contrast, grants us a greater degree of conceptual autonomy. One salient upshot of this disagreement is that effecting conceptual change looks comparatively easy from an internalist perspective. We can revise, eliminate, or replace our concepts without worrying about what the experts are up to, or what happens to be coming out of our taps. From the externalist’s point of view, however, conceptual revolution takes a village, or a long trip to Twin Earth. (2013, p. 1096)

Cappelen, however, argues that internalism is consistent with both Inscrutable and Lack of Control. There are three issues for the internalist. According to Cappelen, these each stem from the fact that internalism is a supervenience claim (2018, p. 82): the view is that the meanings of expressions, for an individual, supervene solely on internal facts about that individual. The first issue is that, even if meaning supervenes solely on states of the individual, it might supervene on states that we do not have epistemic access to. Secondly, even if it supervenes only on introspectively accessible states, these might be states over which an individual has no control. Lastly, even if these states themselves are both introspectively accessible and under the individual’s control, it may be that meaning supervenes on these states in unstable or unpredictable ways such that we do not know (and thus cannot control) how changes to these states will affect the meaning of an expression. At his most sceptical, Cappelen suggests that it is possible (for all we know) that meaning supervenes on internal facts such that it ends up being the opposite of what we had intended. He writes:

even if there’s supervenience on what we want or intend or decide, the supervenience relation doesn’t have to make it the case that semantic values are what we intend for them to be, what we want them to be, or what we agree on them to be (for all we know, it could be a total mess or get us to the opposite of what we want, intend, or decide). (2018, p. 82)

Cappelen’s argument is not that internalism entails Inscrutable or Lack of Control. Rather, what he argues is that there is no immediate route from internalism to the negation of these theses. The compatibility of internalism with the Autonomy View is something that the internalist must argue for. Cappelen, thus, challenges the internalist to provide arguments for the following claims (2018, p. 82): (a) there are inner states that are scrutable and within our control; (b) meaning supervenes on these inner states; and (c) the determination relation from supervenience base to meaning is scrutable and within our control. As above, this challenge carries over from linguistic meaning to concepts given that the problems concern the internalist metasemantic supervenience base. In what follows, I explain how one kind of internalist—the conceptual role theorist—can meet this challenge with respect to concepts. In the next section, I set out the view that I defend.

Internalist conceptual engineering

Conceptual role theory

Conceptual role theories claim that concepts are individuated by their relations to other concepts (and, perhaps, other kinds of entity) within a network.Footnote 7 For example, the concept cat might be individuated, in part, by its relationships to the concepts, pet, animal, mammal, and so on. We can represent concepts as nodes that occupy locations in the network and the relationships between concepts as links between nodes. On the particular kind of conceptual role theory that I defend, the relations that connect entities in the network come in a limited variety of primitive types. This approach follows work on network views of language in cognitive linguistics (e.g., Hudson 2007). One important kind of relation between concepts is that of category membership: concepts can be linked so as to form a hierarchy of subcategories and supercategories. For example, a subject’s cat concept may be related to her animal and pet concepts such that cat is a member of the categories animal and pet (and not vice versa). Concepts can compose to form sentential contents. The relations between concepts (such as relations of category membership), determine which inferences sentential contents can participate in.Footnote 8 For example, if cat stands in a relation of category membership to animal, then one will be disposed to infer from maru is a cat to maru is an animal. One will be disposed to draw this inference if and only if this relationship holds between the relevant concepts in the conceptual network.Footnote 9 Not all conceptual role theories are internalist; internalist theories treat the network as located in, or otherwise supervenient on, the internal states of the individual.

Conceptual role theories can be more or less holistic depending on whether it is the total network, or some part of it, that is responsible for individuating a particular concept. A radically holistic theory is one which claims that concepts are individuated, one-to-one, by their relations to all other concepts in the network. Radical holists must claim that a change to any part of the network determines a change in all concepts within that network; the result is that concepts (and, indeed, networks) cannot survive change. More moderate holisms claim that the relationship between total conceptual roles and concepts is many-to-one such that different (yet relevantly similar) conceptual networks might determine the same concepts (see e.g., Jackman 1999; Pagin 2006). Similarly, ‘molecular’ views claim that each concept is individuated by only a proper part of the total network. I think that both radical and moderate conceptual role theories can meet Cappelen’s challenge. Where relevant, I will identify which aspects of this challenge might be more troubling for different versions of the view.

How does this approach accommodate conceptual engineering? Let’s take the amelioration of belief as an example.Footnote 10 In this case, amelioration begins with an individual identifying defects (or just room for improvement) in the original concept (e.g., ‘bioprejudice’, a lack of theoretical unity), and then proposing a successor concept, belief* which lacks these defects (e.g., it is inclusive of states realised in body-external resources). In ameliorative analysis, this successor concept is to be expressed with the same word-form (‘belief’) to exploit the lexical effects associated with the term (Cappelen 2018). The specification of this successor concept generates a new node in a particular location in the conceptual network, with links to existing nodes that delimit its conceptual role. Thus, on this view, a conceptual ‘revision’ typically involves the creation of a new, type-distinct concept.Footnote 11 The engineering process is one that acts on concepts in an agent’s internal conceptual network; however, importantly, one does not have to conceive of oneself as updating a conceptual network in order to engage in conceptual engineering (just as one does not have to conceive of oneself in this way when learning a new concept). The conceptual role theorist’s claim is that the conceptual network constitutes the cognitive underpinnings of natural language understanding—a claim that, as Hudson (2007) notes, has significant psychological plausibility.Footnote 12 Any change in concepts, or in use of expressions, must be underwritten by changes to the conceptual network. The self-conscious mental or linguistic behaviour that an agent engages into effect such changes, however, may take a variety of forms. For example, agents may devise full or partial definitions, select exemplars or paradigms (e.g., Otto’s notebook), make decisions regarding how to classify worldly objects, or specify patterns of inference. Changes in any of these behaviours necessitate corresponding changes to the conceptual network.Footnote 13 Similarly, implementing a concept in a community or individual requires (amongst other things) generating the same or similar changes to the conceptual networks of other agents, where network changes can be produced by convincing agents to alter these same sorts of linguistic or mental behaviours.

Beyond this initial sketch of the approach, there are further choice points regarding how to understand conceptual engineering as a conceptual role theorist. These will emerge in the course of my response to Cappelen’s challenge. I turn next to this response.

Meeting Cappelen’s challenge

There are inner states that are scrutable and within our control

The first claim that the internalist must maintain is that there are inner states that we have epistemic access to and that we can deliberately manipulate. Let’s take the epistemic issue first. Initially, this may seem straightforward for the internalist: it is typically thought that internalism allows that content is ‘transparent’ to the agent and, thus, an internalist should have no problem claiming that we have epistemic access to content. In contrast, externalists are thought to be committed to rejecting transparency. Whilst I think that internalists can indeed maintain transparency, I also think that the issue is not as straightforward as it may first appear. In what follows, I explain why this is the case and identify the kind of epistemic access claim that the conceptual role theorist should endorse.

Following Wikforss (2015), it is helpful to separate two kinds of transparency that are each invoked in the internalism/externalism debate. One notion, ‘access transparency’, concerns an individual’s epistemic access to the contents of her thoughts. Content is access transparent to the agent if she can tell, through introspection, when two concepts or thoughts are the same and when they are different (e.g., Boghossian 1994). As Wikforss explains, this kind of transparency requires the ability to form (true) beliefs about meaning and content on the part of the agent. The second kind of transparency is ‘functional transparency’ (Recanati 2012). This kind of transparency is non-epistemic. It concerns the determination of content and its role in reason and action. Roughly, content is functionally transparent if it captures the agent’s cognitive perspective. This does not require the ability to form metaconceptual beliefs. As Wikforss describes:

functional transparency does not concern access to contents but is just the thesis that thought content is determined by cognitive role. Thus, if S reasons as if two thought tokens are about distinct objects […] then the thoughts have distinct content; conversely, if S reasons as if two thought components have the same content […], then they do. (2015, p. 147)

Externalists cannot maintain either notion of transparency, although they may be able to maintain related weaker theses, such as the thesis that an agent can have self-knowledge in Burge’s (1988) sense. Depending on their view, an internalist might hold both transparency theses, or they may hold only the weaker functional thesis.

Which transparency thesis is relevant to Cappelen’s challenge, and can the conceptual role theorist maintain it? Internalist conceptual role theories can easily maintain functional transparency—indeed, functional transparency is essentially just the thesis that internal conceptual role determines content (cf. Wikforss 2015, p. 159). That conceptual role theorists can maintain functional transparency is, however, not obviously enough to meet Cappelen’s challenge. This is because the process of deliberately engineering concepts seems to require beliefs about content—for example, the belief that some concept, C, is defective, and should be revised or replaced. Conceptual engineering, thus, seems to require some kind of access transparency.

The apparent need for access transparency presents the conceptual role theorist with potential difficulties. Some versions of the access transparency thesis are controversial, to say the least. As Wikforss argues, if access transparency requires direct introspective access to concepts conceived of as symbols or vehicles in the language of thought, the claim looks implausible.Footnote 14 She writes that “the very idea that knowledge of content involves having introspective access to the content of mental expressions would seem deeply problematic.” (2015, p. 153) Moreover, as she points out, prominent defenders of the language of thought hypothesis have denied that we have this kind of access (Fodor 1975). How, then, should a conceptual role theorist understand epistemic access for the purposes of conceptual engineering? I do not think that the conceptual role theorist need claim anything so strong as that we have direct introspective access to mental vehicles. What Cappelen’s challenge requires is that we can form true beliefs about concepts such that we can reliably track the changes that we make to them. But there are, in principle, multiple ways that a subject could form such reliable metaconceptual beliefs other than through direct introspection of mental vehicles. To take an unrealistic, yet illustrative, example, if I have an oracle that regularly and reliably informs me of the contents of my thoughts, I will have the kind of epistemic access that Cappelen’s challenge requires: I will be able to track how changes to the metasemantic supervenience base effect changes to my concepts. Now, obviously, conceptual engineers do not have oracles at their disposal. However, as Wikforss (2015, p. 163) also maintains, the possibility for the reliable formation of metaconceptual beliefs can be secured by appeal to functional transparency: because conceptual role determines content, our inferential practices will be a good guide to the metaconceptual truths. Functional transparency does not itself involve any metaconceptual capacities, but it does make our metaconceptual judgments reliable. For example, if an agent is disposed to infer from Stanley is an octopus to Stanley is an animal, this justifies her in forming the belief that the concept octopus is a subcategory of the concept animal because she would not be disposed to draw this inference unless these concepts stood in this relationship to each other. This is not to say that agents can never make any inferential or metaconceptual mistakes. But an agent can, perhaps not infallibly, but reliably, judge which relations concepts stand into one another.

Conceptual role theorists can, then, maintain that we have epistemic access to concepts in the conceptual network. Do we have control over this network, though? This issue is also not straightforward. What exactly does it mean to say that we can control our concepts? How much control is needed for conceptual engineering? Recent research on mental control suggests that agents do not exhibit very much control or autonomy over their own mental states. Metzinger (2013), for example, argues that we exhibit mental control during only about a third of our lives. This sounds potentially bad for the internalist; however, as I will argue, a closer look at Metzinger’s notion of mental control will give us reason for optimism. In what follows, I will argue that conceptual role theorists can claim that we have a weak sort of control over our concepts. And, importantly, this degree of control is enough for engineering purposes.

Metzinger (2013) offers an account of what it is to have control (and lack control) over mental activities. Mental control (mental ‘autonomy’, in Metzinger’s terminology) is the ability to control one’s own mental functions in a way that is consciously goal-directed.Footnote 15 Mental control is exhibited when we perform various kinds of mental action. Metzinger lists as examples of autonomous mental actions, control of attention, episodic memory, planning, rational deliberation, decision making, and concept formation (2013, p. 2). He identifies two kinds of mental action and agency—attentional and cognitive. Attentional agency is the ability to control one’s attentional focus, as when one chooses to attend to a particular object; cognitive agency is the ability to control goal-directed deliberative thought. Concept formation plausibly falls into this latter category—it is intentional mental action directed at the goal of creating a new concept. Autonomous mental actions, unlike various unintentional mental activities, are distinctive in that they can be deliberately inhibited, suspended or terminated (2013, p. 3). Mental control is contrasted with ‘mind-wandering’, which Metzinger characterizes as a kind of recurring autonomy loss (2013, p. 1). It is an involuntary, unintentional form of conscious mental behaviour. According to Metzinger (2013, p. 6), the exercise of mental control is significantly less frequent than periods of mind-wandering, amounting to an average of just 9.6 h per day. This would mean that the norm for conscious thought is in fact mind-wandering rather than attentional or cognitive agency. Is this problematic from the point of view of the semantic control needed for the Autonomy View? I do not think there is any reason for the internalist to worry, although there are some issues that she must address.

To start with, note that it is not the case that creation of a new concept requires anything like 9.6 h of controlled conscious thought.Footnote 16 As we have seen, in the present metasemantic framework, the creation of a new concept is a matter of a new node being created at a particular location in the conceptual network. As noted above, the conscious behavior responsible for such changes can be quite varied. For example, we may consciously decide to use an existing expression in a new way and this conscious activity will necessitate corresponding changes to the conceptual network. This is a process that may take a matter of seconds (although an agent may wish to spend further time reworking the concept and changes may need to be reinforced over time to prevent it from being forgotten). There is more that the internalist must say here, however. For her approach to be an attractive framework for understanding the creation of new concepts for the purposes of conceptual engineering, it would not be satisfactory to claim merely that new concepts can be created in an appropriately controlled manner. Rather, it must be shown that these new concepts are sufficiently stable over time. Imagine, for example, that during periods of mind-wandering, the conceptual network was substantially altered such that concepts changed their relations to each other at random. If this were the case, there would be little comfort in securing the fact that we can create concepts, for we would be unable to maintain them. This sort of worry may look especially pressing for more holistic conceptual role theories. As noted above, radical holism is thought to entail that any change, however small, to the conceptual network will determine a change in the content of all concepts within the network; Jackman (1999) calls this the ‘Instability Thesis’. For example, if Jane forms the belief that dogs are friendlyj, this will alter all of her concepts, including those, such as spannerj and democracyj, that seem conceptually distant from the concepts employed in the new belief.Footnote 17 Some forms of conceptual role theory thus look highly unstable.

Fortunately for the holist, whilst there is instability built into the core of her view, it is not of a kind that threatens the Autonomy View. To see this, first note that the instability introduced in the original worry and the instability posited by the holist are of different kinds. The kind of instability driving the original worry is chaotic. In a chaotic system, small changes to one part of the system can have unpredictable consequences in other parts of the system. This is the kind of instability involved in Cappelen’s Austerity Framework: when a change to the metasemantic base occurs, the effects on meaning cannot be predicted because the algorithm from metasemantic base to meaning (if it exists at all) is too complex for us to grasp. This kind of instability would indeed be problematic for the Autonomy View. However, it is not the kind of instability posited by the holist. For the holist, the network is changing all the time in response to new inputs, but it is changing in systematic and predictable ways. For example, when Jane forms the belief that dogs are friendlyj, it is true that every concept in her network changes to a new one. But these changes are not chaotic. Her dogJ changes to one, dog*J, that falls under the category friendly animal*j. Concepts that represent individual dogs, spotJ and cliffordJ, will now be classified under the new dog*J concept, and their content will change accordingly. Apparently unrelated concepts like spannerJ and democracyj, will change too. However, again, this will be in predictable ways. For example, assuming that, for Jane, the conceptual relationships that hold between her concepts used to be such that spannerJ is not a subcategory of dogJ, the new altered conceptual network instead is such that spanner*J is not a subcategory of dog*J. This is to say that, although changes are happening all the time, Jane will not suddenly start believing that spanners are dogs. The two concepts, spannerJ and spanner*J, are very similar before and after the change.Footnote 18 A drastic change to the network is certainly possible, but it will always be the result of a specific kind of input to the network, one with predictable consequences.

There is one further issue concerning control that confronts the conceptual role theorist. From the preceding, it may seem that changing one’s concepts is a relatively easy process that consists in, for example, deciding on an inferential role for the new concept and, in doing so, fixing its location in the network. However, there is reason to think that, at least in certain cases, deciding on a new inferential role for a concept or expression will not immediately or effortlessly lead to changes in how one employs that concept in reasoning—changing one’s actual inferential dispositions, practices, and habits may not be easy at all.Footnote 19 One prominent source of this kind of difficulty is the existence of cognitive structures such as stereotypes that are associated with a concept or expression. Stereotypes are intuitive characterisations of a subject matter that represent which features are more salient, central, and important to the agent, as well as intuitive and explanatory connections between them (Camp 2019, p. 19ff). Concepts and stereotypes may be distinct cognitive structures. However, a stereotype can nonetheless exert a strong influence on the inferences that an agent will be disposed to draw—even after she recognises it to be deeply problematic and even when she is strongly motivated to change her dispositions (Devine 1989). Thus, if we cannot easily alter the stereotypes associated with an expression, it may be difficult to create a new concept with our desired inferential profile.

It is worth noting that, even if it could be demonstrated that stereotypes are never an obstacle to conceptual engineering per se, there is something strange about a conceptual engineer who is interested in engineering a concept with a view to some ethical benefit, but who does not care about changing any problematic stereotypes that accompany it. For example, imagine a conceptual engineering project that seeks to ameliorate the concept marriage such that it is no longer restricted to heterosexual partnerships, but that does nothing to address a stereotype that represents heterosexual marriages as a more central example of the phenomenon. This is clearly still problematic and at odds with the engineer’s aim of promoting equality for the LGBT+ community. It seems, then, that conceptual engineers ought to be concerned with changing stereotypes, such that excluding them from engineering projects would be inappropriate.

With this in mind, the approach that I think the conceptual role theorist should take is to maintain that stereotypes are not an obstacle to concept creation, but allow that they may be an obstacle to the implementation of the new concept—even within the individual who created it. This response requires a complication of the view as introduced in Sect. 4.1. On this new approach, it is possible to create a concept without implementing it, even in oneself. What does this mean? The idea is that, whilst creating or acquiring a new concept requires merely that one entertain this concept, implementing this concept requires that one endorse it (Pollock 2019). In merely entertaining a concept, one recognises which inferences the concept licenses (just as one may entertain or understand a stereotype without endorsing or implementing it in cognition).Footnote 20 In endorsing a concept, one gains the disposition to actually apply the concept, and to draw the inferences that it licenses. I think that this distinction is a natural one for conceptual engineers to employ.Footnote 21 To see why, consider that engineers who are engaged in ameliorative projects will often find themselves with a rich understanding of both the original, problematic concept, and the new, ameliorated concept that they wish to replace it with. For example, those who are interested in the amelioration of marriage may have extensive knowledge concerning the original concept and its current and historical role in civil society (see, e.g., Calhoun 2002); this understanding is extremely useful for both developing and motivating the ameliorated concept. Such a conceptual engineer will possess both the deficient and the ameliorated concept, but she will only endorse the latter. This engineer will recognise which inferences the original concept licenses, without being disposed to draw these inferences—indeed, whilst maintaining that these inferences should be rejected.Footnote 22 Returning to the present problem, the suggestion is that an individual may succeed in creating an ameliorated concept, but to implement this concept, even within herself, she must come to endorse it, and this may require that she alters her dispositions to employ certain stereotypes and draw certain inferences. To the extent that these dispositions are resistant to change, this means that, although the creation of an ameliorated concept may remain relatively easy, implementation, even within the engineer herself, may be significantly more difficult.

I have argued that the conceptual role theorist can recognise the relevance of stereotypes to conceptual engineering whilst maintaining that concept creation is relatively easy. However, what if one does not wish to maintain the distinction between entertaining and endorsing a concept? I think that, even if one wishes to maintain that stereotypes do directly impede the creation or revision of concepts, the internalist still can accommodate this whilst succeeding in meeting Cappelen’s challenge. Stereotypes are certainly difficult to change; however, there is a wealth of research in social cognition that suggests that they are malleable and can be altered in predictable ways. There is evidence both that individuals are capable of counteracting or preventing the automatic activation of biases (Devine 1989; Moskowitz et al. 1999), and that individuals can identify and change stereotypes over time (Blair 2002; Lenton et al. 2009). In relation to Cappelen’s challenge, it is important to note that, although it is difficult to effect such changes, conceding this is very different from conceding that this sort of change is chaotic, unsystematic, inscrutable, or beyond our control. Thus, even if the existence of things like stereotypes forces us to accept that concept creation is difficult, the internalist can still reject both Inscrutable and Lack of Control.

Thus far, I have identified some states to which we have epistemic access and over which we have a reasonable degree of control. Why think that concepts supervene on those inner states? In the next section, I take up the second element of Cappelen’s challenge.

Concepts supervene on those inner states

Cappelen, like many externalists, will treat the factors appealed to in conceptual role theory as ‘metasemantic superstructure’. Metasemantic superstructure comprises the attitudes people have regarding concepts or word meanings—what they believe, hope, desire, etc. these concepts or meanings to be. Depending on the form of externalism that you endorse, metasemantic superstructure will have little effect on the meaning facts (as noted above, Cappelen allows that it plays a minor role in content determination). What grounds do we have to think that the conceptual network is the total metasemantic supervenience base for content rather than merely consisting in a network of beliefs about content?

The answer to this aspect of Cappelen’s challenge is simple. Conceptual role theory just is the view that the conceptual network determines concepts. Dialectically, the approach one usually takes when arguing for one’s theory of concepts is to set out what one thinks the desiderata are for a good theory of concepts and then show how one’s theory meets these desiderata (and, if possible, how competing theories fail).Footnote 23 The desiderata here are things like explanations of action, rationality, communication, disagreement, categorisation, learning, and, possibly, conceptual engineering. Of course, for her view to be ultimately defensible, a conceptual role theorist must demonstrate two things: firstly, that her view does indeed satisfy her preferred desiderata and, secondly, that these desiderata are appropriate desiderata for a theory of concepts. However, the project of this paper is not to comprehensively defend conceptual role approaches to content. Rather, the aim is to explain how the view could meet Cappelen’s challenge to internalism. If internalist conceptual role theories turn out to be all-things-considered bad theories of concepts, then they should be rejected. But, I claim, if true, they provide a promising framework for understanding conceptual engineering. That they can do this is, I think, one mark in favour of this kind of view. Let us turn to the final element of Cappelen’s challenge.

The determination relation from supervenience base to content is scrutable and within our control

The last part of Cappelen’s challenge is for the internalist to defend the claim that the determination relation from metasemantic supervenience base to content is itself scrutable and within our control. There are two parts to this challenge. The first is epistemic: if we don’t know the algorithm that takes us from metasemantic base to content then, even if we do have epistemic access to the metasemantic base (as I have argued that we do), we still won’t be able to maintain the Autonomy View because we will not be able to discern how changes to this base effect changes in content. The second part of the challenge concerns control: Cappelen suggests that the algorithm itself might change over time in ways that we cannot control. In response, I will argue for two things: (a) internalists can indeed maintain that we have epistemic access to the determination relation, and (b) we do not have control over this relation itself, but we do not need it.

As noted above, Cappelen presents internalism as a supervenience claim: meaning supervenes solely on factors internal to the agent. In response to the epistemic part of Cappelen’s challenge, first note that, whilst it is likely true that all internalists accept the supervenience claim, many internalists make stronger claims than this regarding the relationship between supervenience base and content. Cappelen never denied this, of course: his point was that, thus far, no internalist had made a case for the claim that we have access to the supervenience relation itself such that deliberate conceptual engineering is possible. In what follows, I identify some versions of conceptual role theory that can claim this.

The most straightforward way for the conceptual role theorist to respond to the epistemic issue is to claim that concepts are just identical with their metasemantic base. On this approach, it is easy to track how changes to the metasemantic base relate to changes in content because changes to this base just are changes in content. There are different options the conceptual role theorist might choose here. She could claim a view analogous to ‘realizer’ functionalism in philosophy of mind (Lewis 1966). Realizer functionalism is the view that a given mental phenomenon, such as pain, is identical with the physical entities that realize the functional role characteristic of the phenomenon—C-fibres, for example. This kind of approach, applied to concepts, is the view that concepts are identical with certain physical elements in the brain—they are the ‘occupants’ of locations in the network. Any internalist that is willing to commit to a mind-brain identity theory with respect to concepts can make the same kind of move in response to Cappelen. My preference is for an identity theory of some formFootnote 24; however, this isn’t the only option available to the conceptual role theorist. She could instead opt for an account analogous to role functionalism (Putnam 1967). Role functionalism is the view that a given mental phenomenon is identical with a role state. On this view, pain (for example) is a higher-order state or property: it is the state of being in a state that plays the pain role. Two individuals are in pain if they are in a state that plays the pain role, regardless of the physical properties of this realizer state. The analogous view, applied to concepts, would be that concepts are identical with conceptual roles, rather than their realizers. Whichever option one picks, the general point is that Cappelen’s worry only arises if we appeal to mere supervenience in defining a particular internalist position. This is what leaves room for meaning and concepts to supervene on their metasemantic base in surprising ways. If concepts are identical with the base that individuates them, however, the worry does not arise.

What of the second aspect of Cappelen’s challenge? On the approach I am suggesting, we do not have control over the relationship between metasemantic base and content in the following sense: we cannot bring it about that content supervenes on different factors through sheer force of will (or any other means for that matter). However, I do not think this is a problem for the internalist. As explained above, the view I defend is that concepts are identical with their metasemantic base; it is a feature of this view that this relationship is not something that can change over time. As such, given that we do have control over the metasemantic base, and we do know how changes to this base will result in stable and predictable changes to our concepts, we have sufficient control to maintain the Autonomy View.

This approach will not be attractive to all—not even all internalists about content individuation. When it comes to the ontology of concepts, there is a division amongst those who think that concepts are mental representations (or similar) and those who think that contents are abstract objects (e.g., Peacocke 1992; Rey 1994). Any internalist who occupies this latter camp will not be able to adopt the response to Cappelen’s challenge that I am suggesting here: one cannot identify a concept with its metasemantic base if the former, but not the latter, is an abstract object. Having said that, a great many contemporary internalist theories of concepts do take concepts to be mental representations and, as such, my approach should have wide applicability. For example, amongst theories of concepts are those that identify concepts with prototypes (Rosch and Mervis 1975), exemplars (Estes 1994), proxytypes (Prinz 2002), and simulators (Barsalou 1999).Footnote 25 Each of these theories can treat concepts as psychologically real entities and can thus opt for the same kind of response to Cappelen that I suggest for the conceptual role theorist.

In this last strand of my response to Cappelen’s challenge, I think we see an advantage for an internalist theory of concepts. On externalist views, it would typically be implausible to identify a concept with its metasemantic base. For example, even supposing that it is plausible to claim that concepts are individuated by complex patterns of use in a community, it seems less plausible that a concept is a pattern of use in a community. It is not clear how patterns of use in a community could be compositional, or employed by an individual as categorisation devices, or be expressed in communication. A similar thing goes for causal chains, or nomic relations to environmental properties. Externalists are, I think, more likely to claim that, although the vehicles of content are physical and internal, these contents themselves are abstract objects.Footnote 26 For this reason, they do not have available to them the same kind of defence against Cappelen’s concerns regarding supervenience.

Cappelen challenged the internalist to argue for three claims: (a) there are inner states that are scrutable and within our control; (b) meaning supervenes on these inner states; and (c) the determination relation from supervenience base to meaning is scrutable and within our control. In this paper, I have argued that internalist conceptual role theories can meet each strand of Cappelen’s challenge. On the view that I propose, concepts are to be identified with the realizers of conceptual roles. This view can maintain that concepts are entities that we have a suitable degree of control over, and epistemic access to. The internalist conceptual role theorist enjoys two advantages over at least some externalist (and perhaps also some internalist) competitors. Firstly, she can reject both Inscrutable and Lack of Control and thus maintain the Autonomy View: it is possible to analyse and improve our concepts in a purposive and controlled way. This is a pro tanto reason to prefer (certain kinds of) internalism if one thinks that it is a desideratum on a theory of concepts that it can claim that this kind of engineering is possible. Secondly, the internalist view that I defend here can offer a distinctive response to Cappelen’s worries about supervenience that is not available even to less radical forms of externalism that might also wish to reject the Austerity Framework.


The Price of Time

The Price of Time The Real Story of Interest

A comprehensive and profoundly relevant history of interest from one of the world's leading financial writers, The Price of Time explains our current global financial position and how we got here In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. The practice wasn't always popular--in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential path to debt bondage and slavery. Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk. All economic and financial activities take place across time. Interest is often described as the "price of money," but it is better called the "price of time: " time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, interest rates have sunk lower than ever before. Easy money after the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has produced several ill effects, including the appearance of multiple asset price bubbles, a reduction in productivity growth, discouraging savings and exacerbating inequality, and forcing yield starved investors to take on excessive risk. The financial world now finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place, and Edward Chancellor is here to tell us why. In this enriching volume, Chancellor explores the history of interest and its essential function in determining how capital is allocated and priced.
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Depression: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment

· 6 min read

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses with the most resources available for those suffering, but that doesn’t make the struggle of being depressed any less serious. Depression affects approximately 280 million people worldwide. It’s a mood disorder that alters your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Depression is characterized by symptoms such as frequent low mood, low motivation, lack of desire to socialize, an inability to cope with the stressors of everyday life, and feelings of hopelessness.

Depression differs from simply ‘feeling blue’ in that it often persists for years, even with attempts to seek treatment. Significant emotional traumas such as the death of a loved one, giving birth or going through hardships can lead to depression, but sometimes there’s no particular cause for the onset. Depression is often diagnosed in conjunction with other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety or panic disorders. Frustratingly, major depressive disorder can occur for seemingly no reason at all. In these cases, it’s often a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters or a structural difference of the brain that has resulted in depression.

“The dorsal and medial prefrontal cortex, the dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and the orbitofrontal cortex of the insula are the areas of the cortical brain that are impacted by depression,” says Dr. Paul Poulakos, a psychiatrist at Greenwich Village Psychiatry in New York. “Additionally, decreased hippocampal volumes, decreased amygdala core volume often occurs in clinical depression, [as well as] increased activation of the amygdala. Furthermore, decreased serotonin is found in depression.”

Signs and Symptoms of Depression

The signs and symptoms of depression can impair your ability to do even the most basic tasks. This is why depressed individuals often have a messy apartment or poor personal hygiene. Simply getting out of bed and keeping a clean home often feels impossible in the throes of depression.

Sadly, even when depression is more manageable, people who live with it often report that it negatively impacts their professional and social lives, as well as their outlook on life. This means that even a high-functioning depressed person will still often deal with internal struggles that others aren’t aware of.

Some symptoms of depression include:

  • Disturbed Sleep: Depression can  change your sleep cycle. Some suffer from insomnia, while others sleep far too much.
  • Loss of Interest in Hobbies You Once Enjoyed: Many who live with depression lose interest in the things that once brought them joy. This can include hobbies, exercise, and soclializing. They may show little to no interest in the lives of their loved ones.
  • Low Energy: Depressed individuals often feel lethargic, lazy, unmotivated, low energy and fatigued.
  • ‘Brain Fog’ or the Inability to Make Decisions: Structural changes to the brain regions responsible make it difficult for someone with depression to think clearly and make sound decisions as well as decreased problem-solving abilities.
  • Changes in Appetite or Unexplained Weight Gain/Loss: It’s very common for people to engage in ‘emotional eating’, and depressed individuals with a feeling of emptiness often try to fill that emotional void with food.
  • Sadness, Fear, Anger, or Emotional Reactivity: Dr. Poulakos explains, “Depressed individuals experience heightened negative emotions due to increased activity in the amygdala, making…intense emotions [such as fear, anger and sadness] felt at extreme levels,”
  • Feeling Worthless, Guilty, or Hopeless.
  • Thoughts of Self-Harm: Sometimes a depressed person will have what’s called ‘suicidal ideation’, thoughts of suicide, or thoughts of self-harm. This is why seeking medical attention is crucial if you start to have these thoughts.
  • Physical Symptoms: Some physical symptoms of depression include body aches, headaches, acid reflux or other physical responses to stress.

Diagnosing Depression

For some people who have no history of depressive disorder, depression can occur once. In many others, depression occurs cyclically. Recurrent depressive disorder happens when a majorly depressive episode takes place 6 months or more after the previous one.

In order for an episode to be diagnosed as depressive disorder, symptoms need to be experienced for at least two weeks. Depending on the severity of the symptoms and how disruptive they are to one’s daily functioning, depression can be diagnosed as either mild, moderate, or severe.

Depression can happen to anyone, and there are many risk factors that contribute to depression, including the environment you live in or grew up in, your biochemistry, your personality/outlook on life, your experienced traumas, and even your genetics.

Medical professionals have long been aware that depression tends to run in families, but scientists studying depression in families isolated a specific gene that appears to play a part in the heritability of depressive disorder: chromosome 3p25-26. You can find out more about your genetic risk factors of developing depression by taking a DNA test from CircleDNA.

Can you ‘self-diagnosis’ depression? You or your loved ones might notice symptoms of depression leading to a self-diagnosis, or you can take an assessment test if you suspect that you are suffering from depressive disorder. It’s best to get a professional diagnosis of depression. Your family doctor can refer you to a Psychiatrist who can formally diagnose depression.

If you feel that you are depressed and you don’t feel you need a professional diagnosis to confirm this, it’s important to consider the benefits that come with a formal diagnosis. Being diagnosed with depression opens up doors to all the treatment options available. In addition, a diagnosis can give you back some of the peace of mind that depression takes from its victims.

Treatment Options for Depression

Fortunately, depression can be treated. There are actually many different forms of treatment available, and most people find relief of the symptoms of depression with a combination of treatment forms.

Counselling and Various Forms of Therapy:

Sometimes, unresolved trauma can contribute greatly to depression. Talk therapy, psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioural therapy can all effectively help you engage better with the world, with stress and, importantly, with yourself. Changing your personal narrative and learning how to challenge some of the intrusive thoughts that come with a depressed mindset can be an effective way of overcoming depressive disorder.

SSRIs and TCAs are the two most common forms of antidepressant medications available. They work by increasing the amount of neurotransmitters in your brain, specifically serotonin and norepinephrine. Antidepressants are safe to take for most people, although it can sometimes take weeks or months to find the dosage that’s best for you.

Lifestyle Changes:

Simply getting more fresh air outside, more sunshine, more time with loved ones, more exercise, and more exposure to nature can help ease symptoms of depression. Consider joining a fun spin studio, or join a meet-up group for hikers.

What About Psychedelics? Psilocybin and Depression

John Hopkins University has been studying the effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, for over 20 years now, and some of what they are finding out is both astonishing and hopeful.

Despite the fact that several types of depressive disorders are out there, Roland Griffiths, Ph.D and and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research explains, “Most of our study participants found the psilocybin treatment to be effective.” More than half of research participants reported a decrease in their symptoms 4 weeks following treatment.

Psilocybin shares some similarities with serotonin, the neurotransmitter that is most closely associated with depression. Among other things, serotonin plays a part in how we regulate our moods, and it’s thought that regular ingestion of small amounts of psilocybin (known as microdosing) can help restore your body’s optimal levels of serotonin.

Research in this area is still ongoing, but it is very promising. While antidepressants can be an effective form of treatment for many, there is usually a long trial-and-error process before an effective dose is found, and the effects are not always long lasting.

Do You Struggle with Depression?

It’s important to keep in mind that if you are battling depression, treatment is out there. Overcoming depression is a challenge, and there are many things you can do to help yourself along the way.

A healthy diet and exercise can help your body feel better even if your mind doesn’t. Resist the urge to sleep, watch TV, disassociate with video games or scroll through social media all day. Make a point to get out of bed everyday, even if it feels like a monumental task. Adherence to some kind of a routine can also help ease the severity and longevity of depressive episodes.

Reach out to family and friends and let them know that you need their support.

Most of all, remember that you are not defined by your depression. Your symptoms are a response to what your brain is doing, not a reflection of who you are. You are not a broken person, your brain is just wired a little differently. Many depressed people do get better, whether it’s from microdosing or going to therapy, and there is hope.


The Maritime History Podcast

This episode will conclude with the city of Ugarit in flames. Before we get there, we'll look at two Hittite invasions of Cyprus using borrowed ships, Egypt's first battle with the Sea Peoples, and the practice of using human hands as accounting units. After that, we'll delve into the causes of the Late Bronze Age Collapse: earthquake, climate change, drought, famine, and invasion. With each of these causes we'll look at the evidence as it comes. Finally, we have recovered letters from many cities like Ugarit, cities that were ultimately destroyed. These letters open a window on to the actions and fears of kings and merchants as the Bronze Age World collapsed underneath them. Heady stuff!

Direct download: 019_-_Ugarit_in_Flames.mp3
Category:history -- posted at: 9:58pm CST


17 When To Sell Buffett Beyond Value: Why Warren Buffett Appears To Development And Management When Investing Book

The above analysis is truly a testament to the downside protection of BRK. It’s an evaluation on what could occur if BRK didn’t discover any attractively valued organizations during the remainder of 2022 and whole of 2023. The present interest rate environment supplies a tailwind to BRK whilst several other organizations are suffering. It should enhance BRK’s competitive position on the acquisition front as they are producing money while other individuals who have been all in are losing it. Should really this situation materialize, BRK will have even extra money to deploy in lucrative enterprises.

Properly, no, due to the fact we’re talking about way less than 1% of my estate. And a single issue I’m going to do, incidentally, all rich men and women get advised by their lawyers set up trusts so that no one could see your will and all that sort of issue. And prior to it does it, I consider, Berkshire is a pretty excellent thing to hold, but for a given person, especially my wife, I just consider that possessing a tiny fraction, which is all it requires for her to do extremely properly for the rest of her life. I just think that the greatest factor to do is purchase 90% in S&P 500 index fund. But what I would like you to do is look at that list for a minute or two, if you want to, and then make an estimate, make your own guess, how numerous of these businesses are going to be on the list 30 years from now. And how a lot of would you guys believe would be on the list?

Communication up, communication down, a lot of transparency. Some of the retail businesses have been very seriously hurt through the pandemic, and those that had a lot invested in the mall access, I feel, specifically so. And so, these are climbing, but they’re not out of the hole.

Berkshire’s acquisition drought ended this year when he signed a $11.six billion deal to acquire the insurance conglomerate Alleghany. IMD shares update on movement of Cyclone ‘Sitrang’ in n … Pay 20% or “var + elm” whichever is higher as upfront margin of the transaction value to trade in money industry segment.

“Could not have asked for a nicer particular person to deal with. Really friendly, knowledgeable, and expert. Quite satisfied with the entire transaction. Would hugely recommend Tina Golon.” We are so delighted to have identified Lisa and were very pleased with her solutions! She worked incredibly tough on our rather lengthy and complicated land acquisition. It is fair to say we couldn’t have accomplished it with no her!

We make sure that when we are investing, it is for a extended-term method as opposed to some thing short term. And they’ve in fact set their lines up in a way that I describe as heroically and inactive. They’re playing bridge, they’re reading for hours a day, they’re fishing, they’re golfing, they’re chatting with mates and just reading tons of annual reports and tons of biographies.

The second issue is that gaining a controlling ownership in a enterprise typically requires paying an above-the-marketplace share price, known as a handle premium. To resolve this issue, conglomerates usually manufactured the overvaluation of their stocks. Possible inquiries Buffett and Munger could possibly face for the duration of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting Saturday could consist of every thing from bank stocks to Bitcoin to share buybacks. You under no circumstances know when it is our last likelihood to attend an annual meeting with each Buffett and Munger speaking. The meeting will not be the very same when either or each are no longer there.

For these very asset-laden businesses that have constant equipment and capital wants, debt makes additional sense, and they will create plentiful amounts of money for Berkshire Hathaway even in an financial downturn. When income is highly-priced, getting much more of it is a way of setting yourself up to take full benefit of opportunities. This fits nicely into Buffett’s basic investment worldview that the finest time to acquire is when everyone is promoting. If there’s a practice that infuriates Warren Buffett a lot more than poorly structured executive compensation plans, it is going into debt to get stocks or excessively finance acquisitions. Prior to Planet War I, the average annual salary of an executive at a significant corporation was $9,958, or $220,000 in today’s dollars. Among 1936 and the mid-1970s the average CEO was paid about $1M a year in today’s funds.

So even if you are a organization that did not make a lot of money or made no revenue at all, nicely, you are still getting valued at times sales for the reason that the future will so bright and cash was so easy. Now, we’ve got a tiny bit of a distinctive set of financial situations. So we see a lot of these growth-type businesses that perhaps they are lucrative but they have a lot of prospective and we’ve noticed those valuations pulled back considerably.

Warren Buffett bought into Coca-Cola when it was worth subsequent to practically nothing. Unless you bought in at the very same time that these men and women had bought their shares, you’re not going to get the very same outcomes. Grab the 2022 list of all 61 month-to-month dividend stocks, with every single firm researched and ranked.

As of June 30, 2022, Berkshire Hathaway had $26.534 billion in cash and money equivalents, and $74.803 billion in quick-term investments in U.S. treasury bills. The content material on finmasters.com is for educational and informational purposes only and ought to not be construed as specialist economic guidance. Finmasters is not a economic institution and does not offer any monetary products or services. We strive to offer up-to-date data but make no warranties relating to the accuracy of our information and facts. The dollar worth of shares in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio on the reporting date .

Lisa helped stroll a family members who had to sell one more loved ones members house, though none of us ever purchased or sold a property just before. This was a new encounter for our loved ones and Lisa created it so very simple view for us. She constantly had an answer when we didn’t know or realize something, very knowledgeable in her job. Her friendliness just made items so comfy, by no means had to be concerned about contacting her.

This has permitted BHE to invest far additional capital—upward of $35 billion over the previous two decades at the end of 2021—in renewables than it would have been capable to on a stand-alone basis. Moreover, Buffett suggested that the finest hedge to inflation was “investing in your self,” i.e. seek to acquire the kind of unassailable abilities that often command pricing power regardless of the value of revenue. WT Economic Group Limited is a developing diversified economic services company, founded in 2010 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2015.

And when you get to damaging interest rates, if a country can borrow at negative interest rates, you get into one thing, that’s kind of akin to the St. Petersburg Paradox. And those of you who want to go to Search you can discover some intriguing things on it, but it becomes infinite. And it’s a crazy consequence of a bunch of abstract mathematics where you get there.


FAQ: Frozen Aliquotters

How many aliquots can be extracted from a single 2.00ml vial?

The CXT 353 can extract up to 5 frozen aliquots from a single 2.00ml vial.

More from Frozen Aliquotters

No, the sample will not thaw inside the coring probe. Since both the probes and parent samples are kept at -80C, there is not enough time or  temperature difference to thaw the partial sample during extraction.

It takes approximately 1 minute to core a sample. This includes the time it takes to hit the core bottom and then deposit the core in the destination tube.

No. The serrated edges of the coring probe lose their sharpness after 1 core. This means that consecutive cores will become jagged and more difficult to eject.

Once the instrument is up to temperature, you have a working time of 1 hour before the next fill.

Read more

The LN2 tank is a 5-liter tank – it holds up to 4 liters of LN2.


Zeus: The Origins And History Of The Greek God Charles River Editors Google 도서

In addition to her native English and Italian, Marta spent over ten years studying Latin. Her areas of interest are Greco-Roman mythology, Latin poems, as effectively as modern European politics. When she is not at household reading or baking, Marta can be found spending hours in museums and attempting new restaurants. The sacrifices provided to the chthonic gods had been frequently buried or burned in a trench in the ground rather than cooked on an altar. A further crucial aspect of sacrifices to chthonic gods was the pouring of blood and libations into trenches in the ground, as seen in the Odyssey.

Zeus rescued his previously swallowed siblings, and all was correct with the globe. Other than the battle for Olympus involving the divinities, most of the surviving tales about Zeus concern his interactions with mortals. A lot more specifically, Zeus a number of tales associated to Zeus refer to his pursuits of mortal ladies with whom to sow his seed. He is also identified for casting spontaneous, commonly harsh judgements upon mortals and immortals alike. He banishes men and punishes gods furiously when he is disobeyed. Zeus is married to Hera, goddess of ladies and marriage.

At the center of Greek mythology is the pantheon of gods and goddesses who have been mentioned to reside on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. From their lofty perch, they ruled each aspect of human life. Olympian deities looked like guys and females and have been — as several myths recounted — vulnerable to human foibles and passions.. Zeus was believed as “The God of ancient greek mythology” and this story is a short view of the several terrible items he has completed from his anger.

The Hellenistic planet of ancient Greece was no stranger to slavery. Ancient Greek mythology is complete of excellent beasts and monsters. A single of the most well-known examples is the brutal one particular-eyed race of giants, the cyclopes. Greek mythology is full of weird and amazing creatures.

These deities may well be represented as snakes or in human type in visual art, or, for emphasis as each together in one particular image. They also received offerings of black animal victims sacrificed into sunken pits, as did chthonic deities like Persephone and Demeter, and also the heroes at their tombs. Olympian gods, by contrast, normally received white victims sacrificed upon raised altars. Zeus fell in love try this site with Semele, the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and started an affair with her. Hera discovered his affair when Semele later became pregnant, and persuaded Semele to sleep with Zeus in his accurate type. When Zeus showed his correct kind to Semele, his lightning and thunderbolts burned her to death.

Both Gaia and Uranus foretold Cronos that he would be dethroned by his own son. To prevent this sad fate, he used to swallow his kids at birth. This bizarre behavior, however, enraged his wife Rhea1, who being pregnant with Zeus, went to Crete and gave him birth in a cave of Dicte. NYMPHS fed the child on the milk of the goat Amalthea whilst the CURETES in arms guarded the child in the cave, clashing their spears on their shields, in order to prevent Cronos to hear his voice. In the meantime, Rhea1 wrapped a stone in clothes and gave it to Cronos to swallow, as if it were the newborn child. This is how Cronos, the second ruler of the universe, was deceived.

This act of cruelty was so repulsive that Zeus felt no selection but to destroy mankind however once again. His 1st act of revenge was to take fire away from the humans so they could not cook the meat they’d won. Prometheus, seeing that the humans would freeze devoid of fire, stole it back from Zeus’s hearth. Typhoeus was imprisoned, with the rest of Gaia’s kids, in Tartarus. Even from there, he was able to send horrible storms blowing across the globe. Mother Earth gave birth to 1 a lot more kid, a horrible monster fathered by Tartarus itself.

As you can imagine, she was especially irritable when Zeus seduced fellow goddesses or, worse, mortal girls. Moreover, the kid the woman bore would endure as well. No one particular knows this improved than poor Hercules, whom we’ll talk about in much more detail later. Hestia was the goddess of domestic life, household and hearth, the flame that kept a family’s household warm. She was the eldest daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and the eldest sister of Zeus.

If anybody wished to get the assistance of one particular of the gods, he would bring a dove, or a goat, or an ox to the temple, so that the priests could possibly kill it, and burn component of its flesh as an providing. For they believed that the smell of the burning flesh pleased the gods. Percy Jackson and his mates undertake a perilous voyage to save their summer time camp in this modern day-day adventure with a Greek mythology twist. One particular day the gods Poseidon and Apollo told Zeus that they each loved Hestia. From the earliest times, the other gods of Olympus all had duties. Hermes carried messages, Ares was in charge of war, Artemis watched over all hunters, and Zeus ruled over everybody.

The #1 bestselling chapter book series of all time celebrates 25 years with new covers and a new, easy-to-use numbering technique! Acquiring the details behind the fiction has never looked improved. Its coals burned all the time, no matter if for warmth or for cooking. In honor of Hestia, Greeks produced confident that the fire never ever went out.

Zeus had lots of titles and epithets, which frequently varied by area. His most important epithets included “father of gods and men,” or simply “father.” He was also regularly known as “highest” in literature and cult. Zeus’ part as a climate god is reflected in numerous of his epithets, like Hyetios (“Zeus of the rain”), Ombrios (“rainmaker”), Kataibates (“he who comes down in lightning”), and Keraunios (“thunderer”). The Olympian Zeus at times wears a wreath of olive, and the Dodonaean Zeus a wreath of oak leaves.

Then the citizens of Delphi built a temple in his honor. When Apollo arrived in Delphi, he located difficulty awaiting him. A monster named Python was supposed to guard the oracle.

We ought to make certain to use the authority in the appropriate way. Providing the support and motivation to the team is one of the important habits. Trying to implement the new course of action/tools in the project will aid in streamlining. We ought to be sturdy enough to manage the group disputes.

Cullinan Diamond: Most Famous Diamond In World Sada El Balad

Famously worn by Taylor as the center stone on a diamond pendant, the diamond is pear-shaped and weighs 69.42 carats. The Taylor-Burton Diamond is identified as “the very first million-dollar diamond”, due to its unprecedented value. Most diamonds discovered have major deficiencies in one or additional of the above categories. For example, whilst a diamond may well be clear and huge in size, it may well have a significantly less desirable colour and shape. In a earlier infographic, we clarify the value of these traits in a lot more depth, and we’ve also previously posted on the significance of uncommon-colored diamonds.

Their color is due to dark inclusions within the diamond, commonly created up of graphite. It is uncommon that they are substantial, but the most famous black diamond, the Black Orloff, is 67.50 carats. Normally click here for info they are opaque and considerably of their beauty is the vibrant, adamantine luster that reflects light off the surface.

We use gear that is calibrated and measured to effectively differentiate between organic and nonnatural diamonds. Our diamonds come with GIA certificates as further verification of authenticity. Whereas simulated diamonds are stones that only look like diamonds, like cubic zirconia, white sapphire, moissanite, zircon, rutile, spinel, and synthetic garnet. As the diamond industry continues to evolve to retain up with consumer preferences, improvements are getting produced on each sides of the coin. Doulton commends sources in Canada, such as the Diavik Diamond Mine and other participants in the Canadamark system, for getting totally traceable sources of naturally occurring diamonds, and notes that U.K. When purchasing for a diamond ring, you’ll want to decide on a style that fits your fiancée’s character.

The process can be quicker if other elements are introduced, like nitrogen, but this can make the diamond yellow-tinted. Mariam Norman is a former wedding planner, an skilled storyteller and a gemologist at Noray Designs. She is passionate about assisting men and women discover all elements of gemology and fashion business.

The gem remains the property of the British crown, and now is in HM Tower of London and it’s a well-known tourist attraction. It was set in gold and suspended on a neck ribbon which the king wore on ceremonial occasions. We present only higher high quality jewelry and stand behind all purchases with a no concerns 60 day money back guarantee. As described ahead of, the cutting of a significant diamond demands specialized conditions, as effectively as unique gear. In the case of The Centenary Diamond, the team developed an underground space for the job. Gabi Tolkowsky to lead the cutting and polishing team for the diamond.

W. Ayer would be the exclusive agents for the placement of newspaper and radio ads in the United States. Oppenheimer agreed to underwrite the fees of the study important for establishing the campaign. We’re regularly innovating to locate new ways to build top quality solutions and meet customers’ requires in an ever-altering marketplace. The initially-of-its-sort service that applies 24/7 real-time monitoring, information visualization and advanced analytics to recognize trends and detect anomalies in BOP functionality. The Diamond ProLyte was uniquely created with the user in thoughts.

Heart reduce diamonds are most romantic of all fancy shapes, which mean adore, charm and affection. Eco Friendly – Lab-created diamonds do not disturb any land surfaces. In addition, lab-grown diamonds do not make any mineral waste.

The premise of this campaign was that diamonds must be the only decision for engagement rings. Up to the 1700s, key diamond deposits had only been found in India. A modest diamond deposit was discovered in Brazil in 1725, despite the fact that it was too little to have a important influence. Until the 18th century, quite a few individuals in the globe just believed that India was the only source of diamonds on earth.

It is feasible that this procedure mobilizes aspect of the currently present hydrogen building some C–H bonds. It is feasible that significantly of the hydrogen is present in the form of water in the magmatic inclusions that we concluded earlier have been ubiquitous in all all-natural diamond. The characteristic yellow color is due to nitrogen atoms dispersed in the lattice. The blocky shape of synthetic monocrystalline diamond contrasts with the hugely irregular shape of all-natural diamond grit generated by crushing.

Similarly, when you’re ready to upgrade your diamond, a mined diamond will still hold very a bit of its resale value, although a lab-grown diamond will not. For that extremely explanation, your investment in a natural diamond is the smarter path to take. Diamonds are formed naturally by way of a combination of heat, stress and time, developing deep underground till deep-set volcanic eruptions bring them closer to the surface, prepared to be excavated.

The diamond was unearthed in South Africa’s notorious Kimberley mine in 1877, and subsequently sold to Charles Lewis Tiffany. The Kimberley mine, known as ‘Big Hole’, is typically described as the biggest diamond mine to have been dug by hand. Defeated, de Crato fled to France with the stone in his possession. To get help for his claim to the throne, he sold the diamond to Queen Elizabeth I of England .

It became clear to the diamond trade that a important stockpile of substantial diamonds was out of De Beers’s handle. But a panic on the aspect of investors is not the only occasion that could end the diamond company. De Beers is at this writing losing handle of several sources of diamonds that could possibly flood the market place at any time, deflating forever the value of diamonds. De Beers’s modest move into the investment-diamond small business brought on a tremor of concern in the trade.

For the previous two decades, the DiamondView fluorescence imaging instrument has been a core tool to decide the origin of diamonds . The fluorescence reactions can be observed and examined in various orientations. Because of the extremely quick wavelength and intensity of the ultraviolet excitation supply, fluorescence is developed in diamonds at areas just beneath facet surfaces, creating a distinct reaction. Although many CVD synthetics showed no reaction to a standard extended-wave UV light source, all diamonds—including CVD synthetics—show some observable reaction to the high-intensity, higher-energy UV supply of the DiamondView. They’re worth what folks are prepared to pay, which, at the moment is about 60% significantly less than organic diamonds.

Questioning Why K Pop Is So Common? Here Are 10 Motives

Jackson Wang is a singer, rapper, dancer, and fashion designer as nicely. He is not only a member of GOT7, the South Korean Boy Group, but he is also a solo artist. In 2021, he got himself into the list of top 10 on the list of Forbes China Celebrity 100. Jisoo has been with BLACKPINK considering that the beginning of the group.

South Korean entertainment businesses are investing and looking for talent in Vietnam. For instance, SM Entertainment announced plans for a Vietnamese sub-unit of the Korean boy group NCT, which executive producer Lee Soo-man referred to as “NCT-V,” to promote continue reading this.. V-pop globally. Lee also mentioned that Vietnamese culture is particularly similar to Korean culture, which is favorable for each nations in terms of global expansion.

The tickets sold out in only a couple of hours, and more dates were added. On November 13, the American singer-songwriter Madonna and backup dancers performed “Gangnam Style” alongside Psy through a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Psy later told reporters that his gig with Madonna had “topped his list of accomplishments.” In spite of North Korea’s traditionally strict isolationism, K-pop has managed to reach a North Korean audience.

BlackPink is the most well-known K-pop girl group globally and normally competes with BTS when it comes to views on YouTube. On Instagram, the band has 46.5 million followers, even though individually, the members have even far more followers on the social media platform. Jisoo 59.4 million followers, Jennie has 65.six million followers, Rosé has 58.three million followers, and Lisa leads with 76.7 million followers on Instagram. The genre is characterized by boybands and girl groups that perform pop songs to choreographed dances in slick music videos and theatrical live shows. Entertainment organizations engage in fierce competition to produce the next significant hit in the multi-billion-dollar market.

This mixture tells the story of the selected style idea for every single era. Some could say these entertainment firms work like suppliers in assembling the excellent idol group outlook and style for every cycle of performing and advertising the music. As is clear with the recent rise of Psy’s “Gangnam Style”, the Hallyu-wave and Korean pop music, Korean culture is making its mark on the world. There are now 70 fan clubs for Korean pop music in Mexico, with at least 60,000 members. The crowd was older than I’d expected, and the ambience felt far more like a video-game convention than like a pop concert.

To the grief of his fans, Jonghyun was found dead as a outcome of suicide. Born Dong Young-bae in Uijeongbu, Taeyang is a singer, rapper, and actor who is the primary vocalist for Big Band. Connected to Dong Hyun Bae, a famous South Korean actor, it is not a surprise that Taeyang and his brother are influential names in the entertainment business. But the fans are showing support in droves, proving that Korean artists are changing the game considerably. Let’s explore 15 of the most well-known Korean singers that have ever graced the business.

But BTS—who, shortly immediately after PROOF dropped,announced they’d be taking a breakto concentrate on solo projects, losing their label HYBE $1.7 billiondue to a extra dire-sounding mistranslationin the announcement video—is no ordinary band. The uniqueness of K-pop lies largely in how the artists are trained. SM, YG, and JYP Entertainment Agencies were all large names founded in the late 1990s. These agencies combine singing and dancing into a gruesome 5 to seven years of substantial education. This typically incorporates foreign language classes, as these agencies all eye the international markets. Synchronized dancing in a group is the hallmark of K-pop bands the flashy visuals and hook come at the same time.

Be resilient—it can take a extended time to get accepted as a trainee! A lot of men and women audition time soon after time immediately after time ahead of they finally get chosen to be a trainee. If you get feedback from an audition, make positive to incorporate it prior to your next a single. For instance, if a judge says that you have to have to work on your vocal strength, start out seeing a vocal coach to operate on that.

This may explain how BTS has outlasted the “seven-year curse” of most K-pop bands. Early on, immediately after facing criticism for the misogynistic tenor of the song “War of Hormone” (“Imma give it to you girl correct now,” “Perfect from the front, fantastic from the back,” and so on.), RM reportedly committed to a feminist reading list. RM and Suga have mentioned in interviews that queer folks must be in a position to appreciate whomever they want—no minor gesture in South Korea, where it’s nonetheless tough to be out. An ARMY named Wang in Chengdu, China, who identifies as gay, though not publicly, told me, “There’s a huge queer element of BTS.

Significant Bang was made in 2006 and swiftly rose to grow to be one particular of the world’s greatest-selling and most well-liked boy bands. They are certainly veterans of the K-pop music scene and won tons of awards in unique music awards. Alisia Stren is a Korean-American student who has been a K-pop fan because 2009. She presently attends college, exactly where she is studying to be an English teacher. In her absolutely free time, Alisia enjoys writing fan fiction and watching K-pop music videos.

Additional than any other international music industry, K-pop has been strategically developed to earworm its way into your brain — and to elevate South Korea and its culture onto the planet stage. BIGBANG was formed by way of a tv series referred to as Large Bang Documentary in 2006. For years, the R&B-inspired quintet made waves as 1 of the greatest K-pop bands of the 2000s. Due to South Korea’s mandatory military service requirement, members of the group enlisted in the military in 2017. Reports of a doable comeback emerged as members Taeyang and Daesung have been discharged from the Korean military in November 2019.

Begin by looking for much more information on the net or at your regional library. Washington officials are investigating the poisonings of six gray wolves. Pop music would be nothing at all without catchy hooks and sing-along lyrics. K pop is no diverse, generating use of melodies that are instantaneously stuck in your head.

“When we began, there had been handful of people who even knew what K-pop was. It tended to be laughed at in the dancing scene,” she says. “That has changed tremendously, for the reason that the K-pop industry presents lots of job possibilities for dancers. Men and women now realize how substantial this market place is. A lot of Western dancers are hired by K-pop labels to create choreography.” Under South Korean law, all able-bodied guys are necessary to carry out months of military service. But the law delivers specific exemptions for athletes, classical and classic musicians, and ballet and other dancers who have won top prizes in specific competitions that enhance national prestige. Acts like the YG Entertainment girl group 2NE1 thrived in that atmosphere , and helped set the stage for the genre’s worldwide takeover.


A multicenter round robin test of PD-L1 expression assessment in urothelial bladder cancer by immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR with emphasis on prognosis prediction after radical cystectomy

Oncotarget. 2018 Feb 19;9(19):15001-15014. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.24531. eCollection 2018 Mar 13.

Background: Immunohistochemical PD-L1 assessment is currently used to identify responders towards checkpoint inhibitors although it is limited by inter-observer effects. Here, we conducted a multi-center round robin test to prove the possibility of assessing the PD-L1 status by gene expression to avoid inter-observer effects.

Patients and methods: Gene expression of PD-L1 was analyzed in a total of 294 samples (14 cases non-muscle invasive and muscle-invasive bladder cancer; MIBC) in seven centers by a RT-qPCR kit and compared with immunohistochemical scoring of three pathologists (DAKO, 22c3). Both assays were compared towards prognosis prediction in a cohort of 88 patients with MIBC.

Results: PD-L1 gene expression revealed very high inter center correlation (centrally extracted RNA: r = 0.68-0.98, p ≤ 0.0076; locally extracted RNA: r = 0.81-0.98, p ≤ 0.0014). IHC Inter-observer concordance was moderate to substantial for immune cells (IC), fair for combined IC/ tumor cell (TC) (IC: κ = 0.50-0.61; IC + TC: κ = 0.50), and fair for TC scoring (κ = 0.26-0.35). Gene expression assessment resulted in more positive cases (9/14 cases positive vs. 6/14 cases [IHC]) which could be validated in the independent cohort. Positive mRNA status was associated with significantly better overall and disease-specific survival (5-year OS: 50% vs. 26%, p = 0.0042, HR = 0.48; 5 year DSS: 65% vs. 40%, p = 0.012, HR = 0.49). The 1% IHC IC cut-off also revealed significant better OS (5 year OS: 58% vs. 31%, p = 0.036, HR = 0.62).

Conclusion: Gene expression showed very high inter-center agreement. Gene expression assessment also resulted in more positive cases and revealed better prognosis prediction. PD-L1 mRNA expression seems to be a reproducible and robust tool for PD-L1 assessment.

Keywords: PD-L1; bladder cancer; checkpoint inhibitors; immunohistochemistry; molecular therapy stratification.


We are a US-based 501(c)3 nonprofit charity organization that seek to work in Ghana and other developing countries in Africa to empower, support, and equip vulnerable children, women and communities we serve with basic needs to escape poverty.

WORLD BIPOLAR DAY: Social Media and its impact on our mental health.

Today, 30th March, marks world BIPOLAR DISORDER DAY, and I will be writing briefly on the condition and how SOCIAL MEDIA is also causing some havoc.

BIPOLAR DISORDER ( formerly called Manic- Depressive Illness or Manic Depression) is a form of mental illness that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

Bipolar disrupts regular moods for a significant period and affects one’s well-being, work, and contribution to the community.

Bipolar Disorder is characterized by deep, prolonged, and profound depression that alternates with periods of an excessively elevated or irritable mood.

*It is usual for one to be sad or irritable within some periods in life, but once it starts to affect your daily activities, interpersonal relationship with others, withdrawal from people, unnecessary provocations, and display of sexual/ profane lifestyles with expensive ALLEGATIONS and fights, you now have the illness.*

The premorbid personality of those who suffer BIPOLAR DISORDER is those with Borderline personality ( mood swings).

The existence and availability of modern technology ( SOCIAL MEDIA) have adverse effects on one’s mental status. Today’s youth are being influenced by what they usually see on the internet hence putting unnecessary pressure on themselves, which, when not achieved, leads to depression. Some, equally, try to impress others on social Media by putting pressure on themselves on what to do or commit to sustaining the ” *Exaggerated sense of well-being and self-confidence”* they have made themselves, e.g., some so-called celebrity status.

So, if anyone who is already with the premorbid personality type of Borderline ( mood swings) is not able to achieve or maintain such lifestyles, they go into depression hence the Depressive phase of the episode, some too become so bitter and irritable and agitated with some weird faking leading to faked happiness and eventually into the manic phase of the attack. Also, one can suffer a mix of both mania and depression simultaneously and hence can be euphoric and same time depressed. During the manic phase, the victim exhibits seductive tendencies and involves in unwarranted sexual activities to gain some exaggerated confidence. They go into unnecessary fights, buying sprees, unusual talkative, poor decision making, decreased needs for sleep, etc.

During the Depressive phase, there is a sense of hopelessness/ worthlessness, decreased or increased periods of sleep, marked loss of interest in activities and even activities previously enjoyed, loss of energy, indecisiveness and decreased concentrations, etc.

Complications of the disorder lead to;

Drug and alcohol use.

Suicide or suicide attempts.

Damaged relationships.

Poor work or school performance.

Excessive sexual engagement leads to Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

On this day of WORLD BIPOLAR DISORDER, I encourage ourselves to be cautious of our Mental Health, know ourselves and live within our means. Take the mental health of others as a priority and help protect them.

There are medications available to help when a relative or yourself is suffering from Bipolar Disorder, provided you seek mental health treatment at the Mental Health Hospitals and Units across the country.

Your prognosis depends on your cooperation and seeking early treatment.

Take your MENTAL HEALTH seriously than what you eat or earn.

Bismark Kwabla Kpobi.

Snr Registered Mental Nurse.

Mental Health Advocate.

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