The busy beaver problem of Rado [6] is reexamined for the case of Turing machines given by quadruples rather than quintuples. Moreover several printing symbols are allowed. Some values of the corresponding beaver function are given and it is shown that this function for a fixed number of states and varying number of symbols is nonrecursive for three or more states and recursive for two states. As a byproduct we get that the minimal number of states in a universal Turing (...) machine (quadruples) is three. (shrink)

A thoughtful meditation on the role of meaning and purpose in the development of technology.

When taken too far, certain well-intentioned ethical guidelines can become transformed into artificial boundaries that serve as destructive prohibitions and thereby undermine clinical effectiveness. Rigid roles and strict codified rules of conduct between therapist and client can obstruct a clinician's artistry. Those anxious conformists who go entirely by the book, and who live in constant fear of malpractice suits, are unlikely to prove significantly helpful to a broad array of clients. It is my contention that one of the worst professional/ethical (...) violations is to permit current risk-management principles to take precedence over humane interventions. (shrink)

This conceptual article draws on structuration theory and social identity theory to isolate firm-internal institutionalization processes as antecedents and drivers of corporate political strategizing. Path dependencies in corporate routines and actors' knowledgeability about these path dependencies are singled out as primary factors structuring strategic decision making within the firm. The concepts of path dependency and knowledgeability, respectively, refer to the institutional and cognitive dimension of corporate political strategizing. These two dimensions come together in actors' identities. Identities on their turn shape (...) managers' recognition of policy issues and the interpretation of issue salience relative to corporate interests. Thus, the article argues that institutional features of competitive environments precipitate in processes of identity building and preference formation and are reproduced through organizational routines and practices within the firm. (shrink)

Peter J Arnold; Sport, Moral Education and the Development of Character, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 18, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 275–281, htt.

_Roman Stoicism_, first published in 1911, offers an authoritative introduction to this fascinating chapter in the history of Western philosophy, which throughout the 20 th century has been rediscovered and rehabilitated among philosophers, theologians and intellectual historians. Stoicism played a significant part in Roman history via the public figures who were its adherents ; and, as it became more widely accepted, it assumed the features of a religion. The Stoic approach to physics, the universe, divine providence, ethics, law and humanity (...) are all investigated, as is its diffuse impact upon literature. The origins of Christianity are also examined. Arnold offers a sympathetic reading of St. Paul in light of Stoicism, and regards the latter as the crucial bridge between Antiquity and Christendom: it allowed a swathe of Pagan intellectuals to join the Church and influenced the development of Christian doctrine, thus making an immense contribution to the bedrock of modern European civilisation. (shrink)

Activation of the brainʼs putative retinoid system has been proposed as the neuronal substrate for our basic sense of being centered within a volumetric surround –- our minimal phenomenal consciousness (Trehub 2007). Here, the assumed properties of the self-locus within the retinoid model are shown to explain recent experimental findings relating to the out-of-body-experience. In addition, selective excursion of the heuristic self-locus is able to explain many important functions of consciousness, including the effective internal representation of a 3D space on (...) the basis of 2D perspective depictions. Our sense of self-agency is shown to be a natural product of the role of the heuristic self-locus in the retinoid mechanism. (shrink)

Across these essays Arnold Berleant demonstrates how aesthetic values and theory can be used to reappraise our social practices. He tackles issues within the built environment, everyday life and politics, breaking down the dichotomy between the natural and the human. His work represents a fresh approach to traditional philosophical questions in not only ethics, but in metaphysics, truth, meaning, psychology, phenomenology and social and moral philosophy. Topics covered include the cultural aesthetics of environment, ecological aesthetics, the aesthetics of terrorism (...) and the subversion of beauty. The corruption of taste by the forces of commercial interests as well as how aesthetics can advance our understanding of violence is also considered. Berleant's exploration is supported by his analysis of 19th-century art to the present day, starting with impressionism through to postmodernism and contemporary artistic interventions. By critically examining the field in this way and casting new light on social understanding and practice, this collection makes a substantive contribution in identifying and clarifying central human issues, guided by an understanding of aesthetic experience and appreciation as a powerful tool for social critique. (shrink)

W.V.O. Quine has famously objected that (1) properties are philosophically suspect because (2) there is no entity without identity and (3) the synonymy criterion for property identity won't do because there's no such concept as synonymy. (2) and (3) may or may not be right but do not prove (1). I reply that Leiniz's Law handles property identity, as it does for everything else, then respond to a variety of objections and confusions.

Arnold Cusmariu ABSTRACT: Degas, Manet, Picasso, Dali and Lipchitz produced works of art exemplifying a seeming impossibility: Not only combining incompatible attributes but doing so consistently with aesthetic strictures Horace formulated in Ars Poetica. The article explains how these artists were able to do this, achieving what some critics have called ‘a new art,’ ‘a...

I attempt to rescue Frege's naive conception of a set according to which there is a set for every property by redefining the technical concept of degree of an open sentence. Instead of making degree a function of the number of free variables, I make it a function of free variable occurrences. What Russell proved, then, is that there is not a relation-in-extension for every relation-in-intension. In a brief paper it is not possible to discuss how redefining the function-argument correlation (...) affects Frege's system. (shrink)

v. 1. Goethe, Kant, and Hegel -- v.2. Nietzsche, Heideger, and Buber -- v. 3. Freud, Adler, and Jung.

The damaging effects of the Industrial Revolution are discussed with particular reference to man's improvidence leading to the waste of irreplaceable natural resources and to the pollution of the environment. The role of the British Royal Society is then analysed in the context of technological advances and religious thought. It is claimed that monotheistic religions have removed the constraints on man's greed and have overthrown the traditional balance between man and nature. The present environmental crisis is ascribed to the rise (...) of monotheism. The remedy may consist in reverting to pantheism and the religions of the East. (shrink)

In "The Problems of Philosophy," Russell held that universals not exist, rather, they subsist. In the same work, he stated that universals are nevertheless "something," without intending to suggest that quantification over universals would require a special quantifier. I show these apparently conflicting statements can be reconciled with a simple definition of "subsists.".

The arguments contained in books criticizing American social scientists by C. Wright Mills ( The Sociological Imagination) and Bernard Crick (The Science of American Politics) are discussed, compared and criticized. It is argued that Mills' criteria of evaluation and constructive alternatives to the tendencies he criticizes are immeasurably sounder than those found in Crick's book. An effort to supplement Mills' argument by providing a more explicit statement of its moral underpinnings is made. Finally, it is argued that though both critiques (...) have serious empirical flaws, the authors have undeniably demonstrated that important tendencies for irresponsible thought and action do exist within the American social sciences. (shrink)