Models of word meaning that exploit patterns of word usage across large text corpora to capture semantic relations, like the topic model and word2vec, condense word-by-context co-occurrence statistics to induce representations that organize words along semantically relevant dimensions (e.g., synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc.). However, their reliance on latent representations leaves them vulnerable to interference, makes them slow learners, and commits to a dual-systems account of episodic and semantic memory. We show how it is possible to construct the meaning of words (...) online during retrieval to avoid these limitations. We implement a spreading activation account of word meaning in an associative net, a one-layer highly recurrent network of associations, called a Dynamic-Eigen-Net, that we developed to address the limitations of earlier variants of associative nets when scaling up to deal with unstructured input domains like natural language text. We show that spreading activation using a one-hot coded Dynamic-Eigen-Net outperforms the topic model and reaches similar levels of performance as word2vec when predicting human free associations and word similarity ratings. Latent Semantic Analysis vectors reached similar levels of performance when constructed by applying dimensionality reduction to the Shifted Positive Pointwise Mutual Information but showed poorer predictability for free associations when using an entropy-based normalization. An analysis of the rate at which the Dynamic-Eigen-Net reaches asymptotic performance shows that it learns faster than word2vec. We argue in favor of the Dynamic-Eigen-Net as a fast learner, with a single-store, that is not subject to catastrophic interference. We present it as an alternative to instance models when delegating the induction of latent relationships to process assumptions instead of assumptions about representation. (shrink)

Bastin et al. present a framework that draws heavily on existing ideas of dual processes in memory in order to make predictions about memory deficits in clinical populations. It has been difficult to find behavioral evidence for multiple memory processes but we offer some evidence for dual processes in a related domain: memory for the time-of-occurrence of events.

Lenman 's cluelessness objection against consequentialism states that we are almost entirely clueless to the actual consequences of our action. In ‘Cluelessness,’ Hilary Greaves distinguishes between ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ cases of cluelessness and argues that the principle of indifference applies to ‘simple’ cases, thereby rescuing the ‘simple’ cases from the cluelessness objection. In this discussion note, I argue that Greaves's distinction between ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ cases fails and cluelessness is more problematic than Greaves believes.

Background In end-of-life situations, the phrase “do everything” is sometimes invoked by physicians, patients, or substitute decision-makers, though its meaning is ambiguous. We examined instances of the phrase “do everything” in the archive of the Ontario Consent and Capacity Board in Canada, a tribunal with judicial authority to adjudicate physician–patient conflicts in order to explore its potential meanings. Methods We systematically searched the CCB’s online public archive from its inception to 2018 for any references to “do everything” in the context (...) of critical care medicine and end-of-life care. Two independent assessors reviewed decisions, collected characteristics, and identified key themes. Results Of 598 cases in the archive, 41 referred to “do everything” in end-of-life situations. The phrase was overwhelmingly invoked by SDMs, typically to advocate for life-prolonging measures that contradicted physician advice. Physicians generally related “doing everything” to describe the interventions they had already performed, using it to recommend focusing on patients’ quality of life. SDMs were generally reluctant to accept death, whereas physicians found prolonging life at all costs to be morally distressing. The CCB did not interpret appeals to “do everything” legally but followed existing laws by deferring to patients’ prior wishes whenever known, or to concepts of “best interests” when not. The CCB generally recommended against life-prolonging measures in these cases, focusing on patients’ “well-being” and “best interests.” Conclusions In this unique sample of cases involving conflict surrounding resuscitation and end-of-life care, references to “do everything” highlighted conflicts over quantity versus quality of life. These appeals were associated with signs of cognitive distress on the behalf of SDMs who were facing the prospect of a patient’s death, whereas physicians identified moral distress related to the prolongation of patients’ suffering through their use of life-sustaining interventions. This divergence in perspectives on death versus suffering was consistently the locus of conflict. These findings support the importance of tools such as the Serious Illness Conversation Guide that can be used by physicians to direct conversations on the patients’ goals, wishes, trade-offs, and to recommend a treatment plan that may include palliative care. Trial Registration Not applicable. (shrink)

Journal of Social Philosophy, Volume 52, Issue 3, Page 344-361, Fall 2021.

This chapter focuses on one of the common fallacies in Western philosophy called 'special pleading (SP)'. One way to grasp the meaning of the special pleading fallacy is to focus on a general principle of fairness: We ought to treat individuals alike unless there is some relevant difference between them that merits the differential treatment. Avoiding SP can be very difficult for two reasons. First, the fallacy takes so many forms. Second, SP can be difficult to avoid because it is (...) often invisible to the one who commits the fallacy, and in this respect it is like a bad, invisible cognitive habit. The fact that SP can be, and so often is, used simultaneously to hide and to underwrite hypocrisy and prejudice makes it an important informal fallacy of reasoning that affects everyday life. (shrink)

The belief that all human beings are ‘moral equals’ is widespread within the canon of Western liberal philosophy. However, it is unclear precisely what ‘moral equality’ or its associate terms mean, what grounds our ‘moral equality’ and what the implications of being ‘moral equals’ are. In this paper, I distinguish between three ways of understanding ‘moral equality’: the ‘buck-passing’, ‘explanatory’ and ‘reverse-explanatory’ accounts. The buck-passing account of moral equality is in parallel with Scanlon’s buck-passing account of value. It holds that (...) ‘moral equality’ is not a metaphysically fundamental concept and simply amounts to having other properties shared equally by all human beings that constitute the reasons for why we ought to treat all human beings equally in certain respects. The explanatory account understands the concept of ‘moral equality’ as metaphysically fundamental and explanatory of why human beings who are the same in certain respects have the same entitlement to x. The reverse-explanatory account also sees ‘moral equality’ as metaphysically fundamental but holds that the explanatory relationship goes the other way round: moral equality is explained by how we ought to act. I argue that the buck-passing account is a more accurate way of understanding moral equality. (shrink)

Expertise in Chinese character recognition is marked by reduced holistic processing, which depends mainly on writing rather than reading experience. Here we show that, while simplified and traditional Chinese readers demonstrated a similar level of HP when processing characters shared between the simplified and traditional scripts, simplified Chinese readers were less holistic than traditional Chinese readers in perceiving simplified characters; this effect depended mainly on their writing rather than reading performance. However, the two groups did not differ in HP of (...) traditional characters, regardless of their difference in reading and writing performances. Our image analysis showed high visual similarity between the two character types, with a larger variance among simplified characters; this may allow simplified Chinese readers to interpolate and generalize their skills to traditional characters. Thus, transfer of perceptual expertise may be constrained by both the similarity in feature and the difference in exemplar variance between the categories. (shrink)

Given the preponderance of corporate social responsibility initiatives across the corporate landscape and the correspondingly escalating demand for volunteers who participate in these initiatives, a need exists to better understand how to effectively motivate their voluntary engagement with tasks. Against this backdrop, this study argues the need to enhance their volunteer work meanings. We hypothesize that pride in volunteer work and volunteering as a calling are determinants of perceptions of the meaningfulness of volunteer work. In addition, we reveal that an (...) organization’s social responsibility climate (SRC) is a key moderator in these relationships. Interestingly, an SRC is a double-edged sword such that it strengthens the relationship between meaning and pride, yet weakens the relationship between meaning and calling. Findings are discussed, along with managerial implications and future research directions. (shrink)

A team of philosophical writers examines the startling ideas and arguments of this pundit of persuasion.

Attention has recently been proposed as the mechanism underlying the cognitive effects associated with bilingualism. However, similar to bilingualism, the term attention is complex, dynamic, and can vary from one activity to another. Throughout our daily lives, we use different types of attention that differ in complexity: sustained attention, selective attention, alternating attention, divided attention, and disengagement of attention. The present paper is a focused review summarizing the results from studies that explore the link between bilingualism and attention. For each (...) level of attention, a brief overview of relevant theoretical models will be discussed along with a spotlight on paradigms and tasks used to measure these forms of attention. The findings illustrate that different types and levels of attention are modified by the variety of bilingual experiences. Future studies wishing to examine the effects of bilingualism on attention are encouraged to embrace the complexity and diversity of both constructs rather than making global claims about bilingualism and attention. (shrink)

This study examined the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility by focusing on the mediating role of organizational ethical culture and the moderating role of managerial discretion. Based on a sample of 242 domestic Chinese firms, we found that CEO ethical leadership positively influences corporate social responsibility via organizational ethical culture. In addition, moderated path analysis indicated that CEO founder status strengthens while firm size weakens the direct effect of CEO ethical leadership on organizational ethical culture and (...) its indirect effect on corporate social responsibility. Theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

This study examined the relationship between workplace sexual harassment as perceived by female employees and the family satisfaction of their husbands. It also considered the mediating roles of employees’ job tension and work-to-family conflict and the moderating role of employees’ work–home segmentation preference in this relationship. The results, based on data from 210 Chinese employee–spouse dyads collected at four time points, indicated that employees’ perceptions of sexual harassment were positively related to their job tension, which in turn increased WFC. Moreover, (...) WFC was negatively related to spouse family satisfaction. The negative relationship between sexual harassment and spouse family satisfaction was mediated by employees’ job tension and WFC. Finally, work–home segmentation preference attenuated the relationship between job tension and WFC. Our results provided insightful theoretical contributions and managerial implications for the sexual harassment and work–family literatures. (shrink)

The goal of the 2010 Ontology Summit was to address the current shortage of persons with ontology expertise by developing a strategy for the education of ontologists. To achieve this goal we studied how ontologists are currently trained, the requirements identified by organizations that hire ontologists, and developments that might impact the training of ontologists in the future. We developed recommendations for the body of knowledge that should be taught and the skills that should be developed by future ontologists; these (...) recommendations are intended as guidelines for institutions and organizations that may consider establishing a program for training ontologists. Further, we recommend a number of specific actions for the community to pursue. (shrink)

On March 14-15, 2006, at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD there took place the first Upper Ontology Summit (UOS). This was a convening of custodians of several prominent upper ontologies, key technology participants, and interested other parties, with the purpose of finding a means to relate the different ontologies to each other. The result is reflected in a joint communiqué, directed to the larger ontology community and the general public, and expressing a joint (...) intent to build bridges among the existing upper ontologies in ways designed to increase and rationalize their utilization and to enhance their semantic interoperability. (shrink)

기존 선행연구에서 녹문의 본체론은 두 가지 견해로 갈리고 있다. 하나는 리기이원론이고, 다른 하나는 기일원론이다. 대다수 성리학자들이우주 사이에 理와 氣가 같이 있다고 하는 것에 비해, 녹문은 우주 사이에 하나의 氣만 있고, 理를 안배할 틈이 없다고 분명히 말한다. 따라서본 논문은 기일원론에 초점을 맞추어 연구를 수행하였다. 一元내지 二元이라는 용어가 동양철학에는 맞지 않는 개념이라는 지적이 여러 번 있어왔다. 하지만 아직 대안이 없기 때문에, 관행적으로정주학의 본체론은 리기이원론이라고 규정한다. 리와 기가 같이 있긴하지만, 논리적 선후로 볼 때는 리의 우선성을 강조하기도 한다. 그리고形而上者는 理, 形而下者는 氣라고 전제한다. 녹문이 (...) 본체를 기 하나로만 규정하긴 하지만, 리를 도외시하지 않는다. 성리학의 종지인 성즉리, 리즉태극을 담일한 기를 바탕으로 하여 논증한다. 그리하여 정주학적 실체 개념인 리는 기의 자연성으로 내재화된다. 즉, 녹문은 기의 자연성을 리라고 규정하는 것이다. 기일원론이라고 하여 기만을 얘기하지 않기 때문에, 정주학과 변별성을 드러내기 위해 ‘一原’이라는 용어를 사용하였다. 녹문은 一原分殊로써 형이상과 형이하를 분별하고, 일원에도 불리부잡이 있고, 분수에도 불리부잡이 있다고 설명한다. 녹문은 자신의 종지를 理氣同實․心性一致라고 말한다. 理氣同實은 본연지리와 본연지기의 일치, 心性一致는 본심과 본성의 일치를 뜻한다. 리기동실․심성일치는 외암이 앞서 제출한 명제이다. 외암과 녹문은 본체론이 다르기 때문에, 그에 따라 함의도 다르게 된다. 외암은 리기이원을전제하고, 리기불리 차원에서 본연지리와 본연지기의 일치를 말한다. 그에 비해, 녹문은 리기불리에서 기일원으로 환원한 상태에서, 본연지리와본연지기의 일치를 말한다. 녹문이 말하는 기 하나는 湛一之氣=浩然之氣=元氣로서 純善無惡한 가치 개념을 지닌다. 그러므로 녹문의 리기론은 존재상에서는 담일한 기 하나로, 가치상에서는 본연으로 일치하는, 진정한 일치를 말한다는 것이 특징이다. 녹문의 종지인 心性一致는 본심과 본성의 일치를 말한다. 녹문은 심성일치를 담일지기를 바탕으로 하여 논증함으로써, 性은 氣의 德, 心은氣의 靈이라는 명제를 제출한다. 그리하여 性善은 理가 선한 것이 아니라, 氣가 선한 것, 心靈은 氣가 靈한 것이라고 주장한다. 녹문이 기를 중시한다고 하여, 청대 기론자들처럼 인간의 본성을 인욕과 정감으로 규정하는 것이 아니다. 성리학에서 性의 내용은 仁義中正, 心의 내용은 虛 靈知覺이다. 녹문 역시 여기에 충실하지만, 담일지기를 근거로 제시함으로써, 氣․心․性이 일관하는 논리를 정립한 것이다. (shrink)

녹문 임성주는 18세기 조선후기 철학자이다. 녹문은 호락논쟁이 理와 氣를 분리해 보는 데서 발생했다고 판단하고, 자신의 관점에 따라 새로운 리기론과 심성론을 정립한다. 녹문 철학의 종지는 理氣同實⋅心性一致이고, 녹문은 담일한 기 본체를 바탕으로 자신의 종지를 논증한다. 그리하여 리기는 이원이 아니라 기일원으로 환원되고, 심성은 심으로 환원된다. 심의 존재근거는 기이기 때문에, 결국 녹문의 본체론은 氣一原論이 되는 것이다. 녹문은 정명도의 일원적 방법론을 원용하여, 자신의 거대한 일원론 철학을 제출한다. 본체의 보편성과 현상의 다양성을 ‘一原分殊’라는 논리구조로 설명한다. 녹문 철학의 특징은 일원과 분수가 모두 본연으로 동일하다는 데 있다. 즉, 체용일원 (...) 내지 본말일치를 의미한다. 심과 성도 본연으로 일치하고, 기와 심과 성도 본연으로 일치하고, 몸과 마음도 본연으로 일치한다는 내용이다. 성리학의 용어로 하면, 기질이 본연과 다르지 않다는 뜻이다. 그리하여 나는 녹문의 철학을 ‘聖人의 관점에서 건립한 철학’이라고 정의 내린다. (shrink)