The main objective of this paper is to sketch unifying conceptual and formal framework for inference that is able to explain various proof techniques without implicitly changing the underlying notion of inference rules. We base this framework upon the so-called two-dimensional, i.e., deduction to deduction, account of inference introduced by Tichý in his seminal work The Foundation’s of Frege’s Logic (1988). Consequently, it will be argued that sequent calculus provides suitable basis for such general concept of inference and therefore should (...) not be seen just as technical tool, but philosophically well-founded system that can rival natural deduction in terms of its “naturalness”. (shrink)

The designation of Diego Maradona’s ‘handball’ goal, that it was an intervention by God himself, brings the phenomena of sport and religion into an interrelationship. The basic thesis of this paper is that, despite many of their phenomenal similarities, explicit religion is not, and cannot be, substantially related to sport, as the two manifest themselves in different ways of being. This thesis is supported by arguments from three philosophical areas: 1. The ontological dimension of the manifestation of the sacred in (...) the profane through the process of hierophany in sport does not refer to a specific deity or God, and is therefore not a presentation but an indirect representation of the sacred; 2. The epistemological perspective of the intentional relation of consciousness to religious ritual justifies the necessity of situating them in an overall horizon of references and meanings to the horizon of the lifeworld; 3. The existential and experiential aspects of transformative sport experiences transform the horizon of meanings of empirical reality, but lack the sacramental perspective. Implicit religion as a possibility of transition on a continuum of complementary existential states is a suitable explicative framework for analyzing the phenomenal similarities and essential differences of religion and sport. (shrink)

This pioneering book presents a reconstitution of Charles Sanders Peirce philosophical system as a coherent architecture of concepts that form a unified theory of reality. Historically, the majority of Peircean scholars adopted a thematic approach to study isolated topics such as semiotics and pragmatism without taking into account the author’s broader philosophical framework, which led to a poor and fragmented understanding of Peirce’s work. In this volume, professor Ivo Assad Ibri, past president of The Charles Sanders Peirce Society and a (...) leading figure in the Brazilian community of Peircean scholars, adopts a systemic approach to Peirce’s thought and presents Peirce’s scientific metaphysics as a deep ontological architecture based on a semiotic logic and on pragmatism as criteria of meaning. Originally published in Portuguese, this book became a classic among Brazilian Peircean scholars by presenting a conceptual matrix capable of providing a clear reference system to ground the thematic studies into the broader Peircean system. Now translated to English, this reviewed, amplified and updated edition aims to make this contributions available to the international community of Peircean scholars and to serve as a tool to understand Peirce’s work in a more systemic way by integrating concepts such as experience, phenomenon, existence and reality, as well as theories such as Chance, Continuity, Objective Idealism, Cosmology and Pragmatism, in a coherent system that reveals Peirce’s complex metaphysical architecture. "As the philosophical reputation of Charles S. Peirce continues to rise to first-tier prominence in the history of American philosophy, Ivo Ibri’s Kósmos Noetós assumes a unique status in both a pioneering and a magisterial work of transcontinental Peirce scholarship. This original work of this internationally renowned scholar and editor, and Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of San Paulo, penetrates to the heart of Peirce’s architectonic system of phenomenological, metaphysical, and semiotic categories which heuristically characterize our world as “a universe perfused with signs.” Ibri’s own synergistic commentary on the radiating registers of Peirce’s cosmogonically and pragmatistically conceived “one intelligible theory of the universe” also instructively contributes to the illumination of significant nodes of interface with a range of relevant theoretical trends in the contemporary academy; as well, it places Peirce in the company of such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Kant, and Schelling who preceded Peirce in providing a legacy of first-tier reasoning on our intelligibly developing world. Kosmos Noetos impresses as Ibri’s pure, lucid, passionately thought-loving, philosophical articulation of his own and as the indispensable prolegomena to all future Peirce studies." David Dilworth, State University of New York at Stone Brook – USA "Ivo Ibri has offered us in this exquisite work a framing of the inner logic of Charles S. Peirce's core metaphysical vision and its existential implications. It is a deep and nuanced exploration of the internal dynamics of Peirce’s central metaphysical categories, developed through rigorous and detailed attention to the evolution of Peirce’s thought on the ‘vitally important topics’ of the appearing, the reality, and the intelligibility of the world. The two-leveled format of the book, an intricate weaving of Peirce’s texts and discursive elaboration and linkage by Ibri, gives it a distinctive feel and is the bedrock of its value. The book is a remarkable combination of presentation and analysis. It is informed by Ibri’s deep philosophical culture and is a gentle and convincing argument for the centrality of metaphysics in understanding Peirce’s thought. It offers in a new way indispensable suggestions for our own attempts to think about our places in an evolving universe with the aid of Peirce and offers threads of thought to be followed up by others." Robert E. Innis, University of Massachusetts Lowell – USA. (shrink)

Proof-Theoretic Semantics, by FrancezNissim. London: College Publications, 2015. Pp. xx + 415.

We present two discrete dualities for double Stone algebras. Each of these dualities involves a different class of frames and a different definition of a complex algebra. We discuss relationships between these classes of frames and show that one of them is a weakening of the other. We propose a logic based on double Stone algebras.

The article presents a unique interpretation of Kant’s philosophical development by exploring the relationship between dialectics and criticism. The conceptual analysis of peculiar propositions in some of the philosopher’s early writings reveals essential dialectical insights that lead to critical thinking. The text interprets Kant’s critical methodology from a historical-philosophical and hermeneutical perspective, highlighting its transcendental form of development. Kant’s philosophical development is characterized by the transcendental evolution, which confirms and expands upon the methodological thesis of a necessary transition from the (...) pre-critical dialectics to the philosophical critique. (shrink)

Before examining de Moivre's contributions to the science of mathematics, this article reviews the source materials, consisting of the printed works and the correspondence of de Moivre, and constructs his biography from them. The analytical part examines de Moivre's contributions and achievements in the study of equations, series, and the calculus of probability. De Moivre contributed to the continuing development from Viète to Abel and Galois of the theory of solving equations by means of constructing particular equations, the roots of (...) which can be written in the form $$\sqrt[n]{{a + \sqrt b }} + \sqrt[n]{{a - \sqrt b }}$$. He also discovered the reciprocal equations. In the course of this work de Moivre discovered an expression equivalent to (cos α+i sin α) n =cos n α+i sin n α and, following Cotes, he succeeded in expressing the nth roots of unity in trigonometric form. In the theory of series, de Moivre developed a polynomial theorem encom-passing Newton's binomial theorem and, in particular, a theorem of recurrent series useful in the calculus of probability. The demands of the calculus of probability led de Moivre to an approximation for the binomial coefficients $$\left( {_m^n } \right)$$ for large values of n. The interaction between de Moivre and James Stirling, particularly in regard to the asymptotic series for log (n!), is treated at length. This work supplied the foundation for de Moivre's limit theorem for the binomial distribution. The calculus of probability, which occupied him from 1708 onward, became in time ever more the center of de Moivre's inquiries. Proceeding from contemporary collections of gambling exercises, de Moivre, by introducing an explicit measure of probability for the so-called Laplace experiments, found the beginnings of a theory of probability. De Moivre expanded the classic application of probability calculus to games of chance by addressing himself to the problem of annuities and by adopting Halley's work with its conception of “Probability of life”. De Moivre was the first to publish a mathematically formulated law for the decrements of life derived from mortality tables. (shrink)

Starting from the exposition of the fundamental guiding principles of Peirce's philosophy, mainly, its three categories viewed under his Phenomenology and its correlated Ontology, I conjecture about three possible dimensions of Time, considering the function of predicting the future course of events with varying degrees of certainty as the main role of our human rationality. In these three dimensions, the affection of the first of the three Peircean categories occurs with differentiated intensity, this first category precisely the one that includes (...) the way of being of the incidence of Chance, either in the course of a natural Chronos, or in the course of a temporality produced by human actions, or also equally having incidence in the spontaneity of a subjective time, assumed here as Kairós. Inspired by the recent experience of the pandemic that devastated all corners of the planet, this conjecture suggests dimensions of a temporality frayed ontologically in different degrees, leading to a corresponding fraying of our predictive rationality, imposing upon us the condition of being characters who are left to bet on the course of future factuality to the detriment of choices that would be feasible if a history circumscribed by an intense incidence of Chance had not occurred. Keywords: Peirce, Pragmatism, Semiotics, Chance, Time. (shrink)

The nuclear energy decision-making process is a clear example of the difficulty the Belgian political system has in making decisions. An explanation for this incapability has to be sought among the political elite, which allows the Belgian economy to be directed by special interests.This admission fits into an «elitist consensus», an unwritten agreement among top-political leaders. Threats to this elitist consensus are subtly neutralized, leaving the power of these economie groups unaffected. The power of the private producers of electricity is (...) to a large extent consolidated by the inertia of the political system. This passivity is instrumental in maintaining the elitist consensus. The power of the anti-nuclear groups, measured in its mobilizing effects, is relatively small. As producers of energy, the electricity companies have a privileged position in the Belgian economic system, because energy is thought to be the motor of economic growth. A thorough parliamentary debate on energy could change the elitist consensus but for this, a political majority would have to be found. (shrink)

Charles S. Peirce Society 2016 Presidential Address Peirce never could finalize a book or publish it and especially no book on the aesthetic basis of pragmaticism. This is not only a historical note, but has a deeper meaning. It arouses in the attentive reader a strong desire to do what Peirce himself did not have the chance to do: to find a way of linking together his hints and clues in such a way that respects the spirit of his work (...) and not just its letter. This practice of apprehending the spirit is successful, I believe, when, on the one hand, we familiarize ourselves with the author’s text and, on the other, perhaps more importantly, when we initiate this apprehension because the text arouses a feeling of... (shrink)

Is there a poetic ground in Peirce's philosophy? While this question may sound interesting, it is somehow odd, as Peirce is well–known as a logician, and it is also known by scholars that he was not an expert in poetry, literature, art, or even theories concerning art in general. This paper hypothesizes that there is a starting point in his philosophy that is poetical in its nature. Moreover, Peirce's system is obviously logical in its form, but also keeps the spirit (...) of the original silent feeling of poetry that seems to have fascinated him. Also, I claim there is a Schellingian heritage in Peirce's philosophy that is partially responsible for that poetic starting point. This idea also has, as a support, the supposition that a realistic view of the world provides a hypothesis of symmetry between the human and natural worlds, which provides the basic form for his ontological theories and for the theoretical harmony among Peirce's doctrines. This quality of Peirce's philosophy is a kind of a Greek beauty that is only evident for those who can view his thought not in fragments but as a complex system that has the potency of not only answering classical philosophical questions, but also of giving rise to a new philosophy which needs to be further developed. (shrink)

Natural law as a discipline was definitively institutionalized at universities in the Habsburg monarchy during the reforms of Maria Theresia after 1752. The guiding principles of these reforms were set in the instruction for the chair of natural law in Vienna which was given to Carl Anton Martini. It was Catholic in conception, but it ordered the professor to draw on Grotius. Our article reconstructs the elementary structure of Martini’s theory of natural law with a focus on his conception of (...) state. The article proves that Martini did not adopt Wolff’s conception of deducing duties and obligations from the highest principle for that would conflict with the Catholic emphasis on freedom of will. Instead of that, Martini derived duties and rights from the three God-given ends. Martini perceived the state as based on social contract, after the model of Christian Wolff. However, it seems that Martini rejected the two-contract model and acknowledged only the contract of submission as binding. Martini sought to hold the middle ground between Machiavellians arguing that the subjects lose all rights after the social contract, and radical ‘monarchomachs’ who believe that the ‘populus’ retains the supreme power. Martini argues that the ruler is limited by natural laws; the subjects retain rights to life and to property, but they are denied any right to resistance. Since Martini derived the monarch’s powers from the unlimited duty to guarantee security, he admitted even encroachments on religious freedom. He admitted coercion in matters that would threaten salus civitatis, but respected the inner libertas conscientiae. He also acknowledged a peculiar division of powers differentiating between a legislative, an inspectorial and an executive power. Even though the aim of this division was not a system of checks and balances, a precise description of the scope of the executive power helped to delimit a sphere of individual freedom. (shrink)

"A splendidly illuminating book." —The New York Times Like it or not, George W. Bush has launched a revolution in American foreign policy. He has redefined how America engages the world, shedding the constraints that friends, allies, and international institutions once imposed on its freedom of action. In America Unbound, Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay caution that the Bush revolution comes with serious risks–and, at some point, we may find that America’s friends and allies will refuse to follow his lead, (...) leaving the U.S. unable to achieve its goals. This edition has been extensively revised and updated to include major policy changes and developments since the book’s original publication. (shrink)

Based on Alasdair Urquhart’s representation of not necessarily distributive bounded lattices we exhibit several discrete dualities in the spirit of the “duality via truth” concept by Orłowska and Rewitzky. We also exhibit a discrete duality for Urquhart’s relevant algebras and their frames.

Após a conclusão do curso de medicina psiquiátrica em Lyon, em 1951, Fanon foi acolhido no hospital Saint Alban, para um aprofundamento dos estudos psiquiátricos, tendo ali, trabalhado e pesquisado sob a supervisão do psiquiatra espanhol Francesc Tosquelles, onde praticou os fundamentos da psicoterapia institucional, desenvolvida por Tosquelles e seus colaboradores naquele hospital. Mais tarde, na Argélia, Fanon atuou no hospital de Blida-Joinvile e, posteriormente, na Tunísia, introduzindo reformas, à luz da psicoterapia institucional. A concepção de ser humano que cultivava (...) e a compreensão de que a sociedade doente produz pessoas doentes, levaram-no a um profundo conflito, à medida em que foi tomando consciência da violência do colonialismo francês contra o povo argelino, conforme relatou na carta de demissão que enviou ao Ministro Residente, Robert Lacoste, em 1956. Após o pedido de demissão, adentrou o movimento de libertação da Argélia. Escreveu livros e artigos combatendo o colonialismo e difundindo os ideais revolucionários. Van Renssalaer Potter, por longo tempo atuou como biólogo e bioquímico no MacArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, na Universidade de Winsconsin, na cidade de Madison, onde doentes de câncer eram tratados. Na década de 1970, publicou um livro seminal, Bioética, ponte para o futuro. Anos depois, publicou estudos de Bioética Global. Mais tarde, articulou conceitos de Bioética Profunda. Preocupado com a sobrevivência humana neste planeta, atacado pela irresponsabilidade humana, Potter conclamou a humanidade à tomada de consciência e mudança de condutas. Comparando-se os dois autores, observa-se que os escritos de Fanon foram produzidos na década de 1950, sendo que seu último livro, Os Condenados da Terra, foi escrito em 1961. Potter, por sua vez, escreveu os primeiros estudos de bioética na década de 1970, cerca de uma década após o falecimento de Fanon. Respeitados os limites cronológicos, este estudo se pergunta: A dialética da medicina como política e da política como medicina, na práxis de Fanon, teria sintonias bioéticas? Para enfrentar este problema, o trabalho contextualiza a formação de Fanon, identificando os princípios da práxis médico-psiquiátrica dele. Em seguida, demonstra-se as contradições do colonialismo, identificando uma dialética da medicina como política e da política como medicina. Adiante, informa-se a contribuição de Van Rensselaer Potter, na proposição da bioética. Finalmente, argumenta-se a favor das sintonias bioéticas presentes nas passagens selecionadas. O procedimento metodológico é a pesquisa bibliográfica, analítico-dedutiva. Palavras-chave: Colonialismo. Consciência. Medicina. Política. Sintonias bioéticas. (shrink)

Por mente resiliente, quero dizer a capacidade de toda mente de lidar com a dureza da alteridade, que exige um esforço contínuo para permitir o desenvolvimento de hábitos de conduta. O predicado da resiliência vem da capacidade da mente de se autocorrigir, cada vez que esses hábitos perdem sua eficiência mediativa, exigindo, portanto, a reconstrução de novas mediações cognitivas como hábitos de ação. Neste artigo, proponho refletir sobre o conjunto de interpretantes semióticos proposto por Peirce com o objetivo de explorar (...) sua faceta habitual. Com esta linha de análise, pretendo mostrar que a resiliência é uma propriedade necessária que toda mente deve ter no mais alto grau para lidar com o conflito entre interpretantes emocionais e lógicos, onde a predominância do primeiro em detrimento do segundo pode gerar situações agudas de sofrimento psicológico bloqueando o acesso a representações que, de outra forma, poderiam romper a força bruta da alteridade. (shrink)