Integrated Information Theory (IIT) identifies consciousness with having a maximum amount of integrated information. But a thing’s having the maximum amount of anything cannot be intrinsic to it, for that depends on how that thing compares to certain other things. IIT’s consciousness, then, is not intrinsic. A mereological argument elaborates this consequence: IIT implies that one physical system can be conscious while a physical duplicate of it is not conscious. Thus, by a common and reasonable conception of intrinsicality, IIT’s consciousness (...) is not intrinsic. It is then argued that to avoid the implication that consciousness is not intrinsic, IIT must abandon its Exclusion Postulate, which prohibits overlapping conscious systems. Indeed, theories of consciousness that attribute consciousness to physical systems, should embrace the view that some conscious systems overlap. A discussion of the admittedly counterintuitive nature of this solution, along with some medical and neuroscientific realities that would seem to support it, is included. (shrink)

In this paper, we introduce a novel difficulty for teleosemantics, viz., its inability to account for what we call unexploited content—content a representation has, but which the system that harbors it is currently unable to exploit. In section two, we give a characterization of teleosemantics. Since our critique does not depend on any special details that distinguish the variations in the literature, the characterization is broad, brief and abstract. In section three, we explain what we mean by unexploited content, and (...) argue that any theory of content adequate to ground representationalist theories in cognitive science must allow for it.1 In section four, we show that teleosemantic theories of the sort we identify in section two cannot accommodate unexploited content, and are therefore unacceptable if intended as attempts to ground representationalist cognitive science. Finally, in section five, we speculate that the existence and importance of unexploited content has likely been obscured by a failure to distinguish representation from indication, and by a tendency to think of representation as reference. (shrink)

A timely and accessible synthesis of the strengths, weaknesses and reality of science through the eyes of a practicing scientist.

In 1896 William James published an essay entitled The Will to Believe, in which he defended the legitimacy of religious faith against the attacks of such champions of scientific method as W.K. Clifford and Thomas Huxley. James's work quickly became one of the most important writings in the philosophy of religious belief. James Wernham analyses James's arguments, discusses his relation to Pascal and Renouvier, and considers the interpretations, and misinterpretations, of James's major critics. Wernham shows (...) convincingly that James was unaware of many destructive ambiguitities in his own doctrines and arguments, although clear and consistent in his view that our obligation to believe in theism is not a moral but a prudential obligation -- a foolish-not-to-believe doctrine, rather than a not-immoral-to-believe one. Wernham also shows that the doctrine is best read as affirming the wisdom of gambling that God exists, a notion which James failed to distinguish from believing and which, among other things, he explicitly identified with faith. James's pragmatism, a theory concerning the meaning of truth, is shown to be quite distinct from the doctrine of The Will to Believe. In concentrating on a careful analysis of this doctrine of the will-to-believe, Wernham not only makes a major contribution to understanding James's philosophy, but also clarifies issues in the philosophy of religion and in the analysis of belief and faith. (shrink)

From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott, the compelling tale of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organized state society For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and (...) warfare. This book, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless. Among the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain; agricultural practices that enhance mobility; pliable ethnic identities; devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders; and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states. In accessible language, James Scott, recognized worldwide as an eminent authority in Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies, tells the story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination. He redefines our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even our fundamental ideas about what constitutes civilization, and challenges us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of “internal colonialism.” This new perspective requires a radical reevaluation of the civilizational narratives of the lowland states. Scott’s work on Zomia represents a new way to think of area studies that will be applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen. (shrink)

One of the human dynamics that spiritual formation must address is the set of messages that play over and over in our minds. This self-talk or personal commentary frames our reactions to life and its circumstances and shapes how we relate to God and others. Often, the pattern of self-talk that we employ is negative, and in the past decade Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff have developed a series of self-compassion exercises designed to dispute this negative thinking. Their research and (...) program of Mindful Self-Compassion have been widely reported in the mainstream media and are marketed as being secular and religiously neutral. This article explores ways in which self-compassion practices can be used as a Christian spiritual practice. This article also examines some of the implicit theological assumptions in what is presented as a religiously neutral program and considers how Christians, from a spiritual formation standpoint, might view both self-critical self-talk and its remediation through the practice of self-compassion. (shrink)

If S is a finite set, let |S| be the cardinality of S. We show that if $m \in \omega, A \subseteq \omega, B \subseteq \omega$ , and |{i: 1 ≤ i ≤ 2 m & x i ∈ A}| can be computed by an algorithm which, for all x 1 ,...,x 2 m , makes at most m queries to B, then A is recursive in the halting set K. If m = 1, we show that A is recursive.

This book traces the development of Coleridge's philosophy of language, situating it in the intellectual climate of his era. James C. McKusick offers the persuasive and original argument that Coleridge's linguistic theories for a coherent body of thought underlying his poetry, criticism, and aesthetics.

In this book, he also demonstrates a skill shared by the greatest radical thinkers: to reveal positions we've been taught to think of as extremism to be emanations of simple human decency and common sense.

(2002). Transgression, Transformation and Enlightenment: the Trickster as poet and teacher. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 255-272.

In his book, Earth and Other Ethics, Christopher Stone attempts to account for the moral dimension of our lives insofar as it extends to nonhuman animals, plants, species, ecosystems, and even inanimate objects. In his effort to do this, he introduces a technical notion, the moral plane. Moral planes are defined both by the ontological commitments they make and by the governance mIes (moral maxims) that pertain to the sorts of entities included in the plane. By introducing these planes, Stone (...) is left with a set of problems. (1) Do the planes provide anything more objective than a set of alternative ways of looking at moral problems? (2) How can one resolve apparent conflicts between the recommendations forthcoming from distinct planes? (3) Why do certain entities constitute moral planes; and how do we decide which planes to “buy into?” Stone’s answers to these questions endorse aseries of concessions to moral relativism. In this paper I outline an alternative to Stone’s moral planes which, while sympathetic to his ethical concerns, comes down squarelyon the side of moral realism. (shrink)

I. Introduction. In his recent book, On What There Must Be, Ross Harrison presents two arguments designed to show that in all possible worlds there are objects which exist unperceived. The modality of these two “refutations of idealism” makes them especially interesting. A philosopher might, after all, believe that there is more to this world than immaterial minds and their sensations and yet believe that a world of such entities is still possible.

THE importance of understanding Aquinas’ metaphysical method before attempting a reconstruction of his metaphysical thought is evident. Unfortunately, however, his only clear statement of that method is found in his Commentary on the Metaphysics, a work whose nature has never been definitively established. Hence, prior to any discussion of the method employed in Thomist metaphysics, a few words are needed on the intentions which led Aquinas to compose his Commentary, and on the goal he wished to reach through that exposition.

Cost-benefit analysis--applying economic reasoning to increasingly complex health policy decisions--continues to be a source of vehement disagreement among its practitioners. re than merely technical issues in measurement and accounting are involved; basic social values embedded in different intellectual traditions are coming into conflict. The "human capital" and "willingness-to-pay" approaches can each aid policy formulation, but neither can substitute for open political process.

The ethical teacher Ivan Snook, 2003, Palmerston North, New Zealand, Dunmore Press, $34.95 (pbk), 199 pp. ISBN 0‐86469‐432‐6 This work by the well known New Zealand scholar offers a useful survey o...