Competitive advantage and sustainability emerge as important factors for the success of an organization’s overall differentiation. This research aims to identify the relationship between internet banking and bank investment decision, as well as gaging the mediating effects of sustainability and competitive advantage as attributes of investment decisions. To achieve that, a questionnaire was administrated to banks’ employees and customers. To carry out the hypothesis testing, we have employed structural equation modeling through SPSS and SmartPLS. The findings suggest that internet banking, (...) sustainability, and competitive advantage constructs are significant antecedents of banks because they highlight valuable attributes for banks to attain future benefits. This paper contributes to bank managers and scholars by providing a framework and supporting theories that help to identify relevant constructs and strategic resource characteristics. From the findings, we recommend conducting future studies in other countries or fields to generalize our results. (shrink)

Using Least Square Residual Minimization techniques, this paper develops an optimal reserve model, known as the OPREM model, which is essential in optimizing the costs of reserve holding. The paper also sets-out to test and compare the relative predictions of economic trends of the OPREM model as well as the predictions of alternative models in literature. Establishing the predictive accuracy of economic trends of these models are crucial for the gradual and cost-effective accumulation of reserves. The research concludes that, the (...) decision to optimize the cost of reserves under a stable currency environment is reliant on the gold impact factor and not on inflation or interest rates. We also found on further analysis of the OPREM that the OPREM model is better positioned to eliminate the procyclicality and perverse rush in reserve build-ups experienced in developing and emerging countries by effectively setting the reserve stock against economic trends. The research fixes the optimal reserves around a benchmark of 0.7–1.2 of previous year's optimal value. However, in the absence of past optimal values, a benchmark between 2 and 6 times of average inflows for short-term analysis or analysis with small data observations. However, for long-term analysis or analysis with large data frequency, the reserve stock should be fixed on a benchmark of 2–9 times of the average inflows. (shrink)

Le livre de Nadine Bernard n’aborde pas un sujet neuf et ne comble pas un vide bibliographique. Les synthèses anciennes, telle celle de Claude Mossé, et plus récentes, comme le premier volume de l’Histoire des femmes paru sous la direction de Pauline Schmitt-Pantel ou encore le livre récent de Pierre Brulé, ont déjà beaucoup donné au lecteur, spécialiste ou non, qui s’intéresse à ce champ d’étude. Mais ce livre fait pourtant oeuvre utile. Procédant d’une bonne connaissance de la bibliographie...

Developmental research suggests that young children tend to value dominant individuals over subordinates. This research, however, has nearly exclusively been carried out in Western cultures, and cross-cultural research among adults has revealed cultural differences in the valuing of dominance. In particular, it seems that Japanese culture, relative to many Western cultures, values dominance less. We conducted two experiments to test whether this difference would be observed in preschoolers. In Experiment 1, preschoolers in France and in Japan were asked to identify (...) with either a dominant or a subordinate. French preschoolers identified with the dominant, but Japanese preschoolers were at chance. Experiment 2 revealed that Japanese preschoolers were more likely to believe a subordinate than a dominant individual, both compared to chance and compared to previous findings among French preschoolers. The convergent results from both experiments thus reveal an early emerging cross-cultural difference in the valuing of dominance. (shrink)

Biological evolution provides a creative fount of complex and subtle adaptations, often surprising the scientists who discover them. However, because evolution is an algorithmic process that transcends the substrate in which it occurs, evolution’s creativity is not limited to nature. Indeed, many researchers in the field of digital evolution have observed their evolving algorithms and organisms subverting their intentions, exposing unrecognized bugs in their code, producing unexpected adaptations, or exhibiting outcomes uncannily convergent with ones in nature. Such stories routinely reveal (...) creativity by evolution in these digital worlds, but they rarely fit into the standard scientific narrative. Instead they are often treated as mere obstacles to be overcome, rather than results that warrant study in their own right. The stories themselves are traded among researchers through oral tradition, but that mode of information transmission is inefficient and prone to error and outright loss. Moreover, the fact that these stories tend to be shared only among practitioners means that many natural scientists do not realize how interesting and lifelike digital organisms are and how natural their evolution can be. To our knowledge, no collection of such anecdotes has been published before. This paper is the crowd-sourced product of researchers in the fields of artificial life and evolutionary computation who have provided first-hand accounts of such cases. It thus serves as a written, fact-checked collection of scientifically important and even entertaining stories. In doing so we also present here substantial evidence that the existence and importance of evolutionary surprises extends beyond the natural world, and may indeed be a universal property of all complex evolving systems. (shrink)

The article analyses the idea that according to the averroist Jean de Jandun, Master of Arts in Paris at the beginning of the 14th century, human beings are composed of a «double form» the separated intellect on the one hand, the cogitative soul on the other hand. After recalling several major accounts of the time, we explore Jean's reading of Averroes' major conceptions concerning the problem. Finally, we challenge the idea according to which we observe in his writings (...) the radical thesis of a sometimes cogitating sometimes thinking «double human being» that makes of the homo intelligens a punctual and exclusive new being, which is accidentally produced while the thinking takes place. (shrink)

Jean de Jandun (ca. 1285/1328), maître es arts à l'Université de Paris durant la première moitié du quatorzième siècle, est considéré par l'historiographie contemporaine comme le principal tenant de l'"averroi͏̈sme latin", c'est-à-dire comme le défenseur majeur d'une psychologie extrême dans laquelle l'intellect est unique, éternel, et séparé par essence des hommes. Sa noétique procède en réalité d'une réarticulation ou d'une reprise active du corpus latin d'Averroès et l'on étudie sur trois plans (le rapport au corps, l'intervention de l'image, la (...) production de la pensée) comment elle s'élabore et chemine à l'écart du Grand Commentaire sur le De anima laissé par le Cordouan. La notion de subiectum sert de fil directeur, elle vaut chez Averroès à la fois pour l'intellect sujet-substrat des intelligibles et pour le phantasme qui sert de base à la formation du concept. On décrit donc quels "transferts du sujet" s'opèrent dans la relance de la noétique rushdienne, pour relever des glissements et finalement pointer la mise en place de problématiques nouvelles et constitutives, aussi, de notre modernité. Car, en reconnaissant à l'"averroi͏̈sme" une production réellement philosophique qu'on tendait à lui refuser, on fait apparaître combien l'oeuvre de Jean est solidaire de l'invention ou de l'accentuation d'une question capitale dont nous sommes héritiers : celle du sujet humain des pensées, celle de l'assomption de l'homme comme sujet. (shrink)

To remain financially viable and continue to accomplish their social missions, nonprofits are increasingly adopting a hybrid organizational form that combines commercial and social welfare logics. While studies recognize that individual organizations vary in how they incorporate and manage hybridity, variation at the level of the organizational form remains poorly understood. Existing studies tend to treat forms as either hybrid or not, limiting our understanding of the different ways a hybrid form may combine multiple logics and how such combinations evolve (...) over time. Analyzing 14 years of data from Canadian nonprofits seeking funding for social enterprise activities, we identify two novel dimensions along which a hybrid form may vary—the locus of integration and the scope of logics. We further find that as the commercial logic became more widespread within the nonprofit sector, variants of the hybrid form shifted from primarily emphasizing the commercial logic to more equally emphasizing both the commercial and social welfare logics and integrating the two logics in multiple ways. Drawing on these findings, we contribute a multi-dimensional conception of hybrid forms and theorize how form-level variation in hybridity can arise from organization-level cognitive challenges that actors face when combining seemingly incompatible logics. We then build on this theorizing to offer an alternative perspective on commercialization of the nonprofit sector as a contextually dependent rather than universal trend. (shrink)

Toujours, dans toute proposition affirmative veritable, necessaire ou contingente, universelle ou singuliere, la notion du predicat est comprise en quelque facon dans celle du sujet, praedicatum inest subjecto, ou bien je ne sais ce que c'est que la vetite. Parce qu'elles mettaient principalement l'accent sur les liaisons conceptuelles, les precisions de ce genre ont ete interpretees comme autant d'indices permettant de reconstituer le contenu du predicat de verite a partir de presupposes coherentistes. Dans le concensus qui s'est etabli sur ce (...) point, le role hermeneutique tres excessif accorde a la notion de systeme a eu une portee aussi considerable que le contenu des quelques textes generalement allegues. Si on admet, au contraire, qu'il y a bien une doctrine leibnizienne de la verite, alors on est amene a inscrire la position de Leibniz dans le contexte du debat relatif a l'adaequatio rei et a souligner davantage ce qui l'apparente a une theorie de la verite-correspondance. Cet argument principal est soutenu par des analyses de detail dans la logique. Un attention particuliere est apportee aux valeurs des variables du nouveau calcul, a la fonction du predicat de possibilite, au probleme relatif a la constantia subjecti et au statut des entites intensionnelles. L'image de l'ontologie leibnizienne s'en trouve modifiee et precisee: a la fois possibiliste et factualiste, elle est traversee de tensions importantes et occupe une place tout a fait singuliere dans cette partie de la philosophie qui connait aujourd'hui un si profond renouveau. (shrink)

When the meta-philosophies of Nominalism and Realism are compared, it is often said that Nominalism is motivated by a methodology of ontological economy, while Realism would be motivated by an appeal to Common Sense. In this paper, I argue that this association is misguided. After briefly comparing the meta-philosophy of Common Sense and the meta-philosophy of economy, I show that the core motivation in favour of Realism relies in fact in a principle of economy which violates the methodology of Common (...) Sense. I conclude that Common Sense philosophers should endorse Nominalism. (shrink)

Analyse du rapport entre la conception de l'individu et celle de l'espace résultant de l'élaboration d'une "schizo-analyse" comme critique de la psychanalyse classique. A travers l'étude de cette conception originale de la spatialité inspirée de la phénoménologie, l'article révèle la difficulté, pour Deleuze et Guattari, d'une réinterprétation de l'individu, à partir du phénomène central du corps, qui ne soit pas transcendantale.

This article aims to interpret Hegel'sPhilosophy of Historyin order to understand how Hegel can propose a historical comprehension of normativity. Shedding light on the notion of the problem (Aufgabe) in Hegel's philosophy, I maintain that people invent and transform their norms throughout history when they encounter problematic situations. This perspective makes it possible to read the Hegelian philosophy of history in line with current anti-metaphysical interpretations of Hegel.

This paper examines the history of animal behavior studies after the synthesis period. Three episodes are considered: the adoption of the theory of natural selection, the mathematization of ideas, and the spread of molecular methods in behavior studies. In these three episodes, students of behavior adopted practices and standards developed in population ecology and population genetics. While they borrowed tools and methods from these fields, they made distinct uses that set them relatively apart and led them to contribute, in their (...) own way, to evolutionary theory. These episodes also highlight some limitations of “conjunction narratives” centered on the relation between a discipline and the modern synthesis. A trend in conjunction narratives is to interpret any development related to evolution in a discipline as an “extension,” an “integration,” or as a “delayed” synthesis. I here suggest that this can lead to underestimate discontinuities in the history of evolutionary biology. (shrink)

There are three families of solutions to the traditional Amputation Paradox: Eliminativism, Contingent Identity Theories, and Theories of Coincident Entities. Theories of Coincident Entities challenge our common understanding of the relation between identity and parthood, since they accept that two things can be mereologically coincident without being identical. The contemporary discussion of the Amputation Paradox tends to mention only one theory of Coincident Entities, namely the Constitution View, which violates the mereological principle of Extensionality. But in fact, there is another (...) theory, namely the Unique Part View, which violates another mereological principle. In this paper, I argue that the contemporary focus on the Constitution View is unmotivated, at least when we are confronted with the Amputation Paradox, and that a balanced comparison of the two views should favour the Unique Part View. (shrink)

Four experiments examined the strategies that individuals develop in sentential reasoning. They led to the discovery of five different strategies. According to the theory proposed in the paper, each of the strategies depends on component tactics, which all normal adults possess, and which are based on mental models. Reasoners vary their use of tactics in ways that have no deterministic account. This variation leads different individuals to assemble different strategies, which include the construction of incremental diagrams corresponding to mental models, (...) and the pursuit of the consequences of a single model step by step. Moreover, the difficulty of a problem (i.e., the number of mental models required by the premises) predisposes reasoners towards certain strategies. Likewise, the sentential connectives in the premises also bias reasoners towards certain strategies, e.g., conditional premises tend to elicit reasoning step by step whereas disjunctive premises tend to elicit incremental diagrams. (shrink)

Le but de l’article est double. Il s’agit d’abord de présenter la position du maître ès arts Jean de Jandun (m. 1328) concernant les rapports entre métaphysique et politique, puis d’indiquer comment sa solution, fondée sur l’idée d’un agir « en intention seconde », en fait l’héritier d’Averroès et, plus lointainement, de la doctrine de la providence d’Alexandre d’Aphrodise. Si le philosophe doit occuper un rang fondamental dans la cité en tant qu’il enseigne au prince ce qu’il faut savoir (...) de Dieu, cette fonction ne le subordonne aucunement puisqu’il n’est en vue des autres que secunda intentione. Comment Jean de Jandun l’explicite-t-il? Et que doit-il au providentialisme métaphysique de ses prédécesseurs grec et arabe? C’est à cela que l’article est consacré. (shrink)

Ce livre s’efforce de réparer une injustice : proposer une réflexion d’ensemble sur l'œuvre du philosophe français Mikel Dufrenne (1910-1995) qui semble un peu délaissée voire méconnue aujourd’hui. Si sa démarche phénoménologique héritée de Husserl le conduit immanquablement à s’interroger sur la place singulière que l’objet esthétique occupe dans notre monde, son projet est plus ambitieux. L’attention que Mikel Dufrenne porte aux différents arts (les arts plastiques, la musique, la poésie) ainsi qu’à la richesse des expériences esthétiques vécues, décrites et (...) commentées, lui permet en effet de viser un but supérieur : non seulement redéfinir et réorganiser la phénoménologie autour de la question de l’art, mais faire de l’œuvre ce qui permet de remonter vers un principe originaire, la Nature, qui fonde toute création. Cette tâche singulière et méconnue méritait bien un effort philosophique collectif dont le présent ouvrage est le fruit. (shrink)

Dariusz Łukasiewicz has investigated in depth the “Argument from Chance” which argues that the data revealing chance in the world are incompatible with Divine Providence. Łukasiewicz agrees that these data undermine the traditional model of Providence—a fine-grained model in which every single detail is controlled by God—but maintains that they are not incompatible with a coarse-grained model—in which God leaves to chance many aspects of history (including some horrendous evils). Furthermore, Łukasiewicz provides independent reasons to prefer this coarse-grained model. Even (...) though I agree that a maximally fine-grained model is undermined by the scientific data, I argue that this is no sufficient reason to adopt a model as coarse-grained as Łukasiewicz’s. I propose a model of intermediate level of fine-grainedness which could avoid the drawbacks of both extremes, and seems to me to provide a more traditional approach to the problem of evil. (shrink)

Véronique Dasen, professeure d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie classique à l’Université de Fribourg, poursuit son travail sur l’histoire de la médecine et de la magie, des femmes et de l’enfance, en proposant un recueil très cohérent d’études antérieures (mais en partie inédites) développées et approfondies, portant sur la maternité et la petite enfance dans les mondes grec et romain. La première partie de ce grand livre, « Le secret d’Omphale », s’intéresse aux métaphores visuelles du ven...

Any philosopher who defends Free Will should have an answer to the epistemological question: “how do we know that we have such a capacity?” A traditional answer to this question is that we have some form of introspective access to our own Free Will. In recent times though, many philosophers have considered any such introspectionist theory as so obviously wrong that it hardly needs discussion, especially when Free Will is understood in libertarian terms. One of the rare objections to appear (...) as an explicit argument was proposed by van Inwagen in his Essay on Free Will. In this paper, I address van Inwagen’s anti-introspection argument; I argue that it is both inconsistent with his overall treatment of the Existence Question (namely, with his defence of the existence of Free Will from reflections about morality), and inconclusive in itself (at least for anyone not ready to endorse general scepticism about perception). In passing, I give a clarification of the notion of Introspection, in the case of Freedom, that also sets a more favourable stage for the evaluation of further objections. (shrink)

In many experimental sciences, like particle physics or molecular biology, the proper place for establishing facts is the laboratory. In the sciences of population biology, however, the laboratory is often seen as a poor approximation of what occurs in nature. Results obtained in the field are usually more convincing. This raises special problems: it is much more difficult to obtain stable, repeatable results in the field, where environmental conditions vary out of the experimenter’s control, than in the laboratory. We examine (...) here how this problem affected an influential experimental research tradition in community ecology, the study of the ecology of the rocky seashores. In the 1960s, a handful of North-American ecologists, most notably Joseph Connell, Robert Paine and Paul Dayton, made the rocky seashores a model study system for experimenting in the field. Their experiments were deceptively simple: they removed species living on the seashore and described the resulting effects on the local ecology. These experiments exerted a deep influence on community ecology. They provided evidence for speculative developments concerning the theory of interspecific competition, the factors responsible for species richness and the ecology of food webs. They also stimulated novel conceptual developments. In particular, Paine developed the predation hypothesis, which states that the presence of predators can favour species richness, before introducing the keystone species concept, according to which some species exert disproportionate effects on ecological systems. More broadly, these experiments gave support to a methodological trend in favour of field experimentation. Only controlled perturbations in the field, it seemed, provided a reliable method to get insights into the structure of ecological communities. However, as experiments were continued in time and repeated in different sites, divergent results appeared. We analyse here how intertidal researchers coped with the variability of environmental conditions and tried to stabilize their results. In the process, they reconsidered not only their early conclusions, but also the exclusive status given to field experiments. Expanding on this case study, we discuss some significant differences between laboratory and field experiments. (shrink)

From a purely statistical point of view, Socrates could appear as the outstanding figure of Epictetus’ philosophy, though Epictetus never dedicates a full discourse to the figure of Socrates, as he does for the Cynic sage. The aim of this paper is to under-stand why and how Epictetus described Socrates. It successively studies Epictetus’ sources, the way he uses them, and the picture of Socrates depicted by these means. Epictetus chooses traits and anecdotes compatible with his own Stoicism : the (...) importance of dialectic, the care for what is « within our power », piety and stoic death. Primarily, Epictetus’ strategy enables him to appear as a new Socrates. Socrates’ life is a para­digm, and his complete lack of dogmatism leaves room for any possible philosophical adaptation. (shrink)

Dans son ouvrage Contre les « modèles » de justice constitutionnelle. Essai de critique méthodologique, Guillaume Tusseau décide de déconstruire et de combattre la traditionnelle dichotomie entre le soi-disant « modèle américain » et celui « européen » ou « kelsénien ». En effet, cette distinction est inutile voire contre-productive. Cet écrit est, pour l’auteur, l’occasion d’énoncer un projet comparatif, s’affranchissant des cadres antérieurs. Si sa démonstration est convaincante et fortement argumentée, une autre position théorique peut toutefois être embrassée. Sans (...) être opposée à celle développée dans l’ouvrage, elle peut se présenter de manière alternative, voire complémentaire. Celle-ci ouvre alors deux pistes de réflexion : la définition du concept de modèle et une remise en cause radicale des critères employés actuellement par la doctrine. Soutenus par une démarche problématologique, nous appelons à l’avènement d’un nouveau paradigme plus pragmatique et questionnant, que l’on pourrait qualifier de « post-moderne ». (shrink)

When is a conclusion worth deriving? We claim that a conclusion is worth deriving to the extent that it is relevant in the sense of relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1995). To support this hypothesis, we experiment with ''indeterminate relational problems'' where we ask participants what, if anything, follows from premises such as A is taller than B, A is taller than C . With such problems, the indeterminate response that nothing follows is common, and we explain why. We distinguish (...) several types of determinate conclusions and show that their rate is a function of their relevance. We argue that by appropriately changing the formulation of the premises, the relevance of determinate conclusions can be increased, and the rate of indeterminate responses thereby reduced. We contrast these relevance-based predictions with predictions based on linguistic congruence. (shrink)

La transition sociale et écologique, dans notre moment anthropocène, invite à faire un pas supplémentaire quant au retentissement de cette question 'qu'est- ce que l'humain? '. Elle exige de remettre une fois de plus sur le métier une compréhension toujours plus ajustée de ce qui fait pour nous notre humanité. Se revisitent ainsi les manières de dire l'humain, de travailler à inventer une langue et des mots qui, avec justesse, en approchent au plus près la singularité.' Ce questionnement philosophique se (...) décline ici en quatre temps: La merveille et le terrible: repenser l'humain, cet étrange animal. Le monde technique: re-délimiter l'humain? L'humain et l'inhumain. Limiter l'inhumain: lire Montaigne aujourd'hui."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This paper gives a detailed narrative of a controversial empirical research in postwar population genetics, the analysis of the cytological polymorphisms of an Australian grasshopper, Moraba scurra. This research intertwined key technical developments in three research areas during the 1950s and 1960s: it involved Dobzhansky’s empirical research program on cytological polymorphisms, the mathematical theory of natural selection in two-locus systems, and the building of reliable estimates of natural selection in the wild. In the mid-1950s the cytologist Michael White discovered an (...) interesting case of epistasis in populations of Moraba scurra. These observations received a wide diffusion when theoretical population geneticist Richard Lewontin represented White’s data on adaptive topographies. These topographies connected the information on the genetic structure of these grasshopper populations with the formal framework of theoretical population genetics. As such, they appeared at the time as the most successful application of two-locus models of natural selection to an empirical study system. However, this connection generated paradoxical results: in the landscapes, all grasshopper populations were located on a ridge while they were expected to reach a peak. This puzzling result fueled years of research and triggered a controversy attracting contributors from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. While the original problem seemed, at first, purely empirical, the subsequent controversy affected the main mathematical tools used in the study of two-gene systems under natural selection. Adaptive topographies and their underlying mathematical structure, Wright’s mean fitness equations, were submitted to close scrutiny. Suspicion eventually shifted to the statistical machinery used in data analysis, reflecting the crucial role of statistical inference in applied population genetics. In the 1950s and 1960s, population geneticists were not simply in search for new generalizations about the evolutionary process and for new evidence about genetic variation: struggling against statistical artifacts, they were searching for reliable tests and descriptors to analyze their data. (shrink)

Classical anthropology in East Africa has tended to associate pastoralism with a masculine ideology. Among the Mursi people however, women are clearly associated with success in the pastoral economy, if one considers the different ages in the life cycle. The social position of the Mother-in-law and the Elder, the culmination of a process of maturing which stresses social organization by age-set, suggests that gender relations may be a fruitful subject of inquiry. These personae allow us to understand why certain older (...) women achieve social positions usually accorded to men, but also why, in the final analysis, these women remain subordinated to the (male) Elder, because of a time lag vis-a-vis their male equivalents of the same age in reaching maturity. The article will first consider the political order resulting from differences in maturity between warriors and elders. Other types of cross-sex relation, such as those between young girls and warriors will then be described, before locating the place of the Elders and the Mothers-in-law vis-a-vis the group as a whole, and its animal herds. (shrink)

Cet article tente d’établir un diagnostic épistémologique du phénomène contemporain de développement des théories complotistes. Il part de la critique de deux approches du phénomène. L’approche « hyper-critique » consiste à dire que le développement du complotisme manifeste un manque « d’esprit critique », et prescrit donc comme thérapie d’enseigner aux élèves à ne rien croire sans l’avoir vérifié soi-même. Je réponds que cette stratégie « individualiste épistémique » est inefficace voire contre-productive, car une étude des discours conspirationnistes révèle que (...) le conspirationnisme se nourrit précisément d’une rhétorique individualiste. La seconde approche que je rejette consiste à nier l’existence de tout phénomène problématique de « théories du complot ». Cette approche s’appuie essentiellement sur la difficulté qu’il y a à définir précisément ce qu’est l’état d’esprit conspirationniste. Je réponds en définissant le conspirationnisme comme une exacerbation de l’individualisme épistémique, c’est-à-dire l’incapacité à distinguer les sources testimoniales fiables des sources testimoniales non fiables. (shrink)

Pierre Aubenque est mort le 23 février 2020, à l’âge de 90 ans. Né en juillet 1929 à l’Isle-Jourdain dans le Gers, il était un spécialiste internationalement reconnu d’Aristote, professeur de philosophie antique à l’université Paris-Sorbonne de 1970 à 1991, où il a dirigé le centre Léon Robin de 1973 à 1990, ainsi que l’UFR de Philosophie. Surtout connu pour ses monographies sur Aristote, Le Problème de l’être chez Aristote (PUF, 1962), et La Prudence chez Aristote (PUF, 1963), il a (...) aussi co-... (shrink)

The problem of the Trinity is often framed as a paradox between some propositions central to the doctrine of the Trinity that seem to be logically in tension with each other. However, a problem of Paradox presupposes that we have a sufficient understanding of the meanings of the propositions (otherwise we wouldn’t even have any appearance of conflict between these meanings). My claim in this paper is that the main problem of the Trinity is more radical than a problem of (...) Paradox: it’s rather a problem of Meaninglessness, in the sense that the difficult challenge is to grasp a meaning for the central propositions of the doctrine (not to render logically compatible some meanings clearly grasped). I show how we can respond to the problem of Meaninglessness and how, once we have solved it, there is no need to try and dissolve the appearance of contradiction which constitutes the problem of Paradox. As far as the problem of Paradox goes, the solution adopted here is therefore a form of Mysterianism. (shrink)

Reasoning research has focussed mainly on the type of cognitive processes involved when representing premises and when producing conclusions. But less is known about the factors that guide these representational and inferential processes. What premises are actually taken as input in reasoning? And what conclusions are intended? In this paper it is argued that considerations of relevance are helpful for addressing these issues as a pragmatic analysis of two sorts of tasks is carried out, Wason’s 2-4-6 problem and a conditional (...) reasoning problem . Study 1 indicates that the way this task is communicated may encourage participants to consider misleading information as highly relevant for solving it. Two experiments go on to show that when the relevance of misleading information is contextually diminished, participants are more efficient at providing the correct solution. Study 2 compares the production rate of two sorts of conclusions: logically valid but weakly relevant conclusions and invalid but relevant and pragmatically justified conclusions. This study shows that the relevance of conclusions determines to a large extent whether or not they will be produced. (shrink)