The world is facing an apparently increasing dose of violence. Obviously, there cannot be a simple solution to this complex problem. But at the same time it may be appreciated that, in the interests of humanity, a solution must be pursued in every possible way by everyone. This article is concerned with what one could possibly do at the academic level. Since lack of openness of thought appears to be a fundamental contributor to this unfortunate problem, attempting to cultivate this (...) quality at all levels can perhaps go a long way towards making our earth a better place to live in. With science and engineering education, how can one possibly blend this concern? History of science and the subject of measurement uncertainty may present the necessary scope to the educator to discuss with the students the desirability and necessity of this quality. (shrink)

The online version of the original article can be found under doi:10.1007/s11948-007-9036-3.

The object of this communication is to reflect on the recent article by James Stieb in relation to an earlier article by Selvan.

Authors such as Krishnasamy Selvan argue that “all human endeavors including engineering and science” have a single primary objective: “bettering humanity.” They favor discussing “the history of science and measurement uncertainty.” This paper respectfully disagrees and argues that “human endeavors including engineering and science” should not pursue “bettering humanity” as their primary objective. Instead these efforts should first pursue individual betterment. One cannot better humanity without knowing what that means. However, there is no one unified theory of what (...) is to the betterment of humanity. Simultaneously, there is no one field (neither science, nor engineering, nor philosophy) entitled to rule univocally. Perhaps if theorists tended their own gardens, the common weal would be tended thereby. (shrink)

In the context of the digital wave sweeping modern education, securing the information safety of ideological and political education in universities is of paramount importance. Based on the comprehensive risk mechanism, this paper deconstructs the connotation of information security of ideological and political education in higher education in the digital age, divides it into two categories: ideological risk and technical risk, and constructs the influence model of information security level of ideological and political education. Data were collected via questionnaires and (...) a structural equation model was used to test hypotheses, revealing the complex influences of key factors such as educational quality and sustainable development education, informatization teaching environment, campus digitalization level, and the impact on the quality of education. The study finds that the quality of political education in universities lays the foundation of solid information security, whereas network governance capability directly affects it. In contrast, the informatization teaching environment and campus digitalization level play positive mediating roles at different levels. (shrink)

—Industrial networks are increasingly based on open protocols and platforms that are also employed in the IT industry and Internet background. Most of the industries use wireless networks for communicating information and data, due to high cable cost. Since, the wireless networks are insecure, it is essential to secure the critical information and data during transmission. The data that transmitted is intercepted by eavesdropper can be predicted by secrecy capacity. The secrecy capacity is the difference between channel capacity of main (...) link and wiretap link of wireless transmission. When the secrecy capacity gets fades, then it is known that transmitted data is intercepted. In the event, of applying optimal sensor scheduling scheme a sensor with highest secrecy capacity is chosen and data is transmitted. It is followed with cooperative localization algorithm to enhance nodes, predict and maintain power of each sensor nodes. Through localization algorithm best sensor nodes are get predicted for transmission. Moreover, RC4 encryption and decryption algorithm is enhanced for data while transmission. This will enable protection to data to an extent. Also, an asymptotic intercept probability analysis is performed to provide an imminent into the impact of the sensor scheduling on the wireless security. (shrink)

La différance comme déconstruction de la violence examine "la différance", une singularité de Jacques Derrida. L'auteur est profondément fidèle à l'esprit derridien en réaffirmant que la différance n'est ni un mot ni un concept mais un jeu littéraire qui porte des traces philosophiques et qui exige également des lecteurs de respecter le pouvoir du silence textuel. Même si la différance interroge la violence sous diverses formes, elle attirera principalement notre attention sur la violence "inaudible" de toutes nos structures. Le présent (...) ouvrage interroge sur le jeu de la différance. Avec la différance, Derrida nous invite à nous asseoir devant un silence absolu du texte, devant une impossibilité. Ainsi, les déconstructeurs sont appelés à jouer une possibilité de l'impossibilité. Deux autres volumes suivent ce livre ; l'un étudie la trace de la différance, l'autre étudie le silence de la différance. (shrink)

In this new explanationist account of epistemic justification, Poston argues that the explanatory virtues provide all the materials necessary for a plausible account of justified belief. There are no purely autonomous reasons. Rather reasons occur only within an explanatory coherent set of beliefs.

Replacing the value-free ideal (VFI) for science requires attention to the broader understanding of how science in society should function. In public spaces, science needed to project the VFI in norms for science advising, science education, and science communication. This resulted in the independent science advisor model and a focus on science literacy for science education and communication. Attending to these broader implications of the VFI which structure science and society relationships is crucial if we are to properly replace the (...) VFI with a better ideal. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to introduce a new Gentzen formulation of the modal logic S5. The history of this problem goes back to the fifties where a counter-example to cut-elimination was given for an otherwise natural and straightforward formulation of S5. Since then, several cut-free Gentzen style formulations of S5 have been given. However, all these systems are technically involved, and furthermore, they differ considerably from Gentzen's original formulation of classical logic. In this paper we give a new (...) sequent system for S5 which is a straightforward and technically simple extension of Gentzen's original sequent system for classical logic. A characteristic feature is the notion of a connection in a proof. The new system satisfies cut-elimination as well as the subformula property. Cut-elimination is proved by giving an algorithm for eliminating cuts. The fact that we give an algorithm for eliminating cuts makes it clear that our system is susceptible to a formulae-as-types computational interpretation. (shrink)

This careful and engaging introduction to Aristotle equips readers of ancient philosophy and classics with an intellectual map that will guide their further exploration within the terrains of Aristotelian philosophy and logic. The book does not seek to provide a verdict or to persuade the reader of the usefulness of Aristotle's ideas. Instead it offers a comprehensive introduction to key philosophical areas while situating the reader within the ongoing intellectual debates on Aristotle's significance and relevance. Crowley's book allows an overview (...) of Aristotle's contributions and includes discussions on the Organon, the epitome of his logical treatises, his works on biology, nature and causation, metaphysics, citizenship, ethics and eudaimonia. The book is a valuable tool for readers interested in becoming acquainted with the work of Aristotle but most importantly for those who are keen to understand his many interpretations. (shrink)

This paper demonstrates the undecidability of a number of logics with quantification over public announcements: arbitrary public announcement logic, group announcement logic, and coalition announcement logic. In APAL we consider the informative consequences of any announcement, in GAL we consider the informative consequences of a group of agents all of which are simultaneously making known announcements. So this is more restrictive than APAL. Finally, CAL is as GAL except that we now quantify over anything the agents not in that group (...) may announce simultaneously as well. The logic CAL therefore has some features of game logic and of ATL. We show that when there are multiple agents in the language, the satisfiability problem is undecidable for APAL, GAL, and CAL. In the single agent case, the satisfiability problem is decidable for all three logics. (shrink)

_Purpose._ The purpose is to justify the validity of interpreting Descartes’ teachings as an enquiry into the search for forms and means of improving human nature, which implies a focus on the way he understands the openness of knowledge and education. The problem is considered from the perspective of representatives of university communities (teachers and librarians), historically included in the communication structure and system of the institution, including through the creation, management, use, preservation and dissemination of knowledge. _Theoretical basis._ One (...) of the tenets of Descartes’ teachings is his desire to improve the human being. For our consideration, it is fundamentally important that Descartes uses "knowledge" not only in a narrow sense – as natural scientific knowledge, but also in a broader sense. In the context of the theme of the study, the most important case is when the thinker recalls the knowledge that every person experiences without referring to philosophy. It is this knowledge that, for Descartes, is key in resolving the central problem of his ethics – how can human nature be perfected? For our consideration of Descartes’ key points, it is fair to focus on the manifestation of the phenomenon of altruism in Descartes’ philosophy and on the representative fact of his inner openness – his willingness to engage in dialogue. He appreciates and encourages his interlocutors to turn to books, which are a form of representation of the vivid personalities of their authors. _Originality._ For the first time in the research literature, the thesis of René Descartes as one of the forerunners of the open knowledge system is substantiated. The arguments are given for the validity of Descartes’ interpretation of the demand of his own epoch for the search of effective forms of human improvement. _Conclusions._ The idea of justification of Descartes’ philosophical legacy as a predictor of open knowledge became possible under the condition of paying attention to the anthropological turn he made and finding substantive analogues of openness, including open education. Drawing on Christianity as the basis for altruism, Descartes demonstrates a caring attitude towards the achievements of previous generations on the path of personal self-development. His attention is rightly drawn to education and books as representations of vibrant personalities. Their authentic and productive assimilation is possible only under the condition of a caring attitude towards the public good, which involves the intellectual volunteering of teachers and librarians. It is about self-realization through altruistic self-improvement, i.e. intellectual charity, which is especially evident today during martial law in Ukraine and is voluntary, conscious and free work for the benefit of others. (shrink)

In The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens Dr. Pickard-Cambridge includes a most useful and convenient collection of south Italian vase-paintings which have been held to throw light on the stage-settings of Greek tragedy. He concludes that they give no evidence for Athens in the fifth century and in particular do not justify the assumption that interior scenes were played in a porch in front of the central door. The second conclusion is true, but some of the vases do show that (...) the central doors could be thrown wide open to display an interior scene. The first conclusion is formally correct, but it should be remembered that the “plays came from Athens, and it is at least possible that the south Italian producers modelled themselves on Athenian producers. In any case these vases are worthy of further consideration. (shrink)

[T. M. Scanlon] It is clearly impermissible to kill one person because his organs can be used to save five others who are in need of transplants. It has seemed to many that the explanation for this lies in the fact that in such cases we would be intending the death of the person whom we killed, or failed to save. What makes these actions impermissible, however, is not the agent's intention but rather the fact that the benefit envisaged does (...) not justify an exception to the prohibition against killing or the requirement to give aid. The difference between this explanation and one appealing to intention is easily overlooked if one fails to distinguish between the prospective use of a moral principle to guide action and its retrospective use to appraise the way an agent governed him or herself. Even if this explanation is accepted, however, it remains an open question whether and how an agent's intention may be relevant to the permissibility of actions in other cases. \\\ [Jonathan Dancy] My first four sections concentrate on the second section of Professor Scanlon's contribution, where he lays out his conception of moral principles and of the role they play in theory and practice. I will raise questions on the following issues: 1. Scanlon's initial introduction of the notion of a principle. 2. His rejection of the standard view that principles are concerned with the forbidding, permitting and requiring of actions. 3. His rejection of pro tanto conceptions of principles in favour of a conception of them as conclusive. 4. The resulting account of what it is for a principle to face and survive exceptions. Scanlon's discussion of these matters here both appeals to and is in some respects more detailed than the relevant section of his recent What We Owe to Each Other. The topic is interesting both for the role played by principles in Scanlon's present discussion of intention and permissibility, and more generally because of his account of wrongness: an act is wrong iff it is ruled out by principles that nobody could reasonably reject. The remainder of my contribution is concerned with the ostensible focus of IP, namely the relevance of agent-intentions to the permissibility of what is done. (shrink)

While considerable ink has been spilt over the rejection of idealism by Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore at the end of the 19th Century, relatively little attention has been directed at Russell’s A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, a work written in the early stages of Russell’s philosophical struggles with the metaphysics of Bradley, Bosanquet, and others. Though a sustained investigation of that work would be one of considerable scope, here I reconstruct and develop a two-pronged argument from (...) the Philosophy of Leibniz that Russell fancied—as late as 1907—to be the downfall of the traditional category of substance. Here, I suggest, one can begin to see Russell’s own reasons—arguments largely independent of Moore—for the abandonment of idealism. Leibniz, no less than Bradley, adhered to an antiquated variety of logic: what Russell refers to as the subject-predicate doctrine of logic. Uniting this doctrine with a metaphysical principle of independence—that a substance is prior to and distinct from its properties—Russell is able to demonstrate that neither a substance pluralism nor a substance monism can be consistently maintained. As a result, Russell alleges that the metaphysics of both Leibniz and Bradley has been undermined as ultimately incoherent. Russell’s remedy for this incoherence is the postulation of a bundle theory of substance, such that the category of “substance” reduces to the most basic entities—properties. (shrink)

Preview: /Review: Satoshi Higuchi, Somaesthetics and the Philosophy of Culture: Projects in Japan (New York, NY; Oxford, England: Routledge, 2021), 138 pages./ Satoshi Higuchi’s Somaesthetics and the Philosophy of Culture is a succinct and innovative work in aesthetics and philosophy of education, despite what the title may otherwise imply. Indeed, the title may be the only shortcoming in this work, for it does not convey the scope of the concepts covered. It may be better titled Somaesthetics and the Philosophy of (...) Education, but even this does not express the important and fascinating discussions on the aesthetics of sports contained herein; and “education” is perhaps too narrow to encompass the range of application of the ideas (especially in the final part of the book). However, when the reader looks past the title, they will find a nicely organized work introducing readers to the topic of the aesthetics of sport, its application for improving pedagogy, and several avenues for further development in these areas. Higuchi’s previous work is a tireless series of granting legitimacy to the study of sports. Somaesthetics and the Philosophy of Culture is another important step in this project. Readers need not be familiar with Richard Shusterman’s multidisciplinary project of somaesthetics for, when it is necessary, Higuchi provides the relevant details. Readers who are familiar with somaesthetics will very quickly see how the ideas here complement it well. (shrink)

Zen Masters: A Maverick, a Master of Masters, and a Wandering Poet. John Stevens. Kodansha International, Tokyo 1999. 161 pp. £8.99. ISBN 4-7700-2385-5.

Commentary, with Bengali translation, of Anumānakhaṇḍa, a portion of Tattvacintamaṇi, basic work on the neo-Nyaya school in Hindu philosophy, by Gaṅgeśa, 13th century.

On the mysteries and control of mind, based on Hinduism.

On Islamic practices, doctrines and on Islamic ethics.