The paper deals with a method of hierarchization of alternatives in a multicriteria environment by means of statistical nonparametric procedures. For each criterion, alternatives are disposed on an ordinal scale. After that a procedure similar to ANOVA is activated on the data. The differences relating to the average ranks of each action are used to build the hierarchical algorithm. The concept of outranking, in a probabilistic meaning, is reached in this way. Thereafter, we arrive at the concept of dominance using (...) pairwise comparisons. A case study is presented which implements the methodological suggestion. (shrink)

A U-shaped curve in a cognitive-developmental trajectory refers to a three-step process: good performance followed by bad performance followed by good performance once again. U-shaped curves have been observed in a wide variety of cognitive-developmental and learning contexts. U-shaped learning seems to contradict the idea that learning is a monotonic, cumulative process and thus constitutes a challenge for competing theories of cognitive development and learning. U-shaped behavior in language learning (in particular in learning English past tense) has become a central (...) topic in the Cognitive Science debate about learning models. Antagonist models (e.g., connectionism versus nativism) are often judged on their ability of modeling or accounting for U-shaped behavior. The prior literature is mostly occupied with explaining how U-shaped behavior occurs. Instead, we are interested in the necessity of this kind of apparently inefficient strategy. We present and discuss a body of results in the abstract mathematical setting of (extensions of) Gold-style computational learning theory addressing a mathematically precise version of the following question: Are there learning tasks that require U-shaped behavior? All notions considered are learning in the limit from positive data. We present results about the necessity of U-shaped learning in classical models of learning as well as in models with bounds on the memory of the learner. The pattern emerges that, for parameterized, cognitively relevant learning criteria, beyond very few initial parameter values, U-shapes are necessary for full learning power! We discuss the possible relevance of the above results for the Cognitive Science debate about learning models as well as directions for future research. (shrink)

In this article, I maintain that the anti-theoretical spirit which pervades Williams's ethics is close to the Humean project of developing and defending an ethics based on sentiments which has its main focus in the virtues. In particular, I argue that there are similar underlying themes which run through the philosophies of Hume and Williams, such as the view that a correct ethical perspective cannot avoid dealing with a broader theory of human nature; the conviction that this inquiry cannot be (...) developed in abstraction from the contingencies which are distinctive of the lives of flesh-and-blood human beings driven by passions; and the belief that the notion of character plays a key role in identifying and morally evaluating such lives. Finally, Williams' account of the psychological mechanism of shame in explaining character formation bears a strong resemblance to Hume's treatment of the passion of humility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Utilitas is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to alls.). (shrink)

Kripke’s theory of truth, 690–716; 1975) has been very successful but shows well-known expressive difficulties; recently, Field has proposed to overcome them by adding a new conditional connective to it. In Field’s theories, desirable conditional and truth-theoretic principles are validated that Kripke’s theory does not yield. Some authors, however, are dissatisfied with certain aspects of Field’s theories, in particular the high complexity. I analyze Field’s models and pin down some reasons for discontent with them, focusing on the meaning of the (...) new conditional and on the status of the principles so successfully recovered. Subsequently, I develop a semantics that improves on Kripke’s theory following Field’s program of adding a conditional to it, using some inductive constructions that include Kripke’s one and feature a strong evaluation for conditionals. The new theory overcomes several problems of Kripke’s one and, although weaker than Field’s proposals, it avoids the difficulties that affect them; at the same time, the new theory turns out to be quite simple. Moreover, the new construction can be used to model various conceptions of what a conditional connective is, in ways that are precluded to both Kripke’s and Field’s theories. (shrink)

I propose taking the beautiful and the sublime in Edmund Burke not just as aesthetic but also as theoretical categories which can help us read his constitutional thought in dialectical terms. I suggest indeed that his usage of these categories in the Reflections on the Revolution in France points to a consistently held argument concerning the aporias of early-modern contractarian theories and their influence on the French Revolution. My hypothesis is that for Burke the Revolution is unable to think of (...) any concrete relation between beauty and sublimity, insofar as they can be associated, respectively, with particularity and universality. Furthermore, I underscore how Burke’s defence of partial representation against contractarian representation aims to overcome this impasse. My goal is to demonstrate that Burke raises decisive questions as to the intrinsically anti-democratic effects of the contractarian concept of democracy and is still useful to confront the contemporary crisis of democratic participation. (shrink)

Cet article s’interroge sur ce qu’est l’ἀριθμητική τέχνη visée par Sextus dans le Contre les arithméticiens. Après avoir rappelé brièvement le contenu de M IV, on examine la nature de cette discipline. Une fois clarifiée la question de savoir en quoi consistait l’ἀριθμητική τέχνη dans l’Antiquité – et donc ce que visait Sextus dans M IV –, on examine son rapport avec les autres disciplines critiquées par Sextus dans le Contre les Professeurs. Cette enquête mène à mettre en lumière une (...) importante présupposition implicite dans l’attitude de Sextus à l’égard des sciences. (shrink)

This article constitutes the first part of a more extensive work on hermeneutics and existential philosophy. It’s articulated as an analysis of some central statements of Truth and Method of Gadamer and both Being and Time and Contributions to Philosophy of Heidegger, conducted alternating five different points of view: metaphilosophy, epistemology, philosophy of logic, bio- and cognitive linguistics, and philosophy of language. In the present article I focus on philosophy of logic, with some excursions into philosophy of language. The main (...) objective of the work consists in demonstrating what follows. A general impredicative structure is variously described and commented on in Truth and Method; I argue that it 1) corresponds logically to the intesional Liar-paradox; 2) derives exegetically from Heidegger’s differentiation between ἀλήθεια and truth in λόγος; 3) should be interpreted philosophically as the Hegelian Identity in Difference, despite Gadamer’s intention to avoid dialectic conclusions. Priest showed that the concept of Identity in Difference and the Law of Dialectical Contradiction describe the same structures, imposing a dialetheic lecture. Along this line, I argue, Gadamer’s followers should better present their argument as paraconsistent. (shrink)

Mitate is the name used to describe a typically Japanese visual trope, in which one object is meant to be seen as something else. While mitate is a defining element of Edo period haikai and ukiyo-e, a this kind of overlapping meanings can be found in much earlier sources. Its aesthetic effects are often smile, laughter, and parody, but mitate can also bestow a hidden depth to the commonplace and the contemporary through explicit and implicit connections to more noble and (...) remote cultural antecedents. In this paper I examine mitate and mitate-like configurations throughout the history of Japanese aesthetics, and conclude by asking whether mitate is indeed a uniquely Japanese phenomenon and by analysing whether and how it can be relevant to some philosophical discussions (Husserl's and Wittgenstein’s) concerned with the phenomenological and ontological status of images. (shrink)

This article addresses some crucial assumptions that are rarely acknowledged when organisms and machines are compared. We begin by presenting a short historical reconstruction of the concept of “machine.” We show that there has never been a unique and widely accepted definition of “machine” and that the extant definitions are based on specific technologies. Then we argue that, despite the concept's ambiguity, we can still defend a more robust, specific, and useful notion of machine analogy that accounts for successful strategies (...) in connecting specific devices (or mechanisms) with particular living phenomena. For that purpose, we distinguish between what we call “generic identity” and proper “machine analogy.” We suggest that “generic identity”—which, roughly stated, presumes that some sort of vague similarity might exist between organisms and machines—is a source of the confusion haunting many persistent disagreements and that, accordingly, it should be dismissed. Instead, we endorse a particular form of “machine analogy” where the relation between organic phenomena and mechanical devices is not generic but specific and grounded on the identification of shared “invariants.” We propose that the machine analogy is a kind of analogy as proportion and we elucidate how this is used or might be used in scientific practices. We finally argue that while organisms are not machines in a generic sense, they might share many robust “invariants,” which justify the scientists' use of machine analogies for grasping living phenomena. (shrink)

The complete characterisation of order types of non-standard models of Peano arithmetic and its extensions is a famous open problem. In this paper, we consider subtheories of Peano arithmetic (both with and without induction), in particular, theories formulated in proper fragments of the full language of arithmetic. We study the order types of their non-standard models and separate all considered theories via their possible order types. We compare the theories with and without induction and observe that the theories without induction (...) tend to have an algebraic character that allows model constructions by closing a model under the relevant algebraic operations. (shrink)

Human aesthetic preferences towards a certain landscape type, a certain bodily traits of the opposite sex, a figurative style rather than another, are embedded in what we call “aesthetic experience”, a complex network of instinctive reactions, emotions, feelings, thoughts, and judgements. Are these preferences universal and species-specific, that is to say are they the same for every member of a particular species? Evolutionary psychologists advocate the universality and species-specificity of the aesthetic preferences. Going back to Darwin's writings, in particular to (...) his Notebooks, Bartalesi and Portera attempt to provide an alternative explanation for the emergence and development of human aesthetic preferences, beyond the dichotomy of nature and culture. (shrink)

In the present paper, we will attempt to gain hints regarding the nature of tactile awareness in humans. At first, we will review some recent literature showing that an actual tactile experience can emerge in absence of any tactile stimulus (e.g., tactile hallucinations, tactile illusions). According to the current model of tactile awareness, we will subsequently argue that such (false) tactile perceptions are subserved by the same anatomo-functional mechanisms known to underpin actual perception. On these bases, we will discuss the (...) hypothesis that tactile awareness is strongly linked to expected rather than actual stimuli. Indeed, this hypothesis is in line with the notion that the human brain has a strong predictive, rather than reactive, nature. (shrink)

In greco antico, i composti che presentino come secondo costituente un sostantivo formato con il suffisso -σις sono molto rari e godono di scarse attestazioni: la maggior parte, infatti, è rappresentata in realtà da derivati da lessemi già composti, soprattutto verbi. Nonostante il significato prototipico dei nomi semplici in -σις sia eventivo, la semantica dei nomi composti in -σις non derivati è perlopiù risultativo-strumentale, per slittamento metonimico; questo fatto è confermato dal comportamento sintattico dei composti in -σις, più vicino a (...) quello dei nomi puri, e quindi generalmente privo di una struttura argomentale. Il secondo costituente di alcuni composti in -σις non è attestato in isolamento, ma l’intero composto è comunque considerabile endocentrico dal punto di vista categoriale. Il suffisso -σις, scarsamente produttivo in composizione, viene sostituito in quest'ambito da suffissi che rientrano nella declinazione tematica, in particolare da -σία, supplendovi invece nella creazione di nomi semplici, in un rapporto analogo a quello che si può evidenziare rispettivamente, nel campo dei nomi d'agente, fra i suffissi -τήρ/-τωρ e -της. (shrink)

In Bagaria (J Symb Log 81(2), 584–604, 2016), Bagaria and Väänänen developed a framework for studying the large cardinal strength of downwards Löwenheim-Skolem theorems and related set theoretic reflection properties. The main tool was the notion of symbiosis, originally introduced by the third author in Väänänen (Applications of set theory to generalized quantifiers. PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 1967); Väänänen (in Logic Colloquium ’78 (Mons, 1978), volume 97 of Stud. Logic Foundations Math., pages 391–421. North-Holland, Amsterdam 1979) Symbiosis provides a (...) way of relating model theoretic properties of strong logics to definability in set theory. In this paper we continue the systematic investigation of symbiosis and apply it to upwards Löwenheim-Skolem theorems and reflection principles. To achieve this, we need to adapt the notion of symbiosis to a new form, called bounded symbiosis. As one easy application, we obtain upper and lower bounds for the large cardinal strength of upwards Löwenheim–Skolem-type principles for second order logic. (shrink)

Um dos aspectos característicos da fundamentação epistemológica da etologia de Konrad Lorenz é a tentativa de síntese entre a teoria darwiniana e a gnosiologia kantiana. A partir dessa premissa, delinearemos, antes de tudo, uma breve história da tradição transcendentalista, focalizando a atenção em alguns elementos que seus críticos consideraram insustentáveis. Em segundo lugar, analisaremos a tentativa de Lorenz de implantar a estrutura transcendental em suas pesquisas etológicas, com uma consequente naturalização do conceito de "a priori". Em terceiro lugar, veremos como (...) a atribuição de a priori próprios das espécies particulares abre a possibilidade de interpretar a epistemologia de Lorenz de duas maneiras distintas, aparentemente conflitantes. Finalmente, preferiremos uma dessas interpretações e mostraremos como ela permite o entendimento das distintas modalidades de conhecimento animal e humano. One of the main features of Konrad Lorenz's epistemological foundation of ethology is the attempt of synthesis between Darwinian theory and Kantian gnosiology. Starting from this premise I will outline, first of all, a brief history of transcendentalist tradition, focusing attention on some elements that its critics have regarded as untenable. Secondly, I will analyze Lorenz's attempt to implant the transcendental structure in his ethological researches as being a consequence of the naturalization of the concept of "a priori". Thirdly, I will see how the attribution of a priori proper to single species opens the possibility of interpreting the epistemology of Lorenz in two apparently conflicting ways. Finally, I will prefer one of these interpretations and I will show that it enables us to understand the distinct modalities of animal and human knowledge. (shrink)

No âmbito do debate sobre as unidades envolvidas nos processos seletivos, a controvérsia sobre a possibilidade de comportamentos genuinamente altruístas tem um lugar destacado. Partindo de uma posição declaradamente pluralista, discutir-se-ão, neste artigo, algumas questões relevantes para esse tópico. Em primeiro lugar, o altruísmo será concebido como uma propriedade fenotípica dos grupos biológicos, e não apenas de seus membros. Essa caraterização levará, em um segundo momento, à discussão sobre a relação entre grupos em sociedades complexas, como é o caso das (...) sociedades humanas. Nesse contexto, será esboçado um modelo sobre como os comportamentos altruístas e os comportamentos egoístas se solapam em níveis diferentes das dinâmicas sociais. Finalmente, será sugerido um método de análise dirigido a determinar quais forças evolutivas entram em jogo, e sobre que tipo de comportamento, em casos empíricos concretos. In the debate on the units of selection, the controversy about the possibility of genuinely altruistic behavior has a prominent place. By assuming a pluralistic position, some relevant issues on the topic will be discussed in this paper. Firstly, altruism will be conceived as a phenotypic property of biological groups, not just of their members. Secondly, this characterization will be applied to the discussion on the relationship between groups in complex societies, as humans ones. In that context, a model about how altruistic and egoistic behaviors overlap at different levels of social dynamics will be outlined. Finally, a method aimed at determining what kinds of evolutionary forces influence behavior in empirical cases will be suggested. (shrink)

En 2004, la famille de Jules Vuillemin lègue aux Archives Henri-Poincaré (Université de Lorraine) un fonds constitué par les ouvrages, les tirés à part et les manuscrits du célèbre philosophe français, décédé aux Fourgs (Doubs) le 16 janvier 2001. Dans le cadre de la conservation et de la valorisation de ce fonds très riche, les Archives Henri-Poincaré organisent chaque année, au mois de décembre, une journée d’études autour d’un texte ou d’un aspect de la pensée de Jules Vuillemin, afin de (...) d... (shrink)

This collection of essays is dedicated to the prolific career of Paul Ricoeur. Honoring his work, this anthology addresses questions and concerns that defined Ricoeur’s.

1 Introduzione Per Searle, la realtà sociale è un enorme ontologia invisibile che comprende obblighi, promesse, matrimoni, proprietà, governi e in generale tutti quegli enti che non sono solamente fisici, tangibili, ma neppure esclusivamente mentali, privati. Alla sua base c’è la capacità intrinseca all’uomo di attribuire funzioni agli oggetti che lo circondano. La costruzione della realtà sociale è precisamente un processo attraverso il quale l’intenzionalità umana dispone della possibilità,...

We investigate a new paradigm in the context of learning in the limit, namely, learning correction grammars for classes of computably enumerable (c.e.) languages. Knowing a language may feature a representation of it in terms of two grammars. The second grammar is used to make corrections to the first grammar. Such a pair of grammars can be seen as a single description of (or grammar for) the language. We call such grammars correction grammars. Correction grammars capture the observable fact that (...) people do correct their linguistic utterances during their usual linguistic activities. We show that learning correction grammars for classes of c.e. languages in the TxtEx-model (i.e., converging to a single correct correction grammar in the limit) is sometimes more powerful than learning ordinary grammars even in the TxtBe-model (where the learner is allowed to converge to infinitely many syntactically distinct but correct conjectures in the limit). For each n ≥ 0, there is a similar learning advantage, again in learning correction grammars for classes of c.e. languages, but where we compare learning correction grammars that make n + 1 corrections to those that make n corrections. The concept of a correction grammar can be extended into the constructive transfinite, using the idea of counting-down from notations for transfinite constructive ordinals. This transfinite extension can also be conceptualized as being about learning Ershov-descriptions for c.e. languages. For u a notation in Kleene's general system $(O,\, < _o )$ of ordinal notations for constructive ordinals, we introduce the concept of an u-correction grammar, where u is used to bound the number of corrections that the grammar is allowed to make. We prove a general hierarchy result: if u and v are notations for constructive ordinals such that $u\, < _o \,v$ , then there are classes of c.e. languages that can be TxtEx-learned by conjecturing v-correction grammars but not by conjecturing u-correction grammars. Surprisingly, we show that— above "ω-many" corrections—it is not possible to strengthen the hierarchy: TxtEx-learning u-correction grammars of classes of c.e. languages, where u is a notation in O for any ordinal, can be simulated by TxtBe-learning ω-correction grammars, where ω is any notation for the smallest infinite ordinal ω. (shrink)

En 1931 Gödel publica su Teorema de incompletud. Resultado clave en Lógica matemática, se interpretó como una limitación de los formalismos, un fracaso del Programa de Hilbert. Sin embargo, el método de aritmetización, la recursividad han propiciado una visión positiva y la creación de nuevas teorias - Teorías de la Complejidad, de Información algorítmica... -. Con ellas, nuevas demostraciones del teorema y, consecuentes, nuevas discusiones en Filosofía de la Matemática. En especial, desde la Teoría de la Complejidad. Además de incompleta, (...) la Matemática se ve por algunos como aleatoria y experimental. En este ensayo se pretende explicitar los supuestos de estas interpretaciones. Discusión que conduce, en principio, a su rechazo, dejando abierta la problemática sobre el aspecto epistemológico dei razonamiento matemático. (shrink)

El desarrollo de la puesta en escena del teatro clásico español en los últimos veinticinco años se ha debido a diferentes causas y de diverso carácter. En este trabajo se estudia una de ellas: la labor de la iniciativa pública estatal y, especialmente, con dos magníficas realidades: el Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de Almagro y la Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico.….

Intento del presente saggio è quello di tracciare le linee principali della filosofia di Wittgenstein definendone l’orizzonte operativo e la strategia d’azione. Seguiremo inizialmente i cambiamenti nella concezione del linguaggio e del significato del filosofo austriaco utilizzandoli come traccia per registrare le corrispondenti revisioni degli obiettivi, delle tecniche e delle forme del far filosofia da lui proposte. Cercheremo poi di analizzare la pratica filosofica prospettata dal Wittgenstein maturo evidenziandone alcuni aspetti che ci consentiranno di qualificarla come clinica.

Aristotle clearly states that in syllogistic theory local/environmental cognitive factors—external to that peculiar inferential process, for example regarding users/reasoners, are given up. Indeed, to define syllogism Aristotle first of all insists that all syllogisms are valid and contends that the necessity of this kind of reasoning is related to the circumstance that “no further term from outside is needed”, in sum syllogism is the fruit of a kind of eco-cognitive immunization. At the same time Aristotle presents a seminal perspective on (...) abduction, which contrasts with the previous one on syllogismos: the second part of the article considers the famous passage in the chapter B25 of Prior Analytics concerning ἀπαγωγή, also studied by Peirce. I contend that some of the current well-known distinctive characters of abductive cognition are already expressed, which are in tune with what I have called Eco-cognitive Model of abduction. By providing an illustration of the role of the method of analysis and of the middle terms in Plato’s dialectic argumentation, considered as related to the diorismic/poristic process in ancient geometry I maintain that it is just this intellectual heritage which informs Aristotle’ chapter B25 on ἀπαγωγή. Even if, in general, Aristotle seems to sterilize, thanks to the invention of syllogistic theory, every “dialectic” background of reasoning, nevertheless in chapter B25 he is still pointing to the fundamental inferential role in reasoning of those externalities that substantiate the process of “leading away”. Hence, we can gain a new positive perspective about the “constitutive” eco-cognitive character of abduction, just thanks to Aristotle himself. (shrink)

Arithmetic deals with numbers: but what is the nature of their existence, of their parts, and of their relationship with countable items? These questions nourished a lively debate between the Platonico-Pythagorean tradition (trying to answer them) and the Pyrrhonian tradition (trying to show that these answers were unsatisfactory). The debate lies at the heart of Sextus Empiricus' Against the Arithmeticians. The present book aims at facing the remarkable historical and philosophical questions raised by Sextus' treatise by offering a new translation (...) of it and the first dedicated commentary to it. (shrink)

To study Severian of Gabala from the point of view of anti-heretical polemic allows us to delve into a character who is obscure and often overlooked. When looking at the argument against the Apollinarists, a task which requires a capacity for extensive speculation, Severian comes out as less significant in comparison to the other great theologians of his time, like the Cappadocian Fathers, although he adheres to the same doctrinal line. The more demanding arguments – as in his homily De (...) centurione, fully devoted to this controversy – are missing. Despite a common Antiochene origin, he also separates himself from Chrysostom by engaging in a more allegorical form of exegesis and by his defense of orthodoxy, whereas in John the pastoral concern for the lives of the faithful stands out. This study does not intend to re-evaluate or diminish Severian even more than has been done, but attempts to contextualize him and his anti-Apollinarian work morecompletely. (shrink)

This article considers the current relevance of settler colonial tropes, narratives and idioms by discussing the opening section of On Settling (2012), a recently published book authored by respected political scientist Robert E. Goodin. While Goodin argues that ‘settling’ should be considered a ‘normatively defensible practice’, my critique focuses on his assumed link between ‘settling’ in general and settler colonialism in particular. The first section of this article follows the narrative of settlement that underpins Goodin’s book. The second section discusses (...) this narrative’s inherently exclusionary character, a characteristic that undermines claims to universal normative validity; while the third section appraises the language that supports it. In the fourth, conclusive, section On Settling’s apology of settler colonialism is used as a starting point for an analysis of the settler colonial present in an ‘age of unsettlement’. (shrink)