The paper explains response particles like yes and no as anaphoric elements that pick up propositional discourse referents that are introduced by preceding sentences. It is argued that negated antecedent clauses introduce two propositional discourse referents, which results in ambiguities of answers that are partly resolved by pragmatic optimization. The paper also discusses response particles like okay, right, uh-huh, uh-uh, and German ja, nein and doch.

Even though it is not very often admitted, partial functions do play a significant role in many practical applications of deduction systems. Kleene has already given a semantic account of partial functions using three-valued logic decades ago, but there has not been a satisfactory mechanization. Recent years have seen a thorough investigation of the framework of many-valued truth-functional logics. However, strong Kleene logic, where quantification is restricted and therefore not truthfunctional, does not fit the framework directly. We solve this problem (...) by applying recent methods from sorted logics. This paper presents a resolution calculus that combines the proper treatment of partial functions with the efficiency of sorted calculi. (shrink)

Context: By proposing to regard objects as “tokens for eigenbehavior,” von Foerster’s seminal paper opposes the intuitive subject-object dualism of traditional philosophy, which considers objects to be instances of an external world Problem: We argue that this proposal has two implications, one for epistemology and one for the demarcation between the natural sciences and the humanities. Method: Our arguments are based on insights gained in computational models and from reviewing the contributions to this special issue. Results: Epistemologically, von Foerster’s proposal (...) suggests that what is called “reality” could be seen as an ensemble of eigenforms generated by the eigenbehavior that arises in the interaction of multiple dynamics. Regarding science, the contributions to this special issue demonstrate that the concept of eigenbehavior can be applied to a variety of disciplines from the formal and natural sciences to the humanities. Its universal applicability provides a strong argument for transdisciplinarity, and its emphasis on the observer points in the direction of an observer-inclusive science. Implications: Thinking in eigenbehavior may not only have implications for tearing down the barriers between sciences and humanities, a better understanding of eigenbehaviors may also have profound effects on our understanding of ourselves. This also opens the way to innovative behavior design/modification technologies. (shrink)

The chapter provides an overview of the interaction between quantification and information-structural properties, especially focus, givenness, and topic. While quantification affects truth conditions, information-structuring devices can have an effect on the interpretation of quantificational expressions. After a short introduction to the nature of quantification, the chapter covers the main areas where such effects have been identified, in particular in adverbial quantification, in generic clauses, in conditional sentences, and in sentences with nominal quantification, including intersective determiners and comparative determiners like most. (...) It reviews different theoretical proposals how this sensitivity to information-structural categories arises, in particular whether they are related to focus or givenness. It also discusses cases in which the quantifier itself is topical, given, or focused. (shrink)

Ioannidis [Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Med 2: e124 ] identifies six factors that contribute to explaining why most of the current published research findings are more likely to be false than true, and argues that for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias. In this article, we argue that three “hot” areas in current biological research, viz., agent-based modeling, evolutionary developmental biology, and systems biology, are especially (...) prone to the flaws. (shrink)

The unusual occurrence and developmental diversity of asexual eukaryotes remain a puzzle. De novo formation of a functioning asexual genome requires a unique assembly of sets of genes or gene states to disrupt cellular mechanisms of meiosis and gametogenesis, and to affect discrete components of sexuality and produce clonal or hemiclonal offspring. We highlight two usually overlooked but essential conditions to understand the molecular nature of clonal organisms, that is, a nonrecombinant genomic assemblage retaining modifiers of the sexual program, and (...) a complementation between altered reproductive components. These subtle conditions are the basis for physiologically viable and genetically balanced transitions between generations. Genomic and developmental evidence from asexual animals and plants indicates the lack of complementation of molecular changes in the sexual reproductive program is likely the main cause of asexuals' rarity, and can provide an explanatory frame for the developmental diversity and lability of developmental patterns in some asexuals as well as for the discordant time to extinction estimations. (shrink)

This book is designed to fill a long-standing gap in the general literature of 20th century philosophy in that it offers a comprehensive view of the philosophy of Max Scheler (1874-1928) and opens up substantial discussions that have hitherto been largely overlooked. The book is solely based on the original texts of the German Collected Edition as well as posthumous and untranslated materials. References to English translations have been made whenever available. -- from back cover.

El tema del artículo es la teoría de la tarea del crítico, según un ensayo de W. Benjamin, titulado Dos poemas de Holderlin (1915). Los temas centrales son una fundamentación metafísica de la producción poética y su reproducción crítica. Esta segunda tarea siempre será para el lector crítico un experimento. El autor reconstruye la compleja teoría del cálculo poetológico de W. Benjamin, y pone como ejemplo de la tarea crítica dos versiones de un poema de Hölderlin sobre el tema "la (...) muerte del poeta". (shrink)

Präsenz und Distanz: von diesem Verhältnis handelt die Phänomenologie, wenn sie sich, behutsam beschreibend, der Lebenswelt und dem Zeitbewußtsein zuwendet. Lebensweltliches Leben ist unmittelbare Anschauung am Anfang des Übergangs zu begrifflichem Denken und symbolischen Repräsentanten, ist ursprüngliche Einheit und beginnendes Auseinander von subjektivem Erlebnis und objektiver Realität. All unsere Erlebnisse aber kommen und gehen in der Zeit des Bewußtseins. Sie ist die Form eines Fließens, in dem uns der Augenblick der Gegenwart erst nachträglich faßbar wird; er erweist sich als der (...) immer schon vergangene Anfang einer Nah-Erinnerung, die beides zugleich ist: Noch-Gegenwart und Schon-Vergangenheit: Präsenz gibt es erst im Abstand von ihr. - Mit dem, was unser bewußtes Leben zuunterst trägt und zuinnerst hält, befassen sich die Beschreibungen und Interpretationen dieses Buches: mit dem lebensweltlichen Grund und der zeitlichen Form. (shrink)