Drawing on current debates at the frontiers of economics, psychology, and political philosophy, this book explores the challenges that arise for liberal democracies from a confrontation between modern technologies and the bounds of human rationality. With the ongoing transition of democracy's underlying information economy into the digital space, threats of disinformation and runaway political polarization have been gaining prominence. Employing the economic approach informed by behavioral sciences' findings, the book's chief concern is how these challenges can be addressed while preserving (...) a commitment to democratic values and maximizing the epistemic benefits of democratic decision-making. The book has two key strands: it provides a systematic argument for building a behaviorally informed theory of democracy; and explores how scientific knowledge on quirks and bounds of human rationality can inform the design of resilient democratic institutions. Drawing these together, the book explores the centrality of the rationality assumption in the methodological debates surrounding behavioral sciences as exemplified by the dispute between neoclassical and behavioral economics; the role of rationality in democratic social choice; behaviorally informed paternalism as a response to the challenge of irrationality; and non-paternalistic avenues to increase the resilience of the democratic institutions towards political irrationality This book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in behavioral economics and sciences, political philosophy and the future of democracy. (shrink)

On the Notion "Type of Language" Petr Sgall It is well known that the high frequency of terminological vagueness and confusion has been a serious obstacle ...

Each closed (i.e. variable free) formula of interpretability logic is equivalent in ILF to a closed formula of the provability logic G, thus to a Boolean combination of formulas of the form n.

This paper addresses the ontological status of the body in the context of bodily practices in body-oriented disciplines, such as sport training, dance, and physiotherapy. Following Descartes’, Huss...

We show that the modal prepositional logicILM (interpretability logic with Montagna's principle), which has been shown sound and complete as the interpretability logic of Peano arithmetic PA (by Berarducci and Savrukov), is sound and complete as the logic ofπ 1-conservativity over eachbE 1-sound axiomatized theory containingI⌆ 1 (PA with induction restricted tobE 1-formulas). Furthermore, we extend this result to a systemILMR obtained fromILM by adding witness comparisons in the style of Guaspari's and Solovay's logicR (this will be done in a (...) separate continuation of the present paper). (shrink)

The one-variable fragment of a first-order logic may be viewed as an “S5-like” modal logic, where the universal and existential quantifiers are replaced by box and diamond modalities, respectively. Axiomatizations of these modal logics have been obtained for special cases—notably, the modal counterparts $\mathrm {S5}$ and $\mathrm {MIPC}$ of the one-variable fragments of first-order classical logic and first-order intuitionistic logic, respectively—but a general approach, extending beyond first-order intermediate logics, has been lacking. To this end, a sufficient criterion is given in (...) this paper for the one-variable fragment of a semantically defined first-order logic—spanning families of intermediate, substructural, many-valued, and modal logics—to admit a certain natural axiomatization. More precisely, an axiomatization is obtained for the one-variable fragment of any first-order logic based on a variety of algebraic structures with a lattice reduct that has the superamalgamation property, using a generalized version of a functional representation theorem for monadic Heyting algebras due to Bezhanishvili and Harding. An alternative proof-theoretic strategy for obtaining such axiomatization results is also developed for first-order substructural logics that have a cut-free sequent calculus and admit a certain interpolation property. (shrink)

Structural completeness properties are investigated for a range of popular t-norm based fuzzy logics—including Łukasiewicz Logic, Gödel Logic, Product Logic, and Hájek's Basic Logic—and their fragments. General methods are defined and used to establish these properties or exhibit their failure, solving a number of open problems.

Rational Pavelka logic extends Lukasiewicz infinitely valued logic by adding truth constants r̄ for rationals in [0, 1]. We show that this is a conservative extension. We note that this shows that provability degree can be defined in Lukasiewicz logic. We also give a counterexample to a soundness theorem of Belluce and Chang published in 1963.

In [10] it is claimed that the set of predicate tautologies of all complete BL-chains and the set of all standard tautologies coincide. As noticed in [11], this claim is wrong. In this paper we show that a complete BL-chain B satisfies all standard BL-tautologies iff for any transfinite sequence of elements of B, the condition ∧i ∈ I = 2 holds in B.

Substructural logics extending the full Lambek calculus FL have largely benefited from a systematical algebraic approach based on the study of their algebraic counterparts: residuated lattices. Recently, a nonassociative generalization of FL has been studied by Galatos and Ono as the logic of lattice-ordered residuated unital groupoids. This paper is based on an alternative Hilbert-style presentation for SL which is almost MP -based. This presentation is then used to obtain, in a uniform way applicable to most substructural logics, a form (...) of local deduction theorem, description of filter generation, and proper forms of generalized disjunctions. A special stress is put on semilinear substructural logics. Axiomatizations of the weakest semilinear logic over SL and other prominent substructural logics are provided and their completeness with respect to chains defined over the real unit interval is proved. (shrink)

This text presents an assessment of the literary work of Karel Čapek from a perspective that has not yet been discussed. It focuses on analysing Čapek’s works from the viewpoint of their possible inspiration by bioethical issues. Čapek’s philosophy and the powerful ethical charge of his texts tend to be associated with his interest in pragmatism, a subject to which he, however, took an individual and critical approach. One of the most important categories of his way of thinking is life. (...) In his prose works and plays we therefore see motifs that may be associated with the thematic definition of bioethics. These are questions concerning the value and quality of human life, issues concerning the dehumanizing impact of science and technology, as well as reflections upon the moral dimension of man’s relationship to nature and also to the relationship between people and animals. Čapek’s work may therefore provide inspiration from the perspective of the history of the gradual formation of the bioethical point of view. (shrink)

Despite their flaws, large language models (LLMs) deserve a fair chance to prove their mettle against human experts, who are often plagued with biases, conflicts of interest, and other frailties. For epistemically unprivileged laypeople struggling to access expert knowledge, the accessibility advantages of LLMs could prove crucial. While complaints about LLMs' inconsistencies and arguments for human superiority are often justified (for now), they distract from the urgent need to prepare for the likely scenario of LLMs' continued ascent. Experimentation with both (...) the capabilities and institutional architecture of LLMs is necessary. Neither tech-bashing nor excessive gatekeeping will suffice. As LLMs are here to stay and they keep improving, it is high time we started thinking about how to navigate the impending wave of their proliferation. (shrink)

It is shown that the low basis theorem is meaningful and provable in I∑ 1 and that the priority-free solution to Post's problem formalizes in this theory.

We generalise the Blok–Jónsson account of structural consequence relations, later developed by Galatos, Tsinakis and other authors, in such a way as to naturally accommodate multiset consequence. While Blok and Jónsson admit, in place of sheer formulas, a wider range of syntactic units to be manipulated in deductions (including sequents or equations), these objects are invariablyaggregatedvia set-theoretical union. Our approach is more general in that nonidempotent forms of premiss and conclusion aggregation, including multiset sum and fuzzy set union, are considered. (...) In their abstract form, thus,deductive relationsare defined as additional compatible preorderings over certain partially ordered monoids. We investigate these relations using categorical methods and provide analogues of the main results obtained in the general theory of consequence relations. Then we focus on the driving example of multiset deductive relations, providing variations of the methods of matrix semantics and Hilbert systems in Abstract Algebraic Logic. (shrink)

A very simple many-valued predicate calculus is presented; a completeness theorem is proved and the arithmetical complexity of some notions concerning provability is determined.

The present paper shows how statistical learning theory and machine learning models can be used to enhance understanding of AI-related epistemological issues regarding inductive reasoning and reliability of generalisations. Towards this aim, the paper proceeds as follows. First, it expounds Price’s dual image of representation in terms of the notions of e-representations and i-representations that constitute subject naturalism. For Price, this is not a strictly anti-representationalist position but rather a dualist one (e- and i-representations). Second, the paper links this debate (...) with machine learning in terms of statistical learning theory becoming more viable epistemological tool when it abandons the perspective of object naturalism. The paper then argues that machine learning grounds a form of knowing that can be understood in terms of e- and i-representation learning. Third, this synthesis shows a way of analysing inductive reasoning in terms of reliability of generalisations stemming from a structure of e- and i-representations. In the age of Artificial Intelligence, connecting Price’s dual view of representation with Deep Learning provides an epistemological way forward and even perhaps an approach to how knowing is possible. (shrink)

Shows how different forms of skepticism can lead to remarkably different moral and political implications.

This study explores the phenomenon of the so-called “third reading” of propositional attitude reports. This reading, which was originally explored in the dissertation of J. Fodor (1973) and has since become one of the significant problems in the formal semantics of natural languages, differs from the more well-known de re and de dicto readings by being an intermediate case. If the de re interpretation can be referred to as transparent specific, and the de dicto interpretation as opaque non-specific, then the (...) third reading is transparent non-specific. Fodor's standard solution has been the subject of much discussion in the literature and has given rise to a series of widely accepted counterexamples that are thought to demonstrate the limitations of Fodor's solution. At the same time, alternative approaches to the explication of these readings also suffer from formal shortcomings (for example, some of them did not satisfy the requirement of meaning compositionality, which is a basic requirement in formal semantic literature). This study points out that the analysis of all complex cases of the third reading did not fully take into account their syntactic structure. This remained unnoticed due to the ellipsis in many of these cases. It is shown that a restoration of the ellided syntactic structure makes it possible to analyze all hard cases as basic ones using the classical standard analysis proposed by Fodor supplemented by the principles of admissibility of substitution of L-equivalent expressions in intensional contexts (known since G. Frege and R. Carnap). In the final part of the work, it is demonstrated how exactly the main complex cases of the “third reading” are explicated in terms of the standard approach. (shrink)

We explored differences in the course of physiological functions and in the subjective evaluations in response to listening to a 7-min recording of the sound of a chainsaw and to the sounds of a forest. A Biofeedback 2000x-pert apparatus was used for continual recording of the following physiological functions in 50 examined persons: abdominal and thoracic respiration and their amplitude and frequency, electrodermal activity, finger skin temperature, heart rate and heart rate variability. The group of 25 subjects listening to the (...) sound of a chainsaw exhibited significantly lower values of blood volume pulse amplitude, lower values in peak alpha frequency HRV and higher values in peak high-frequency HRV. In the time interval from 80 s to 209 s, in which the two groups showed the greatest differences, lower values of blood volume pulse were also recorded while listening to the sound of a chainsaw. Listening to the sound of a chainsaw is associated with a greater feeling of fatigue and higher tension, while listening to the sounds of a forest is even considered to elicit feelings of improved learning abilities. The assumption that listening to the sound of a chainsaw results in higher defense arousal was confirmed. The greater variability which is exhibited by a majority of physiological functions while listening to the forest sounds may also be an innovative finding. It seems that there are two types of arousal following from correlations between physiological functions and subjective assessment. Low values of blood volume pulse amplitude are especially important from the health perspective. They correspond to the amount of vasoconstriction which occurs in the endothelial dysfunction related to increased mortality, incidence of myocardial infarction, leg atherosclerosis and topically to COVID-19. (shrink)

This article identifies the assumption of responsibility as a basic need of human beings and applies the concept specifically to older people with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. It suggests a two‐level concept of responsibility, based on the approach of discourse ethicist Karl‐Otto Apel, as a promising approach to recognizing human diversity while at the same time respecting people's equal rights to participate in discourse. This concept can serve as a theoretical starting point for the construction of individually adapted types of (...) responsibility. Furthermore, the article describes practical ideas (primarily the practice of doll therapy) that can enable people with dementia or Alzheimer's disease to assume responsibility. Direct communication and a reflective, sensitive consideration of each individual case are identified as important prerequisites for the inclusion of elderly people with dementia. (shrink)

An arithmetical interpretation of dynamic propositional logic (DPL) is a mapping f satisfying the following: (1) f associates with each formula A of DPL a sentence f(A) of Peano arithmetic (PA) and with each program α a formula f(α) of PA with one free variable describing formally a supertheory of PA; (2) f commutes with logical connectives; (3) f([α] A) is the sentence saying that f(A) is provable in the theory f(α); (4) for each axiom A of DPL, f(A) is (...) provable in PA (and consequently, for each A provable in DPL, f(A) is provable in PA). The arithmetical completeness theorem is proved saying that a formula A of DPL is provable in DPL iff for each arithmetical interpretation f, f(A) is provable in PA. Various modifications of this result are considered. (shrink)

Vague language and corresponding models of inference and information processing is an important and challenging topic as witnessed by a number of recent monographs and collections of essays devoted to the topic. This volume collects fifteen papers, the majority of which originated with talks presented at the conference "Logical Models of Reasoning with Vague Information ", September 14-17, 2009, in Čejkovice, that initiated a EUROCORES/LogICCC project with the same title. At least two features set the current volume apart from other (...) texts: first, the interdisciplinary nature of the topic is nicely reflected by the wide range of interests of the authors, who include philosophers, linguists, logicians, as well as mathematicians and computer scientists. Secondly, all the papers are accompanied by comments written by other authors and a few outside experts. These comments and corresponding replies by the authors document the very lively ongoing debate on adequate models of vague language. (shrink)

We give a brief introduction to the axiomatization of temporal logics. Branching continuations are shortly presented thereafter and the possibility of their clear syntactical axiomatization in a Hilbert-style system is investigated as last. Some basic preliminary observations and suggestions, how such axiomatization could start, are presented.

Fuzzy logic is understood as a logic with a comparative and truth-functional notion of truth. Arithmetical complexity of sets of tautologies and satisfiable sentences as well of sets of provable formulas of the most important systems of fuzzy predicate logic is determined or at least estimated.

Many democratic countries have failed to stand up to the challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. I argue that the collective response to the pandemic has been incapacitated by an ‘epistemic crisis’, (i.e., a breakdown in the social division of epistemic labor) that led to a failure of citizens’ beliefs to converge towards a shared perception of the situation. Neither a paucity of relevant expert knowledge nor democratic citizens’ irrationality is required for the crisis to emerge. In particular, I highlight (...) three obstacles capable of preventing relevant expert testimony from gaining democratic legitimacy necessary for an effective policy response: 1) the proper domain of expertise is uncertain; 2) regular citizens’ meta-expertise – (i.e., ability to discriminate among the putative experts based on their relative epistemic merit) – is not efficacious enough to trigger truth-convergence of the public opinion; 3) the prominent sources of third-party meta-expertise lack credibility due to their conflicts of interest. Since the first two problems appear irresolvable, I propose that the search for a path towards preclusion of future epistemic crises concentrates on upgrading the institutional fundament for meta-expertise provision. Social epistemology plays a vital role in this search, but its close cooperation with other disciplines is a must. (shrink)

Na základě reflexe díla tří brněnských autorů (R. Těsnohlídek, J. Mahen a J. Tomeček) se text pokouší obhájit názor o kultivační roli přírodní prózy – v konfrontaci s kritickým pohledem J. Šmajse. Tato oblast umělecké tvorby představuje jednu z možností, jak čelit environmen­tálnímu žalu. Ten je jednou z významných charakteristik toho, jak lidé v současnosti vnímají stav světa a rizika pro budoucí existenční perspektivy.

Dave Ripley has recently argued against the plausibility of multiset consequence relations and of contraction-free approaches to paradox. For Ripley, who endorses a nontransitive theory, the best arguments that buttress transitivity also push for contraction—whence it is wiser for the substructural logician to go nontransitive from the start. One of Ripley’s allegations is especially insidious, since it assumes the form of a trivialisation result: it is shown that if a multiset consequence relation can be associated to a closure operator in (...) the expected way, then it necessarily contracts. We counter Ripley’s objection by presenting an approach to multiset consequence that escapes this trap. This approach is multiple-conclusioned in a heterodox way, for multiple succedents are given a conjunctive, rather than a disjunctive reading. Finally, we address a further objection by French and Ripley to the effect that the informational interpretation of sequents in linear logic does not motivate cut. (shrink)

We prove that Standardization fails in every nontrivial universe definable in the nonstandard set theory BST, and that a natural characterization of the standard universe is both consistent with and independent of BST. As a consequence we obtain a formulation of nonstandard class theory in the ∈-language.

In this paper we present an exploratory study on the understanding of reality among scientists. The nature of reality has been a conundrum for generations of theologians, philosophers, and scientists as well as the lay public. It also appears as a scientific problem in various disciplines, from physics to psychiatry and neuroscience. For the purpose of our study, we employed Chamber REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation), which has been known to produce substantial perceptual effects such as visual or auditory pseudo-hallucinations. We (...) hypothesized that such experiences could alter basic underlying metaphysical beliefs which our subject-scientists hold about reality. We conclude that the technique showed the potential to induce such changes, but the outcome is also probably dependent on their pre-existing views gained through previous experiences, such as for example altered states of consciousness. Also, the effects of Chamber REST seem to be in this respect comparable to psychedelic sessions. (shrink)

This paper empirically examines how consumers react when a company marks a product with a gay label. The company under scrutiny is one of the largest video game developers in the world, and the labeled product is a popular video game character. We use a regression discontinuity design to exploit the quasi-experimental setting. The main finding was significant drop in demand for this character and a return to previous levels after approximately 3 months. Possible mechanisms and dynamics were explored by (...) analyzing demand for other characters and by surveying consumers. The results are consistent after performing robustness checks based on grid search, subsampling, and placebo tests. (shrink)

The paper explores the notion of communicative success as a match between the speaker's communicative intention and the audience's interpretation. The first part argues that it cannot be generalized to all kinds of communication. The second part characterizes various types of relations between the speaker's and the audience's beliefs on which this kind of communicative success can be based. It shows that the requirements concerning agreement between these beliefs are rather modest.

This paper focuses on the development of the political thought of Czech Marxist philosopher Egon Bondy. It examines his criticism of state socialism in the Eastern Block from a Marxist perspective, and it outlines the development of his analysis. The study covers the period from the late 1960s until the Velvet Revolution in 1989, a period during which Bondy explored the historical constitution and nature of a ‘new ruling class’ in the USSR, as well as deeper trends of convergence between (...) Eastern and Western politico-economical systems. In the 1980s Bondy analysed the reasons for the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. Even though Bondy was, during most of the period of state socialism between 1948–89, a forbidden author, he was also one of the main critics of the political approach of Charta 77 and Václav Havel. This criticism is also outlined in the paper. (shrink)

Práce se zabývá metodologickou stránkou teorie lidského jednání, která vznikla v rámci Weberovy rozumějící sociologie a byla dále transformována ve fenomenologické sociologii Alfreda Schütze. Analýza se zaměřuje především na to, jakým způsobem se oba myslitelé pokusili vyřešit problém interpretace lidského jednání ze strany (vědeckého) pozorovatele a samotného aktéra. Ukazuje se, že Weber stojí i přes snahu zůstat v kontaktu s psychologickou realitou jednání vždy již na pozici vědeckého pozorovatele. Schütz usiluje o důkladnější založení weberiánského postoje a ukazuje, jakým způsobem stanovisko (...) nezaujatého pozorovatele vystupuje z bezprostředně ("naivně") prožívané reality přirozeného světa. Oba myslitelé diskutují otázku racionality jednání a v závěru dospívají k přesvědčení, že racionalita (chápaná jako logická konzistence a empirická efektivita jednání) není ani tak charakteristikou, která by připadala "reálnému" jednání, ale spíše normou vědeckého popisu a vědeckého postupu. Argumentace je rozvinuta v rámci úvahy o chápání racionality v současné ekonomické teorii a roli introspekce. (shrink)