Societies are composed of groups that interact. Symbiotic groups are those in which agents complement each other in resources that they have in excess. Symbiotic groups are useful especially when the resources in an environment are distributed unevenly, because they enable agents to trade resources easily. However, for trading to happen successfully, agents in symbiotic groups need to cooperate, i.e., they should be willing to donate resources when appropriate. Similarly, if some agents in a symbiotic group are defectors, they should (...) be identified by others and eliminated from the group for the well-being of the remaining agents. Accordingly, we first study Edmonds’ tag-based model of symbiotic groups to understand the lifespan of symbiotic groups (e.g., why some groups live shorter than others). Then, we enhance Edmonds’ model by adding the capability of reciprocal interactions to agents, thus achieving a hybrid model. We capture reciprocity in three different models and study their effects on the elimination of defectors in symbiotic groups. Our experimental results show that the groups that are built with the proposed hybrid model can eliminate more defectors and earlier than tag-based models. Further, the hybrid approach can generate symbiotic groups more effectively and efficiently. (shrink)

In this article I examine the metaphysical foundations of Guido de Ruggiero’s liberalism and ask what these can tell us about his changing view of Giovanni Gentile's actualism, which was such an influence on de Ruggiero before the First World War. I argue that de Ruggiero’s ‘actualism’ was never the same as Gentile’s, but was drawn from the same intellectual sources; that the actualist conception of free and self-conscious agency runs through both versions of the doctrine, though interpreted in different (...) ways; and finally that the contrasts between de Ruggiero’s and Gentile’s political allegiances result from something other than their differing interpretations of actualism, which serves, in the end, not so much as a theory as a set of basic principles, images and ideals that each philosopher tried to modify and match to the political circumstances in which he found himself. (shrink)

Cognition or higher brain activity is sometimes seen as a phenomenon greater than the sum of its parts. This viewpoint however is largely dependent on the state of the art of experimental techniques that endeavor to characterize morphology and its association to function. Retinal ganglion cells are readily accessible for this work and we discuss recent advances in computational techniques in identifying novel parameters that describe structural attributes possibly associated with specific function. These parameters are based on calculating wavelet gradients (...) from cell images followed by the extraction of meaningful measures including 2nd wavelet moment, entropy of orientation, and curvature. For the three cell types analyzed, the mean 2nd wavelet moment, which relates to the field of influence of the dendritic-tree segments was significantly different. cells had the highest mean 2nd wavelet moment, followed by the and cells (134 ± 22, 93 ± 19 and 63 ± 12, respectively). There was no significant difference between cells for entropy of orientation, indicating no class with a preferential orientation of their dendritic tree. Curvature provided similar results to the 2nd wavelet moment with cells having the highest curvature followed by and the cells (mean ± SD: 161 ± 15; 134 ± 22; 121 ± 15). Our feature space analysis also indicated a difference between these cell types. No difference was found between the and cell types and their physiological counterparts the Y and X cells based on wavelet analysis. Both the X and Y cells can be divided into two subtypes, the ON- and OFF-center cells based on the stratification level of the dendritic tree within the retina. Using 2nd wavelet moment, a difference in their morphological attributes, not reported previously, was noted for these subtypes. The 2nd wavelet moment and curvature are further discussed with respect to explaining regularity of spacing and coverage associated with retinal ganglion cell mosaics. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper deals in the main with the problem of delimiting the classes of beings to which we have moral duties when making environmental decisions, and of how to balance their interests fairly. The relation between having interests, having desires and having value (intrinsic or other) is discussed, and a distinction made between entities which can themselves value and those which can have value. Its conclusion is that duties are owed directly to, and only to, sentient beings, and that (...) these duties can be ascertained by weighing their interests impartially strength for strength. It ends with some suggestions about procedures for doing this. Examples are taken from proposals to develop a beach commercially, and to construct a new road in an environmentally sensitive area [1]. (shrink)

First Published in 1979. Paperback 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informal company. This is an overview of Russell's philosophy, focussing in particular on his earlier work. Carter headings: Meaning; Names; Descriptions; The Perfect Language; Knowledge; Ontology; Mathematics.

Mustafa Sabri Efendi, Osmanlı Devleti’nin siyasi kayıplar yaşadığı dönemin sonlarında Şeyhülislamlık yapmış, Cumhuriyet’in ilanı sürecinde yaşamıştır. Batı’daki bilimsel gelişmelerle birlikte İslam düşüncesinde duraklamanın tecrübe edildiği dönemde, geleneksel ilmî mirası ve bu ilimlerin metotlarını savunmuş bir isimdir. Bu hassasiyetle modern bilimsel yöntemleri savunan çoğu İslam düşünürüne eleştiriler yöneltmiştir. O, bu dönemde düşünce akımlarının etkisiyle gelişen inanç problemleri karşısında geleneksel yöntem ve bilgi birikiminin etkinliğini gündeme getirmiştir. Mustafa Sabri, İslam’ın temel kaynaklarından biri olan sünnet ve bunun kayıt altına alındığı rivayetleri içeren muteber (...) hadis kaynaklarının metot ve sıhhat açısından son derece güvenilir olduğunu ve itikadî konularda belirleyici olduğunu vurgulamıştır. Mustafa Sabri’nin sünnet tasavvurunu göstermesi açısından onun nüzûl-i Îsâ konusundaki görüşleri önemli bir örnektir. O, nüzûl-i Îsâ hadisesi hakkındaki yaklaşımını, Mahmut Şeltut’a yönelik itirazlarıyla ortaya koymaktadır. O, bu hadisenin Hz. Peygamber’in gayba ilişkin verdiği haberlerden biri olması ve kıyamet alametlerinden sayılması noktasında, sünnetin kaynaklığını öne çıkarmaktadır. Nüzûl-i Îsâ’nın gerçekleşme imkânını günümüzde sıhhati açısından problemli kabul edilen rivayetler, sahabe, tabiûn ve sonraki İslam âlimlerinin ortaya koyduğu yaklaşım ve hadis kaynaklarına duyduğu itimat üzerinden inşa etmektedir. Mustafa Sabri bu anlamda geleneksel birikimi öne çıkaran bir sünnet tasavvuru ortaya koymaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmamız Mustafa Sabri’nin nüzûl-i Îsâ çerçevesinde sünnetin kaynaklığına ilişkin yaklaşımını ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. (shrink)

Since the last decades of the 20th century the meaning and content of knowledge has dramatically changed. This necessitates adopting a historical perspective in ap­proa­ching the questions of knowledge. But so far all the efforts of putting knowledge in a historical perspective since Hegel’s historization of Spirit either suffer from the limitations of the presupposition of the One or fail to ground the historicity of knowledge on the history of coming-to-be and passing-away. Moving from Heidegger’s ‘history of Being’ toward the (...) Aristotelian understanding of coming-to-be and passing away as a process of becoming has the potential to open up new avenues in approaching the historical question of knowledge as well as establishing its relation with the never com­plete ground of the entities as its historical a priori condition of possibility. (shrink)

People use words and concepts to refer to things. There are agents who refer, there are acts of referring, and there are tools to refer with: words and concepts. Reference is a relation between people and things, and also between words or concepts and things, and perhaps it involves all three things at once. It is not just any relation between an action or word and a thing; the list of things which can refer, people, words and concepts, is probably (...) not complete ; and a complete account would need to speak of cases in which the reference relation seems to involve three terms in a different way from the one already mentioned. In the philosophy of language, it has been customary to think of reference as a two-place relation, with some object as the second term and a word or phrase as the first. (shrink)

Frankfurt Okulu felsefe ve sosyolojinin arasında yer alan bir düşünce hareketini oluşturur. Hareketin en tanınmış üyeleri Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer ve Herbert Marcus’tur. Adorno gibi diğerlerinin de düşünceleri Aydınlanma eleştirisi, estetik, kültür teorisi ve genel olarak çağdaş toplumun değerlendirilmesi gibi oldukça geniş bir alana yayılmaktadır. Karl Marx ve Sigmund Freud Frankfurt Okulu düşünürlerinin düşüncelerinin şekillenmesindeki en önemli iki figürü oluşturmaktadır. Adorno ve Teoloji adlı bu eser, Adorno’nun eserlerinden hareketle teoloji, metafizik ve genel olarak din konusuna taalluk eden konuları ele (...) alıp incelemektedir. (shrink)

Understanding has often been regarded as a kind of knowledge. This paper argues that this view is very implausible for understanding words. Instead, a proper account will be of the “analytic-genetic” variety: it will describe immersion in the practice of using a word in such a way that even those not previously equipped with the concepts the word expresses can become immersed. Meeting this condition requires attention to findings in developmental psychology. If you understand a declarative utterance, you thereby know (...) what the speaker said in uttering the words she did. The converse is close to true: if you come to know what a speaker of a declarative utterance has said, then normally you understand the utterance. An example of an abnormal situation would be one in which the speaker’s utterance is in a language you do not understand, but you are authoritatively informed, and so know, what the speaker said. The connection between understanding a whole utterance and knowing something can be preserved by alluding to the basis of the knowledge: it should arise from understanding the words in the utterance, and how they are put together. This leads to a fairly uncontroversial conditional equivalence: (1) If an utterer of an utterance, U, thereby says that p then: (X knows this, on the basis of understanding the words in U and how they are put together) iff (X understands U). The relevant knowledge has no mysteries: it is propositional, typically fully explicit, and is invoked in memory and in reports of speech. The question to be addressed in this paper is whether we can apply this kind of connection between understanding and knowledge to explain what is taken for granted in the equivalence 2 above, namely, the understanding of words. I will suggest that we cannot. Under some idealizations, one can formulate necessarily true equivalences between understanding a word and knowing something, but these equivalences are unilluminating. The knowledge is not of the straightforward kind invoked in connection with whole utterances, and it is mysterious how one might come to possess it. An account of understanding words requires an “analytic-genetic” story, an analysis which offers some philosophical illumination while being consistent with what is known about the genesis of participation in linguistic practices. (shrink)

Монография предназначена для преподавателей вузов, соискателей ученых степеней и студентов.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Frege on Function, Concept and Object Sinn (Sense) and Bedeutung (Reference) Identity Statements and Bearerless Names: Russell's View of Names as Associated with Descriptions Names and Communication Russell's Theory of Descriptions Indirect Discourse Conclusion.

Shows how well the book’s theory applies to existential statements, providing a very straightforward account of true negative ones. The theory also applies reasonably well to fiction, and the remaining problems are problematic for all theories.

Sets out the framework within which Reference without referents theory is developed. Truth theoretic semantics, though it certainly cannot tell us everything we wish to know, is accorded a significant role; the impact of the idea of a Russellian proposition is noted and deplored, negative free logic is described and endorsed, a methodology of maximizing ontological conservatism is stated, and the notion of rigidity is explained and shown to be intuitively consistent with lack of a referent.

My commentators point to respects in which the picture provided in Reference without Referents is incomplete. The picture provided no account of how sentences constructed from intensional verbs (like “John thought about Pegasus”) can be true when one of the referring expressions fails to refer. And it gave an incomplete, and possibly misleading, account of how to understand certain serious uses of fictional names, as in “Anna Karenina is more intelligent than Emma Bovary” and “Anna Karenina does not exist”. In (...) the present response, I indicate how I would now wish to make good these deficiencies. The truth of sentences constructed from intensional verbs can be explained in terms of the truth of sentences that are unproblematic for RWR, for example, sentences dominated by operators expressing propositional attitudes. Reflection on the way in which we can temporarily accept commitments we do not in fact share leads to a more nuanced account of serious uses of fictional names, some of which manifest precisely such a temporary acceptance. (shrink)

Many theories provide semantics for English by proxy of semantics for the "logical form" of English sentences. The paper presents a dilemma: if there is no algorithm for moving between English and logical form, English itself has not been given a semantic theory. But if there is an algorithm, it can be incorporated in the theory, which would then apply directly to English. In the worst case, logical form is an obstacle to providing semantics for English. In the best case, (...) it is unnecessary. (shrink)

A obra Consequências da liberdade, publicada no ano de 2011 pela Editora Universitária da UFPE, é primeira obra do escritor e filósofo Geraldo Euclides da Silva, e que certamente se firmará no cenário de exegese das pesquisas sobre o pensamento existencialista de corte sartreano.