The objective of this study is to design a laboratory experiment to explore the effect of ambiguity on a subject’s search behavior in a finite-horizon sequential search model. In so doing, we employ a strategy to observe the potential trend of reservation points that is usually unobserved. We observe that subjects behaving consistently across treatments reduce their reservation points in the face of ambiguity over point distribution. Our result is consistent with the theoretical implication obtained by Nishimura and Ozaki.

We discuss foundational issues of quantum information biology —one of the most successful applications of the quantum formalism outside of physics. QIB provides a multi-scale model of information processing in bio-systems: from proteins and cells to cognitive and social systems. This theory has to be sharply distinguished from “traditional quantum biophysics”. The latter is about quantum bio-physical processes, e.g., in cells or brains. QIB models the dynamics of information states of bio-systems. We argue that the information interpretation of quantum mechanics (...) is the most natural interpretation of QIB. Biologically QIB is based on two principles: adaptivity; openness. These principles are mathematically represented in the framework of a novel formalism— quantum adaptive dynamics which, in particular, contains the standard theory of open quantum systems. (shrink)

One of the fundamental issues in visual awareness is how we are able to perceive the scene in front of our eyes on time despite the delay in processing visual information. The prediction theory postulates that our visual system predicts the future to compensate for such delays. On the other hand, the postdiction theory postulates that our visual awareness is inevitably a delayed product. In the present study we used flash-lag paradigms in motion and color domains and examined how the (...) perception of visual information at the time of flash is influenced by prior and subsequent visual events. We found that both types of event additively influence the perception of the present visual image, suggesting that our visual awareness results from joint contribution of predictive and postdictive mechanisms. (shrink)

To let humanoid robots behave socially adequate in a future society, we started to explore laughter as an important para-verbal signal known to influence relationships among humans rather easily. We investigated how the naturalness of various types of laughter in combination with different humanoid robots was judged, first, within a situational context that is suitable for laughter and, second, without describing the situational context. Given the variety of human laughter, do people prefer a certain style for a robot’s laughter? And (...) if yes, how does a robot’s outer appearance affect this preference, if at all? Is this preference independent of the observer’s cultural background? Those participants, who took part in two separate online surveys and were told that the robots would laugh in response to a joke, preferred one type of laughter regardless of the robot type. This result is contrasted by a detailed analysis of two more surveys, which took place during presentations at a Japanese and a German high school, respectively. From the results of these two surveys, interesting intercultural differences in the perceived naturalness of our laughing humanoids can be derived and challenging questions arise that are to be addressed in future research. (shrink)

Determinants of synesthetic color choice for the Japanese logographic script, Kanji, were studied. The study investigated how synesthetic colors for Kanji characters, which are usually acquired later in life than other types of graphemes in Japanese language , are influenced by linguistic properties such as phonology, orthography, and meaning. Of central interest was a hypothesized generalization process from synesthetic colors for graphemes, learned prior to acquisition of Kanji, to Kanji characters learned later. Results revealed that color choices for Kanji characters (...) depend on meaning and phonological information. Some results suggested that colors are generalized from Hiragana characters and Arabic digits to Kanji characters via phonology and meaning, respectively. Little influence of orthographic information was observed. The findings and approach of this study contributes to a clarification of the mechanism underlying grapheme-color synesthesia, especially in terms of its relationship to normal language processing. (shrink)

This paper presents an analysis of three Japanese words — ne, yone, and daroo. These three expressions are often interpreted as tag questions in English. Although these words are semantically closely related, they are not always interchangeable. The subtle differences between them are difficult to grasp, especially for language learners. Numerous studies have been undertaken in order to clarify the meanings of ne, yone, and daroo. However, opinions vary among different scholars, and definitions for these markers are not fully established. (...) This paper applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. It proposes new explications in terms of semantic primes. The proposed semantic formulae clarify the differences between the three expressions and serve as practical tools: Tools which indicate criteria that can assist in choosing an appropriate word for a given situation. (shrink)

I want to discuss D. Miller’s arguments concerning our responsibility to secure the basic human rights everywhere in the world. His arguments are very interesting because he tries to balance two perspectives to see human beings. First, as needy and vulnerable creatures, we need certain items or conditions in order to have minimally decent human lives. Without those items or conditions, we are harmed. Second, as choosing agents, we are responsible for the consequences of our actions. In the first half (...) of the paper, I describe Miller’s arguments. Our basic needs give rise to basic human rights. So when somebody is denied basic human rights, it imposes upon the rest of us a responsibility to restore them. This is a demand of justice. So, at first Miller appears to advocate a strong claim of our responsibility to help the global poor. But he considerably weakens this responsibility. How? First, he thinks that the deprivation of basic human rights is largely brought about by people of poor developing countries. So, we do not owe a primary responsibility to fulfil their basic human right. Second, there is a justice gap between what poor people in developing countries can claim as a matter of justice and what we are obliged, as a matter of justice, to sacrifice. So, in the end we are demanded to offer humanitarian aids only. In the second half, I develop the three problems I find with Miller’s arguments. (shrink)

『精神現象掌』的全段階比扣、「感覺怯「契機反復芒才、「感性怯、「精神」仿現象口有仿道程的全体是構成心志「工夭。前者怯「推論」構造橙色運動的論理的拉機能守，後者怯、的運動力可考己、言古法拉形態是取毛主芒 的原本的放質料場所可怎。己的區別乙基于主芒『精神現象字』仿敘述分析寸毛主、「共通感賞」仿云統的拉理解力可大芒〈愛才月。非共通仿共通感貨主怯、絕灼的異他性老含甘共同体拉拉、仿共通感覺、己才倍、『精神現象 字』的宗教仿段階心惰熱主意志才包合非共通的共通又主深化才謊耳其弓之己。神仿死的感情，仿神色人色的、旬件又站、大秉弘教、多悲三哲竿的』乙深〈通匕言文本丐。 Dans toutes les étapes de la Phénoménologie de l' esprit, la sensibilité est répétée comme « moment », et le sensible est un « élément » qui constitue le cheminement total du processus du phénomène de I' « esprit ». La première est une fonction logique du mouvement ayant une structure « deductive ». Le second est la matière originale et le lieu lorsque ce mouvement prend ici de multiples formes. Cette distinction a pour effet de changer la compréhension (...) traditionnelle du sens commun. Le sens commun non commun, c'est le sens commun dans la communauté contenant l'Étrangeté absolue. Dans l'étape de la religion de la Phénoménologie de l' esprit, nous pouvons lire ce sens commun non commun comme s'approfondissent dans le pathos commun non commun qui comporte à la fois la passion et la volonté. On peut affirmer que le pathos entre Dieu comme sentiment de Sa mort et l'homme est philosophiquement lié à la compassion dont parle le bouddhisme du Grand Véhicule. In all the stages of the Phenomenology of the spirit, the sensibility is repeated as « moment », and the sensitive is an « element » which constitutes the total progress of the process of the phenomenon of the « spirit ». The first is a logical function of the movement having a « deductive » structure. The second is the original material and the place when this movement here takes multiple forms. If we analyze the description of the Phenomenology of the spirit by resting itself on this distinction, it is the traditional understanding of the « common sense » that will largely be changed. The non-common common sense is the common sense in the community containing the absolute Strangeness. In the stage of the religion of the Phenomenology of the spirit, we can read this common sense non-common as deepening in the common pathos not common which contains both passion and will. We can assert that the pathos between God as feeling of His death and man is philosophically connected to the condolence which the Buddhism of the Big Vehicle refers to. (shrink)

In experiments of games, players frequently make choices which are regarded as irrational in game theory. In papers of Khrennikov (Information Dynamics in Cognitive, Psychological and Anomalous Phenomena. Fundamental Theories of Physics, Kluwer Academic, Norwell, 2004; Fuzzy Sets Syst. 155:4–17, 2005; Biosystems 84:225–241, 2006; Found. Phys. 35(10):1655–1693, 2005; in QP-PQ Quantum Probability and White Noise Analysis, vol. XXIV, pp. 105–117, 2009), it was pointed out that statistics collected in such the experiments have “quantum-like” properties, which can not be explained in (...) classical probability theory. In this paper, we design a simple quantum-like model describing a decision-making process in a two-players game and try to explain a mechanism of the irrational behavior of players. Finally we discuss a mathematical frame of non-Kolmogorovian system in terms of liftings (Accardi and Ohya, in Appl. Math. Optim. 39:33–59, 1999). (shrink)

This essay is an overview of the intellectual itinerary of the Japanese philosopher Kuki Shūzō (1888-1941). Kuki first came to the attention of Western readers in Heidegger's A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer. After correcting the record on Kuki with regards to this famous piece, the essay turns to the work that Heidegger and the Japanese Inquirer were discussing, namely, The Structure of Iki. The essay discusses both the background and basic arguments of this work. The (...) essay then expands on Kuki's Western reception, indicating that his thinking evolved beyond his early work with the phenomenon of iki. His later thinking concerns the problem of contingency and the essay concludes with a discussion of his late work, The Problem of Contingency. The essay reviews Kuki's thinking as a whole in order to develop a sense of his hermeneutics. (shrink)

This study presents and discusses the essential “nearness” and “farness” between Nishitani philosophy and Nishida philosophy, where such “nearness” and “farness” are not meant to be words that simply express the relative positions in which Nishida and Nishitani philosophy stand with respect to each other, but present the internal structure of the very problems at the core of both. Taking as a clue, Nishitani’s words, “nearer to me than I am to myself,” we examine these philosophies by situating their interpretations (...) of Eckhart as an axis for our considerations and then introducing their understandings of an expression from Daitō Kokushi 大燈国師. In conclusion, we consider the problems remaining for both. While it was Nishida philosophy that made it possible to take on the foundation of the history of philosophy as a problem, it would be left to Nishitani to actually carry this out. In turn, while Nishitani presents a criticism of the “intellect,” we must speak of the elucidation of logic as an undeveloped problem left within Nishitani philosophy. (shrink)

Determinants of synesthetic color choice for Japanese phonetic characters were studied in six Japanese synesthetes. The study used Hiragana and Katakana characters, which represent the same set of syllables although their visual forms are dissimilar. From a palette of 138 colors, synesthetes selected a color corresponding to each character. Results revealed that synesthetic color choices for Hiragana characters and those for their Katakana counterparts were remarkably consistent, indicating that color selection depended on character-related sounds and not visual form. This Hiragana–Katakana (...) invariance cannot be regarded as the same phenomenon as letter case invariance, usually reported for English grapheme-color synesthesia, because Hiragana and Katakana characters have different identities whereas upper and lower case letters have the same identity. This involvement of phonology suggests that cross-activation between an inducer brain region and that of the concurrent area in grapheme-color synesthesia is mediated by higher order cortical processing areas. (shrink)

Nature and civilization are often regarded in opposition to each other. However, civilization employs technologies and is based on laws of nature. Also, the historical world is a result of the development of the natural world. An “anti-nature” must thus be contained somewhere within nature. The idea of “ anti-nature ” is neither alien to the Eastern nor to the Western traditional concepts of nature. The philosophy of Lao Zi never embraces mere naturalism. Lao Zi has observed that things in (...) the world are not always “ so on their own ” but rather in the mode of anti-nature. A nti-nature in nature itself does not become expressive until Christian theology, in which the origin of evil is reflected upon. The last part of the paper begins with one Buddhist thought expressed in the Diamond Sutra: “The world is not the world that is named the world.” Through naming of a thing, this thing is objectified or substantialized, and an objectified thing is not the thing itself. This self is “ śūnya ”, a non-world, which is what the world is. This non-world (as well nature) is first and foremost concealed by ego-consciousness that tends to objectify the things. E go-consciousness as this anti-nature tends to conceal this non-nature, and begins to act in the form of technology. The radical way of solving the problems caused by this “anti-nature” must begin with gaining an insight into the nature of ourselves as well as the nature of technology. (shrink)

There exist several phenomena breaking the classical probability laws. The systems related to such phenomena are context-dependent, so that they are adaptive to other systems. In this paper, we present a new mathematical formalism to compute the joint probability distribution for two event-systems by using concepts of the adaptive dynamics and quantum information theory, e.g., quantum channels and liftings. In physics the basic example of the context-dependent phenomena is the famous double-slit experiment. Recently similar examples have been found in biological (...) and psychological sciences. Our approach is an extension of traditional quantum probability theory, and it is general enough to describe aforementioned contextual phenomena outside of quantum physics. (shrink)

The interdisciplinary spring school “Language, music, and cognition: Organizing events in time” was held from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Cologne. Language, speech, and music as events in time were explored from different perspectives including evolutionary biology, social cognition, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience of speech, language, and communication, as well as computational and biological approaches to language and music. There were 10 lectures, 4 workshops, and 1 student poster session. Overall, (...) the spring school investigated language and music as neurocognitive systems and focused on a mechanistic approach exploring the neural substrates underlying musical, linguistic, social, and emotional processes and behaviors. In particular, researchers approached questions concerning cognitive processes, computational procedures, and neural mechanisms underlying the temporal organization of language and music, mainly from two perspectives: one was concerned with syntax or structural representations of language and music as neurocognitive systems (i.e., an intrapersonal perspective), while the other emphasized social interaction and emotions in their communicative function (i.e., an interpersonal perspective). The spring school not only acted as a platform for knowledge transfer and exchange but also generated a number of important research questions as challenges for future investigations. (shrink)

In this article, the author begins by noticing a statistical fact: from the seven Japanese translations of Being and Time, in five cases the German word Sein has been translated as sonzai, and in two cases as u. This fact invites the author to a discussion about the Japanese understanding of “Being”, which is developed on three levels: the question of language, the question of historical-cultural world, and the question of the “European”, understood as a Western principle, depictingthis “Abend-land” as (...) a region threatened by night. (shrink)

Die Ausgangsthese des Beitrags lautet: Die Phänomenologie ist wesentlich pragmatisch und der Pragmatismus ist im Grunde phänomenologisch, so dass man vom,phänomenologischen Pragmatismus‘ reden kann. Durch diese Idee könnte man auch über das Wesentliche der phänomenologischen sowie auch der pragmatisch bzw. pragmatistischen Denkungsart erneut nachdenken. In der ersten Hälfte wird versucht, diese Idee anhand einiger aristotelischen Gedanken zu belegen. In der zweiten Hälfte handelt es sich um die Eröffnung der Perspektive dieser Idee für das philosophische Denken. Als ein konkreter Ansatzpunkt gilt (...) das Thema,Geschichtsdenken‘. Dieser Ansatzpunkt ist kein bloßer Einfall. Denn er trägt dazu bei, wenn er sachgemäß bearbeitet wird, das Wesentliche der Phänomenologie und des Pragmatismus zum beleuchten. Dazu sei zu bemerken, dass in der Phänomenologie und im Pragmatismus das Geschichtsdenken überhaupt eher zurückgeblieben als entwickelt war. Dies war kein Zufall, da das, worum es im Geschichtsdenken geht, in der gewöhnlichen Vorstellung das ist,,was geschehen ist‘, während das,phainomenon‘ in der Phänomenologie durchaus Gegenwartserlebnis sein soll. Wie man das Geschichtsphänomen als,phainomenon‘ der Gegenwart auffassen kann, ist eine phänomenologisch-pragmatisch provokative Frage. Der Schlüssel dieser Frage wird im vorliegenden Beitrag in der,reinen Erfahrung‘ gesehen, die von W. James vorgeschlagen und vom japanischen Philosophen K. Nishida weiter bearbeitet wurde. (shrink)

This paper proposes a class of independence axioms for simple acts. By introducing the E\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {E}}$$\end{document}-cominimum independence axiom that is stronger than the comonotonic independence axiom but weaker than the independence axiom, we provide a new axiomatization theorem of simple acts within the framework of Choquet expected utility. Furthermore, in order to provide the axiomatization of simple acts, we generalize Kajii et al. into an infinite state space. Our axiomatization theorem relates (...) Choquet expected utility to multi-prior expected utility through the core of a capacity that is explicitly derived within our framework. Our result in this paper also derives Gilboa, Eichberger and Kelsey, and Rohde as a corollary. (shrink)

法実証主義の現代的展開として法多元主義を位置づけるとともに、社会保障と自衛官合祀訴訟という個別の題材、さらに、組織論にもアプローチ。グローバル化がもたらす国家法と非国家法が交錯する世界を読み解く法理論 。.

Plato's theory in the Republic has been a model for realist metaphysics. His text, however, is not easy to understand because his language is often only suggestive or metaphorical with the result that many different interpretations have flourished, especially in this century, and many questions have not been resolved. ;My dissertation is a new and up-to-date defense of a traditional reading of Plato's metaphysics in the Republic, focusing on three central problem areas: the degrees of reality, Plato's arguments for Forms, (...) and mathematical intermediates. ;First, Plato distinguishes knowledge and opinion, and characterizes their objects as "what is" and "what is and is not," and some scholars have taken these to represent degrees of reality. This is a fundamental distinction for Plato; however, exactly what does he mean by "what is" and "what is and is not"? I shall argue that Plato primarily means "what exists" and "what exists and does not exist ", and that the distinction amounts to degrees of reality: being and becoming. ;Second, Plato uses two arguments for the existence of Forms: the Argument from Conflicting Appearances and the One-over-Many Argument . Exactly what are these arguments, and why does Plato use two, when one argument would seem to suffice? I shall argue that the two arguments can jointly generate Forms but taken separately each generates something short of Forms. They therefore function as one argument. ;Third, scholars have disagreed over whether Plato requires a separate metaphysical category for mathematical entities when he distinguishes two stages of knowledge in the Simile of the Line--noesis and dianoia. Granted that the objects of noesis are Forms, what are the objects of dianoia? I shall argue that they must be mathematical intermediates, while discussing related issues in the interpretation of this Simile. Without mathematical intermediates we could not understand the unique position of mathematics in Plato's educational program. ;The three problem areas are closed related, and my discussions will shed light to the basic tenets and logic of Plato's metaphysics. (shrink)

This article analyzes investors’ portfolio selection problems in a two-period dynamic model of Knightian uncertainty. We account for the existence of portfolio inertia in this two-period framework. Furthermore, by incorporating investors’ updating behavior, we analyze how observing new information in the first period will affect investors’ behavior. By this analysis, we show that observing new information in the first period will expand portfolio inertia in the second period compared with the case in which observing new information has not been gained (...) in the first period if the degree of Knightian uncertainty is sufficiently large. (shrink)