In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in thedevelopment of ontologically well-founded conceptual models for Information Systems in areas such as Service Management, Accounting Information Systems and Financial Reporting. Economic exchanges are central phenomena in these areas. For this reason, they occupy a prominent position in modelling frameworks such as the REA (Resource-EventAction) ISO Standard as well as the FIBO (Financial Industry BusinessOntology). In this paper, we begin a well-founded ontological analysisof economic exchanges inspired by a recent ontological (...) view on the nature of economic transactions. According to this view, what counts asan economic transaction is based on an agreement on the actions thatthe agents are committed to perform. The agreement is in turn based on convergent preferences about the course of action to bring about. This view enables a unified treatment of economic exchanges, regardless the object of the transaction, and complies with the view that all economictransactions are about services. In this paper, we start developing our analysis in the framework of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). (shrink)

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of well-founded conceptual models for Service Management, Accounting Information Systems and Financial Reporting. Economic ex- changes are a central notion in these areas and they occupy a prominent position in frameworks such as the Resource-Event Action (REA) ISO Standard, service core ontologies (e.g., UFO-S) as well as financial stan- dards (e.g. OMG’s Financial Industry Business Ontology - FIBO). We present a core ontology for economic exchanges inspired by a (...) recent view on this phenomenon. According to this view, economic exchanges are based on an agreement on the actions that the agents are committed to perform. This view enables a unified treatment of economic exchanges, regardless the object of the transaction. We ground our core ontology on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO), discussing its formal and conceptual aspects, instantiating it as a reusable OntoUML model, and confronting it with the REA standard and the UFO-S service ontology. (shrink)

Considerable recent research in neurosciences has dealt with the topic of consciousness, even though there is still disagreement about how to identify and classify conscious states. Recent behavioral work on the topic also exists. We survey recent behavioral and neuroscientific literature with the aims of commenting on strengths and weaknesses of the literature and mapping new directions and recommendations for experimental psychologists. We reconcile this literature with a view of human information processing (Cowan, 1988; Cowan et al., 2024) in which (...) a capacity-limited focus of attention is embedded within the activated portion of long-term memory, with dual bottom-up and top-down control of the focus of attention. None of the many extant theories fully captures what we propose as the organization of conscious thought at cognitive and neural levels. It seems clear that information from various cognitive functions, based on signals from various brain areas, is integrated into a conscious whole. In our new proposal, the integration involves funneling information to a hub or focus of attention neurally centered in the parietal lobes and functionally connected to areas representing the currently attended information. This funneling process (bringing information from diverse sensory and frontal sources to contact a small parietal area where attended information is coordinated and combined) may be the converse of global broadcasting, from other proposals (Baars et al., 2021; Baars & Franklin, 2003; Dehaene & Changeux, 2011). The proposed system incorporates many principles from previous research and theorization and strives toward a resolution of the relation between consciousness and attention. Keywords: consciousness, attention, embedded processes model, experimental psychology, neuroscience. (shrink)

MUDANÇAS, REVOLUÇÕES E SUAS IMPLICAÇÕES -/- CHANGES, REVOLUTIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS -/- Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva – IFPE-BJ, CAP-UFPE e UFRPE - [email protected] / [email protected] e WhatsApp: (82)98143-8399 -/- PREMISSA -/- A mudança social é um tema presente na Sociologia desde o seu início. Seria possível dizer que o surgimento da Sociologia está vinculado à discussão sobre as transformações sociais, ou seja, falar sobre a ciência da sociedade é falar sobre esse tema. Por isso mesmo, abordar o tema da (...) mudança social pressupõe lidar com a questão das resistências às possíveis transformações. Quando uma comunidade ou uma sociedade se depara com mudanças, de origem interna ou externa, há sempre resistência, pois há uma espécie de acomodação ao que já existe. Assim, as relações de poder, por exemplo, podem se modificar, num complexo jogo de resistência contra o poder e desejo de conquistá-lo ou ampliá-lo. Desse modo, confrontos e conflitos compõem o itinerário das mudanças e revoluções sociais. -/- Aqui serão objetos de análise dois grandes tipos de mudanças sociais: aquelas que, por seu caráter universal e multifacetado, afetaram toda a humanidade e aquelas de conotação sociopolítica, que atingiram determinadas sociedades e, depois, tornaram-se referência para outras mudanças. Serão, portanto, abordadas as revoluções agrícola e industrial e as recentes transformações e os episódios mais marcantes das revoluções políticas contemporâneas em todo o mundo. -/- A REVOLUÇÃO AGRÍCOLA -/- Esta revolução transformou radicalmente a forma de produção de alimentos das populações humanas. A expressão “revolução agrícola” foi criada pelo arqueólogo australiano Gordon Childe (1892-1957). Ela também é chamada de “revolução do Neolítico”, pois foi o período em que a humanidade desenvolveu a agricultura e as técnicas de cultivo de alimentos, como também aprendeu a domesticar e criar animais. Isso alterou o processo de obtenção de alimentos, pois as populações deixaram de ser coletoras e caçadoras e passaram, paulatinamente, a ter uma relação diferenciada com animais e plantas. Essas mudanças não ocorreram ao mesmo tempo em todos os lugares. Elas se iniciaram no Oriente Médio (há 9 ou 10 mil anos). Depois, no Egito (9 mil), na Índia (8 mil), na China (7 mil), na Europa (6,5 mil), na África tropical (5 mil) e na América, principalmente no México e no Peru (4,5 mil anos), através do deslocamento de hordas humanas ou movimentos independentes. O processo foi muito longo. Inicialmente, percebeu-se que os grãos que eram coletados para alimentação poderiam ser enterrados, isto é, “semeados”, a fim de produzir novas plantas iguais às que eram coletadas anteriormente. Assim, foi possível produzir trigo, cevada, milho, arroz e tubérculos (vários tipos de batatas); posteriormente, também árvores frutíferas. A partir de então, em consequência da experiência e da observação do que acontecia no meio ambiente, passou-se a selecionar sementes e outras árvores para plantio. Através da experiência prática, desenvolveu-se um conhecimento dos diferentes tipos de solo e de plantas, o que ajudou a aprimorar as técnicas de plantio e colheita, incluindo a observação da melhor época para o desenvolvimento de cada uma das culturas. Determinante para a fixação de grupos humanos (sedentarização) há milhares de anos, a agricultura ainda é a principal atividade de parte expressiva da população mundial. Essa atividade é a eminente na questão de desenvolvimento do Brasil, uma vez que o setor a cada ano emprega mais, a cada ano produz mais e a cada ano supera os índices de lucratividade anteriores, sendo, por fim, o baú do tesouro brasileiro. Voltando para a Revolução, outro elemento essencial desse processo foi a domesticação de animais. Junto com a agricultura, esse foi um passo muito importante para a alteração do modo de vida da humanidade, já que eliminou a necessidade do deslocamento para obtenção da carne e das peles necessárias ao conforto e também do leite dos rebanhos. A domesticação deve ter surgido espontaneamente em vários locais, resultado do processo de aproximação e observação dos animais no decurso das caçadas. O primeiro animal domesticado foi o cão; na sequência, animais para a alimentação e tração, como a cabra, o carneiro, o boi e o cavalo. Paralelamente a essas mudanças, alguns instrumentos foram sendo confeccionados, como a foice, o arado, a roda e outros que eram utilizados para arar a terra e até na colheita: novas tecnologias para um processo revolucionário. Esse processo intenso de subdivisões e deslocamentos provocou uma onda de difusão da agricultura e da atividade pastoril através das migrações. Imagine-se por um momento vivendo em grupos ou fazendo parte de hordas humanas, reproduzindo-se e subdividindo-se, migrando para outros locais, plantando e desenvolvendo a criação de animais em vários lugares, deslocando-se à procura de novos espaços e invadindo territórios de outros grupos, convivendo entre si ou em conflito, aprendendo e ensinando aos grupos com os quais estabeleceram alguma comunicação e submetendo-se ou sendo submetidos pelos habitantes com quem entraram em contato. Esse é apenas um pequeno esboço do que ocorreu nesse processo de transmissão e absorção de novas formas revolucionárias de viver. A grande revolução agrícola (que foi, em essência, a síntese de centenas de revoluções localizadas no tempo e no espaço e marcadas pela diversidade de ações e resultados) foi aquela que alterou de fato e profundamente toda a humanidade. Mas ela continua até hoje, uma vez que as transformações que ocorrem na produção de alimentos não estacionaram e mantêm um processo de mudança contínuo. Entretanto, existem ainda formas de organização social, como a de alguns poucos povos caçadores e coletores, que utilizam a agricultura e a domesticação de animais à moda antiga. -/- A REVOLUÇÃO INDUSTRIAL -/- O que se chama de Revolução Industrial na Europa nos séculos XVIII e XIX não é uma revolução puramente industrial, nem começou repentinamente nesses séculos. Foi um processo lento de transformação que se desenvolveu desde o século XV e atingiu grandes setores da produção, como o mineiro, o metalúrgico e o têxtil. A expansão da produção nesses setores envolveu a invenção de novas técnicas e máquinas, além de uma estrutura (a fábrica) que permitisse a concentração de equipamentos e trabalhadores num só lugar. Situadas quase sempre nas cidades, as fábricas requeriam muita mão de obra. Atraindo as pessoas que deixavam o campo em busca de trabalho, as cidades cresceram vertiginosamente. Transformava-se, assim, a forma de produzir bens e serviços, alterando as formas de viver e revolucionando as relações sociais. Mas isso não aconteceu de maneira uniforme no mundo todo. Para que se tenha ideia da multiplicidade das mudanças trazidas pela urbanização e pela industrialização, a Inglaterra conheceu esses fenômenos típicos da modernidade em torno de 1860; o Brasil, por volta da década de 1930; a China, a partir do final do século XX. A Revolução Industrial começou no setor têxtil, na produção da lã e do algodão, com o uso das máquinas de fiar conhecidas como Spinning Jenny (1764) e Spinning Mule (1789), inventadas, respectivamente, por James Hargreaves e Samuel Crompton. Nessa época, a produção era feita manualmente, com rocas de baixíssimo rendimento. Pode-se dizer que, paralelamente à Revolução Industrial, houve na Europa uma segunda revolução agrícola. Ela teve início com a mudança na estrutura da propriedade rural, quando os proprietários de terras se juntaram a ricos comerciantes das cidades interessados em investir na agricultura e promoveram a introdução de novas técnicas de cultivo, entre as quais a rotação de culturas sem pousio (parcela de terras em repouso), de forma a retirar o máximo proveito das terras; a drenagem de terras pantanosas; o abate de florestas; e a ocupação de terras comunais. No intuito de melhorar a produção, promoveram a seleção das espécies mais produtivas, de sementes e o apuramento dos melhores rebanhos. Além disso, foram introduzidas máquinas e houve melhora nos transportes no espaço agrário. Isso permitiu relativa abundância em produtos agrícolas essenciais (carne, leite e derivados, legumes, tubérculos, cereais etc.), que juntamente com a indústria extrativa do sal, indispensável para a conservação dos alimentos, propiciou a melhoria gradual na dieta alimentar. Essas mudanças e a diminuição crescente da mortalidade propiciaram o que se pode chamar de revolução demográfica. Para se ter uma ideia, na Inglaterra, onde a Revolução teve início, a população em 1750 era de 6,5 milhões; em 1801 passou a 16,3 milhões e, em 1851, somava 27,5 milhões. Isso exigiu um aumento da produção e de matérias-primas vegetais e animais (transformadas nas fábricas). No século XIX, outras transformações ocorreram em face da emergência de novas fontes energéticas (eletricidade e petróleo) e de novos ramos industriais, o que resultou em alteração profunda nos processos produtivos, com a introdução de novas máquinas e equipamentos. Todas essas transformações propiciaram mudanças nas comunicações (telégrafo e telefone), nos meios de transporte (navio e trem a vapor, automóvel) e também em todas as esferas da vida (familiar, educacional, jurídica, governamental etc.). Além disso, provocaram o surgimento de inovações na arte, na literatura e nas ciências. -/- AS REVOLUÇÕES CONTEMPORÂNEAS -/- Há uma grande transformação em curso nas sociedades humanas. Os grandes artífices dessas mudanças cada vez mais radicais são as inovações tecnológicas e os resultados alcançados pela evolução dos processos científicos. É difícil demarcar espaços que estejam imunes a essa era de revoluções múltiplas e de largo alcance: de algum modo, todas as culturas estão imersas nessa nova fase da aldeia global, em que tudo e todos parecem estar condenados à interconexão e às novas realidades na microeletrônica, na genética de laboratório e na nanotecnologia, para citar apenas alguns dos “admiráveis mundos novos”. A microeletrônica revolucionou a escala produtiva de bens e serviços mediante o desenvolvimento de sistemas computacionais. Provocou uma mudança significativa também nos meios de comunicação. O uso de celulares, smartphones, computadores pessoais e portáteis, tablets e outros tantos equipamentos está alterando a forma de as pessoas e organizações públicas e privadas se comunicarem e se estruturarem. Novos componentes eletrônicos produzidos com base na nanotecnologia poderão revolucionar o que hoje conhecemos por computação, permitindo a produção de computadores pessoais com muitos processadores, extremamente rápidos e com enorme capacidade de armazenamento. No futuro, os nanoprocessadores provavelmente estarão presentes na maioria dos objetos que utilizaremos. Por meio da microeletrônica e da nanotecnologia, o nível de desenvolvimento da bioengenharia (ou engenharia genética) beirará a ficção científica. A manipulação genética, com o aprofundamento do conhecimento do DNA humano, de plantas e animais, será ampliada. As pesquisas mais divulgadas nessa área se referem às possibilidades de intervenção no campo da Medicina, como as vinculadas à utilização de células-tronco, à produção de vacinas e medicamentos específicos, à produção sintética de elementos essenciais à saúde humana (como a insulina e a albumina), à análise genética das doenças e à consequente terapia gênica, aos transplantes, ao mapeamento genético dos indivíduos, à formação de bancos de genoma de espécies em extinção, à recuperação de DNA de espécies extintas e até à clonagem de animais. Essas transformações podem gerar, entretanto, novos desafios e suscitar questões atreladas, por exemplo, à privacidade dos indivíduos, ao acesso desigual à tecnologia, aos riscos ambientais (aos seres vivos, incluindo os humanos), às relações sociais e de trabalho, às mudanças de valores e normas sociais e, principalmente, às possibilidades de maior liberdade e igualdade ou maior opressão/controle, além de maior ou menor desigualdade social. A Sociologia, que, como vimos, nasceu na Europa no contexto de grandes transformações, propõe debates sobre essas novas tecnologias e as mudanças sociais provocadas pelo uso delas. São necessários novos olhares, novos conceitos e teorias para dar conta desses elementos que estão afetando a vida humana em todos os sentidos. A utilização de novos saberes e tecnologias alterará a pesquisa em todas as ciências, permitindo mais aprofundamento, através de novos equipamentos, com modificações sensíveis nos modos de conhecer o mundo. A aplicação e o desenvolvimento científicos exercerão impacto na maioria das indústrias existentes, em áreas como as de sistemas de construção, transportes, comunicações, maquinário agrícola, e, é claro, na prestação de serviços. Será possível fabricar materiais cem vezes mais resistentes que o aço, carros cuja lataria não estará sujeita a riscos, espelhos antiofuscantes, aviões mais leves, jornais eletrônicos de plástico semelhante ao papel, tintas que mudam de cor etc. No cotidiano, roupas que não amassam ou que não cheiram mesmo depois de absorver muito suor poderão ser compradas em supermercados; do mesmo modo, tecidos que controlam a temperatura do corpo, adaptando-o confortavelmente à temperatura do ar, serão vendidos a preços acessíveis em toda parte, ao lado de vestimentas que auxiliam no emagrecimento e em diversas atividades orientadas por médicos e profissionais de saúde e esporte. O futuro, então, logo trará roupas impermeáveis, inodoras e que não mancham, as chamadas roupas interativas. Esses são exemplos simples do que já existe, mas ainda não em escala industrial para consumo massivo. A presença de robôs no processo produtivo já é uma realidade insofismável e pode-se prever que em pouco tempo eles farão serviços domésticos e outras várias atividades que hoje são desenvolvidas por pessoas de carne, osso e alma. Veículos autônomos, ou os automóveis que andam sozinhos, estão sendo desenvolvidos e alguns já são utilizados para a alegria e o espanto de muita gente. Na área ambiental, a revolução tecnológica poderá ocorrer em muitos campos. Ganharão muita visibilidade o uso de materiais alternativos e a utilização do que hoje chamamos de resíduos industriais ou domésticos na fabricação de mercadorias. Todos esses resíduos, que hoje são descartados, inclusive os chamados não recicláveis, podem passar a ser matérias-primas para diferentes setores da economia. A máxima de Lavoisier (1743-1794) seria então plenamente consagrada: Na natureza nada se cria, nada se perde, tudo se transforma. Nem tudo são flores, entretanto. Acesso desigual aos frutos dessas mudanças; prejuízos ao meio ambiente (riscos aos seres vivos, incluindo os humanos), às relações sociais e de trabalho, aos valores e normas sociais e, principalmente, às possibilidades de maior liberdade e igualdade ou mais opressão e controle, além de maiores ou menores desigualdades sociais. Um conjunto de situações novas para as quais ainda não se tem respostas pode surgir da expansão tecnológica e do desenvolvimento da ciência. Assim como a energia atômica trouxe benefícios extraordinários e malefícios estarrecedores à humanidade, novas tecnologias e inovadores processos científicos poderão trazer grandes soluções e reviravoltas nas formas de ser e de viver, bem como enormes e imprevisíveis prejuízos e destruições. -/- BREVE CONCLUSÃO -/- As revoluções do passado e do presente se estenderão ainda por muito tempo, uma vez que são expressões da atividade humana, a qual transforma o meio e é por ele transformada. Não há transformações que não retenham algo do passado e, ao mesmo tempo, delineiem alguns traços do futuro, pois as mudanças, por mais radicais que sejam, sempre conservam algo. Além disso elas não ocorrem em todos os lugares nem atingem a todos da mesma forma, deixando abertas as portas da história. Essa imprevisibilidade da ação humana, calcada no tempo anterior e orientada para os dias posteriores, dá graça e mistério à existência, tornando a vida em sociedade um desafio de conquistas fabulosas e um palco de derrotas lampejantes. -/- REFERENCIAL TEÓRICO -/- ALMOND, M.; BATISTA, G. O livro de ouro das Revoluções. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2018. -/- TOMAZI, N. D.; ROSSI, M. A. Sociologia para o ensino médio. Vol. Único. 5ª ed. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2016. -/- Todos os direitos reservados para Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva © 2019 Estimule a criatividade, respeite o direito autoral. -/- . (shrink)

In this paper, we argue that there are epistemic norms on evidence-gathering and consider consequences for how to understand epistemic normativity. Though the view that there are such norms seems intuitive, it has found surprisingly little defense. Rather, many philosophers have argued that norms on evidence-gathering can only be practical or moral. On a prominent evidentialist version of this position, epistemic norms only apply to responding to the evidence one already has. Here we challenge the orthodoxy. First, we argue that (...) there is no significant normative difference between responding to evidence you have and gathering more evidence. Second, we argue that our practices of epistemically criticizing agents for their poor evidence-gathering indicate the existence of epistemic norms on evidence-gathering. Finally, we show that our thesis has important implications for recent debates about the relationship between epistemic norms and inquiry. (shrink)

Beliefs can be resistant to evidence. Nonetheless, the orthodox view in epistemology analyzes beliefs as evidence-responsive attitudes. I address this tension by deploying analytical tools on capacities and masking to show that the cognitive science of evidence-resistance supports rather than undermines the orthodox view. In doing so, I argue for the claim that belief requires the capacity for evidence-responsiveness. More precisely, if a subject believes that p, then they have the capacity to rationally respond to evidence bearing on p. Because (...) capacities for evidence-responsiveness are fallible and may be masked, beliefs can be held in the face of counter-evidence. Indeed, I will argue that our best science of belief supports the claim that evidence-resistant beliefs result from masks on evidence-responsiveness capacities. This account of belief not only allows for resistance to evidence, but provides us with a framework for describing and explaining actual cases of evidence-resistance. (shrink)

This article comprises an up-to-date critical review of the field known as Economic Methodology or Philosophy of Economics (EM/PE). Two edited volumes (Kincaid and Ross 2021; Heilmann and Reiss 2021), a special issue of the Journal of Economic Methodology (2021), and a recent bibliometric analysis of the field (Claveau et al. 2021) constitute the basis of the review. Drawing on these sources, we identify a number of problematic trends in current EM/PE research. We claim that these trends could be interpreted (...) as two kinds of biases, namely a micro-level bias and a mainstream bias. We discuss the respective details of these biases and their normative implications for the discipline. (shrink)

Delusions are deeply evidence-resistant. Patients with delusions are unmoved by evidence that is in direct conflict with the delusion, often responding to such evidence by offering obvious, and strange, confabulations. As a consequence, the standard view is that delusions are not evidence-responsive. This claim has been used as a key argumentative wedge in debates on the nature of delusions. Some have taken delusions to be beliefs and argued that this implies that belief is not constitutively evidence-responsive. Others hold fixed the (...) evidenceresponsiveness of belief and take this to show that delusions cannot be beliefs. Against this common assumption, I appeal to a large range of empirical evidence to argue that delusions are evidence-responsive in the sense that subjects have the capacity to respond to evidence on their delusion in rationally permissible ways. The extreme evidence-resistance of delusions is a consequence of powerful masking factors on these capacities, such as strange perceptual experiences, motivational factors, and cognitive biases. This view makes room for holding both that belief is constitutively evidence-responsive and that delusions are beliefs, and it has important implications for the study and treatment of delusions. (shrink)

Epistemic agents interact with evidence in different ways. This can cause trouble for mutual understanding and for our ability to rationally engage with others. Indeed, it can compromise democratic practices of deliberation. This paper explains these differences by appeal to a new notion: epistemic styles. Epistemic styles are ways of interacting with evidence that express unified sets of epistemic values, preferences, goals, and interests. The paper introduces the notion of epistemic styles and develops a systematic account of their nature. It (...) then discusses the implications of epistemic styles for central questions in epistemology, in particular, for issues surrounding rational engagement and for the debate between virtue epistemologists and epistemic situationists. (shrink)

The orthodox view in epistemology is that belief is constitutively evidence-responsive. I offer a novel argument for a version of this view, one that appeals to capacities to rationally respond to evidence. I do so by developing the Sellarsian idea that the concept of belief functions to mark the space of reasons in a non-intellectualist and naturalistic direction. The resulting view does justice to the role of belief in social interactions, joint deliberation, and rational persuasion, while including evidence-resistant beliefs and (...) animal beliefs as genuine beliefs. It has a range of further benefits: it helps us account for epistemic normativity, paves the way for better psychological models of belief revision, distinguishes beliefs from imaginings and mere acceptances, and helps us avoid noxious simplistic takes on human irrationality. (shrink)

In this article, I offer a methodological analysis of the empirical research on the causal effects of trade liberalisation, and assess whether such studies can be of any use for guiding policy prescriptions in real-world economies. The analysis focuses on the mainstream economic research that has been used to support arguments in favour of trade liberalisation during the last decades. Even though there are empirical results that could be taken as valid evidence for a causal connection between free trade and (...) economic gains, none of the existing evidence licences trustworthy inferences about the policy effectiveness of trade liberalisation reforms in real-world cases. There are three aspects of the empirical literature that make it highly problematic for making reliable policy inferences: (a) the criteria used to define the notion of ‘free trade’, (b) the background assumptions embedded in the econometric techniques used for estimating causal effects, and (c) the widespread desire among academic economists to attain scientific results in terms of universally valid generalisations. The analysis exposes a worrisome mismatch between, on the one hand, the research aims and outcomes of scientific economics and, on the other, the kind of evidence that would be useful for guiding actual policy deliberations. (shrink)

Delusions are standardly defined as attitudes that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. But what evidence do people with delusion have for and against it? Do delusions really go against their total evidence? How are the answers affected by different conceptions of evidence? -/- This chapter focuses on how delusions relate to evidence. I consider what delusions-relevant evidence people with delusions have. I give some reasons to think that people typically have evidence for their delusions, and (...) that the evidence they have against them is often overstated. I draw on this discussion to consider whether delusions are evidentially supported and epistemically rational. Finally, I discuss implications for the nature of delusion, responsibility, and treatment and suggest directions for future research. Throughout, the discussion is sensitive to different conceptions of evidence and rationality in epistemology. -/- A central upshot is that what we should say about the epistemic standing of delusions depends substantively on our positions in epistemology, in particular, on the debate between internalists and externalists about evidence. If we want clarity on the epistemic standing of delusions, we need to incorporate more sophisticated tools from epistemology. (shrink)

Commentary on Pablo Hubacher Haerle’s paper “Is OCD Epistemically Irrational?”. I argue for expanding our assessment of rationality in OCD by considering a wider range of epistemic parameters and how they fit together.

Interest in the nature of religious and mystical experiences (henceforth RMEs) is old. Recently, this interest has shifted toward understanding the relationship between brain function and RMEs. In the first section, I introduce neurocognitive data from three experiments that strongly correlate the report of religious mystical experiences with specific neural activity. Although correlations cannot be considered as “absolute” proof, strong correlations provide us with inductive grounds for justifying the belief or nonbelief of some proposition. These data suggest that the human (...) brain plays a key role in having an RME and will provide support for the claim that our explanations for phenomena should be located in the natural world. In the next section, I explore the meaning of an RME from a Jamesian perspective and discuss the use of RMEs and the apparent design of the world as proof for God’s existence. My point is to show that the whole enterprise of using phenomena “that only God could have brought about” as the proof for God’s existence is inherently question begging and so is no proof that God exists. In the third section, I lay out in detail my assumptions for my main argument in the final section. There, I argue that belief in the supernatural is not justifiable given the data we have from contemporary science and basic rules of reasoning. (shrink)

Desde la conquista española ha existido una dicotomía constante en la identidad peruana, la cual se refleja en el arte y especialmente en la literatura. Es en ella en la que existe un personaje que representa en sus obras de manera magistral los encuentros y desencuentros generados por la interacción constante de esos dos hemisferios culturales presentes en la peruanidad. Es José María Arguedas, quien no solamente retrata dicha realidad, sino que a través del indigenismo logra representar y revalorizar la (...) figura del indio y por consiguiente de lo andino, todo en el marco de la problemática constante que aqueja la búsqueda de lo que consiste ser peruano. Tomando como referencia tres importantes obras de su producción intelectual como son: “Los ríos profundos”, “El Sexto” y “El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo”. (shrink)

Philosophers of science turned to historical case studies in part in response to Thomas Kuhn's insistence that such studies can transform the philosophy of science. In this issue Joseph Pitt argues that the power of case studies to instruct us about scientific methodology and epistemology depends on prior philosophical commitments, without which case studies are not philosophically useful. Here I reply to Pitt, demonstrating that case studies, properly deployed, illustrate styles of scientific work and modes of argumentation that are not (...) well handled by currently standard philosophical analyses. I illustrate these claims with exemplary findings from case studies dealing with exploratory experimentation and with interdisciplinary cooperation across sciences to yield multiple independent means of access to theoretical entities. The latter cases provide examples of ways that scientists support claims about theoretical entities that are not available in work performed within a single discipline. They also illustrate means of correcting systematic biases that stem from the commitments of each discipline taken separately. These findings illustrate the transformative power of case study methods, allow us to escape from the horns of Pitt's "dilemma of case studies," and vindicate some of the post-Kuhn uses to which case studies have been put. (shrink)

The Golden Rule is (roughly) as follows: treat others as you would have others treat you. Philosophical reactions to it vary; it has both supporters and detractors. In any case, almost nobody who things critically about morality takes the literal version of the Golden Rule seriously, since there are just too many problems with it. To demonstrate this, I will look at a literal version of the Golden Rule espoused by John C. Maxwell, a well-known and influential motivational speaker, and (...) briefly discuss some of the obvious problems that it faces. I will then examine a more sophisticated version of the Golden Rule espoused by philosopher Harry Gensler. While able to overcome some of the problems of the literal Golden Rule, Gensler's version nevertheless shares a common difficulty with it: in both cases, the moral agent is asked to imagine themselves in the place of another. Maxwell things this is easily done, and Gensler asks for vividness and accuracy in this act of imagination. I wish to show that any version of the Golden Rule that takes seriously the need to imagine oneself in the place of another is to ask one to do the impossible, so any versions of the Golden Rule that require this should be rejected. (shrink)

What are the roles of scientific causal knowledge in relation to the evidential requirements of policy making? In this chapter, I review the existing approaches in philosophy of science to the policy relevance of causal knowledge. I assess the specific concerns and questions on which these philosophical accounts have focused and show how they only offer a partial perspective of the relation between causal knowledge and policy making. Most existing views are top-down approaches: they start from philosophical concerns about causation (...) and evidence, and then make general claims about (potential) policy implications, but leave the notion of “policy” unanalyzed. As an alternative, I put forward some ideas toward a bottom-up approach: one that understands policy making as a dynamic process with several stages, and that starts from concrete policy problems, to then examine how causal notions and methods can contribute in various ways to the specifics of the process of policy making. (shrink)

The van Wijngaarden grammars are two-level grammars that present many interesting properties. In the present article I elaborate on six of these properties, to wit, (i) their being constituted by two grammars, (ii) their ability to generate (possibly infinitely many) strict languages and their own metalanguage, (iii) their context-sensitivity, (iv) their high descriptive power, (v) their productivity, or the ability to generate an infinite number of production rules, and (vi) their equivalence with the unrestricted, or Type-0, Chomsky grammars.

In this article I propose an original view of the nature of shared intention. In contrast to psychological views (Bratman, Searle, Tuomela) and normative views (Gilbert), I argue that both functional roles played by attitudes of individual participants and interpersonal obligations are factors of central and independent significance for explaining what shared intention is. It is widely agreed that shared intention (I) normally motivates participants to act, and (II) normally creates obligations between them. I argue that the view I propose (...) can explain why it is not a mere accident that both (I) and (II) are true of shared intention, while psychological and normative views cannot. The basic idea is that shared intention involves a structure of attitudes of individuals –including, most importantly, attitudes of reliance – which normally plays the relevant motivating roles and creates the relevant obligations. (shrink)

In this article, I present a two-pronged argument for the immorality of contemporary, asymmetric drone warfare, based on my new interpretations of the just war principles of “proportionality” and “moral equivalence of combatants” (MEC). The justification for these new interpretations is that drone warfare continues to this day, having survived despite arguments against it that are based on traditional interpretations of just war theory (including one from Michael Walzer). On the basis of my argument, I echo Harry Van der Linden’s (...) call for “an international treaty banning all weaponized UAV [uninhabited aerial vehicles].”. (shrink)

In Flourish, the positive psychologist Martin Seligman (2011) identifies five commonly recognized factors that are characteristic of human flourishing or wellbeing: (1) “positive emotion,” (2) “relationships,” (3) “engagement,” (4) “achievement,” and (5) “meaning” (p. 24). Although there is no settled set of necessary and sufficient conditions neatly circumscribing the bounds of human flourishing (Seligman, 2011), we would mostly likely consider a person that possessed high levels of these five factors as paradigmatic or prototypical of human flourishing. Accordingly, if we wanted (...) to go about the practical task of actually increasing our level of wellbeing, we ought to do so by focusing on practically increasing the levels of the five factors that are characteristic of wellbeing. If, for instance, an activity such as musical engagement can be shown to positively influence each or all of these five factors, this would be compelling evidence that an activity such as musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. I’m of the belief that psychological research can and should be used, not only to identify and diagnose maladaptive psychological states, but identify and promote adaptive psychological states as well. In this article I advance the hypothesis and provide supporting evidence for the claim that musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. Since there has not yet been a substantive and up-to-date investigation of the possible role of music in contributing to one’s living a flourishing life, the purpose of this article is to conduct this investigation, thereby bridging the gap and stimulating discussion between the psychology of music and the psychology of wellbeing. (shrink)

Trust is an attitude that an agent (the trustor) has toward an entity (the trustee), such that the trustor counts upon the trustee to act in a way that is benefi- cial w.r.t. to the trustor’s goals. The notion of trust is relevantly discussed both in in- formation science and philosophy. Unfortunately, we still lack a satisfying account for this concept. The goal of this article is to contribute to filling this gap. First, we take issue with some central tenets (...) shared by the main philosophical accounts, such as that there is just one relation of trust, that this relation has three argument places, and that trust is reliance plus some extra factor. Second, we provide a novel account of trust, also discussing different levels of trust. According to the account we put forth here, the logical form of trust sentences is expressed by a four-place relation. Further, we distinguish and characterize four kinds of trust relations and their connections. We also argue that trust and reliance are different phenomena. Third, on the basis of the proposed account, we extend the Reference Ontology of Trust (ROT). We call the new version of ROT that includes this extension ”ROT 3.0”. Finally, we discuss the implications of the new ontological definitions in the applications we have done of the concept of trust in other works, also pointing out future applications made possible by these novel accounts of trust. (shrink)

Se presenta una visión de la epistemología como lógica del pensar y se la lleva a una elaboración de la práctica clínica como una lógica del padecimiento psíquico. Esto basado en los planteamientos de Deleuze y Guattari. Para ello se toma como punto de partida la noción de los movimientos aberrantes que, leyendo la obra de Deleuze, elaboró David Lapoujade entendiéndolos como movimientos que se producen en la relación entre distintos términos heterogéneos, pero manteniendo su heterogeneidad. Esto es vinculado con (...) la invitación que hace el mismo Lapoujade a entender la obra deleuzeana como el desarrollo de lógicas irracionales, intentando pensar desde ahí una lógica de la locura y del padecimiento mental con base en, a su vez, una lógica de las obras literarias de Proust y Kafka, tal como las leen los mismos Deleuze y Guattari. En relación con ello destacamos, por un lado, cierta lógica de conjuntos abiertos y no totalizables que estos últimos autores encuentran en la obra de Proust y, por otro lado, una lógica de la contigüidad que encuentran en la obra de Kafka. Al mismo tiempo, se establecen puntos en común entre estas dos lecturas a propósito de lo esquizoide como algo que excede a la significación del discurso, así como a la normatividad de la conducta. Asimismo, en distintos puntos del escrito se extraerán las implicaciones que estos modos de pensar tienen para una práctica clínica en relación con modos de existencia subjetivos que se escapan a lo que está establecido en el campo social. De esa manera, ponemos en conjunción una aproximación epistemológica con una política. (shrink)

There are many possible definitions of “technology” and I will discuss some of these in this book. However, in this introduction let me use a definition of Svante Lindqvist who defines technology very intuitively as “those activities, directed towards the satisfaction of human wants, which produce change in the material world.” He says also “the distinction between human “wants” and more limited human “needs” is crucial, for we do not use technology only to satisfy our essential material requirements.” Consequently, from (...) this perspective, a technology that is “broken” could be defined as those activities, directed towards the satisfaction of human wants that are intended to produce changes in the material world that either do not manage to satisfy these wants or do not produce changes in the material world, or both. This is the third edition, updated October 2015. (shrink)

This book is the result of a collective research effort performed during many years in both Sweden and Spain. It is the result of attempting to develop a new field of research that could we denominate «human act informatics.» The goal has been to use the technologies of information to the study of the human act in general, including embodied acts and disembodied acts. The book presents a theory of the quantification of the informational value of human acts as order, (...) opposing the living order against entropy. We present acting as a set of decisions and choices aimed to create order and to impose Modernity. Karl Popper’s frequency theory of probability is applied to characterize human acts regarding their degree of freedom and to set up a scale of order in human decisions. The traditional theory of economics and social science characterize the human act as rational, utilitarian and ethical. Our results emphasize that the unique significance of an act lies in its capacity to generate order. An adequate methodology is then presented to defend such hypothesis according to which, the rationality respective irrationality of acting, is in fact only a function of the act’s organizational capacity. From this perspective, it has been necessary to define «order» respective «disorder» as operative concepts that allowed the comparison of the organizational differences generated by each kind of act. According to the presented conclusions, the spontaneity of living, as unconscious thinking, dreaming, loving, etc. and the mainstream of the human acts, are utilitarian, but in an irrational way; they are rooted in unconscious drifts and therefore must be considered irrational-utility acts. (shrink)

Philosophers of action of different persuasions have suggested that there is a tight connection between the phenomenon of intending and the phenomena of “being settled on” and of “settling” a course of action. For many, this connection supports an important constraint on intention: one may only intend what one takes one’s so intending as settling. Traditionally, this has been understood as a doxastic constraint on intention: what one takes one’s intention as settling is what one believes one’s so intending as (...) settling. This paper proposes an alternative conception of such a constraint. The idea is to conceive of it in terms of the attitude of reliance, rather than of belief. The aim of the paper is three-fold: to clarify the connection between intending to act and the phenomena of being settled on and of settling a course of action, to provide support for the reliance conception of the cited constraint, and to show that this conception drives a wedge in the familiar dispute, between doxastic and conative accounts of intention, as to whether intending to act necessarily involves the belief that one will so act. (shrink)

This book studies the technognomies of memory in scripto as in texts, lists, dictionaries and databases and less the technognomies of memory in vivo (as in remembering). There are of course some relations between these two kinds of memories, being memory-in-scripto a development parallel to the development of written language. We notice that the historical presentation is built upon both forms of memory. We notice that the historical explanation is tied to the concrete experience of persons belonging to a culture. (...) In the history of memory then, it is necessary to distinguish two important aspects, the development of spoken memory and the development of written memory. The essential characteristic of written memory is its muteness. Muteness is also associated to spatiality and to stability. On the other hand, audial presentations are inseparable of the notions of movement and time passing. According to Don Ihde the spheres of the invisible and the silent, limit the spheres of the visual and the audial. These two spheres overlap partially in visual presentations that also are audial presentations; however, their natural being is to be independent from each other. [Ihde, Don. Listening and Voice. Phenomenologies of Sound; State University Press; 2007; p. 50-51.] In our time, which is also the time of the globalization and digitalization of culture, a new philosophical paradigm is going on characterized by the fragmentation of experience. This fragmentation does not allow an overview of the totality of a field of experience, which is only possible to reduce to singular analytical moments. The fragmentation of experience is the result of a new jump of the capability to concretion. Inside this new paradigm, the world becomes multistable. The multistability of the world creates a gap between intention and implementation that distinguishes the “full” history as Natural history from the “broken” history as Cultural history. (shrink)

This book is a personal answer to the crisis of the left. The author of this text belongs to a generation habituated to live with global explanations. During our youth, the future of the world was the future of democracy and socialism. We belong to a generation of “leftist” that found in Marx and Freud, phenomenology and structuralism the most important answers that made sense of the everyday world. However, the developments of events during the last sixty years showed that (...) our confidence was ungrounded. The depreciation of the theoretical thought accelerated in direct proportion to the development of technologies, and among them the impact of the digital developments was devastating. One of the most notable consequences of the digitalization of culture was the depreciation of the Marxian thought, but also the less recognized depreciation of all kinds of political-economic thought. The collapse of the world created before the Second World War open for the end of the “grand narratives” and the enthronization of Postmodernism. The production of fragmentary explanations took over the historical perspective with an important influence on social and economic thought. After 60 years of postmodern thinking, we believe that the time of Postmodernism is over. Politicians and economists over the world cannot continue to produce results in small packages. The whole picture must be restituted. Of course it must be done incorporating the lessons of the past to avoid to make the same mistakes. Postmodernism has left behind lots of scattered modernist philosophical remnants. It left a chessboard with only few pieces to work with, and in this allegory, only as references. The philosophical schools remains, but the study of them is strictly for an education in the history of ideas. The situation is aggravating since the most important works from the 1960’s and forth, (post-structuralists) deliberately have avoided obvious identity patterns. A word in Rio de la Plata’s jargon language describes this situation, cambalache, a sort of “flea market” where everything lies higgledy-piggledy. Deconstruction and the focus on differences are vital to Postmodernism. Remaining is therefore the intersections, the contrasts, shadows, and sketches. When trying to orient in such an intellectual environment, the task reminds of patching scatterings, and building with tools of eclecticism. However, we believe that is time to reconstruct instead of deconstruct, moving back to Modernism that we will describe as Cyborgism. (shrink)

The 20th Century is the starting point for the most ambitious attempts to extrapolate human life into artificial systems. Norbert Wiener’s Cybernetics, Claude Shannon’s Information Theory, John von Neumann’s Cellular Automata, Universal Constructor to the Turing Test, Artificial Intelligence to Maturana and Varela’s Autopoietic Organization, all shared the goal of understanding in what sense humans resemble a machine. This scientific and technological movement has embraced all disciplines without exceptions, not only mathematics and physics but also biology, sociology, psychology, economics etc. (...) New terms were developed, such as “information”, “organization”, “entropy”, “communication”, “encryption”, “computation” and “algorithmics” to mention a few, all which had an enormous impact on artificial systems. Our work follows this historical track but with a reversed order of priorities. Instead of deducing a reduced group of human acts into an artificial environment, we deduce the human aspects of machines by extrapolating algorithmic methodologies into everyday life acts. The present informational theories were insufficiently powered to achieve this objective without developing a new theoretical approach. Hence, our research is directed towards an expansion of the current informational theories. (shrink)

With the ascent of modern epidemiology in the Twentieth Century came a new standard model of prediction in public health and clinical medicine. In this article, we describe the structure of the model. The standard model uses epidemiological measures-most commonly, risk measures-to predict outcomes (prognosis) and effect sizes (treatment) in a patient population that can then be transformed into probabilities for individual patients. In the first step, a risk measure in a study population is generalized or extrapolated to a target (...) population. In the second step, the risk measure is particularized or transformed to yield probabilistic information relevant to a patient from the target population. Hence, we call the approach the Risk Generalization-Particularization (Risk GP) Model. There are serious problems at both stages, especially with the extent to which the required assumptions will hold and the extent to which we have evidence for the assumptions. Given that there are other models of prediction that use different assumptions, we should not inflexibly commit ourselves to one standard model. Instead, model pluralism should be standard in medical prediction. (shrink)

This is a survey article on reductive views of shared intention.

The policy of earmarked paternity leave aims to promote mothers’ position in the labor market and fathers’ relationship with their child. Critics argue that the policy prevents parents from pursuing their own ideas about what is best for them. This provides reason to consider whether the policy is paternalistic or, in other ways, disrespectful of parental autonomy. I argue that the state implicates itself in the gender inequalities that result from parents’ unequal parental leave agreements when the state financially facilitates (...) such agreements. This argument for earmarked paternity leave is not disrespectful of parental autonomy. (shrink)

In Michel de Certeau’s Invention of the Everyday, improvisational community dance function as a catalyst for the subversive art of the oppressed, via its ancient Greek virtue/power of mētis, being “foxlike.” And in de Certeau’s The Possession of Loudun, this foxlike dance moves to the stage, as an improv chorus that disrupts the events at Loudon when reimagined as a tetralogy of plays at City Dionysia. More precisely, Loudun’s tetralogy could be interpreted as a series of three tragedies and one (...) comedy, the latter of which involves the chorine nuns’ channeling of anomie into a proto-feminist transfiguration. More precisely, the tactical prowess of the nuns’ chorus leader, namely the prioress Jeanne des Anges, elevates her to the status of an angelic prophet, which in de Certeau’s theatrical dancing critique makes her the Loudun tetralogy’s Dionysian, foxlike mage. In conclusion, this analysis suggests de Certeau’s relevance for revolutionary social justice today. (shrink)

Many take Kantian ethics to founder when it comes to our duties to animals. In this paper, I advocate a novel approach to this problem. The paper is divided into three sections. In the first, I canvass various passages from Kant in order to set up the problem. In the second, I introduce a novel approach to this problem. In the third, I defend my approach from various objections. By way of preview: I advocate rejecting the premise that nonhuman animals (...) are nonrational. (shrink)

People often discriminate based on negative or positive stereotypes about others. Important examples of this are highlighted by the theory of ambivalent sexism. This theory distinguishes sexist stereotypes that are negative (hostile sexism) from those that are positive (benevolent sexism). While both forms of sexism are considered wrong towards women, hostile sexism seems intuitively worse than benevolent sexism. In this article, we ask whether the difference between discriminating based on positive vs. negative stereotypes in itself makes a morally relevant difference. (...) We suggest that it does not. By examining a number of prominent accounts of what makes discrimination wrong, we defend the Moral Irrelevance View according to which stereotype valence is irrelevant to the moral evaluation of discrimination, all else equal. (shrink)

Abstract: Smoke detectors are critical devices for early fire detection and life-saving interventions. This research paper explores the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in smoke detection systems. The study aims to develop a robust and accurate smoke detection model using ANNs. Surprisingly, the results indicate a 100% accuracy rate, suggesting promising potential for ANNs in enhancing smoke detection technology. However, this paper acknowledges the need for a comprehensive evaluation beyond accuracy. It discusses potential challenges, such as overfitting, dataset size, (...) and class imbalance, and presents strategies employed to address these issues. Additionally, the paper emphasizes the importance of alternative evaluation metrics, including precision, recall, and F1-score, to assess the model's performance comprehensively. Detailed information regarding the model architecture, data preprocessing, and hyperparameter tuning is provided to enhance the reproducibility of the research. The study also discusses ethical considerations and the implications of false positives and false negatives in smoke detection applications. While achieving 100% accuracy is a notable accomplishment, this paper calls for cautious interpretation and further validation in real-world settings. It concludes by highlighting areas for future research and improvement in smoke detection technology, emphasizing the need for practical deployment and the reduction of false alarms. (shrink)

There are two aims of this paper: (1) to explore the affective dimensions of moral shock and how it relates to normative marginalization of those furthest from dominant society, but also, more specifically; (2) to articulate the trans experience of constantly being under moral attack because the dominant “world” normatively defines you out of existence. Toward these ends, I build on Katie Stockdale’s recent work on moral shock, arguing that moral shock needs to be contextualized to “worlds” of sense to (...) understand how marginalized people affectively experience shocking events. My focus is the trans experience of moral shock due to the way trans people are positioned outside of dominant society, creating the conditions to experience cyclical, chronic shock. These affective conditions point to a collective responsibility to ease the affective stress that the most marginalized experience. (shrink)

Doxasticism is the thesis that intention is or involves belief in the forthcoming action (Velleman, Harman). Supporters claim that it is only by accepting that thesis that we can explain a wide array of important phenomena, including the special knowledge we have of intentional action, the roles intention plays in facilitating coordination, and the norms of rationality for intention. Others argue that the thesis is subject to counterexample (Davidson, Bratman). Yet some others contend that the thesis can be reformulated in (...) a way that avoids such counterexamples and preserves its explanatory significance (Pears, Setiya). Their suggestion is that we view intention as involving partial –rather than full—belief. I argue that while the move from full to partial doxasticism helps to accommodate such counterexamples, it does so in a way that undermines the ability of the resulting view to explain the coordinating roles of and rationality norms for intention. (shrink)

The critique of philosophical foundations of neoclassical economics is significant, because of its hegemony on economic education and research programs in Iran and worldwide academies. Due to an epistemological fallacy, methodological individualism plays a prominent role in the philosophy of economic; since the ontological aspects of economy are reduced to methodological considerations. Accordingly, critique of methodological individualism is regarded as the main entry for philosophical analysis of neoclassical economics. This article aims to analyze and appraise the methodological individualism from critical (...) realism’s point of view. Critical realism is taken as a stand for criticizing methodological individualism, because critical realism and neoclassical economics as a positive approach to economics, both share a realistic worldview. The critical realism’ critique of methodological individualism is bases on analyzing the concepts of formalism, syllogism, social atomism, isolation and reduction. From critical realism’ point of view because of unrealistic postulations of methodological individualism, neoclassical economics is turned to an abstract and deductive science such as mathematics with a low potentiality of explanation. (shrink)

In the present article, the first section recapitulates my “figuration” philosophy of dance, the “dancing-with” interpretive method derived therefrom, and my previous application of figuration to salsa dance as a decolonizing gestural discourse. The second section deepens and modifies this analysis through a reinterpretation of Argentinian philosopher Ernesto Laclau’s concept of hegemony and his dance-resonant interpretations of Derrida. And the final section offers a template for this hegemonic dancing-with in the Birmingham, Alabama Latin dance troupe, Corazon de Alabama (Heart of (...) Alabama), as a new strategy for decolonizing and reconstructing social justice. (shrink)

This essay undertakes an examination of the foundational status of logic, rethinking its origins and limitations from an empirical perspective. Drawing upon the original concepts of Conceptual Quarks (CQs)—defined as the fundamental units of knowledge—and the Programmed Conceptual Deconstruction (PCD) algorithm, which I created for this study, I present methodologies to systematically analyze and deconstruct the principles of logic, exposing their empirical roots. Utilizing a custom-built artificial intelligence model, the study proposes that classical logical principles, such as identity and non-contradiction, (...) are emergent phenomena shaped by sensory context rather than immutable absolutes. By integrating philosophical inquiry with technological innovation, this work offers a new perspective on traditional perspectives, including those of Kant and Leibniz, and establishes a novel framework for understanding logic as a contextual and contingent phenomenon. (shrink)

This study determined the relationship between triarchic intelligences and engagement as factors in mathematics achievement of 1148 Grade 10 students in the Division of Davao del Norte, Philippines. It also investigated the relationship among the variables utilizing a descriptive-correlational and causal-comparative research design. Modified survey questionnaires were used for triarchic intelligence and engagement scales which were validated by the panel of experts. Standardized Division Unified Test was used to measure the mathematics achievement. Mean and Pearson product moment coefficient correlation were (...) used to determine the proficiency level and the relationship between the variables while multiple linear regression was also used to derive the value and identify the predictor variable. The findings of the study showed that students did not meet the expectations on mathematics achievement; triarchic intelligences and engagement were at moderate level. Among the six indicators, only behavioral engagement was the predictor of the achievement. This indicates that the mathematics achievement of the students is best anchored on engagement. Thus, the result suggests that the more engaged the students are, the better and higher the achievement in mathematics. (shrink)

The immense outpouring of archaeological discoveries this past century has shed new light on ancient East Asia, and China in particular. Yet in concert with this development another, more troubling, trend has likewise gained momentum: the looting of cultural heritage and the sale of unprovenienced antiquities. Scholars face difficult questions, from the ethics of working with objects of unknown provenance, to the methodological problems inherent in their research. The goal of this Element is to encourage scholars to critically examine their (...) relationships to their sources and reflect upon the impact of their research. The three essays in this Element present a range of disciplinary perspectives, focusing on systemic issues and the nuances of method versus ethics, with a case study of the so-called 'Han board' MSS given as a specific illustration. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core. (shrink)

Most of human-robot interaction (HRI) research relies on an implicit assumption that seems to drive experimental work in interaction studies: the more anthropomorphism we can reach in robots, the more effective the robot will be in 'being social.' The notion of 'sociomorphing' was developed in order to challenge the assumption of ubiquitous anthropomorphizing. This paper aims to explore the notion of sociomorphing by analysing the possibilities offered by actor-network theory (ANT). We claim that ANT is a valid framework to re-think (...) the conceptual couple anthropomorphizing / sociomorphing and answer the following question: What kind of negotiation process and social practices can be developed in HRI, given the notion of sociomorph interactional networks? (shrink)