At first glance there seem to be many similarities between Thomas S. Kuhn’s and Ludwik Fleck’s accounts of the development of scientific knowledge. Notably, both pay attention to the role played by the scientific community in the development of scientific knowledge. But putting first impressions aside, one can criticise some philosophers for being too hasty in their attempt to find supposed similarities in the works of the two men. Having acknowledged that Fleck anticipated some of Kuhn’s later theses, there seems (...) to be a temptation in more recent research to equate both theories in important respects. Because of this approach, one has to deal with the problem of comparing the most notable technical terms of both philosophers, namely ‘‘thought style’’ and ‘‘paradigm’’. This paper aims at a more thorough comparison between Ludwik Fleck’s concept of thought style and Thomas Kuhn’s concept of paradigm. Although some philosophers suggest that these two concepts are essentially equal in content, a closer examination reveals that this is not the case. This thesis of inequality will be defended in detail, also taking into account some of the alleged similarities which may be responsible for losing sight of the differences between these theories. (shrink)

It is usual to identify initial conditions of classical dynamical systems with mathematical real numbers. However, almost all real numbers contain an infinite amount of information. I argue that a finite volume of space can’t contain more than a finite amount of information, hence that the mathematical real numbers are not physically relevant. Moreover, a better terminology for the so-called real numbers is “random numbers”, as their series of bits are truly random. I propose an alternative classical mechanics, which is (...) empirically equivalent to classical mechanics, but uses only finite-information numbers. This alternative classical mechanics is non-deterministic, despite the use of deterministic equations, in a way similar to quantum theory. Interestingly, both alternative classical mechanics and quantum theories can be supplemented by additional variables in such a way that the supplemented theory is deterministic. Most physicists straightforwardly supplement classical theory with real numbers to which they attribute physical existence, while most physicists reject Bohmian mechanics as supplemented quantum theory, arguing that Bohmian positions have no physical reality. (shrink)

De acuerdo con una caracterización filosófica estándar, el comportamiento humano se hace inteligible a partir de estados mentales, atendiendo especialmente a dos relaciones explicativas: la racionalidad y la causalidad. En el presente artículo evaluaremos cuán adecuada es dicha caracterización respecto a las explicaciones que se dan en las psicoterapias contextuales. Nuestro análisis establece varias respuestas por la negativa. Por un lado, el objetivo de estas terapias no es la comprensión ni la evaluación normativa, por lo que la racionalidad no juega (...) allí un rol explicativo. A su vez, el rol de la causalidad es secundario en la evaluación diagnóstica, dado que en esa etapa del proceso terapéutico es la función de los comportamientos la que busca elucidarse. Finalmente, sostenemos que la intervención terapéutica de estas psicoterapias se centra en explicaciones causales, aunque no desde el modelo de sentido común que la caracterización filosófica supone. Sugerimos, por la positiva, que las explicaciones del comportamiento en psicoterapias contextuales son híbridas: al evaluar apelan a explicaciones funcionales y al intervenir a explicaciones causales. (shrink)

Revista IT & C este o publicație trimestrială din domeniile tehnologiei informației și comunicații, și domenii conexe de studiu și practică. -/- Cuprins: -/- EDITORIAL / EDITORIAL -/- Challenges and Limitations in the Use of Artificial Intelligence Provocări și limitări în utilizarea inteligenței artificiale -/- TEHNOLOGIA INFORMAȚIEI / INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY -/- Impact of Big Data Technology on Contemporary Society Impactul tehnologiei Big Data asupra societății contemporane -/- Methods, Techniques and Patterns of Advanced Persistent Threats – APT Lifecycle Metode, tehnici și (...) modele ale amenințărilor persistente avansate – Ciclul de viață al APT -/- TELECOMUNICAȚII / TELECOMMUNICATIONS -/- The Revolutionary Role of Blockchain Technology in Communication Rolul revoluționar al tehnologiei blockchain în comunicare -/- PROGRAMARE / PROGRAMMING -/- AI Algorithms Used in National Security Algoritmi IA utilizați în securitatea națională -/- SECURITATE CIBERNETICĂ / CYBER SECURITY -/- Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare Securitatea cibernetică și războiul cibernetic -/- Advanced Persistent Threats in Cyber Security Amenințările Persistente Avansate în securitatea cibernetică -/- ISSN 2821-8469 ISSN-L 2821-8469, DOI: 10.58679/IT15115. (shrink)

Revista Intelligence Info este o publicație trimestrială din domeniile intelligence, geopolitică și securitate, și domenii conexe de studiu și practică. -/- ISSN 2821-8159 ISSN-L 2821-8159, DOI: 10.58679/II78699.

With an extensive amount of research on the social lives of primates, Frans de Waal has been a pioneering advocate for the continuity of human and non-human minds, putting forward the idea that these creatures exhibit rudimentary political and moral behaviors. One of the traits which de Waal focuses on is animal normativity, a set of behaviors functionally defined as adherence to social standards. Recently, some philosophers have endorsed this position, holding that animals show a psychological capacity called normative cognition (...) underlying those and other social behaviors. In this paper, I assess whether advocacy for animal normativity is an exercise of theory construction in comparative cognition. To that end, I present three features of this kind of theory construction. First, the explanatory goal of building functional analyses of cognitive capacities. Second, the conceptual aid of comparative thinking for theory construction. Third, the heuristic value of theory in specifying possible roads of inquiry. Taking these features into account, I assess whether the claims advocates make regarding animal normativity consider them. My answer is negative. First, since some advocates focus on behavioral traits and not on psychological capacities, they are not producing theory in comparative cognition, although, as I argue, they should. Second, there is a disregard for hypothesis testing and no evolutionary considerations to support their views. Finally, the claim that non-human animals exhibit normativity does not seem to have heuristic value. (shrink)

O taxonomie a unui site web este structura utilizată pentru un site web care organizează conținutul într-o manieră logică, astfel încât utilizatorii să poată naviga cu ușurință pe site și să înțeleagă scopul acestuia. Din punct de vedere vizual, aceasta poate arăta ca diferite secțiuni și pagini dintr-un site web sau categorii dintr-un blog. În WordPress, o taxonomie este un mecanism de grupare pentru unele postări (sau linkuri, sau tipuri de postări personalizate).

Intuitively, collective nouns are pseudo-singular: a collection of things (a pair of people, a flock of birds, etc.) just is the things that make ‘it’ up. But certain facts about natural language seem to count against this view. In short, distributive predicates and numerals interact with collective nouns in ways that they seemingly shouldn’t if those nouns are pseudo-singular. We call this set of issues ‘the distribution problem’. To solve it, we propose a modification to cover-based semantics. On this semantics, (...) the interpretation of distributive predicates and numerals depends on a cover, where the choice of cover is strongly semantically constrained by the noun with which they interact. (shrink)

This article analyses the peculiarities of Dominicus Gundissalinus’s reading and use of Avicenna’s writings in his original works. Gundissalinus (1120ca – post 1190) is the Latin translator of Avicenna’s De anima and Liber de philosophia prima, but also an original philosopher whose writings are precious witnesses of the very first reception of Avicennian philosophy in the Latin West. The article points out the structural bond with the Persian philosopher upon which Gundissalinus grounds his own speculation. This contribution stresses, in particular, (...) the important role played by Avicenna’s psychology, epistemology, and metaphysics in order to provide Gundissalinus with a different set of answers to at least two main questions. On the one hand, the problem of creatural existence and cosmological causation, concerning which Gundissalinus tends to doctrinally merge Avicenna with Ibn Gabirol. On the other hand, Avicenna’s influence is crucial for Gundissalinus’s attempt at elaborating a new system of knowledge, which was supposed to be able to include the new sciences made available by the translation movement, but that also needed to be internally organised through firm epistemological principles. Beside his crucial contribution as translator, Gundissalinus’s first philosophical encounter with the Avicenna paved the road for the subsequent reception of the Persian philosopher’s works, opening a hermeneutical perspective which would be pivotal for the thirteenth-century discussions on soul, knowledge, and being. (shrink)

In this article we argue that the social value of health research should be conceptualized as a function of both the expected benefits of the research and the priority that the beneficiaries deserve. People deserve greater priority the worse off they are. This conception of social value can be applied for at least two important purposes: in health research priority setting when research funders, policy-makers, or researchers decide between alternative research projects; and in evaluating the ethics of proposed research proposals (...) when research ethics committees assess whether the social value of the research is sufficient to justify the risks and burdens to research participants and others. In assessing how far a proposed research project will advance the interests of people who are more disadvantaged, research priority setters and RECs should examine the diseases that the research targets and the type of research. Just as certain diseases impose a greater burden on people who are more disadvantaged, so certain types of intervention and forms of research are more likely to benefit people who are more disadvantaged. We outline which populations are likely to be representative of the global worst off and identify what types of health research, and which disease categories, are priorities for these populations. (shrink)

Revista Intelligence Info este o publicație trimestrială din domeniile intelligence, geopolitică și securitate, și domenii conexe de studiu și practică. -/- Cuprins: -/- EDITORIAL / EDITORIAL -/- Nicolae SFETCU The Role of Polanyi’s Tacit Knowledge in Intelligence Analysis Rolul cunoașterii tacite a lui Polanyi în analiza informațiilor -/- INTELLIGENCE / INTELLIGENCE -/- Tănase TIBERIU Principles, methods and means of intelligence activity in the Russian Federation and Israel Principii, metode și mijloace ale activității informative în Federația Rusă și Israel -/- Tănase (...) TIBERIU Considerations on intelligence and anticipation Considerații privind intelligence și anticiparea -/- ISTORIA / HISTORY -/- Tănase TIBERIU The continuity of the KGB in the 20th century – Descendants of the KGB Continuitatea KGB-lui în secolul XX –Urmașele KGB ului -/- Lucian Ștefan COZMA, Daniela Georgiana GOLEA The Real History of the Romteleghid Project: 1 – Geophysical Aggression Istoria reală a proiectului Romteleghid: 1 – Agresiunea geofizică -/- GEOPOLITICA / GEOPOLITICS -/- Emilian M. DOBRESCU Rare Earths in Other Countries Except China Pământuri rare în alte țări, cu excepția Chinei -/- SECURITATE / SECURITY -/- Nicolae SFETCU Advanced Cognitive Electronic Warfare: Enhancing Strategic Superiority Through Intelligent Systems Războiul electronic cognitiv avansat: sporirea superiorității strategice prin sisteme inteligente -/- ȘTIINȚA INFORMAȚIEI / INFORMATION SCIENCE -/- Nicolae SFETCU The Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Human Activity and Human Intelligence Influența inteligenței artificiale asupra activității umane și a inteligenței umane -/- ISSN 2821-8159 ISSN-L 2821-8159, DOI: 10.58679/II12575. (shrink)

Un ghid pentru şi despre rotarieni, Rotary International, cluburile Rotary, şi programele finanţate de Rotary International. Principalul obiectiv pentru Rotary este să servească – în comunitate, la locul de muncă, peste tot în lume. Cei 1,2 milioane de rotarieni constituiţi în peste 34.000 cluburi în aproape toate ţările din lume sunt dedicaţi cu toţii idealului de a servi mai presus de sine înşişi. Cluburile Rotary sunt accesibile pentru persoane din toate culturile şi etniile, şi nu sunt afiliate cu nicio organizaţie (...) politică sau religioasă. Familia rotarienilor se extinde peste rotarieni ca persoane fizice şi cluburi Rotary, incluzând şi alte persoane care au ca scop să servească, aducându-şi contribuţia la activitatea organizaţiei. Grupuri, precum Rotaract, Interact, şi Rotary Community Corps, servesc alături de cluburile care sponsorizează, folosindu-şi diversele aptitudini pentru a îmbunătăţi calitatea vieţii în comunităţile lor Suntem 1,2 milioane de vecini, prieteni, și lideri ai comunităților, care activează împreună pentru a crea schimbări pozitive, durabile, în comunitățile noastre și în întreaga lume. Ocupaţiile, culturile şi ţările noastre diferite ne oferă o perspectivă unică. Pasiunea noastră comună pentru a servi ne ajută să ducem la bun sfârşit realizări remarcabile. (shrink)

We propose a novel ontological analysis of relations and relationships based on a re-visitation of a classic problem in the practice of knowledge repre- sentation and conceptual modeling, namely relationship reification. Our idea is that a relation holds in virtue of a relationship's existence. Relationships are therefore truthmakers of relations. In this paper we present a general theory or reification and truthmaking, and discuss the interplay between events and rela- tionships, suggesting that relationships are the focus of events, which emerge (...) from the context (the scene) they occur in. (shrink)

Revista Cunoașterea Științifică este o publicație trimestrială din domeniile științei și filosofiei, și domenii conexe de studiu și practică. -/- Cuprins: -/- EDITORIAL / EDITORIAL -/- Nicolae SFETCU Defense Against Advanced Cyber Attacks Apărarea împotriva atacurilor cibernetice avansate -/- ȘTIINȚE NATURALE / NATURAL SCIENCE -/- Nicolae SFETCU Cosmological Tests Based on General Relativity for Gravity Teste cosmologice bazate pe relativitatea generală pentru gravitație -/- Ștefan-Daniel FLOREA Integrating modern technology into seismic risk management Integrarea tehnologiei moderne în gestionarea riscului seismic -/- (...) ȘTIINȚE SOCIALE / SOCIAL SCIENCE -/- Dan D. FARCAȘ Some opinions regarding the ethnogenesis of the Romanians (2) Câteva opinii privind etnogeneza românilor (2) -/- Aliona ROZOVEL UTA Gagauzia, de jure an integral and inalienable part of the Republic of Moldova, de facto tends towards separatism UTA Găgăuzia de jure parte integrantă și inalienabilă a Republicii Moldova, de facto tinde spre separatism -/- ȘTIINȚE FORMALE / FORMAL SCIENCE -/- Constantin POMPARĂU What is the Riemann hypothesis and why it cannot be proved Ce este ipoteza Riemann și de ce nu poate fi demonstrată -/- Ana Denisa CUTEAN și Iulia Denisa MOGA Accounting for infrastructure assets Contabilitatea activelor de infrastructură -/- Iulia Denisa MOGA The technique of the cost approach: construction evaluation Tehnica abordării prin cost: evaluarea construcțiilor -/- FILOSOFIE / PHILOSOPHY -/- Nicolae SFETCU The Republic of Plato: A Philosophical Odyssey Republica lui Platon: o odisee filosofică -/- ISSN 2821-8086 ISSN-L 2821-8086, DOI: 10.58679/CS26154. (shrink)

Peer commentary on: Goering, S., Klein, E., Dougherty, D. D., & Widge, A. S. (2017). Staying in the loop: Relational agency and identity in next-generation DBS for psychiatry. AJOB Neuroscience, 8(2), 59-70.

This article defends a relational account of personhood. I argue that the structure of personhood consists of dyadic relations between persons who can wrong or be wronged by one another, even if some of them lack moral competence. I draw on recent work on directed duties to outline the structure of moral communities of persons. The upshot is that we can construct an inclusive theory of personhood that can accommodate nonhuman persons based on shared community membership. I argue that, once (...) we unpack the internal relation between directed duties, moral status, and flourishing, relations can ground personhood and include nonhuman animals. (shrink)

The claim that the observation of a violation of a Bell inequality leads to an alleged alternative between nonlocality and non-realism is annoying because of the vagueness of the second term.

Il s’agit ici de présenter une version raffinée du libéralisme de la peur de Judith Shklar : le libéralisme de la prudence. Après en avoir brièvement présenté les grandes lignes et les principales faiblesses, j’esquisse les contours du libéralisme de la prudence et montre comment il réalise, mieux que libéralisme de la peur, le programme minimaliste poursuivi par Shklar. Je montre ensuite comment le libéralisme de la prudence nous permet de sortir du dilemme libéral posé par la tradition postrawlsienne : (...) justifier le libéralisme sur des bases morales, au risque de le priver de neutralité, ou le justifier sur des bases réalistes hobbesiennes, au risque d’en faire l’otage des rapports de force changeants. Enfin, j’examine comme le principal défaut apparent du libéralisme de la prudence – à savoir son ascétisme programmatique – est en fait son principal mérite. (shrink)

The picture of moral development defended by followers of Aristotle takes moral cultivation to be like playing a harp; one gets to be good by actually spending time playing a real instrument. On this view, we cultivate a virtue by doing the actions associated with that virtue. I argue that this picture is inadequate and must be supplemented by imaginative techniques. One can, and sometimes must, cultivate virtue without actually performing the associated actions. Drawing on strands in Buddhist philosophy, I (...) explain several methods of moral development that rely on imagination and visualization rather than overt action. These techniques are essential in cases where cultivating virtue the way one practices the harp is impossible. In particular, I focus on single-event virtues, first-time virtuous acts, and morally dangerous situations. (shrink)

Most people agree that inflicting unnecessary suffering upon animals is wrong. Many fewer people, including among ethicists, agree that painlessly killing animals is necessarily wrong. The most commonly cited reason is that death (without pain, fear, distress) is not bad for them in a way that matters morally, or not as significantly as it does for persons, who are self-conscious, make long-term plans and have preferences about their own future. Animals, at least those that are not persons, lack a morally (...) significant interest in continuing to live. At the same time, some argue that existence itself can be good, insofar as one’s life is worth living. For animals, a good life can offset a quick, if early, death. So, it seems to follow that breeding happy animals that will be (prematurely) killed can be a good thing overall. Insofar as slaughter and sale makes it economically sustainable to raise new ones, who would otherwise not exist, raising and killing animals for food who will have lives worth living is good overall. It benefits them as well as consumers, and makes the world better by adding to the sum of happiness. The process of raising and killing animals with positive welfare produces a sequence of replacement that maintains or increases overall welfare, all else being equal (assuming in particular no overall negative impact on the welfare of other parties). Call this the Replaceability Argument (RA) and the ensuing controversy the Replaceability Problem (RP). This is a problem at the crossroads of the ethics of killing, agricultural ethics, procreation ethics, and population ethics. (shrink)

We aim to do two things in this article. On the positive end, our goal is to explain how some seemingly incompatible aspects of belief live together, by presenting distinct mechanistic explanations of each of them: in particular we want to show how belief can be discerning, credulous, rational, and irrational. After clarifying our positive view, we take aim at some competitor views in the second half of the paper, particularly offering critiques of epistemic vigilance and social marketplace accounts of (...) belief. We conclude by inviting proponents to provide an architecture for belief that can be tested against existing models. (shrink)

It’s natural to think of acts of solidarity as being public acts that aim at good outcomes, particularly at social change. I argue that not all acts of solidarity fit this mold - acts of what I call ‘private solidarity’ are not public and do not aim at producing social change. After describing paradigmatic cases of private solidarity, I defend an account of why such acts are themselves morally virtuous and what role they can have in moral development.

Évaluation: Imre Lakatos, The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes, Philosophical papers, volume I, edité par John Worrall et Gregory Currie, Cambridge University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-521-28031-1, paperback La méthodologie des programmes de recherche scientifique est une collection d'articles publiés au fil du temps, dans laquelle Imre Lakatos exprime une révision radicale du critère de démarcation de Popper entre science et non-science, conduisant à une nouvelle théorie de la rationalité scientifique. -/- Mots-clés: Imre Lakatos, science, méthodologie, programmes de recherche, heuristique -/- (...) DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25516.31364 . (shrink)

This article provides a philosophical response to the need for truth-telling about colonial history, focussing on the Australian context. The response consists in inviting philosophers and the public to engage in social-justice practices specified by a model called Distributed Truth-Telling (DTT), which integrates the historiography of injustices affecting Indigenous peoples with insights from social philosophy and cultural evolution theory. By contrast to official and large-scale truth commissions, distributed truth-telling is a set of non-elitist practices that weave three components: first, multisite, (...) multiformat, and multiscale inquiries into injustices; second, remedial imaginings and reasoning about moral repair and reconciliated futures; and finally, emotions suitable for motivating agents to cooperatively plan and implement moral revolutions. Distributed truth-telling can entrench virtuous feedback loops that contribute to moral revolutions. However, vicious feedback loops associated with collective denial and biases can impair distributed truth- telling and thwart moral revolutions. (shrink)

If panpsychism is true, it suggests that consciousness pervades not only our brains and bodies but also the entire universe, prompting a reevaluation of our existential attitudes. Hence, panpsychism potentially fulfills psychological needs typically addressed by religious beliefs, such as a sense of belonging and purpose but also transcendence. The discussion is organized into two main areas: the implications of panpsychism for basic human existential needs, such as feelings of kinship, ommunication, and loneliness; and for greater existential questions relating to (...) mystical experiences including transcendent unity and alleviation of the fear of death. In conclusion panpsychism may provide a deeper meaning in life for some people but its broader impact depends on individual dispositions and the cultural context in which it is embedded. (shrink)

There seems to be an inconsistency at the heart of Aristotle’s Metaphysics: a differentia is said both to presuppose its genus (in vii 12) and to be logically independent from it (in x 7). I argue that the relation of analogy resolves this inconsistency, restores the coherence of the concepts of differentia and species, and gives x 7 its rightful place in the development of the Metaphysics.

The empirical study of belief is emerging at a rapid clip, uniting work from all corners of cognitive science. Reliance on belief in understanding and predicting behavior is widespread. Examples can be found, inter alia, in the placebo, attribution theory, theory of mind, and comparative psychological literatures. Research on belief also provides evidence for robust generalizations, including about how we fix, store, and change our beliefs. Evidence supports the existence of a Spinozan system of belief fixation: one that is automatic (...) and independent of belief rejection. Independent research supports the existence of a system of fragmented belief storage: one that relies on large numbers of causally isolated, context-sensitive stores of belief in memory. Finally, empirical and observational data support at least two systems of belief change. One system adheres, mostly, to epistemological norms of updating; the other, the psychological immune system, functions to guard our most centrally held beliefs from potential inconsistency with newly formed beliefs. Refining our under- standing of these systems can shed light on pressing real-world issues, such as how fake news, propaganda, and brainwashing exploit our psychology of belief, and how best to construct our modern informational world. (shrink)

Termodinamica se ocupă cu studiul energiei, a conversiilor sale între diferite forme, cum ar fi căldura, și capacitatea energiei de a produce lucru mecanic. Ea este strâns legată de mecanica statistică, din care pot fi derivate multe relații termodinamice. Se poate argumenta că termodinamica a fost greșit denumită astfel întrucât aceasta nu se referă de fapt la rate de schimbare ca atare și, prin urmare, ar fi fost probabil mai corect ca domeniul să se denumească termostatica. Termodinamica se referă la (...) posibilitatea de declanșare a anumitor reacții chimice, și nu cât de repede au loc acestea. (shrink)

Peer commentary on: Blumenthal-Barby, J. S. (2016). Biases and heuristics in decision making and their impact on autonomy. The American Journal of Bioethics, 16(5), 5-15.

Utilizarea Big Data prezintă probleme juridice semnificative, în special din punctul de vedere al protecției datelor. Cadrul juridic existent al Uniunii Europene, bazat în special pe Directiva nr. 46/95/CE și Regulamentul general privind protecția datelor cu caracter personal, oferă o protecție corespunzătoare. Dar, pentru Big Data este necesară o strategie cuprinzătoare și globală. Evoluția în timp a fost de la dreptul de a exclude pe alții la dreptul la controlul propriilor date și, în prezent, la regândirea dreptului la identitate (digitală). (...) DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22989.38889. (shrink)

This article explores the phenomenology of time and eschatology in the thought of Jean-Yves Lacoste, including his recent book on the philosophy of history. Lacoste’s idea of “the hidden present” is examined within the context of his broader theological and philosophical framework, with a particular focus on the way it addresses the intersection of temporality and eternity. Human temporality is characterized by finitude and death, which are interpreted both philosophically—under the influence of Heidegger’s philosophy—and theologically. Using Husserlian and Heideggerian concepts, (...) Lacoste proposes a theologically inspired conceptual network: phenomenological reduction versus theological reduction, world versus creation, death versus resurrection, care (Sorge) versus eschatological restlessness, and time versus eschaton. All of these describe the liturgical experience of man before God and the possibility of an eternity which, from the point of view of the world and of our experience in the world, can only take on the ever-provisional figure of anticipation. The present article argues for the existence of a theological paradox of eschatology in the writings of the French phenomenologist: even if eschatology is only anticipated, the liturgical man, situated before God (coram Deo), experiences it in an incomplete and apophatic manner. (shrink)

A survey of the similarities and differences between BFO and DOLCE, and of the mutual interactions between Nicola Guarino and Barry Smith.

Beall and Restall 2000; 2001; 2006 advocate a comprehensive pluralist approach to logic, which they call Logical Pluralism, according to which there is not one true logic but many equally acceptable logical systems. They maintain that Logical Pluralism is compatible with monism about metaphysical modality, according to which there is just one correct logic of metaphysical modality. Wyatt 2004 contends that Logical Pluralism is incompatible with monism about metaphysical modality. We first suggest that if Wyatt were right, Logical Pluralism would (...) be strongly implausible because it would get upside down a dependence relation that holds between metaphysics and logic of modality. We then argue that Logical Pluralism is prima facie compatible with monism about metaphysical modality. (shrink)

Emoția a fost exclusă din cunoaștere încă din antichitate, când Democrit afirma că „Medicamentul vindecă bolile corpului, înțelepciunea eliberează sufletul de emoții”. O astfel de opinie spune că „rațiunea ar trebui să fie maestrul pasiunii”. Cea mai cunoscută declarație inversată aparține lui Hume, conform căruia rațiunea este și ar trebui să fie sclavul pasiunilor. Emoțiile au fost recunoscute ca amenințări la luarea deciziilor raționale și epistemice, corelându-se emoțiile cu voința sau dorința (emoțiile ar fi un mijloc prin care voința sau (...) dorința pot denatura rațiunea sau percepția sau un proces rațional). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11004.69762 . (shrink)

Dominant views about the nature of health and disease in bioethics and the philosophy of medicine have presumed the existence of a fixed, stable, individual organism as the bearer of health and disease states, and as such, the appropriate target of medical therapy and ethical concern. However, recent developments in microbial biology, neuroscience, the philosophy of cognitive science, and social and personality psychology (Ickes...

How do plurals and mass nouns refer? What kind of logic should be used in order to account for the truth-conditions of the sentences they appear in? For linguists, first-order predicate logic is adequate, provided it is supplemented by a notion of mereological sum for plurals and for mass nouns. On the contrary, according to some philosophers, new logics must be used, plural logic for plurals and mass logic for mass nouns. We survey these debates in this entry.

In a number of papers, Kit Fine introduced a theory of embodiment which distinguishes between rigid and variable embodiments, and has been successfully applied to clarify the ontological nature of entities whose parts may or may not vary in time. In particular, he has applied this theory to describe a process such as the erosion of a cliff, which would be a variable embodiment whose manifestations are the different states of erosion of the cliff. We find this theory very powerful, (...) and especially appropriate to capture the intuition that the same process may go on at different times. However, its formal principles have been subject to some criticisms, mainly concerning the mereological structure of a variable embodiment. Moreover, since the notion of variable embodiment is very general, simply saying that processes are variable embodiments is not enough to understand their ontological nature. To address these concerns, in this paper we proceed in two phases: first, we propose a revised version of Fine’s original theory adapted to the case of processes, which adopts a classical mereology instead of Fine’s hylomorphic mereology, and a temporalized constitution relation in place of Fine’s function of variable embodiment; second, we go deeper into the ontological nature of processes by revisiting the notions of homogeneity, intentionality, and telicity discussed in the literature, and propose an account based on ontological principles and not on semantic properties of predicates. This allows us to organize processes into a novel taxonomy based exclusively on their unity and individuation principles. (shrink)

L'utilisation des mégadonnée présente des problèmes juridiques importants, notamment en termes de protection des données. Le cadre juridique existant de l'Union européenne, basé notamment sur la Directive 46/95/CE et le Règlement général sur la protection des données (RGPD - en anglais : General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR) assurent une protection adéquate. Mais pour les mégadonnées, une stratégie globale et complète est nécessaire. L'évolution au fil du temps est passée du droit d'exclure les autres au droit de contrôler leurs propres données (...) et, à l'heure actuelle, à repenser le droit à l'identité (numérique). 10.13140/RG.2.2.35505.81766 . (shrink)

Le modèle atomique de Bohr a été l'un des exemples les plus brillants de la méthodologie des programmes de recherche d'Imre Lakatos. Les grandes lignes du programme de recherche de Bohr (Bohr 1913) peuvent être caractérisées par : 1. Le problème initial ; 2. Ses heuristiques négatives et positives ; 3. Les problèmes qu'il a tenté de résoudre au cours du développement ; 4. Son point de dégénérescence (point de saturation) et, enfin, 5. Le programme par lequel il a été (...) remplacé. 10.13140/RG.2.2.21718.68166 . (shrink)

Immédiatement après l'élaboration et le succès de la relativité générale, des théories alternatives pour la gravité ont commencé à apparaître. En développant ces théories, de nombreuses stratégies différentes (heuristiques positives) ont été essayées, en ajoutant de nouvelles hypothèses à la RG, en utilisant un espace-temps pour lequel l'univers est statique, des hypothèses qui éliminent les singularités gravitationnelles, etc. Pour l'évaluation des modèles de gravité, plusieurs séries de tests ont été proposées. Le formalisme paramétrisé post-newtonien (PPN) détaille les paramètres qui différencient (...) les théories de la gravité, dans le champ gravitationnel faible et des vitesses bien inférieures à la vitesse de la lumière. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32001.28000. (shrink)

Dans la première édition du Principia, Newton considérait que des expériences avec le pendule lui permettraient de déchiffrer les différents types de force de résistance et leur variation avec la vitesse. Habituellement, le « laboratoire » des tests gravitationnels était les corps célestes, les systèmes astrophysiques. Mais ces tests sont perturbés par des effets non gravitationnels. Le « laboratoire » le plus utilisé était le système solaire. Récemment, les scientifiques se sont concentrés sur l'observation des pulsars binaires pour la vérification (...) des théories gravitationnelles, en observant les variations de la période orbitale, fournissant ainsi des preuves indirectes de l'émission de rayonnement gravitationnel. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14967.65440. (shrink)

Emotional intelligence is the ability of individuals to recognize their own and others' emotions, to discern between different feelings and to label them correctly, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and to manage and adjust emotions to adapt to the environment or to achieve their own goals. There are several models that aim to measure emotional intelligence levels. Goleman's original model is a mixed model that combines abilities with traits. A trait model was developed by Konstantinos V. Petrides (...) in 2001, with a focus on self-knowledge, and an ability model was developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 2004 focusing on social relationship. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.13623.75685. (shrink)

Most physics theories are deterministic, with the notable exception of quantum mechanics which, however, comes plagued by the so-called measurement problem. This state of affairs might well be due to the inability of standard mathematics to “speak” of indeterminism, its inability to present us a worldview in which new information is created as time passes. In such a case, scientific determinism would only be an illusion due to the timeless mathematical language scientists use. To investigate this possibility it is necessary (...) to develop an alternative mathematical language that is both powerful enough to allow scientists to compute predictions and compatible with indeterminism and the passage of time. We suggest that intuitionistic mathematics provides such a language and we illustrate it in simple terms. (shrink)

In a world that is overflowing with journals and other outlets for scientific publication, the appearance of any new periodical requires some justification. There are already more journals than we can read and more conferences than we can attend. In the case of applied Ontology, we believe that the creation of anew journal not only is completely justifiable, it is downright exciting. For too long, workers in computer science have assumed that content comes for free. “Theory” in computer science has (...) always meant the theory of processes and of computation. We measure the complexity of computer programs in terms of how long it takes machines to execute them, not in terms of how long it takes people to understand and to represent the data on which those programs might operate. We typically describe computer code in terms of algorithms that operate on formal parameters, often without pausing to discuss where the data that might satisfy those parameters come from. This journal was founded on the premise that workers in computer science, informatics, and information science are overdue in paying as much attention to contents as they do to algorithms. (shrink)

Le big data peut générer, par inférences, de nouvelles connaissances et perspectives. Le paradigme qui résulte de l'utilisation du big data crée de nouvelles opportunités. L'une des principales préoccupations dans le cas du big data est que les scientifiques des données ont tendance à travailler avec des données sur des sujets qu'ils ne connaissent pas et n'ont jamais été en contact, étant éloignés du produit final de leur activité (l'application des analyses). Une étude récente (Tanner 2014) indique que cela peut (...) être la raison d'un phénomène connu sous le nom d'aliénation numérique. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34700.54409. (shrink)

The idea that appearances provide justifications for beliefs—the principle of phenomenal conservatism—is self-evidently true. In the case of cognitive penetration, however, it seems that certain irrational etiologies of a belief may influence the epistemic quality of that belief. Susanna Siegel argues that these etiologies lead to ‘epistemic downgrade.’ Instead of providing us with a decisive objection, cognitive penetration calls for us to clarify our epistemic framework by understanding the formative parts of appearances. In doing so, the two different but inseparable (...) ideas of sensation and intellection provide us with a basis of our appearances. These appearances, in turn, provide us with the objective evidence needed to test our judgements. Thus, the extra-sensory concepts of intellectual identification and the appearances they help form become an epistemic groundwork. (shrink)

Telelucrul, ca un nou mod de a lucra prin efectuarea unei activităţi (forme de muncă) flexibile în timp şi la distanţă, utilizând tehnologia informaţională şi comunicaţiile avansate, se concretizează în teleactivităţi şi teleservicii. În ultimii ani, s-au dezvoltat rapid noi tehnologii informaţionale şi de comunicare, astfel încât în centrul dezbaterilor ştiinţifice, politice şi economice din ultima perioadă a stat apariţia şi dezvoltarea Societăţii Informaţionale, generatoare de noi oportunităţi de muncă dar şi de schimbări esenţiale în ceea ce priveşte natura muncii (...) şi modul de lucru, schimbări comparabile cu cele petrecute în revoluţia industrială. În acest context, telelucrul a devenit domeniu strategic din punct de vedere teoretic şi practic, deoarece reprezintă o soluţie cu potenţial practic important; se poate dezvolta repede; poate influenţa în bine viaţa multor europeni; este un excelent promotor al noilor procese şi tehnologii avansate; este o componentă a noii revoluţii ştiinţifice şi tehnologice, orientată spre societatea bazată pe informaţie şi cunoaştere. CUPRINS: - Introducere - - Ce este Telelucrul - - Definitii - - Avantaje si dezavantaje - - Alte aspecte de interes general - Tipuri de telelucru - - Integral / partial - - La domiciliu - - Telecentre - - - Tipuri - - Comparatie intre lucrul la domiciliu si in telecentre - - Lucrul in cadrul unor organizatii - Dotarea individuala a telelucratorului - - Software - - Hardware - - Internet - Promovarea ca telelucrator - - Cine poate fi telelucrator - - Resume - - Scrisoarea de intentie - - Marketing - Strategii pentru telelucru - - Evaluari de pret ale serviciilor de telelucrator - - Cautarea joburilor - - Telelucrul ca o afacere - - Planul de actiune - - Strategia UE in domeniul telelucrului - Aspecte legislative - - Contracte pentru telelucratori - - Plata telelucratorilor pentru serviciile prestate - Implicatii guvernamentale in promovarea telelucrului - Cum se poate promova un proiect propriu Despre autor - Nicolae Sfetcu - - De același autor - - Contact Editura - MultiMedia Publishing . (shrink)