Disputes about the causal structure of natural selection have implications for teleosemantics. Etiological, mainstream teleosemantics is based on a causalist view of natural selection. The core of its solution to Brentano’s Problem lies in the solution to Kant’s Puzzle provided by the Modern Synthesis concerning populational causation. In this paper, I suggest that if we adopt an alternative, statisticalist view on natural selection, the door is open for two reflections. First, it allows for setting different challenges to etiological teleosemantics that (...) arise if a statisticalist reading of natural selection is right. Second, by providing a different solution to Kant’s Puzzle based on individual causes of evolution, statisticalism promotes a different answer to Brentano’s Problem, what I label as Agential Teleosemantics. (shrink)

Abstract: This paper argues that a central explanatory role for the concept of Umwelt in theoretical biology is to be found in developmental biology, in particular in the effort to understand development as a goal-directed and adaptive process that is controlled by the organism itself. I will reach this conclusion in two (interrelated) ways. The first is purely theoretical and relates to the current scenario in the philosophy of biology. Challenging neo-Darwinism requires a new understanding of the various components involved (...) in natural selection processes. An important prerequisite for the explanation is the ability to understand development in a teleological way. Here, the concept of Umwelt plays a crucial role: if organisms are responsible for generating adaptive variation in specific environments, we need a theory that explains the context-dependent nature of adaptively oriented processes. The Umwelt is thus a central element in determining the goal that an adaptive process pursues. The second path in my analysis also has a historical dimension. I will present Karl Ernst von Baer’s reflections on teleological development and his influence on von Uexküll's thinking. I will present various ideas developed by von Baer, such as the distinction between Ziel and Zweck and the use of musical metaphors, which can help to understand development teleologically and give von Uexküll’s theory a central place in this framework. (shrink)

The field of the philosophy of biology is flourishing in its aim to evaluate and rethink the view inherited from the previous century ---the Modern Synthesis. Different research areas and theories have come to the fore in the last decades in order to account for different biological phenomena that, in the first instance, fall beyond the explanatory scope of the Modern Synthesis. This thesis is anchored and motivated by this revolt in the philosophy of biology. -/- The central target in (...) this context is the possibility of naturalizing teleology, a classical nightmare for the history of biology itself. This requires, principally, understanding the causes of teleological explanations without assuming an unfashioned backward causation of sorts. As the riddles of teleological explanations are about their temporal dimension, I analyze different temporal scales of biological processes: evolutionary, developmental, and physiological. -/- The first one is the one defended in the context of the Modern Synthesis. As expected, one of the aims of this thesis is to evaluate the adequacy of an evolutionary account of teleological explanation. The scrutiny is negative. Evolutionary explanations in the context of the Modern Synthesis lack the necessary causal roots to naturalize teleology. Concerning the physiological scale, a long tradition pushed up by Kant and the organicist movement in the 20th century allows us to better understand how teleological explanations can be naturalized in physiological process. The key notions in this temporal scale are self-organization and the recursive, looped character of physiological process. While the physiological scale may be suitably accounted by contemporaries views, such as Autonomous Systems Theory, different central teleological phenomena remain unexplained from a purely physiological perspective. In particular, different issues concerning the (adaptive) construction of organism ---such as plasticity, robustness, variation, novelty, inheritance--- deserve an ontogenetic analysis. -/- The principal aim of this thesis is to provide a theory of teleological development that falls beyond the Modern Synthesis' framework and is prompted by different insights from the history of biology. I call it Agential Teleosemantics. It rests on two central pillars. First, that developmental processes, beyond any gene-centered stance, can be understood in informational terms; i.e. developmental processes are about the interaction of developmental resources conveying biological information. The second ingredient is agentivity, namely the idea that development is regulated by an agentive system according to the adaptiveness of the phenotypic outcomes produced. The role of agency in Agential Teleosemantic is equivalent to the role of genes in the Modern Synthesis: it is responsible for explaining the order and the adaptive complexity in the living realm. -/- The second target of this thesis regards the possibility of naturalizing intentional explanations in cognitive science. The central project involved in such an aim is known as teleosemantics. Classical teleosemantics however is etiological: it explains the teleofunctions of representational systems in terms of evolutionary processes. The different disputes in the contemporary philosophy of biology provide two insights to analyze teleosemantics in cognitive science. First, the challenges against the Modern Synthesis must be extended to the evolutionary approach of etiological teleosemantics. Second, as Agential Teleosemantics suggests an alternative source for teleofunctions ---ontogeny, I offer an attempt to integrate Agential Teleosemantics into cognitive science in order to provide an alternative teleosemantic project to understand intentional explanations in cognitive science. (shrink)

Explanatory Externalism states that the only adaptive force in evolution is natural selection. Explanatory Externalism is a central thesis of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. The etiological theory of natural selected-effect functions also advocates Explanatory Externalism. According to this theory, natural selection is the process responsible for determining the proper natural functions of traits. However, I will point out several challenges to Explanatory Externalism that are proposed primarily by developmental biology and its various subfields. Based on these challenges, this paper will (...) argue why biological functions cannot be fully explained by the selected-effect theory, i.e., that a theory of biological functions must adopt some kind of Explanatory Internalism. At the end of this paper, I will discuss whether or not Explanatory Internalism entails a pluralistic view of biological functions, and how this discussion is related to the different explanations of fit and diversity found in evolutionary biology. (shrink)

The foundations of biology have been a topic of debate for the past few decades. The traditional perspective of the Modern Synthesis, which portrays organisms as passive entities with limited role in evolutionary theory, is giving way to a new paradigm where organisms are recognized as active agents, actively shaping their own phenotypic traits for adaptive purposes. Within this context, this article raises the question of whether contemporary biological theory is undergoing a cognitive revolution. This inquiry can be approached in (...) two ways: from a theoretical standpoint, exploring the centrality of the cognitive sciences in current theoretical biology; and from a historical perspective, examining the resemblance between the current state of theoretical biology and the Cognitive Revolution of the mid-20th century. Both inquiries yield affirmative answers, though important nuances will be emphasized. The cognitive sciences' explanatory framework is employed to elucidate the agentic characteristics of organisms, establishing a clear parallelism between the Cognitive Revolution and the present state of theoretical biology. (shrink)

Abstract: A common explanatory error concerns conflating epistemological roles between two domains. Here I deal with a special case: when explanations of development replace evolutionary explanations or vice versa. Ernst Mayr famously distinguished between proximate and ultimate causal explanations in biology. His view was central to keeping development outside the theory of evolution. Nevertheless, the explanatory role of developmental processes in evolution is a central theme in current theoretical biology, which has led to several revisions of Mayr’s distinction. In the (...) following, I will review these reviewers to determine whether the integration of development and evolution is based on an appropriate reinterpretation of Mayr’s distinction. The revisionists often propose an interactionist alternative in which proximate and ultimate causes interact to produce evolved traits. The most common interactionist account relies on the idea of reciprocal causation. I will argue that this perspective is still problematic and that the boundaries between explanatory domains are crossed. Instead, we should rethink Mayr’s distinction by adopting an alternative view of evolutionary causation, the so-called Statisticalist view on natural selection, which claims that the only level of causation is the proximate level. By excluding two different levels of causation, this framework is able to avoid fallacious explanations and fully consider reciprocal causation as a proximate phenomenon. I introduce the concept of “statistical reciprocity” to explain the statistical effects of (proximate) reciprocal causation in ultimate explanations and outline some ideas of “population ontogenetics” as a prominent framework for unifying development and evolution beyond interactionist positions. (shrink)

A common explanatory error in science concerns the conflation of the epistemological roles between two domains. Here we will address a specific case: when explanations of development replace evolutionary explanations or vice versa. Ernst Mayr famously distinguished between proximate and ultimate causal explanations in biology. His view was central to the Modern Synthesis’ exclusion of development from evolutionary theory. Nonetheless, the explanatory role of developmental processes in evolution is a central theme in current theoretical biology which has prompted several revisions (...) of Mayr’s distinction. Here we will review these reviewers to determine whether the integration of development and evolution is based on an appropriate reinterpretation of Mayr’s distinction. In many cases, revisionists suggest an interactionist alternative, in which proximate and ultimate causes interact to produce evolved traits. The most frequent interactionist account relies on the idea of reciprocal causation. We will argue that this perspective is still problematic and that the boundaries between explanatory domains are crossed. Instead, we should rethink Mayr’s distinction by adopting an alternative view of evolutionary causation, the so-called Statisticalist view, which maintains that the only level of causation is the individual level. By ruling out two different levels of causation, this framework is appropriate to avoid fallacious explanations and reconsider reciprocal causation entirely as a proximate phenomenon. We introduce the concept of “statistical reciprocity” to explain the statistical effects of reciprocal causality in populations and outline some ideas of “population ontogenetics” as a prominent framework for unifying development and evolution beyond interactionist positions. (shrink)

The use of evolutionary explanations to explain phenomena at the individual level has been described by various authors as an explanatory error, the so-called Phylogeny Fallacy. In this paper, this fallacy will be analyzed in the context of teleosemantics, a central project of the philosophy of mind whose main aim is to naturalize intentional systems by appealing to their biological teleofunctions. I will argue that those teleosemantics projects that invoke evolutionary functions generally commit the fallacy. First, I will point to (...) various arguments in the literature that point to this fallacy. However, a more general argument will also be made. To illustrate this puzzling scenario, I will present two desiderata that any teleosemantic project must fulfill. I will argue that naturalizing intentionality based on natural selection creates an explanatory gap between types and tokens. This gap prohibits an adequate explanation of the desiderata. To close the gap, teleosemantics invokes replicator biology, a view of inheritance that has already been identified to commit the fallacy. This leads teleosemantics into a complex situation: to close the gap, it must commit the fallacy. (shrink)

Abstract: The use of evolutionary explanations to account for proximate phenomena has been labeled by various authors as an explanatory error, the so-called phylogeny fallacy. In this paper, this fallacy will be analyzed in the context of teleosemantics. I will discuss whether teleosemantics projects that rely on the Selected-Effect Theory of Functions (i.e., mainstream teleosemantics) generally commit the fallacy. To frame the discussion, I will present two desiderata that, as argued here, every teleosemantic project must fulfill. The actuality desideratum, motivated (...) by Brentano’s problem, demands for a proximate analysis of the properties that make a system intentional. The historical desideratum, on the other hand, says that a teleological view of intentionality requires a historical dimension in order to understand the causal basis of teleological explanations. While I give some reasons why mainstream teleosemantics might be implicated in the phylogeny fallacy, my main argument aims to highlight an explanatory gap in mainstream teleosemantics: the population perspective on teleofunctions is inadequate to explain the proximate properties of intentional systems. In other words, the account of the historical desideratum in population-evolutionary terms prevents an adequate solution to the actuality desideratum. This is related to two central goals of teleosemantics: The goal of explaining content determination by recourse to natural selection processes makes it impossible to solve another goal of teleosemantics, the so-called problem of representational status. I analyze this situation and argue that inherited information (sometimes interpreted in a teleosemantic sense) plays the role of closing the gap. This leads teleosemantics into a complex situation: in order to close the gap, it must commit the fallacy. At the end of the article, I propose an alternative to fulfill both desiderata, motivated by an evo-devo perspective. I state that lineage explanations have the property of providing historical explanations based on proximate causes. (shrink)

El objetivo de este ensayo es analizar cómo confluyen en una misma base teórica tres discursos de diferentes áreas. Uno de ellos es la ciencia, mediante el genocentrismo defendido en la síntesis moderna en Biología. Otro es el de la religión, mediante la perspectiva finalista del alma y del diseño divino, que comparten las religiones abrahámicas. Y finalmente, en la esfera político-social, donde diferentes movimientos conservadores se oponen a replantear la agenda de derechos. La confluencia teórica que nuclea a las (...) tres áreas mencionadas es un preformismo sobre los organismos. Por lo tanto, primero, veremos cómo el preformismo se encuentra presente en biología. Segundo, señalaremos dos ideas relacionadas al preformismo que subyacen tanto en la biología como en la religión. Finalmente, analizaremos cómo ambos discursos, el científico y el religioso, se encuentran presentes y empleando un rol argumentativo en debates actuales sobre derechos humanos, específicamente, relacionados al aborto ya los derechos de la población lgtbiq+. La principal conclusión es que la síntesis moderna promueve erróneamente una defensa de un preformismo genético, con connotaciones religiosas, que es usado por movimientos conservadores en el ámbito político-social. (shrink)

Types are fundamental for conceptual modeling and knowledge representation, being an essential construct in all major modeling languages in these fields. Despite that, from an ontological and cognitive point of view, there has been a lack of theoretical support for precisely defining a consensual view on types. As a consequence, there has been a lack of precise methodological support for users when choosing the best way to model general terms representing types that appear in a domain, and for building sound (...) taxonomic structures involving them. For over a decade now, a community of researchers has contributed to the development of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) - aimed at providing foundations for all major conceptual modeling constructs. At the core of this enterprise, there has been a theory of types specially designed to address these issues. This theory is ontologically well- founded, psychologically informed, and formally characterized. These results have led to the development of a Conceptual Modelling language dubbed OntoUML, reflecting the ontological micro-theories comprising UFO. Over the years, UFO and OntoUML have been successfully employed on conceptual model design in a variety of domains including academic, industrial, and governmental settings. These experiences exposed improvement opportunities for both the OntoUML language and its underlying theory, UFO. In this paper, we revise the theory of types in UFO in response to empirical evidence. The new version of this theory shows that many of OntoUML’s meta-types (e.g. kind, role, phase, mixin) should be considered not as restricted to substantial types but instead should be applied to model endurant types in general, including relator types, quality types, and mode types. We also contribute with a formal characterization of this fragment of the theory, which is then used to advance a new metamodel for OntoUML (termed OntoUML 2). To demonstrate that the benefits of this approach are extended beyond OntoUML, the proposed formal theory is then employed to support the definition of UFO-based lightweight Semantic Web ontologies with ontological constraint checking in OWL. Additionally, we report on empirical evidence from the literature, mainly from cognitive psychology but also from linguistics, supporting some of the key claims made by this theory. Finally, we propose a computational support for this updated metamodel. (shrink)

The philosopher René Descartes wrote the Compendium musicæ in 1618. Even though he was not known for his music production, he maintained a long correspondence around the subject in dialogue with Marin Mersenne, Constantjin Huygens, Isaac Beeckman and Joan-Albert Ban. However, his musical propositions appear as a marginal subject in his intellectual journey. To understand whether the musical theme relates to the development of his ideas, first, the organization of his correspondence about music and the citations to it in his (...) works was necessary, either in smaller texts or in the works published by the author. We analyzed the hypotheses about the forgetfulness of music in studies about the development of Descartes´ ideas. With these materials, we analyzed and historically contextualized the trajectory of the author's musical conceptions with the development of his main themes. Thus, it is possible to verify Descartes' musical dialogues with his own work and with his historical context. (shrink)

The current economic and societal production system gives money a magnified importance, overlooking other essential flows necessary for human survival and existence. It focuses on monetary indicators like profits, dividends, and GDPs to evaluate organizational production, while often disregarding outputs that harm the biosphere. Money is treated as the constitutive being (ousia) and attributed undemonstrated explanatory properties. Intangible flow theory helps eliminate this metaphysical status of money by recognizing that monetary flows are just one of many necessary flows for human (...) survival and existence. Organizations deliver product-flows that require input-flows from and send output-flows back to the encompassing biosphere, whether they explicitly engage in environmentally friendly activities or not. Therefore, every organization is an ecological entity because it has a relationship with the biosphere, which participates in the manner through which humans integrate into their surrounding environment and relate to other living beings. Eliminating the metaphysical status of money integrates every organization in the biosphere, making organizations accountable for environmental harm caused by their activities. This can be achieved by deconstructing the metaphysical status of money in business models. (shrink)

Enterprise Risk Management involves the process of identification, evaluation, treatment, and communication regarding risks throughout the enterprise. To support the tasks associated with this process, several frameworks and modeling languages have been proposed, such as the Risk and Security Overlay (RSO) of ArchiMate. An ontological investigation of this artifact would reveal its adequacy, capabilities, and limitations w.r.t. the domain of risk and security. Based on that, a language redesign can be proposed as a refinement. Such analysis and redesign have been (...) executed for the risk elements of the RSO grounded in the Common Ontology of Value and Risk. The next step along this line of research is to address the following research problems: What would be the outcome of an ontological analysis of security-related elements of the RSO? That is, can we identify other semantic deficiencies in the RSO through an ontological analysis? Once such an analysis is provided, can we redesign the security elements of the RSO accordingly, in order to produce an improved artifact? Here, with the aid of the Reference Ontology for Security Engineering (ROSE) and the ontological theory of prevention behind it, we address the remaining gap by proceeding with an ontological analysis of the security-related constructs of the RSO. The outcome of this assessment is an ontology-based redesign of the ArchiMate language regarding security modeling. In a nutshell, we report the following contributions: (1) an ontological analysis of the RSO that identifies six limitations concerning security modeling; (2) because of the key role of the notion of prevention in security modeling, the introduction of the ontological theory of prevention in ArchiMate; (3) a well-founded redesign of security elements of ArchiMate; and (4) ontology-based security modeling patterns that are logical consequences of our proposal of redesign due to its underlying ontology of security. As a form of evaluation, we show that our proposal can describe risk treatment options, according to ISO 31000. Finally, besides presenting multiple examples, we proceed with a real-world illustrative application taken from the cybersecurity domain. (shrink)

The first work that René Descartes wrote was the Compendium Musicæ in 1618, this was his first experiment with the future cartesian method. As a work of youth, the author must have studied music in your education, mainly in the college of La Flèche. Conventionally, the work of Gioseffo Zarlino had been considered the main source, because was cited in the Compendium. Since the text starts with music´s definition and eight propositions, about which the rest of work was developed; check (...) the way that them appear in other treatises of the time could help to deduce the possible musical sources that the author used.This dissertation starts with a necessary reconstitution of philosophical and musical context of the epoch, followed by an analysis of jesuits conceptions of knowledge and music. In this way, it can be considered what motivated the author to write about music, as his the debates. In resemblance to his mature work, the text proposes a methodological turn that is only perceived with the context of the time in mind. After an interpretation of the definition of the music and the eight propositions, it could be possible compare with the others works form the epoch to verify his musical sources. With this process, it could evidence the influence of Aristotle, Aristoxenus, Jean de Murs, Pontus de Tyard, Gioseffo Zarlino and Francisco de Salinas. (shrink)

Nossa pesquisa tem como objeto de análise, o conhecimento da verdade no “Contra os Acadêmicos” de Agostinho. A despeito do critério de verdade ao conhecimento Acadêmico enquanto 'ueritas', Agostinho sustenta a interpretação da verdade como 'veritas'. A verdade possui um tratamento de 'veritas' enquanto realidade que nos orienta e nos conduz ao conhecimento da beatitude. Nisso, o conhecimento da verdade no diálogo difere do verdadeiro para os Acadêmicos. Enquanto nos Acadêmicos, a verdade é a possibilidade de a filosofia alcançar alguma (...) certeza no conhecimento, para Agostinho, a verdade é o soberano bem do conhecimento. Palavras-chaves: Agostinho, conhecimento, verdade. (shrink)

For over a decade now, a community of researchers has contributed to the development of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) - aimed at providing foundations for all major conceptual modeling constructs. This ontology has led to the development of an Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling language dubbed OntoUML, reflecting the ontological micro-theories comprising UFO. Over the years, UFO and OntoUML have been successfully employed in a number of academic, industrial and governmental settings to create conceptual models in a variety of different domains. (...) These experiences have pointed out to opportunities of improvement not only to the language itself but also to its underlying theory. In this paper, we take the first step in that direction by revising the theory of types in UFO in response to empirical evidence. The new version of this theory shows that many of the meta-types present in OntoUML (differentiating Kinds, Roles, Phases, Mixins, etc.) should be considered not as restricted to Substantial types but instead should be applied to model Endurant Types in general, including Relator types, Quality types and Mode types. We also contribute a formal characterization of this fragment of the theory, which is then used to advance a metamodel for OntoUML 2.0. Finally, we propose a computational support tool implementing this updated metamodel. (shrink)

In Risk Management, security issues arise from complex relations among objects and agents, their capabilities and vulnerabilities, the events they are involved in, and the value and risk they ensue to the stakeholders at hand. Further, there are patterns involving these relations that crosscut many domains, ranging from information security to public safety. Understanding and forming a shared conceptualization and vocabulary about these notions and their relations is fundamental for modeling the corresponding scenarios, so that proper security countermeasures can be (...) devised. Ontologies are instruments developed to address these conceptual clarification and terminological systematization issues. Over the years, several ontologies have been proposed in Risk Management and Security Engineering. However, as shown in recent literature, they fall short in many respects, including generality and expressivity - the latter impacting on their interoperability with related models. We propose a Reference Ontology for Security Engineering (ROSE) from a Risk Treatment perspective. Our proposal leverages on two existing Reference Ontologies: the Common Ontology of Value and Risk and a Reference Ontology of Prevention, both of which are grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). ROSE is employed for modeling and analysing some cases, in particular providing clarification to the semantically overloaded notion of Security Mechanism. (shrink)

Contemporary mainstream economics cannot be seen as disconnected from philosophical concerns. On the contrary, it should be understood as a defence for a specific philosophy, namely, crude quantitative hedonism where money would measure pleasure and pain. Disguised among a great mathematical apparatus involving utility functions, supply, and demand, lies a specific hedonist philosophy that every year is lectured to thousands of economic and business students around the world. This hedonist philosophy is much less sophisticated than that in ancient hedonist philosophers (...) as Epicurus or Lucretius. Furthermore, it does not solve any of the systematic difficulties regularly faced by hedonist philosophy. However, the argument that economics is detached from philosophy works as a rhetorical artifice to protect its dominant underlying philosophy: Philosophical disputes would have to be addressed within the biased mathematical apparatus of quantitative hedonism. Economists and business students must learn to identify the underlying philosophy in mainstream economics and alternative philosophical systems. (shrink)

Enterprise Risk Management and security have become a fundamental part of Enterprise Architecture, so several frameworks and modeling languages have been designed to support the activities associated with these areas. Archi- Mate’s Risk and Security Overlay is one of such proposals, endorsed by The Open Group. We investigate the capabilities of the proposed security-related con- structs in ArchiMate with regard to the necessities of enterprise security modeling. Our analysis relies on a well-founded reference ontology of security to uncover ambiguity, missing (...) modeling elements, and other deficiencies of the security mod- eling capabilities in ArchiMate. Based on this ontologically-founded analysis, we propose a redesign of security aspects of ArchiMate to overcome its original limitations. (shrink)

This article intends to show that the defense of ‘‘understanding’’ as one of the major goals of science education can be grounded on an anti-reductionist perspective on testimony as a source of knowledge. To do so, we critically revisit the discussion between Harvey Siegel and Alvin Goldman about the goals of science education, especially where it involves arguments based on the epistemology of testimony. Subsequently, we come back to a discussion between Charbel N. El-Hani and Eduardo Mortimer, on the one (...) hand, and Michael Hoffmann, on the other, striving to strengthen the claim that rather than students’ belief change, understanding should have epistemic priority as a goal of science education. Based on these two lines of discussion, we conclude that the reliance on testimony as a source of knowledge is necessary to the development of a more large and comprehensive scientific understanding by science students. (shrink)

It is widely recognized that accurately identifying and classifying competitors is a challenge for many companies and entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, it is a paramount activity which provide valuable insights that affect a wide range of strategic decisions. One of the main challenges in competitor identification lies in the complex nature of the competitive relationships that arise in business envi- ronments. These have been extensively investigate over the years, which lead to a plethora of competition theories and frameworks. Still, the concept of (...) competition remains conceptually complex, as none of these approaches properly formalized their assumptions. In this paper, we address this issue by means of an ontological analysis on the notion of competition in general, and of business competition, in particular, leveraging theories from various fields, including Marketing, Strategic Management, Ecology, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences. Our analysis, the first of its kind in the literature, is grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) and allows us to formally characterize why competition arises, as well as to distinguish between three types of business competitive relationships, namely market-level, firm-level and potential competition. (shrink)

The Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) was developed over the last two decades by consistently putting together theories from areas such as formal ontology in philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophical logics. It comprises a number of micro-theories addressing fundamental conceptual modeling notions, including entity types and relationship types. The aim of this paper is to summarize the current state of UFO, presenting a formalization of the ontology, along with the analysis of a number of cases to illustrate the application of (...) UFO and facilitate its comparison with other foundational ontologies in this special issue. (The cases originate from the First FOUST Workshop – the Foundational Stance, an international forum dedicated to Foundational Ontology research.). (shrink)

Purpose: Illicit financial flows are targeted by the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these illicit flows are not entirely understood. Furthermore, they can benefit from economic norms, laws, and regulations that lack mechanisms to detect and penalize them. This paper investigates whether a recent test, the embezzler test, can be used to identify regulatory architectures that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes. -/- Design/methodology/approach: To develop a more advanced version of the embezzler test in terms (...) of definitions and practical implementation methodology. -/- Findings: In this test, the definition of embezzlement can be understood to be the occurrence of illicit financial flows crossing the boundaries of organizations and/or countries. This is a multi-stage test, which intentionally simulates illicit financial flows to observe how well equipped is the regulatory architecture to deal with other financial offences that are related with these flows, such as theft, money laundering, fraud, corruption, market manipulation, and tax evasion. -/- Originality: This is the first explicit test that has been presented to identify norms, laws, and regulations that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes. -/- Research implications: Future research can employ the version of this test to stress test a large range of economic norms, laws, and regulations. -/- Practical/Social implications: This test’s new version can assist achieve the UN SDGs’ illicit financial flow reduction target. Furthermore, it can be used to study both existing and proposed norms, laws, and regulation. (shrink)

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)

This article intends to show that the defense of “understanding” as one of the major goals of science education can be grounded on an anti-reductionist perspective on testimony as a source of knowledge. To do so, we critically revisit the discussion between Harvey Siegel and Alvin Goldman about the goals of science education, especially where it involves arguments based on the epistemology of testimony. Subsequently, we come back to a discussion between Charbel N. El-Hani and Eduardo Mortimer, on the one (...) hand, and Michael Hoffmann, on the other, striving to strengthen the claim that rather than students’ belief change, understanding should have epistemic priority as a goal of science education. Based on these two lines of discussion, we conclude that the reliance on testimony as a source of knowledge is necessary to the development of a more large and comprehensive scientific understanding by science students. (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)

Reification is a standard technique in conceptual modeling, which consists of including in the domain of discourse entities that may otherwise be hidden or implicit. However, deciding what should be rei- fied is not always easy. Recent work on formal ontology offers us a simple answer: put in the domain of discourse those entities that are responsible for the (alleged) truth of our propositions. These are called truthmakers. Re-visiting previous work, we propose in this paper a systematic analysis of truthmaking (...) patterns for properties and relations based on the ontolog- ical nature of their truthmakers. Truthmaking patterns will be presented as generalization of reification patterns, accounting for the fact that, in some cases, we do not reify a property or a relationship directly, but we rather reify its truthmakers. (shrink)

Livro-texto de introdução à lógica, com (mais do que) pitadas de filosofia da lógica, produzido como uma versão revista e ampliada do livro Forallx: Calgary. Trata-se da versão de 13 de outubro de 2022. Comentários, críticas, correções e sugestões são muito bem-vindos.

Risk propagation encompasses a plethora of techniques for analyzing how risk “spreads” in a given system. Albeit commonly used in technical literature, the very notion of risk propagation turns out to be a conceptually imprecise and overloaded one. This might also explain the multitude of modeling solutions that have been proposed in the lit- erature. Having a clear understanding of what exactly risk is, how it be quantified, and in what sense it can be propagated is fundamental for devising high-quality (...) risk assessment and decision-making solutions. In this paper, we exploit a previous well-established work about the nature of risk and related notions with the goal of providing a proper interpre- tation of the different notions of risk propagation, as well as revealing and harmonizing the alternative semantics for the links used in common risk propagation graphs. Finally, we discuss how these results can be leveraged in practice to model risk propagation scenarios. (shrink)

O objetivo deste capítulo é analisar o conceito de informação como uma ação significativa em sistemas complexos adaptativos. A comunicação e a linguagem são vistas como sistemas complexos por Maturana & Varela (1994), cuja principal característica é a auto-organização. Para estes autores, a comunicação é literalmente o conjunto de ações comuns em um coletivo de agentes. Sob uma vertente enativa semiótica, decidimos então: 1. Replicar resultados de convergência léxica e ampliar os resultados obtidos por Loula et al. (2003) e Loula (...) (2004); 2. Para isso, foi concebido e implementado o SIMPS - Simulador de Processos Semióticos; e 3. Analisar o conceito de informação como ação significativa, isto é, como ações envolvidas em processos semióticos, cujos significados se encontram nos usos coletivos das palavras e expressões de jogos de linguagem. Apesar de entendermos que nem toda informação é adaptativa, buscamos gerar informações passíveis de trazer vantagens adaptativas para grupos de agentes. Nosso modelo de simulação aponta, dentre outros resultados, que informações falsas podem ser mais prejudiciais do que informação alguma. (shrink)

Peran dunia pendidikan menjadi penting dalam membangun peradaban bangsa yang didasarkan atas jati diri dan karakter bangsa. Tema Hari Pendidikan Nasional Tahun 2012 ini adalah “Bangkitnya Generasi Emas Indonesia”. Tema ini sejalan dengan hakikat pendidikan yang telah ditekankan oleh Bapak Pendidikan Nasional yaitu Ki Hajar Dewantoro. Melalui pembangunan karakter bangsa, diharapkan dapat menciptakan manusia Indonesia yang unggul. Dalam penelitian ini, mengembangkan 6 (enam) nilai karakteristik yang wajib tertanam pada setiap diri mahasiswa. Karakteristik tersebut ditanamkan melalui proses perkuliahan yang diselenggarakan selama (...) 1 semester pada Mata Kuliah Matematika 1 di Jurusan PGMI Fakultas Tarbiyah Tahun Pelajaran 2011-2012. Pada mata kuliah ini, pendidikan karakter didekati melalui pemecahan masalah, yang merupakan bagian penting yang harus diajarkan kepada peserta didik. Pendekatan yang dilakukan adalah dengan metode inkulkasi (penanaman), yang ditempuh dengan memperhatikan perbedaan pada masing-masing peserta didik. Di sinilah penggolongan tipe kepribadian akan bermanfaat untuk menghargai perbedaan, sehingga bermanfaat bagi penunjang keberhasilan pembelajaran. Hasil yang diharapkan dari pembelajaran ini adalah peserta didik mampu memecahkan masalah dalam kehidupannya, dengan didasari oleh nilai yang sekaligus akan dapat mendukung pembangunan karakternya, sehingga pada akhirnya pendidikan karakter dapat tertanam. (shrink)

Esta entrevista se realizó a la comunicadora española Marta Ramos Matas. En ella, expone las experiencias gratificantes que ha tenido al desempeñarse a nivel profesional, ya sea a través de la radio o el periódico a nivel. Para conseguir ese resultado, ella revela que le sirvió mucho tener como referentes a Àngels Barceló, Iker Jiménez, Carmen Porter y Alberto Matas. Por otro lado, ejercer esta función en su país es para ella ha generado percibir un alto nivel de competitividad, ya (...) que hay un gran número de personas que recurre a las mismas estrategias de difundir información, y que incluso no hacen un buen trabajo, debidoa que optan por denigrar la labor periodística al utilizar las fakenews. Esa sería una forma de transgredir los límites de la libertad de expresión, pues al no haber filtros en las redes sociales los usuarios comparten aquello que puede provenir de una fuente inverosímil. (shrink)

This study aimed to survey wild species voluntarily received or rescued in the Lake District, State of Rio de Janeiro, in 2011. The research aimed to identify endangered species, quantify the groups and know the destination given to specimens. The records were obtained from the Instituto Ecológico Búzios Mata Atlântica, an NGO responsible for the Environmental Protection Area named Pau-Brasil and for the Lake District. The analysis showed that 181 animals were seized, 51% mammals (13 species), 25% reptiles (13 (...) species), 24% birds (11 species) and 1% fish (1 species). Amongst those animals, 12 species are included in the List of Endangered Brazilian Fauna Species. (shrink)

Twenty-one units of school E-books subjecting in Arts and Culture in total has been released nationwide, which must be consented by Indonesia’s Body of National Standard of Education (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan) – the appointed organization to certify Indonesia’s educational features. The graphic instruments applied on cover designs, of which emphasis is merely on technical aspects, requires further examination. Such condition becomes the basis of this study in order to identify, describe and illustrate the implementation of cover designing school E-books (...) subjecting in Arts and Culture through: (1) proficient instructional media’s perspective, (2) visual communication design’s perspective, (3) visual semiotics’ perspective, and (4) end users’ perspective. Additionally, it also qualifies the cover designs. Pertaining qualitative research toward the entire 21 school E-books subjecting in Arts and Culture, the data gathering process involves three sets of instrument:comprehensive reading on visual marks and their relevance with the books’ concepts as cited by C.S. Peirce, corroborative approach toward specialists on both instructional media and visual communication designs, and collective line on end users’ responds. Conclusively, it is found out that: (1) instructional media consultants agree on the significance of all covers, while visual communication designers pronounce that twelve of them are worth it, (2) all covers meet the books’ concepts’ relevance semiotically, (3) students as end-users have positive responds toward all covers, and (4) 12 out of 21 sets of cover design qualify after fulfilling all criteria obliged by this study. Therefore, it recommends: (1) optimal application of visual marks in cover designing process by utilizing e-book features, (2) mature procedure in selecting cover designer(s) to better represent the concept of each book, and (3) intensification on selecting E-book cover designs. The Body of National Standard of Education needs to assess not only technical instruments applied, but also multimedia studies and visual communication designing theories. Further, it is expected to involve both the expertise of visual communication designers and view of the students as targeted end-users in future evaluation process. (shrink)

In this thirteenth book of scilogs – one may find topics on Neutrosophy, Plithogeny, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy – email messages to research colleagues, or replies, notes, comments, remarks about authors, articles, or books, spontaneous ideas, and so on. It presents new types of soft sets and new types of topologies. -/- Exchanging ideas with Mohammad Abobala, Ishfaq Ahmad, Ibrahim M. Almanjahie, Fatimah Alshahrani, Nizar Altounji, Muhammad Aslam, Said Broumi, Victor Christianto, R. Diksh, Feng Liu, Frank Julian Gelli, Erick Gonzalez Caballero, (...) Riad Hamido, Yaser Al-Hasan, Ahmed Hatip, Yasin Karmouta, Nivetha Martin, Preda Mihăilescu, V. Lakshmana Gomathi Nayagam, Ze Carlos Tiago de Oliveira, Alexey Platonov, Andrei Pogany, Shakti Prasad, Ranulfo Paiva Barbosa (Sobrinho), Dmitri Rabounski, Ackbar Rezaei, Constantin Sandu, A. Saraswathi, Usman Shahzad, Gocho V. Sharlanov, Stefan Spaarmann, Michael Voskoglou, Vinay Kumar Yadav, Tomasz Witczak, William H. Woodall, Mircea Zărnescu, Mohamed Bisher Zeina (in order of reference in the book). (shrink)

O trabalho analisa o patrimônio etnobotânico da feira livre, com base em um estudo feito no bairro da Tijuca, na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Durante dois anos de trabalho de campo com quatro ervatários, que tinham média de 15 anos de experiência, foram coletados plantas e dados sobre nomes vulgares, usos e o preparo dos remédios. A coleta resultou em 151 espécies distribuídas em 59 famílias, de procedência diversa: comprada de terceiros, cultivada nos jardins particulares dos vendedores, ruderal, e (...) coletada da Mata Atlântica (40%). Analisa-se o papel das plantas na saúde e na vida religiosa das pessoas do bairro, o conhecimento dos ervatários e a coleta das plantas da Mata Atlântica. (shrink)

As is clear from the multiple references to knowledge in the proemium of fragment B1, Parmenides presented himself to his audiences as one who had achieved a profound insight into the nature of ‘what-is’. In support of this claim he conducted an elenchos or ‘testing’ of the ways of inquiry available for thinking, in the process revealing a set of sêmata or ‘signs’ indicating that what-is an eternal, indivisible, and unchanging plenum. In each of these respects, Parmenides was speaking the (...) language of discovery heard elsewhere in early Greek poetry. Similarly, his claim that we can neither learn nor know about what-is-not (hence must not say or think ‘it is not’) was justified by the ordinary meaning of the ancient Greek verbs for learning and knowing. Strikingly, Parmenides’ revisionary metaphysics rested in large measure on a widely shared view of what can be learned, known, and made known to others. -/- . (shrink)

O Agreste de Pernambuco é conhecido como a bacia leiteira do estado, por possuir não apenas um efetivo bovino leiteiro significativo, mas por apresentar características edafoclimáticas que tornaram possível o desenvolvimento da atividade leiteira. Entretanto, uma vez que possui um clima Semiárido, o cruzamento de raças taurinas com zebuínas é de suma importância, logo, um dos métodos de cruzamento mais abrangente e expressivo no estado é acasalar touro holandês PO com vacas Gir, obtendo F1 ½ HG, que são acasaladas com (...) touro holandês PO, obtendo-se F2 ¾ H + ¼ G, que são os animais de maior efetivo na região. Esse tipo de cruzamento foi essencial para manter o gado produtivo em situações de escassez alimentar e enfrentamento de secas, uma das características inerentes da região. Mesmo com um gado cruzado com bons índices zootécnicos, muitas propriedades não realizam um manejo de administração básica do rebanho como, por exemplo, uma escrituração zootécnica, tampouco um controle leiteiro para descarte de vacas com baixa produção, repetidoras de estro, secas, vazias etc. Essa escassez de informações do rebanho configura a região da bacia leiteira como uma região em que as vacas possuem potencial leiteiro, mas que não são totalmente aproveitadas no que tange seu potencial genético. Desta forma, buscou-se avaliar o manejo nutricional de 15 propriedades leiteiras da região fazendo um balanço do impacto da alimentação do rebanho sobre os índices de produção e reprodução das vacas no sistema de produção e como, através da alimentação, tais índices zootécnicos poderiam ser melhorados através de medidas de manejo básicas na propriedade. -/- REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS AIRES, P. R. R. Diagnóstico do manejo alimentar e qualidade do leite na bacia leiteira do Agreste de Pernambuco. Trabalho de conclusão de curso (Técnico em Agropecuária) - IFPE Campus Belo Jardim. Belo Jardim, 2019. 56 p. AUAD, A. M. et al. Manual de bovinocultura leiteira. 1ª ed. Brasília: LK Editora, 2010. 607 p. CARDOSO, Y. G. F. Manejo reprodutivo e nutricional de bovinos. Trabalho de conclusão de curso (Graduação em Medicina Veterinária) - Faculdade Anhanguera, Anápolis, 2022. CARVALHO, J. S. B.; SOUZA, W. M. (Eds.). Anais Congresso de Iniciação Científica – CIC, Congresso de Pós-graduação – CPG. v, 3. Garanhuns: UFAPE, 2023. DA SILVA EIC. A água na nutrição animal. 1ª ed. Recife, PE: Instituto Agronômico de Pernambuco, 2023. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Fisiologia da Reprodução de Bovinos Leiteiros: Aspectos Básicos e Clínicos. Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva, 2022. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Formulação e fabricação de rações para ruminantes. 1ª ed. Belo Jardim: Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva, 2021. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Formulação e Fabricação de Rações Para Ruminantes: Bovinos, Caprinos e Ovinos. 2021. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Manejo Reprodutivo e Índices Zootécnicos em Gado de Leite. 2023. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Métodos de Formulação e Balanceamento de Rações para Bovinos. Belo Jardim: Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva, 2021. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Nutrição Sobre a Reprodução e Fertilidade dos Bovinos. Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva, 2021. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Opções de concentrados para vacas em lactação no Semiárido. 2022. DA SILVA, E. I. C. Suplementação e formulação de sal mineral e mistura múltipla para bovinos. Revista Universitária Brasileira, v. 2, n. 1, 2024. 27-52. GOMES, T. B. B. Diagnóstico de índices zootécnicos e produtivos do rebanho leiteiro do departamento de zootecnia/CCA/UFPB. Trabalho de conclusão de curso (Graduação em Zootecnia) - Centro de Ciências Agrárias. UFPB, Areia, 2018. GONSALVES NETO, J. Manual do produtor de leite. 1ª ed. Viçosa: Aprenda Fácil, 2012. 860 p. MACEDO, S. F. Manejo geral de propriedades de leite e corte da cidade de Bom Conselho/PE. Trabalho de ESO (Estágio Supervisionado Obrigatório - Zootecnia) – UFAPE. Garanhuns, 2018. 49 p. MELO, G. C. S. Proposta de um sistema de produção de leite com dietas à base de palma forrageira. Trabalho de conclusão de curso (Graduação em Zootecnia) - UFRPE. Recife, 2023. 31 p. MONTEIRO, A. A. et al. Características da produção leiteira da região do agreste do estado de Pernambuco, Brasil. Semina: Ciências Agrárias. v. 28, n. 4. 2007. 665-674. NÓBREGA, K. S. Caracterização produtiva e tecnológica de propriedades rurais em três estados da região do Semiárido nordestino brasileiro. Trabalho de conclusão de curso (Graduação em Medicina Veterinária) - IFPE Campus Sousa. Sousa, 2020. 41 p. PEREIRA, J. C. Vacas leiteiras: aspectos práticos da alimentação. 1ª ed. Viçosa: Aprenda Fácil, 2000. 198 p. RAMOS, J. E. S. et al. Eficiência técnica e desempenho econômico de produtores de leite no Agreste Pernambucano. In: IV Simpósio da Ciência do Agronegócio. Anais. Faculdade de Agronomia - UFRGS. Porto Alegre, RS, 2018. RAMOS, J. E. S. et al. Identificando Benchmarks na produção de leite no Agreste de Pernambuco. In: I Congresso Internacional das Ciências Agrárias - COINTER. PDVAgro 2016. Anais. Vitória de Santo Antão, PE, 2016. SILVA, E. J. et al. Estudo dos índices de desempenho reprodutivo de bovinos de três propriedades situadas no Agreste e Zona da Mata do Estado de Pernambuco. Scientia Plena, v. 11, n. 4. 2015. 1-4. SILVA, S. S. et al. Viabilidade econômica em sistemas de produção de leite da Agricultura familiar em Pernambuco. Custos e @agronegócio. v. 15, n. 3. 2019. 460-484. ZEOLITA, M. A. A. Manejo nutricional e índices zootécnicos do rebanho leiteiro do Agreste de Pernambuco. Tese (Doutorado em Zootecnia) - UFAPE. Garanhuns, 2023. 86 p. (shrink)

Este trabalho procura documentar as espécies e os usos de plantas vendidas por ervatários numa feira semanal do bairro da Tijuca na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Foi realizado entre os meses de agosto/98 e agosto/99, e participaram da pesquisa quatro vendedores, com média de 15 anos de experiência no mercado, fornecendo as plantas e informações sobre seus nomes vulgares, usos e o preparo dos remédios. A feira foi visitada regularmente e os espécimes encontrados foram coletados, fotografados, herborizados e identificados (...) através da consulta de livros, chaves e especialistas, e comparação com exemplares de herbário. A coleta resultou em 151 espécies distribuídas em 59 famílias, a melhor representada sendo Asteraceae (21), Lamiaceae (13), Solanaceae (9), Leguminosae (6), e as restantes representadas por até 5 espécies. As plantas foram classificadas em 4 categorias segundo a procedência: comprada de terceiros (16%), cultivada nos jardins particulares dos vendedores (23%), ruderal (21%), e coletada da Mata Atlântica (40%). Foram documentadas 60 utilidades medicinais e rituais, e 15 formas de preparar as ervas, o número de indicações sendo 30% para uso externo e 70% para uso interno, e a forma mais comum, o chá. Além dos dados obtidos na feira, uma descrição botânica e um levantamento bibliográfico dos usos na medicina popular e em rituais afro-brasileiros são apresentados para cada espécie. Analisa-se o papel das plantas na saúde e na vida religiosa das pessoas do bairro, o conhecimento dos ervatários e a preocupante coleta das plantas da Mata Atlântica. (shrink)