An agent who violates independence can avoid dynamic inconsistency in sequential choice if he is sophisticated enough to make use of backward induction in planning. However, Seidenfeld has demonstrated that such a sophisticated agent with dependent preferences is bound to violate the principle of dynamic substitution, according to which admissibility of a plan is preserved under substitution of indifferent options at various choice nodes in the decision tree. Since Seidenfeld considers dynamic substitution to be a coherence condition on dynamic choice, (...) he concludes that sophistication cannot save a violator of independence from incoherence. In response to McClennen’s objection that relying on dynamic substitution when independence is at stake must be question-begging, Seidenfeld undertakes to prove that dynamic substitution follows from the principle of backward induction alone, provided we assume that the agent’s admissible choices from different sets of feasible plans are all based on a fixed underlying preference ordering of plans. This paper shows that Seidenfeld's proof fails: depending on the interpretation, it is either invalid or based on an unacceptable assumption. (shrink)

Murphy's study is the first to bring a broad interdisciplinary perspective to the subject and to present postmodernism as a coherent social theory.

The first part of this work addresses the current state of critical theory, and questions the post-ness of the epistemological space after the event of theory as an institutional practice. The second part contains examples of the type of work theory has made possible, demonstrating the new directions opening up both within theory itself and in cross-disciplinary study as a result of theory. In this sense, post can be understood to be in dialogue with issues relating to postmodernism, post-Marxism and (...) post-feminism. (shrink)

This article is a systematic consideration of aristotle's position vis-a-vis modern tendencies to judge all philosophical positions as historically conditioned. the argument shows that aristotle's position is not only not reducible to historical temporality but is transcendent of it. the article, which contains original translations of key passages in the metaphysics and physics and refers to the de anima, topica, poetics, nicomachean ethics, rhetorica, and history of animals, points to the author's own systematic philosophy entitled mentaphysics (chiron, 1978). particular stress (...) is laid on the relation between "logos" and "physis" with respect to aristotle's definition of "nous" as finally a divine "zoon". (shrink)

기술시대의 한 새로운 이념으로 트랜스휴머니즘이 발흥하고 있다. 그것은 기술 발달을 통하여 노화와 죽음을 초월하고자 하는 이상을 제시한다. 이 논문은 생명 연장과 죽음 지연 나아가 인간 불멸을 추구하는 트랜스휴머니즘의 이념을 전체적인 생태 차원에서 고찰한다. 여기서 ‘생태’란 동시대 인간과 후세대 인간 그리고 다른 종들과의 연관 관계 속에서 존립하는 전체 환경체계를 일컫는다. 그 같은 시각으로부터 우리는 트랜스휴머니즘의 개체주의적, 행복주의적 생명/죽음관이 부분적인 설득력과 정당성을 갖는다고 하여도 총체적으로는 더 큰 난점을 함유하고 있다고 논변한다. 우리는 이 입장의 현대적인 단초를 한스 요나스의 철학에서, 그리고 그 최근의 발달을 (...) 로지 브라이도티의 사상에서 발견한다. 그들의 철학에 대한 비판적 수용을 기반으로 하여 이 논문은 트랜스휴머니즘이 제시하는 생명/죽음관의 특징과 한계를 논의한다. (shrink)