Human agents draw a variety of inferences effortlessly, spontaneously, and with remarkable efficiency – as though these inferences were a reflexive response of their cognitive apparatus. Furthermore, these inferences are drawn with reference to a large body of background knowledge. This remarkable human ability seems paradoxical given the complexity of reasoning reported by researchers in artificial intelligence. It also poses a challenge for cognitive science and computational neuroscience: How can a system of simple and slow neuronlike elements represent a large (...) body of systemic knowledge and perform a range of inferences with such speed? We describe a computational model that takes a step toward addressing the cognitive science challenge and resolving the artificial intelligence paradox. We show how a connectionist network can encode millions of facts and rules involving n-ary predicates and variables and perform a class of inferences in a few hundred milliseconds. Efficient reasoning requires the rapid representation and propagation of dynamic bindings. Our model (which we refer to as SHRUTI) achieves this by representing (1) dynamic bindings as the synchronous firing of appropriate nodes, (2) rules as interconnection patterns that direct the propagation of rhythmic activity, and (3) long-term facts as temporal pattern-matching subnetworks. The model is consistent with recent neurophysiological evidence that synchronous activity occurs in the brain and may play a representational role in neural information processing. The model also makes specific psychologically significant predictions about the nature of reflexive reasoning. It identifies constraints on the form of rules that may participate in such reasoning and relates the capacity of the working memory underlying reflexive reasoning to biological parameters such as the lowest frequency at which nodes can sustain synchronous oscillations and the coarseness of synchronization. (shrink)

Contributed seminar papers presented at Seminar on the subject of Siddhantavada, organized by Department of Nyayavaisheshika, Shri Lalbahadur Shastri Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi in 2016.

Language and languages; linguistics; Arabic language; sufism.

El presente artículo se centra en el papel de los Derechos Humanos (DH) y Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) en la gobernanza mundial de las nuevas tecnologías para la salud humana. La primera parte aborda la gobernanza: el proceso de gobernar diferentes asuntos de la vida colectiva, incluyendo múltiples actores y medios. La segunda parte trata de la gobernanza mundial de las nuevas tecnologías: la necesidad, la viabilidad y cómo debería ser. La tercera parte reflexiona sobre la gobernanza mundial de (...) las nuevas tecnologías para la salud humana, analizando los recientes planes de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) para la gobernanza mundial de la edición del genoma humano y de la inteligencia artificial (IA) para lasalud. Se concluye que un buen procedimiento es insuficiente para una buena gobernanza, el contenido ético es crucial. Se recomienda prestar especial atención al papel de los DH y los ODS. Se sugiere una ética proactiva a lo largo de todo el proceso (conceptualización, diseño, desarrollo, distribución y uso) de las nuevas tecnologías, implicando la educación ética de las diferentes partes interesadas. (shrink)

Review of the Modern Mongolian philosophical history.

‘위인’ 정약용이 아닌 ‘인간’ 정약용을 찾아서... 한국 사상가들의 발자취를 찾아가는 ‘우리 인물 답사기’의 첫 책! 동녘 ‘우리 인물 답사기’ 시리즈의 첫 책. 이 시리즈는 철학 소설 형식으로 한국 사상가들의 삶과 사상을 들려준다. ‘달중과 미영’이라는 한국학을 공부하는 대학원생이 여러 인물들을 만나면서 그들과 대화를 하며 한국 사상가들을 인상적으로 스케치한다. 이 시리즈는 그동안 ‘위인’으로 바라보았던 사상가들의 얼굴을 한 겹 벗겨내고, 한 ‘인간’으로서의 모습을 그려내는 데 주력한다. 첫 번째로 찾아가는 인물은 18세기 실학사상을 집대성한 한국 최고의 학자이자 개혁가라고 평가받는 다산 정약용이다. 정약용에 관한 책은 많지만, (...) 평소 어렵고 두꺼운 인문서를 통해 정약용을 알아가는 데 아쉬움이 컸던 독자들에게 소설적 이야기로 풀어나가는 이 책은 흥미롭게 정약용의 삶에 접근하는 지름길이 되어준다. 먼저 등장하는 고교생 서연은 엄마를 아홉 살에 잃었다. 우연히 정약용도 아홉 살에 어머니를 여읜 사실을 알고 서연은 묘한 동질감을 느낀다. 어느 날 건축 일을 하는 아빠가 춘천 현장에서 한자로 ‘열수’라고 새겨진 모형 배를 줍게 되고, ‘열수’가 잘 알려지지 않은 정약용의 호라는 것을 알고 있던 서연은 그 배가 정약용과 관련이 있을 것이라고 생각한다. 아빠와 함께 남양주로 정약용 답사를 떠나기로 한 서연과 아빠는 정약용의 고향 ‘마재’에서 뜻밖의 귀인을 만나 함께 동행하게 되는데...... 마재, 여유당, 운길산 수종사, 수원 화성, 다산 초당, 강진 사의재... 정약용의 흔적이 묻어 있는 공간에서 그의 삶을 철학 소설로 풀다! (shrink)

This paper considers the possibility of prediction in land use planning, and the use of statistical research methods in analyses of relationships between urban form and travel behaviour. Influential writers within the tradition of critical realism reject the possibility of predicting social phenomena. This position is fundamentally problematic to public planning. Without at least some ability to predict the likely consequences of different proposals, the justification for public sector intervention into market mechanisms will be frail. Statistical methods like regression analyses (...) are commonly seen as necessary in order to identify aggregate-level effects of policy measures, but are questioned by many advocates of critical realist ontology. Using research into the relationship between urban structure and travel as an example, the paper discusses relevant research methods and the kinds of prediction necessary and possible in spatial planning of urban development. Finally, the political implications of positions within theory of science rejecting the possibility of predictions about social phenomena are addressed. (shrink)

I start with a detailed but partial analysis of a case regarding grade inflation. The case is inspired by the discussion in Crumbley et al. (2010) and its elaboration in Roberts (2016). I supplement the case description by introducing certain facts that are not in the original discussion. The subsequent analysis is based on this enriched case description. I then raise a number of objections against my analysis. An important metaethical, methodological question emerges while responding to these objections. To what (...) extent are characterizations of moral situations and their descriptions independent from moral commitments? Is there a neutral concept of moral relevance? I argue that we do not have a theory-neutral concept of moral relevance, and that case descriptions essentially presuppose moral commitments. From my moral perspective, as this perspective is reflected in the enriched case description I utilize, the original case description of grade inflation already involves utilizing the wrong moral perspective or theory. (shrink)

ABSTRACTEmotion regulation comprises attempts to influence when and how emotions are experienced and expressed. It has mostly been conceived of as proactive or reactive, but it may also be retroactive and involve memory. I term such past-oriented activity mnemonic emotion regulation and propose that it involves increasing or decreasing access to or altering the characteristics of a memory. People may increase access to a memory and make it more likely that it will be retrieved in the future, for example by (...) rehearsing a pleasant memory. They may decrease access to a memory and make it less likely that intrusions will be experienced in the future, for example by repeatedly trying to stop an unpleasant memory from being retrieved. Finally, people may alter the characteristics of a memory and change its content or context, for example by replacing a negative impression with a productive interpretation. I discuss how mnemonic emotion regulation may be i... (shrink)

Our understanding of the nature and processing of figurative language is central to several important issues in cognitive science, including the relationship of language and thought, how we process language, and how we comprehend abstract meaning. Over the past fifteen years, traditional approaches to these issues have been challenged by experimental psychologists, linguists, and other cognitive scientists interested in the structures of the mind and the processes that operate on them. In Figurative Language and Thought, internationally recognized experts in the (...) field of figurative language, Albert Katz, Mark Turner, Raymond W. Gibbs Jr., and Cristina Cacciari, provide a coherent and focused debate on the subject. The book's authors discuss a variety of fundamental questions, including: What can figures of speech tell us about the structure of the conceptual system? If and how should we distinguish the literal from the nonliteral in our theories of language and thought? Are we primarily figurative thinkers and consequently figurative language users or the other way around? Why do we prefer to speak metaphorically in everyday conversation, when literal options may be available for use? Is metaphor the only vehicle through which we can understand abstract concepts? What role do cultural and social factors play in our comprehension of figurative language? These and related questions are raised and argued in an integrative look at the role of nonliteral language in cognition. This volume, a part of Counterpoints series, will be thought-provoking reading for a wide range of cognitive psychologists, linguists, and philosophers. (shrink)

When do two mental items belong to the same life? We could be content with the answer -just when they have certain volitional qualities in common. An affinity is noted between that theory and Berkeley's early doctrine of the self. Some rivals of the volitional theory invoke a spiritual or physical owner of mental items. They run a risk either of empty formality or of causal superstition. Other rivals postulate a non-transitive and symmetrical relation in the set of mental items. (...) They must allow in consequence either for joint ownership of one and the same mental item, or for incompatible simultaneous decisions by one and the same person, or for new forms of death. This makes them disquieting. Another rival invokes a transitive and symmetrical relation defined in terms of co-consciousness. Even that allows for incongruous simultaneities. The volitional theory is free from such disadvantages. (shrink)