Everybody knows that humans are cultural animals. Although this fact is universally acknowledged, many opportunities to exploit it are overlooked. In this article, I propose shifting our attention from local examples of extended mind to the cultural-cognitive ecosystems within which human cognition is embedded. I conclude by offering a set of conjectures about the features of cultural-cognitive ecosystems.

We group the existing variants of the familiar set-theoretical and truth-theoretical paradoxes into two classes: connective paradoxes, which can in principle be ascribed to the presence of a contracting connective of some sort, and structural paradoxes, where at most the faulty use of a structural inference rule can possibly be blamed. We impute the former to an equivocation over the meaning of logical constants, and the latter to an equivocation over the notion of consequence. Both equivocation sources are tightly related, (...) and can be cleared up by adopting a particular substructural logic in place of classical logic. We then argue that our perspective can be justified via an informational semantics of contraction-free substructural logics. (shrink)

Approaches to paraconsistency can be arranged on a spectrum similar to the way in which approaches to vagueness are often understood. On the left are the metaphysical realists; those who think that there are real contradictory facts, that are mind and language independent. On the right are those who think that although we can have inconsistent beliefs and inconsistent theories — and we need a paraconsistent logic to deal with them — the world itself is perfectly consistent. In the middle (...) are the semantic dialetheists, who claim that there are true contradictions, but that these come about because of particular features of our use of language. This chapter outlines a particular version of semantic dialetheism based on a four-valued logic. It contends that although we need such a logic to deal with our current language, we could regiment our uses of predicates (and other expressions) to eliminate all true contradictions. (shrink)

Information theory and statistical mechanics II.

This chapter contains sections titled: Non‐Sequiturs are Bad The Real Use of Premises Implication From Proof Theory to Semantics Adding Conjunction The Problem of Disjunction Routley and Meyer's Ternary Relation Rules for Disjunction The Semantics of Negation Rules for Negation Disjunctive Syllogism Logics Stronger than R Logics Weaker than R Relevant Logics and Natural Language Conditionals Theory of Properties Summary.

Behaviorism is consistent with the assumptions of perfect competition, with the homo economicus model, and with a form of ethics that enshrines market-based notions of utility, justice, and rights and encourages rational maximizing. Economics and business courses foster this deficient form of ethics, assuming an overriding desire for money, which, according to MacIntyre and Aristotle, crowds out the associative virtues. These beliefs, often associated with Taylor and Friedman, lead to such practices as incentive compensation, which would be effective only if (...) employees were homines economici and thus rational in the sense of knowing how to satisfy whatever desires they have. Against Davidson’s view that psychology cannot be a natural science, Aristotle believes that there can be a teleological, if not exact, science of behavior. Aristotle believes that emotions and objectives may be rational or irrational. But rationality—phronesis, practical wisdom—is not a matter of applying algorithms. Doris questions whether character generates the first premises of an agent’s practical syllogisms, while Haidt has argued that we often act on emotions rather than on the basis of the reasons that we claim motivate us. Aristotle agrees that many people are not virtuous and that weakness of the will is a common occurrence, and he agrees that emotion drives actions. But if you are virtuous, your emotions and desires support your rationality. Aristotle gives us reason to reject the notion that people are homines economici and to treat them as rational deliberators, in part by creating an appropriate culture. The claim that it is in the nature of human beings to deliberate rationally is in part aspirational, but also in part scientific—in Aristotle’s modest sense. (shrink)

This paper shows that a collection of modal relevant logics are conservatively extended by the addition of Boolean negation.

The proceedings of the first major international conference on the philosophy of Spinoza to be held in the United States are published here. Contained are papers on all aspects of Spinoza's thought by 31 distinguished scholars from the United States, Europe, Israel and Australia including Jonathan Bennett, Alan Donagan, Margaret Wilson, Amélie Rorty, Richard Popkin, Jean-Marie Beyssade, Alexandre Matheron, Étienne Balibar, Pierre Macherey, Emilia Giancotti, Hubertus Hubbeling, and Yirmiyahu Yovel.Topics discussed are Metaphysics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Moral, Political (...) and Social Philosophy, and Spinoza's influence. (shrink)

Insufficient attention has been paid to the ways in which Newtonian conceptualizations of time encourage the view in contemporary psychology that only efficient causal explanations are viable, explanations that ultimately render meaningful, purposive, morally rich human actions and relationships illusory. In short, psychology’s pervasive adoption of Newtonian assumptions about time and causation renders the discipline incapable of understanding human behavior, its primary focus of study, in any but fundamentally inhuman ways. This paper aims (1) to provide a critique of the (...) Newtonian conception of time and its commitment to efficient causality, particularly as commonly present in contemporary psychological theory and practice, and (2) to examine the phenomenological account of time provided in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Specifically, we will explore some of the ways in which Levinas’ account of time as fundamentally intersubjective provides an alternative conceptual grounding for understanding the therapeutic relationship as one of infinite ethical responsibility. (shrink)

This paper presents a probabilist paraconsistent theory of belief revision. This theory is based on a very general theory of probability, that fits with a wide range of classical and nonclassical logics. The theory incorporates a version of Jeffrey conditionalisation as its method of updating. A Dutch book argument is given, and the theory is applied to the problem of choosing a logical system.

This paper uses an "admissible set semantics" to treat quantification in quantified modal logics. The truth condition for the universal quantifier states that a universally quantified statement (x)A(x) is true at a world w if and only if there is some proposition true at that world that entails every instance of A(x). It is shown that, for any canonical propositional modal logic the corresponding admissible set semantics characterises the quantified version of that modal logic.

Since its inception, experimental social psychology has arguably been of two minds about the nature and role of theory. Contemporary social psychology's experimental approach has been strongly informed by the “nomological-deductive” approach of Carl Hempel in tandem with the “hypothetico-deducive” approach of Karl Popper. Social psychology's commitment to this hybrid model of science has produced at least two serious obstacles to more fruitful theorizing about human experience: the problem of situational specificity, and the manifest impossibility of formulating meaningful general laws (...) of human social behavior. It is argued that a social psychology based on the search for this kind of lawfulness, under the auspices of either a strict or loose interpretation of the largely Hempelian model, is ultimately unworkable. An alternative approach to social psychology that is attentive both to the need for understanding individual situations and behaviors and to the need for generalized understanding of actual human behaviors is offered. This approach is grounded in the hermeneutic tradition. (shrink)

The fregean theory of meaning says how the meaningful parts of a meaningful expression contribute to that expression's sense and reference. But frege overlooks the fact that logical expressions play dual roles. The contributions of sentential connectives, For example, Are well described for contexts in which they connect sentences, But not for larger quantificational contexts. An obvious modification of the theory which might fill the abyss is considered, And it is maintained that it produces two difficulties: a replication of frege's (...) concept 'horse' troubles and an infinite proliferation of logical vocabulary. The seriousness of these difficulties is briefly discussed. (shrink)

El estudio examina mediante una revisión sistemática la literatura científica. La metodología se basó en la aplicación de los principios de la declaración PRISMA. Los resultados indicaron que la mayor producción de estudios fue en 2021, con predominancia de idioma inglés, España como el mayor productor, Reino Unido con el mayor número de revistas y el uso de realidad aumentada como la estrategia más estudiada. La producción científica en educación, y más particularmente en metodologías aplicada a la educación, ha generado (...) una serie de estudios bibliométricos, los cuales han demostrado la evolución de las mismas en lapsos de tiempo diversos. (shrink)

Las denuncias por responsabilidad médica en Ecuador se incrementaron en la última década a raíz de la penalización de la mala práctica profesional establecida en el Código Orgánico Integral Penal; la investigación es compleja y el peritaje médico legal se convierte en una pieza fundamental en el conflicto. Aquí analizamos 10 informes periciales de casos de mala práctica médica en Ecuador, se analiza la legislación ecuatoriana y revisión de la literatura referente al tema. Se identificó la falta de protocolos o (...) guías de procedimientos, los informes no cuentan con estructura y es el resultado de la discrecionalidad del perito designado. Se propone un protocolo de actuación pericial que facilitará la actividad del perito y mayor objetividad en la investigación. (shrink)

This paper deals critically with Stanley Cavell’s Pursuits of Happiness, a study of seven film comedies from the 30’s and 40’s, among them The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, Adam’s Rib, and It Happened One Night. Negatively, I argue that Cavell’s interpretations of the films he deals with are often extravagant, if held to any objective standard; that his conception of the genre of the comedy of remarriage is highly arbitrary, both in its inclusions and exclusions, and in its contention (...) that the genre does not have a history; and that the philosophy of marriage implicit in Cavell’s criticism is unsatisfactory in implying the illegitimacy of most existing marriages. Positively, I support his contentions that the genre has its roots in Shakespearean comedy and that the films often (sometimes quite consciously) raise the very difficult philosophical questions Cavell takes them to raise. Though I find much to disagree with, I contend that Cavell is writing criticism of the highest order. (shrink)

The article ‘A Note on Strict Implication’ was submitted for publication by C.I. Lewis and C.H. Langford but withdrawn in proof. The paper is, according to notes and letters by both Lewis and Langford, largely by Lewis. It constitutes an early attempt by Lewis to give meanings for the modal connectives using abstract objects. To be necessary, for example, is for a statement to have the same intension as a truth-functional tautology. This theory prefigures the view of Lewis's 1946 book, (...) Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation. This introduction to the article looks at the historical background of the piece in addition to its argument and examines why it was withdrawn. (shrink)

Recent work has clearly established the fundamental place of the siddhis in almost all Indic mokṣa traditions. This paper seeks to excavate a fundamental metaphysical dimension to this phenomenon, by excavating the philosophical logic of these claims from within the contours of Sāṃkhya metaphysics as expressed in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. It will set out to provide a coherent explanation of how these siddhis are not only an inherent ingredient of yogic discourse, but a logical and perhaps inevitable corollary (...) of the parameters of this metaphysics. It will thus take the issue further than a mere recognition of the centrality of the siddhis to yogic practice and discourse by laying out the sequential metaphysics underpinning them, and hence arguing that siddhis are not only fundamental and intrinsic to the Sāṃkhya/Yoga tradition, but an essential by-product of its metaphysical presuppositions. (shrink)

Between the Psyche and the Social is the first collection that specifically features the field of psychoanalytic social theory emerging in and between psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonial studies, and queer theory, and across the disciplines of philosophy, literary, film, and cultural studies. This collection of essays takes the psychoanalytic study of social oppression in some new directions by engaging—indeed, stirring up—unconscious fantasies and ethical tensions at the heart of social subjectivity.

René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is his most celebrated philosophical work. The book remains one of the most significant and influential works in epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of mind in the history of Western philosophy. In this paper I examine the relationship between the various hyperbolic doubts, the dreaming, imperfect creator, and evil demon hypotheses in Meditation I. The paper shows that the "painting analogy" occupies a central position in the First Meditation not only because it effectively links together (...) the hyperbolic doubts, but also because it lays the groundwork for the claim that although it may be impossible for us to know things outside us as our thoughts represent them to be, we can know at least the feature of our thoughts themselves. By raising the necessary doubt about our sensible experience and the corporeal world, the "painting analogy" makes the case for the primacy of the intellectual world. (shrink)

Het boek Filosofie van taal en tekst van René van Woudenberg is een heldere en uitdagende inleiding in enkele problemen van de taal- en tekstfilosofie. Het is niet een inleiding in verschillende filosofische theorieën over taal en tekst, maar eerder een inleiding in de problemen die in die theorieën aan de orde komen. Het centrale vraagstuk dat in het boek aan de orde komt, luidt : ‘Wat zeggen we precies wanneer we zeggen dat een woord, zin of tekst, betekenis heeft?’ (...) De auteur streeft dus naar verheldering van het begrip ‘betekenis’. Waar onduidelijkheden zijn door het verschillend gebruik van dit begrip, probeert Van Woudenberg deze op te lossen door heldere onderscheidingen aan te brengen. (shrink)

Ray Lankester, in his book Nature and Man, deals with the states of man and nature. In this book, he shows the similarities between them and explains why their union was so important for the whole human race. When discussing Darwinism, he questions its epistemological foundations and criticizes the stage-stage theory of evolution. Ray Lankester concludes by giving us a glimpse into the future of humanity and our planet: "It seems to me that this marvelous endowment would be all turned (...) to good account if we did not allow ourselves to be easily led astray by ideas of a possible future...we should rather insist on increasing our knowledge within due limits, anxious not so much to extend its scope as to increase our capacity for dealing with problems as they arise". (shrink)