This book offers a comprehensive account of logic that addresses fundamental issues concerning the nature and foundations of the discipline. The authors claim that these foundations can not only be established without the need for strong metaphysical assumptions, but also without hypostasizing logical forms as specific entities. They present a systematic argument that the primary subject matter of logic is our linguistic interaction rather than our private reasoning and it is thus misleading to see logic as revealing "the laws of (...) thought". In this sense, fundamental logical laws are implicit to our "language games" and are thus more similar to social norms than to the laws of nature. Peregrin and Svoboda also show that logical theories, despite the fact that they rely on rules implicit to our actual linguistic practice, firm up these rules and make them explicit. By carefully scrutinizing the project of logical analysis, the authors demonstrate that logical rules can be best seen as products of the so called reflective equilibrium. They suggest that we can profit from viewing languages as "inferential landscapes" and logicians as "geographers" who map them and try to pave safe routes through them. This book is an essential resource for scholars and researchers engaged with the foundations of logical theories and the philosophy of language. (shrink)

Most philosophers assume that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’, and most of them hold that this principle is true not only universally but also analytically or conceptually. Some skeptics deny this principle, although they often admit some related one. In this article, we show how new empirical evidence bolsters the skeptics’ arguments. We then defend the skeptical view against some objections to the empirical evidence and to its effect on the traditional principle. In light of the new evidence, we conclude that philosophers (...) should stop unconditionally assuming that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’. (shrink)

Philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch has only recently begun to receive his due from the English-speaking world, thanks in part to discussions of his thought by Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Lévinas, and Paul Ricoeur. His international readers have long valued his unique, interdisciplinary approach to philosophy’s greatest questions and his highly readable writing style. Originally published in 1967, Le Pardon, or Forgiveness, is one of Jankélévitch’s most influential works. In it, he characterizes the ultimate ethical act of forgiving as behaving toward the (...) perpetrator as if he or she had never committed the action, rather than merely forgetting or rationalizing it—a controversial notion when considering events as heinous as the Holocaust. Like so many of Jankélévitch’s works, Forgiveness transcends standard treatments of moral problems, not simply generating a treatise on one subject but incorporating discussions of topics such as free will, giving, creativity, and temporality. Translator Andrew Kelley masterfully captures Jankélévitch’s melodic prose and, in a substantive introduction, reviews his life and intellectual contributions. Forgiveness is an essential part of that legacy, and this indispensable English translation provides key tools for understanding one of the great Western philosophers of the twentieth century. (shrink)

Logic is usually presented as a tool of rational inquiry; however, many logicians in fact treat logic so that it does not serve us, but rather governs us – as rational beings we are subordinated to the logical laws we aspire to disclose. We denote the view that logic primarily serves us as logica serviens, while denoting the thesis that it primarily governs our reasoning as logica dominans. We argue that treating logic as logica dominans is misguided, for it leads (...) to the idea of a “genuine” logic within a “genuine” language. Instead of this, we offer a naturalistic picture, according to which the only languages that exist are the natural languages and the artificial languages logicians have built. There is, we argue, no language beyond these, especially none that would be a wholesome vehicle of reasoning like the natural languages and yet be transparently rigorous like the artificial ones. Logic is a matter of using the artificial languages as idealized models of the natural ones, whereby we pinpoint the laws of logic by means of zooming in on a reflective equilibrium. (shrink)

We find an explicit basis for all admissible rules of the modal logic S4. Our basis consists of an infinite sequence of rules which have compact and simple, readable form and depend on increasing set of variables. This gives a basis for all quasi-identities valid in the free modal algebra ℱS4 of countable rank.

The short exposition of the triplet model of concepts and some definitions connected with it are given. In this model any concept may be depicted as having three characteristics: a base, a representing part and the linkage between them. The paper introduces the fuzzification of concepts in terms of the triplet model.

In 1995 N. C. A. da Costa and F. Doria proposed the modaltype elegant axiomatization of Jaśkowski’s discussive logic D2. Yet his ownproblem which was formulated in 1975 in a following way: Is it possible toformulate natural and simple axiomatization for D2, employing classical disjunction and conjunction along with discussive implication and conjunctionas the only primitive connectives? — still seems left open. The matter of factis there are some axiomatizations of D2 proposed, e.g., by T. Furmanowski, J. Kotas and N. (...) C. A. da Costa , G. Achtelik, L. Dubikajtus,E. Dudek and J. Konior , satisfying da Costa’s conditions, but they arerather looking very complicated and unnatural. An attempt is made to solveda Costa’s problem. The new axiomatization of D2 is proposed essentiallybased on da Costa’s-Doria axiomatization from 1995. (shrink)

The Lazy Argument, as it is preserved in historical testimonies, is not logically conclusive. In this form, it appears to have been proposed in favor of part-time fatalism (including past time fatalism). The argument assumes that free will assumption is unacceptable from the standpoint of the logical fatalist but plausible for some of the nonuniversal or part-time fatalists. There are indications that the layout of argument is not genuine, but taken over from a Megarian source and later transformed. The genuine (...) form of the argument seems to be given in different form and far closer to Megarian logical fatalism and its purpose is not to defend laziness. If the historical argument has to lead to a logically satisfactory solution, some additional assumptions and additional tuning is needed. (shrink)

We extend Gurevich-Harrington's Restricted Memory Determinacy Theorem), which served in their paper as a tool to give their celebrated “short proof” of Robin's decision method for S2S. We generalize the determinacy problem by attaching to the game two opposing strategies called restraints, and by asking “which player has a strategy which is a refinement of the restraint for the player and such that it wins the game against the restraint of the opponent?” We give a solution for the Determinacy with (...) Restraints Problem in the class of strategies with restricted memory for the GH games. The solution includes a criterion for the winning player and an explicit class of winning strategies. A determinacy result which includes similar information was first discovered by Büchi and Landweber and extended by Büchi . However, these pioneering works do not consider the determinacy with restraints. Also, the explicit presentation of winning strategies in these insightful papers does not emphasize their modular construction as do GH's and our proofs. In our view, this is a source of a difficulty in understanding these papers. Games with restraints and modular construction of winning strategies have applications to the semantics, development and verification of concurrent programs. A concurrent program can be viewed as a strategy in a certain game and a program specification can be regarded as a combination of a winning condition and restraints for the game , A. Yakhnis and V. Yakhnis ). The modularity of a winning strategyfor the game helps to generate a concurrent program from the strategy that satisfies the specification ). It turns out that such program specification requirements as mutual exclusion and an absence of a lockout or a deadlock are naturally represented as Büchi's or Gurevich-Harrington's winning conditions. The present paper can be read independently of the paper by Gurevich and Harrington. (shrink)

In his (several times reprinted) article How Wide Is the Gap Between Facts and Values? N. Rescher aspires to clarify the long-lasting discussion on the ‘is-ought’ (‘fact-value’) gap by providing a framework in which the related arguments can be perspicuously articulated. He then argues that even if the logical gap may bereal, the transition from factual premises to value conclusions is smoothly mediated by trivially true value statements. We scrutinize Rescher’s argumentation and show defects in the presented lines of reasoning. (...) In particular, we argue that his tripartite division of statements (factual, evaluative, hybrid), as well as his emphasis on the role of evaluative truisms, introduce serious problems that escape Rescher’s attention. We thus conclude that he failed to achieve his goals. (shrink)

It is proposed to analyze fuzzy concepts and relations between them in the frame of triplet concept modeling. Fuzzy concepts are introduced by means of the so-called fuzzification of dichotomous concepts. The cognitive and psychological aspects of concept possession are separated and studied.

It is proposed to analyze the unity of scientific knowledge in terms of its structure-nominative reconstruction. -/- .

The changes of concepts are described in the frame of concept triplet model. -/- .

The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the long-lasting friendship between Georges Florovsky and St. Justin Popović, as well as their common project to build an Orthodox theological synthesis on the basis of the patristic tradition. The paper focuses on three periods from Florovsky’s and Popović’s lives, from late 1910 to early 1920, from the late 1920s to late 1930s, and finally into the 1940s. I argue that in the first period both authors developed their theological (...) visions relying on Solovyov and Florensky, on the one hand, and in opposition to the ecclesial nationalism of the Slavophiles and conservative Orthodox hierarchs, on the other hand. Further, I investigate how during the late 1920s and 1930s both authors searched for an Orthodox synthesis mostly in dialogue with their Orthodox predecessors, especially Solovyov, Florensky, and Bulgakov, as well as the modern western philosophical tradition. The focus will shift then to the 1940s, which was characterized by frequent meetings between Florovsky and Popović in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. I argue that in this period the Church Fathers became for both authors the golden standard for Orthodox theology, and the idea of the Neopatristic synthesis developed in full scale. (shrink)

We study the problem of finding a basis for all rules admissible in the intuitionistic propositional logic IPC. The main result is Theorem 3.1 which gives a basis consisting of all rules in semi-reduced form satisfying certain specific additional requirements. Using developed technique we also find a basis for rules admissible in the logic of excluded middle law KC.

The text focuses on reflecting on the role of modern university in a man intellectual development, starting from Nietzsche’s ideas. By drawing up some of the main methodological and philosophical concepts of the German philosopher, the text highlights a series of aspects on the Humboldian nature of current universities – a state of tension under the political, economic and social factors. Thus, the classic concepts of Bildung and Kultur specific to the XIX-century University are analyzed in relation with the crisis (...) that marked the Prussian state of Bismarck period. Higher education being available to the masses is a current problem Nietzsche didn’t avoid to call „savageness” and „decline” of the higher educational system. The purpose of the text is to point out if Nietzsche’s ideas can be still applied nowadays. (shrink)

Rare copy number variants have a prominent role in the aetiology of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Substantial risk for schizophrenia is conferred by large CNVs at several loci, including microdeletions at 1q21.1, 3q29, 15q13.3 and 22q11.2 and microduplication at 16p11.2. However, these CNVs collectively account for a small fraction of cases, and the relevant genes and neurobiological mechanisms are not well understood. Here we performed a large two-stage genome-wide scan of rare CNVs and report the significant association of copy (...) number gains at chromosome 7q36.3 with schizophrenia. Microduplications with variable breakpoints occurred within a 362-kilobase region and were detected in 29 of 8,290 patients versus 2 of 7,431 controls in the combined sample. All duplications overlapped or were located within 89 kilobases upstream of the vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor gene VIPR2. VIPR2 transcription and cyclic-AMP signalling were significantly increased in cultured lymphocytes from patients with microduplications of 7q36.3. These findings implicate altered vasoactive intestinal peptide signalling in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and indicate the VPAC2 receptor as a potential target for the development of new antipsychotic drugs. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. (shrink)

The study relevance lies in understanding strategic objectives' content concerning intelligent technologies’ application. The development and application of artificial intelligence in various branches of human activity carry the potential for global changes in society, which, in methodological terms, increases the relevance of considering these problems. The study of ethical problems of artificial intelligence in the concept of sustainable development of society is connected with the dynamic development of innovative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which are considered a process of becoming a (...) new technosubject in the context of neuroscience development. The article emphasizes that the development of artificial intelligence acts as an innovative form of technology development when a new kind of human-machine technosubject is formed. The authors identify social problems of artificial intelligence application as the digitalization of life becomes a global anthropological challenge. Innovations of artificial intelligence are directly related to a number of ethical problems, as they contribute not only to the sustainable development of society but also cause dehumanization of relations between people and society. Based on the analysis of qualitative changes in scientific and technological research, using human-machine devices is becoming inevitable. Humankind must develop ethical guidelines for the application of AI systems. (shrink)

Trata-se de analisar os usos da racionalidade mimética em Jacques Lacan e Theodor Adorno, isto a fim de mostrar como, nos dois casos, encontramos uma estratégia de reflexão sobre a mimesis que a eleva à condição de elemento fundamental para uma teoria do reconhecimento que não se esgote na temática da intersubjetividade. Neste sentido, este estudo insere-se em uma pesquisa mais ampla a respeito dos modos de aproximação entre psicanálise lacaniana e Escola de Frankfurt no que diz respeito ao problema (...) dos destinos da categoria de sujeito e dos processos de reconhecimento. (shrink)

One of the 20th century's most popular non-realistic genre is absurd. The root "absurd," connotes something that does not follow the roots of logic. Existence is fragmented, pointless. There is no truth so the search for truth is abandoned in Absurdist works. Language is reduced to a bantering game where words obfuscate rather elucidate the truth. Action moves outside of the realm of causality to chaos. Absurdists minimalize the sense of place. Characters are forced to move in an incomprehensible, void-like (...) realm. Danish philosopher Sїren Kierkegaard was the first to use the term "absurd" in its modern context. His application of the term related it to, what he considered, the incomprehensibility and unjustifiability of Christianity. Existentialist philosophers such as the Frenchman, Jean-Paul Sartre and the German, Martin Heidegger propagated use of the terms in their work. In the philosophical world of the novel, Albert Camus employed absurdism to portray the difference between man's intent and the resultant chaos he encounters. In modern civilization man is posited as the subject of knowledge in science and technology, animating the utopian projects of industrial civilization, and culminating in great urban conglomerates, as in the sealed universe of commodities which constitutes the omnipresent mall. Technique, defined as the ensemble of means, is the driving force of social development, moreimportant than the ends it is supposed to serve. Unfortunately, technique became an end in itself and the society is organized around it. Of course, we are all aware that we need a certain changes to subdue technique, but I think it is now too late to change the course of technique. However, technique is frequently pictured as the only hope for a better future and the only means of making the world more humane. And that is the sort of statement that French philosopher Jacques Ellul calls the technological bluff. Technology is a discourse on techniques: therefore, the bluff lies not in the failure of techniques as such but in presenting them in a falsely optimistic light. The author formulated in 1954 two laws of technical progress: first, it is irreversible: second, it advances by a geometric progression. Thus, a computer revolution changes nothing in the nature of technical progress, although products are new. This progress is hamperednot by internal mechanisms, but by maladaptation of the social body to it, since society is rooted in the past and constantly refers to it. On the other hand, technique is future oriented and discards as valueless everything that cannot be incorporated into the web of techniques. (shrink)

Résumé Le but de l’étude présentée est d’analyser des œuvres de Gumilev et Huntington du point de vue de leurs approches et terminologies. Tous les deux ont essayé de donner une explication globale des phénomènes nouveaux dans l’histoire du monde. Malgré une terminologie différente, leurs thèses sont relativement analogues. Ils proposent une approche synthétique qui envisage la totalité de la société et qui les porte au rang des historiens-civilisationnistes, thèse dont la validité et le statut qu’on leur donne restent très (...) controversés de nos jours. Analogies et différences sont repérables d’abord à travers leur système taxonomique. Ces deux auteurs tentent aussi de répondre à la question posée sur la frontière orientale de la civilisation occidentale. (shrink)

The special properties of the Y chromosome stem form the fact that it is a non‐recombining degenerate derivative of the X chromosome. The absence of homologous recombination between the X and the Y chromosome leads to gradual degeneration of various Y chromosome genes on an evolutionary timescale. The absence of recombination, however, also favors the accumulation of transposable elements on the Y chromosome during its evolution, as seen with both Drosophila and mammalian Y chromosomes. Alongside these processes, the acquisition and (...) amplification of autosomal male benefit genes occur. This review will focus on recent studies that reveal the autosome‐acquired genes on the Y chromosome of both Drosophila and humans. The evolution of the acquired and amplified genes on the Y chromosome is also discussed. Molecular and comparative analyses of Y‐linked repeats in the Drosophila melanogaster genome demonstrate that there was a period of their degeneration followed by a period of their integration into RNAi silencing, which was beneficial for male fertility. Finally, the function of non‐coding RNA produced by amplified Y chromosome genetic elements will be discussed. BioEssays 27:1256–1262, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Résumé L’auteur entend synthétiser le contenu et les principaux résultats de quatre étapes décisives du développement des études concernant les frontières. Il redéfinit les concepts, les méthodes et les domaines d’application de ces secteurs de la recherche. Il met surtout l’accent sur la période contemporaine, insistant sur la discussion des approches post-modernes. Le premier ensemble de ces approches insiste sur l’évolution des identités territoriales et sur les relations entre centre et périphérie, facteurs principaux d’établissement des frontières et de leurs fonctions. (...) Le deuxième ensemble souligne l’importance des facteurs géopolitiques, y compris les différences culturelles entre territoires voisins. Les considérations de sécurité interpellent massivement ce groupe qui cherche à expliquer les changements relatifs aux régimes frontaliers. Le troisième ensemble s’attache à l’influence des perceptions de la diversité du monde contemporain pour les élites politiques et pour les opinions publiques. D’autres approches, enfin, analysent les frontières à partir de la combinaison des facteurs politiques et institutionnels ainsi que des perceptions des réseaux transfrontaliers à plusieurs niveaux du territoire. (shrink)

In “Elementa Juris Naturalis” (1671) G.W. Leibniz formulated the genius intuition about the fundamental unity of juridical and Aristotelian modalities. Interpreting and explicating this intuition by virtue of the deontic logic G.W. Wright arrived to the conclusion that the unity of modalities in question is not an equivalence relation but an analogy one. However a complement for G.W. Wright’s explication of the intuition of G.W. Leibniz was submitted. This complement was a two-valued algebra of formal-natural-law philosophy of juridical and Aristotelian (...) modalities as moral-legal evaluation-functions determined by one variable. In thepresent paper I submit a binary generalization of the mentioned unary complement. By virtue of this generalization some significant shortcomings of the complement in question are eliminated. The generalization deals with the modalities as moral-legal evaluation-functions determined by two variables. (shrink)

In trying to control various aspects concerning utterance production in multi-party human–computer dialogue, argumentative considerations play an important part, particularly in choosing appropriate lexical units so that we fine-tune the degree of persuasion that each utterance has. A preliminary step in this endeavor is the ability to place an ordering relation between semantic forms (that are due to be realized as utterances, by the machine), concerning their persuasion strength, with respect to certain (explicit or implicit) conclusions. Thus, in this article, (...) we propose a mechanism for assessing utterances, in terms of their argumentative force. The framework designed conflates insights from Asher and Lascarides’ SDRT (“Segmented Discourse Representation Theory”), and from Anscombre and Ducrot’s AT (“Argumentation Theory”). These mechanisms are included in a language generation component of a multi-party dialogue system for book reservation applications (i.e., a “virtual librarian”), and thus evaluated via typical human–machine conversations. (shrink)

Для Макса Вебера «рациональная бюрократия» есть идеальный тип организации общества. Однако идеальный тип не позволяет заполнить провал между властью и обществом, который называется отчуждением. Это - миф, и когда Макс Вебер говорит о рациональности, то в основе этого лежат не требования научности, но отсылка к некоей культурной аксиологии. Этот миф можно критиковать, анализируя конкретное поведение бюрократов, обычно мало рациональное, но также ставя под вопрос и саму культуру, которая хочет быть или даже претендует быть рационалистической. В России чудовищность бюрократии является следствием (...) кризиса культуры. Pour Max Weber la « bureaucratie rationnelle » est un type idéal d’organisation de la société. Mais ce type idéal ne permet pas de combler le hiatus entre pouvoir et société, lequel s’appelle aliénation. C’est un mythe, et si Max Weber parle de rationalité, ce n’est pas en vertu d’une exigence scientifique mais par référence à une axiologie culturelle. On peut donc le critiquer en analysant le comportement concret des bureaucrates -lequel est souvent fort peu rationnel -mais également en mettant en question une culture qui se veut ou se prétend rationaliste. En Russie, la monstruosité de la bureaucratie est la conséquence d’une crise de la culture. According to Max Weber, “rational bureaucracy” is an ideal-type of social organization. But this ideal-type cannot bridge the gap between power and society, something we could call alienation. It is a myth, and if Max Weber resorts to the concept of rationality, it is not because of any scientific need, but by reference to a cultural axiology. He can therefore be criticized by analyzing the actual behavior of bureaucrats, which often is less than rational, but also by challenging a culture that wants or claims to be rationalistic. In Russia, the monstrosity of bureaucracy is the consequence of a crisis of culture. (shrink)

Este livro é o resultado do II Encontro Nacional de Pesquisadores em Filosofia e Psicanálise, realizado em 2006 na Universidade de São Paulo, e reúne vários pesquisadores em torno de três temas - a filosofia após Freud, os problemas ...

For a better understanding of the present situation in Romania it is necessary to go beyond the limited political approach, i.e., to seek the germs of contemporary conflicts in the history of that country — especially in the history of the Romanian Communist Party. We have to mink about the origins of Romanian communism in 1921, when the Socialist Left split into a strong and active radical minority and a “reformist” traditional Social-Democratic wing. The situation of the Left in Romania (...) was further complicated by an ethnic syncretism. Because of the incorporation of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and North Bukovinaand the subsequent national, social, economic, and cultural claims of the Hungarian, German, Jewish, Ukrainian, and Russian minorities, the ethnic problem became an obsession during the inter-war period. (shrink)

The article соnsiders the socio-cultural aspects of the standard model (SM) in elementary particle physics and history of its creation. SM is a quantum field gauge theory of electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions, which is the basis of the modern theory of elementary particles. The process of its elaboration covers a twenty-year period: from 1954 (the concept of gauge fields by C. Yang and R. Mills) to the early 1970s., when the construction of renormalized quantum chromodynamics and electroweak theory wеre (...) completed. The socio-cultural aspects of SM are explored on the basis of a quasi-empirical approach, by studying the texts of its creators and participants in the relevant events. We note also the important role of such an “external” factor as large-scale state projects on the creation of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, which provided personnel and financial support for fundamental research in the field of nuclear physics and elementary particle physics (the implementation of thermonuclear projects took place just in the 1950s, and most of the theorists associated with the creation of SM were simultaneously the main developers of thermonuclear weapons, especially in the USSR). The formation of SM is considered as a competition between two research programs (paradigms) – gauge-field and phenomenological, associated with the rejection of the field concept. The split of the scientific community of physicists associated with this competition is going on during this period. It’s accompanied by a kind of “negotiations”, which in the early 1970s lead to the triumph of the gauge field program and the restoration of the unity of the scientific community. The norms and rules of the scientific ethos played the regulatory role in this process. The scientific-realistic position of the metaphysical attitudes of the majority of theorists and their negative attitude to the concepts of philosophical relativism and social construction of scientific knowledge are emphasized. Some features of the history of SM creation are also noted, such as the positive role of aesthetic judgments; “scientific-school” form of research (in the USSR), its pros and cons; a connection to historical-scientific “drama of ideas” with “dramas of people” who made a wrong choice and (or) “missed their opportunities”. (shrink)