Expertise in Chinese character recognition is marked by reduced holistic processing, which depends mainly on writing rather than reading experience. Here we show that, while simplified and traditional Chinese readers demonstrated a similar level of HP when processing characters shared between the simplified and traditional scripts, simplified Chinese readers were less holistic than traditional Chinese readers in perceiving simplified characters; this effect depended mainly on their writing rather than reading performance. However, the two groups did not differ in HP of (...) traditional characters, regardless of their difference in reading and writing performances. Our image analysis showed high visual similarity between the two character types, with a larger variance among simplified characters; this may allow simplified Chinese readers to interpolate and generalize their skills to traditional characters. Thus, transfer of perceptual expertise may be constrained by both the similarity in feature and the difference in exemplar variance between the categories. (shrink)

The main feature of NF/NFU is the notion of stratification, which sets it apart from other set theories. We define stratification and prove constructively that every stratified formula has the (unique) least assignment of types. The basic notion of stratification is concerned only with variables, but we extend it to abstraction terms in order to simplify further development. We reflect on nested abstraction terms, proving that they get the expected types. These extensions enable us to check whether some complex formula (...) is stratified without rewriting it in the basic language. We also introduce natural numbers and a variant of the axiom of infinity, in order to precisely introduce type level ordered pairs, which are crucial in simplifying the definitions in the last part of the article. Using these notions we can easily define the sets of ordinal and cardinal numbers, which we show at the end of the article. The same approach can be readily applied to NF. (shrink)

The filtration method is often used to prove the finite model property of modal logics. We adapt this technique to the generalized Veltman semantics for interpretability logics. In order to preserve the defining properties of generalized Veltman models, we use bisimulations to define adequate filtrations. We give an alternative proof of the finite model property of interpretability logic with respect to Veltman models, and we prove the finite model property of the systems and with respect to generalized Veltman models.

Издание предназначено для широкого круга читателей, интересующихся проблемами филологии науки и техники, социальной философии, экологии.

The general notion of the development of productive forces is, according to the materialist understanding of history, the point of departure for the solution of numerous concrete problems in Marxist-Leninist social theory and current revolutionary practice. It offers decisive arguments for the critique of Right and "Left" revisionism and reformism. In the course of the disputes that have recently begun in the Marxist economic and philosophical literature with regard to the basic questions involved in this problem, substantial gaps are found (...) specifically in the development of general theory. What is the internal contradiction moving within the forces of production; in what lies the distinction between their existence and essence, essence and appearance? A correct understanding of the processes involved in the resolution of this contradiction in real life, in revolutionary practice, depends upon attaining the utmost clarity with regard to these questions. (shrink)

Работа будет интересна преподавателям, аспирантам и студентам гуманитарных специальностей и тем, кто интересуется проблемами становления личности.

A possibility of defining logical constants within abstract logical frameworks is discussed, in relation to abstract definition of logical consequence. We propose using duals as a general method of applying the idea of invariance under replacement as a criterion for logicality.

We report on the experience of creating a socially networked system, the Research-oriented Social Environment , for representing knowledge in the form of relationships between people, documents, and groups. Developed as an intercampus, interdisciplinary project of the University of California, this work reflects on a collaboration between scholars in the humanities, software engineering, and information studies by providing an opportunity not only to synthesize different disciplinary perspectives, but also to interrogate and challenge the assumptions each brings to team-based design projects (...) in the digital humanities. This work examines socially networked knowledge as both content and methodology for collaboration, calling for further critique and future investigation of epistemological questions in models of social networks. (shrink)

A phenomenon is that which appears. In his phenomenology, Jean-Luc Marion shows how a phenomenon that appears in and out of itself evades the metaphysical demand of grounding. Classical philosophy has acknowledged phenomena only in so far as they can be sanctioned by the concepts of the intellect. This holds good also of Husserl’s constitutive ego. Now, Marion distinguishes between such intuitively “poor phenomena” and the “saturated phenomena” that exceed the intentional consciousness; they are given not by the consciousness but (...) to the consciousness in an excess of intuition. This “gift of appearance” is Marion’s main concern, in the visible in general, and in painting in particular. But whereas idols only reflect our own desire to see and to be seen, icons surprise us by the gaze the saint directs on us. A picture is the scene of a possible revelation; and the revelation is nothing but the phenomenon taken in its fullest meaning: intuitive saturation at its maximum. A crucial question, nonetheless, remains: What is the relation between revelation as a phenomenological possibility, and Revelation as a theological dogma of the utmost importance? (shrink)

In this paper, we rigorously prove the existence of type-level ordered pairs in Quine’s New Foundations with atoms, augmented by the axiom of infinity and the axiom of choice (NFU + Inf + AC). The proof uses the cardinal squaring principle; more precisely, its instance for the (infinite) universe (VCSP), which is a theorem of NFU + Inf + AC. Therefore, we have a justification for proposing a new axiomatic extension of NFU, in order to obtain type-level ordered pairs almost (...) from the beginning. This axiomatic extension is NFU + Inf + AC + VCSP, which is equivalent to NFU + Inf + AC, but easier to reason about. (shrink)

We can formalize judgments as logical formulas. Judgment aggregation deals with judgments of several agents, which need to be aggregated to a collective judgment. There are several logical formalizations of judgment aggregation. This paper focuses on a modal formalization which nicely expresses classical properties of judgment aggregation rules and famous results of social choice theory, like Arrow’s impossibility theorem. A natural deduction system for modal logic of judgment aggregation is presented in this paper. The system is sound and complete. As (...) an example of derivation, a formal proof of Arrow’s impossibility theorem is given. (shrink)

A class of Kripke models is modally definable if there is a set of modal formulas such that the class consists exactly of models on which every formula from that set is globally true. In this paper, a class is also considered definable if there is a set of formulas such that it consists exactly of models in which every formula from that set is satisfiable. The notion of modal definability is then generalized by combining these two. For thus obtained (...) types of modal definability on the level of Kripke models, we give characterization theorems in the usual form, in terms of algebraic closure conditions. As some consequences of these, various preservation results are presented. Also, some characterizations are strengthened by replacing closure under ultraproducts with closure under ultrapowers. (shrink)

A 4-valued framework is proposed to distinguish intuitionistically valid formulas within classical validities.

This paper starts by investigating Ackermann's interpretation of finite set theory in the natural numbers. We give a formal version of this interpretation from Peano arithmetic (PA) to Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with the infinity axiom negated (ZF−inf) and provide an inverse interpretation going the other way. In particular, we emphasize the precise axiomatization of our set theory that is required and point out the necessity of the axiom of transitive containment or (equivalently) the axiom scheme of ∈-induction. This clarifies the (...) nature of the equivalence of PA and ZF−inf and corrects some errors in the literature. We also survey the restrictions of the Ackermann interpretation and its inverse to subsystems of PA and ZF−inf, where full induction, replacement, or separation is not assumed. The paper concludes with a discussion on the problems one faces when the totality of exponentiation fails, or when the existence of unordered pairs or power sets is not guaranteed. (shrink)

The current study aimed to investigate the extent to which familial history of reading and math difficulties have an impact on children’s academic outcomes within a 3-year longitudinal study, which evaluated their core reading and math skills after first and second grades, as well as performance on complex academic tasks after second and third grades. At baseline, parents were asked to complete the Adult Reading History Questionnaire and its adaption, Adult Math History Questionnaire, to index familial history of reading and (...) math difficulties, respectively. Preliminary findings established the psychometric properties of the AMHQ, suggesting that it is a reliable and valid scale. Correlation analyses indicated that the ARHQ was negatively associated with children’s reading skills, whereas the AMHQ was negatively related to math outcomes. Path results revealed that the ARHQ predicted children’s performance on complex reading tasks indirectly via their core reading skills, and the AMHQ was linked to complex math outcomes indirectly via core math abilities. The ARHQ was also found to be negatively correlated with measures of children’s math performance, with path findings suggesting that these relations were indirectly explained by differences in their core reading skills. These results suggest that assessing familial risk for academic difficulties may be crucial to understanding comorbid etiological and developmental associations between reading and math differences. (shrink)

Journal of Social Philosophy, Volume 52, Issue 3, Page 344-361, Fall 2021.

Background In end-of-life situations, the phrase “do everything” is sometimes invoked by physicians, patients, or substitute decision-makers, though its meaning is ambiguous. We examined instances of the phrase “do everything” in the archive of the Ontario Consent and Capacity Board in Canada, a tribunal with judicial authority to adjudicate physician–patient conflicts in order to explore its potential meanings. Methods We systematically searched the CCB’s online public archive from its inception to 2018 for any references to “do everything” in the context (...) of critical care medicine and end-of-life care. Two independent assessors reviewed decisions, collected characteristics, and identified key themes. Results Of 598 cases in the archive, 41 referred to “do everything” in end-of-life situations. The phrase was overwhelmingly invoked by SDMs, typically to advocate for life-prolonging measures that contradicted physician advice. Physicians generally related “doing everything” to describe the interventions they had already performed, using it to recommend focusing on patients’ quality of life. SDMs were generally reluctant to accept death, whereas physicians found prolonging life at all costs to be morally distressing. The CCB did not interpret appeals to “do everything” legally but followed existing laws by deferring to patients’ prior wishes whenever known, or to concepts of “best interests” when not. The CCB generally recommended against life-prolonging measures in these cases, focusing on patients’ “well-being” and “best interests.” Conclusions In this unique sample of cases involving conflict surrounding resuscitation and end-of-life care, references to “do everything” highlighted conflicts over quantity versus quality of life. These appeals were associated with signs of cognitive distress on the behalf of SDMs who were facing the prospect of a patient’s death, whereas physicians identified moral distress related to the prolongation of patients’ suffering through their use of life-sustaining interventions. This divergence in perspectives on death versus suffering was consistently the locus of conflict. These findings support the importance of tools such as the Serious Illness Conversation Guide that can be used by physicians to direct conversations on the patients’ goals, wishes, trade-offs, and to recommend a treatment plan that may include palliative care. Trial Registration Not applicable. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on one of the common fallacies in Western philosophy called 'special pleading (SP)'. One way to grasp the meaning of the special pleading fallacy is to focus on a general principle of fairness: We ought to treat individuals alike unless there is some relevant difference between them that merits the differential treatment. Avoiding SP can be very difficult for two reasons. First, the fallacy takes so many forms. Second, SP can be difficult to avoid because it is (...) often invisible to the one who commits the fallacy, and in this respect it is like a bad, invisible cognitive habit. The fact that SP can be, and so often is, used simultaneously to hide and to underwrite hypocrisy and prejudice makes it an important informal fallacy of reasoning that affects everyday life. (shrink)

The belief that all human beings are ‘moral equals’ is widespread within the canon of Western liberal philosophy. However, it is unclear precisely what ‘moral equality’ or its associate terms mean, what grounds our ‘moral equality’ and what the implications of being ‘moral equals’ are. In this paper, I distinguish between three ways of understanding ‘moral equality’: the ‘buck-passing’, ‘explanatory’ and ‘reverse-explanatory’ accounts. The buck-passing account of moral equality is in parallel with Scanlon’s buck-passing account of value. It holds that (...) ‘moral equality’ is not a metaphysically fundamental concept and simply amounts to having other properties shared equally by all human beings that constitute the reasons for why we ought to treat all human beings equally in certain respects. The explanatory account understands the concept of ‘moral equality’ as metaphysically fundamental and explanatory of why human beings who are the same in certain respects have the same entitlement to x. The reverse-explanatory account also sees ‘moral equality’ as metaphysically fundamental but holds that the explanatory relationship goes the other way round: moral equality is explained by how we ought to act. I argue that the buck-passing account is a more accurate way of understanding moral equality. (shrink)

This paper introduces a new theory of constant regions, which generalizes that of interstices, in nonstandard models of arithmetic. In particular, we show that two homogeneity notions introduced by Richard Kaye and the author, namely, constantness and pregenericity, are equivalent. This led to some new characterizations of generic cuts in terms of existential closedness.

Lenman 's cluelessness objection against consequentialism states that we are almost entirely clueless to the actual consequences of our action. In ‘Cluelessness,’ Hilary Greaves distinguishes between ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ cases of cluelessness and argues that the principle of indifference applies to ‘simple’ cases, thereby rescuing the ‘simple’ cases from the cluelessness objection. In this discussion note, I argue that Greaves's distinction between ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ cases fails and cluelessness is more problematic than Greaves believes.

Situation theory has been developed over the last decade and various versions of the theory have been applied to a number of linguistic issues. However, not much work has been done in regard to its computational aspects. In this paper, we review the existing approaches towards 'computational situation theory' with considerable emphasis on our own research.

New Foundations with Urelements (NFU) is a theory that extends Quine’s original theory (New Foundations) by adding “urelements” (atoms). It was discovered by Jensen in 1969, who proved that NFU is relatively consistent with Peano arithmetic and consequently with Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF). Jensen’s proof is rather hard to follow, so Boffa introduced a more straightforward method of constructing models for NFU from a model of ZF. However, Boffa’s presentation of his construction is extremely terse with many essential details omitted, (...) since he probably only wanted to emphasize the differences from Jensen’s construction. Our main goal is to elaborate on this construction in great detail, and also to prove that the said construction yields some results that are either not present in the contemporary literature, or are accepted as true at face value. Namely, besides proving that this construction gives a model for NFU, we will also use it to define models for NFU with the Axiom of Infinity, NFU with the Axiom of Choice, and NFU with both of those axioms. (shrink)

After a review of situation theory and previous attempts at 'computational' situation theory, we present a new programming environment, BABY-SIT, which is based on situation theory. We then demonstrate how problems requiring formal temporal reasoning can be solved in this framework. Specifically, the Yale Shooting Problem, which is commonly regarded as a canonical problem for nonmonotonic temporal reasoning, is implemented in BABY-SIT using Yoav Shoham's causal theories.

Recently, there have been some attempts towards developing programming languages based on situation theory. These languages employ situation-theoretic constructs with varying degrees of divergence from the ontology of the theory. In this paper, we review three of these programming languages.

Serious thinking about the computational aspects of situation theory is just starting. There have been some recent proposals in this direction (viz. PROSIT and ASTL), with varying degrees of divergence from the ontology of the theory. We believe that a programming environment incorporating bona fide situation-theoretic constructs is needed and describe our very recent BABY-SIT implementation. A detailed critical account of PROSIT and ASTL is also offered in order to compare our system with these pioneering and influential frameworks.

While situation theory and situation semantics provide an appropriate framework for a realistic model-theoretic treatment of natural language, serious thinking on their 'computational' aspects has just started. Existing proposals mainly offer a Prolog- or Lisp-like programming environment with varying degrees of divergence from the ontology of situation theory. In this paper, we introduce a computational medium (called BABY-SIT) based on situations. The primary motivation underlying BABY-SIT is to facilitate the development and testing of programs in domains ranging from linguistics to (...) artificial intelligence in a unified framework built upon situation-theoretic constructs. (shrink)