1,599 research outputs found
Mind and Body
This chapter discusses Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnizâs philosophical reflections on mind and body. It first considers Leibnizâs distinction between substance and aggregate, referring to the former as a being that must have true unity (what he calls unum per se) and to the latter as simply a collection of other beings. It then describes Leibnizâs extension of the term âsubstanceâ to monads and other things such as animals and living beings. It also examines
Leibnizâs views about the union of mind and body, whether mind and body interact, and how interaction is related to union. More specifically, it asks whether mind and body together constitute an unum per se and analyzes Leibnizâs account of the per se unity of mind-body composites. In addition, the chapter explores the problem of soul-body union as opposed to mind-body union and concludes by discussing Leibnizâs explanation of soul-body
interaction using a system of pre-established harmony
Polymonadic Programming
Monads are a popular tool for the working functional programmer to structure
effectful computations. This paper presents polymonads, a generalization of
monads. Polymonads give the familiar monadic bind the more general type forall
a,b. L a -> (a -> M b) -> N b, to compose computations with three different
kinds of effects, rather than just one. Polymonads subsume monads and
parameterized monads, and can express other constructions, including precise
type-and-effect systems and information flow tracking; more generally,
polymonads correspond to Tate's productoid semantic model. We show how to equip
a core language (called lambda-PM) with syntactic support for programming with
polymonads. Type inference and elaboration in lambda-PM allows programmers to
write polymonadic code directly in an ML-like syntax--our algorithms compute
principal types and produce elaborated programs wherein the binds appear
explicitly. Furthermore, we prove that the elaboration is coherent: no matter
which (type-correct) binds are chosen, the elaborated program's semantics will
be the same. Pleasingly, the inferred types are easy to read: the polymonad
laws justify (sometimes dramatic) simplifications, but with no effect on a
type's generality.Comment: In Proceedings MSFP 2014, arXiv:1406.153
Lax orthogonal factorisation systems
This paper introduces lax orthogonal algebraic weak factorisation systems on
2-categories and describes a method of constructing them. This method rests in
the notion of simple 2-monad, that is a generalisation of the simple
reflections studied by Cassidy, H\'ebert and Kelly. Each simple 2-monad on a
finitely complete 2-category gives rise to a lax orthogonal algebraic weak
factorisation system, and an example of a simple 2-monad is given by completion
under a class of colimits. The notions of KZ lifting operation, lax natural
lifting operation and lax orthogonality between morphisms are studied.Comment: 59 page
Completed power operations for Morava E-theory
We construct and study an algebraic theory which closely approximates the
theory of power operations for Morava E-theory, extending previous work of
Charles Rezk in a way that takes completions into account. These algebraic
structures are made explicit in the case of K-theory. Methodologically, we
emphasize the utility of flat modules in this context, and prove a general
version of Lazard's flatness criterion for module spectra over associative ring
spectra.Comment: Version 3: Minor corrections. Journal version, up to small cosmetic
change
The Self Model and the Conception of Biological Identity in Immunology
The self/non-self model, first proposed by F.M. Burnet, has dominated immunology for sixty years now. According to this model, any foreign element will trigger an immune reaction in an organism, whereas endogenous elements will not, in normal circumstances, induce an immune reaction. In this paper we show that the self/non-self model is no longer an appropriate explanation of experimental data in immunology, and that this inadequacy may be rooted in an excessively strong metaphysical conception of biological identity. We suggest that another hypothesis, one based on the notion of continuity, gives a better account of immune phenomena. Finally, we underscore the mapping between this metaphysical deflation from self to continuity in immunology and the philosophical debate between substantialism and empiricism about identity
An Algebraic Account of References in Game Semantics
AbstractWe study the algebraic structure of a programming language with higher-order store, in the style of ML references. Instead of working directly on the operational semantics of the language, we consider its fully abstract game semantics defined by Abramsky, Honda and McCusker one decade ago. This alternative description of the language is nice and conceptual, except on one significant point: the interactive behavior of the higher-order memory cell is reflected in the model by a strategy cell whose definition remains slightly enigmatic. The purpose of our work is precisely to clarify this point, by providing a neat algebraic definition of the strategy. This conceptual reconstruction of the memory cell is based on the idea that a general reference behaves essentially as a linear feedback (or trace operator) in an ambient category of Conway games and strategies. This analysis leads to a purely axiomatic proof of soundness of the model, based on a natural refinement of the replication modality of tensor logic
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