6,976 research outputs found
Animals and Objectivity
Starting from the assumption that Kant allows for the possible existence of
conscious sensory states in non-rational animals, I examine the textual and
philosophical grounds for his acceptance of the possibility that such states
are also 'objective'. I elucidate different senses of what might be meant in
crediting a cognitive state as objective. I then put forward and defend an
interpretation according to which the cognitive states of animals, though
extremely limited on Kant's view, are nevertheless minimally objective
A Metacognitive Approach to Trust and a Case Study: Artificial Agency
Trust is defined as a belief of a human H (‘the trustor’) about the ability of an agent A (the ‘trustee’) to perform future action(s). We adopt here dispositionalism and internalism about trust: H trusts A iff A has some internal dispositions as competences. The dispositional competences of A are high-level metacognitive requirements, in the line of a naturalized virtue epistemology. (Sosa, Carter) We advance a Bayesian model of two (i) confidence in the decision and (ii) model uncertainty. To trust A, H demands A to be self-assertive about confidence and able to self-correct its own models. In the Bayesian approach trust can be applied not only to humans, but to artificial agents (e.g. Machine Learning algorithms). We explain the advantage the metacognitive trust when compared to mainstream approaches and how it relates to virtue epistemology. The metacognitive ethics of trust is swiftly discussed
Characterizing levels of reasoning in graph theory
This work provides a characterization of the learning of graph theory through the lens of the van
Hiele model. For this purpose, we perform a theoretical analysis structured through the processes
of reasoning that students activate when solving graph theory problems: recognition, use and
formulation of definitions, classification, and proof. We thus obtain four levels of reasoning: an
initial level of visual character in which students perceive graphs as a whole; a second level,
analytical in nature in which students distinguish parts and properties of graphs; a pre-formal level
in which students can interrelate properties; and a formal level in which graphs are handled as
abstract mathematical objects. Our results, which are supported by a review of the literature on
the teaching and learning of graph theory, might be very helpful to design efficient data collection
instruments for empirical studies aiming to analyze students’ thinking in this field of mathematics
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