Formally Specifying and Proving Operational Aspects of Forensic Lucid in Isabelle

A Forensic Lucid intensional programming language has been proposed for intensional cyberforensic analysis. In large part, the language is based on various predecessor and codecessor Lucid dialects bound by the higher-order intensional logic (HOIL) that is behind them. This work formally specifies the operational aspects of the Forensic Lucid language and compiles a theory of its constructs using Isabelle, a proof assistant system.Comment: 23 pages, 3 listings, 3 figures, 1 table, 1 Appendix with theorems, pp. 76--98. TPHOLs 2008 Emerging Trends Proceedings, August 18-21, Montreal, Canada. Editors: Otmane Ait Mohamed and Cesar Munoz and Sofiene Tahar. The individual paper's PDF is at http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~tphols08/TPHOLs2008/ET/76-98.pd

Situated cognition and the culture of learning

Includes bibliographical references (p. 16-17

C. S. Peirce and the Square Root of Minus One: Quaternions and a Complex Approach to Classes of Signs and Categorical Degeneration

The beginning for C. S. Peirce was the reduction of the traditional categories in a list composed of a fundamental triad: quality, respect and representation. Thus, these three would be named as Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness, as well given the ability to degeneration. Here we show how this degeneration categorical is related to mathematical revolution which Peirce family, especially his father Benjamin Peirce, took part: the advent of quaternions by William Rowan Hamilton, a number system that extends the complex numbers, i.e. those numbers which consists of an imaginary unit built by the square root of minus one. This is a debate that can, and should, have contributions that take into account the role that mathematical analysis and linear algebra had in C. S. Peirce’s past

The Problem of Confirmation in the Everett Interpretation

I argue that the Oxford school Everett interpretation is internally incoherent, because we cannot claim that in an Everettian universe the kinds of reasoning we have used to arrive at our beliefs about quantum mechanics would lead us to form true beliefs. I show that in an Everettian context, the experimental evidence that we have available could not provide empirical confirmation for quantum mechanics, and moreover that we would not even be able to establish reference to the theoretical entities of quantum mechanics. I then consider a range of existing Everettian approaches to the probability problem and show that they do not succeed in overcoming this incoherence

The metaphysics of time investigations in tense-logic and a B-series semantics

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-83).The view that time flows from the future to the present and then recedes into the past is both natural and deeply problematic. So called 'A-theories' about time claim that this is the fundamental nature of temporality. This is not the view which will be defended in this paper. Rather I shall argue for what is known as a 'B-theory' analysis of time and language, one in which the relations of 'earlier than' and 'later than' are necessary and sufficient for any analysis of time. The structure of this paper is tripartite. The first part will address the philosophical and metaphysical tenets of both the A and B-theories of time. In this section, McTaggart's 1908 argument for the unreality of time will be presented along with some objections to it. I will show that some seemingly convincing arguments against 'McTaggart's paradox' are unsuccessful and his paradox does indeed call the A-series into question. This section will lay the groundwork for further discussions relating to other disciplines which are concerned with this debate by describing the issues and points of tension

Knowledge, action, and the frame problem

AbstractThis paper proposes a method for handling the frame problem for knowledge-producing actions. An example of a knowledge-producing action is a sensing operation performed by a robot to determine whether or not there is an object of a particular shape within its grasp. The work is an extension of Reiter's approach to the frame problem for ordinary actions and Moore's work on knowledge and action. The properties of our specification are that knowledge-producing actions do not affect fluents other than the knowledge fluent, and actions that are not knowledge-producing only affect the knowledge fluent as appropriate. In addition, memory emerges as a side-effect: if something is known in a certain situation, it remains known at successor situations, unless something relevant has changed. Also, it will be shown that a form of regression examined by Reiter for reducing reasoning about future situations to reasoning about the initial situation now also applies to knowledge-producing actions

\u27You\u27 Will Always Have \u27Me\u27: A Compositional Theory of Person

This dissertation investigates the morpho-syntactic makeup of personful expressionsin natural language; special focus is given to referential uses of personal pronouns. The central thesis guiding the inquiry is that utterance contexts, which serve to fix the semantic values of person indexicals, are specifically a kind of centered situation. This treatment of contexts puts restrictions on what kinds of person features are definable, and the resulting inventory of such features (in conjunction with independently-motivated pragmatic constraints on the use of referential expressions) provides a novel explanation for the typology of person systems

Naming the largest number: Exploring the boundary between mathematics and the philosophy of mathematics

What is the largest number accessible to the human imagination? The question is neither entirely mathematical nor entirely philosophical. Mathematical formulations of the problem fall into two classes: those that fail to fully capture the spirit of the problem, and those that turn it back into a philosophical problem

Drawing off the page: How new 3D technologies provide insight into cognitive and pedagogical assumptions about mathematics

Mathematics has a history of being a two-dimensional inscribing practice. We describe the potential evolution in doing, thinking, and learning mathematics with the emergence of a technological innovation that enables real-time 3D virtual and material interactions. Using the 3D drawing pen as a simple and recently available technology, we highlight how it helps re-think long-standing assumptions and dichotomies in mathematics education including, for example, the material distinction between diagram and manipulative, the semiotic distinction between icon and index, and the developmental progression of action-icon-symbol. We then speculate on the future possibilities of the shift in technological infrastructure that 3D pens and similar technology may give rise to