51,395 research outputs found
Towards an Indexical Model of Situated Language Comprehension for Cognitive Agents in Physical Worlds
We propose a computational model of situated language comprehension based on
the Indexical Hypothesis that generates meaning representations by translating
amodal linguistic symbols to modal representations of beliefs, knowledge, and
experience external to the linguistic system. This Indexical Model incorporates
multiple information sources, including perceptions, domain knowledge, and
short-term and long-term experiences during comprehension. We show that
exploiting diverse information sources can alleviate ambiguities that arise
from contextual use of underspecific referring expressions and unexpressed
argument alternations of verbs. The model is being used to support linguistic
interactions in Rosie, an agent implemented in Soar that learns from
instruction.Comment: Advances in Cognitive Systems 3 (2014
Ceteris Paribus Laws
Laws of nature take center stage in philosophy of science. Laws are usually believed to stand in a tight conceptual relation to many important key concepts such as causation, explanation, confirmation, determinism, counterfactuals etc. Traditionally, philosophers of science have focused on physical laws, which were taken to be at least true, universal statements that support counterfactual claims. But, although this claim about laws might be true with respect to physics, laws in the special sciences (such as biology, psychology, economics etc.) appear to haveâmaybe not surprisinglyâdifferent features than the laws of physics. Special science lawsâfor instance, the economic law âUnder the condition of perfect competition, an increase of demand of a commodity leads to an increase of price, given that the quantity of the supplied commodity remains constantâ and, in biology, Mendel's Lawsâare usually taken to âhave exceptionsâ, to be ânon-universalâ or âto be ceteris paribus lawsâ. How and whether the laws of physics and the laws of the special sciences differ is one of the crucial questions motivating the debate on ceteris paribus laws. Another major, controversial question concerns the determination of the precise meaning of âceteris paribusâ. Philosophers have attempted to explicate the meaning of ceteris paribus clauses in different ways. The question of meaning is connected to the problem of empirical content, i.e., the question whether ceteris paribus laws have non-trivial and empirically testable content. Since many philosophers have argued that ceteris paribus laws lack empirically testable content, this problem constitutes a major challenge to a theory of ceteris paribus laws
Textual Economy through Close Coupling of Syntax and Semantics
We focus on the production of efficient descriptions of objects, actions and
events. We define a type of efficiency, textual economy, that exploits the
hearer's recognition of inferential links to material elsewhere within a
sentence. Textual economy leads to efficient descriptions because the material
that supports such inferences has been included to satisfy independent
communicative goals, and is therefore overloaded in Pollack's sense. We argue
that achieving textual economy imposes strong requirements on the
representation and reasoning used in generating sentences. The representation
must support the generator's simultaneous consideration of syntax and
semantics. Reasoning must enable the generator to assess quickly and reliably
at any stage how the hearer will interpret the current sentence, with its
(incomplete) syntax and semantics. We show that these representational and
reasoning requirements are met in the SPUD system for sentence planning and
realization.Comment: 10 pages, uses QobiTree.te
The Other Side of Peirce's Phaneroscopy
Research on Peirceâs phaneroscopy has been done with and through the
paradigm or the conceptual schema of âBeingâ â what has been critiqued
by post-structuralist philosophers as the metaphysics of Being.
Thus, such research is either limited to attempts to define âphaneron,â or
to identify whether there is a particular and consistent meaning intention
behind Peirceâs use of this term. Another problematic characteristic with
such a way of engaging with phaneroscopy is the very anonymity of the
schema of âBeing.â While all scholars admit to the universality of
âphaneron,â rarely, if ever, do we see an account of how such universality
can be instantiated. In this paper, I attempt to engage with phaneroscopy
differently. Instead of presenting a better version of what
phaneroscopy is, or making arguments about what is the case with phaneroscopy,
both of which are ways of philosophising with âbeing,â I attempt
to enact phaneroscopy. This would mean to undertake to follow
Peirceâs instructions for the phaneroscopist and report the findings.
Based on the latter, I shall analogise phaneron with the possibility of
understanding
Lifespan extension and the doctrine of double effect
Recent developments in biogerontologyâthe study of the biology of ageingâsuggest that it may eventually be possible to intervene in the human ageing process. This, in turn, offers the prospect of significantly postponing the onset of age-related diseases. The biogerontological project, however, has met with strong resistance, especially by deontologists. They consider the act of intervening in the ageing process impermissible on the grounds that it would (most probably) bring about an extended maximum lifespanâa state of affairs that they deem intrinsically bad. In a bid to convince their deontological opponents of the permissibility of this act, proponents of biogerontology invoke an argument which is grounded in the doctrine of double effect. Surprisingly, their argument, which we refer to as the âdouble effect argumentâ, has gone unnoticed. This article exposes and critically evaluates this âdouble effect argumentâ. To this end, we first review a series of excerpts from the ethical debate on biogerontology in order to substantiate the presence of double effect reasoning. Next, we attempt to determine the role that the âdouble effect argumentâ is meant to fulfil within this debate. Finally, we assess whether the act of intervening in ageing actually can be justified using double effect reasoning
In Aid of Removal: Due Process Limits on Immigration Detention
In this Article, I seek to demonstrate the radical consequences that taking due process seriously would have for immigration detention as currently practiced. Part I lays out the general principles that apply to civil preventive detention, which establish that substantive due process is violated without an individualized showing after a fair adversarial hearing that there is something to prevent, namely danger to the community or flight. Part II applies this general framework to immigration detention. It first demonstrates, by a review of Supreme Court decisions, that the Court has applied the same due process principles to immigration detention that it has to other forms of civil detention; in other words, this is not a subject on which immigration exceptionalism, or the plenary power doctrine, has played much of a role. Second, I apply these general principles to several immigration law developments since 1996, illustrating that significant aspects of the INS\u27s current detention policy and practice violate due process. Finally, I take up the issue of detention of entering aliens, and argue that cases holding that due process does not limit entering aliens\u27 detention are predicated on an erroneous conflation of the decision to exclude and the decision to detain
Morals From Rationality Alone? Some Doubts
Contractarians aim to derive moral principles from the dictates of instrumental rationality alone. But it is well-known that contractarian moral theories struggle to identify normative principles that are both uniquely rational and morally compelling. Michael Moehler's recent book, *Minimal Morality* seeks to avoid these difficulties by developing a novel "two-level" social contract theory, which restricts the scope of contractarian morality to cases of deep and persistent moral disagreement. Yet Moehler remains ambitious, arguing that a restricted version of Kant's categorical imperative is a uniquely rational principle of conflict resolution. We develop a formal model of Moehler's informal game-theoretic argument, which reconstructs a valid argument for Moehler's conclusion. This model, in turn, enables us to expose how a successful argument for Moehler's contractarian principle rests on assumptions that can only be justified by subtle yet significant departures from the standard conception of rationality. We thus extend our understanding of familiar contractarian difficulties by showing how they arise even if we restrict the scope of contractarian morality to a domain where its application seems both promising and necessary. We show that the problem lies not in contractarians' immodest ambitions but in the modest resources rationality can offer to satisfy them
A fruitful parent of injustice: unilateral service of notice to quit by a joint tenant
âA fruitful parent of injustice is the tyranny of conceptsâ (Cardozo 1928). This warning seems apposite when reviewing the impact of the decision of the House of Lords in Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council v Monk [1992] 1 AC 478, HL. Since Monk the law is well settled that one joint tenant of a periodic lease can destroy the lease held by both joint tenants. This destructive ability is justified by a conceptual analysis that refuses to recognise the destructive effects of its utilisation. With a reform of the law on the horizon the time is ripe for a review of this peculiar area of law (see Law Com No 284). If we are correct in our analysis, Monk has been productive of an unnecessary amount of mischief in the law. This is partially due to the deployment of inappropriate concepts in Monk itself, and partially due to an unfortunate subsequent tendency to allow these concepts to act as tyrants in dictating legal development. Monk has had an effect directly or indirectly across many different areas of the legal landscape. This has necessitated both an unwelcome length and a complex structure for this article
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