Relational Complexes

In this proposal the aim is to analyse the fortified city of Arezzo from unpublished archival documents. The Johannite Commandery of S. Jacopo, today no longer existing, was part of the urban setting of Arezzo and was located near the Porta Santo Spirito. This ancient fortification survives today. It stands as a very important example of military constructions for its massive polygonal town walls which were built between 1538 and 1560 by Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane on the site of the old Medieval citadel. The Church of S. Jacopo was destroyed to make way for new urban plans in the post-war period. Still in the urban area traces of the Order of Malta’s architecture survive. Our explanation attempts to explore the connection of this commandery with the fortified city. From such perspective it is interesting to analyse the setting up and functioning of the commandery within a fortified-urban framework. In this analysis studying the drawings produced by the land surveyors from the cabrei is of utmost importance. These unpublished documents, part of the ancient archive of the Priory of Pisa, offer in fact an unusual representation of a fortified city, which is now preserved in the Archivio di Stato in Florence

Review of Ulrich Baltzer, "Erkenntnis als Relationengeflecht: Kategorien bei Charles S. Peirce"

This book arose from the author’s recent dissertation written under the Gerhard Schonrich at Munich. It focuses on Peirce’s theory of categories and his epistemology. According to Baltzer, what is distinctive in Peirce’s theory of knowledge is that he reconstrues objects as “knots in networks of relations.” The phrase may ring a bell. It suggests a structuralist interpretation of Peirce, influenced by the Munich environs. The study aims to shows how Peirce’s theory of categories supports his theory of knowledge and how “question concerning a priori structures of knowledge” are transformed within this relational framework. A chief critical target is David Savan’s semiotics, specifically the idea that “the multiplicity of development of the categories” is “conditioned by nothing but the indefiniteness of the categories.”1 But in contrast with this, if there is any indefiniteness in the categories, they cannot fully direct their own application, and this is to say regarding them “that our knowledge is never absolute but always swims, as it were, in a continuum...”2 If the doctrine of continuity applies to the categories, they also have a continuum to swim in

The Rhetorical Structure of Modus Tollens: An Exploration in Logic-Mining

A general method for mining discourse for occurrences of the rules of inference would be useful in a variety of natural language processing applications. The method described here has its roots in Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). An RST analysis of a rule of inference can be used as an exemplar to produce a relational complex in the form of a nested relational proposition. This relational complex can be transformed into a logical expression using the logic of relational propositions. The expression can then be generalized as a logical signature for use in logic-mining discourse for instances of the rule. Generalized logical signatures reached in this manner appear to be grounded in identifiable logical relationships with their respective rules of inference. Thus, from a text, it is possible to identify a rhetorical structure, and from the structure, a relational proposition, and from the relational proposition, a generalized logical signature, and from the signature, the rule of inference residing within the text. The focus in this paper is on modus tollens and its variants, but the method is extensible to other rules as well

The dialogic city: towards a synthesis of physical and conceptual artefacts in urban community configurations

This paper addresses a question in urban research relating to definitions of the physical and conceptual artefacts that comprise local urban communities. These artefacts are, we suggest, products of complex relationships between discursive and non -discursive agencies in urban contexts. We focus on the problems of defining conceptual artefacts by considering how urban communities’ social meanings are embedded in their spatial configurations, conceptualizations and practices. Considering the relational nature of the built environment, we describe the interplays of space, society and meaning as being ‘dialogic’. By this we mean that the urban environment’s discursive and non-discursive agencies inform and transform each other through processes of their complex inter-dependencies. These dialogic processes also occur where professional and community practitioners seek to transform the built environment by exchanging their conceptualizations and definitions. Towards a refocusing upon conceptual artefacts in the built environment, we review a selection of diverse research from the fields of space syntax, actor -network theory in architecture, and urban sociologies of crime and deprivation. We sample from specific studies of urban spatial effects upon local community behaviours. We observe that processes of conceptualization are revealed in professionals’ definitions of urban environments. Moreover, we draw attention to the lack of community -membership definitions in many urban interventions. We argue that this lack persists because community conceptualizations, based upon ‘mental models’, tend to be reflected in quotidian or sub -conscious practices, which do not enter the standard professional discourse. We reflect critically on the urban research studies sampled, considering in particular their treatment of the role of conceptualizations in shaping the urban environment. Building on this critique, we argue that the notion of ‘mental models’ is overlooked in the urban research literature and warrants further investigation. Working towards a synthesis of physical and conceptual artefacts, we attempt an outline of the significance of inter -dependencies in urban formations. Hence we consider the role played by local conceptualizations in phenomena such as neighbourhood boundaries, community foci, stereotypes of others and place -specific community values. Finally, we outline the requirements for a method to examine these conceptualizations

Bradley's Reductio of Relations and Formal Ontological Relations

In this paper, we argue that formal ontological relations avoid Bradley's reductio of relations, including his famous relation regress

Why Realists Need Tropes

We argue that if one wishes to be a realist, one should adopt a Neo-Aristotelian ontology involving tropes instead of a Russellian ontology of property universals and objects. Either Russellian realists should adopt the relata-specific relational tropes of instantiation instead of facts, or convert to Neo-Aristotelian realism with monadic tropes. Regarding Neo-Aristotelian realism, we have two novel points why it fares better than Russellian realism. Instantiation of property universals by tropes and characterization or inherence between tropes and objects are more transparent ontological notions than relational inherence, which is assumed in Russellian realism with the relational tropes of instantiation. Neo-Aristotelian realism makes better sense about abstract universals, which are a more viable option than concrete universals

A Trope Theoretical Analysis of Relational Inherence

The trope bundle theories of objects are capable of analyzing monadic inherence (objects having tropes), which is one of their main advantage. However, the best current trope theoretical account of relational tropes, namely, the relata specific view leaves relational inherence (a relational trope relating two or more entities) primitive. This article presents the first trope theoretical analysis of relational inherence by generalizing the trope theoretical analysis of inherence to relational tropes. The analysis reduces the holding of relational inherence to the obtaining of certain other facts about entities of the trope theoretical category system. Moreover, I show that the analysis can deal with asymmetric and non-symmetric relations by assuming that all relation-like tropes are quantities. Finally, I provide an account of the spatial location of tropes in the difficult case in which tropes contribute to determining of the location of other entities

Dewey and “the Greeks:” Inquiry and the Organic Spirit of Greek Philosophy.

Those who have considered the connection between Dewey’s theory of inquiry and Greek thought have mostly situated their remarks within larger points, regarding either teaching and learning (Garrison, 1997; Johnston, 2006b; Cahn, 2007) or aesthetics and craft (Alexander, 1987; Hickman, 1990). The fact that this area remains somewhat underexplored could be chalked up to several factors: 1) Dewey was often quite critical of the classical tradition, particularly when it came to theories of knowledge, 2) Dewey was not a trained classicist, with little working knowledge of ancient Greek, and was self-admittedly not a historian of philosophy, and 3) whenever Dewey did turn positive attention toward ancient thought, he tended to speak in generalities, referring most often to “the Greeks” rather than any particular Greek thinker. In spite of this, there remain many compelling reasons to place Dewey’s views on inquiry in meaningful dialogue with the classical tradition. I will suggest that the most compelling of all is the link between Dewey’s view of inquiry and his particular brand of naturalism, which found its fullest expression late in his career. This is an underappreciated connection in Dewey’s work on inquiry, either taking a backseat to the instrumental, experimental themes in his thought or misinterpreted as a form of positivism/scientism. Once acknowledged, however, this connection could help bring Dewey’s normative, socio-political writings in line with his theories on ontology, logic, and the acquisition of knowledge