DOMINO: Trivalent Logic Semantics in Bivalent Syntax Clothes

The paper describes a rather general software mechanism developed primarily for decision making in dynamic and uncertain environments (typical application: managing overbooking). DOMINO (Decision-Oriented Mechanism for "IF" as Non-deterministic Operator) is meant to deal with undecidability due to any kind of future contingents. Its description here is self-contained but, since a validation is underway within a much broader undertaking involving agent-oriented software, to impair redundancy, several aspects explained in very recent papers are here abridged. In essence, DOMINO acts as an "IF" with enhanced semantics: it can answer "YES", "NO" or "UNDECIDABLE in the time span given" (it renders control to an exception handler). Despite its trivalent logic semantics, it respects the rigours of structural programming and the syntax of bivalent logic (it is programmed in plain C++ to be applicable to legacy systems too). As for most novel approaches, expectations are high, involving a less algorithmic, less probabilistic, less difficult to understand method to treat undecidability in dynamic and uncertain environments, where postponing decisions means keeping open alternatives (to react better to rapid environment changes)

Weighted logics for artificial intelligence : an introductory discussion

International audienceBefore presenting the contents of the special issue, we propose a structured introductory overview of a landscape of the weighted logics (in a general sense) that can be found in the Artificial Intelligence literature, highlighting their fundamental differences and their application areas

Modeling Time in Computing: A Taxonomy and a Comparative Survey

The increasing relevance of areas such as real-time and embedded systems, pervasive computing, hybrid systems control, and biological and social systems modeling is bringing a growing attention to the temporal aspects of computing, not only in the computer science domain, but also in more traditional fields of engineering. This article surveys various approaches to the formal modeling and analysis of the temporal features of computer-based systems, with a level of detail that is suitable also for non-specialists. In doing so, it provides a unifying framework, rather than just a comprehensive list of formalisms. The paper first lays out some key dimensions along which the various formalisms can be evaluated and compared. Then, a significant sample of formalisms for time modeling in computing are presented and discussed according to these dimensions. The adopted perspective is, to some extent, historical, going from "traditional" models and formalisms to more modern ones.Comment: More typos fixe

Introduction: towards a conception of 'literary theory of uncertainty'

Uncertainty of meaning is a fundamental dimension and quality of literature and constitutive of what renders some literary works accessible, appealing and engaging across time and in different contexts. Uncertainty is a precondition for literature, indeed for any stabilization of meaning. A greater or lesser degree of authorial and readerly awareness of this precondition and fundamental trait is possible, and, thus, uncertainty can also form part of a narrative strategy and function as a literary device, used either to disrupt the seeming naturalness of a narrative or as a mimetic method to authentically render the uncertainty of reality and human perception. And uncertainty can be integrated into a critical reading strategy or interpretational attitude by which the fundamental uncertainty of narrative is acknowledged and the uncertainties and inherent tensions of a literary narrative are kept open and unresolved. The notion of uncertainty of meaning has always existed and been relevant, if not in the form of explicitly recognized and theorized concepts, then implicitly present as the defining opposition of certain and decided meaning. In this sense, all theory of literature, interpretation and meaning is also theory of uncertainty. However, in the nineteenth century through the twentieth, the ideas of, and thinking about, uncertainty begin to consolidate into a more distinct branch in literary theory. This growing preoccupation in literature and literary theory with uncertainty of meaning and interpretation is linked to a general shift in how the world and human existence is perceived and to developments in the fields of physics, philosophy and psychology. As a new scientific view of the physical world emerges in the beginning of the twentieth century, notions of uncertainty become increasingly prevalent in all spheres of society, and scientific truth about the world and the human perception of it as well as the artistic representations and explorations of these undergo a noticeable change. ..

Crises, Hegemony and Change in the International System: A Conceptual Framework

The paper tries to shed light on the conceptual link between international crises like the one following September 11, 2001, the Asian financial crisis of 1997/1998, the end of the Cold War or major international conflicts, and processes of change in the international system. It argues that cultural structures rest on their continuous instantiation through social practices, thereby making them coterminous with process. Process is constituted by meaningful acts of social agents, and can thus only be grasped by analysing meaning. Meaning is transmitted by language. Meaningful language is never reducible to individual speakers; it is a social act. In the paper, I call this process discourse. Linking Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with the theory of hegemony developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, I will finally be able to show how hegemonic discourses serve as the nexus between crises and cultural structures and how they make cultural change possible.Crisis, change, discourse, poststructuralism, hegemony, international politics

Post-strukturalistlik legitiimsuse „kontseptsioon”

Käesolev väitekiri käsitleb legitiimsuse kontseptsiooni. Töö eesmärgiks on jõuda dekonstruktiivse analüüsi kaudu nn. post-strukturalistliku legitiimsuse „kontseptsiooni“ sõnastamiseni. Põhitähelepanu koondub Jacques Derrida ja Hannah Arendti käsitlustele vabariikliku asutamisaktiga seonduvast „nõiaringi“ paradoksist. Võttes vaatluse alla teemad nagu vabariikliku asutamisakti loogika, performatiivide-konstatiivide eristus, vägivald, dekonstruktsiooni eetika ning analüüsides autorite nagu Hannah Arendt, John Austin, Jacques Derrida, Bonnie Honig, Walter Benjamin, Ernesto Laclau asjakohaseid tekste, näitab käesolev väitekiri, et legitiimsus töötab ühiskondlikul väljal nagu derridalik infrastruktuur – resigneerimine.This thesis is an investigation into the concept of legitimacy. It aims at formulating a post-structuralist concept of legitimacy by following a deconstructive analysis of two accounts of the “vicious circle” of the republican founding act of a state. These accounts belong to Jacques Derrida and Hannah Arendt. Addressing themes like the republican founding act, the performative-constative distinction, violence, ethics of deconstruction and analysing relevant texts of authors like Hannah Arendt, John Austin, Jacques Derrida, Bonnie Honig, Walter Benjamin, Ernesto Laclau, and others the thesis arrives at a “concept” of legitimacy that functions as a Derridean infrastructure – resigning

“But Who, We?”: Derrida on Non-Human Others

In this dissertation I establish the possibility of social and ethical relationships with non-human natural (and in particular inanimate) beings. I do so based on the work of 20th century French philosopher Jacques Derrida. In chapter 1 I discuss the relatively sparse secondary literature that addresses the intersection between Derrida\u27s work and environmental philosophy. I also go over some textual indications that show that Derrida has been concerned with non-human beings throughout his career. In chapters 2 and 3 I establish the impossibility of conclusively excluding any kind of being from the purview of ethical responsibility. While chapter 2 develops the nature of Derrida\u27s ethics, chapter 3 ties this conception of ethics back to more theoretical considerations that we find in Derrida\u27s texts. Chapters 4 to 6 serve to illustrate in a more positive fashion how Derrida might help us to understand the possibility of social and ethical relationships with inanimate beings. Chapter 4 focuses on the notion of the trace in order to show that the presence qua absence that characterizes our experience of human persons can be discerned in our relationships to inanimate beings as well. Chapter 5 focuses on Derrida\u27s discussion of a human corpse as neither simply alive nor simply dead. I argue that this experience of life/death is possible with regard to non-human inanimate beings as well. Finally, in chapter 6 I argue for the possibility of sharing a common world with non-human (including inanimate) beings based on Derrida\u27s conception of habitat and of the world as fractured and constructed