Kriesel and Wittgenstein

Georg Kreisel (15 September 1923 - 1 March 2015) was a formidable mathematical logician during a formative period when the subject was becoming a sophisticated field at the crossing of mathematics and logic. Both with his technical sophistication for his time and his dialectical engagement with mandates, aspirations and goals, he inspired wide-ranging investigation in the metamathematics of constructivity, proof theory and generalized recursion theory. Kreisel's mathematics and interactions with colleagues and students have been memorably described in Kreiseliana ([Odifreddi, 1996]). At a different level of interpersonal conceptual interaction, Kreisel during his life time had extended engagement with two celebrated logicians, the mathematical Kurt Gödel and the philosophical Ludwig Wittgenstein. About Gödel, with modern mathematical logic palpably emanating from his work, Kreisel has reflected and written over a wide mathematical landscape. About Wittgenstein on the other hand, with an early personal connection established Kreisel would return as if with an anxiety of influence to their ways of thinking about logic and mathematics, ever in a sort of dialectic interplay. In what follows we draw this out through his published essays—and one letter—both to elicit aspects of influence in his own terms and to set out a picture of Kreisel's evolving thinking about logic and mathematics in comparative relief.Accepted manuscrip

The accident of logical constants

Work on the nature and scope of formal logic has focused unduly on the distinction between logical and extra-logical vocabulary; which argument forms a logical theory countenances depends not only on its stock of logical terms, but also on its range of grammatical categories and modes of composition. Furthermore, there is a sense in which logical terms are unnecessary. Alexandra Zinke has recently pointed out that propositional logic can be done without logical terms. By defining a logical-term-free language with the full expressive power of first-order logic with identity, I show that this is true of logic more generally. Furthermore, having, in a logical theory, non-trivial valid forms that do not involve logical terms is not merely a technical possibility. As the case of adverbs shows, issues about the range of argument forms logic should countenance can quite naturally arise in such a way that they do not turn on whether we countenance certain terms as logical

Communication in organizations: the heart of information systems

We propose a theory characterizing information systems (IS) as language communities which use and develop domain-specific languages for communication. Our theory is anchored in Language Critique, a branch of philosophy of language. In developing our theory, we draw on Systems Theory and Cybernetics as a theoretical framework. "Organization" of a system is directly related to communication of its sub-systems. "Big systems" are self-organizing and the control of this ability is disseminated throughout the system itself. Therefore, the influence on changes of the system from its outside is limited. Operations intended to change an organization are restricted to indirect approaches. The creation of domain-specific languages by the system itself leads to advantageous communication costs compared to colloquial communication at the price of set-up costs for language communities. Furthermore, we demonstrate how our theoretical constructs help to describe and predict the behavior of IS. Finally, we discuss implications of our theory for further research and IS in general. Keywords: Language Critique, language communities, communication, self-organization, IS researc

Bruno zevi, the continental European emissary of geoffrey scott’s theories

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Simon's Bounded Rationality. Origins and use in economic theory

The paper aims to show how Simon's notion of bounded rationality should be interpreted in the light of its connection with artificial intelligence. This connection points out that bounded rationality is a highly structured concept, and sheds light on several implications of Simon's general views on rationality. Finally, offering three paradigmatic examples, the artic1e presents the view that recent approaches, which refer to Simon's heterodox theory, only partially accept the teachings of their inspirer, splitting bounded rationality from the context of artificl al intelligence.

Pursuing an Export Culture Through the Teaching of Asian Languages in Australian Schools - the Gap between Theory, Practice and Policy Prescription

In February 1994, the Coalition of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed a report it commissioned in December 1992 on a policy prescription for the study of Asian Languages and Cultures in Australian schools. The acceptance of this report, Asian Languages and Australia's Economic Future (1994), referred to as the Rudd Report after the Chair of the Working Group, was significant. It offered a 15-year plan that aimed to produce an Asia-literate generation fluent and familiar with "export" Asian languages and cultures. In particular, students would have the opportunity to commence the study of one of four priority "export" Asian languages, namely, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, and Chinese, in primary school. However, the Rudd Report’s emphasis on prioritising Asian languages for utilitarian reasons was opposed by those who advocated the study of European languages. This paper examines some of the assumptions about second language acquisition that the Rudd Report made and argues that greater emphasis should have been placed on addressing those theoretical and pedagogical issues significant to LOTE teaching in Australia

Making AI Meaningful Again

Artificial intelligence (AI) research enjoyed an initial period of enthusiasm in the 1970s and 80s. But this enthusiasm was tempered by a long interlude of frustration when genuinely useful AI applications failed to be forthcoming. Today, we are experiencing once again a period of enthusiasm, fired above all by the successes of the technology of deep neural networks or deep machine learning. In this paper we draw attention to what we take to be serious problems underlying current views of artificial intelligence encouraged by these successes, especially in the domain of language processing. We then show an alternative approach to language-centric AI, in which we identify a role for philosophy

Developing new work based learning pathways for housing practitioners whilst participating peripherally and legitimately: The situated learning of work based learning tutors

This paper discusses the experiences of two work based learning tutors at the University of Chester in the context of developing work based learning for housing practitioners