14,644 research outputs found
Review of Wittgenstein -- Rethinking the Inner by Paul Johnston (1993)(review revised 2019)
Overall Johnston has done a phenomenal job and this book should be required reading for all those interested in behavior.
It is quite striking that although Wâs observations are fundamental to all study of behaviorâlinguistics, philosophy, psychology, history, anthropology, politics, sociology, and art, he is not even mentioned in most books and articles, with even the exceptions having little to say, and most of that distorted or flat wrong. There is a flurry of recent interest, at least in philosophy, and possibly this preposterous situation will change, especially due to the continuing efforts of Peter Hacker, Daniele Moyal-Sharrock and more recently Annalisa Coliva. I will first offer some comments on philosophy (descriptive psychology) and its relationship to contemporary psychological research as exemplified in the works of Searle (S) and Wittgenstein from the modern two systems of thought perspective as W did 60 years ago.
Those wishing a comprehensive up to date framework for human behavior from the modern two systems view may consult my book âThe Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searleâ 2nd ed (2019). Those interested in more of my writings may see âTalking Monkeys--Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Religion and Politics on a Doomed Planet--Articles and Reviews 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019), The Logical Structure of Human Behavior (2019), and Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 4th ed (2019
Transhumanism Between Human Enhancement and Technological Innovation
Transhumanism introduces from its very beginning a paradigm shift about concepts like human nature, progress and human future. An overview of its ideology reveals a strong belief in the idea of human enhancement through technologically means. The theory of technological singularity, which is more or less a radicalisation of the transhumanist discourse, foresees a radical evolutionary change through artificial intelligence. The boundaries between intelligent machines and human beings will be blurred. The consequence is the upcoming of a post-biological and posthuman future when intelligent technology becomes autonomous and constantly self-improving. Considering these predictions, I will investigate here the way in which the idea of human enhancement modifies our understanding of technological innovation. I will argue that such change goes in at least two directions. On the one hand, innovation is seen as something that will inevitably lead towards intelligent machines and human enhancement. On the other hand, there is a direction such as âSingularity University,â where innovation is called to pragmatically solving human challenges. Yet there is a unifying spirit which holds together the two directions and I think it is the same transhumanist idea
Quantum Theory and Human Perception of the Macro-World
We investigate the question of 'why customary macroscopic entities appear to
us humans as they do, i.e. as bounded entities occupying space and persisting
through time', starting from our knowledge of quantum theory, how it affects
the behavior of such customary macroscopic entities, and how it influences our
perception of them. For this purpose, we approach the question from three
perspectives. Firstly, we look at the situation from the standard quantum
angle, more specifically the de Broglie wavelength analysis of the behavior of
macroscopic entities, indicate how a problem with spin and identity arises, and
illustrate how both play a fundamental role in well-established experimental
quantum-macroscopical phenomena, such as Bose-Einstein condensates. Secondly,
we analyze how the question is influenced by our result in axiomatic quantum
theory, which proves that standard quantum theory is structurally incapable of
describing separated entities. Thirdly, we put forward our new 'conceptual
quantum interpretation', including a highly detailed reformulation of the
question to confront the new insights and views that arise with the foregoing
analysis. At the end of the final section, a nuanced answer is given that can
be summarized as follows. The specific and very classical perception of human
seeing -- light as a geometric theory -- and human touching -- only ruled by
Pauli's exclusion principle -- plays a role in our perception of macroscopic
entities as ontologically stable entities in space. To ascertain quantum
behavior in such macroscopic entities, we will need measuring apparatuses
capable of its detection. Future experimental research will have to show if
sharp quantum effects -- as they occur in smaller entities -- appear to be
ontological aspects of customary macroscopic entities.Comment: 28 page
Approval-Based Shortlisting
Shortlisting is the task of reducing a long list of alternatives to a
(smaller) set of best or most suitable alternatives from which a final winner
will be chosen. Shortlisting is often used in the nomination process of awards
or in recommender systems to display featured objects. In this paper, we
analyze shortlisting methods that are based on approval data, a common type of
preferences. Furthermore, we assume that the size of the shortlist, i.e., the
number of best or most suitable alternatives, is not fixed but determined by
the shortlisting method. We axiomatically analyze established and new
shortlisting methods and complement this analysis with an experimental
evaluation based on biased voters and noisy quality estimates. Our results lead
to recommendations which shortlisting methods to use, depending on the desired
properties
The emotional contents of the âspaceâ in spatial music
Human spatial perception is how we understand places. Beyond understanding what is where (William Jamesâ formulation of the psychological approach to perception); there are holistic qualities to places. We perceive places as busy, crowded, exciting, threatening or peaceful, calm, comfortable and so on. Designers of places spend a great deal of time and effort on these qualities; scientists rarely do. In the scientific world-view physical qualities and our emotive responses to them are neatly divided in the objective-subjective dichotomy. In this context, music has traditionally constituted an item in a place. Over the last two decades, development of âspatial musicâ has been within the prevailing engineering paradigm, informed by psychophysical data; here, space is an abstract, Euclidean 3-dimensional âcontainerâ for events. The emotional consequence of spatial arrangements is not the main focus in this approach. This paper argues that a paradigm shift is appropriate, from âmusic-in-a-placeâ to âmusic-as-a-placeâ requiring a fundamental philosophical realignment of âmeaningâ away from subjective response to include consequences-in-the-environment. Hence the hegemony of the subjective-objective dichotomy is questioned. There are precedents for this, for example in the ecological approach to perception (Gibson). An ecological approach to music-as-environment intrinsically treats the emotional consequences of spatio-musical arrangement holistically. A simplified taxonomy of the attributes of artificial spatial sound in this context will be discussed
Contraception and the Contralife Will
Father Connor received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the Lateran University in Rome. He points out that âIntending the good is a subjective operation deriving from an intellectual objective perception of being. The being that I perceive is the esse of my personal self which is thrusting to fulfillment through acts. The person and his/her acts are the grounding of what I mean by âgoodâ or âbadâ. The evil of contraception, then is not an intention against the life of a future child, but the nonconformity of the will with the double structure (love-making/life giving) of the coital act which is a manifestation of the intercoursing process. âThe evident weakness of the contralife will shows in the inability to apply it uniformly throughout sexual morality. For example, in in vitro fertilization, the will is pro-life, yet the âmanufacturingâ of the child is evil. They then have recourse to other principles ad hoc.â </jats:p
Applicability of Emotion to Intelligent Systems
We propose to investigate the connection between emotions and cognition in intelligent systems through the dynamic concept of language, which links context to logic in both human and machine language. For this, our approach is inspired on aspects of the information theory of Abraham Moles. We analyze emotions under the semantic dimension, linked to a subjective context, which gives rise or not to decisions. We demonstrate that intelligent systems can, on the one hand, work with previously categorized emotions (say in a frozen context); or, on the other hand, process information under a dynamic aspect. This is possible when considering that the algorithm, as the core of the systemâs language, must be adapted to functions that reflect an updated context. Thus, adapting emotions to AI means working with time-dependent communication-interpretation, in an optimized way, uniting syntax and semantics in the intended behavior of the machine. We conclude that misinterpretations can be avoided by inserting a contextual appreciation together with a categorized appreciation of emotions at the heart of the system. This allows it to absorb pre-established values in a unified way with the fluid values of emotions, making the system more intuitive. It is believed that, in this way, Computational Linguistics is focused on the characteristics of Cognitive Computing, teaching the system to interpret the appropriate context of the emotion at stake
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