The Epistemological Contribution of the Transcendental Reduction

AbstractIn order to appreciate the rich implications of the transcendental reduction, one has to distinguish the different contexts where it acquires different meanings. The present paper focuses on a particular epistemological context and clarifies the contribution of the reduction within this context. The contribution consists in the formulation and solution of the problem of exhibiting the evidence supporting the belief in the world's existence. In a nutshell, world-experience grounds the world-belief and world-experience entails a bedrock of experience legitimizing the positing of others. I argue that this contribution is possibly an enduring achievement of Husserl's transcendental philosophy against common objections that are raised against it. I show that both the necessity and the viability of the transcendental reduction are a consequence of the general structure of critical examination. Overall, a picture of Husserl's philosophy emerges that emphasizes embodiment, intersubjectivity, and facticity without giving up the rigor of radical epistemological analysis, aiming at overcoming both naïve pseudo-problems and subtle forms of dogmatism

Pairing and sharing: the birth of the sense of us

The goal of this paper is to show that a particular view of emotion sharing and a specific hypothesis on infant social perception strengthen each other. The view of emotion sharing is called “the straightforward view.” The hypothesis on infant social perception is called “the pairing account.” The straightforward view suggests that participants in emotion sharing undergo one and the same overarching emotion. The pairing account posits that infants perceive others’ embodied experiences as belonging to someone other than the self through a process of assimilation to, and accommodation of, their own embodied experience. The connection between the two theories lies in the domain-general process of association by similarity, which functions both in the individuation of a unitary emotion and in the interpretation of the sensory stimulus. By elaborating on this connection, the straightforward view becomes more solid from the cognitive-developmental standpoint and the pairing account expands its explanatory power. Since the straightforward view requires minimal forms of self- and other-awareness, the paper provides a characterization of the developmental origin of the sense of us, i.e., the experience of self and other as co-subjects of a shared emotional state

Analyzing Mappings and Properties in Data Warehouse Integration

The information inside the Data Warehouse (DW) is used to take strategic decisions inside the organization that is why data quality plays a crucial role in guaranteeing the correctness of the decisions. Data quality also becomes a major issue when integrating information from two or more heterogeneous DWs. In the present paper, we perform extensive analysis of a mapping-based DW integration methodology and of its properties. In particular, we will prove that the proposed methodology guarantees coherency, meanwhile in certain cases it is able to maintain soundness and consistency. Moreover, intra-schema homogeneity is discussed and analysed as a necessary condition for summarizability and for optimization by materializing views of dependent queries

The characterisation and identification of body fluid proteins for forensic purposes.

Advances in DNA technology have led to the extremely sensitive and rapid analysis methods used in forensic science. It can often be crucial to a criminal case to unequivocally identify the body fluid source of DNA. This is of particular importance in rape cases where the defence may argue that the source of a female DNA profile might be from a casual touch or from saliva. In this study, proteomics has been employed in an attempt to identify potential biomarkers that are specific to a range of body fluids. Many publications cite the use of proteomics to identify biomarkers of disease such as cancer. In these reports, diseased and healthy tissues or tissues that have been treated or not treated with a drug are compared and the expressed proteins are compared by 2D electrophoresis. Human body fluids differ in function, composition and protein expression. Proteomics therefore seemed an ideal application to isolate the proteins that are characteristic of and specific to, different fluid types. Both saliva and vaginal fluid proteomic methodologies were optimised for sample preparation, IPG strip pH range and protein load, and post-electrophoretic staining. Seventeen isolated protein spots from saliva and vaginal fluid samples were submitted for LC-MS/MS analysis. Nine saliva spots and eleven vaginal spots were identified as known proteins on the MASCOT database. Of those thought to be specific to saliva or vaginal fluid six candidate biomarkers were tested further against a panel of body fluids for specificity using ELISA or Dot Blot. Zinc-α-2 glycoprotein (ZA2G) was detected and present in all body fluid samples thus could be used as a human body fluid positive control in a future assay. SCC (Squamous cell carcinoma) ELISA was capable of distinguishing samples of vaginal origin by detection of SCCA (Squamous cell carcinoma antigen). This antigen could be used in conjunction with a menstrual blood marker to distinguish between vaginal fluid and menstrual blood. Antibody specificity was a limiting factor in the success of the dot blots performed and hence the analysis of Cystatin SA, Cystatin SN and SERPIN B1 was inconclusive

Gamma-convergence for one-dimensional nonlocal phase transition energies

We study the asymptotic behavior as ε goes to 0 of an appropriate scaling of the following nonlocal Allen-Cahn energy,where I is an interval in R, and W is a double-well potential. We provide a Γ-convergence result for any s ∈ (0,1), by extending the case when s=1/2 studied by Alberti, Bouchittè and Seppecher in [2]. We also investigate the convergence as s↗1 of the related optimal profile problem to the local counterpart

Foreword to the Special Issue: "Semantics for Big Data Integration"

In recent years, a great deal of interest has been shown toward big data. Much of the work on big data has focused on volume and velocity in order to consider dataset size. Indeed, the problems of variety, velocity, and veracity are equally important in dealing with the heterogeneity, diversity, and complexity of data, where semantic technologies can be explored to deal with these issues. This Special Issue aims at discussing emerging approaches from academic and industrial stakeholders for disseminating innovative solutions that explore how big data can leverage semantics, for example, by examining the challenges and opportunities arising from adapting and transferring semantic technologies to the big data context

Gamma-Convergence for one-dimensional nonlocal phase transition energies

We study the asymptotic behavior as epsilon goes to 0 of an appropriate scaling of the following nonlocal Allen-Cahn energy,E-epsilon(s)(u) = epsilon(2s) integral integral(IxI) vertical bar u(x) - u(y)vertical bar(2)/vertical bar x - y vertical bar(1+2s) dxdy + integral(I) W(u) dx,where I is an interval in R, and W is a double-well potential. We provide a Gamma-convergence result for any s is an element of (0, 1), by extending the case when s = 1/2 studied by Alberti, Bouchitte and Seppecher in [2]. We also investigate the convergence as s NE arrow 1 of the related optimal profile problem to the local counterpart

Developmental Phenomenology: Epistemic Grounding, Infant Imitation, and Pairing

The present dissertation is comprised of three chapters. While the first chapter confines itself to Husserlian phenomenology, the other two pull together phenomenology and cognitive science, especially developmental psychology. Each chapter is an autonomous paper. However, the second and the third chapters are clearly connected. The claim defended in the second chapter figures as a premise in the third.In the first chapter, I argue that the phenomenological reduction makes possible a viable solution to the epistemological problem of whether the belief in the world\u27s existence is justified. The chapter includes a relatively long exegetical session aimed at demonstrating that the problem of the epistemic ground for the world\u27s existence constitutes one of Husserl\u27s motivations for the phenomenological reduction. In the second chapter, I propose the association by similarity hypothesis for neonatal imitation. This phenomenon is at the center of heated debates involving psychologists and philosophers. In the third chapter, I claim that infants come to perceive others as minded beings on the basis of an association by similarity between the behavior of others and their own. This claim constitutes a significant application of the theory of pairing, which was endorsed in its core by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. I examine action perception in infants and I argue that pairing occurs through infant-caregiver interaction

Taking the mystery away from shared intentionality: The straightforward view and its empirical implications

Ordinary language in Western and non-Western cultures individuates shared mental states or experiences as unitary interpersonal events that belong to more than one individual. However, a default assumption in modern Western thought is that, in this regard, ordinary language is either illusory or merely metaphorical: a mental state or experience can belong to only one person. This assumption is called Cartesian eliminativism and is often taken to be foundational in psychology. It follows that any view that contradicts Cartesian eliminativism is a priori suspected of being “mysterious,” i.e., of not meeting scientific standards. This paper suggests that the very opposite may be the case. The straightforward view explains how individuals assemble and experience a shared mental state as a unitary whole whose components are distributed among the participants. The naturalistic advantages of such a view are brought to light by focusing on developmental science. Since it explains early shared emotions, goals, and attention merely by relying on domain-general, associative processes, the straightforward view is more parsimonious than current psychological theories. Indeed, it abandons the cumbersome postulates of (i) multi-level recursive mindreading and (ii) a special, conceptually elusive phenomenal quality. I outline the distinctive developmental predictions of the view and discuss how it accounts for the functions of shared mental states. As a reductionist, non-eliminativist approach, the straightforward view promises to be viable also for cognitive scientists who have so far worked within the Cartesian framework due to a lack of a rigorous and sufficiently developed alternative