De Se Beliefs, Self-Ascription, and Primitiveness

De se beliefs typically pose a problem for propositional theories of content. The Property Theory of content tries to overcome the problem of de se beliefs by taking properties to be the objects of our beliefs. I argue that the concept of self-ascription plays a crucial role in the Property Theory while being virtually unexplained. I then offer different possibilities of illuminating that concept and argue that the most common ones are either circular, question-begging, or epistemically problematic. Finally, I argue that only a primitive understanding of self-ascription is viable. Self-ascription is the relation that subjects stand in with respect to the properties that they believe themselves to have. As such, self-ascription has to be primitive if it is supposed to do justice to the characteristic features of de se beliefs

The Dafny Integrated Development Environment

In recent years, program verifiers and interactive theorem provers have become more powerful and more suitable for verifying large programs or proofs. This has demonstrated the need for improving the user experience of these tools to increase productivity and to make them more accessible to non-experts. This paper presents an integrated development environment for Dafny-a programming language, verifier, and proof assistant-that addresses issues present in most state-of-the-art verifiers: low responsiveness and lack of support for understanding non-obvious verification failures. The paper demonstrates several new features that move the state-of-the-art closer towards a verification environment that can provide verification feedback as the user types and can present more helpful information about the program or failed verifications in a demand-driven and unobtrusive way.Comment: In Proceedings F-IDE 2014, arXiv:1404.578

Mindreading in Chimpanzees

The animal mindreading debate is coined with theoretical and practical problems which have lead some to believe that it has reached a stalemate. Since Premack and Woodruff have asked whether the chimpanzee has a theory of mind over 30 years ago, the question is still on the table. Even though a lot of evidence has been brought forward by both sides, proponents and opponents of the view that animals can be mindreaders, nothing is definitive. The essential problems remain unresolved

Handlungsgründe: ein Reiseführer

Üblicherweise sind die Dinge kompliziert. Dies führt dazu, dass es eine Menge (unvereinbarer) Theorien gibt, die sich diesen Dingen widmen. Manche sind recht einfach gestrickt, andere sind komplexer. Die Existenz dieser unterschiedlichen Ideen sind ein Indiz dafür, dass die Dinge bisher letztlich unerklärt sind. Und sie sind eine Aufforderung, weiter zu denken. Manchmal sind sie aber auch eine Aufforderung, einmal aufzuräumen. Diese Aufgabe habe ich mir zu Herzen genommen und will deswegen in dieser Arbeit (sozusagen als kleiner Reiseführer) einige Theorien zu Handlungsgründen beleuchten

Galois Properties of Division Fields of Elliptic Curves

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135234/1/blms0247.pd

Luzernesilage in einer Total-Misch-Ration für die ökologische Mastschweinefütterung – Ergebnisse eines Praxisversuches

A "total mixed ration" (TMR) consisting of chopped alfalfa silage (34%, starter phase and 53%, finishing phase) was tested in pigs. Group “A” (control) was fed with a complete feed mixture, group “B” with the TMR and group “C” with moistened TMR. The pigs consumed TMR without selection of the concentrate. Groups B and C showed 12% and 10% lower daily weight gains than A. Both groups reached the target final weight 5 days later. The groups were similar in terms of the slaughter performance (p>0.05)