An Existential Perspective on Addiction Treatment: A Logic-based therapy case study

In this essay I argue that a comprehensive understanding of addiction and its treatment should include an existential perspective. I provide a brief overview of an existential perspective of addiction and recovery, which will contextualize the remainder of the essay. I then present a case study of how the six-step philosophical practice method of Logic-Based Therapy can assist with issues that often arise in addiction treatment framed through an existential perspective

The Integral Jan Smuts.

Integral Theory as developed by Ken Wilber and other contemporary Integral scholars acknowledge many antecedent foundational influences, and proto-Integral thinkers. Curiously, the philosopher-statesman Jan Smuts’ theory of Holism is seldom acknowledged, although it has significantly contributed, albeit often implicitly, to the development of Integral Theory. This paper and presentation has two central aims: To point out that Smuts can be counted amongst one of the great Integral thinkers of the 20th Century; that Smuts’ notion of Holism had a significant influence on the development of Integral Theory. This paper and presentation will provide a brief outline of Smuts’ theory of Holism as developed in his book Holism and Evolution and other philosophical essays

DMFSGD: A Decentralized Matrix Factorization Algorithm for Network Distance Prediction

The knowledge of end-to-end network distances is essential to many Internet applications. As active probing of all pairwise distances is infeasible in large-scale networks, a natural idea is to measure a few pairs and to predict the other ones without actually measuring them. This paper formulates the distance prediction problem as matrix completion where unknown entries of an incomplete matrix of pairwise distances are to be predicted. The problem is solvable because strong correlations among network distances exist and cause the constructed distance matrix to be low rank. The new formulation circumvents the well-known drawbacks of existing approaches based on Euclidean embedding. A new algorithm, so-called Decentralized Matrix Factorization by Stochastic Gradient Descent (DMFSGD), is proposed to solve the network distance prediction problem. By letting network nodes exchange messages with each other, the algorithm is fully decentralized and only requires each node to collect and to process local measurements, with neither explicit matrix constructions nor special nodes such as landmarks and central servers. In addition, we compared comprehensively matrix factorization and Euclidean embedding to demonstrate the suitability of the former on network distance prediction. We further studied the incorporation of a robust loss function and of non-negativity constraints. Extensive experiments on various publicly-available datasets of network delays show not only the scalability and the accuracy of our approach but also its usability in real Internet applications.Comment: submitted to IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking on Nov. 201

Incompatible Knots in Harm Reduction: A Philosophical Analysis

Human Sciences Research Council Press

Decentralized Prediction of End-to-End Network Performance Classes

In large-scale networks, full-mesh active probing of end-to-end performance metrics is infeasible. Measuring a small set of pairs and predicting the others is more scalable. Under this framework, we formulate the prediction problem as matrix completion, whereby unknown entries of an incomplete matrix of pairwise measurements are to be predicted. This problem can be solved by matrix factorization because performance matrices have a low rank, thanks to the correlations among measurements. Moreover, its resolution can be fully decentralized without actually building matrices nor relying on special landmarks or central servers. In this paper we demonstrate that this approach is also applicable when the performance values are not measured exactly, but are only known to belong to one among some predefined performance classes, such as "good" and "bad". Such classification-based formulation not only fulfills the requirements of many Internet applications but also reduces the measurement cost and enables a unified treatment of various performance metrics. We propose a decentralized approach based on Stochastic Gradient Descent to solve this class-based matrix completion problem. Experiments on various datasets, relative to two kinds of metrics, show the accuracy of the approach, its robustness against erroneous measurements and its usability on peer selection.Peer reviewe

Nietzsche’s Affirmation of Life: An Exemplar of an Uplifting Philosophy for Logic-based Therapy for Addiction Recovery

In article I explore how Logic-based Therapy (LBT) can inform a philosophically oriented recovery pathway for individuals in addiction recovery. Considering that there is an ostensibly low efficacy rate for the treatment of addiction, there is significant value in highlighting the utility of LBT for the development of novel philosophically based addiction treatment and recovery-oriented programs, which would expand the treatment and recovery options. I propose that LBT may be a suitable intervention when challenging the unrealistic conclusions derived from illogical premises in practical reasoning that contribute to addiction, because it can contest irrational beliefs in a way that could mitigate the fragmentation anxiety that often arises when individuals relinquish maladaptive self-object organizations

A Philosophical Analysis of Sartre’s Critique of Freud’s Depth-psychological Account of Self-Deception

This essay addresses the notion of self-deception as articulated by Sigmund Freud and Jean-Paul Sartre. More specifically, it provides an analysis of Sartre’s critique of Freud’s depth-psychological account of self-deception. I critically examine his theory of bad faith as an account of self-deception. Sartre’s main objection to the depthpsychological explanation of Freud’s account of self-deception rests on his argument that for self-deception to occur there needs to be conscious awareness of the coexistence of mutually incompatible beliefs, and that Freud had obscured this fact by splitting the self and with a mixture of jargon

Will to Power: The Utility of Nietzsche’s Philosophy for Philosophical Counseling

This presentation explores the utility of Nietzsche’s ethical thought for philosophical counselling. Central to the philosophical counseling process is philosophical counsellors applying the work of philosophers to inspire, educate, and guide their counselees in dealing with life problems. For example, Logic-Based Therapy (LBT), a method of philosophical counselling developed by Elliot Cohen, provides a rational framework for confronting problems of living, where the counselor helps the counselee find an uplifting philosophy that promotes a guiding virtue that acts as an antidote to unrealistic and often self-defeating conclusions derived from irrational premises. I present the argument that Nietzsche’s moral philosophy, and more specifically his analysis of suffering, is one such uplifting philosophy which can be of utility to philosophical counselors to help their counselees with confronting problems of living. According to Bernard Reginster, suffering forms the bedrock of Nietzsche's life-affirming concept of the will to power. Nietzsche’s notion of the will to power radically alters our conception and significance of suffering – and that the will to power is best understood as man’s desire for the activity of overcoming resistance. Nietzsche's analysis implies that the fundamental human impulse is not to avoid suffering, but instead to will nothing less than suffering itself. To find meaning in suffering is tantamount to affirming life itself