A Brief Critical Introduction to the Ontological Argument and its Formalization: Anselm, Gaunilo, Descartes, Leibniz and Kant

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims at introducing the ontological argument through the analysis of five historical developments: Anselm’s argument found in the second chapter of his Proslogion, Gaunilo’s criticism of it, Descartes’ version of the ontological argument found in his Meditations on First Philosophy, Leibniz’s contribution to the debate on the ontological argument and his demonstration of the possibility of God, and Kant’s famous criticisms against the (cartesian) ontological argument. Second, it intends to critically examine the enterprise of formally analyzing philosophical arguments and, as such, contribute in a small degree to the debate on the role of formalization in philosophy. My focus will be mainly on the drawbacks and limitations of such enterprise; as a guideline, I shall refer to a Carnapian, or Carnapian-like theory of argument analysis

Karma Theory, Determinism, Fatalism and Freedom of Will

The so-called theory of karma is one of the distinguishing aspects of Hinduism and other non-Hindu south-Asian traditions. At the same time that the theory can be seen as closely connected with the freedom of will and action that we humans supposedly have, it has many times been said to be determinist and fatalist. The purpose of this paper is to analyze in some deepness the relations that are between the theory of karma on one side and determinism, fatalism and free-will on the other side. In order to do that, I shall use what has been described as the best formal approach we have to indeterminism: branching time theory. More specifically, I shall introduce a branching time semantic framework in which, among other things, statements such as “state of affairs e is a karmic effect of agent a”, “a wills it to be the case that e” and “e is inevitable” could be properly represented

Logic and Philosophy of Religion

This paper introduces the special issue on Logic and Philosophy of Religion of the journal Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions (Springer). The issue contains the following articles: Logic and Philosophy of Religion, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre and Jean-Yvez Béziau; The End of Eternity, by Jamie Carlin Watson; The Vagueness of the Muse—The Logic of Peirce’s Humble Argument for the Reality of God, by Cassiano Terra Rodrigues; Misunderstanding the Talk(s) of the Divine: Theodicy in the Wittgensteinian Tradition, by Ondřej Beran; On the Concept of Theodicy, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre; The Logical Problem of the Trinity and the Strong Theory of Relative Identity, by Daniel Molto; Thomas Aquinas on Logic, Being, and Power, and Contemporary Problems for Divine Omnipotence, by Errin D. Clark

Logic and the Concept of God

This paper introduces the special issue on the Concept of God of the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). The issue contains the following articles: Logic and the Concept of God, by Stanisław Krajewski and Ricardo Silvestre; Mathematical Models in Theology. A Buber-inspired Model of God and its Application to “Shema Israel”, by Stanisław Krajewski; Gödel’s God-like Essence, by Talia Leven; A Logical Solution to the Paradox of the Stone, by Héctor Hernández Ortiz and Victor Cantero; No New Solutions to the Logical Problem of the Trinity, by Beau Branson; What Means ‘Tri-’ in ‘Trinity’ ? An Eastern Patristic Approach to the ‘Quasi-Ordinals’, by Basil Lourié; The Éminence Grise of Christology: Porphyry’s Logical Teaching as a Cornerstone of Argumentation in Christological Debates of the Fifth and Sixth Centruies, by Anna Zhyrkova; The Problem of Universals in Late Patristic Theology, by Dirk Krasmüller; Intuitionist Reasoning in the Tri-unitrian Theology of Nicolas of Cues, by Antonino Drago

Protection of democratic processes and electoral acts from Russian digital active measures: 2016 as a reference year

Russia has been credibly accused of trying to weaken Western liberal democracies with use of digital means. Cybersecurity experts, intelligence agencies, investigative journalists, and government services, have detailed the Kremlin's actions in illegally accessing digital infrastructures, disseminating stolen contents online, and influencing political debate on digital platforms to create dissention and polarization. These initiatives are included in a wider strategy of altering the balance of power in the international order via what are known as ‘active measures’. Two of the most consequential recent application of this kind of measures took place in 2016, in the United States Presidential Elections and in the Brexit Referendum. Reports made public with the assessments of errors committed by the United States and the United Kingdom governments show there was an insufficient protection of those two crucial public consultation processes. The mistakes made by these countries in protecting democracy from hostile agents with a high level of digital proficiency, should be a point of interest, and urgency, for the European Union. It is to be expected that this kind of influence operation will continue, and become more sophisticated, as they can target elections in Member States of the Union, but also for the European Parliament. The early detection, applying of countermeasures, and the sharing of information with the voters of this kind of attacks by foreign agencies is an important defense mechanism that needs to be strengthen and expanded

Paranormal modal logic – Part I. The system K? and the foundations of the logic of skeptical and credulous plausibility

In this two-parts paper we present paranormal modal logic: a modal logic which is both paraconsistent and paracomplete. Besides using a general framework in which a wide range of logics including normal modal logics, paranormal modal logics and classical logic can be defined and proving some key theorems about paranormal modal logic (including that it is inferentially equivalent to classical normal modal logic), we also provide a philosophical justification for the view that paranormal modal logic is a formalization of the notions of skeptical and credulous plausibility

Paranormal modal logic – Part II: K?, K and Classical Logic and other paranormal modal systems

In this two-part paper we present paranormal modal logic: a modal logic which is both paraconsistent and paracomplete. Besides using a general framework in which a wide range of logics – including normal modal logics, paranormal modal logics and classical logic – can be defined and proving some key theorems about paranormal modal logic (including that it is inferentially equivalent to classical normal modal logic), we also provide a philosophical justification for the view that paranormal modal logic is a formalization of the notions of skeptical and credulous plausibility

Experiências da prática profissional na reabilitação: análise de um grupo de foco

O objetivo desta investigação foi reconhecer as perceções dos múltiplos intervenientes acerca dos problemas encontrados nos processos de reabilitação do património habitacional. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um inquérito orientado para um grupo de foco. O estudo contou com um total de 108 participantes, incluindo arquitetos, engenheiros, construtores e técnicos de construção e restauro e potenciais promotores. Os dados foram analisados com recurso a métodos de investigação qualitativa, nomeadamente análises temáticas e de conteúdo. Os resultados demonstram que os principais problemas identificados estão relacionados com a informação, com o fator económico, com a perceção social e a qualificação dos intervenientes. Foi também possível identificar aspetos positivos no processo, nomeadamente a motivação encontrada em participar na valorização do carácter dos lugares, mas também um maior reconhecimento dos contributos das técnicas tradicionais para a sustentabilidade. Os resultados demonstram que, para que as boas práticas de reabilitação sejam aplicadas de modo efetivo, é necessário melhorar a transmissão dessa informação para a prática profissional, criando ferramentas que permitam apoiar a tomada de decisão ponderada, considerando um leque mais abrangente de critérios para além do económico (como o impacte ambiental, a saúde dos ocupantes, ou o valor patrimonial).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio