Symbol grounding and its implications for artificial intelligence

In response to Searle's well-known Chinese room argument against Strong AI (and more generally, computationalism), Harnad proposed that if the symbols manipulated by a robot were sufficiently grounded in the real world, then the robot could be said to literally understand. In this article, I expand on the notion of symbol groundedness in three ways. Firstly, I show how a robot might select the best set of categories describing the world, given that fundamentally continuous sensory data can be categorised in an almost infinite number of ways. Secondly, I discuss the notion of grounded abstract (as opposed to concrete) concepts. Thirdly, I give an objective criterion for deciding when a robot's symbols become sufficiently grounded for "understanding" to be attributed to it. This deeper analysis of what symbol groundedness actually is weakens Searle's position in significant ways; in particular, whilst Searle may be able to refute Strong AI in the specific context of present-day digital computers, he cannot refute computationalism in general

Conservative-Neoliberal alliance and popular resistance in Turkey : the uprising in Turkey

The New Right has often been defined as an amalgam of a commitment to USA driven neoliberal economics with conservative values. We saw this in England where Thatcherism took on the form of neoliberal economics, characterized by de-industrialization and the pervasive rule of the market, and old Victorian conservative values. We had the same thing under Reagan in the US and the two Bushes, the younger one foregrounding a specific form of bigoted Christian politics alongside the well established neoliberal policies. Turkey seems to be providing another manifestation of this kind of alliance under Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP Party where thousands are taking to the streets to oppose the current regime of old Islamic, anti-secularist values sitting comfortably with large scale US based Neoliberal capitalism. In all cases, the violent nature of capitalism itself, and especially Neoliberal capitalism, with its history of bloodshed, well known to Turkey with its US driven 1980 coup and the 1977 May Day massacre at Taksim Square, made its presence and (in Turkey’s current situation) is making its presence felt. There has been an escalation of this in Turkey over the last few weeks. This chaptr provides a reflection on this escalation of violence and the great protests which took place against Neoliberalism at Gezi Park, Istanbul.peer-reviewe

Karl Mannheim's contributions to the development of the sociology of knowledge

Karl Mannheim's work in the area of Sociology of Knowledge is generally considered to be his greatest contribution to sociological research. In his writings on the subject, the Hungarian theorist posits that a sociology of knowledge is possible and that there exists a relationship between forms of knowledge and social structure. His major contention in this respect is that ideas relating to definitions of social reality are existentially-determined. In this paper, I shall attempt to provide an exposition of Mannheim's ideas regarding the existential determination of knowledge, taking into account: (a) the various schools of thought and social factors which influenced his thinking; (b) his interpretation of the concepts of ideology and utopia; (c) the way he sought to grapple with such pertinent issues as the validity or otherwise of existentially- determined knowledge; (d) his attempts at preventing his theory from lapsing into relativistic nihilism, and finally, (e) the various criticisms levelled at his work on the Sociology of Knowledge.peer-reviewe

[Review of] Sarah Blacher Cohen, ed. From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Jewish-American Stage and Screen

The considerable Jewish American presence on the stage and screen (and now television), has long been marveled at and discussed. Jewish dominance in mass media has been a source of pride to Jews and anguish to anti-semites. Nevertheless, it has only been since the 1960s that numbers have been translated into content. From Hester Street to Hollywood attempts to analyze the Jewish presence and experience in areas as varied as serious drama and stand-up comedy

Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire : some connections and contrasts

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) and Paulo Freire (1921-1997) are certainly two of the most cited figures in the debate concerning critical approaches to education. Their respective cultural and political work occurred in different contexts and at different times (Gramsci in Europe in the first part of the 20th century and Paulo Freire in Latin America, N. America, Europe and Africa in the second half of the century). Nevertheless, a whole generation of writers, positing a critical approach to education, especially those subscribing to what is commonly referred to as critical pedagogy, constantly draw on Gramsci’s and Freire’s powerful insights into the relationship between education/ cultural work and power. The two figures are often accorded iconic status inthis literature.In this paper, I shall attempt to draw theoretical and, when appropriate, biographicalconnections between the work of the two, also highlighting some obvious contrasts. In so doing,I shall reproduce key points made in my earlier published work on these two figures, notably my book length study in which I sought to derive insights from their respective writings for a process of trans-formative adult education relevant to contemporary times. In this piece, I also hope to provide fresh comparative insights not found in the earlier work.peer-reviewe

Antonio Gramsci and his relevance for the education of adults

This paper, drawing on original sources, provides an overview of and a discussion on those writings and ideas, in Antonio Gramsci's huge corpus of work, that are relevant to the education of adults. This should provide a fitting tribute to this major social theorist of the 20th century on the 70th anniversary of his death. Among the topics discussed are those of adult education for industrial democracy, adult education and cultural preparation, adult literacy, prison education, adult education and the Southern Question with specific reference to immigration, and, most important of all, adult education in the context of an intellectual and moral reform.peer-reviewe

Bayesian sequence learning for predicting protein cleavage points

A challenging problem in data mining is the application of efficient techniques to automatically annotate the vast databases of biological sequence data. This paper describes one such application in this area, to the prediction of the position of signal peptide cleavage points along protein sequences. It is shown that the method, based on Bayesian statistics, is comparable in terms of accuracy to the existing state-of-the-art neural network techniques while providing explanatory information for its predictions

Italian signposts for a sociologically and critically engaged pedagogy : Don Lorenzo Milani (1923-1967) and the schools of San Donato and Barbiana revisited

This paper provides a critical exposition and analysis of the work of an acclaimed Italian educator, Lorenzo Milani, and ideas that emerged from his experiences in two Tuscan localities. His work is well known in Italy and many parts of southern Europe. Despite the translations of his works into English and Spanish, in the early 1970s, and their use in sociology of education classes in the United Kingdom, he seems to have had a very limited impact on the Anglo-North American-dominated critical education field. The paper revisits his ideas, in this 90th anniversary year, indicating their contemporary relevance and the signposts they provide for a critically and sociologically engaged pedagogy.peer-reviewe

Competitiveness, diversification and the international higher education cash flow : EU’s higher education discourse amidst the challenges of globalisation

This paper focuses on the EU discourse on Higher Education and analyses thisdiscourse within the context of globalisation. Importance is attached to the issuesof lifelong learning, competitiveness, diversification, entrepreneurship, access,knowledge society, modernisation, quality assurance, innovation and creativity,governance and business–HE partnerships. The paper also provides a criticalanalysis of this discourse focusing on certain issues involved in policy borrowingand transfer, the corporatisation of HE, international competition with the USAand Asia and the implications of all these aspects of the dominant EU HE policydiscourse for HE and the public sphere. The paper seeks to tease out the tensionthat exists in the discourse between neo-liberal tenets and the idea of a SocialEurope. References throughout the paper will be made to the situation concerningHE in a variety of contexts in Europe.peer-reviewe