Kripke’s paradox and the Church–Turing thesis

Kripke (1982, Wittgenstein on rules and private language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) presents a rule-following paradox in terms of what we meant by our past use of “plus”, but the same paradox can be applied to any other term in natural language. Many responses to the paradox concentrate on fixing determinate meaning for “plus”, or for a small class of other natural language terms. This raises a problem: how can these particular responses be generalised to the whole of natural language? In this paper, I propose a solution. I argue that if natural language is computable in a sense defined below, and the Church–Turing thesis is accepted, then this auxiliary problem can be solved.     

Spirituality’ as reconceptualisation of the self: Alan Turing and his pioneering ideas on artificial intelligence

This article investigates the underlying agenda of the philosophy of artificial intelligence (AI) – a discipline of computer science – and proposes a threefold model of ‘spirituality’ as reconceptualisation of the self, composed of one’s search, adaptation and transformation of self-knowledge, specifically concerning the rational humanity. By using the life and ideas of the father of AI and computer science, Alan Turing (1912–1954) as a case study, I will carefully examine his three stages of self-reconceptualisation and highlight the relevance of seeing spirituality as self-reconceptualisation for the current digital age.     

Computing Cohen’s kappa coefficients using SPSS MATRIX

This short paper proposes a general computing strategy to compute Kappa coefficients using the SPSS MATRIX routine. The method is based on the following rationale. If the contingency table is considered as a square matrix, then the observed proportions of agreement lie in the main diagonal’s cells, and their sum equals the trace of the matrix, whereas the proportions of agreement expected by chance are the joint product of marginals. The generalization to weighted kappa, which requires an additional square matrix of disagreement weights, both matrices having the same order, becomes possible by the use of the Hadamard product-that is, the elementwise direct product of two matrices.     

Weyl’s Appropriation of Husserl’s and Poincar“s Thought

This article locates Weyl's philosophy of mathematics and its relationship to his philosophy of science within the epistemological and ontological framework of Husserl's phenomenology as expressed in the Logical Investigations and Ideas. This interpretation permits a unified reading of Weyl's scattered philosophical comments in The Continuum and Space-Time-Matter. But the article also indicates that Weyl employed Poincaré's predicativist concerns to modify Husserl's semantics and trim Husserl's ontology. Using Poincaré's razor to shave Husserl's beard leads to limitations on the least upper bound theorem in the foundations of analysis and Dirichlet's principle in the foundations of physics. Finally, the article opens the possibility of reading Weyl as a systematic thinker, that he follows Husserl's so-called transcendental turn in the Ideas. This permits an even more unified reading of Weyl's scattered philosophical comments.     

“Improving one’s touch” … and more

Gordon and Cooper (1975) have described an interesting tactile phenomenon. The orientation of undulations on the surface of an object can be detected more accurately when a person moves an intermediate paper over the surface than when the bare fingers are used. Counter to a prediction derived from Gordon and Cooper’s explanation of their results, the present studies show that the apparent roughness of a surface increases when a similar manner of touching is used. The first two experiments confirm the latter observation. To explain the alteration in perceived roughness (and more tentatively, Gordon and Cooper’s own findings), it is proposed that surface roughness (and undulations) are masked by shear forces applied to the skin. Two informal tests and a third experiment support this interpretation. Alternative explanations and a practical application for the blind are also considered.     

McTaggart’s Paradox and Crisp’s Presentism

In his review of The Ontology of Time, Thomas Crisp (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2005a) argues that Oaklander's version of McTaggart's paradox does not make any trouble for his version of presentism. The aim of this paper is to refute that claim by demonstrating that Crisp's version of presentism does indeed succumb to a version of McTaggart's argument. I shall proceed as follows. In Part I I shall explain Crisp's view and then argue in Part II that his analysis of temporal becoming, temporal properties and temporal relations is inadequate. Finally, in Part III, I shall demonstrate that his presentist ontology of time is susceptible to the paradox he so assiduously sought to avoid.     

A more dangerous enemy? Philo’s “confession” and Hume’s soft atheism

While Hume has often been held to have been an agnostic or atheist, several contemporary scholars have argued that Hume was a theist. These interpretations depend chiefly on several passages in which Hume allegedly confesses to theism. In this paper, I argue against this position by giving a threshold characterization of theism and using it to show that Hume does not confess. His most important “confession” does not cross this threshold and the ones that do are often expressive rather than assertive. I then argue that Hume is best interpreted as an atheist. Instead of interpreting Hume as a proto-logical positivist and arguing on the basis of Hume’s theories of meaning and method, I show that textually he appears to align himself with atheism, that his arguments in the Dialogues on Natural Religion support atheism, and that this position is most consistent with Hume’s naturalism. But, I hold that his atheism is “soft” and therefore distinct from that of his peers like Baron d’Holbach—while Hume really does reject theism, he neither embraces a dogmatically materialist position nor takes up a purely polemical stance towards theism. I conclude by suggesting several ways in which Hume’s atheistic philosophy of religion is relevant to contemporary discussions.     

Emotional Intelligence Profiles in College Students and Their Fathers’ and Mothers’ Parenting Practices

The present study has two objectives: first, to analyze whether the dimensions that make up emotional intelligence (attention, clarity, and repair) give rise to different profiles of university students, and secondly, to determine whether these different profiles are differentially associated with the parenting practices that students report with regard to their fathers and mothers. Results obtained indicate the existence of different profiles of college students. The profile that corresponds to adequate emotional skills presents a lower score in attention, but higher scores in clarity, and especially in mood repair. The other two profiles are inadequate, in the first case because a higher score in emotional attention is accompanied by low scores in mood repair, and in the second case because low scores are presented in all three dimensions. Likewise, we verified the existence of significant differences in the educational practices of parents, the adequate profile is characterized by greater use of parenting dimensions considered to be positive, and at the same time, lower scores on dimensions considered to be negative. One of the dysfunctional profiles is associated with higher scores in positive practices, and is also associated with higher scores in practices considered to produce a negative effect. The second dysfunctional profile is associated with higher scores on the dimensions considered to be negative and lower scores on positive dimensions.     

Deleuze and Guattari’s “Becoming-Child” in Zacada Circus

This transdisciplinary engagement with the figure of the child uses performance studies and philosophy to explore the ways in which youth-involved and youth-oriented circus-theater productions can enable the manifestation of what Deleuze and Guattari describe as “becoming-child.”     

Women’s Perceptions and Use of “Anti-Aging” Products

Recent advances in the cosmetics industry have accelerated the availability of products marketed as “anti-aging.” Our research goals were to identify the factors that predict women’s purchase of these products, and to gain insight into women’s perceptions of the anti-aging market. Three hundred and four Canadian women were surveyed about their use of anti-aging products, body satisfaction, aging anxiety, appearance importance, sociocultural pressures and self-esteem, as well as open-ended responses about their perceptions of anti-aging products. Greater aging anxiety and higher importance of appearance were related to greater likelihood of purchasing anti-aging products. Women also described an interesting paradox whereby they report using these products while remaining critical of media messages and embracing the idea of natural aging.     

Commentary on Federica Melandri’s “Milk and Tears”

ABSTRACT

Dr. Melandri’s use of the 2001 Revised Diagnostic Profile to assess 5-year-old Leo brought forth different emphases than Anna Freud’s original Diagnostic Profile (1965). Dr. Melandri’s explicit sharing of how she reacted to and felt in Leo’s presence is far more explicit. Another difference is how fluently Dr. Melandri integrates metapsychology with diverse clinical theories to describe Leo’s development. Had the original Diagnostic Profile been used, there would have been greater emphasis on libidinal phase development, such as orality, anality, phallic, and oedipal development, not to mention dynamic and structural achievements. This essay asks: “what’s at stake?” regarding these different emphases. The author concludes with a few remarks in general about the 2001 Revised Profile, including comments about the fate of Freud’s and Anna Freud’s radical vision.     

Romance and Responsibility in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”

Reflection on the wrongs done by characters in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy “Manhattan” helps us get clear about the evidence required to judge them responsible and so liable to blame them for those wrongs. On the positive side, what is required is evidence that trust remains a possibility, despite the fact that they wrong, and this in turn requires evidence that the wrongdoer had, but failed to exercise, the capacity to do the right thing when they did that wrong. On the negative side, what is not required is evidence of some explanation of that failure. This counts against a well-known suggestion of Gary Watson’s in “Skepticism about Weakness of Will.”     

“Sherry’s Secret”

The case and commentaries below were developed as part of a project, Graduate Research Ethics Education, undertaken by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant No. SBR 9421897 and NSF Grant No. 9817880). The project aims at training graduate students in research ethics and building a community of scientists and engineers who are interested in and capable of teaching research ethics. As part of the project, each graduate student participant develops a case for use in teaching and writes a commentary to go with the case, and then a staff member is asked to write additional commentary on the case. The case below was written in the second year of the project and was published in Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries edited by B. Schrag, Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Bloomington, Indiana, Vol. II (1998). Publication of these cases and commentaries will be a recurring feature of Science and Engineering Ethics.     

Wallace’s and Darwin’s natural selection theories

Synthese - This work takes a stand on whether Wallace should be regarded as co-author of the theory of natural selection alongside Darwin as he is usually considered on behalf of his alleged...