Carnap and weyl on the foundations of geometry and relativity theory

An earlier version of this paper was presented at a workshop on Semantical Aspects of Space-Time Theories at the Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung at the Universität Bielefeld in May 1994. I am indebted to the participants for helpful comments. I am also, and especially, indebted to comments from and discussions with Thomas Ryckman. All translations from the German are my own.     

Probabilistic models of cognition: conceptual foundations

Remarkable progress in the mathematics and computer science of probability has led to a revolution in the scope of probabilistic models. In particular, 'sophisticated' probabilistic methods apply to structured relational systems such as graphs and grammars, of immediate relevance to the cognitive sciences. This Special Issue outlines progress in this rapidly developing field, which provides a potentially unifying perspective across a wide range of domains and levels of explanation. Here, we introduce the historical and conceptual foundations of the approach, explore how the approach relates to studies of explicit probabilistic reasoning, and give a brief overview of the field as it stands today.     

The normative and conceptual foundations of a clinical duty to protect

The continuing controversy surrounding the Tarasoff inspired duty to protect as developed by the courts and legislatures has not adequately weighed the jurisprudential foundations of such an obligation. The authors argue that the duty's misguided thrust of social control grounded in character and status seriously violates broad principles of political morality underlying the law of social control. They conceptualize an alternative--a clinical duty to protect--that coheres with these underlying values and the limits of professional abilities. They contend that any extra-clinical intervention on the part of the psychotherapist entails a role transformation requiring independent justification.     

Collective memory: conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches

In order to outline the conceptual landscape that frames discussions of collective memory, three oppositions are proposed: collective memory versus collective remembering; history versus collective memory; and individual memory versus collective remembering. From this perspective collective remembering is viewed as an active process that often involves contention and contestation among people rather than a static body of knowledge that they possess. Collective remembering is also viewed as privileging identity formation and contestation over the sort of objective representation of the past that is the aspiration of formal historical analysis. And finally, while collective remembering involves individual minds, it also suggests something more in the form of socially situated individuals, a claim that can usefully be formulated in terms of how members of a groups share a common set of cultural tools (e.g., narrative forms) and similar content.     

Intuitionist type theory and foundations

A version of intuitionistic type theory is presented here in which all logical symbols are defined in terms of equality. This language is used to construct the so-called free topos with natural number object. It is argued that the free topos may be regarded as the universe of mathematics from an intuitionist's point of view.     

The effects of social ties on coordination: conceptual foundations for an empirical analysis

This paper investigates the influence that social ties can have on behavior. After defining the concept of social ties that we consider, we introduce an original model of social ties. The impact of such ties on social preferences is studied in a coordination game with outside option. We provide a detailed game theoretical analysis of this game while considering various types of players, i.e., self-interest maximizing, inequity averse, and fair agents. In addition to these approaches that require strategic reasoning in order to reach some equilibrium, we also present an alternative hypothesis that relies on the concept of team reasoning. After having discussed the differences between the latter and our model of social ties, we show how an experiment can be designed so as to discriminate among the models presented in the paper.     

Genetic engineering and contemporary democratic theory

Genetic engineering is discussed in relation to contemporary theories of individual rights, such as natural rights and liberalism, and theories of societal good, such as utilitarianism and the public interest. The social responsibility to future generations is explored. Different rationales for justifying limitations on reproductive rights are presented and discussed.