The Dialogical Approach to Paraconsistency

Being a pragmatic and not a referential approach tosemantics, the dialogical formulation ofparaconsistency allows the following semantic idea tobe expressed within a semi-formal system: In anargumentation it sometimes makes sense to distinguishbetween the contradiction of one of the argumentationpartners with himself (internal contradiction) and thecontradiction between the partners (externalcontradiction). The idea is that externalcontradiction may involve different semantic contextsin which, say A and ¬A have been asserted.The dialogical approach suggests a way of studying thedynamic process of contradictions through which thetwo contexts evolve for the sake of argumentation intoone system containing both contexts.More technically, we show a new, dialogical, way tobuild paraconsistent systems for propositional andfirst-order logic with classical and intuitionisticfeatures (i.e. paraconsistency both with and withouttertium non-datur) and present theircorresponding tableaux.     

Towards a semantics for the artifactual theory of fiction and beyond

In her book Fiction and Metaphysics (1999) Amie Thomasson, influenced by the work of Roman Ingarden, develops a phenomenological approach to fictional entities in order to explain how non-fictional entities can be referred to intrafictionally and transfictionally, for example in the context of literary interpretation. As our starting point we take Thomasson’s realist theory of literary fictional objects, according to which such objects actually exist, albeit as abstract and artifactual entities. Thomasson’s approach relies heavily on the notion of ontological dependence, but its precise semantics has not yet been developed. Moreover, the modal approach to the notion of ontological dependence underlying the Artifactual Theory has recently been contested by several scholars. The main aims of this paper are (i) to develop a semantic approach to the notion of ontological dependence in the context of the Artifactual Theory of fiction, and in so doing bridge a number of philosophical and logical gaps; (ii) to generalize Thomasson’s categorial theory of ontological dependence by reconstructing ontological categories of entities purely in terms of different structures of ontological dependence, rather than in terms of the basic kinds of entities the categorical entities depend on.     

Discrete emotions effect on consumer evaluation and behaviour: A contextual perspective and directions for future research

Emotions are the focal factor influencing consumer evaluation and behaviour. However, the present literature remains fragmented owing to conflicting findings on effects of emotions. Identifying moderator(s) of emotion's effect resolves these inconsistencies and helps comprehend when emotions are effective marketing tools. This study jointly reviews the literature on eight discrete emotions spanning over two decades (2000–2021), synthesizing and analysing the research on moderators attenuating, intensifying, or even reversing the effect of discrete emotions, documenting them at an individual and situational level. Based on that, an integrated contextually bounded emotion effect framework is advanced that resolves inconsistencies in literature and enables us to (1) draw instructive insights around discrete emotion dynamic effects owing to contextual variability, (2) identify similarities/differences within/across emotions and contextual factors (3) provide research-informed managerial implication and directions for future research.     

Jesus and Muhammad

This essay foregrounds the reformatory teachings of two of the greatest men that walked the earth – Jesus and Muhammad. The majority of the followers of these honoured prophets attribute their success to the power and influence of their transcultural theologies and see them as nothing more than founders of independent religions. Another presumption is that their religions are mutually exclusive. This essay looks beyond creedal orthodoxies and inflexible articles of faith to find commonalities in the approaches of prophets Jesus and Muhammad while exploring the possibility of imagining their missions as liberatory responses to the socio-political conditions that prevailed during their times.     

Context-Sensitivity in Jain Philosophy: A Dialogical Study of Siddharṣigaṇi’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Commentary on the Handbook of Logic</Emphasis>

In classical India, Jain philosophers developed a theory of viewpoints (naya-vāda) according to which any statement is always performed within and dependent upon a given epistemic perspective or viewpoint. The Jainas furnished this epistemology with an (epistemic) theory of disputation that takes into account the viewpoint in which the main thesis has been stated. The main aim of our paper is to delve into the Jain notion of viewpoint-contextualisation and to develop the elements of a suitable logical system that should offer a reconstruction of the Jainas’ epistemic theory of disputation. A crucial step of our project is to approach the Jain theory of disputation with the help of a theory of meaning for logical constants based on argumentative practices called dialogical logic. Since in the dialogical framework the meaning of the logical constants is given by the norms or rules for their use in a debate, it provides a meaning theory closer to the Jain context-sensitive disputation theory than the main-stream formal model-theoretic semantics.     

Now you see it … and now again: Semantic interference reflects lexical competition in speech production with and without articulation

Semantic interference effects in the picture—word interference (PWI) paradigm have long been assumed to reflect competitive mechanisms during lexical selection, a core component of the speech production system. However, recent observations of facilitative effects have cast doubt on the usefulness of the paradigm for investigating lexicalization, and on the existence of lexical competition in general. An alternative proposal suggests that lexical selection is not by competition, and that interference effects reflect articulatory processes outside the lexical system. Here, we contrast these theoretical alternatives with semantic distractor effects in the PWI paradigm. In two tasks, pictures were either overtly named or the names were manually classified. Interference effects of comparable magnitude were observed in both response modalities, regardless of whether the names were articulated or not. This finding supports lexical competition models and suggests that the articulators are not the source of interference in the PWI paradigm. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://pbr.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Attitudes of Malaysian Teachers Toward a Performance-Appraisal System

This study investigated the attitudes of teachers of different ethnic origins in Malaysia toward an outcome-oriented performance appraisal, the New Performance Appraisal System (NPAS). It also investigated the relationship between teachers' attitudes toward the system and their job satisfaction and professional commitment. Teachers of the major ethnic origins in Malaysia—Malays, Chinese, and Indians—were selected randomly from 6 public high schools in the state of Kedah. The study found that teachers of all ethnic origins reported less favorable attitudes toward the NPAS, and that their cultural dimension had no bearing on attitudes toward the NPAS. Teachers who received appropriate explanation and supervision of their performance, despite low performance-appraisal results, reported high levels of job satisfaction and professional commitment.     

The Interactive Effect of Outcome Favorability and Procedural Justice in Work Resource Allocation on Work Performance1

Prior research has indicated that people have particularly negative reactions to a situation where they receive an unfavorable distribution of resources that was established by means of an unfair allocation procedure. Studies that have examined this interaction between resource allocation outcomes and procedures with respect to its effect on individual work performance have produced equivocal results, however. The present study extends this work by testing the proposed interactive effect on performance in a work resource allocation context. As hypothesized, laboratory subjects had particularly low task performance when both of the following conditions were present: (a) They received an unfavorable distribution of a helpful work resource, and (b) the work resource was allocated through an unfair procedure. The results are discussed in the context of 5 alternative theoretical frameworks that have been proposed to explain the focal interaction.     

Brain-potential evidence for the time course of access to biographical facts and names of familiar persons

On seeing familiar persons, biographical (semantic) information is typically retrieved faster and more accurately than name information. Serial stage models explain this pattern by suggesting that access to the name follows the retrieval of semantic information. In contrast, interactive activation and competition (IAC) models hold that both processes start together but name retrieval is slower because of structural peculiarities. With a 2-choice go/no-go procedure based on a semantic and a name-related classification, the authors tested differential predictions of the 2 alternative models for reaction times (RTs) and lateralized readiness potentials (LRP). Both LRP (Experiment 1) and RT (Experiment 2) results are in line with IAC models of face identification and naming.