The first formalized proof of the indestructibility of a subsistent form

The article presents a formalization of Thomas Aquinas proof for the indestructibility of the human soul. The author of the formalization—the first of its kind in the history of philosophy—is Father Joseph Maria Bocheński. The presentation involves no more than updating the logical symbolism used and accompanies the logical formulae with ordinary language paraphrases in order to ease the reader’s understanding of the formulae. “The fundamental idea of the Thomist proof is of utmost simplicity: things which are destructible are destructible either per se or per accidens; but the human soul is destructible neither per se nor per accidens: therefore the human soul is not destructible”. Bochenski’s words required him to devote considerable effort for the sake of precision of the symbolic language that would be maximally adequate to Thomas’ discourse. Moreover, I have thought it necessary to provide an ample commentary to the traditional and contemporary semantical presuppositions of Aquinas philosophical anthropology in light of Bocheński’s interpretation thereof.     

Socratic Trees

The method of Socratic proofs (SP-method) simulates the solving of logical problem by pure questioning. An outcome of an application of the SP-method is a sequence of questions, called a Socratic transformation. Our aim is to give a method of translation of Socratic transformations into trees. We address this issue both conceptually and by providing certain algorithms. We show that the trees which correspond to successful Socratic transformations—that is, to Socratic proofs—may be regarded, after a slight modification, as Gentzen-style proofs. Thus proof-search for some Gentzen-style calculi can be performed by means of the SP-method. At the same time the method seems promising as a foundation for automated deduction.     

Social Problem-Solving Skills in Children with Traumatic Brain Injury: Long-Term Outcomes and Prediction of Social Competence

The effects of childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) on social problem-solving were examined in 35 children with severe TBI, 40 children with moderate TBI, and 46 children with orthopedic injuries (OI). The children were recruited prospectively following injuries that occurred between 6 and 12 years of age. They were followed longitudinally, and ranged from 9 to 18 years of age at the time of the current study, which occurred on average 4 years post injury. They were administered a semi-structured interview used in previous research on social problem-solving to assess the developmental level of their responses to hypothetical dilemmas involving social conflict. Children in the severe TBI group defined the social dilemmas and generated alternative strategies to solve those dilemmas at the same developmental level as did children in the OI group. However, they articulated lower-level strategies as the best way to solve the dilemmas and used lower-level reasoning to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies. After controlling for group membership, race, socioeconomic status, IQ, and age, children's social problem-solving, and particularly the developmental level of their preferred strategies for resolving conflicts, predicted parents ratings of children's social skills, peer relationships, aggressive behavior, and academic performance. The findings indicate that children with severe TBI demonstrate selective, long-term deficits in their social problem-solving skills that may help to account for their poor social and academic outcomes.     

The link between anger and admiration toward governmental actions and self-reported preventive behaviour in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, across six correlational studies in four different countries (total N = 4937), we examined the link between citizens' anger with and admiration for the government's actions and decisions (i.e., system-based anger and admiration) and engagement in preventive behaviour. The internal meta-analyses showed that individuals who admired the government's actions were more likely to adopt personal hygiene and social distancing behaviour. Yet, the link between emotions and preventive behaviour differed concerning the target of emotions, especially for anger. Specifically, anger about restrictions imposed by the government was negatively related to preventive behaviours, but this relationship was not significant when the target of anger was the government's overall handling of the pandemic. Our findings emphasise the importance of citizens' emotions and the targets of those emotions during the crisis.     

Uwagi o dowodzie sformalizowanym i konsekwencji

Allatum est die 8 Octobris 1968     

On the Logic of Acceptance and Rejection

The logic of acceptance and rejection (AEL2) is a nonmonotonic formalism to represent states of knowledge of an introspective agent making decisions about available information. Though having much in common, AEL2 differs from Moore's autoepistemic logic (AEL) by the fact that the agent not only can accept or reject a given fact, but he/she also has the possibility not to make any decision in case he/she does not have enough knowledge.