Tracks and affordances: The sources of a physical ontology

How is meaning assigned to those terms in a theory which are remote from direct observational instantiation? Models and analogies play a role, but close examination of theories in high energy physics shows that the design of experimental apparatus also influences the interpretation of such terms. Certain apparatus favours certain kinds of effects, and this affects the way mathematical theories are interpreted. In particular track producing apparatus becomes involved with theories in which photonic terms are picked out in the theory. A further conceptual constraint is thus introduced. It is argued that this situation favours the interpretation of dispositional properties as affordances rather than as simple dispositions.     

The role accorded to the public by philosophers of science 1

The role accorded to the public by scientists and philosophers of science has undergone an essential historical change in the last three centuries. Public participation in (witnessing of) scientific experiments was considered an important requirement for 17th century experimenters (e.g. for Boyle or Pascal). The cognitive role played by lay persons was later substantially downgraded; witnessing went out of fashion, while science became more and more esoteric and a matter for experts only. Part of this process was that all scientific disciplines became intensively compartmentalized and in consequence a rather puzzling or even paradoxical situation appeared: that the scientists themselves were and are being reduced epistemically to the status of lay persons, outside of their proper field of expertise (as was pointed out by J. Hardwig). The paper deals with some cognitive aspects of this historical process.     

Fractal Images of Formal Systems

Formal systems are standardly envisaged in terms of a grammar specifying well-formed formulae together with a set of axioms and rules. Derivations are ordered lists of formulae each of which is either an axiom or is generated from earlier items on the list by means of the rules of the system; the theorems of a formal system are simply those formulae for which there are derivations. Here we outline a set of alternative and explicitly visual ways of envisaging and analyzing at least simple formal systems using fractal patterns of infinite depth. Progressively deeper dimensions of such a fractal can be used to map increasingly complex wffs or increasingly complex value spaces, with tautologies, contradictions, and various forms of contingency coded in terms of color. This and related approaches, it turns out, offer not only visually immediate and geometrically intriguing representations of formal systems as a whole but also promising formal links (1) between standard systems and classical patterns in fractal geometry, (2) between quite different kinds of value spaces in classical and infinite-valued logics, and (3) between cellular automata and logic. It is hoped that pattern analysis of this kind may open possibilities for a geometrical approach to further questions within logic and metalogic.\looseness=-1     

Towards an Interactive Acculturation Model: A Social Psychological Approach

The first part of this paper proposes a continuum of ideological premises that seeks to account for the broad range of immigrant integration policies adopted by Western democratic states. In the second part, a review of Social Psychological models of immigrant acculturation strategies demonstrates the need to explain more clearly the interactive nature of immigrant and host community relations. The Interactive Acculturation Model (IAM) presented next proposes that relational outcomes are the product of the acculturation orientations of both the host majority and immigrant groups as influenced by state integration policies. The model makes predictions regarding the acculturation combinations most likely to produce consensual, problematic, and conflictual relational outcomes between immigrants and members of the host community. Social psychological research is needed to test the validity of the IAM model empirically.     

Attachement,solitude et détresse psychologique chez des jeunes adultes

La présente étude vise à examiner la nature des liens entre les styles d'attachement (sécurisant, anxieux/ambivalent et évitant), la solitude et la détresse psychologique (dépression, anxiété, agressivité et problèmes cognitifs) chez des jeunes adultes. L'échantillon se compose de 407 étudiants de niveau collégial dont l'âge moyen se situe à 18 ans. Les sujets doivent répondre à deux questionnaires d'évaluation du style d'attachement, à l'échelle de solitude UCLA, ainsi qu'à l'index de symptômes psychiatriques. Les résultats laissent voir que les individus ayant un style d'attachement sécurisant rapportent moins de symptômes de dépression et de sentiments de solitude que les sujets des styles anxieux/ambivalent et évitant. De même, ils vivent moins d'anxiété, d'agressivité et de problèmes cognitifs que les individus du style anxieux/ambivalent. Par ailleurs, les individus du style d'attachement anxieux/ambivalent sont plus déprimés, anxieux et agressifs que les individus du style évitant. Par contre, aucune différence significative ne ressort entre les sujets des styles d'attachement anxieux/ambivalent et évitant sur le plan des problèmes cognitifs et de la solitude. Des analyses de régression multiple montrent que l'attachement anxieux/ambivalent et la solitude expliquent un pourcentage significatif de la variance associée à la détresse psychologique. Enfin, il ressort que la solitude joue un rôle modérateur dans la relation unissant l'attachement non sécurisant et les problèmes de nature cognitive, alors qu'elle joue un rôle médiateur dans la relation entre l'attachement sécurisant, la dépression et l'anxiété.     

Cut-free sequent and tableau systems for propositional Diodorean modal logics

We present sound, (weakly) complete and cut-free tableau systems for the propositional normal modal logicsS4.3, S4.3.1 andS4.14. When the modality is given a temporal interpretation, these logics respectively model time as a linear dense sequence of points; as a linear discrete sequence of points; and as a branching tree where each branch is a linear discrete sequence of points.Although cut-free, the last two systems do not possess the subformula property. But for any given finite set of formulaeX the superformulae involved are always bounded by a finite set of formulaeX* _L depending only onX and the logicL. Thus each system gives a nondeterministic decision procedure for the logic in question. The completeness proofs yield deterministic decision procedures for each logic because each proof is constructive.Each tableau system has a cut-free sequent analogue proving that Gentzen's cut-elimination theorem holds for these latter systems. The techniques are due to Hintikka and Rautenberg.Presented byDov M. Gabbay