Comparing natural and abstract categories: A case study from computer science

In order to address the issue of whether abstract and concrete objects are categorized similarly, this paper looks at how computer scientists categorize the common concepts of their field. Using the methodology of Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson, and Boyes-Braem (1976) and of Rosch and Mervis (1975) to identify the categorizations used by computer scientists, this study found that the categorization phenomena reported for concrete objects are quite general, operating over a wider range than was previously thought.     

论帛书《二三子问》中的"精白"

本文讨论帛书<易传>第一篇<二三子问>的时代问题.依据传世文献材料和出土文献,并根据思想观念的发展规律,指出<二三子问>中出现的"精白"一词,已见于<鹃冠子·度万>,进而分析在孔子的时代,有可能出现"精白"这样的概念以及出现押韵的占语,对于<二三子问>的年代作出了新的推测.认为此篇时代当较早,并没有受到黄老思想的影响,有可能就是孔门弟子录所闻于夫子,整理成篇.     

《周易·需卦》管窥

对于<周易>的解读,诸家各执一辞,令人莫知所从.本文参考古今诸家论著,并对其中"需于沙","自我致寇","出于穴","入于穴"等分岐较多的疑点进行了深入辨析.力图探求<需卦>的微言大义,以兹引起世人对<周易>当中蕴含的伟大人文哲学思想和科学精蕴的全新关注.     

Aquinas on Natural Law and the Virtues in Biblical Context Homosexuality as a Test Case

Marriagelike homosexual relationships expose a division among ethicists following Aquinas. Those emphasizing natural law may call such relationships unnatural; those emphasizing the virtues may approve of relationships fostering love and justice. Natural law, the virtues, and homosexuality all show up in Aquinas's Commentary on Romans —untranslated and hardly cited. Romans 1:18 opens a discussion of justice. Verse 20 provides Aquinas's chief warrant for natural law. Verse 26 applies virtue and law to "the vice against nature." But Aquinas's account also depends on Paul as an exemplar of virtue and on Aquinas's high regard for the Bible. Aquinas deploys natural law as a mode of biblical exegesis, not an alternative to it. In the De potentia , Aquinas considers how to proceed when nature and Scripture seem to conflict. The account does not settle, but rather makes more room for, dispute.     

THE CLASSICAL CONFUCIAN POSITION ON THE LEGITIMATE USE OF MILITARY FORCE

Focusing on the thought of Mencius and Xunzi, this essay reconstructs and examines the classical Confucian position on the legitimate use of military force. It begins by sketching historically important political concepts, such as types of political leaders, politics of the kingly way versus politics of the hegemonic way, and the controversial role of lords‐protector. It then moves on to explore Confucian criteria for justifying resort to the use of force, giving special attention to undertaking punitive expeditions to interdict and punish aggression and tyranny. Following this discussion, the essay then attends to important Confucian moral constraints on how military force is properly employed, including prohibitions on attacking the defenseless, indiscriminate slaughter of enemy forces, destruction of civilian infrastructure, prisoner abuse, and non‐consensual annexation of territory. The essay concludes by first discussing an illustrative case from Mencius and then comparing its reconstruction of the Confucian position to those offered by other scholars.     

Analysis of meteorological conditions in Spain by means of clustering techniques

A comprehensive analysis of clustering techniques is presented in this paper through their application to data on meteorological conditions. Six partitional and hierarchical clustering techniques (k-means, k-medoids, SOM k-means, Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering, and Clustering based on Gaussian Mixture Models) with different distance criteria, together with some clustering evaluation measures (Calinski–Harabasz, Davies–Bouldin, Gap and Silhouette criterion clustering evaluation object), present various analyses of the main climatic zones in Spain. Real-life data sets, recorded by AEMET (Spanish Meteorological Agency) at four of its weather stations, are analyzed in order to characterize the actual weather conditions at each location. The clustering techniques process the data on some of the main daily meteorological variables collected at these stations over six years between 2004 and 2010.     

Resisting easy inferences1

Amie Thomasson has articulated a novel conception of ontological debates, defending an easy approach to ontological questions as part of the articulation of a deflationary metaphysical view (Thomasson, 2015). After raising some concerns to the approach, we sketch a neutralist alternative to her ontological framework, offering an even easier way of conducting ontological debates.