Remarks on the Modal Logic of Henry Bradford Smith

H. B. Smith, Professor of Philosophy at the influential Pennsylvania School was (roughly) a contemporary of C. I. Lewis who was similarly interested in a proper account of implication. His research also led him into the study of modal logic but in a different direction than Lewis was led. His account of modal logic does not lend itself as readily as Lewis' to the received possible worlds semantics, so that the Smith approach was a casualty rather than a beneficiary of the renewed interest in modality. In this essay we present some of the main points of the Smith approach, in a new guise.     

CE is Not a Conservative Extension of E

The logic CE (for Classical E) results from adding Boolean negation to Anderson and Belnap"s logic E. This paper shows that CE is not a conservative extension of E.     

Peer teaching: Students teaching students to increase academic performance

Peer teaching among students has a powerful role in the learning process and has been studied and recognized as an effective teaching method. Research on peer teaching applied in different contexts has shown that learning through the process of teaching others increases students' academic performance. In Indonesia, some research on peer teaching has been conducted, but there has been no research on peer teaching in the context of theological studies. Hence, this empirical study aims to verify whether peer teaching is effective when applied in a theological school setting. In this study, students of a homiletics course were the research sample. Results show that peer teaching had a positive effect on students' academic performance. However, further research is recommended on the application of peer teaching in other subject areas to confirm the effectiveness of peer teaching in a theological school context.     

ONE BRAIN,TWO MINDS: AN ESSAY ON PRIMORDIAL AND ADVANCED MENTAL ACTIVITY

The Primordial Mind in Health and Illness: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective. By Michael Robbins. London/New York: Routledge, 2011. 240 pp.     

FINDING THE SOMETHING IN NOTHING

Formless Infinity: Clinical Explorations of Matte Blanco and Bion. By Riccardo Lombardi. Translated by Karen Christenfeld, Gina Atkinson, Andrea Sabbadini, and Philip Slotkin. London/New York: Routledge, 2016. 282 pp.     

EAST ASIA AND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE—A PERSONAL QUEST

This essay is a reflection on the ways we understand East Asia, as well as how East Asia is related to our knowledge construction. In spite of the personal tone, which I use strategically to formulate arguments in a carefully designed narrative flow, the article remains critical throughout and its conclusion is clear: exploration of the essence of East Asian civilization can constitute a meaningful effort to reevaluate and even restructure our current world of knowledge.     

Logic programming,probability, and two-system accounts of reasoning: a rejoinder to Oaksford and Chater (2014)

This reply to Oaksford and Chater’s (O&C)’s critical discussion of our use of logic programming (LP) to model and predict patterns of conditional reasoning will frame the dispute in terms of the semantics of the conditional. We begin by outlining some common features of LP and probabilistic conditionals in knowledge-rich reasoning over long-term memory knowledge bases. For both, context determines causal strength; there are inferences from the absence of certain evidence; and both have analogues of the Ramsey test. Some current work shows how a combination of counting defeaters and statistics from network monitoring can provide the information for graded responses from LP reasoning. With this much introduction, we then respond to O&C’s specific criticisms and misunderstandings.     

Fuzzy logic-based observation and evaluation of pedestrians’ behavioral patterns by age and gender

Pedestrian behavior is affected by a multitude of factors such as age, gender, and operating conditions. However, traditional statistical analysis based on observed movements or questionnaire survey is unable to model decision-making process of each pedestrian. This study develops an innovative approach based on fuzzy logic to model the underlying cognitions and behavioral patterns of pedestrians as inferred from field observation in order to evaluate age and gender effect of pedestrians in crossing a signalized crosswalk and when jaywalking. Fuzzy sets and rules are created to model the relationship between human cognitions and decisions of an individual pedestrian. Through calibrating the membership functions of different age and gender groups, behavioral patterns of pedestrians are evaluated and compared. Different from most previous studies, both older and younger pedestrians are found to be less risk-taking than adult pedestrians. Moreover, significant gender difference is found only for cognitions of most hazardous conditions. Consistent with previous studies, it is seen that men have better cognitive skills than women at detecting hazardous situations. The findings from this study are useful to better design safe pedestrian crossing facilities. The fuzzy logic-based approach also provides an innovative way to simulate pedestrian movements in microscopic simulation models.