String theory promises to be able to provide us with a working theory of quantum gravity and a unified description of all fundamental forces. In string theory there are so called ‘dualities’; i.e. different theoretical formulations that are physically equivalent. In this article these dualities are investigated from a philosophical point of view. Semantic and epistemic questions relating to the problem of underdetermination of theories by data and the debate on realism concerning scientific theories are discussed. Depending on ones views (...) on semantic issues and realism different interpretations are possible of the dualities. (shrink)

This is a nontechnical overview of how various approaches to quantum gravity suggest modifications to the way we conceptualize space and time. A theory of quantum gravity is needed to reconcile quantum physics with general relativity, our best theory for gravity. The most popular approaches to quantum gravity are string theory and loop quantum gravity. So far, no approach has been empirically successful, and there is no commonly accepted theory. Thus, the conclusions presented here are tentative. Many approaches suggest that (...) space and time—or perhaps, it is better to talk about spacetime—might not be fundamental. Various views on how to think about time in quantum gravity are briefly presented. (shrink)

A collection of essays discussing the philosophy and foundations of quantum gravity. Written by leading philosophers and physicists in the field, chapters cover the important conceptual questions in the search for a quantum theory of gravity, and the current state of understanding among philosophers and physicists.

In this paper, some conceptual issues are addressed in order to make sense of what string theory is supposed to tell us about spacetime. The dualities in string theory are used as a starting point for our argumentation. We explore the consequences of a standard view towards these dualities, namely that the dual descriptions represent the same physical situation. Given this view, one has to understand string theory in a manner such that what counts as physical spacetime is based only (...) on the shared physical content—or common core—of the dual descriptions. In general such a spatiotemporal picture does not have to agree with, or be similar to, any of the ones suggested by naïve readings of the dual descriptions. However, in certain regimes or limits, one or the other of the initial dual descriptions may give a good effective description of physical spacetime. (shrink)

String theory has been the dominating research field in theoretical physics during the last decades. Despite the considerable time elapse, no new testable predictions have been derived by string theorists and it is understandable that doubts have been voiced. Some people have argued that it is time to give up since testability is wanting. But the majority has not been convinced and they continue to believe that string theory is the right way to go. This situation is interesting for philosophy (...) of science since it highlights several of our central issues. In this paper we will discuss string theory from a number of different perspectives in general methodology. We will also relate the realism/antirealism debate to the current status of string theory. Our goal is two-fold; both to take a look at string theory from philosophical perspectives and to use string theory as a test case for some philosophical issues. (shrink)

We show that if κ is an inaccessible cardinal then P κ λ splits into $\lambda^{ many disjoint stationary subsets. We also show that if P κ λ carries a strongly saturated ideal then the nonstationary ideal cannot be λ + -saturated.

While an increasing number of organizations have introduced artificial intelligence as an important facilitating tool for learning online, the application of artificial intelligence in e-learning has become a hot topic for research in recent years. Over the past few decades, the importance of online learning has also been a concern in many fields, such as technological education, STEAM, AR/VR apps, online learning, amongst others. To effectively explore research trends in this area, the current state of online learning should be understood. (...) Systematic bibliometric analysis can address this problem by providing information on publishing trends and their relevance in various topics. In this study, the literary application of artificial intelligence combined with online learning from 2010 to 2021 was analyzed. In total, 64 articles were collected to analyze the most productive countries, universities, authors, journals and publications in the field of artificial intelligence combined with online learning using VOSviewer through WOS data collection. In addition, the mapping of co-citation and co-occurrence was explored by analyzing a knowledge map. The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the trends and pathways in artificial intelligence and online learning to help researchers understand global trends and future research directions. (shrink)

Many contemporary physicists suggest that we should take the claim that we live in a multiverse seriously. When doing this they often invoke arguments based on the controversial anthropic principle. Critics argue that this leads to untestable and unscientific theories. In this paper criteria are suggested that need to be satisfied before a multiverse theory should be considered scientifically respectable. One important point is that the multiverse is described in sufficient detail. In some cases, a multiverse theory can be testable; (...) however, to properly test a multiverse theory it is important to distinguish new predictions from explanations based on the multiverse. (shrink)

The modeling of black holes is an important desideratum for any quantum theory of gravity. Not only is a classical black hole metric sought, but also agreement with the laws of black hole thermodynamics. In this paper, we describe how these goals are achieved in string theory. We review black hole thermodynamics, and then explicate the general stringy derivation of classical spacetimes, the construction of a simple black hole solution, and the derivation of its entropy. With that in hand, we (...) address some important philosophical and conceptual questions: the confirmatory value of the derivation, the bearing of the model on recent discussions of the so-called ‘information paradox’, and the implications of the model for the nature of space. (shrink)

Contractualist work in business ethics as well as in economic organization theory views opportunistic behaviors as problematic since they create economic harm and are often considered to violate ethical norms. Yet, much of the empirical literature on opportunism has adopted a rather simplistic definition of opportunistic behaviors as behaviors that violate formal and/or relational contracts and assumed that instances of opportunism can be unequivocally defined by simply referring to the content of contracts. The consequence of this assumption has been a (...) disregard for factors other than the content of contracts that may influence whether exchange partners judge an unexpected behavior they face during exchange relationships as opportunistic or not. The present investigation explores the factors that shape exchange partners’ subjective opportunism judgments through two vignette-based laboratory experiments. Results from the first experiment, where subjects were asked to take the perspective of a harmed party, show that opportunism judgments are influenced by the type of the behavior, type of the causal account provided for the behavior, perceived type of the exchange, and personality traits of the actor making the judgment. The second experiment, in which subjects were asked to take the perspective of the transgressor, demonstrates the influence of perspective. In particular, victims are more likely to assess a given unexpected behavior as opportunistic than transgressors, and their judgments do not relate to the underlying factors in the same way as the victims’ judgments. I discuss implications in terms of the governance of interfirm exchange relationships. (shrink)

We apply the technique of generic ultrapowers to study the splitting problem of stationary subsets of P K λ . We present some conditions which guarantee the splitting of stationary subsets of P K λ.

We prove that if λ is a strong limit singular cardinal and κ a regular uncountable cardinal < λ, then NSκλ, the non-stationary ideal over [Formula: see text], is nowhere precipitous. We also show that under the same hypothesis every stationary subset of [Formula: see text] can be partitioned into λκ disjoint stationary sets.

Critical study on the contribution of Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902 to modern Indian philosophy.

In this paper we will present a simple condition for an ideal to be nowhere precipitous. Through this condition we show nowhere precipitousness of fundamental ideals onPkλ, in particular the non-stationary idealNSkλunder cardinal arithmetic assumptions.In this sectionIdenotes a non-principal ideal on an infinite setA. LetI+=PA/I(ordered by inclusion as a forcing notion) andI∣X= {Y⊂A:Y⋂X∈I}, which is also an ideal onAforX∈I+. We refer the reader to [8, Section 35] for the general theory of generic ultrapowers associated with an ideal. We recallIis said (...) to be precipitous if ⊨I+“Ult(V, Ġ) is well-founded” [9].The central notion of this paper is a strong negation of precipitousness [1]:Definition.Iis nowhere precipitous ifI∣Xis not precipitous for everyX∈ I+i.e., ⊨I+“Ult(V, Ġ) is ill-founded.”It is useful to characterize nowhere precipitousness in terms of infinite games (see [11, Section 27]). Consider the following gameG(I) between two players, Nonempty and Empty [5]. Nonempty and Empty alternately chooseXn∈I+andYn∈I+respectively so thatXn⊃Yn⊃n+1. After ω moves, Empty wins the game if⋂n<ωXn=⋂n<ωYn= Ø.See [5, Theorem 2] for a proof of the following characterization.Proposition.I is nowhere precipitous if and only if Empty has a winning strategy in G(I). (shrink)

We introduce the notion of skinniness for subsets of $\mathcal{P}_\kappa \lambda$ and its variants, namely skinnier and skinniest. We show that under some cardinal arithmetical assumptions, precipitousness or $2^\lambda$-saturation of $\mathrm{NS}_{\kappa\lambda}\mid X$, where $\mathrm{NS}_{\kappa\lambda}$ denotes the non-stationary ideal over $\mathcal{P}_\kappa \lambda$, implies the existence of a skinny stationary subset of $X$. We also show that if $\lambda$ is a singular cardinal, then there is no skinnier stationary subset of $\mathcal{P}_\kappa \lambda$. Furthermore, if $\lambda$ is a strong limit singular cardinal, there (...) is no skinny stationary subset of $\mathcal{P}_\kappa \lambda$. Combining these results, we show that if $\lambda$ is a strong limit singular cardinal, then $\mathrm{NS}_{\kappa\lambda}\mid X$ can satisfy neither precipitousness nor $2^\lambda$-saturation for every stationary $X \subseteq \mathcal{P}_\kappa \lambda$. We also indicate that $\diamondsuit_\lambda(E^{\lambda}_{<\kappa})$, where $E^{\lambda}_{<\kappa} \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=} \{\alpha < \lambda \mid \mathrm{cf}(\alpha) < \kappa\}$, is equivalent to the existence of a skinnier (or skinniest) stationary subset of $\mathcal{P}_\kappa \lambda$ under some cardinal arithmetical hypotheses. (shrink)

世界に日本文化として「禅の思想」を広めた鈴木大拙。彼の無二の親友であり近代日本が生み出した最大の哲学者といわれている、西田幾多郎。その、難解といわれる西田の思想を「普段の生活の中から掴み出し現実化し、 具体的な経験と結びつけて解き明かした」画期的入門書。.

In an effort to build on the current knowledge of ethical behaviour in Asia this paper proposes to replicate existing ethical research and to investigate specific questions relating to intra-cultural differences in Hong Kong. Four major conclusions were derived from this descriptive empirical study. A statistically significant correlation exists between age and ethical beliefs, with older employees less likely to express agreement to an unethical action than younger employees. In contrast to many previous studies no statistically significant differences in ethical (...) beliefs were found in relation to gender, level in the organisation, company size, and whether the respondent worked in a multinational or local company. Significant differences in responses to ethical dilemmas were identified between local and expatriate personnel with expatriate respondents indicating a lower level of agreement to unethical actions. For local respondents, of Hong Kong origin, there was no significant correlation between level of education, religiosity, years of business experience, functional origin and their ethical responses. (shrink)

Le réseau Labornet a été créé en Californie en 1991 par des syndicalistes, pour donner un nouveau souffle au mouvement ouvrier. Il est aujourd'hui présent dans une dizaine de pays industrialisés, en Amérique du Nord, en Europe et en Asie. La branche japonaise, Labornet Japan, est née en 2001 avec l'aide des militants coréens. À travers une série d'événements annuels comme la Labor Fiesta ou la campagne Union, Yes !, la diffusion de vidéos sur Union-Tube, le réseau Labornet Japan a (...) su développer une nouvelle culture militante qui dépasse les vieux clivages politiques et syndicaux. En dépit de la multiplication des contrats précaires, il attire de nombreux jeunes vers l'action collective.LaborNet network was established in California in 1991 by trade unionists, to reinvigorate the labor movement. It is currently present in ten countries in North America, Europe and Asia. The Japanese branch, LaborNet Japan, was founded in 2001 with the help of Korean activists. Through a series of annual events like the Fiesta or the Labor Union campaign, Yes!, Dissemination of EU-Tube videos on the network LaborNet Japan has developed a new activist culture that goes beyond the old political divisions and labor. Despite the proliferation of precarious contracts, it attracts many young people to collective action. (shrink)

We show that if $\kappa$ is an inaccessible cardinal then $P_\kappa\lambda$ splits into $\lambda^{<\kappa}$ many disjoint stationary subsets. We also show that if $P_\kappa\lambda$ carries a strongly saturated ideal then the nonstationary ideal cannot be $\lambda^+$-saturated.

A special supplement [of Kuang-ming Daily] published an article by Comrade Chu-ko Yin-t'ung entitled "Can the Law of Contradiction Be Contravened?"; in it he maintains that the law of contradiction, as well as the other laws of formal logic, must be observed in every situation. "When thinking dialectically, the laws of formal logic must always be observed." His chief argument is that "we have still not found an example in which the law of contradiction has been contravened." In addition to (...) explaining the three generally accepted judgments resulting from dialectical thinking on the definitions, etc., of mechanical motion, he asserts that they actually contain no "logical contradictions." There are, however, other arguments; and since, after the article was published, there were some who opposed it and some who agreed with it, I thought I would contribute to the discussion. (shrink)

In Nos. 105 and 121 of the Kuang-ming Daily "Philosophical Supplement," there were two articles by Ch'ieh Ta-yu: "Some Opinions on the Problem of Determining the Object of Dialectical Logic" and "The Marxist Dialectical Method and Dialectical Logic." The first is quite general, while the second "elucidates the connections and differences" between dialectics and dialectical logic discussed in the first article. Almost all the basic points in both articles are erroneous. Actually, the author waves the banner of antidogmatism and expounds (...) a revisionist point of view. We will now refute his contentions. (shrink)