This article presents research on robot therapy for elderly residents in a care house. Experiments were conducted from June 2005, lasting more than 2 months. Two therapeutic baby seal robots were introduced to the residents, and activated for over 9 hours daily. To investigate the psychological and social effects of the robots, the residents’ activities in public areas were recorded using video cameras, during the daytime for over 2 months. In addition, urinalysis of the residents was performed for 17-ketosteroid sulfate (...) and 17-hydroxycorticosteroid. Results of the video analysis indicated that social interaction increased through interaction with the seal robots. Results of the urine tests showed that the reactions of the subjects’ vital organs to stress improved after the introduction of the robots. (shrink)

Jainism is characterized by an observance of non-violence (ahimsa) and asceticism (tapas). In the field of philosophy, it is marked by the doctrine of manifold aspects (anekantavada). The purpose of this study is to explore the inseparable connection between Jainism as a religion and as a philosophy. The first chapterdescribes the position of philosophical thinking in Jainism, while the second examines the doctrine of manifold aspects, which has become synonymous with Jainism. These exploration makes it clear that most of Jaina (...) philosophers have not moved beyond their religious framework into the realm of pure philosophy, even though they have developed philosophical doctrine called the doctrine of manifold aspects. Finally, I introduce Haribhadra’s statement that could becalled an ideal form of the doctrine of manifold aspects. He deals with Kapila (thought to be the founder of the Samkhya school) impartially, and he deals with Mahavira, who founded Jainism, critically. It is interesting that such an idea was stated by a philosopher who was placed in a religious framework. Though thismay be a rare case, it shows the possibility that the philosophical thinking of Jainism has the potential to go beyond its own religious framework. (shrink)

Our empirical beliefs beyond sense impressions and the memories of them cannot be justified. Logically we must be complete skeptics. This is the consequence of Hume’s skeptical argument against induction. Should we accept this conclusion or not? This is the so-called problem of induction. In this paper I propose a new solution that belongs to the 'dissolutionist’ tradition (Strawson 1952, Okasha 2001). Through criticizing the core argument in Hume’s skepticism I claim the following: Hume’s skepticism against induction does not succeed (...) in denying the soundness of induction. We are not required to justify induction generally. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Japan Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies:A Report on the 2008 Annual MeetingTerao KazuyoshiThe 2008 annual meeting of the Japan Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies was held at the Palace Side Hotel in Kyoto on 1–3 September. The main theme of the meeting was the "Possibility of Religious Philosophy." The meeting consisted of four sessions, one research presentation, and a general overview on the final day.Two sessions were staged on the (...) first day. They dealt with a reconsideration of the religious philosophy of Jan Van Bragt (1928–2007), following the meeting in 2007, which generally covered his academic contributions. First, Keta Masako (Kyoto University) read a paper titled "A Configuration in the Contemporary World: A Response to Jan Van Bragt's Expectation and Disappointment at the Kyoto School of Philosophy." (Unfortunately I was unable to attend this session, so I am not able to summarize the presentation.) Next, Hanaoka Eiko (Nara University of Industry) presented a paper titled "In Search of the New Possibility of Religious Philosophy: Fundamental Experience and a Turning Point for Philosophy." She insisted that we need to keep in mind an overview of the religious philosophies of Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, and Nishitani Keiji in order to understand Van Bragt's criticism of the Kyoto school. Nishida's ideas of the "logic of the place of nothingness" and the "unity of mind and body" work together, she suggested; this polarity was "one," in accordance with the idea of the "self-identity of absolute contradictions." But in Hanaoka's opinion, Van Bragt sometimes placed a disproportionate emphasis on one side of the polarity. Hanaoka identified ten polarities in Nishida's absolute nothingness: (1) philosophy of self-awareness and philosophy of existence, (2) substantial philosophy and non-substantial philosophy, (3) experience and rationality, (4) plurality and unity, (5) continuity and discontinuity, (6) temporality and eternity, (7) matter and spirit, (8) process and reality, (9) true self and ego, and (10) philosophy and the philosophy of philosophy. Hanaoka argued that Van Bragt's doubts would have disappeared if he had fully experienced love as that which emanates from the "oneness" of the polarity of absolute nothingness.On the second day of the meeting, Peter Baekelmans gave a presentation titled "The Faith of The Awakening Faith in Mahayana." While Baekelmans studied Buddhism, [End Page 147] particularly esoteric Buddhism, at Koyasan University, he became acquainted with the Daijōkishinron (The awakening faith in Mahayana) and began to translate it into English. He found that the Hindu term śraddhā meant both "hope for achieving the goal" and "confidence in the method," and that the former corresponded to the "faith of Mahayana" and the latter to the "generation of faith of Mahayana." Baekelmans then attempted to demonstrate that the Awakening of Faith was composed in India. In addition, from the perspective of phenomenology he argued that belief as the essence of the religious phenomenon and practice as the phenomenon itself together form a unified spirituality. The deeper that belief becomes, he said, the less important the difference between belief and practice becomes. Some textual scholars in the audience objected to that line of thought, suggesting that we needed more circumspect analysis in order to accept such a perspective.At the third session, Kim Seung-Chul (Kinjōgakuin University) read a paper on "Christian Theology Facing Religion and Science." He called the relation of religion and science a "double reflection," referring to theories by sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson and philosopher of science Ian Barbour. Kim interpreted religion and science in Nishitani as a "superposition" of existential order. Kim focused on two meanings of nondiscrimination according to Nishitani: "nondiscrimination in nature," found in science, and "nondiscrimination in love," found in religion. The former was symbolized by matter and the latter by life. The place where these two nondiscriminations coincide, he said, is exactly the "standpoint of emptiness." Kim concluded that we must recognize that this "standpoint of emptiness" was the place where the "problem of Christianity and other religions" and the "problem of Christianity and science" can be dealt with simultaneously as "in an absolutely equal status" for their resolution.Kobayashi Enshō (Hanazono University), the respondent to Kim's paper... (shrink)

We define and investigate a uniformly locally o-minimal structure of the second kind in this paper. All uniformly locally o-minimal structures of the second kind have local monotonicity, which is a local version of monotonicity theorem of o-minimal structures. We also demonstrate a local definable cell decomposition theorem for definably complete uniformly locally o-minimal structures of the second kind. We define dimension of a definable set and investigate its basic properties when the given structure is a locally o-minimal structure which (...) admits local definable cell decomposition. (shrink)

This paper gives new confluence proofs for several lambda calculi with permutation-like reduction, including lambda calculi corresponding to intuitionistic and classical natural deduction with disjunction and permutative conversions, and a lambda calculus with explicit substitutions. For lambda calculi with permutative conversion, naïve parallel reduction technique does not work, and traditional notion of residuals is required as Ando pointed out. This paper shows that the difficulties can be avoided by extending the technique proposed by Dehornoy and van Oostrom, called the Z (...) theorem: existence of a mapping on terms with the Z property concludes the confluence. Since it is still hard to directly define a mapping with the Z property for the lambda calculi with permutative conversions, this paper extends the Z theorem to compositional functions, called compositional Z, and shows that we can adopt it to the calculi. (shrink)

Consider a definably complete uniformly locally o-minimal expansion of the second kind of a densely linearly ordered abelian group. Let $f:X \rightarrow R^n$ be a definable map, where X is a definable set and R is the universe of the structure. We demonstrate the inequality $\dim ) \leq \dim $ in this paper. As a corollary, we get that the set of the points at which f is discontinuous is of dimension smaller than $\dim $. We also show that the (...) structure is definably Baire in the course of the proof of the inequality. (shrink)

Although dual-process or divided-mind models of self-control dominate the literature, they suffer from empirical and conceptual challenges. We propose an alternative approach, suggesting that self-control can be characterized by a fragmented part versus integrated whole dynamic. Whereas responses to events derived from fragmented parts of the mind undermine self-control, responses to events derived from integrated wholes enhance self-control. We review empirical evidence from psychology and related disciplines that support this model. We, moreover, discuss the implications of this work for psychology, (...) neuroscience, economics, and philosophy. In particular, we highlight how this model addresses many of the conceptual and empirical short-comings of divided-mind models. We suggest that understanding self-control as the interplay between fragmented parts versus integrated wholes, moreover, provides novel insights and testable new hypotheses. (shrink)

We consider locally o-minimal structures possessing tame topological properties shared by models of DCTC and uniformly locally o-minimal expansions of the second kind of densely linearly ordered abelian groups. We derive basic properties of dimension of a set definable in the structures including the addition property, which is the dimension equality for definable maps whose fibers are equi-dimensional. A decomposition theorem into quasi-special submanifolds is also demonstrated.

We first show that the projection image of a discrete definable set is again discrete for an arbitrary definably complete locally o‐minimal structure. This fact together with the results in a previous paper implies a tame dimension theory and a decomposition theorem into good‐shaped definable subsets called quasi‐special submanifolds. Using this fact, we investigate definably complete locally o‐minimal expansions of ordered groups when the restriction of multiplication to an arbitrary bounded open box is definable. Similarly to o‐minimal expansions of ordered (...) fields, Łojasiewicz's inequality, Tietze's extension theorem and affiness of pseudo‐definable spaces hold true for such structures under the extra assumption that the domains of definition and the pseudo‐definable spaces are definably compact. Here, a pseudo‐definable space is a topological space having finite definable atlases. We also demonstrate Michael's selection theorem for definable set‐valued functions with definably compact domains of definition. (shrink)

If no property of a system of many particles discriminates among the particles, they are said to be indistinguishable. This indistinguishability is equivalent to the requirement that the many-particle distribution function and all of the dynamic functions for the system be symmetric. The indistinguishability defined in terms of the discrete symmetry of many-particle functions cannot change in the continuous classical statistical limit in which the number density n and the reciprocal temperature β become small. Thus, microscopic particles like electrons must (...) remain indistinguishable in the classical statistical limit although their behavior can be calculated as if they move following the classical laws of motion. In the classical mechanical limit in which quantum cells of volume (2πħ)3 are reduced to points in the phase space, the partition functionTr{exp(−βĤ) for N identical bosons (fermions) approaches (2πħ)−3N(N!) ∫ ... ∫ d3r1 d3p1 ... d3rN d3pN exp(−βH). The two factors, (2πħ)−3N and (N!)−1, which are often added in anad hoc manner in many books on statistical mechanics, are thus derived from the first principles. The criterion of the classical statistical approximation is that the thermal de Broglie wavelength be much shorter than the interparticle distance irrespective of any translation-invariant interparticle interaction. A new derivation of the Maxwell velocity distribution from Boltzmann's principle is given with the assumption of indistinguishable classical particles. (shrink)

In this article, we provide an ethical analysis of the first porcine cardiac xenotransplant, performed in Maryland, USA in early 2022. David Bennett was offered the experimental procedure after he was deemed ineligible for human heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support, based on a history of non-compliance. It was reported that Mr Bennett’s previous instances of non-compliance were for medically non-life-threatening conditions years earlier, where the risks of non-compliance were not as high. We argue that, in Mr Bennett’s case, a (...) history of non-compliance in a different context, should not necessarily rule him ineligible for a potentially life-saving treatment now. Furthermore, using previous non-compliance to exclude individuals from donor organs may have the unintended effect of placing the burden of testing xenotransplantation on those who are already disadvantaged. We then argue that it is not enough to rely on patient consent to ethically justify xenotransplantation research. Taking a broad ethical perspective is crucial when mapping a clinical pathway for xenotransplantation. (shrink)

Dans 'les Deux sources de la morale et de la religion', Bergson évoque rarement le Japon. Et pourtant dans le quatrième chapitre du même texte, intitulé Remarques finales 'Mécanique et mystique', c'était lui qui a bien prévu Hiroshima avec ces mots testamentaires: ' Il faut que tous se battent contre tous, comme firent les hordes des premiers temps. Seulement on se bat avec les armes forgées par notre civilisation, et les massacres sont d'une horreur que les anciens n'auraient même pas (...) imaginée. Au train dont va la science, le jour approche où l'un des adversaires, possesseur d'un secret qu'il tenait en réserve, aura le moyen de supprimer l'autre'. Ainsi se pose la question de savoir comment envisager les Deux Sources, à travers les relations assez particulières de ce philosophe avec le Japon. À partir de cette interrogation, PBJ (Projet Bergson au Japon) a organisé, aux 5-8 novembre 2013, à Paris, un colloque qui s'intitule Remarques finales : autour des Deux sources de la morale et de la religion de Bergson. Le présent volume présente les actes de ce colloque ellipsoïdal dont les centres étaient Bergson et le Japon"--Back cover. (shrink)

In this paper we describe the Curry-Howard-De Bruijn isomorphism between Higher Order Many Sorted Intuitionistic Predicate Logic PREDω and the type system λPREDω, which can be considered a subsystem of the Calculus of Constructions. The type system is presented using the concept of a Pure Type System, which is a very elegant framework for describing type systems. We show in great detail how formulae and proof trees of the logic relate to types and terms of the type system, respectively. Finally, (...) we discuss some consequences of the isomorphism with respect to the relation between the systems discussed in this paper. (shrink)

The provability problem in intuitionistic propositional second-order logic with existential quantifier and implication (∃,→) is proved to be undecidable in presence of free type variables (constants). This contrasts with the result that inutitionistic propositional second-order logic with existential quantifier, conjunction and negation is decidable.

In the October edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics, Akabayashi and colleagues state that ’to establish a heterogeneous [induced pluripotent stem cell] iPSC bank covering roughly 80% of Japan’s population…the Japanese government decided to invest JPY110 billion over 10 years in regenerative medicine research; a quarter of this was to be allocated to the iPSC stock project'. While they claim this amount of money to be an unfair distribution of state resources, we believe their assessment is based on a (...) misunderstanding of the facts. Similarly, other criticisms by them are based on mistaken interpretations. This article is a rebuttal to the arguments that form the basis of Akabayashi and colleagues’ five criticisms by explaining their misinterpretations. (shrink)

The main purpose of this book is to offer to philosophers and students abroad who show a great interest in Japanese philosophy and the philosophy of the Kyoto school major texts of the leading philosophers. This interest has surely developed out of a desire to obtain from the thought of these philosophers, who stood within the interstice between East and West, a clue to reassessing the issues of philosophy from the ground up or to drawing new creative possibilities.The present condition (...) seems to be, however, that the material made available to further realize this kind of intellectual dialogue is far too scarce. This book is intended to be of some help in this regard.The book presents selected texts of representative philosophers of the Kyoto school such as Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, Miki Kiyoshi, Nishitani Keiji, and others who best illustrate the characteristics of this school, and works that together portray its image as a whole. Those who are interested in Japanese philosophy or specifically the philosophy of the Kyoto School can survey a comprehensive representation from this book.These texts are, of course, quite difficult and cannot be well understood without sufficient preliminary knowledge. Expository essays have therefore been included after each text to provide guidance. In each of these commentaries a scholar of our time with deep understanding of the philosopher in question has provided an account of his life, intellectual journey, and the significance of the text included here.From this book will emerge a new dialogue of ideas that in turn will engender new developments in philosophy, thereby further expanding the network of philosophical thought worldwide. (shrink)

Mast cells are a unique class of blood cell. Unlike most blood cells, undifferentiated precursors of mast cells migrate in the bloodstream, invade tissues, proliferate there and then differentiate. Even after differentiation, some mast cells may proliferate extensively. Differentiation of mast cells is regulated by both diffusible growth factors and direct contact with fibroblasts.

This paper shows that the inhabitation problem in the lambda calculus with negation, product, polymorphic, and existential types is decidable, where the inhabitation problem asks whether there exists some term that belongs to a given type. In order to do that, this paper proves the decidability of the provability in the logical system defined from the second-order natural deduction by removing implication and disjunction. This is proved by showing the quantifier elimination theorem and reducing the problem to the provability in (...) propositional logic. The magic formulas are used for quantifier elimination such that they replace quantifiers. As a byproduct, this paper also shows the second-order witness theorem which states that a quantifier followed by negation can be replaced by a witness obtained only from the formula. As a corollary of the main results, this paper also shows Glivenko’s theorem, Double Negation Shift, and conservativity for antecedent-empty sequents between the logical system and its classical version. (shrink)

Sparrow highlights three potential applications of in vitro eugenics, that is, (a) research into the heredity of genetic disorders, (b) production of cell lines with specific genotypes, and (c) breeding better babies, and points to the need for researchers to discuss in advance the potential ethical problems that may emerge if the realization of this technology occurs in the near future. In this commentary, we pose a question for the sake of discussion. Is it, in fact, appropriate to label all (...) three applications raised by Sparrow as eugenics? By doing so, an unnecessary level of concern might be borne among the public, and as a result, the sound development of this specialized technology would be affected. If the label of eugenics is to be applied to all three of these applications, then Sparrow must justify how he perceives (a) and (b) as not inherently different from (c). (shrink)