In the last two decades, WORDNET has evolved as the most comprehensive computational lexicon of general English. In this article, we discuss its potential for supporting the creation of an entirely new kind of information resource for public health, viz. MEDICAL WORDNET. This resource is not to be conceived merely as a lexical extension of the original WORDNET to medical terminology; indeed, there is already a considerable degree of overlap between WORDNET and the vocabulary of medicine. Instead, we propose a (...) new type of repository, consisting of three large collections of (1) medically relevant word forms, structured along the lines of the existing Princeton WORDNET; (2) medically validated propositions, referred to here as medical facts, which will constitute what we shall call MEDICAL FACTNET; and (3) propositions reflecting laypersons’ medical beliefs, which will constitute what we shall call the MEDICAL BELIEFNET. We introduce a methodology for setting up the MEDICAL WORDNET. We then turn to the discussion of research challenges that have to be met in order to build this new type of information resource. (shrink)

Fester Bestandteil unserer Alltagswelt sind Dinge. Was aber sind, genau genommen, Dinge? Wie heben sich Dinge ab von anderen konkreten Individuen? Sind Dinge eine ontologische Kategorie? Welche Unterscheidungen konnen wir innerhalb der Dinge anstellen und begrunden?, etwa: Worin unterscheiden sich kunstlich hergestellte Dinge (Artefakte) von Lebewesen? Kann man unter den Lebewesen nochmals eine besondere Gruppe festmachen, die traditionell Personen genannt werden? Was sind Personen? Derartigen Fragen geht diese Monographienach und versucht einen ontologischen Rahmen zu entwickeln, vor dessen Hintergrund die damit (...) verbundenen Probleme einer Losung zugefuhrt werden konnen. Der hier verfolgte Ansatz ist systematisch und problemorientiert, nicht exegetisch-historisch und nicht gegen andere ontologische Zugangsweisen gerichtet. Er bekennt sich zu methodischen Vorgaben einer deskriptiven- oder Alltagsontologie.". (shrink)

A consumer health information system must be able to comprehend both expert and non-expert medical vocabulary and to map between the two. We describe an ongoing project to create a new lexical database called Medical WordNet (MWN), consisting of medically relevant terms used by and intelligible to non-expert subjects and supplemented by a corpus of natural-language sentences that is designed to provide medically validated contexts for MWN terms. The corpus derives primarily from online health information sources targeted to consumers, and (...) involves two sub-corpora, called Medical FactNet (MFN) and Medical BeliefNet (MBN), respectively. The former consists of statements accredited as true on the basis of a rigorous process of validation, the latter of statements which non-experts believe to be true. We summarize the MWN / MFN / MBN project, and describe some of its applications. (shrink)

Martin Buber is a religious philosopher asking the question: what is the nature of man? Human persons are dialogical beings, who are ultimately related to God as the creator of the universe. This philosophy of dialogue is part of a general area of investigation, called Philosophical Anthropology.

After the exposition of I. Kant's theory of nature as a mechanism, we turn to Kant's idea that organisms are an exception and cannot be explained through the mechanism of nature. Organisms are characterized through a circular causality. The idea of the whole, an idea of the thinking subject, causes the functioning of organisms. F.W.J.Schelling takes up Kant's conception that the organism is characterized through the interaction of the parts, but he dispenses with the idea of the whole as a (...) causal agent. The part has a generative power to produce the whole. With this, Schelling's Naturphilosophie suggests that mind depends on matter. (shrink)

Jan Assman traces the roots of Mosaic Religion back to its Aegyptian origin. Reading the Holy Bible often makes one think that Moses was Hebrew. But Moses was an adopted Agyptian, as we become aware. Cultural memory is certainly stored in books, but at the same time it is a memory that forms our perception as human beings.

Wonderful reflections on the history of Western thought.

Professor John Cowburn, S.J., not only investigates ethical theory, but he successfully discusses the religious ideas of our tradition and applies them to topics which are relevant in our everyday lives. In his book LOVE he provides a useful guide to young people.

Professor Beatrice Longuenesse draws our attention to the most important aspect of Kant's Critical Philosophy, namely that it is a system of logic.

Professor Phillipp H. Wiebe draws our attention to what aspects of our religious tradition is understandable by every human being on this planet.

In this theoretical contribution, we interpret the notion of professional development in the light of concepts coming from cognitive development. This brings us to consider teacher training as not only having to allow the elaboration of skills, but also as having to encourage the development of new cognitive structures. We explore the theoretical concepts in relation with certain processes revealed by the reflexive texts of the students. Finally, we propose ways that could foster certain dimensions of global professional development in (...) learners, among which self-regulated learning, the focus on certain concerns and taking into account certain types of information. (shrink)

If people believe that one activity is a kind of another, they also tend to believe that the second activity is a part of the first. For example, they assert that deciding is a kind of thinking and that thinking is a part of deciding. C. Fellbaum and G. A. Miller's (see record 1991-03356-001) explanation for this phenomenon is based on the idea that people interpret part of in the domain of verbs as a type of logical entailment. Their (...) explanation, however, suffers from at least 2 deficiencies. First, it fails to account for parallel effects with nouns (e.g., a contest is a kind of an activity, and an activity is a part of a contest). Second, it contains a flaw that incorrectly predicts many activities to be parts of each other (e.g., coming is part of going and going part of coming). However, a hypothesis L. J. Rips and F. G. Conrad (see record 1989-24843-001) originally proposed for the kind–part reciprocal effect avoids both of these difficulties. (shrink)

The French scholar Jacques Ellul is nearly forgotton in German-speaking theology. The author presents Ellul's book of 1946 in which he developed a theological foundation of law, puts it in its historical context and tries a theological evaluation. In spite of some fundamental Iacks, particularly in the comprehension of revelation, at least three ideas still merit consideration: no sphere of human reality is independent of God; therefore, theology comprehends an investigation of the inner structures of society; in this, it is (...) focused on the Christan hope. (shrink)

In a poetic conversation with Thierry Zarcone, the painter and calligrapher Fabienne Verdier exposes her deep and harmonious connection to nature. She tells of her garden, her house and her osmosis with nature. Painting is to her an art of living and being that recalls the Tao masters as well as some Christan mystics.

CATEGORY: Philosophy play; historical fiction; comedy; social criticism. -/- STORYLINE: Tim, a physics professor with a certain taste for young female university students, recently got a new appointment at a London university. But, as it turns out, he is still unsatisfied. Why? Is it because Rachael unexpectedly left him under strange circumstances? Or does it have to do with his sudden departure from another university? Or is it his research? When Tim meets Christianus for a brown-bag discussion on philosophy and (...) science, new facts and perspectives are revealed. -/- TOPICS: In the course of the play, Tim and Christianus discuss different metaphysical, epistemological, and ontological ideas. Many of these are either related to isssues in the philosophy of science (explanation, methodology, scientific investigation, etc.), or to issues in human psychology and the philosophy of mind (the self vs. the mind, dualism, ‘Who am I?’, etc.). In one scene, for example, Tim tries to invoke ‘Ockham’s Razor’ (or ‘Occam’s Razor’) to quickly dismiss some of Christianus’s metaphysical ideas (see Scene VII: Ockham’s Raisin; Scene XIII: The Raisin Tale Revisited); in another scene, Christianus introduces his ‘Postman’ scenario, and the idea that successful (‘scientific’) prediction or forecasting is not necessarily a sure sign of true understanding (see Scene XV: The Postman Always Turns Twice). -/- NOTES: This work features elaborate footnotes and comments (including full bibliographical references) by the author, to enhance the reader's experience of the play and its philosophizing characters. (shrink)