The concept of species is one of the core concepts in biology and one of the cornerstones of evolutionary biology, yet it is rife with conceptual problems. Philosophers of biology have been discussing the concept of species for decades, and in doing so they sometimes appeal to the views of biologists. However, their statements as to what biologists think are seldom supported by empirical data. In order to investigate what biologists actually think about the key issues related to the problem (...) of species, we have conducted a survey on the sample of 193 biologists from the population of biologists from over 150 biology departments at universities in the US and the EU. This article presents and discusses the results of the survey. Some results confirm and others falsify the reiterated statements of philosophers of biology as to what biologists think, but all results we obtained should be informative and relevant for future discussions of the problem of species. (shrink)

The Taktikon Escorialense, a list of functions compiled in the time of John I Tzimiskes, is an important source for studying the reform of the military organisation and state apparatus of Byzantium during the 10th century. Records of this reform, however, can also be found in other, literary and sigillographic sources, so its beginnings, principal stages and characteristics, and how the organisation of the provinces evolved in the 11th century, were reconstructed independently from the TE by Ahrweiler. Like many other (...) sources of this kind, the TE has particular characteristics that lead one to ask in what measure this list of functions really reflected the transformation of the state apparatus in the 10th century. The conclusion may be drawn that this taktikon was an unfinished list of Byzantine functions and honorary titles, and, as indicated by data from other sources (first of all, sigillographic ones), it testifies only to a temporary phase in the reform carried out in Byzantium in the course of the 10th century. There are certain illogical elements in the TE, in the sequence of mentioning the functionaries; some data about the creation of new appointments mentioned in other sources, were omitted from this list of functions, etc. Despite the said shortcomings, though, the TE makes it possible to pose fresh questions, and reactivates some earlier ones connected with the problem of the transformation of the Byzantine central and provincial system, especially in the domain of the Empire's military organisation. (shrink)

Arithmetical self-reference through diagonalization is compared with self-recognition in a mirror, in a series of diagrams that show the structure and main stages of construction of self-referential sentences. A Gödel code is compared with a mirror, Gödel numbers with mirror images, numerical reference to arithmetical formulas with using a mirror to see things indirectly, self-reference with looking at one’s own image, and arithmetical provability of self-reference with recognition of the mirror image. The comparison turns arithmetical self-reference into an idealized model (...) of self-recognition and the conception(s) of self based on that capacity. (shrink)

The notion of interaction and interaction machines, developed by Peter Wegner, includes the comparison between incompleteness of interaction machines and Gödel incompleteness. However, this comparison is not adequate, because it combines different notions and different sources of incompleteness. In particular, it merges syntactic with two senses of semantic completeness, and results about truth with results about provability and their consequences . The comparison also overlooks structural differences in the way diagonalization produces incompleteness. More generally, the comparison is unlikely because interaction (...) incompleteness is supposed to come from a system's involvement with its environment, whereas Gödel incompleteness comes from a system's involvement with itself. (shrink)

Evaluating the usefulness of Davidson's semantics to computational understanding of language requires an examination of the role of a theory of truth in characterizing sentence meaning and logical form, and in particular of the connection between meaning and belief. The suggested conclusion is that the relevance of Davidson's semantics for computational semantics lies not so much in its methods and particular proposals of logical form as in its general orientation towards "desubstantializing" meaning.

Evaluating the usefulness of Davidson's semantics to computational understanding of language requires an examination of the role of a theory of truth in characterizing sentence meaning and logical form, and in particular of the connection between meaning and belief. The suggested conclusion is that the relevance of Davidson's semantics for computational semantics lies not so much in its methods and particular proposals of logical form as in its general orientation towards "desubstantializing" meaning.

The kind of self-reference which Perlis characterizes as strong, as opposed to formal self-reference which he characterizes as weak, is actually already present in standard forms of formal self-reference. Even if formal self-reference is weak because it is delegated, there is no specific delegation of reference for self-referential sentences, and their ‘self’ part is strong enough. In particular, the structure of self-reference in Godel's sentence, with its application of a self-referential process to itself, provides a model of Perlis’ characterization of (...) a self. This structure can also be interpreted visually, in a way relevant to self and consciousness, namely as self-recognition in a mirror. (shrink)

Poimanje čovjeka kao osobe utječe na neposredno djelovanje, što osobito dolazi do izražaja u skrbi tijekom bolesti i patnje. Iako je medicina stara koliko i čovječanstvo, tijekom posljednja dva stoljeća kao znanost razvija se unutar biomedicinske paradigme koja je obilježena pozitivizmom.Od vremena Florence Nightingale profesija medicinskih sestara pokušava se razviti unutar vlastite paradigme koju obilježavaju četiri koncepta od kojih je osoba središnji koncept. Tek se proteklih pola stoljeća razvijaju jedinstvene zdravstvene njege u kojima se naziru obilježja personalizma. Pokušaji pojedinih teoretičarki (...) da definiraju pojam osobe približili su ga klasičnoj definiciji osobe kakva se nalazi u filozofskoj antropologiji.Činjenica da postoje teorijski modeli koji usmjeravaju praksu od biomedicinskoga preko holističkog prema personalističkome nazoru govori u prilog da sazrijeva misao o važnosti promatranja čovjeka kao osobe sa svim neposrednim pozitivnim učincima takvoga pogleda. (shrink)

The subtitle of Rousseau as Author refers to Rousseau’s motto, which elegantly describes the gist of Rousseau’s now commonly practiced ideas of authorship and responsibility, and concerns three overlapping issues: Rousseau’s well-known truthtelling in matters public and private, his devotion to a peculiar understanding of philosophy as a way of life, and his singular boldness in making statements that he knew could result in literary and political persecution. As Kelly says, the focus of the book is on the third issue, (...) but ultimately the book’s intention is to “show the preconditions” for a “full treatment of Rousseau’s understanding of philosophy”. (shrink)

Stanley Rosen ranks among the two or three most serious philosophers of the last several decades. For more than forty years, Rosen has broken significantly new philosophical ground with his careful considerations of the problem of nihilism and the limits of analysis to his profound treatments of Platonic, Hegelian, Nietzschean, and Heideggerian philosophy. Now, still at the peak of his powers, he philosophizes about the origin and spread of twentieth-century philosophy’s general tendency “to take one’s bearings by, or to place (...) central emphasis on, the correct conceptual treatment of ordinary, everyday, pretheoretical experience”. (shrink)

The subtitle of Rousseau as Author refers to Rousseau’s motto, which elegantly describes the gist of Rousseau’s now commonly practiced ideas of authorship and responsibility, and concerns three overlapping issues: Rousseau’s well-known truthtelling in matters public and private, his devotion to a peculiar understanding of philosophy as a way of life, and his singular boldness in making statements that he knew could result in literary and political persecution. As Kelly says, the focus of the book is on the third issue, (...) but ultimately the book’s intention is to “show the preconditions” for a “full treatment of Rousseau’s understanding of philosophy”. (shrink)

Higher states of consciousness in which the human mind can transcend the boundaries of logic and reason are envisioned as natural to the experience and potential growth of every human being. So far they have been mostly monitored by electrophysiological methods. In this study we were particularly interested in discovering the molecular transcriptional basis of higher states of consciousness. In addition to phenomenological reports of meditators who participated in this study the generated higher states of consciousness were also EEG recorded. (...) We assessed the whole genome gene expression analysis of long-term meditators in four separate trials and detected significant differential gene expression in association with higher states of consciousness. The number of differently expressed genes as well as high proportion of genes themselves differed between meditators. Despite this, gene ontology enrichment analysis found significant biological and molecular processes shared among meditators’ higher state of consciousness. (shrink)