The development of explicit theories of dynamic context change has led to a fundamentally new perspective on the interpretation of discourse. In this paper I show that this development also opens up the possibility of approaching subclausal composition along similar lines. More specifically, I argue that a dynamic theory where type-driven rules apply directly to overt surface structures and fill in missing information by building anaphoric bridges is more faithful to natural language semantics than the classical Montagovian approach.

In this paper we propose a formal theory of partitions (ways of dividing up or sorting or mapping reality) and we show how the theory can be applied in the geospatial domain. We characterize partitions at two levels: as systems of cells (theory A), and in terms of their projective relation to reality (theory B). We lay down conditions of well-formedness for partitions and we define what it means for partitions to project truly onto reality. We continue by classifying well-formed (...) partitions along three axes: (a) degree of correspondence between partition cells and objects in reality; (b) degree to which a partition represents the mereological structure of the domain it is projected onto; and (c) degree of completeness and exhaustiveness with which a partition represents reality. This classification is used to characterize three types of partitions that play an important role in spatial information science: cadastral partitions, categorical coverages, and the partitions involved in folk categorizations of the geospatial domain. (shrink)

Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz: about cognition -- Roman Ingarden: about the existence of the world -- Józef Maria Bocheński: on communism -- Rev. Józef Tischner: about the ethics of solidarity -- Kazimierz Twardowski: about happiness.

Author: Koepke Ireneusz Title: ANDRZEJ WALICKI AND “WARSAW SCHOOL OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS” (Andrzej Walicki i „warszawska szkoła historyków (historii) idei”) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2005, vol:.5, number: 2005/1, pages: 259-276 Keywords: ANDRZEJ WALICKI, WARSAW SCHOOL OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:This article is an attempt of presenting Andrzej Walicki connections with the so called Warsaw School of the History of Ideas and his research (...) on basic methodological issues created by this “school”, which are linked with the history of ideas and the history of philosophy. The most important are research rules which has been used by A. Walicki, and their consequences on his intellectual work as well as some critical remarks. (shrink)

RubisCO is Earth's main enzyme responsible for CO2 fixation via carboxylation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate into organic matter. Besides the carboxylation reaction, RubisCO also catalyzes the oxygenation of RuBP by O2, which is probably as old as its carboxylation properties. Based on molecular phylogeny, the occurrence of the reactive oxygen species -removing system and kinetic properties of different RubisCO forms, we postulated that RubisCO oxygenase activity appeared in local microoxic areas, yet before the appearance of oxygenic photosynthesis. Here, in reviewing the literature, (...) we present a novel hypothesis: the RubisCO early oxygenase activity hypothesis. This hypothesis may be compared with the exaptation hypothesis, according to which latent RubisCO oxygenase properties emerged later during the oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere. The reconstruction of ancestral RubisCO forms using ancestral sequence reconstruction techniques, as a promising way for testing of RubisCO early oxygenase activity hypothesis, is presented. RubisCO catalyzes carboxylation and oxygenation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate. Carboxylating properties of RubisCO are an ancient way for CO2 fixation into organic matter. However, an evolutionary importance of oxygenase activity of RubisCO remains enigmatic. Here, we formulated RubisCO early oxygenase activity hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, RubisCO oxygenase activity appeared yet before the appearance of oxygenic photosynthesis. (shrink)

In the paper, several data reduction techniques for machine learning from big datasets are discussed and evaluated. The discussed approach focuses on combining several techniques including stacking, rotation, and data reduction aimed at improving the performance of the machine classification. Stacking is seen as the technique allowing to take advantage of the multiple classification models. The rotation-based techniques are used to increase the heterogeneity of the stacking ensembles. Data reduction makes it possible to classify instances belonging to big datasets. We (...) propose to use an agent-based population learning algorithm for data reduction in the feature and instance dimensions. For diversification of the classifier ensembles within the rotation also, alternatively, principal component analysis and independent component analysis are used. The research question addressed in the paper is formulated as follows: does the performance of a classifier using the reduced dataset be improved by integrating the data reduction mechanism with the rotation-based technique and the stacking? (shrink)

Description Logics are nowadays widely accepted as formalisms which provide reasoning facilities which allow us to discover inconsistencies in ontologies in an automatic fashion. Where ontologies are developed in modular fashion, they allow changes in one module to propogated through the system of ontologies automatically in a way which helps to maintain consistency and stability. For this feature to be utilized effectively, however, requires that domain ontologies be represented in a normalized form.

We propose an ontological theory that is powerful enough to describe both complex spatio-temporal processes (occurrents) and the enduring entities (continuants) that participate therein. The theory is divided into two major categories of sub-theories: (sub-) theories of type SPAN and (sub-)theories of type SNAP. These theories represent two complementary perspectives on reality and result in distinct though compatible systems of categories. In SNAP we have enduring entities such as substances, qualities, roles, functions; in SPAN we have perduring entities such as (...) processes and their parts and aggregates. We argue that both kinds of ontological theory are required in order to give a non-reductionism account of complex domains of reality. (shrink)

In the paper, several data reduction techniques for machine learning from big datasets are discussed and evaluated. The discussed approach focuses on combining several techniques including stacking, rotation, and data reduction aimed at improving the performance of the machine classification. Stacking is seen as the technique allowing to take advantage of the multiple classification models. The rotation-based techniques are used to increase the heterogeneity of the stacking ensembles. Data reduction makes it possible to classify instances belonging to big datasets. We (...) propose to use an agent-based population learning algorithm for data reduction in the feature and instance dimensions. For diversification of the classifier ensembles within the rotation also, alternatively, principal component analysis and independent component analysis are used. The research question addressed in the paper is formulated as follows: does the performance of a classifier using the reduced dataset be improved by integrating the data reduction mechanism with the rotation-based technique and the stacking? (shrink)

This paper provides an axiomatic formalization of a theory of foundational relations between three categories of entities: individuals, universals, and collections. We deal with a variety of relations between entities in these categories, including the is-a relation among universals and the part-of relation among individuals as well as cross-category relations such as instance-of, member-of, and partition-of. We show that an adequate understanding of the formal properties of such relations – in particular their behavior with respect to time – is critical (...) for formal ontology. We provide examples to support this thesis from the domain of biomedicine. (shrink)

Article presents the experience of death from the point of view of the second person in the context of the problems that arise from Epicurus’s famous thesis that as long as we exist, death is not present and when it is present, we do not exist. The epistemo-logical problem is the possibility of experiencing death. We cannot resolve this problem from the point of view of the first or third person. In your death, however, the death of a close friend, (...) of a person emotionally connected with me, I can partly experience my own death. We can resolve some of the other problems in a similar manner: the ontological prob-lem, the axiological problem, the moral problem and the eschatological problem. (shrink)

What exactly are the reasons we do things, and how are they related to the resulting actions? Bittner explores this question and proposes an answer: a reason is a response to that state of affairs. Elegantly written, this work is a substantial contribution to the fields of rationality, ethics, and action theory.

Christianization of Polish territories, according to the Western rite, incorporated these lands into the Western European civilization and emerging there political and legal doctrines, which were used in creating Polish political-legal thought. At the time of establishing social bonds and structures of the state, the political elite came into being and the Polish political thought developed. It corresponded with the main political thought and ideas of the West, but the Polish ideas displayed characteristics, necessary for protecting the Polish raison d’etat. (...) Development of political thought, original and particular for Polish conditions, dissimilar from the main European trends, may be a testimony to richness of intellectual and political ideas of past Polish generations. It was this political thought, that allowed the Polish national identity to survive, and caused that the fight for political independence was successful. Many contemporary researchers, including those from Western Europe, see influences of the past political ideas in the contemporary attitudes of Poles. (shrink)

The book is not only dedicated to linguists, but also to readers who are not familiar with notations developed in linguistics. The first part of the study presents philosophical justifications for linguistic settlements. These are based on the phenomenological reduction of Edmund Husserl, Karl R. Popper's falsificationism, the moderate rationalism of science of Izydora Dąmbska and Andrzej Bogusławski's lack of the nomological explanation in linguistics. The second part presents a re-examination of the solutions proposed in the field of linguistics, some (...) new philosophical explanations and a discussion of the truth of linguistic propositions. (shrink)

We generalize the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem on ideal convergence. We show examples of ideals with and without the Bolzano-Weierstrass property, and give characterizations of BW property in terms of submeasures and extendability to a maximal P-ideal. We show applications to Rudin-Keisler and Rudin-Blass orderings of ideals and quotient Boolean algebras. In particular we show that an ideal does not have BW property if and only if its quotient Boolean algebra has a countably splitting family.

According to the prevalent 'sum view' of stuffs, each portion of stuff is a mereological sum of its subportions. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the sum view in the light of a modal temporal mereology which distinguishes between different varieties of summation relations. While admitting David Barnett's recent counter-example to the sum view, we show that there is nonetheless an important sense in which all portions of stuff are sums of their subportions. We use our summation relations (...) to develop, as an alternative to the sum view, an analysis of stuffs that distinguisher between the ways in which different sorts of stuffs are sums of their subportions. (shrink)

ML-HCAs have the potential to significantly change an entire healthcare system. It is not even necessary to presume that this will be disruptive but sufficient to assume that the mere adaptation of...

The paper is a discussion of Tomasz Polak’s book System kościelny, czyli przewagi pana K. [The Church System, or the Dominance of Mr. K.]. The author emphasizes the significance of Polak’s book not only for religious studies, given especially his original thesis about Christianity’s atheistic core, but also for other fields within humanities, dealing with the origins, development and fall of non-religious myths, social or national.

Author: Ziemiński Ireneusz Title: “BECAUSE THOU HAST NOT ASKED FOR THYSELF LONG LIFE...” AN ATTEMPT AT PHILOSOPHICAL INTERPRETATION OF SALOMON’S DREAM („Nie błagałeś dla siebie o długie życie...” – próba filozoficznej interpretacji snu Salomona) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2005, vol:.5, number: 2005/1, pages: 33-43 Keywords: SALOMON, HUMAN CONDITION, GOD FOR LONG LIFE Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The author of the article presents biblical Salomon as a man who does not (...) ask God for long life. Salomon can understand his own human condition as a mortal being. This understanding is the ground of human wisdom. To be a human being is to be a mortal being. (shrink)

Author: Ziemiński Ireneusz Title: PHILOSOPHY AS MEDITATIO MORTIS (PLATO AND MONTAIGNE) (Filozofia jako meditatio mortis (Platon – Montaigne)) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2006, vol:.6, number: 2006/1, pages: 43-58 Keywords: MEDITATIO MORTIS, DEATH, PLATO, MONTAIGNE Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The idea of philosophy as meditatio mortis is illustrated with the examples of Plato’s and Montaigne’s views. According to Plato, life within body is a kind of evil, and death is the (...) way of release and return to divine life. Philosophy regarded as seeking the truth is at the same time an exercise in dying because it consists in taking off reason from body and senses. Philosophy as meditatio mortis is then preparing to true and eternal life. According to Montaigne, death is the necessary end of human existence, which we should accept without reservation and fear. Philosophy lies in preparing to death as a natural biological event, common to all living creatures. Human dying should be liberated from all ceremonies and cultural rituals because they are the main reasons of our fear and prevent us from accepting death as a natural event. (shrink)

Two senses of ‘ontology’ can be distinguished in the current literature. First is the sense favored by information scientists, who view ontologies as software implementations designed to capture in some formal way the consensus conceptualization shared by those working on information systems or databases in a given domain. [Gruber 1993] Second is the sense favored by philosophers, who regard ontologies as theories of different types of entities (objects, processes, relations, functions) [Smith 2003]. Where information systems ontologists seek to maximize reasoning (...) efficiency even at the price of simplifications on the side of representation, philosophical ontologists argue that representational adequacy can bring benefits for the stability and resistance to error of an ontological framework and also for its extendibility in the future. In bioinformatics, however, a third sense of ‘ontology’ has established itself, above all as a result of the successes of the Gene Ontology (hereafter: GO), which is a tool for the representation and processing of information about gene products and their biological functions [Gene Ontology Consortium 2000]. We show how Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) has established itself as an overarching ontology drawing on all three of the strands distinguished above, and describe applications of BFO especially in the treatment of biological granularity. (shrink)

The article is a critical commentary on Peter Singer’s thesis that the brain death definition should be replaced by a rule outlining the conditions permitting organ harvesting from patients who are biologically alive but are no longer persons. Largely agreeing with the position, I believe it can be justified not only on the basis of utilitarian arguments, but also those based on Kantian ethics and Christianity. However, due to the lack of reliable methods diagnosing complete and irreversible loss of consciousness, (...) we should refrain from implementing upper brain death into medical practice. Organs also should not be harvested from people in a persistent vegetative state or from anencephalic children, for similar reasons. At the same time, patients who suffered from whole-brain death should not be artificially sustained; in light of current knowledge they can be declared dead and become organ donors. (shrink)

Der Artikel spürt den subtilen Veränderungen nach, die bei Patienten, die mit tiefer Hirnstimulation behandelt werden, möglicherweise beobachtet werden können. Dabei sollen im Rückgriff auf Konzeptionen zur narrativen Identität mittels einer möglichst genauen Beschreibung und Analyse der Selbstwahrnehmung der Patienten sowie der Wahrnehmung ihres Umfelds die Änderungen im praktischen Selbstverhältnis untersucht werden, u. a. am Beispiel technomorpher Metaphern, die von den Patienten in ihren Selbstbeschreibungen verwendet werden. Ziel ist es, die Neuartigkeit und das Spezifische der Neurotechnologien – über die bisherigen (...) Untersuchungen hinaus – hinsichtlich des Umgangs mit sich selbst herauszuarbeiten und greifbar zu machen. Abschließend werden auf Basis der Analyse der Patienten-Narrationen die entsprechenden normativen Implikationen für eine ethische Bewertung des Einsatzes von Neurotechnologien benannt. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 8, August 2020, Page 30-32.

Der Artikel spürt den subtilen Veränderungen nach, die bei Patienten, die mit tiefer Hirnstimulation behandelt werden, möglicherweise beobachtet werden können. Dabei sollen im Rückgriff auf Konzeptionen zur narrativen Identität mittels einer möglichst genauen Beschreibung und Analyse der Selbstwahrnehmung der Patienten sowie der Wahrnehmung ihres Umfelds die Änderungen im praktischen Selbstverhältnis untersucht werden, u. a. am Beispiel technomorpher Metaphern, die von den Patienten in ihren Selbstbeschreibungen verwendet werden. Ziel ist es, die Neuartigkeit und das Spezifische der Neurotechnologien – über die bisherigen (...) Untersuchungen hinaus – hinsichtlich des Umgangs mit sich selbst herauszuarbeiten und greifbar zu machen. Abschließend werden auf Basis der Analyse der Patienten-Narrationen die entsprechenden normativen Implikationen für eine ethische Bewertung des Einsatzes von Neurotechnologien benannt. (shrink)