A review of Porphyre, Sentences. Études d’introduction, texte grec et traduction française, commentaire par l’Unité Propre de Recherche n°76 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,avecunetraductionanglaise de John Dillon. Travaux édités sous la responsabilité de Luc Brisson. J. Vrin, Paris, 2005.

ABSTRACT This article deals with the communicational aspects of Aristotle’s theory of signification as laid out in the initial chapters of the De Interpretatione (Int.).1 We begin by outlining the reception and main interpretations of the chapters under discussion, rather siding with the linguistic strand. We then argue that the first four chapters present an account of verbal communication, in which words signify things via thoughts. We show how Aristotle determines voice as a conventional and hence accidental medium of signification: (...) words as ‘spoken sounds’ are tokens of thoughts, which in turn are signs or natural likenesses of things. We argue that, in this way, linguistic expressions may both signify thoughts and refer to things. This double account of signification also explains the variety of ontological, logical and psychological interpretations of the initial chapters of Int. (shrink)

Recently, psychologists have explored moral concepts including obligation, blame, and ability. While little empirical work has studied the relationships among these concepts, philosophers have widely assumed such a relationship in the principle that “ought” implies “can,” which states that if someone ought to do something, then they must be able to do it. The cognitive underpinnings of these concepts are tested in the three experiments reported here. In Experiment 1, most participants judge that an agent ought to keep a promise (...) that he is unable to keep, but only when he is to blame for the inability. Experiment 2 shows that such “ought” judgments correlate with judgments of blame, rather than with judgments of the agent’s ability. Experiment 3 replicates these findings for moral “ought” judgments and finds that they do not hold for nonmoral “ought” judgments, such as what someone ought to do to fulfill their desires. These results together show that folk moral judgments do not conform to a widely assumed philosophical principle that “ought” implies “can.” Instead, judgments of blame play a modulatory role in some judgments of obligation. (shrink)

Supporters of eliminative connectionism have argued for a pattern association-based explanation of language learning and language processing. They deny that explicit rules and symbolic representations play any role in language processing and cognition in general. Their argument is based to a large extent on two artificial neural network (ANN) models that are claimed to be able to learn the past tenses of English verbs (Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986, Parallel distributed processing, Vol. 2, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; MacWhinney & Leinbach, 1991, (...) Cognition, 40, 121-157). In this article we critically review Rumelhart and McClelland's as well as MacWhinney and Leinbach's ANN models and conclude that they do not succeed in the assigned task of learning the past tenses of English verbs. In order to answer their challenge to the symbolic processing approach, we present our symbolic pattern associator (SPA)-a general-purpose pattern associator that can learn to associate arbitrary discrete patterns. We carried out several experiments with the SPA using the same set of verbs that was used in MacWhinney and Leinbach's simulation with more realistic training and testing procedures. The SPA outperformed the connectionist models by a wide margin in the accuracy of learning, and successful inductive generalizations to unseen verbs. Our SPA has very natural and psychologically realistic explanations to many psychological effects such as U-shaped learning curve, and is much closer to human subjects in predicting past tense of the pseudo-verbs. In contrast to ANNs, whose internal representations are entirely opaque, the SPA can represent the acquired knowledge in the form of production rules that allow for further higher-level processing and integration, resulting in linguistically realistic associative templates for irregular verbs and production rules for regular verbs. In the light of these findings, we conclude that eliminative connectionists' vision of cognition as simple pattern association and pattern recognition without symbolic representation is inadequate. Pattern association as such does not imply rule-less or cue-based models of language acquisition or of human learning in general. (shrink)

Deceptionism about lying is the view that all lies are intended to deceive. This view sits uneasily with some cases that seem to involve lies not intended to deceive. We call these lies bald-faced because the liar lies while believing that the hearer knows that they are lying. The most recent deceptionist argument put forward by Rudnicki and Odrowąż-Sypniewska (this journal) defends the view that all genuine bald-faced lies are intended to deceive some of their hearers. I argue that this (...) argument is interesting but problematic: its premises do not support the view that all bald-faced lies are intended to deceive but rather only that some people who bald-faced lie to institutions or large audiences intend to deceive someone. Also, genuine bald-faced lies addressed at institutions are intended to (non-deceptively) manipulate institutions rather than deceive anyone. (shrink)

The book presents two fundamental theories that characterize the cultural-historical perspective in cognitive semantics: the Four-Level Theory of Cognitive Development (FLTCD) and the Sociocultural Theory of Lexical Complexes (STLC) as well as their application to the analysis of specific material. In particular, the book analyzes the sociocultural history of the machine metaphor, specifically its use in the texts of René Descartes and Francis Bacon. The practical embodiment of STLC is demonstrated through the analysis of lexical complexes such as otkryvat' 'to (...) open,' kamen' 'stone,' and intelligencija 'intelligentsia.' In the final chapter of the monograph, FLTCD and STLC are used for the diachronic analysis of semantic change. The monograph will be of interest to a wide range of linguists, psychologists, cultural anthropologists, and philosophers who consider language as a sociocultural phenomenon. (shrink)

Set theory -- Logic -- Proofs -- Functions -- Group theory -- Linear algebra.

The paper turns attention to some very general questions that concern the nature of logic – it deals with the problem of the identity of logic. It suggests that we can view the notion of value as one through which we can approach the elusive issues which surround the question of the nature of logic. The first part of the paper addresses the question of the value of logic as a discipline. In other words – it aims at answering the (...) question what is (or could/should be) the benefit of exercising logic. The second part focuses on the question of what role values play (or could/should play) ‘inside’ of logic. It suggests that the elusive and general term “value” can perhaps turn out quite useful in the project of delineation of the realm of logic. The conclusion can be formulated in the provocative slogan: logic can be seen as a kind of general formal theory of values. (shrink)

O alfabeto deste livro não segue uma ordenação típica. Em vez disso, ele percorre um caminho de colisões, da escrita do que se entrega só como espanto e impacto. Trata-se de uma amostra da vasta produção de Vladimir Safatle, feita de fragmentos, suas “escritas em farrapos” que misturam as muitas facetas de seu pensamento – política, ética, psicanálise, estética, filosofia, crítica cultural. Para quem já acompanha o trabalho de décadas do filósofo, o livro é uma surpresa. O rigor acadêmico (...) de suas outras produções dá lugar a uma escrita de tateamento, com certo componente lúdico que nos leva a uma espécie de ensaísmo de pequenas formas. Para quem está pouco familiarizado com essa produção, a obra é um generoso convite a conhecê-la. (shrink)

In The Burning Bush, Glazov conducts a profoundly original inquiry into Vladimir Solovyov's attitude toward Judaism. Solovyov (1853-1900) was one of the most remarkable figures of the 19th century: He was the most important Russian speculative thinker of that century, publishing major works on theoretical philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and ethics; he also produced sensitive literary criticism and incisive essays on current political, social, and ecclesiastical questions. The eminent theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar designated Solovyov as the greatest (...) artist of conceptual order and organization--after Thomas Aquinas--in the entire history of thought, a thinker who borrows from all systems after purging them of their negations. Solovyov was also the first major Russian thinker to enter into ecumenical dialogue with Jewish scholars and theologians, and Glazov's main concern is (1) to translate as completely as possible all of Solovyov's writings on Judaism and to annotate these texts by identifying persons, places, and citations, especially in the Biblical and rabbinic literature; and (2) to synthesize the information gleaned from these writings with key recollections of Solovyov's attitudes toward Jews and Judaism by his immediate family, friends, and early biographers. Glazov collects, translates, and comments on all the relevant primary texts: writings, letters, pamphlets, protests, political documents, and prayers which relate to Solovyov's work on Jewish matters. (shrink)

This book contains 86 essays and papers by the Russian sculptor and hermeneutic philosopher Vladimir Zimmerling (1931-2017) addressed the issues in aesthetics, ethics and cultural history. The apparatus includes the introductory article, the commentary, the name and the subject indexes prepared by the book editor, Anton Zimmerling. The appendix contains 70 pictures of Vladimir Zimmerling's sculptures. Vladimir Zimmerling's conception is build on the combination of the empiricism principle with the elements of hermeneutics and metalinguistic criticism. His essays (...) and papers focus on the foundations of aesthetics and ethics. Vladimir Zimmerling was one of the pioneers of the analytic approach to the poetics of Ossip Mandelstam with his paper "Промер" ["The Measurement"], (1974-1975) devoted to 10 difficult Mandelstam's poems including "Грифельная Ода", "Слепая ласточка бросается к ногам", "Я слово позабыл, что я хотел сказать". (shrink)

Книга предназначена для специалистов и всех, кто интересуется этой проблемой.

Рассказывая о традициях и содержании его религии, автор говорит о красоте и вдохновении, которыми искренняя вера в Бога награждает верующего. На страницах этой книги автор отводит особое место доказательству своего вывода о том, что религия и наука.

We consider the historic Harress-Sagnac experiment in the light of our absolute space-time theory, proposing two modifications, and we give an account of its recent practical performance. We show that the effect of the rotating disk experiment is a direct result of the light velocity's direction dependence and we point out that our recently performed coupled-mirrors experiment, with whose help for the first time we have measured the Earth's absolute velocity, can be considered as a logical result of the rotating (...) disk experiment. (shrink)

The small, the tiny, and the infinitesimal have been the object of both fascination and vilification for millenia. One of the most vitriolic reviews in mathematics was that written by Errett Bishop about Keisler’s book Elementary Calculus: an Infinitesimal Approach. In this skit we investigate both the argument itself, and some of its roots in Bishop George Berkeley’s criticism of Leibnizian and Newtonian Calculus. We also explore some of the consequences to students for whom the infinitesimal approach is congenial. The (...) casual mathematical reader may be satisfied to read the text of the five act play, whereas the others may wish to delve into the 130 footnotes, some of which contain elucidation of the mathematics or comments on the history. (shrink)

Proceeding from our absolute space-time conceptions, we obtain the formula for the gravitational frequency shift in an extremely simple way. Using our “burst” model for photons, we show that the different rates of clocks placed in spatial regions with different gravitational potentials appear as a direct result of the gravitational frequency shift and the axiomatic assumption that at any space point the time unit is to be defined by light clocks with equal “arms,” i.e., that at any space point the (...) light velocity (in moving frames the “there-and-back” velocity) has the same numerical valuec. Considering the principle of equivalence, we come to the logical conclusion that the kinematic (Einstein-Lorentz) time dilation is an absolute phenomenon. (shrink)

In the light of our recently performed experiments, revealing the anisotropy of light velocity in any frame moving with respect to absolute space, we show that the Lorentz transformation, where the relativity of light velocity is given implicitly through the relativity of the time coordinates, must be treated from an absolute point of view if one seeks to preserve its adequacy to physical reality. Then we propose a new transformation (which is to be considered as a legitimate companion of the (...) Lorentz transformation) wherein the relativity of light velocity is given explicitly and the time coordinates are absolute. (shrink)

This article presents counter evidence against Smolensky's theory that human intuitive/nonconscious congnitive processes can only be accurately explained in terms of subsymbolic computations carried out in artificial neural networks. We presentsymboliclearning models of two well‐studied, complicated cognitive tasks involving nonconscious acquisition of information: learning production rules and artificial finite state grammars. Our results demonstrate that intuitive learning does not imply subsymbolic computation, and that the already well‐established, perceived correlation between “conscious” and “symbolic” on the one hand, and between “nonconscious” and (...) “subsymbolic” on the other, does not exist. (shrink)