In the chapter “Information and Content” of their Impossible Worlds, Berto and Jago provide us with a semantic account of information in deductive reasoning such that we have an explanation for why some, but not all, logical deductions are informative. The framework Berto and Jago choose to make sense of the above-mentioned idea is a semantic interpretation of Sequent Calculus rules of inference for classical logic. I shall argue that although Berto and Jago’s idea and framework are hopeful, their definitions (...) do not capture what is intended. This is so because the definitions are solely based on the logical complexity of an argument and they fail to capture the richness of the non- logical content of that argument. Then I will suggest some amendments to address this problem. Finally, I will extend the application of the definitions to first-order logic. It shall be observed that in some classical deductions, applying contraction may lead to hiding some epistemic impossibilities. This happens when formulae which contribute different propositions to the proof get contracted at the quantified level. (shrink)

This is a contribution to the idea that some proofs in first-order logic are synthetic. Syntheticity is understood here in its classical geometrical sense. Starting from Jaakko Hintikka’s original idea and Allen Hazen’s insights, this paper develops a method to define the ‘graphical form’ of formulae in monadic and dyadic fraction of first-order logic. Then a synthetic inferential step in Natural Deduction is defined. A proof is defined as synthetic if it includes at least one synthetic inferential step. Finally, it (...) will be shown that the proposed definition is not sensitive to different ways of driving the same conclusion from the same assumptions. (shrink)

This thesis is about how deduction is analytic and, at the same time, informative. In the first two chapters I am after the question of the justification of deduction. This justification is circular in the sense that to explain how deduction works we use some basic deductive rules. However, this circularity is not trivial as not every rule can be justified circularly. Moreover, deductive rules may not need suasive justification because they are not ampliative. Deduction preserves meaning, that is, the (...) meaning of non-logical vocabulary of any theory which is developed by deductive reasoning remains unchanged. It means that deduction adds no information to what we already had in our premises. This is why deduction is analytic. -/- However, there are many ways deduction can be informative. In the next three chapters, I will pick a specific kind of deductive reasoning, namely arithmetical reasoning, and will attempt to understand the nature of information we obtain by this kind of reasoning. There is a difference between simple deductive moves such as inferring `Socrates is mortal' from `All human are mortal' and `Socrates is human', and inferring that a relation is reflexive given that it is directed, symmetric and transitive. The latter is more complicated and not as easy to prove as the former. Therefore it is informative and the proof we construct to prove it puts us in an epistemic position that we were not in before having the proof. To be more specific, I show that concepts we need to confirm the conclusion are made in the process of proving the conclusion. (shrink)

Computational modeling plays an important role in prediction and optimization of real systems and processes. Models usually have some parameters which should be set up to the proper value. Therefore, parameter estimation is known as an important part of the modeling and system identification. It usually refers to the process of using sampled data to estimate the optimum values of parameters. The accuracy of model can be increased by adjusting its parameters to the optimum value which need a richer dataset. (...) One simple solution for having a richer dataset is increasing the amount of data, but that can be costly and time consuming. When using data from animals or people, it is especially important to have a proper plan. There are several available methods for parameter estimation in dynamical systems; however there are some basic differences in chaotic systems due to their sensitivity to initial condition. Accordingly, in this paper, a new cost function which is proper for chaotic systems is applied to the chaotic one-dimensional map. Then the efficiency of a newly introduced intelligent method experimental design in extracting proper data is investigated. The results show the success of the proposed method. (shrink)

Background Moral distress is a complex and challenging issue in the nursing profession that can negatively affect the nurses’ job satisfaction and retention and the quality of patient care. This study focused on describing the resources and constraints, consequences, and interventions of moral distress in nurses. Methods In a literature review, an extensive electronic search was conducted in databases including PubMed, ISI, Scopus as well as Google Scholar search engine using the keywords including “moral distress” and “nurses” to identify resources, (...) constraints, consequences, and interventions about moral distress in nurses, from the earliest records up to 26 December 2020. The required data were extracted from 61 relevant studies by two independent reviewers. Results Resources and constraints in the occurrence of moral distress among nurses can be divided into three general categories including internal factors, clinical factors, and external factors. The consequences of moral distress on nurses and the medical system reduced moral sensitivity, development of psychological and physical health problems, and the intention to leave the profession. The potential effective interventions were the implementation of integrated communication programs, strengthening physician–nurse collaboration, nursing involvement in clinical decision-making and end-of-life issues, social support, using a resiliency bundle, interdisciplinary discussion, and promoting nurses’ ethical and communication skills. Conclusion There are a wide range of resources and constraints impacting moral distress in nurses that could lead to negative consequences. Further studies are necessary to identify, evaluate, and implement a range of potential effective interventions for the management of moral distress in nurses. (shrink)

Iranian national cinema is showing the scars of artistic persecution. The aesthetic landscape of this national cinema has become one of stark confines – both in its thematic allowances and its aesthetic possibilities. However, these confinements, both physical and technological, have not merely been passively affected by ideological constraints but have also been active in affecting ideological discourse, answering back as it does within imposed limitations. What we are seeing in contemporary Iranian cinema, I believe, is a complex movement of (...) aesthetic novelty, provoking some important questions regarding the relationship between politics and aesthetics. The relatively high-profile instance of which I am concerned here is Jafar Panahi’s This is Not a Film (2011): a work that denies its ontological category and, in turn, furthers its medial possibilities. Panahi’s confinement is an example of enforced asceticism: an asceticism of necessity, groundbreaking in its approach. So much potential arises from this “non-film” – too much to find any answers here. However, this Collision presents the perfect space for briefly outlining some of the questions emanating from a film that is “not a film”. I raise some striking similarities between what occurs with Panahi and the politico-aesthetic ideas of Jacques Rancière in order to contemplate Panahi’s use of asceticism to political effect. (shrink)

Philosophy has repeatedly denied cinema in order to grant it artistic status. Adorno, for example, defined an ‘uncinematic’ element in the negation of movement in modern cinema, ‘which constitutes its artistic character’. Similarly, Lyotard defended an ‘acinema’, which rather than selecting and excluding movements through editing, accepts what is ‘fortuitous, dirty, confused, unclear, poorly framed, overexposed’. In his Handbook of Inaesthetics, Badiou embraces a similar idea, by describing cinema as an ‘impure circulation’ that incorporates the other arts. Resonating with Bazin (...) and his defence of ‘impure cinema’, that is, of cinema's interbreeding with other arts, Badiou seems to agree with him also in identifying the uncinematic as the location of the Real. This article will investigate the particular impurities of cinema that drive it beyond the specificities of the medium and into the realm of the other arts and the reality of life itself. Privileged examples will be drawn from various moments in film history and geography, starting with the analysis of two films by Jafar Panahi: This Is Not a Film, whose anti-cinema stance in announced in its own title; and The Mirror, another relentless exercise in self-negation. It goes on to examine Kenji Mizoguchi's deconstruction of cinematic acting in his exploration of the geidomono genre in The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, and culminates in the conjuring of the physical experience of death through the systematic demolition of film genres in The Act of Killing. (shrink)

This year there was a noticeable presence at the New York Film Festival, whether intentionally or not, of films reflecting back on the past, both real and imagined. A second wave of millennial summing up, more profound than that forced by the media in the year 2000, these films, at their best, seek with courage and compassion to understand the larger forces at work in the troubled 20th century. At their worst, they stand as work riddled by self-deluding cliches in (...) collusion with our own worst impulses. Among the number of 'films of remembrance' shown, those that demand to be discussed because they best exemplify the ongoing struggle to make cinema responsive to the needs of filmgoing audiences to know reality 'again for the first time' (pace T. S. Eliot) are, in a rough order of importance: _S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine_ (Dir. Rithy Pan); _The Fog of War_ (Dir. Errol Morris); _Dogville_ (Dir. Lars von Trier); _Mayor of the Sunset Strip_ (Dir. George Hickenlooper); _Bright Leaves_ (Dir. Ross McElwee); and _The Best of Youth_ (Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana). Alas, among the NYFF 2003 films of memory and summation, it is also necessary to discuss _Mystic River_ (Dir. Clint Eastwood), but only because of its inexplicable media notoriety, a sad testimony to a Dubya phenomenon in things cinematic. This is one hanging chad. Among the festival films not informed by this core trend, but eminently worthy of mention, are: _PTU_ (Dir. Johnnie To); _Free Radicals_ (Dir. Barbara Albert); _Crimson Gold_ (Dir. Jafar Panahi); and _Raja_ (Dir. Jacques Doillon), though, unhappily, it would strain this portmanteau overview to talk in detail about more than the first two. (shrink)