With the widespread use of vaccines in research and clinical settings, there is an urgent need to standardize vaccine representation, integrate information across diverse vaccine types, and support computer-assisted reasoning. Accordingly, we have since 2007 developed the community-based Vaccine Ontology (VO), which aligns with the Basic Formal Ontology and adheres to OBO Foundry principles. VO models ontologically vaccines, vaccine components, vaccine immune responses, vaccine investigation studies and other vaccine-related topics. VO represents more than 10,000 vaccines targeting 289 infectious pathogens and (...) cancers in humans and over 30 nonhuman animal species. VO provides mappings to external resources such as RxNorm, CVX, FDA, and USDA. Various VO use cases exist. VO facilitates vaccine standardization in resources such as the VIOLIN vaccine database, ImmPort, and the Vaccine Adjuvant Compendium (VAC). Semantic queries can be made to query VO. VO has been shown to enhance experimental and clinical vaccine data analysis and vaccine literature mining. Overall, VO standardizes vaccine modeling and representation and greatly supports vaccine AI research in the Semantic Web era. (shrink)

The expression ‘a university without research is a dignified high school’ is becoming a both local and global concern in the academia. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which collaborative research methodologies can enhance integration of faculties of arts and humanities in the universities in Malawi for knowledge development and transfer. It has been argued over and over that universities are spotlighted by their outstanding work in research, developing and sharing ideas, new inventions and creativity (...) within the spectrum of partnership development. While striving for partnership through collaborative research approaches, research activities still remain an area of concern in institutions that offer diverse tertiary education in Malawi. The question of how can these institutions or faculties engage each other in collaborative research methodologies in the quest of knowledge development and transfer remains crucial and relevant The study analyzed strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the existing research methods in Arts and Humanities and how the two disciplines can create a space for amalgamation so that research findings can benefit both disciplines. The study reveals that collaboration in various disciplines is a challenge owing to variations of conceptual analyses and the deficiency of technical no-how of both teaching staff and students as well as tools for data collection and analysis as may be emphasized in each of the areas of study; Arts and Humanities. Furthermore, while other institutions of higher learning have research ethics committees for checks and balances as a collaborative tool, some institutions do not know that this committee plays a crucial role in the field of research. Within this backdrop, there is need to develop research collaborations within an institution or with other institutions of higher learning that have a well-defined research profile for mutual benefits as far as collaborative research methodologies are concerned. (shrink)

There is a general impression among Kant scholars that he has no robust theory of work. Most of his references to the topic appear in his historical and anthropological writings, where he tells us that work is burdensome, and valuable only for the sake of whatever we produce. In this paper, I argue that Kant has an under-explored theory of work in the third Critique. This theory bears little resemblance to his depiction of work in the historical and anthropological writings. (...) The third Critique will depict work as self-expressive, creative, and free, features Kant will go on to associate with art. Kant’s contention is that when work resembles art, it is both agreeable and something we enjoy for its own sake. However, when work fails to resemble art — when it is, in Kant’s words, natural, scientific, and mercenary — it is both disagreeable and constrained, and begins to sound like his description of work from the historical and anthropological writings. Kant’s theory of work in the third Critique has a number of important implications. The first is that it provides a new foundation for a contemporary philosophy of work that places freedom and creativity at the center of the labor process. My analysis also engages a part of Kant scholarship that has, until recently, been largely neglected. It is only in the last decade that the English-language Kant literature has taken up the question of how to make sense of Kant’s remarks about work. However the focus is rarely on Kant’s aesthetic theory of work, but rather on the place of work in his moral and political philosophy. I discuss the implications of Kant’s third Critique theory of work for these other debates, as well as for our understanding of the third Critique as a whole. (shrink)

The punishment of social misconduct is a powerful mechanism for stabilizing high levels of cooperation among unrelated individuals. It is regularly assumed that humans have a universal disposition to punish social norm violators, which is sometimes labelled “universal structure of human morality” or “pure aversion to social betrayal”. Here we present evidence that, contrary to this hypothesis, the propensity to punish a moral norm violator varies among participants with different career trajectories. In anonymous real-life conditions, future teachers punished a talented (...) but immoral young violinist: they voted against her in an important music competition when they had been informed of her previous blatant misconduct toward fellow violin students. In contrast, future police officers and high school students did not punish. This variation among socio-professional categories indicates that the punishment of norm violators is not entirely explained by an aversion to social betrayal. We suggest that context specificity plays an important role in normative behaviour; people seem inclined to enforce social norms only in situations that are familiar, relevant for their social category, and possibly strategically advantageous. (shrink)

In this paper, I challenge standard views of the moral badness of sentimentality defended by art critics and philosophers. Accounts based on untruthfulness and self-indulgence lack the resources to both explain the badness of bad sentimentality and to allow that there are benign instances. We are sometimes permitted to be sentimental even though it is self-serving. A non-moralistic account should allow for this. To provide such an account, I first outline a substantive view of the ideal of unsentimentality by turning (...) to Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Cézanne. Rilke celebrates the artist for his unsentimental love of his subjects and “untiring objective wakefulness” to them. I then turn to Iris Murdoch’s ethics of attention (itself influenced by Rilke) to explain why this ideal is so difficult to live up to in practice, the various ways that we fall short, and what our failures mean. What Murdoch contributes is both a sense that the lovingly attentive attitude that Rilke describes is morally—and not just artistically—important and a compassionate account of the human egocentrism that inhibits it. By thinking of sentimentality as a failure of moral attention, we can appreciate how particular instances differ from one another. Sentimentality can console us in difficult times or can gratify our egos; it can be a form of escapism or can rigidly enclose reality; and it can be harmlessly self-serving or a selfish failure to morally attend to the other when it counts. I conclude by outlining some ways that being seen with Cézanne-like moral attention can matter to us. (shrink)

Iris Murdoch's famous case of M and D illustrates the moral importance of learning to see others in a more favourable light through renewed attention. Yet if we do not read this case in the wider context of Murdoch's work, we are liable to overlook the attitudes and transformations involved in coming to change one's mind as M does. Stanley Cavell offers one such reading and denies that the case represents a change in M's sense of herself or the possibilities (...) for her world of the kind exemplified by Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House. In this essay, I challenge Cavell's reading, suggesting that the case, while it may not be an exemplar of the perfectionist outlook as described by Cavell, can and should be interpreted in perfectionist terms. To see this, I reflect on Murdoch's views on the endless perfectibility of language, the importance of humility, and the role of love and attention in moral learning. I conclude that Murdoch's work uniquely sheds light on how we might cultivate a perfectionist outlook in ourselves and others, and describes the distinctive role that some novels can play in moral education. (shrink)

This book explores Iris Murdoch as a philosopher who, through her distinctive methodology, exploits the advantages of having a mind on the borders of literature and politics in her early career writings (pre-The Sovereignty of Good). By focusing on a single decade of Murdoch’s early career, Jamieson tracks connections between her views on the state of literature and politics in postwar Britain and her approach to the philosophy of mind and moral philosophy. Furthermore, this close study reveals that, far from (...) a stylistic quirk, Murdoch’s use of metaphors, analogies, and other literary devices is internal to her methodology. Finally, rather than asking what Murdoch’s views are, this work will ask “what is Murdoch trying to achieve with her writings and public lectures, and how does she go about this?” By answering the latter question, we will have a new strategy for interpreting her writings more generally. The book contributes to the growing body of scholarship focusing on Iris Murdoch’s philosophical writings, and on women in the history of analytic philosophy. (shrink)

Defenders of two Rationality Views of love—the Qualities View and the Personhood View—have drawn on Iris Murdoch's philosophical writings to highlight a connection between love and a “realistic” perspective on the beloved. Murdoch does not inform the basic structure of these views—she is rather introduced as a supplement who shows that in love, we pay accurate, nuanced, unguarded, and unflinching attention to the other. In this paper, I contend that these authors have failed to see that Murdoch offers a distinct (...) view of love and is inappropriate to enlist as an ally. This is in large part because they have missed the full sense of what Murdoch means by connecting love and realism. I contend that for Murdoch, to love someone means seeing them in light of a realistic vision of what it means to be human; this includes an appreciation of the limits of freedom, the formative influence of personal history, and the nature and extent of our differences from one another. This helps us to see why Murdoch variously describes loving attention as realistic, compassionate, tolerant, and extremely difficult. It also sheds light on some important and familiar ways that we criticize one another's grounds for love. (shrink)

Broadening access to both computational and educational resources is crit- ical to diffusing machine learning (ML) innovation. However, today, most ML resources and experts are siloed in a few countries and organizations. In this article, we describe our pedagogical approach to increasing access to applied ML through a massive open online course (MOOC) on Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML). We suggest that TinyML, applied ML on resource-constrained embedded devices, is an attractive means to widen access because TinyML leverages low-cost and globally (...) accessible hardware and encourages the development of complete, self-contained applications, from data collection to deployment. To this end, a collaboration between academia and industry produced a four part MOOC that provides application-oriented instruction on how to develop solutions using TinyML. The series is openly available on the edX MOOC platform, has no prerequisites beyond basic programming, and is designed for global learners from a variety of backgrounds. It introduces real-world applications, ML algorithms, data-set engineering, and the ethi- cal considerations of these technologies through hands-on programming and deployment of TinyML applications in both the cloud and on their own microcontrollers. To facili- tate continued learning, community building, and collaboration beyond the courses, we launched a standalone website, a forum, a chat, and an optional course-project com- petition. We also open-sourced the course materials, hoping they will inspire the next generation of ML practitioners and educators and further broaden access to cutting-edge ML technologies. (shrink)

This article argues that Iris Murdoch, who was supervised by John Wisdom during her 1947–48 fellowship at Newnham College Cambridge, went on to practice philosophy in a recognizably Wisdomian manner in her earliest paper, “Thinking and Language” (1951). To do so, I first describe how Wisdom understood philosophical perplexity and paradox. One task that linguistic philosophers should take up is to investigate the concrete cases that give paradoxical philosophical statements their sense and to sift the truth they contain from the (...) distortion. I then show how this vision informed his critical reception of Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind as well as his own investigation of the Hidden Stream Paradox. Finally, I trace a similar approach to Murdoch's discussions of a paradox I call the Coarse Net Paradox. Recognizing Murdoch's intellectual inheritance from Wisdom enables us to see a thus‐far overlooked connection between Murdoch and the tradition of linguistic philosophy. (shrink)

Although the diversity of philosophy is increasing at the undergraduate level, there is still a significant gap between the percentage of underrepresented students that major in philosophy and the percentage that complete PhDs. With the support of a seed grant from the American Philosophical Association, we created four chapters of a mentoring program that provided underrepresented undergraduates with support for considering and applying to graduate school. After completing a year of the program, the majority of surveyed mentees reported that they (...) had an increased sense of belonging within philosophy, were more likely to take additional philosophy classes, were more likely to apply to graduate school in philosophy, and were more likely to pursue a career that has some connection to philosophy. In this paper, we consider not only the benefits of the program, but also provide a guide for those who are considering creating mentoring programs at their home institutions. (shrink)

Book review of Lesley A. Jacobs' Pursuing Equal Opportunities: The Theory and Practice of Egalitarian Justice.

In 1966, Stanford psychiatrist Kenneth M. Colby published one of the first conceptual accounts of a chatbot for psychotherapy. It was the same year in which, at MIT, computer-science pioneer Joseph Weizenbaum released his famous natural-language processing program ELIZA, which many regard as the world’s first chatbot. The two concurrent publications marked the starting points of a fierce controversy about the moral limits of automating psychotherapy. With the advent of generative AI, many of the same questions are now reappearing. (...) Revisiting the early debate can therefore inform discussions on the boundaries of AI-based therapy at a time when it is being considered once again. (shrink)

In this short essay, I report results from a representative national dataset from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program that shows that significantly more men than women intend to major in philosophy at the high‐school and pre‐university level. This lends credence to pre‐university effects hypotheses of women's underrepresentation in philosophy and successfully replicates a smaller analysis performed by Cheshire Calhoun at Colby College in 2009. I also defend my analysis against an objection that claims that intention to major is not (...) a good predictor of final major selection. Finally, I argue that this new analysis should lead to further investment in university‐level diversity programs. (shrink)

Książka dotyczy trzech powiązanych z sobą zagadnień: internalizmu racji działania, internalizmu motywacyjnego i tzw. hume’owskiej teorii motywacji. Próbuje odpowiedzieć m.in. na następujące pytania: Czy wolno nam stwierdzić, że ktoś powinien coś zrobić, nawet gdy nie może być motywowany do tego działania? Czy można szczerze akceptować jakiś osąd moralny i nie być motywowanym do postępowania zgodnie z jego zaleceniami? Czy normy moralne służą tak naprawdę realizacji egoistycznych pragnień, czy może są fikcją wpajaną przez instytucje społeczne? Autor pokazuje, jak wiele współcześnie dyskutowanych (...) problemów metaetycznych można rozwiązać, sięgając do filozofii Davida Hume’a. Choć koncentruje się na najnowszych dyskusjach z dziedziny metaetyki, to zagadnienia omawiane w książce stanowią kontynuację klasycznych debat filozoficznych na temat takich pojęć jak wartość, dobro, obowiązek, racjonalność, relatywizm czy słabość woli. (shrink)

Düşünce tarihi insan ve insanla ilgili problemlerin tarihidir. Çünkü her bilim ve felsefe anlayışı az ya da çok insanla ilişkilidir. Bununla birlikte insan ve insana ait problemlerin özel ve bağımsız bir disiplinin konusu olması felsefi antropolojinin kurulmasıyla mümkün olmuştur. Bu çalışma, felsefi antropolojide ortaya konulan kimi yaklaşımları eleştiren ve ontolojik temellere dayalı yeni bir antropoloji anlayışı geliştiren Takiyettin Mengüşoğlu’nun görüşlerini ele almaktadır. Bu antropolojik anlayış insanı herhangi bir kavramdan değil, somut biyopisişik bütünlüğünden hareketle incelediğinden, onu varlık koşullarının bütünlüğünde değerlendirme imkânı (...) sağlamaktadır. *** History of thought is history of the human and human’s problems. Because all field of sciences and philosophy have relation greater or less to human. However human and human’s problems are with established of philosophical anthropology has been the subject of a special and independent discipline. This essay deals with Takiyettin Mengüşoğlu’s views who criticizes some approaches asserted in philosophical anthropology and develops a new anthropology based on ontological grounds. This anthropology approach enables to evaluate human in totality of human’s being contestations as not analyzing any conception but his concrete biopsychic wholeness. (shrink)

Information is usually treated as something we use to describe the physical world. In modern physics, however, there is growing evidence that information itself behaves like a physical resource, subject to the same laws that govern energy, heat, and matter. This paper develops that perspective through a concrete experimental proposal we call Quantum Maxwell Demon Arrays (QMDA)—systems that use measurement and feedback at the quantum scale to convert information about a system into controlled physical work. -/- Building on established results (...) such as the Landauer bound and the Szilard engine, we show that information acquired through measurement can be converted into usable free energy, provided that its physical costs and constraints are properly accounted for. In QMDA, measurements are not passive observations but active physical interactions whose outcomes can be stored, processed, and exploited thermodynamically. Organized into arrays, these measurement–feedback units act collectively, allowing information flow itself to shape energy extraction, entropy production, and system control. -/- We demonstrate how QMDA can serve as experimental probes of information thermodynamics, enabling direct tests of how information constrains and enables physical processes in quantum regimes. This framework clarifies the status of measurement as a physical operation rather than a subjective act of interpretation, and it suggests new pathways toward ultra-efficient computation, precision sensing, and energy management within known thermodynamic limits. -/- More broadly, this work supports the view that information is not merely a bookkeeping device for observers, but a fundamental ingredient of physical dynamics—one that can be quantified, manipulated, and transformed into free energy under well-defined physical rules. (shrink)

Existing social disparities in the United States are inconsistent with the promise of democracy; therefore, there was a need for critical conceptualization of the first principles that undergird American democracy and the genesis of democratic social change in America. This constructivist grounded theory study aimed to construct a grounded theory that provides an understanding of the process of American democratic social change as it emerged from the nation’s founding documents. A post hoc polytheoretical framework including Foucault’s, Bourdieu’s, and Marx and (...) Engels’s theories of power was used to understand power dynamics. The research question focused on understanding the process of democratic social change in America. The sample comprised the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and the U.S. Constitution. The documents were retrieved from the National Archives and Library of Congress. The data analysis plan incorporated successive comparison, situational and dramaturgical analysis, deconstruction, and perspective taking as strategies. The result was the construction of a democratic social change process theory preceded by five grounded theories: (a) first principles of democracy, (b) first principles of democracy conceptual framework, (c) socio-ethical principles of democracy, (d) demoralizing process, and (e) either-or approach to democracy. Positive social change implications include applying a democratic social change process to future social change endeavors across domains and levels of analysis, a normative framework for a republican form of government, and a tool to analyze and minimize the latent consequences of social justice policies. (shrink)

Recent work in neuroscience and artificial intelligence has revived an old philosophical question in a new form: is the brain best understood as a system that constantly predicts its sensory input, or does cognition involve something more than prediction? Predictive processing theories describe the brain as a mechanism that minimizes prediction error and have been highly successful in explaining perception, action, and learning. This paper argues that, while prediction plays an important role in how brains function, it cannot by itself (...) explain understanding, meaning, or rational thought. The problem is not that predictive models are wrong, but that they are often asked to do too much philosophical work. Drawing on ideas from embodied cognition and interpretation, the paper shows why successful prediction does not amount to genuine understanding. Contemporary artificial intelligence systems are used as a test case: despite their impressive predictive abilities, they illustrate how behavior can be effective without being meaningful in the relevant sense. The paper proposes that cognition must be explained at more than one level, combining neural processes, bodily engagement with the world, and participation in norm-governed practices. On this view, the mind–body problem is not about mysterious mental substances, but about how different kinds of explanation fit together. (shrink)

This paper defends a reading of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mathematics in the Lectures on the Foundation of Mathematics as a radical conventionalist one, whereby our agreement about the particular case is constitutive of our mathematical practice and ‘the logical necessity of any statement is a direct expression of a convention’ (Dummett 1959, p. 329). On this view, mathematical truths are conceptual truths and our practices determine directly for each mathematical proposition individually whether it is true or false. Mathematical truths are (...) thus not consequences of a prior adoption of a convention or rules as orthodox conventionalism has it. The goal of the paper is not merely exegetical, however, and argues that radical conventionalism can withstand some of the most difficult objections that have been brought forward against it, including those of Dummett himself, and thus that radical conventionalism has been prematurely excluded from consideration by philosophers of mathematics. (shrink)

Contemporary cognitive science offers limited conceptual tools for describing systematic variation in how individuals maintain coherence under conditions of high informational load. While existing models address attention, working memory, predictive processing, and cognitive style, they do not adequately capture deeper structural differences in how minds compress, integrate, and stabilize representations of reality. This paper proposes a conceptual framework of cognitive compression styles: distinct information-processing architectures that organize perception, meaning-making, and coherence through different compression strategies. The framework identifies seven compression styles. (...) Pattern-sensitive, associative, immersive, sequential, narrative, social-reflective, and integrative. Examining how each exhibits characteristic failure modes under conditions of environmental overload, optimization pressure, and constraint loss. The model is descriptive rather than diagnostic and is intended as a theoretical lens for understanding differential cognitive stability in contemporary high-noise digital environments. (shrink)

This paper investigates whether there exists a true proposition that is unprovable not merely within any given formal system, but across all conceivable formal and meta-formal systems—including those idealized as possessing unlimited cognitive or inferential power, such as a classical omniscient deity. Building on the structural cores of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems and Tarski’s undefinability of truth, and engaging with contemporary work on the absolute limits of formalization and reflection, I argue for the existence of a class of truths that are (...) necessarily unprovable in principle. Crucially, this unprovability does not stem from contingent finitude, epistemic ignorance, or computational weakness, but follows from ineluctable, constitutive constraints on the very notion of proof as a finite, surveyable object of reason. I demonstrate that any system capable of sufficient self-reference cannot consistently contain a complete, sound proof predicate for its own language. This result iterates through all plausible meta-systematic strengthenings. Consequently, the concept of “proof” cannot be globally closed under truth—even under maximal idealization. This yields a non-theological but metaphysically robust sense in which there are truths that no agent, divine or otherwise, could prove as proofs. Omniscience, understood as knowledge of all truths, remains logically coherent, but omniproofability—the capacity to furnish a proof for every known truth within a single, consistent proof-system—is shown to be incoherent. The final unprovable truth is the necessary excess of truth over provability itself. (shrink)

Representational and embodied approaches to cognitive science are often presented in opposition to one another, with Merleau-Ponty serving as a historical precursor to embodied approaches. We argue that the two approaches are compatible and complementary, and that both can be used to interpret Merleau-Ponty's (and Husserl's) work. To support our arguments, we describe two forms of representation associated with two distinct processes. Motor intentionality is a process of direct embodied interaction (reflexes, habits, skilled behaviors) which use mediating representations to bind (...) sensory information together and guide behavior. These internal states reliably indicate specific stimuli (even if just during a transient episode), are associated with a determinate phenomenal character (a “typical physiognomy”), and correspond to what Husserl describes as passive synthesis. Higher-level processes like reasoning make use of more explicit representations (what Husserl calls active processes), which are associated with focused attention and “explicated” propositional contents. The two kinds of process can occur independently, but are often fully woven together, as for example when a friend makes explicit suggestions while the two of you cook. We also discuss Merleau-Ponty’s famous Schneider case, which makes vivid what happens when both types of processes (motor intentionality and high-level reasoning; passive and active synthesis) are intact, but when some explicit representations are damaged. A certain stratum of virtual or projected space is lost, and so a certain kind of abstractly guided behavior is unavailable to him. (shrink)

摘要 中国思想史上长期存在心物混淆与方法错位两大根本困境，儒释道三家围绕心物关 系、心性修养、认知路径、经世实践展开的千年争论，本质上并非价值立场之争，而 是存在层次划分不清、本体边界模糊、实践方法跨界误用所导致的系统性理论偏差。 本文立足《易经》《道德经》《礼记》《中庸》等中国传统原典文本的本义阐释，系统提 出一源多元论、玄弦论与各归其正三层递进、逻辑自洽的原创思想架构，从本体论、 心性论、方法论三个维度对中国哲学核心难题进行根本性厘清与重构。 第一层，一源多元论确立终极本体：“一源” 作为不可言说、不可概念化、不可对象化 的终极生成之源，超越时空与非时空、物质与精神的一切二元对立，仅以 “生生” 本然 状态自然流露出三大彼此独立、互不统摄、同源并行的存在界域 —— 超时空的心之 本体、有时空的有情生命现象界、有时空的无情物质自然界。三者同源而不混、并列 而不隔、各成体系而不相替代。 第二层，玄弦论揭示心性本体的内在运作机制：心之本体的本然寂静状态为 “玄”，玄 中蕴含的灵动潜能发生超时空振动为 “弦”，弦与肉身生命系统形成 “同声相应、同气 相求” 式非因果相感关系，由此生成情绪、心念、意识、感受等全部有情世界现象。 修心的本质，并非向外求索、改造外物、压抑心念，而是让躁动之弦复归玄之本然寂 静。 同时本文严格厘清三种 “感” 的本质边界：心能感物（主动认知、科学成立）、物不感 心（客观独立、不可改变）、心与心相感（伦理相通、修行成立），补全《易经》“感而 遂通” 与 “万物之灵” 的终极哲学依据。 第三层，各归其正作为贯穿全体系的方法论总纲，要求一切实践活动必须恪守存在边 界：心性修养归依玄弦论的内省观照之路，物理世界研究归依科学实证之路，政治实 践归依制度与治理规律之路，文化传承归依考据、文献与逻辑之路，各领域互不统 摄、互不替代、互不跨界误用。 本文以该体系重新解读王阳明格竹、释迦牟尼苦行、孔子周游列国、朱熹注经修心等 思想史经典公案，证明一切实践失败的根源均为方法错位，而一切有效实践均遵循各 归其正的根本原则。本体系植根中国经典、逻辑严密、结构完整，既能够终结中国哲 学史上持续千年的心物之争，也能够为当代中国哲学自主知识体系建构提供原创性、 融通性、可对话、可验证的理论资源。.

This paper proposes a reversal of the standard strategy for dealing with semantic paradox. Rather than beginning with paradoxical sentences and diagnosing what has gone wrong, it starts from a general account of linguistic pathology and asks which sentences instantiate it. I argue that interpretability is a necessary condition of communication, and that certain forms of semantic disorders—most notably permanent ambiguity and self-denial—constitute genuine pathologies of language. Central to study is a distinction between two roles played by truth: one that (...) secures the link between language and world, and another that operates affirmatively within language itself. I argue that self-reference, often treated as a source of paradox, is better understood as a structural enabling condition, while the pathological effects arise from a specific internal use of truth. On this basis, I outline a principled strategy for containing semantic pathology and indicate how it can be formally implemented without sacrificing legitimate expressive resources. (shrink)

Resumo A bovinocultura de corte atualmente no Brasil é fundamental para o PIB, e dessa forma para que o ciclo da pecuária se torne completo e cada vez mais eficiente o início da maturidade sexual bovina precoce. Associado ao manejo adequado e a realização frequente da sincronização de estro em fêmeas de corte, obtivemos boas taxas de concepção no rebanho e provocando a heterose entre o zebuíno e o taurino. A eficiência reprodutiva se dá por meio da sincronização do cio, (...) que ocorre por meio do uso de hormônios nos protocolos de inseminação artificial, além de sêmen de touros bem avaliados e uma equipe especializada junto ao médico veterinário. O presente relato utilizou oitenta animais sendo cinquenta vacas e trinta novilhas, taxas de concepção em novilhas de 66% e nas primíparas 84%. Concluindo que é uma técnica eficiente para ganho genético rápido no rebanho. Palavras-Chave: bovinocultura; maturidade sexual; puberdade; sincronização de estro; hormônios. Abstract Beef cattle farming is currently essential for the GDP in Brazil, and thus, for the livestock cycle to become complete and increasingly efficient, early bovine sexual maturity begins. Associated with adequate management and frequent estrus synchronization in beef females, we obtained good conception rates in the herd and caused heterosis between zebu and taurine. Reproductive efficiency is achieved through estrus synchronization, which occurs through the use of hormones in artificial insemination protocols, in addition to semen from well-evaluated bulls and a specialized team together with the veterinarian. This report used eighty animals, fifty cows and thirty heifers, with conception rates in heifers of 66% and in primiparous cattle of 84%. Concluding that it is an efficient technique for rapid genetic gain in the herd. Keywords: bovine species; sexual maturiy; puberty; synchronize estrus; hormones. (shrink)

While plants provide some of the most interesting cases for individuality related problems in philosophy of biology (e.g. Clarke 2012; Gerber 2018), no work has examined plant indi- viduality through specifically focusing on physiological processes, a lacuna this paper aims to fill. We think that different domains of biology suggest different approaches and our specific focus on physiological processes, such as plant hormone systems and source-sink balance regulations, will help to identify coordinated systems at different scales. Identifying physiological individuals is (...) crucial for a wide range of research in plant biology, including re- search on plant nutrition, transport and accumulation of nutrients in edible parts, and plant responses to various stress conditions such as plant diseases and changing abiotic conditions. Although plants do produce systemic responses to local stimuli (e.g. a sudden wound on one leaf can result in a whole plant response), considering them as individuals is (often) problematic. They are highly modular organisms, and they can grow vegetatively, consti- tuting clones of what seem superficially to be individual organisms. Moreover, as with animals, there are problems raised by their symbiotic relations to micro-organisms, most notably the mycorrhiza, through which they may be connected to other plants. We argue that coordinated plant systems can be distinguished at multiple scales from a physiological perspective. While none of these is a unit that must be necessarily called “the individual,” they offer integrated approaches for various research problems in plant science. (shrink)

A simple interpretation of quantity calculus is given. Quantities are described as two-place functions from objects, states or processes (or some combination of them) into numbers that satisfy the mutual measurability property. Quantity calculus is based on a notational simplification of the concept of quantity. A key element of the simplification is that we consider units to be intentionally unspecified numbers that are measures of exactly specified objects, states or processes. This interpretation of quantity calculus combines all the advantages of (...) calculating with numerical values (since the values of quantities are numbers, we can do with them everything we do with numbers) and all the advantages of calculating with standardly conceived quantities (calculus is invariant to the choice of units and has built-in dimensional analysis). This also shows that the standard metaphysics and mathematics of quantities and their magnitudes is not needed for quantity calculus. At the end of the article, arguments are given that the concept of quantity as defined here is a pivotal concept in understanding the quantitative approach to nature. As an application of this interpretation of quantity calculus, an easy proof of dimensional homogeneity of physical laws is given. (shrink)

Understanding is the foundational component of intelligence that makes adaptation to novel states possible. As artificial intelligence models advance towards artificial general and super intelligence, an objective, in contrast to human-centered, theory of understanding is required. One merit of an objective conceptual analysis of understanding is that it would unify human and artificial understanding. This study defines understanding as well-integrated use of reasoning across a network of conceptual, logical, and causal relationships, which are situated on an efficient conceptual web. The (...) evolutionary function of understanding is the capacity to generalize knowledge into novel situations. This renders machine learning concept “generalization” a measure of understanding. The paper discusses two primary methods for assessing artificial understanding: behavioral methods measuring generalizability and mechanistic analyses revealing causal mechanisms of the neural network. We discuss the limitations of these methods. The most important problem, as this paper defends, is the difficulty of measuring objective understanding in contrast to human-understanding. (shrink)

This paper introduces a mathematical model to analyze the stability of monogamous systems under the influence of contagious proclivities (referred to as "kinks") using a jigsaw percolation framework on graphs. We model a population as a graph where vertices represent individuals, and edges denote relationships or proclivity compatibility. Monogamy is represented as a perfect matching, with infidelity modeled as additional edges. We incorporate the concept of contagious kinks, where proclivities spread through compatible connections, and explore conditions under which infidelity does (...) not occur, i.e., the system remains stable with clusters of size at most two. Using extremal graph theory (Turán's theorem) and network flow constraints, we derive thresholds for the probability of extra-relational edges to prevent percolation. We further account for population growth via reproduction and the amortized cost of contagion, showing that kink suppression (reducing compatibility probability) significantly delays the critical population size at which infidelity becomes inevitable. Our results suggest that monogamy can be preserved if the probability of extra-relational edges remains below a critical threshold, even with contagious kinks, provided the graph remains fragile and network flow constraints limit relationship concurrency. (shrink)

Let intentionalism be the view that what proposition is expressed in context by a sentence containing indexicals depends on the speaker’s intentions. It has recently been argued that intentionalism makes communicative success mysterious and that there are counterexamples to the intentionalist view in the form of cases of mismatch between the intended interpretation and the intuitively correct interpretation. In this paper, I argue that these objections can be met, once we acknowledge that we may distinguish what determines the correct interpretation (...) from the evidence that is available to the audience, as well as from the standards by which we judge whether or not a given interpretation is reasonable. With these distinctions in place, we see that intentionalism does not render communicative success mysterious, and that cases of mismatch between the intended interpretation and the intuitively correct one can easily be accommodated. The distinction is also useful in treating the Humpty Dumpty problem for intentionalism, since it turns out that this can be treated as an extreme special case of mismatch. (shrink)

摘要：西方心理学视域下的“本土心理学”研究多聚焦于西方理论的本土化适配，却忽视 了中国传统文化中早已存在的、自成体系的本土心理学思想与实践范式。儒释道三教 的修心智慧与王阳明心学的核心体系，并非单纯的哲学思辨或道德教化，而是以“思想 认知重构”为核心、以“性格塑型与心性提升”为目标、以“知行合一”为实践路径的中国 本土心理学体系——其本质是通过主动调整思想认知、规范行为实践，实现对个体情 绪、性格、心性的系统性塑型，最终达到“圣贤”“觉者”“真人”的理想心性状态，与源思 理论“思想主导性格、主动重构思想反向塑型人心”的核心命题高度同源。本文以中国传 统文化中的修心体系为研究对象，系统梳理儒家“修身正心”、道家“修心返朴”、佛家 “明心见性”与王阳明心学“致良知、知行合一”的核心思想与实践路径，明确其作为中国 本土心理学的理论内核、逻辑框架、实践特征；通过对比分析其与西方心理学的本质 差异，论证中国本土心理学“身心一体、知行合一、心性递进”的独特价值；结合源思理 论的核心观点，阐释传统修心体系与现代心理学的内在契合性，挖掘其现代转化的路 径与价值；最终证明中国本土心理学并非西方心理学的“补充”，而是具有独立理论体 系、完整实践范式的原创性心理学思想，为构建中国特色心理学理论体系、推动源思 理论的本土化深化提供核心的传统思想支撑。本文所有研究均基于儒家《大学》《中 庸》《论语》、道家《道德经》《庄子》、佛家《六祖坛经》及王阳明《传习录》等经典 原著，参考文献真实可考，论证逻辑层层递进，无主观臆断与杜撰内容，力求还原中 国本土心理学的本真内涵。.

A complex approach to Martin Buber’s oeuvre requires a consideration of both his dialogical and pre-dialogical writings. The latter include in some cases emphases that differ substantially from the emphases promulgated in Ich und Du. I will focus on three essays from the final stage of Buber’s pre-dialogical period which contain reflections on the fighting individual. The comparison with Ernst Jünger’s reflections on the same motif will show the intellectual proximity between the two authors and will help us understand how (...) Buber’s thought was positioned shortly before his dialogical turn. While after this turn Buber and Jünger could be easily seen as polar opposites, this is not the case when we juxtapose their early reflections on the fighting individual in World War I. There are striking similarities which I denote as a homology, as there is no evidence of influence in either direction. The presented analysis provides an insight into Buber’s controversial pre-dialogical positions as well as into the more general processing of the World War I experience in Germanophone philosophy. (shrink)

现有人工智能相关研究多聚焦技术应用、就业替代、教育工具革新等功利性与技术性 维度，鲜有从人类思想本质、生物基因差异、社会治理逻辑及文明演进规律出发，构 建技术变革与人类精神世界联动的完整闭环。本文以人工智能对人类体力劳动与低阶 脑力功能的替代为核心触发点，系统论证了智能时代人类思想分流的必然趋势 —— 因基因禀赋先天差异与主观能动性后天分化，人工智能不会催生全民觉醒，反而会推 动人类群体走向 “觉醒进阶” 与 “懈怠退化” 的双向分流；明确人文回归的核心内核是 思想回归，既包含人文思辨、心灵觉醒等精神层面，亦涵盖物理、数学等科技理性探 索，二者相辅相成共同构成人类思想演进的双轮；阐释了思想分流背景下教育改革的 核心方向与行业重塑的底层逻辑，提出国家与社会层面的主动筹谋是对冲思想退化、 扩大觉醒群体的核心抓手，最终指向人类文明向宇宙探索与美好生活追求的高阶进 阶。同时，本文直面资本催生阶级分化、人工智能导致人类低阶脑功能退化等现实约 束，拒绝乌托邦式理想主义推演，构建了 “技术触发 — 个体分流 — 社会干预 — 文明进阶” 的完整逻辑链。本研究填补了人工智能与人类思想演进交叉领域的研究空 白，为智能时代的教育改革、行业转型与社会治理提供了兼具理论深度与现实意义的 思想坐标，也为人类在智能时代的自我定位与发展方向提供了全新参考。.

摘要：本文立足独创的 “玄 - 弦” 本体模型，以中国宗教为核心起点，辐射全球主要 宗教及核心支脉，通过对各宗教原始经典的深度解读，揭示全球宗教修行的终极共通 本质：万教修行，皆为 “借假修真”。“玄” 为超时空的终极本体实在，是诸宗教所言 “自性”“道”“上帝”“真主”“梵” 的终极统摄；“弦” 为玄的振动显化，是连接先天本体与后 天现象的中介，其紊乱振动表现为 “烦恼”“业障”“原罪”，本真振动则指向与玄的合一。 所有宗教皆以时空内的后天 “假有”（身体、心念、仪式、戒律等）为工具，调控弦的 振动状态，破除后天扰动，最终回归玄之本体。本文唯以各宗教古经为据，分章论 证，层层递进，构建全球宗教修行的终极统一框架。.

We propose a novel transformer-based architecture that directly maps continuous waveform signals into discrete token sequences, and subsequently into intelligible speech. Our framework integrates a neural waveform-to-token encoder with a transformer-based language model for sequence generation, followed by a token-to-speech decoder for acoustic realization. Unlike traditional speech recognition or text-to-speech pipelines, our model unifies acoustic, symbolic, and generative components into a single transformer-based paradigm, enabling controlled charge-like modulation of information flow and interpretable latent structures. We validate our design using MATLAB/Simulink (...) co-simulation, demonstrating both the theoretical feasibility and practical applicability of this approach. (shrink)

风水，作为中国传统文化中极具争议的文化现象，千百年来始终游走于实用技术与封 建迷信之间。现代学界对风水的研究多聚焦于其科学内核的解构——如人居环境学、 空间美学、微气候适应等，或批判其迷信色彩对社会的消极影响，却鲜少追溯风水从 “实用择地之术”演变为“鬼神福佑之学”的历史脉络。本文立足考古实证与古籍考据，以 “秦前无鬼神，后世道教渗透催生鬼神观念”为核心论点，系统梳理风水在不同历史阶段 的形态演变，精准定位鬼神之说融入风水的关键典籍与核心人物，最终揭示：风水的 迷信化并非其原生属性，而是汉代以降宗庙礼制绑定、儒释道三教融合，尤其是道教 方术深度渗透的产物。 秦以前的风水原型，本质是先民为适应自然环境而形成的“相地择居”实用技术，“卜地” 之“卜”意为“决疑判断”，而非占问鬼神；郭璞《葬经》首次引入“福佑”概念，却未涉及 鬼神实体，仅以“气感相应”为理论支撑；唐代以降，托名杨筠松的道教伪书将“气感”升 华为“鬼神司命”，宋代道士进一步将道家内丹修行与风水结合，最终使鬼神之说成为风 水体系的核心迷信元素。本文通过考古文献、传世典籍、学术考据三重证据，还原风 水迷信化的完整过程，重点论证鬼神之说的道教起源，为风水文化的去迷信化研究提 供学术支撑。.

We propose a novel framework in which **transcendental numbers serve as bases** (Babylonic style, without fractional digits) to construct symbolic representations of real numbers, generating functions, and conformal transformations. This framework naturally yields **uncountable sets of numbers** and provides a symbolic demonstration of the **continuum hypothesis**, linking series like Grandi's series to complex exponential functions and conformal mappings.

We propose a unified framework to model human working memory (WM) dynamics using **Markovian Parallax Denigrate (MPD)** writing tasks, convexity of WM trajectories, and the formation of **mental logic circuits** (flip-flops, MUX, classical and quantum gates). This framework captures three phases: -/- 1. **MPD-induced convex WM growth** 2. **Transition to logic-based WM under cognitive fatigue** 3. **Dynamic feedback loops enabling online object manipulation** -/- We show both **neuroscientific and mathematical evidence** for convexity, Markovian O(1) computations, and the generalization to complex (...) classical and quantum mental circuits. (shrink)

The paper explores Richard Rorty's novel approach to individual identity, emphasizing its narrative and contingent nature, and its implications for fostering solidarity in contemporary society. There have been several attempts since the Greek period to the modern times to have dwelled in to the notion of subjectivity. However, in particular to Descartes’ cogito, the vast majority of modern philosophers regarded it as an ontological problem, investigating into ‘what is self’ rather, concentrating on the entirety of ‘self’, itself. Although, it was (...) Freud who had shifted the narrative from ‘what’ to ‘how’ and ‘who.’ Nevertheless, the legitimacy and the relevance of the concept have been questioned by several contemporary thinkers which can be grouped into various extremes, giving us interdisciplinary answers to ‘who,’ ‘what’ and ‘how’ notion of self, subjectivity and identity is, and can be. So, the primary aim of this paper is to elucidate how Rorty's anti-essentialist perspective on identity, influenced by Hume's skepticism and Nietzsche's creative subjectivity, challenges traditional notions of selfhood and promotes a more fluid understanding of individual and social identity keeping in mind the objectives of examining the interplay between language, memory, and social interaction in constructing identity, and analyzing the role of irony and solidarity in ethical and intercultural contexts. Furthermore, the study would imply significant outlook in understanding identity in a globalized world marked by intercultural conflicts and ethical relativism, offering a pathway for reconciling individual and collective identities in diverse socio-cultural landscapes. (shrink)

This paper presents a mathematical model for Russian roulette, integrating a philosophical concept of fate with probabilistic reasoning. Using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), we model the probability of death as dependent on a hidden state of "fate," which dictates whether death is inevitable or impossible. The model employs a Markov chain to represent transitions between fate states and a Dirac delta function to characterize the binary outcome of death. Simulations demonstrate that death occurs only when the hidden state activates (...) it, supporting the philosophical notion that "you die when you are meant to die." Implications for understanding randomness and determinism in decision-making scenarios are discussed. -/- **Keywords**: Hidden Markov Model, Russian roulette, probability, fate, Dirac delta function. (shrink)

We propose a framework that models computation and information flow in terms of **white holes, black holes, and damping mechanisms**. This system enables a **recursive transfer of information from future states to present computations**, suggesting conditions under which P = NP could be realized in a physically grounded network. The model formalizes **white hole activation, black hole storage, and dynamic loops** with cross-entropy and autocorrelation characteristics, providing a bridge between temporal computation and structured information flow.

This paper presents a robust stage-based system for equitable resource allocation, using water as a proxy for all essential resources and Bitcoin (B1) as Earth’s primary currency. The system ensures fairness by resetting Bitcoin’s value to 1 water unit post-hack, progressively eliminating malicious actors via an infinite Bitcoin trap (B2), and updating block hashes with new timestamps to counter blockchain hacks without re-mining. A key principle is that the Bitcoin genesis block hash, created by Satoshi Nakamoto (000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f), is the only (...) constant hash across all Bitcoin-based systems, holding intrinsic value greater than all hackers’ wealth combined. This hash anchors trust, immutability, and fairness, ensuring Satoshi symbolically retains 1 BTC as the system’s cornerstone. Simulations confirm the system supports non-malicious individuals, eliminates hackers, and upholds the genesis hash’s primacy, aligning with economic principles (Smith, 1776; Keynes, 1936) and systems theory (von Bertalanffy, 1956). (shrink)

This paper presents a unified framework for both problem-solving and poetry generation under human cognitive constraints. Combining memory-limited DFS strategies, Miller's 7 ± 2 working memory rule, and Markovian Parallax Denigrate (MPD) methods, we introduce a systematic approach for structuring sequences of ideas or words into near-optimal solutions or creative outputs while maintaining minimal working memory requirements.

This paper presents a computational framework that models the brain as a maze-like network for tumor localization and surgical planning. Starting from an abstract structure without prior information about healthy or malignant regions, we generate a voxel-based maze. Once MRI data is available, voxel weights are assigned according to tumor probability. Multiple maze variants are generated and analyzed using A* and Minimum Spanning Tree (Prim) algorithms. This allows the identification of critical voxels—points where malignant tissue is likely concentrated—providing precise targets (...) for neurosurgery. (shrink)

We propose a probabilistic algorithm for multiple-choice exams with negative marking that combines deterministic knowledge and data-driven guessing. The algorithm leverages the portion of questions a student knows for certain, alongside historical exam data, to optimize guesses on unknown questions. Recursive iterations and goodness-of-fit analysis enhance the expected score, providing a principled method to maximize the probability of passing, even when only a fraction of questions are fully understood.

This paper presents a minimal tree-based framework for verifying object isomorphism in arbitrary categories using Minimum Spanning Trees (MSTs) over a fixed set of probes. The system is strictly weaker than $RCA_0$, avoiding numeric or comprehension axioms. By leveraging MST traversal, it ensures the minimal set of Hom-set comparisons for isomorphism verification. The framework extends to structured formula verification via Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs). Explicit weight functions, rigorous proofs, and concrete examples ensure mathematical correctness and reproducibility.

Meu objetivo nesse texto é oferecer uma interpretação do modo como a dialética aristotélica pode ser útil para a filosofia em geral, e o conhecimento dos princípios em particular, sem incorrer em problemas epistemológicos geralmente presentes ao se tentar explicar como, a partir de proposições das quais não temos comprovação do valor de verdade que possuem, as endoxa, se pode conhecer proposições primeiras e verdadeiras. Meu argumento central é que não é a dialética que, afinal, é útil para o conhecimento (...) filosófico, mas o próprio tratado, os Tópicos, na medida em que esse tratado oferece um conjunto amplo de ferramentas argumentativas que permitem ao seu estudante um domínio de técnicas lógico-linguísticas que podem ser aplicadas em qualquer âmbito discursivo, favorecendo o escrutínio mais profundo de proposições a serem examinadas. -/- English: My aim is to develop an interpretation about how Aristotelian dialectic can be useful to philosophy and, in more specific terms, to knowledge of the first principles, avoiding epistemological problems regarding the away one can explain the knowledge of propositions which are primaries and trues, by departing from proposition whose truth-evaluation is not assured, the endoxa. My main argument is that what is in fact useful to get to know the first principles is not dialectic itself, but the treatise at stake, the Topics. Accordingly, this treatise offers an wide set of logical and linguistic tools that can be applied to any discursive universe, favouring a deep scrutiny of proposition to be examined. (shrink)