Unifying Gaussian LWF and AMP Chain Graphs to Model Interference.Jose M. Peña -2020 -Journal of Causal Inference 8 (1):1-21.detailsAn intervention may have an effect on units other than those to which it was administered. This phenomenon is called interference and it usually goes unmodeled. In this paper, we propose to combine Lauritzen-Wermuth-Frydenberg and Andersson-Madigan-Perlman chain graphs to create a new class of causal models that can represent both interference and non-interference relationships for Gaussian distributions. Specifically, we define the new class of models, introduce global and local and pairwise Markov properties for them, and prove their equivalence. We also (...) propose an algorithm for maximum likelihood parameter estimation for the new models, and report experimental results. Finally, we show how to compute the effects of interventions in the new models. (shrink)
Representing Glaciers in Icelandic Art.M. Jackson -2015 -Environment, Space, Place 7 (2):65-96.detailsGlaciers in Iceland are disappearing, and this article investigates how such glacier change might be transmitted into Icelandic culture, specifically, in art oriented around Icelandic glaciers. Utilizing cultural climatology as an approach, this article analyzes changes in spatial properties of glaciers as represented in older and newer artworks. Three central spatial characteristics of glaciers emerge and provide insights into how glacier loss can be represented and understood: 1) the compression of traditional distance; 2) the use of multiple perspectives; and 3) (...) the structural representation of the glacier body. Analysis suggests a re-positioning of glaciers in the cultural imaginary and the fluctuating nature of how individuals and societies understand themselves and their place within the glaciated landscapes. (shrink)
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The Argument for Panpsychism from Experience of Causation.Hedda Hassel Mørch -2019 - In William Seager,The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism. Routledge.detailsIn recent literature, panpsychism has been defended by appeal to two main arguments: first, an argument from philosophy of mind, according to which panpsychism is the only view which successfully integrates consciousness into the physical world (Strawson 2006; Chalmers 2013); second, an argument from categorical properties, according to which panpsychism offers the only positive account of the categorical or intrinsic nature of physical reality (Seager 2006; Adams 2007; Alter and Nagasawa 2012). Historically, however, panpsychism has also been defended by appeal (...) to a third argument based on considerations about the nature and observability of causation. This argument has not been much discussed in recent times. Here is a concise version from William James: "… the concrete perceptual flux, taken just as it comes, offers in our own activity-situations perfectly comprehensible instances of causal agency … If we took these experiences as the type of what actual causation is, we should have to ascribe to cases of causation outside of our life, to physical cases also, an inwardly experiential nature. In other words, we should have to espouse a so-called “pan-psychic” philosophy" (James 1911: 218). James here suggests that we have direct experience of causation in our own agency. He thereby directly contradicts David Hume, who famously denied that we have any experience of causation. James goes on to claim that if this experience is representative of causation in general, it follows that all causation is mental, and that panpsychism is true. This kind of argument for panpsychism can be called the argument from (experience of) causation. This chapter offers, first, a history of this argument and arguments closely related to it, and second, an analysis of the argument – is it valid, are its premises in any way defensible, and how does it relate to the other, more popular arguments for panpsychism from philosophy of mind and categorical properties? (shrink)
Welfare: The Social Issues in Philosophical Perspective. [REVIEW]G. M. -1973 -Review of Metaphysics 27 (1):154-154.detailsThis volume provides a clarification of the concept of welfare and an appraisal of the programs of our present welfare state. Welfare, Rescher contends, is not concerned with the whole of human happiness but with those factors necessary for minimal well-being. These factors, which include physical and mental health, material prosperity and environmental resources, are objectively determinable. Because of this, men are not necessarily the best judges of their own welfare, a view which Rescher acknowledges as heretical. Other self-acknowledged heresies (...) are that many present welfare-supportive programs are ill-conceived, that democratic processes are poor guarantors of the general welfare, and that welfare is often of less importance than such social values as freedom and justice. Certainly the gloomiest of his conclusions is that it is unrealistic to expect that continual improvement in welfare will increase human happiness. Rather than bring contentment, increases in welfare often produce increased expectations and consequent dissatisfaction at their nonfulfillment. In addition, the continual rise in our expectations may outdistance present achievements and lead to better disappointment. In appraising the welfare program of our society, Rescher argues that it has failed not only to achieve its professed goal of increasing the welfare of the poorest segment of society but also has resulted in an unfortunate change of attitude in our youth towards individual responsibility and self-reliance. Along with future success in reducing poverty, he hopes to see our society increase its concern with such non-welfare values as human excellence and creativity. Readers will find this book a stimulating, unorthodox blend of philosophical theorizing and relevant empirical material.—M. G. (shrink)
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Can a Machine Think (Anything New)? Automation Beyond Simulation.M. Beatrice Fazi -2019 -AI and Society 34 (4):813-824.detailsThis article will rework the classical question ‘Can a machine think?’ into a more specific problem: ‘Can a machine think anything new?’ It will consider traditional computational tasks such as prediction and decision-making, so as to investigate whether the instrumentality of these operations can be understood in terms of the creation of novel thought. By addressing philosophical and technoscientific attempts to mechanise thought on the one hand, and the philosophical and cultural critique of these attempts on the other, I will (...) argue that computation’s epistemic productions should be assessed vis-à-vis the logico-mathematical specificity of formal axiomatic systems. Such an assessment requires us to conceive automated modes of thought in such a way as to supersede the hope that machines might replicate human cognitive faculties, and to thereby acknowledge a form of onto-epistemological autonomy in automated ‘thinking’ processes. This involves moving beyond the view that machines might merely simulate humans. Machine thought should be seen as dramatically alien to human thought, and to the dimension of lived experience upon which the latter is predicated. Having stepped outside the simulative paradigm, the question ‘Can a machine think anything new?’ can then be reformulated. One should ask whether novel behaviour in computing might come not from the breaking of mechanical rules, but from following them: from doing what computers do already, and not what we might think they should be doing if we wanted them to imitate us. (shrink)
The Five Stages of Executive Coaching: Better Process Makes Better Practice.Samuel M. Natale &Thomas Diamante -2005 -Journal of Business Ethics 59 (4):361-374.detailsThere remains a paucity of research investigating the efficacy of executive coaching. Ambiguity surrounds its definition, its methodology and outcomes. Despite this, the executive coaching remains a viable business proposition. Practitioners bring services to the business community offering services that transcend traditional performance management consultations establishing independent “performance-driven” relationships with executives. This paper examines the process of coaching suggesting that a better understanding of process will enhance practice efficacy and accelerates empirical investigations. In addition, ethical, confidential and legal issues require (...) attention when planning to utilize an executive coach. All this implicates the need to better understand coaching – and how it typically operates. Case studies are provided in the examination of coaching consultations in Fortune 100 settings. (shrink)
Vatican II: Changing the style of being church.Ann M. C. Nolan -2012 -The Australasian Catholic Record 89 (4):397.detailsNolan, Ann MC In the past fifty years there has been a stream of commentary on the documents of Vatican II. Have we not had so much commentary, so much interpretation, that further commentary is unnecessary? Fifty years on, one might ponder how to interpret the sixteen documents for the church of our times, indeed to wonder whether they continue to have any relevance at all. Faced with this thought, we could turn to one scholar whose works span almost the (...) whole of this fifty-year period, yet whose thought in relation to the documents has not remained static: the renaissance historian John O'Malley SJ. (shrink)
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Moral and Conventional Violations in Childhood: Brazilians Tolerate Less but Expect More Punishment than U.S. Americans.Susana K. de M. Oliveira,Deise M. L. F. Mendes,Ebenézer A. de Oliveira &Luciana F. Pessôa -2020 -Journal of Cognition and Culture 20 (3-4):282-303.detailsBrazilian and US American children were compared for differences in tolerance and punishment expectancy. We hypothesized that participants would be less tolerant and more punishing of moral than conventional violations; tolerance and punishment expectancy would relate with age; Brazilians would tolerate less and expect more punishment than US Americans; and social domain would moderate effects of age and nationality. The sample had 129 matched children from Brazil and the USA. Moral/conventional-violation vignettes were used. Mixed-model GLMs suggested that children were less (...) tolerant and more punishing of moral than social-conventional violations. Age effects were significant for tolerance. Brazilians scored lower on tolerance and higher on punishment expectancy than US Americans; they also differentiated less between violation domains than US Americans. These and other results suggest that Brazilians tolerate less but expect more punishment for violations than US Americans. Discussion is based on cultural and socio-historical differences between the two nations. (shrink)
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1965.Stephen M. Krason -2016 -Catholic Social Science Review 21:191-194.detailsThis was one of SCSS President Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appeared during 2015 in Crisismagazine.com and The Wanderer and at his blog site. It discusses the seminal year 1965, when so many of our current social, cultural, and political problems and our difficulties in the Church began to take shape. It discusses the nature of the “new direction” that became evident that year, how crucial trends took shape, and how the developments of that (...) year led to others in the short or long run. (shrink)
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Computational scientific discovery and cognitive science theories.M. Addis,Peter D. Sozou,F. Gobet &Philip R. Lane -unknowndetailsThis study is concerned with processes for discovering new theories in science. It considers a computational approach to scientific discovery, as applied to the discovery of theories in cognitive science. The approach combines two ideas. First, a process-based scientific theory can be represented as a computer program. Second, an evolutionary computational method, genetic programming, allows computer programs to be improved through a process of computational trialand-error. Putting these two ideas together leads to a system that can automatically generate and improve (...) scientific theories. The application of this method to the discovery of theories in cognitive science is examined. Theories are built up from primitive operators. These are contained in a theory language that defines the space of possible theories. An example of a theory generated by this method is described. These results support the idea that scientific discovery can be achieved through a heuristic search process, even for theories involving a sequence of steps. However, this computational approach to scientific discovery does not eliminate the need for human input. Human judgment is needed to make reasonable prior assumptions about the characteristics of operators used in the theory generation process, and to interpret and provide context for the computationally generated theories. (shrink)
Epistemology of the Quran: Elements of a Virtue Approach to Knowledge and Understanding.M. Ashraf Adeel -2019 - Springer Verlag.detailsThis book examines all verses of the Quran involving knowledge related concepts. It begins with the argument that an analysis of the Quranic concept of ignorance points to epistemic virtues that can pave our way towards gaining knowledge and/or understanding. It deals with the Quranic concepts of perceptual, rational, and revelatory knowledge as well as understanding and wisdom in the light of recent discussions in Western analytic epistemology. It also argues that the relevant Quranic verses seem to involve concept of (...) an epistemic conscience whose proper exercise can yield knowledge or understanding. While not overlooking the Quranic emphasis on revelation as a source of knowledge, the book draws our attention to a remarkable overlap between some strains of contemporary virtue epistemology and Quranic approach to knowledge. It shows that the Quranic verses suggest a progressive sequence from propositional knowledge to understanding to wisdom. (shrink)
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