Meaning, reasoning, and common knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Warner
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Bayesian Reasoning ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ampliative Inference ◽  
Processing Steps ◽  
John Perry ◽  
Relevant Detail ◽  
Do So

Abstract“Pragmatics involves perception augmented by some species of ‘ampliative‘ inference—induction, inference to the best explanation, Bayesian reasoning, or perhaps some special application of general principles special to communication, as conceived by Grice … —but in any case a sort of reasoning” (Korta, Kepa & John Perry. 2015. Pragmatics. In The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Metaphysics research lab, Stanford, CA: Stanford University:1). Pragmatics assumes that one’s competence as speaker is sufficient to allow one to construct, in range of significant cases, plausible accounts of how speakers and audiences reason. The question is that are those who attribute reasoning to speakers and audiences suffering a “curious mental derangement” that prevents them from seeing that reasoning is rare? I consider four responses. (1) Speakers and audiences do reason to the extent pragmatic explanations require; they just typically do not do so consciously. (2) The second reply concedes that speakers and audiences often do not reason even unconsciously in any relevant detail, but it insists that attributions of reasoning can nonetheless be, and often are, explanatory. (3) The third reply is a response to objections to the second. It identifies reasoning with information processing steps. (4) The fourth view is that a speaker’s utterance provides an audience evidence for what the speaker means, but the audience typically does not reason to a conclusion about what the speaker means. I reject the first three replies and embrace the fourth, but I argue that attributions of reasoning in pragmatics can still play a significant explanatory role.

scholarly journals A political ontology for Europe: Roberto Esposito’s instituent paradigm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Fulco
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
The Third ◽  
European Crisis ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe aim of my article is to relate Roberto Esposito’s reflections on Europe to his more recent proposal of instituent thought. I will try to do so by focusing on three theoretical cornerstones of Esposito’s thought: the first concerns the evidence of a link between Europe, philosophy and politics. The second is deconstructive: it highlights the inadequacy of the answers of the most important contemporary ontological-political paradigms to the European crisis, as well as the impossibility of interpreting this crisis through theoretical-political categories such as sovereignty. The third relates more directly to the proposal of a new political ontology, which Esposito defines as instituent thought. Esposito’s discussion of political theology is the central theoretical nucleus of this study. This discussion will focus, in particular, on the category of negation, from which any political ontology that is based on pure affirmativeness or absolute negation is criticized. In his opinion, philosophical theories developed on the basis of these assumptions have proved to be incomplete or ineffective in relation to the current European and global philosophical and political crisis. Esposito therefore perceives the urgent need to propose a line of thought that is neither negatively destituent (post-Heideggerian), nor affirmatively constituent (post-Deleuzian, post-Spinozian), but instituent (neo-Machiavellian), capable of thinking about order through conflict (the affirmative through the negative). Provided that we do not think of the institution statically–in a conservative sense–but dynamically, as constant instituting in which conflict can become an instrument of a politics increasingly inspired by justice.

scholarly journals Game Theory Without Partitions, and Applications to Speculation and Consensus

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Geanakoplos
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Decision Theory ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Extended Theory ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Processing Errors ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

Abstract Decision theory and game theory are extended to allow for information processing errors. This extended theory is then used to reexamine market speculation and consensus, both when all actions (opinions) are common knowledge and when they may not be. Five axioms of information processing are shown to be especially important to speculation and consensus. They are called nondelusion, knowing that you know (KTYK), nested, balanced, and positively balanced. We show that it is necessary and sufficient that each agent's information processing errors be (1) nondeluded and balanced so that the agents cannot agree to disagree, (2) nondeluded and positively balanced so that it cannot be common knowledge that they are speculating, and (3) nondeluded and KTYK and nested so that agents cannot speculate in equilibrium. Each condition is strictly weaker than the next one, and the last is strictly weaker than partition information.

A European Perspective on Religion and Welfare: Contrasts and Commonalities

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Davie
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
The Third ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Delivery Of Services ◽  
Do So ◽  
West European

This article places the British material on religion and social policy in a comparative perspective. In order to do so, it introduces a recently completed project on welfare and religion in eight European societies, entitled ‘Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective’. Theoretically it draws on the work of two key thinkers: Gøsta Esping-Andersen and David Martin. The third section elaborates the argument: all West European societies are faced with the same dilemmas regarding the provision of welfare and all of them are considering alternatives to the state for the effective delivery of services. These alternatives include the churches.

The Irish–British Dimension

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-126
Author(s):  
Paul Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Power Scale ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Normal Relationship ◽  
Do So

Power, scale, and wealth have moulded relations between Ireland and Britain historically and will continue to do so in future. Political relations between them have been determined by these asymmetric factors, giving much greater strength to the larger and richer island. Nevertheless, both islands exist within a larger European and transatlantic setting, a geopolitical fact that can mitigate or counteract Britain’s ability to act exclusively in its own interests. The chapter first explores this history and structure of the Irish–British relationship and then examines current political relations between the two islands, as seen in the intense joint efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland and to regularize their interstate relations. Brexit rudely interrupts that new more normal relationship, as the third section argues, opening up several scenarios for changing constitutional futures within and between the two islands explored in the final one.

The Gathering of A Community: The British-born of San Francisco in 1852 and 1872

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Burchell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Geographical Mobility ◽  
The Third ◽  
Human Effort ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Incomplete Picture ◽  
Do So

Studies of the Massachusetts communities of Newburyport and Boston have revealed a high rate of geographical mobility for their populations, in excess of what had been previously thought. Because of the difficulty in tracing out-migrants these works have concentrated on persisters, though to do so is to give an incomplete picture of communal progress. Peter R. Knights in his study of Boston between 1830 and 1860 attempted to follow his out-migrants but was only able to trace some 27 per cent of them. The problem of out-migration is generally regarded as being too large for solution through human effort, but important enough now to engage the computer. What follows bears on the subject of out-migration, for it is an analysis of where part of the migrating populations of the east went in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, namely to San Francisco.

Learning Where to Look for Danger: Integrating Affective and Spatial Information

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Elizabeth Crawford ◽  
John T. Cacioppo
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Activation Functions ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Affective Information ◽  
Do So

Although not previously addressed by researchers of spatial cognition or affect, the combination of spatial and affective information is essential for many approach and avoidance behaviors, and thus for survival. We provide the first evidence that through incidental experience, people form representations that capture correlations between affective and spatial information. Participants were able to do so even when the correlation was weak, they were not told to look for the correlation, and the stimuli varied on multiple other dimensions besides valence. In addition, people were more sensitive to the presented correlation when stimuli were negative than when they were positive. This asymmetry in representation may stem from underlying differences in the activation functions for positive and negative hedonic information processing.

scholarly journals On Monomorphisms and Subfields

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-137
Author(s):  
Christoph Schwarzweller
Keyword(s):  
Irreducible Polynomial ◽  
Field Extension ◽  
Isomorphic Copy ◽  
Field Extensions ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fourth Part ◽  
Roots Of Polynomials ◽  
Classical Proof ◽  
Do So

Summary This is the second part of a four-article series containing a Mizar [2], [1] formalization of Kronecker’s construction about roots of polynomials in field extensions, i.e. that for every field F and every polynomial p ∈ F [X]\F there exists a field extension E of F such that p has a root over E. The formalization follows Kronecker’s classical proof using F [X]/<p> as the desired field extension E [5], [3], [4]. In the first part we show that an irreducible polynomial p ∈ F [X]\F has a root over F [X]/<p>. Note, however, that this statement cannot be true in a rigid formal sense: We do not have F ⊆ [X]/ < p > as sets, so F is not a subfield of F [X]/<p>, and hence formally p is not even a polynomial over F [X]/ < p >. Consequently, we translate p along the canonical monomorphism ϕ : F → F [X]/<p> and show that the translated polynomial ϕ (p) has a root over F [X]/<p>. Because F is not a subfield of F [X]/<p> we construct in this second part the field (E \ ϕF )∪F for a given monomorphism ϕ : F → E and show that this field both is isomorphic to F and includes F as a subfield. In the literature this part of the proof usually consists of saying that “one can identify F with its image ϕF in F [X]/<p> and therefore consider F as a subfield of F [X]/<p>”. Interestingly, to do so we need to assume that F ∩ E = ∅, in particular Kronecker’s construction can be formalized for fields F with F ∩ F [X] = ∅. Surprisingly, as we show in the third part, this condition is not automatically true for arbitray fields F : With the exception of 𝕑2 we construct for every field F an isomorphic copy F′ of F with F′ ∩ F′ [X] ≠ ∅. We also prove that for Mizar’s representations of 𝕑n, 𝕈 and 𝕉 we have 𝕑n ∩ 𝕑n[X] = ∅, 𝕈 ∩ 𝕈 [X] = ∅ and 𝕉 ∩ 𝕉 [X] = ∅, respectively. In the fourth part we finally define field extensions: E is a field extension of F iff F is a subfield of E. Note, that in this case we have F ⊆ E as sets, and thus a polynomial p over F is also a polynomial over E. We then apply the construction of the second part to F [X]/<p> with the canonical monomorphism ϕ : F → F [X]/<p>. Together with the first part this gives - for fields F with F ∩ F [X] = ∅ - a field extension E of F in which p ∈ F [X]\F has a root.

The Effect of Anticipatory Repudiation: Principle and Policy

1962 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Nienaber
Keyword(s):  
Proper Time ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Entire Period ◽  
Sales Manager ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Contract Price ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Pertinent Question ◽  
Do So

IThe facts of the recent House of Lords decision, White and Carter (Councils), Ltd. v. McGregor, were so simple and have been canvassed so thoroughly as to be now practically a matter of common knowledge. The appellants' business consisted in the placing of advertisements, for a fee, on litter bins which were then distributed to various local authorities. They agreed to run the respondents' advertisement for a period of three years. The respondents repudiated on the ground that their sales manager who had concluded the contract had no authority to do so. The appellants refused to accept the repudiation and duly displayed the advertisements for the entire period, bringing at the proper time a suit for the full amount owing under the contract. The pertinent question was: were the appellants entitled to dismiss the repudiation and give effect to the contract on their side in order to secure performance on the other side; or rather were they obliged to adopt the repudiation as the end of the contract and the beginning of a suit for damages subject to mitigation? The latter view prevailed in all but the House of Lords where a majority of three to two preferred the former.In coming to this conclusion the House of Lords in effect overruled an earlier decision, viz., Langford and Co., Ltd. v. Dutch, the facts of which were virtually on all fours with those of the present case. In Langford's case the appellant was unsuccessful in recovering the contract price for exhibiting an advertisement film which he persisted in showing despite the respondent's repudiation of the contract.

An assessment of carcass probes for use in Great Britain for the EC pig Carcass Grading Scheme

1989 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. L. Cook ◽  
J. P. Chadwick ◽  
A. J. Kempster
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Subcutaneous Fat ◽  
Optical Probe ◽  
Carcass Composition ◽  
Coefficient Of Determination ◽  
The Third ◽  
Slaughter Pigs ◽  
Fat Thickness ◽  
Statistical Criteria ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACTTo gain approval for use in the revised European Community (EC) Pig Grading Scheme to be introduced in 1989, methods of estimating carcass lean proportion must be shown to do so with a coefficient of determination greater than 0·64 and a residual s.d. of less than 25 g/kg. A trial was carried out to assess a number of methods for use in the EC Scheme as applied in Great Britain. Subcutaneous fat and m. longissimus depths at the head of the last rib and at the third/fourth from last rib were measured using the optical probe (OP), the Fat-O-Meater (FOM), the Hennessy Grading Probe II (HGP) and the Destron PG-100 Probe (DST) on a broad sample of 162 commercial carcasses representative of the ranges in fatness and weight found nationally. The left side of each carcass was separated into component tissues. Although the instruments all achieved similar levels of accuracy in predicting carcass lean proportion, some differences were found. The DST just failed to reach the required statistical criteria for approval in the EC Scheme. The results for the other three instruments were submitted to Brussels as evidence of suitability and they have been approved.Using the regression relationships found between carcass composition and fat thickness together with results from earlier studies, it was estimated that the carcass separable fat proportion of British slaughter pigs has fallen at the annual rate of 7 g/kg since 1975.

Revelation and The Political

2021 ◽  
pp. 551-567
Author(s):  
Matthew John Paul Tan
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Third ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
Mode A ◽  
Do So

This chapter will explore the varieties of political thought informed by divine revelation as understood in the Christian tradition. It will do so with reference to the metaphysical assumptions of what happens when transcendence meets history, and accordingly divide the inquiry into three archetypes. The first are the monists, for whom transcendence collapses into the temporal. The second are the dialecticians, for whom the uncrossable distinction between heaven and earth results in a struggle between the two. The third are the participationists, for whom the transcendent and the historical can harmoniously cohere through a ‘mediating third’ plane. For each mode, a brief sketch will be given of the writings of exemplary thinkers, and of the promises and pitfalls. In highlighting this variety, the aim of charting this map is to nuance the discussion currently taking place concerning the motivations and modus operandi of religiously informed political actors.

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