scholarly journals Commitment: some formal interpretations

Disputatio ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (33) ◽  
pp. 445-457
Author(s):  
Daniel Rönnedal
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Conditional Obligation ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Promise Keeping

Abstract We often use sentences that seem conditional in nature when we reason about normative issues, e.g. ‘If you have promised to do something, you should keep your promise’ and ‘If you have done something bad, you should apologize’. We seem to think that promise-making in some sense commits us to promise-keeping and that acting bad in some sense creates an obligation to apologize. It is, however, not obvious how we should symbolize such sentences in a formal language. The purpose of this essay is to investigate some different possible formalizations of different conditional obligation sentences. I consider seven different interpretations of the concept of commitment or conditional obligation and I say something about the logical properties of these different interpretations.

From at-risk to at-promise: Keeping girls out of jail

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Brady-Amoon ◽  
Kathleen Keefe-Cooperman
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Promise Keeping

Automated Indexing of SNOMED Statements into ICD

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (03) ◽  
pp. 93-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Wingert
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Program System ◽  
Icd Codes

SummaryA formal language is presented which is used to generate a transformation table for mapping SNOMED statements to ICD codes. Non-terminal symbols define parts of the SNOMED space, the highest order of which corresponds to ICD categories. Performance of the corresponding program system and remaining problems are described.

The Alternatives to War

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Military Action ◽  
Comprehensive Account ◽  
The Face ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Better Than

If states are not to go to war, what should they do instead? In The Alternatives to War: From Sanctions to Non-violence, James Pattison considers the case for the alternatives to military action to address mass atrocities and aggression. He covers the normative issues raised by measures ranging from comprehensive economic sanctions, diplomacy, and positive incentives, to criminal prosecutions, non-violent resistance, accepting refugees, and arming rebels. For instance, given the indiscriminateness of many sanctions regimes, are sanctions any better than war? Should states avoid ‘megaphone diplomacy’ and adopt more subtle measures? What, if anything, can non-violent methods such as civilian defence and civilian peacekeeping do in the face of a ruthless opponent? Is it a serious concern that positive incentives can appear to reward aggressors? Overall, Pattison provides a comprehensive account of the ethics of the alternatives to war. In doing so, he argues that the case for war is weaker and the case for many of the alternatives is stronger than commonly thought. The upshot is that, when reacting to mass atrocities and aggression, states are generally required to pursue the alternatives to war rather than military action. Pattison concludes that this has significant implications for pacifism, Just War Theory, and the responsibility to protect doctrine.

Tobacco as a Matter of Public Health: Ethical Issues

2019 ◽  
pp. 494-510
Author(s):  
Kristin Voigt
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Tobacco Use ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Background Factors ◽  
Normative Issues

This chapter considers normative issues that tobacco raises at the population level, particularly with respect to the anti-smoking strategies policymakers might pursue and the reasons and justifications underlying these strategies. After setting out several background factors that shape the debate, the chapter discusses different grounds on which state and public health actors might seek to restrict tobacco use, considering in turn those justifications that focus on protecting smokers and those that seek to protect third parties. The chapter then considers normative problems arising in relation to specific anti-smoking strategies, such as restrictions on the sale, use, and marketing of cigarettes; taxation; incentives for cessation; and denormalization strategies. Issues of paternalism and the stigma associated with smoking are also discussed.

Hedged Assertion

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-263
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Benton ◽  
Peter van Elswyk
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Epistemic Modals ◽  
Epistemic Position ◽  
Normative Issues

Surprisingly little has been written about hedged assertion. Linguists often focus on semantic or syntactic theorizing about, for example, grammatical evidentials or epistemic modals, but they pay far less attention to what hedging does at the level of action. By contrast, philosophers have focused extensively on normative issues regarding what epistemic position is required for proper assertion, yet they have almost exclusively considered unqualified declaratives. This article considers the linguistic and normative issues side by side. It aims to bring some order and clarity to thinking about hedging, so as to illuminate aspects of interest to both linguists and philosophers. In particular, it considers three broad questions. (1) The structural question: when one hedges, what is the speaker’s commitment weakened from? (2) The functional question: what is the best way to understand how a hedge weakens? And (3) the taxonomic question: are hedged assertions genuine assertions, another speech act, or what?

scholarly journals Who is afraid of black box algorithms? On the epistemological and ethical basis of trust in medical AI

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-106820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Durán ◽  
Karin Rolanda Jongsma
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Medical Informatics ◽  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Epistemic Reasons ◽  
Potential Bias ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Ethical Basis ◽  
Computational Processes

The use of black box algorithms in medicine has raised scholarly concerns due to their opaqueness and lack of trustworthiness. Concerns about potential bias, accountability and responsibility, patient autonomy and compromised trust transpire with black box algorithms. These worries connect epistemic concerns with normative issues. In this paper, we outline that black box algorithms are less problematic for epistemic reasons than many scholars seem to believe. By outlining that more transparency in algorithms is not always necessary, and by explaining that computational processes are indeed methodologically opaque to humans, we argue that the reliability of algorithms provides reasons for trusting the outcomes of medical artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, we explain how computational reliabilism, which does not require transparency and supports the reliability of algorithms, justifies the belief that results of medical AI are to be trusted. We also argue that several ethical concerns remain with black box algorithms, even when the results are trustworthy. Having justified knowledge from reliable indicators is, therefore, necessary but not sufficient for normatively justifying physicians to act. This means that deliberation about the results of reliable algorithms is required to find out what is a desirable action. Thus understood, we argue that such challenges should not dismiss the use of black box algorithms altogether but should inform the way in which these algorithms are designed and implemented. When physicians are trained to acquire the necessary skills and expertise, and collaborate with medical informatics and data scientists, black box algorithms can contribute to improving medical care.

Da eine oder mehrere betroffen …

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-100
Author(s):  
Melitta Gillmann
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Very High

AbstractBased on a corpus study conducted using the GerManC corpus (1650–1800), the paper sketches the functional and sociosymbolic development of subordinate clause constructions introduced by the subjunctor da ‘since’ in different text genres. In the second half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, the da clauses were characterized by semantic vagueness: Besides temporal, spatial and causal relations, the subjunctor established conditional, concessive, and adversative links between clauses. The corpus study reveals that different genres are crucial to the readings of da clauses. Spatial and temporal usages, for example, occur more often in sermons than in other genres. The conditional reading, in contrast, strongly tends to occur in legal texts, where it displays very high frequency. This could be the reason why da clauses carry indexical meaning in contemporary German and are associated with formal language. Over the course of the 18th century, the causal usages increase in all genres. Surprisingly, these causal da clauses tend to be placed in front of the matrix clause despite the overall tendency of causal clauses to follow the matrix clause.

scholarly journals Three Types of Architectural Educational Strategies (AES) in Sustainable Buildings for Learning Environments in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8166
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Chupin ◽  
Morteza Hazbei ◽  
Karl-Antoine Pelchat
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Sustainable Buildings ◽  
Sustainable Architecture ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Advanced Knowledge

This article explores a trend provisionally called “eco-didacticism” observable for nearly 15 years in art, design and architecture. The corpus concentrates on learning centres as buildings meant to diffuse advanced knowledge in the field of sustainable architecture. We found evidence of additional educational intentions to the pedagogical or scientific programs that these buildings have already been mandated to host and support. A variety of practices or devices have sometimes been added to the architecture, sometimes integrated, while others determine the overall structuring of these educational buildings. Seven cases of “learning centres” built in Canada between 2004 and 2018 have been screened through three epistemological filters distinguishing forms of “architectural didactics”: 1—a labeling often quantitative approach, 2—an experiential or practical approach, 3—a visually narrative or iconic approach. While outlining definitions of these Architectural Educational Strategies (AES), we offer initial explanations for their distinctive features. It appears that architects, designers and critics altogether operate on the belief that forms of architectural communication can operate as elements of a language that would be accessible to non-experts. Our conclusion indicates how future research could question the very possibility of giving lessons through formal language and aesthetic features.

scholarly journals Closed Structure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Fritz ◽  
Harvey Lederman ◽  
Gabriel Uzquiano
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
Propositional Attitudes ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Order Logic ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Structured Propositions ◽  
Higher Order Logic ◽  
Closed Structure

AbstractAccording to the structured theory of propositions, if two sentences express the same proposition, then they have the same syntactic structure, with corresponding syntactic constituents expressing the same entities. A number of philosophers have recently focused attention on a powerful argument against this theory, based on a result by Bertrand Russell, which shows that the theory of structured propositions is inconsistent in higher order-logic. This paper explores a response to this argument, which involves restricting the scope of the claim that propositions are structured, so that it does not hold for all propositions whatsoever, but only for those which are expressible using closed sentences of a given formal language. We call this restricted principle Closed Structure, and show that it is consistent in classical higher-order logic. As a schematic principle, the strength of Closed Structure is dependent on the chosen language. For its consistency to be philosophically significant, it also needs to be consistent in every extension of the language which the theorist of structured propositions is apt to accept. But, we go on to show, Closed Structure is in fact inconsistent in a very natural extension of the standard language of higher-order logic, which adds resources for plural talk of propositions. We conclude that this particular strategy of restricting the scope of the claim that propositions are structured is not a compelling response to the argument based on Russell’s result, though we note that for some applications, for instance to propositional attitudes, a restricted thesis in the vicinity may hold some promise.

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