This is a charming and insightful contribution to an understanding of the "Science Wars" between postmodernist humanism and science, driving toward a resolution of the mutual misunderstanding that has driven the controversy. It traces the root of postmodern theory to a debate on the foundations of mathematics early in the 20th century, then compares developments in mathematics to what took place in the arts and humanities, discussing issues as diverse as literary theory, arts, and artificial intelligence. This is a straightforward, (...) easily understood presentation of what can be difficult theoretical concepts It demonstrates that a pattern of misreading mathematics can be seen both on the part of science and on the part of postmodern thinking. This is a humorous, playful yet deeply serious look at the intellectual foundations of mathematics for those in the humanities and the perfect critical introduction to the bases of modernism and postmodernism for those in the sciences. (shrink)

The article offers a comparative analysis of the uses of set theory in Castoriadis's "The Imaginary Institution of Society" and Badiou's "Being and Event".

Explaining his love of philosophy, Slavoj Žižek notes that he ‘secretly thinks reality exists so that we can speculate about it’. This article takes the view that links between mathematics and continental philosophy are part of reality, the reality of philosophy and its history, and hence require speculation. Examples from the work of Jacques Derrida and Henri Poincaré are discussed.

We describe a case of indeterminacy in general relativity for homogeneous and isotropic cosmologies for a class of dark energy fluids. The cosmologies are parametrized by an equation of state variable, with one instance giving the same solution as Norton’s mechanical dome. Our example goes beyond previously studied cases in that indeterminacy lies in the evolution of spacetime itself: the onset of the Big Bang is indeterminate. We show further that the indeterminacy is resolved if the dynamics is viewed relationally.

Recently, psychologists have explored moral concepts including obligation, blame, and ability. While little empirical work has studied the relationships among these concepts, philosophers have widely assumed such a relationship in the principle that “ought” implies “can,” which states that if someone ought to do something, then they must be able to do it. The cognitive underpinnings of these concepts are tested in the three experiments reported here. In Experiment 1, most participants judge that an agent ought to keep a promise (...) that he is unable to keep, but only when he is to blame for the inability. Experiment 2 shows that such “ought” judgments correlate with judgments of blame, rather than with judgments of the agent’s ability. Experiment 3 replicates these findings for moral “ought” judgments and finds that they do not hold for nonmoral “ought” judgments, such as what someone ought to do to fulfill their desires. These results together show that folk moral judgments do not conform to a widely assumed philosophical principle that “ought” implies “can.” Instead, judgments of blame play a modulatory role in some judgments of obligation. (shrink)

Deceptionism about lying is the view that all lies are intended to deceive. This view sits uneasily with some cases that seem to involve lies not intended to deceive. We call these lies bald-faced because the liar lies while believing that the hearer knows that they are lying. The most recent deceptionist argument put forward by Rudnicki and Odrowąż-Sypniewska (this journal) defends the view that all genuine bald-faced lies are intended to deceive some of their hearers. I argue that this (...) argument is interesting but problematic: its premises do not support the view that all bald-faced lies are intended to deceive but rather only that some people who bald-faced lie to institutions or large audiences intend to deceive someone. Also, genuine bald-faced lies addressed at institutions are intended to (non-deceptively) manipulate institutions rather than deceive anyone. (shrink)

The book presents two fundamental theories that characterize the cultural-historical perspective in cognitive semantics: the Four-Level Theory of Cognitive Development (FLTCD) and the Sociocultural Theory of Lexical Complexes (STLC) as well as their application to the analysis of specific material. In particular, the book analyzes the sociocultural history of the machine metaphor, specifically its use in the texts of René Descartes and Francis Bacon. The practical embodiment of STLC is demonstrated through the analysis of lexical complexes such as otkryvat' 'to (...) open,' kamen' 'stone,' and intelligencija 'intelligentsia.' In the final chapter of the monograph, FLTCD and STLC are used for the diachronic analysis of semantic change. The monograph will be of interest to a wide range of linguists, psychologists, cultural anthropologists, and philosophers who consider language as a sociocultural phenomenon. (shrink)

Set theory -- Logic -- Proofs -- Functions -- Group theory -- Linear algebra.

This book aims to recover the disruptive nature of the dialectical tradition by means of a severe critique of the dominance of an anthropology of the individual identity in contemporary theories of recognition. This critique implies a thorough rethinking of basic concepts such as desire, negativity, will and drive, with Hegel, Lacan and Adorno being our main guides."--Back cover.

Thus far, psychological input has been used in economics mainly to highlight the cognitive imperfections of market participants. The normative implication of behavioral economics in its current state is that imperfections of market participants should be rectified by psychologically informed regulators. However, regulators are themselves imperfect actors with limited cognitive capacities. I propose some biases and illusions documented by cognitive psychologists that may be relevant to the political economy of government regulation.

This paper aims to model multilevel interdependencies in complex organisational systems and proposes application for resilience analysis. Most of the existing research studied interdependencies only at the single-level and overlooked their multilevel character. In response to this gap, we propose a multilevel approach to better comprehend the complexity of interdependencies in organisational systems. More specifically, the study focuses on how interdependencies are shaped across multiple organisational levels. To understand the research problem, we use multilevel and social network theories to elaborate (...) the concept at five organisational levels, namely, individual, intraunit, interunit, intraorganisational, and interorganisational. Further, we show the application of multilevel interdependencies into analysis of organisational resilience. To this end, we construct a multiplex model of a real world organisational system that comprises formal and informal relations of different social exchange strength. Using the agent-based simulations of the organisational system, we investigate the relations between organisational interdependencies and organisational performance in normal and disrupted conditions. With the results, we argue that managing multilevel interdependencies is crucial to reduce vulnerability of organisational systems. By introducing the multilevel conceptualisation of interdependencies and presenting their influence on organisational resilience, we hope to pave a path to managing the complexity of interdependencies and strategic resilience enhancement in organisational systems. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The illusion of explanatory depth, which has been identified by cognitive psychologists, may play a prominent role in encouraging regulatory action. This special type of overconfidence would logically lead regulators to believe that they are aware of the relevant causes and consequences of the activities they might regulate, and of the unintended side effects of the regulatory actions they are contemplating. So, as with other cognitive biases, the illusion of explanatory depth is likely to lead to mistakes. And unlike (...) the biases that have been the focus of so much behavioral economics, the illusion of explanatory depth is uniquely resistant to correction by those who are aware of it as a general problem and rigorously attempt to keep it under control. (shrink)

O alfabeto deste livro não segue uma ordenação típica. Em vez disso, ele percorre um caminho de colisões, da escrita do que se entrega só como espanto e impacto. Trata-se de uma amostra da vasta produção de Vladimir Safatle, feita de fragmentos, suas “escritas em farrapos” que misturam as muitas facetas de seu pensamento – política, ética, psicanálise, estética, filosofia, crítica cultural. Para quem já acompanha o trabalho de décadas do filósofo, o livro é uma surpresa. O rigor acadêmico (...) de suas outras produções dá lugar a uma escrita de tateamento, com certo componente lúdico que nos leva a uma espécie de ensaísmo de pequenas formas. Para quem está pouco familiarizado com essa produção, a obra é um generoso convite a conhecê-la. (shrink)

In The Burning Bush, Glazov conducts a profoundly original inquiry into Vladimir Solovyov's attitude toward Judaism. Solovyov (1853-1900) was one of the most remarkable figures of the 19th century: He was the most important Russian speculative thinker of that century, publishing major works on theoretical philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and ethics; he also produced sensitive literary criticism and incisive essays on current political, social, and ecclesiastical questions. The eminent theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar designated Solovyov as the greatest (...) artist of conceptual order and organization--after Thomas Aquinas--in the entire history of thought, a thinker who borrows from all systems after purging them of their negations. Solovyov was also the first major Russian thinker to enter into ecumenical dialogue with Jewish scholars and theologians, and Glazov's main concern is (1) to translate as completely as possible all of Solovyov's writings on Judaism and to annotate these texts by identifying persons, places, and citations, especially in the Biblical and rabbinic literature; and (2) to synthesize the information gleaned from these writings with key recollections of Solovyov's attitudes toward Jews and Judaism by his immediate family, friends, and early biographers. Glazov collects, translates, and comments on all the relevant primary texts: writings, letters, pamphlets, protests, political documents, and prayers which relate to Solovyov's work on Jewish matters. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe work of Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues has established that people do not always think and act “rationally.” However, this amounts to saying that Kahneman and his collaborators interpret people's behavior in experimental settings to be inconsistent with the narrow understanding of rationality deployed by orthodox neoclassical economists. Whether this means that people make poor decisions in the real world, however, has not been demonstrated, a fact that calls into doubt the significance of the list of heuristics and biases (...) generated by behavioral economists. Dual-process theory was meant to give theoretical coherence to this list, but its empirical foundation, too, retains the premises of “rational” choice as an ideal. (shrink)

Appearing here in English for the first time, Vladimir Jankélévitch's _Henri Bergson_ is one of the two great commentaries written on Henri Bergson. Gilles Deleuze's _Bergsonism_ renewed interest in the great French philosopher but failed to consider Bergson's experiential and religious perspectives. Here Jankélévitch covers all aspects of Bergson's thought, emphasizing the concepts of time and duration, memory, evolution, simplicity, love, and joy. A friend of Bergson's, Jankélévitch first published this book in 1931 and revised it in 1959 to (...) treat Bergson's later works. This unabridged translation of the 1959 edition includes an editor's introduction, which contextualizes and outlines Jankélévitch's reading of Bergson, additional essays on Bergson by Jankélévitch, and Bergson's letters to Jankélévitch. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe psychological and philosophical literature exploring the role of social influence in moral judgments suggests that conformity in moral judgments is common and, in many cases, seems to b...

Cicero's De fato: On Hellenistic Conditionals and Free Will. The Serbo-Croatian translation of Cicero's De fato, with comments and detailed analysis of some arguments and problems of the text. -/- (s/h): Tekst Ciceronovog spisa "de fato", prevod, komentari i u dodacima, detaljnija analiza pojedinih argumenata i problema sadržanih u tekstu.

A major Russian philosopher argues that the woods continue to be at the centre of human life.

Baumard's application of Life History Theory to explain the origins of economic growth is a needed amendment to incentive-based explanations of modern economics. However, even though it is grounded in evolution, the theory does not do enough to specify the relevant evolutionary mechanisms. As such, it accommodates too many alternative historic scenarios, yet remains unable to explain divergent regional patterns of economic growth.