Buss, S.R., The undecidability of k-provability, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 53 75-102. The k-provability problem is, given a first-order formula ø and an integer k, to determine if ø has a proof consisting of k or fewer lines . This paper shows that the k-provability problem for the sequent calculus is undecidable. Indeed, for every r.e. set X there is a formula ø and an integer k such that for all n,ø has a proof of k sequents (...) if and only if n ε X. (shrink)

Resemblance Nominalism About Perfect Naturalness is the view that perfect naturalness of classes is best defined by a conceptual primitive of resemblance between particulars. The adequacy of RNPN is defended by outlining nominalism as the strictly anti-constitutive view that the particulars’ being the fundamental ways they are is not constituted by anything further, supplying a doubly plural contrastive and graded resemblance predicate that allows for a definition of perfect naturalness on an actualist basis, and proving a representation and a uniqueness (...) theorem on the basis of a formal constraint on resemblance called “the Principle”, thereby revealing that bodies of nominalist resemblance facts are guaranteed to behave as if they were grounded in patterns of universals distributed over particulars. (shrink)

Modal dispositionalism is the view that possibilities are a matter of the dispositions of individual objects: it is possible that p if and only if something has a disposition for p to be the case. We raise a problem for modal dispositionalism: nothing within the theory rules out that there could be necessary, perfect masks, which make the manifestation of a disposition impossible. Unless such necessary perfect masks are ruled out, modal dispositionalism runs the risk of failing to provide a (...) sufficient condition for possibility, and indeed of engendering contradictions. But to rule them out, modal dispositionalism would have to revise a crucial tenet of the view, its localism. (shrink)

The (re)building of the post-communist states offers new perspectives both on the state and on the multiple transitions that followed communism. Specifically, it shifts our analytical focus from states as consolidated outcomes and unitary actors to the process by which states come into being and into action in the modern era. This process consists of elite competition over policy-making authority, which is shaped and constrained by existing institutional resources, the pacing of transformation, and the international context. The four ideal types (...) of state-building that result are exemplified by the post-communist experience: democratic, autocratic, fractious, and personalistic. (shrink)

The static properties of leaves with parallel venation from terrestrial orchids of the genus Epipactis were modelled as coupled elastic rods using the geometrically exact Cosserat theory and the resulting boundary-value problem was solved numerically using a method from Shampine, Muir and Xu. The response of the leaf structure to the applied force was obtained from preliminary measurements. These measurements allowed the Young’s modulus of the Epipactis leaves to be determined. The appearance of wrinkles and undulation characteristics for some leaves (...) has been attributed to the small torsional stiffness of the leaf edges. (shrink)

Capturing a scientific change in thinking about personality and individual differences that has been building over the past 15 years, this volume stands at an important moment in the development of psychology as a discipline. Rather than viewing individual differences as merely the raw material upon which selection operates, the contributing authors provide theories and empirical evidence which suggest that personality and individual differences are central to evolved psychological mechanisms and behavioral functioning. The book draws theoretical inspiration from life history (...) theory, evolutionary genetics, molecular genetics, developmental psychology, personality psychology, and evolutionary psychology, while utilizing the theories of the "best and the brightest" international scientists working on this cutting edge paradigm shift. In the first of three sections, the authors analyze personality and the adaptive landscape; here, the authors offer a novel conceptual framework for examining "personality assessment adaptations." Because individuals in a social environment have momentous consequences for creating and solving adaptive problems, humans have evolved "difference-detecting mechanisms" designed to make crucial social decisions such as mate selection, friend selection, kin investment, coalition formation, and hierarchy negotiation. In the second section, the authors examine developmental and life-history theoretical perspectives to explore the origins and development of personality over the lifespan. The third section focuses on the relatively new field of evolutionary genetics and explores which of the major evolutionary forces--such as balancing selection, mutation, co-evolutionary arms races, and drift--are responsible for the origins of personality and individual differences. Existing as a seminal work in the newly emerging evolutionary psychology field, this book is a "must-read" for anyone invested in the development of psychology as a field. (shrink)

The building of the post-communist states offers new perspectives both on the state and on the multiple transitions that followed communism. Specifically, it shifts our analytical focus from states as consolidated outcomes and unitary actors to the process by which states come into being and into action in the modern era. This process consists of elite competition over policy-making authority, which is shaped and constrained by existing institutional resources, the pacing of transformation, and the international context. The four ideal types (...) of state-building that result are exemplified by the post-communist experience: democratic, autocratic, fractious, and personalistic. (shrink)

Band 1. Von Augustinus bis Nietzsche -- Band 2. Das 20. Jahrhundert.

Wie kann eine Theorie der Ethik beschaffen sein, wenn sie aus dem gedanklichen Repertoire der Existenzphilosophie entworfen wird? Sie bedarf vor allem einer speziellen Sprachfindung, die einen Diskurs mit zeitgenossischen Ethik-Konzeptionen im ersten Moment zu erschweren scheint. Susanne Mobua zeigt auf, dass dieses nicht zwangslaufig gilt, wenn der strukturelle Rahmen, in dem die Ethik der Existenz sich artikulieren kann, in die Untersuchung einbezogen wird. Hier kommt das Konzept des Neuen Denkens zum Tragen, das 1925 von Franz Rosenzweig vorgestellt wurde. Zum (...) ersten Mal ist es moglich, die Bedeutung des Rosenzweig'schen Denkens fur die Entwicklung von Existenzphilosophie und Dekonstruktion darzustellen. (shrink)

Martin Heideggers Denken nach 1938 ist vor allem durch drei grosse Themen gepragt: den Wandel des Menschenbildes, die Einfuhrung eines neuen Begriffes vom Denken und den Nachweis, dass Sein Seyn in Beziehung ist. Dabei stutzt er sich auf das Denken Franz Rosenzweigs, das bereits in der Formulierung von Sein und Zeit erkennbar ist, in den Schriften der 40er und 50er Jahre aber in besonders intensiver Weise nachwirkt. Ausgehend von dieser Zusammenschau von Heideggers und Rosenzweigs Denken zeichnet sich auch eine neue (...) Bewertung des Denkens von Emmanuel Levinas ab. (shrink)

Aus einer bestimmten Perspektive betrachtet, zeigt sich Martin Heideggers erste systematische Schrift "Sein und Zeit" als Konzeptualisierung des "Sterns der Erlosung" von Franz Rosenzweig. Diesen Befund gilt es anhand eines intensiven Vergleiches beider Texte zu bestatigen. Erganzend werden Heideggers Arbeiten uber rund zwanzig Jahre von seiner Dissertation bis zu den "Beitragen zur Philosophie" verfolgt, um die Phasen einer Rezeption zwischen Aneignung, Widerspruch und Negation rekonstruieren zu konnen, die in der Geschichte der westlichen Rationalitat ihresgleichen sucht. Denn es wird sichtbar, wie (...) stark Heideggers Begrundung eines angeblichen seinsgeschichtlichen Auftrages der Deutschen von jenen Aussagen Franz Rosenzweigs gepragt ist, in denen dieser das judische Volk charakterisiert. Ein vertiefender Blick auf das Selbstverstandnis Martin Heideggers zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus wird moglich, der dazu beitragen kann, die Frage seiner ideologischen Positionierung vor neuem Hintergrund zu stellen. (shrink)

In this paper incomplete data sets, or data sets with missing attribute values, have three interpretations, lost values, attribute-concept values and ‘do not care’ conditions. Additionally, the process of data mining is based on two types of probabilistic approximations, global and saturated. We present results of experiments on mining incomplete data sets using six approaches, combining three interpretations of missing attribute values with two types of probabilistic approximations. We compare our six approaches, using the error rate computed as a result (...) of ten-fold cross validation as a criterion of quality. We show that for some data sets the error rate is significantly smaller (5% level of significance) for lost values, for some data sets the smaller error rate is associated with attribute-concept values, and sometimes with ‘do not care’ conditions. Again, for some approaches the error rate is significantly smaller for saturated probabilistic approximations than for global probabilistic approximations, while for some approaches it is the other way around. Thus, for an incomplete data set, the best approach to data mining should be chosen by trying all six approaches. (shrink)

C'est sur la nécessité de l'absence d'une telle définition que Julien Busse invite à se pencher pour en analyser aussi bien les causes que les effets.

O presente artigo traz reflexões que envolvem infância e experiência a partir da área da educação e, particularmente, das ponderações em torno das pesquisas com crianças pequenas e da educação infantil. Os apontamentos impõem limites relativos a este lugar de estudo e delimita estes como parte de uma crítica e autocrítica da educação e das possibilidades de consolidação de uma Pedagogia da Infância. Nesta direção, no artigo se toma para esta reflexão a análise do sentido da experiência para as principais (...) teorias educacionais ou projetos educativos para a educação na infância, a fim de levar a uma demarcação dos contornos da experiência educativa na/da infância institucionalizada. Para tal, apresenta alguns elementos relativos à experiência educativa como experiência social a partir de estudos empíricos que dão visibilidade às ações das crianças como parte de suas vidas nos coletivos infantis. Por fim, indica como desafios para a possível consolidação de uma Pedagogia da Infância uma aproximação da Pedagogia às manifestações infantis, a criança em situação e as possibilidades de os processos educativos se pautarem na escuta, na dialogicidade e nas relações, possibilitando incluir, nas práticas educativas, as significações produzidas pelas próprias crianças em seus contextos de vida e suas manifestações culturais e expressivas. (shrink)

BackgroundThe global COVID-19 pandemic confronts people with their fragility, vulnerability, and mortality. To date, scales to measure death awareness mainly focus on the anxiety-provoking aspect of mortality cues. This study aims to cross-culturally adapt and validate the Death Reflection Scale, a scale for measuring positive, growth-oriented cognitions of life reflection and prosocial behavior following confrontation with the finiteness of life.Materials and MethodsThe Death Reflection Scale was translated and adapted in a multi-step process to the German language. In this anonymous, cross-sectional, (...) online survey at a large university in Germany, students, healthcare professionals and other staff completed the DRS alongside comparison measures. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess configural, metric, and scalar measurement equivalence across four age and occupational groups. Convergent/divergent validity testing was done via Spearman correlations.Results1,703 participants provided data for a response rate of ∼5%. 24% of respondents were HCP, 22% students. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a higher-order structure of the DRS with a strong general factor and the originally proposed five subscales. Multi-group CFA showed partial metric equivalence across age groups and partial scalar invariance across occupational groups. Non-invariant scales were the Motivation to live, Putting life into perspective, and Legacy subscales. In the convergent validity testing, two hypotheses were fully confirmed, two partially and four were not confirmed. Experiencing a propensity for increased contemplation and life reflection during the pandemic together with spirituality showed correlations of moderate to large size to the DRS and its subscales.ConclusionFurther conceptual work for death awareness to explore the construct’s stability in different population groups needs to be undertaken. However, the DRS can be mostly used to assess positive and growth-oriented aspects of death awareness and death reflection which may be an important avenue when developing counseling and support interventions for groups experiencing a high burden during the pandemic. (shrink)

Inductive Metaphysics combines an anti-aprioristic emphasis on an empirical and scientific basis for metaphysics with an insistence on a specifically philosophical abductive theory-building. Since the latter specifically philosophical work is not empirical itself, it may in a liberal sense be called apriori. This paper highlights this apriori dimension within IM by a case study on Structuralism, the view that fundamental reality consists of a network of relations, which a number of philosophers consider to be suggested by modern physics. Focussing on (...) Dasgupta’s algebraic Generalism, the author argues that Structuralism suffers from a severe entailment problem, because the relations-spanning apparatus must stand for metaphysically fundamental forms. Schaffer’s contention that there are no entailment problems is rejected. Advocates of IM are well advised to take seriously their own insistence on metaphysical abduction and not to one-sidedly emphasise the empirical input: the elaboration of exact metaphysical theories and the apriori evaluation of their inherent tenability is a constituent of IM no less important than the consideration of scientific input. More traditional ways of metaphysical reasoning inevitably survive as an essential dimension within IM. (shrink)

Strong dispositional monism, the position that all fundamental physical properties consist in dispositional relations to other properties, is naturally construed as property structuralism. J. Lowe’s circularity/regress objection constitutes a serious challenge to SDM that questions the possibility of a purely relational determination of all property essences. The supervenience thesis of A. Bird’s graph-theoretic asymmetry reply to CRO can be rigorously proved. Yet the reply fails metaphysically, because it reveals neither a metaphysical determination of identities on a purely relational basis nor (...) a determination specifically of identities in the sense of essences. Asymmetry is thus not by itself sufficient for a solution to CRO. But it cannot even help to answer CRO when a model for the determination of essences is taken as a basis. Nor is asymmetry necessary for a reply, as property structures may well be symmetric. A metaphysics of dispositional properties as grounded in a purely relational structure faces serious obstacles, and the properties would not be fundamental. Since essence and grounding are notions of metaphysical priority, there can be no essentially dispositional metaphysically fundamental properties, and the prospects of a “coherentist” metaphysics of basic properties are dim. A modal retreat that refrains from a post-modal conception of essence and simply claims that fundamental properties play dispositional roles by metaphysical necessity is unsatisfactory. (shrink)

A core thesis of Kitcher's is that thinking about objects requires awareness of necessary connections between one's object-directed representations ‘as such’ and that this is what Kant means by the transcendental unity of apperception. I argue that Kant's main point is the spontaneity or ‘self-made-ness’ of combination rather than the requirement of reflexive awareness of combination, that Kitcher provides no plausible account of how recognition of representations ‘as such’ should be constituted and that in fact Kant himself appears to lack (...) the theoretical resources to clearly distinguish between consciousness and self-consciousness or apperception properly so-called. (shrink)

The transcription factor NF‐κB (p65/p50) plays a central role in the coordination of cellular responses by activating the transcription of numerous target genes. The precise role of the dynamics of NF‐κB signalling in regulating gene expression is still an open question. Here, we show that besides external stimulation intracellular parameters can influence the dynamics of NF‐κB. By applying mathematical modelling and bifurcation analyses, we show that NF‐κB is capable of exhibiting different types of dynamics in response to the same stimulus. (...) We identified the total NF‐κB concentration and the IκBα transcription rate constant as two critical parameters that modulate the dynamics and the fold change of NF‐κB. Both parameters might vary as a result of cell‐to‐cell variability. The regulation of the IκBα transcription rate constant, e.g. by co‐factors, provides the possibility of regulating the NF‐κB dynamics by crosstalk. (shrink)

Recently, metaphysical coherentism has been propounded as an alternative to metaphysical foundationalism and infinitism. The view replaces the picture of reality as a hierarchy of levels with that of a network of objects or facts standing in symmetric or, more generally, cyclic relations of metaphysical dependence. This paper defends the orthodox picture of a well-founded hierarchy against the claimed superiority of coherentism. First, it will be argued that alleged theoretical advantages of coherentism do not hold up to scrutiny. Secondly, examples (...) that are claimed to support coherentism are either misdescribed as involving metaphysical interdependence, or foundationalist treatments fare at least as good and often better than coherentist interpretations. Thirdly, a similar diagnosis applies to a recently proposed coherentist interpretation of quantum entanglement. The more general diagnosis is that claims of metaphysical dependence are convincing only if there is a detailed account of how one item metaphysically explains another. While foundationalists can resort to various specific explanatory relations, coherentism seems to be incapable of providing detailed explanations. (shrink)

The paper offers insights into the acceptability of ethical issues in poultry production and how this situation provides an opportunity to transform the prevailing system into a more sustainable one. The survey among German consumers reveals that killing day-old chicks is a well-known practice and is rated as “very problematic”. In contrast, dual-purpose chickens are mostly unknown but are considered a positive alternative to killing day-old chicks. Consumer clusters were identified regarding purchasing criteria for dual-purpose chickens, purchasing routines and socio-economic (...) factors. Three of the five clusters—the perfectionists, idealists, and realists—turned out to be potential buyers. To develop a suitable marketing strategy, it is recommended that the added value of dual-purpose chickens be comprehensibly communicated. From a multi-level perspective, rearing dual-purpose chickens has a competitive disadvantage compared to system-compliant alternatives. Through increasing external pressure, the different alternatives can jointly contribute to a regime shift. (shrink)

The anthology is a collection of readings from a wide range of philosophical and cultural perspectives. Interesting and reader-friendly selections were purposely selected so as to be accessible to a wide range of students. While designed to accompany Mitchell's ROOTS OF WISDOM, it can also be used with any other introductory text.