Based on multiDEVS formalism, we introduce multiPDEVS, a parallel and nonmodular formalism for discrete event system specification. This formalism provides combined advantages of PDEVS and multiDEVS approaches, such as excellent simulation capabilities for simultaneously scheduled events and components able to influence each other using exclusively their state transitions. We next show the soundness of the formalism by giving a construction showing that any multiPDEVS model is equivalent to a PDEVS atomic model. We then present the simulation procedure associated, usually called (...) abstract simulator. As a well-adapted formalism to express cellular automata, we finally propose to compare an implementation of multiPDEVS formalism with a more classical Cell-DEVS implementation through a fire spread application. (shrink)

Currently, the widely used notion of activity is increasingly present in computer science. However, because this notion is used in specific contexts, it becomes vague. Here, the notion of activity is scrutinized in various contexts and, accordingly, put in perspective. It is discussed through four scientific disciplines: computer science, biology, economics, and epistemology. The definition of activity usually used in simulation is extended to new qualitative and quantitative definitions. In computer science, biology and economics disciplines, the new simulation activity definition (...) is first applied critically. Then, activity is discussed generally. In epistemology, activity is discussed, in a prospective way, as a possible framework in models of human beliefs and knowledge. (shrink)

Paul Ricœur, with Rawls, Walzer, and Habermas as some of his main interlocuters, has developed a substantial and distinctive body of political thought. On the one hand, it articulates a rich conception of the paradoxical character of the domain of politics. On the other, it provides a fresh approach to such major topics as the relationship among politics, economics, and ethics and between concern for universal human rights and respect for cultural plurality. His work, rooted as it is in Aristotle, (...) Kant, and Hegel, also provides resources for a fruitful rethinking of the issues at stake in the liberal-communitarian debate. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that moral and institutional evils, even though they are all contingent, are so pervasive and persistent that there is no practical way of responding to them that would lead eventually to theeradication of all of them. Instead, our practical task is to respond to these evils in ways that respect both the basic capabilities and their associated vulnerabilities that are constitutive of each human being. Todo this most effectively, one should offer unconditional forgiveness to the (...) perpetrators of evil. The attitude that can best underpin this forgiveness is one of a properly understood indefeasible hope, a hopethat always insists that each person is of greater worth than whatever he or she does. (shrink)

Paul Ricoeur's account of the human capacity for taking action stands in opposition in important respects to two other prominent views. One of these alternatives is exemplified in the position that John Rawls holds. A second alternative appears in some interpretations of the results of neuroscientific research. My aim in this paper is first to highlight a number of the salient feature of Ricoeur's account. Then I will briefly point to some of the challenges it presents to these two alternatives.

Joseph Godfrey's A Philosophy of Human Hope is excellent. It is clearly written, thorough, and, in large measure, convincing.

Emad's announced purpose in this study is "to determine the implications which Heidegger's value-criticism has for Scheler's phenomenology of values." The results of this investigation can then be extended to the general problem of values and value theories as it is manifested in our time. This aim leads Emad to consider the concept of value both in Nietzsche's thought and in Neo-Kantianism, especially as presented by Lotze, Rickert, and Windelband.