This book offers a comprehensive treatment of the classical decision problem of mathematical logic and of the role of the classical decision problem in modern computer science. The text presents a revealing analysis of the natural order of decidable and undecidable cases and includes a number of simple proofs and exercises.

Cognitive dissonance has been studied for more than sixty years and many insightful findings have come from this research. However, some important theoretical and methodological issues are yet to be resolved, particularly regarding dissonance reduction. In this paper, we place dissonance theory in the larger framework of appraisal theories of emotion, emotion regulation, and coping. The basic premise of dissonance theory is that people experience negative affect (to varying degrees) following the detection of cognitive conflict. The individual will be motivated (...) to alleviate these emotional reactions and could do so by reducing dissonance in some manner. We argue that detection of dissonance will follow the same principles as when people interpret any other stimuli as emotionally significant. Thus, appraisal theory of emotion, which argues that emotions are generated via the cognitive evaluation of surrounding stimuli, should be applicable to the dissonance-detection process. In short, we argue that dissonance-reduction strategies (attitude change, trivialization, denial of responsibility, etc.) can be understood as emotion-regulation strategies. We further argue that this perspective contributes to reconciling fragmented (and sometimes contrary) viewpoints present in the literature on dissonance reduction. In addition to proposing the general model of dissonance reduction, we illustrate at the hand of empirical data how research on dissonance reduction can be performed without relying on experimental paradigms that focus on a specific reduction strategy. (shrink)

ABSTRACTPeople's relationship between positive and negative affect varies on a continuum from relatively independent to bipolar opposites, with stronger bipolar opposition being termed affective bipolarity. Experiencing more depressive symptoms is associated with increased bipolarity, but the processes underlying this relation are not yet understood. Here, we sought to replicate this link, and to examine the role of two potential mediating mechanisms: emotion regulation ability, and trait brooding. Drawing from the Dynamic Model of Affect, we hypothesised that a poor ability to (...) regulate negative emotion, and the tendency to brood over one's depressed feelings would predict stronger affective bipolarity, and mediate the relationship between depressive symptoms and affective bipolarity. To measure affective bipolarity, we calculated within-person affect correlations using two weeks of experience sampling data from a community sample. Mediation analyses indicated that baseline assessments o... (shrink)

Popper holds to the unity of scientific method: any differences between natural and social science are a product of theory, not a pretheoretical premise. Distin guishing instead pure and applied generalizing sciences, Popper focuses on the different role of laws in each. In generalizing social science, our tools are the logic of the situation, including the rationality principle, and unintended conse quences. Situations contain individuals, but also social entities not reducible to individuals: conspiracy theory is the extreme form of individualism. (...) Action in situations has unintended consequences. Both social and natural laws may be required to explain outcomes. The fate of Popper's ideas is a case study in the logic of the situation. Professional philosophers of social science lean toward individualism and a priorism (either intuitionist or rational choice). There are social and political explanations of this outcome, but little critical engagement with Popper's ideas. (shrink)

Von den Spiralen.--Von den drei Sphären.--Von der Gefahr.--Von der Mitte.--Von den Gründen.--Von der Beliebtheit.--Vom Mythos der Sprache.--Von den Namen.--Von den Farben.--Vom Dichten, Denken, und Deuten.

This article raises the question of whether standard economics with the general equilibrium model at its core applies situational analysis in a Popperian sense. Contrary to Popper's own view, the authors come to the conclusion that this is not the case. Standard economics fails to represent elements essential to any social situation in an adequate manner. It comprises uncertainty, time and space, social interaction, unintended effects, as well as culture and institutions. The authors suggest, therefore, the socioeconomic context as an (...) alternative approach to analyzing social situations. It consists of four basic elements: (1) dominant worldviews, (2) institutions and technologies, (3) relative prices, and (4) political instruments. The alternative approach was applied with some success to analyzing inter alia problems of unemployment as well as of transformation. (shrink)

A través de una reconstrucción sistemática de la concepción de unificación religiosa concebida por Hegel durante su estancia en Frankfurt, se busca poner de relieve tanto los aspectos peculiares y diferenciadores de ésta, como los elementos que anticipan el rumbo que adquirirá el pensamiento hegeliano desde Jena. La reconstrucción procede en tres pasos: tematización de la vida inmediata, de la reflexión y de su acción sobre la vida; caracterización de la religión como una elevación por sobre la finitud y acceso (...) a la vida infinita en cuanto espíritu; determinación de la función crítico-negativa de la filosofía, subordinada a la religión. Se concluye estableciendo que, en estos textos tempranos, Hegel llega a una estructura sistemática central para su pensamiento ulterior, a saber, la estructura vida-conocer-espíritu. Además se ofrece una consideración relativa al potencial liberador que para Hegel tienen tanto la religión como la filosofía, dado que ambas escapan a una forma específica de racionalidad hegemónica en la cultura. (shrink)

Resumen Se sostiene que la operación general de la silogística en la Lógica cumple con un programa trazado tempranamente por Hegel, consistente en concebir la unidad de la forma racional del silogismo y el contenido absoluto de la idea como resultado de una dialéctica inmanente a la propia forma del silogismo, mediante la cual éste abandona su carácter meramente formal y alcanza su propio concepto: ser forma objetiva o racional. Para esto se acude a la sección Subjetividad de la Doctrina (...) del Concepto, procurando reconstruir los antecedentes sistemáticos del capítulo sobre el silogismo, así como la operación específica que éste realiza en vista del tránsito a la sección Objetividad. El sentido de dicha operación consiste en la superación de un exceso que, al comienzo, la necesidad de la sustancia tiene por sobre la libertad del concepto, de lo cual resulta un exceso del concepto por sobre la sustancia. Para verificar esta operación se examinan los silogismos del estar y la necesidad, concluyendo con la determinación del tipo de objeto y de conocimiento que resulta del silogismo, y con la proyección del problema a estadios ulteriores de la Lógica, en los cuales el problema avistado adquiere un cariz marcadamente práctico.In this paper I argue that the general operation of syllogistic in the Logic fulfills a philosophical program that was early outlined by Hegel. This program conceives the unity of the rational form of the syllogism and the absolute content of the idea as a result of an immanent dialectic to the syllogism's form, by which it abandons its merely formal character and attains its own concept: being an objective or rational form. For the purposes of this argument, I analyze the Subjectivity section of the Doctrine of the Concept and reconstruct the systematic background of the chapter on syllogism, as well as the specific operation it performs in view of the transit to the Objectivity section. This operation consists in overcoming a certain excess that the necessity of the substance has, first, over the freedom of the concept, which results in an excess of the concept over the substance. To clarify this operation, I examine the syllogisms of qualitative existence and necessity. Finally, I show the determination of the type of object and knowledge that results from the syllogism and explain how this problem projects to later stages of Logic, in which the analyzed problem acquires a relevant practical aspect. (shrink)

A genome of a living organism consists of a long string of symbols over a finite alphabet carrying critical information for the organism. This includes its ability to control post natal growth, homeostasis, adaptation to changes in the surrounding environment, or to biochemically respond at the cellular level to various specific regulatory signals. In this sense, a genome represents a symbolic encoding of a highly organized system of information whose functioning may be revealed as a natural multilayer structure in terms (...) of complexity and prominence. In this paper we use the mathematical theory of symbolic extensions as a framework to shed light onto how this multilayer organization is reflected in the symbolic coding of the genome. The distribution of data in an element of a standard symbolic extension of a dynamical system has a specific form: the symbolic sequence is divided into several subsequences (which we call layers) encoding the dynamics on various “scales”. We propose that a similar structure resides within the genomes, building our analogy on some of the most recent findings in the field of regulation of genomic DNA functioning. (shrink)

Advaita Vedanta is the most refined philosophical pearl of Hinduism. It is reserved for seekers of Truth who want to know their own essence and aspire to liberation, or mokṣa. It suggests following the path of knowledge, called jñāna-yoga, which is more an existential view than a theory, philosophy, doctrine, or deductive logical knowledge. It teaches self-inquiry: "Who am I?" This question is an expression of the highest and noblest rebellion. It restores our dignity and accepts us as the only (...) authority on who we are. Jñāna is knowing ourselves as Brahman and realizing our reality as the transcendental Self, beyond time and space. In this book, Prabhuji presents the principles of Vedanta that will help seekers take their first steps on this path. Rather than offering information, explanations, and answers, he inspires us to inquire, doubt, and investigate our own essence. He tells us that every effort to achieve enlightenment is superfluous because we already are what we aspire to be. We simply need to turn our attention to consciousness itself and be the Self. (shrink)

This compilation offers us the rare opportunity to come in contact with the spontaneous words of an enlightened master. With refreshing insight, Prabhuji reveals a unique message of selfinquiry and evolution. For Prabhuji, yoga is "a path that begins and ends in you, from what you believe yourself to be to what you really are." The transcribed lectures included in this book encompass teachings from various paths of the ancient wisdom of yoga and invite the readers to study, contemplate, and (...) integrate the different aspects of the human experience in order to rediscover their authentic nature. The deep observations of the author, explained with great eloquence and clarity, can help each one to see what is, as it is. (shrink)

Our century thinks scientifically. Nothing would be more plausible than that it has the same relation to the world as does Sein und Zeit. This, however, is not the case. For Heidegger, Science and Technology are essential characteristics of our time. Both are rooted in man insofar as he is a "Will to Will." Scientific man is man as subject. As such he does not wish to see the world the way it appears by itself but rather as a field (...) that may be tilled by him and is preordained for him and his activity. The world as the object of action does not merely come to man as a legacy; instead he violently grasps it and makes it his hunting ground. "Man becomes that Seiende, on which is based all Seiende in the manner of its Being and its Truth". Man of the machine-age does not allow for a world "where Being is as Being." The Subject "sets" its world and therefore has a Welt-bild and Welt-anschauungen, all of these being bifurcations indicating the separation of subject and world. A uniform world is replaced by Ego over against World. In this kind of "world" man makes God in his own image by setting the "world" as the stage for his Welt-anschauung, one which aims at utility and plasticity. Man is the director staging the world of his idea. As the objects which are handled have properties which reflect back on the producer, the directing is all the more dangerous. He who in everything that he thinks and does is staging himself might become the victim of his own production; the world of the calculating man has the character of its producer. "The calculating mind, adapting itself, invents 'values'. Value is the transformation of the Essence of Essence into the quantitative and the gigantic." In Holzwege Heidegger shows that the gigantic is a consequence of the way the subject places himself in the world. The world does not appear as what it is, but as what man makes of it. The world of the machine-age is a world-less world and the "world" as it is described in Sein und Zeit and more so in the essay "Vom Wesen des Grundes" does not appear in it. (shrink)