An important objection to signaling approaches to representation is that, if signaling behavior is driven by the maximization of usefulness, then signals will typically carry much more information about agent-dependent usefulness than about objective features of the world. This sort of considerations are sometimes taken to provide support for an anti-realist stance on representation itself. The author examines the game-theoretic version of this skeptical line of argument developed by Donald Hoffman and his colleagues. It is shown that their argument only (...) works under an extremely impoverished picture of the informational connections that hold between agent and world. In particular, it only works for cue-driven agents, in Kim Sterelny’s sense. In cases in which the agents’ understanding of what is useful results from combining pieces of information that reach them in different ways, and that complement one another, maximizing usefulness involves construing first a picture of agent-independent, objective matters of fact. (shrink)

Perhaps the most widely touted of GPT-4’s at-launch, zero-shot capabilities has been its reported 90th-percentile performance on the Uniform Bar Exam. This paper begins by investigating the methodological challenges in documenting and verifying the 90th-percentile claim, presenting four sets of findings that indicate that OpenAI’s estimates of GPT-4’s UBE percentile are overinflated. First, although GPT-4’s UBE score nears the 90th percentile when examining approximate conversions from February administrations of the Illinois Bar Exam, these estimates are heavily skewed towards repeat test-takers (...) who failed the July administration and score significantly lower than the general test-taking population. Second, data from a recent July administration of the same exam suggests GPT-4’s overall UBE percentile was below the 69th percentile, and $$\sim$$ ∼ 48th percentile on essays. Third, examining official NCBE data and using several conservative statistical assumptions, GPT-4’s performance against first-time test takers is estimated to be $$\sim$$ ∼ 62nd percentile, including $$\sim$$ ∼ 42nd percentile on essays. Fourth, when examining only those who passed the exam (i.e. licensed or license-pending attorneys), GPT-4’s performance is estimated to drop to $$\sim$$ ∼ 48th percentile overall, and $$\sim$$ ∼ 15th percentile on essays. In addition to investigating the validity of the percentile claim, the paper also investigates the validity of GPT-4’s reported scaled UBE score of 298. The paper successfully replicates the MBE score, but highlights several methodological issues in the grading of the MPT + MEE components of the exam, which call into question the validity of the reported essay score. Finally, the paper investigates the effect of different hyperparameter combinations on GPT-4’s MBE performance, finding no significant effect of adjusting temperature settings, and a significant effect of few-shot chain-of-thought prompting over basic zero-shot prompting. Taken together, these findings carry timely insights for the desirability and feasibility of outsourcing legally relevant tasks to AI models, as well as for the importance for AI developers to implement rigorous and transparent capabilities evaluations to help secure safe and trustworthy AI. (shrink)

Experimental balance is usually understood as the control for the value of the conditions, other than the one under study, which are liable to affect the result of a test. We discuss three different approaches to balance. ‘Millean balance’ requires identifying and equalizing ex ante the value of these conditions in order to conduct solid causal inferences. ‘Fisherian balance’ measures ex post the influence of uncontrolled conditions through the analysis of variance. In ‘efficiency balance’ the value of the antecedent conditions (...) is decided ex ante according to the efficiency they yield in the estimation of the treatment outcome. Against some old arguments by Worrall, we show that in both Fisherian and efficiency balance there are good reasons to randomize the allocation of treatments, in particular when there is no agreement among experimenters as to the antecedent conditions to be controlled for. (shrink)

There has been much discussion of so-called teleosemantic approaches to the naturalization of content. Such discussion, though, has been largely confined to simple, innate mental states with contents such as ?There is a fly here.? Even assuming we can solve the issues that crop up at this stage, an account of the content of human mental states will not get too far without an account of productivity: the ability to entertain indefinitely many thoughts. The best-known teleosemantic theory, Millikan's biosemantics, offers (...) an account of productivity in thought. This paper raises a basic worry about this account: that the use of mapping functions in the theory is unacceptable from a naturalistic point of view. (shrink)

This article discusses the meaning of the notion of virtuality in modern physics. To this end, it develops considerations on the introduction and establishment in nuclear physics of two independent concepts at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s: that of the virtual state, used in the context of neutron scattering studies, and that of the virtual transition, useful for the theoretical understanding of strong nuclear forces, which forms the basis of what are now called virtual particles. Their comparative analysis (...) highlights the theoretical nature of virtual entities and processes in modern physics. It also shows how the virtual has been associated with various purely physical attributes, leading to a form of polysemy of the term, from the beginning of the application of these concepts. (shrink)

A partir de los postulados de una concepción semántica de norma y su clasificación en reglas y principios, Robert Alexy ha enunciado una tesis fuerte de la separación, al concebir que entre ambos tipos de normas no solo existe una diferencia gradual, sino también cualitativa. En este contexto, los principios son descritos como mandatos de optimización, caracterizados por un cumplimiento gradual en atención a las posibilidades reales y jurídicas, y a través de la denominada técnica de la ponderación. A pesar (...) de las objeciones recibidas, la vigencia de esta tesis resulta incuestionable, sirviendo todavía de inspiración a las nuevas generaciones de juristas interesados en la Teoría del Derecho. En el presente capítulo se pretende exponer de manera sucinta pero precisa los postulados del principialismo alexyano, las críticas más recurrentes y sus posibles respuestas, para terminar con algunas notas interpretativas que persiguen contribuir a la continuación del camino trazado por el insigne profesor alemán. (shrink)

This paper proposes a five-part empirical typology of interconnections of race and class. We describe the mechanisms whereby (1) race is a form of class relation; (2) race relations and class relations reciprocally affect each other; (3) race acts as a sorting mechanism into class locations; (4) race acts as a mediating linkage to class locations; and (5) race interacts with class in determining other outcomes. Rather than insisting on one or another mechanism as the overarching framework for conceptualising the (...) interconnections between race and class, we propose a theoretical integration of all five within a functionalist model. The model reconciles the empirical effects of race variables with a class-functionalist explanation of race. Our typology of interconnections is useful for situating concrete empirical phenomena, and our theoretical integration of those interconnections offers a coherent explanatory system that captures the recursive causality of race and class. (shrink)

This article investigates account episodes in Italian family dinner conversations and illustrates how sequential patterns and participation are organized in terms of preferences indexical of moral ideology and moral order. Accounts have been mostly examined as speech acts abstracted from embedding sequential environment; this article shows that different design features of the priming move in account episodes retrospectively define different aspects of a situation as problematic and prospectively activate the relevance for distinctive remedial moves. On an ideological level, narrative elicitations (...) as priming moves and accounts as remedial moves index a moral perspective that promotes moral reasoning and thus the negotiation of norms. In addition, such moves realize a practice of morality that tends to be inquisitory vs condemnatory, offering the benefit of the doubt prior to guilt allocation. In conclusion, the discursive mechanics of accountability constitutes a medium for reproduction of, and innovation in, the moral order. (shrink)

Extracting the regularities of our environment is one of our core cognitive abilities. To study the fine-grained dynamics of the extraction of embedded regularities, a method combining the advantages of the artificial language paradigm and the serial response time task was used with a group of Guinea baboons in a new automatic experimental device. After a series of random trials, monkeys were exposed to language-like patterns. We found that the extraction of embedded patterns positioned at the end of larger patterns (...) was faster than the extraction of initial embedded patterns. This result suggests that there is a learning advantage for the final element of a sequence that benefits from the contextual information provided by previous elements. (shrink)

Die Frage nach Sinn ist eine bleibend existentielle Frage des Menschen. Sie wird dringend aktuell in einer Zeit zunehmender Säkularisierung und Multioptionalität. Eine Theologie, die die Gesellschft prägen will, muss hierzu eine Antwort aus der Mitte des christlichen Glaubens geben können. Stefan Laurs stellt sich dieser Herausforderung. In Auseinandersetzung mit Charles Taylor und Walter Kasper analysiert er den neuzeitlichen Säkularisierungsprozess und widmet sich insbesondere der damit verbundenen Frage des Menschen nach Sinn und Erfüllung. Dabei wird ersichtlich, dass die Sinnfrage aus (...) theologischer Perspektive in der Gottesfrage zur Darstellung kommt. Nur in Gott, der Liebe ist, findet der Mensch den universalen Sinn un die Erfüllung seines Lebens. (shrink)

This volume provides an innovative approach to the referential process thanks to its focus on the relationship between conventions and discourse pragmatics. It brings together a cross-section of current research on referential conventions and pragmatic strategies, in a number of different fields (formal and theoretical linguistics, semantics, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics, interactional linguistics, natural language processing), in a variety of verbal and non-verbal languages (English, German, different varieties of French, Indonesian, Belgian sign language) and in a diversity of contexts (the coining (...) of names, language acquisition, second language learning, and various genres such as news articles, narratives, satire or game playing). The volume is meant as a series of thought-provoking studies which place speakers and addressees at the core of the referential act, thus providing evidence on how they negotiate and adjust, depending on the context. (shrink)

El Menón es un buen ejemplo del uso de la ironía socrática como forma de refutación. Específicamente, la forma lógica de reducción al absurdo constituye un dispositivo muy relacionado con la ironía socrática. En este artículo, se examinan analíticamente los cuatro elementos de la ironía que se presentan en el diálogo: 1. el conocimiento falso como una posición inicial asumida por los interlocutores de Sócrates; 2. la igno­ rancia socrática; 3. la reducción al absurdo del falso saber inicial; y 4. (...) el reconocimiento del error y la ignorancia. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 4, April 2022.

We aim to map out the points of confluence between phronesis and emotion, as well as the nature of this confluence. We do so based on philosophical and psychological explanations of emotions and phronesis. Making sound decisions, which requires phronesis, is an important matter, but its relationship with emotions has only just begun to be studied. We propose that the interplay between phronesis and emotion is possible (rather than inevitable) because both have a cognitive-behavioural structure and because emotions are hierarchical. (...) In the case of emotion, there are no gaps between the cognitive and behavioural dimensions, while phronetic acts can only manifest if cognitive and behavioural aspects are activated simultaneously. The confluence we identify is bidirectional and involves mutual enrichment in this dual dimension. On the one hand, phronesis enriches emotion because it involves extra subjective knowledge and allows emotion to be directed towards higher goals. On the other hand, emotions enrich phronesis because phronesis makes decisions based on sensitive preferences and because emotions confirm correctness in the context of moral decision making. Methodologically, this study is theoretical and interdisciplinary, as our approach is both philosophical and psychological. Philosophy helps us to improve the conceptual foundation of the construct, while psychology provides an analysis of the emotional process, allowing philosophy to understand how emotional evaluation-assessment and motivation lead to decision making. (shrink)

Cet article étudie les éditions du Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano (NIL), les actualités cinématographiques de la Révolution cubaine, qui reflètent la participation des femmes à la politique internationale de Cuba pendant la guerre froide. Un acteur institutionnel féminin se dégage tout particulièrement : la Fédération des femmes cubaines, dont on suit les voyages des dirigeantes dans les pays du bloc de l’Est. Ce rapprochement avec le « camp socialiste » est aussi sensible dans les éditions traitant de la mode ou du (...) sport féminin soviétiques, présentés comme des modèles à suivre. Les femmes sont également encouragées à défendre la Révolution, contre la menace que représentent les États-Unis, en s’engageant dans des milices féminines, suivant en ce sens l’exemple des combattantes vietnamiennes ou de l’agente est-allemande Tamara Bunke, alias « Tania », dont le NIL fait l’éloge. (shrink)

Our limited a priori-reasoning skills open a gap between our finding a proposition conceivable and its metaphysical possibility. A prominent strategy for closing this gap is the postulation of ideal conceivers, who suffer from no such limitations. In this paper I argue that, under many, maybe all, plausible unpackings of the notion of ideal conceiver, it is false that ideal negative conceivability entails possibility.

In recent years, the most widespread doctrine about the conflicts between fundamental (usually constitutional) legal rights could be summarized in the following three main theses: (1) The elements in conflict are legal principles, as opposed to legal rules; (2) Those conflicts are not consequences of the existence of inconsistencies or antinomies between the norms involved, but rather depend on the empirical circumstances of the case. In other words, the norms are logically consistent and the conflicts are not determinable a priori (...) or in abstracto , but only in concreto ; and (3) The classical criteria for solving conflicts between norms, such as lex superior , lex posterior and lex specialis , are not suitable to solve conflicts among fundamental legal rights. Indeed, they require a specific method known as ‘weighing and balancing’. Although all three theses could be (and indeed have been) regarded as problematic, in this paper I address mainly the second one. I try to show that there is room for a tertium genus between antinomies (deontic inconsistencies) and conflicts caused by strict empirical circumstances that I call ‘contextual antinomies’. There are situations in which the norms involved are not inconsistent but the conflict arises for logical reasons. My thesis is that many conflicts between fundamental legal rights fall in this category. I offer, in an appendix, a proposal of formalization of this kind of conflict and the elements involved in it. (shrink)

The ABO histo‐blood group, first discovered over a century ago, is found not only in humans but also in many other primate species, with the same genetic variants maintained for at least 20 million years. Polymorphisms in ABO have been associated with susceptibility to a large number of human diseases, from gastric cancers to immune or artery diseases, but the adaptive phenotypes to which the polymorphism contributes remain unclear. We suggest that variation in ABO has been maintained by frequency‐dependent or (...) fluctuating selection pressures, potentially arising from co‐evolution with gut pathogens. We further hypothesize that the histo‐blood group labels A, B, AB, and O do not offer a full description of variants maintained by natural selection, implying that there are unrecognized, functionally important, antigens beyond the ABO group in humans and other primates. (shrink)

La présente étude propose de faire le point, à travers une sélection d’occurrences extraites d’un document commun, sur la manière dont la classe des pronoms est décrite dans une perspective cognitive. Il s’agit notamment de comprendre comment le traitement des pronoms s’insère dans une modélisation plus large du langage, et à l’inverse, comment celle-ci influence les perspectives sur la classe. Plus spécifiquement, hormis certaines modélisations de l’accès à la référence, c’est la Grammaire Cognitive de Langacker qui est considérée ici. Après (...) une définition du terme même de perspective « cognitive », l’étude met en avant les caractéristiques partagées des pronoms dans ce modèle. Elle propose ensuite un panorama des différentes sous-classes de pronoms. Elle fait apparaître notamment la centralité du pronom personnel et du démonstratif ; le rejet du principe de réagencement au profit de constructions ; le rejet du principe de pronoms « vides de sens » ; enfin, une extension de la notion d’impersonnel à we ou they. Le concept de « clivée en there », emprunté à Davidse et Reeve plutôt qu’à la Grammaire Cognitive, est également proposé. (shrink)

Les Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg 52 contains an Introduction and 9 new research articles in French & English on Friedrich Schiller's philosophy in relation to German Idealism. All fully available online on Open-Edition and as free e-book. -/- Edited and introduced by Henny Blomme, Laure Cahen-Maurel, & David W. Wood. With contributions by Frederick C. Beiser, María del Rosario Acosta López, Cody Staton, Jeremy D. Hovda, Laure Cahen-Maurel, Quentin Landenne, Katia Hay, Louis Carré, and Charlotte Morel. -/- SOMMAIRE (...) / CONTENTS -/- Introduction: Friedrich Schiller, a German Idealist? (Henny Blomme, Laure Cahen-Maurel & David W. Wood) -/- 1. Frederick C. Beiser. Schiller’s Humanism -/- 2. María del Rosario Acosta López. Une dimension esthétique de la critique : la temporalité du beau dans les lettres de Schiller Sur l’éducation esthétique -/- 3. Cody Staton. In Search of Play: Schiller’s Drive Theory as a Turn Away from Kant -/- 4. Jeremy D. Hovda. Bildung between Kant and Schiller -/- 5. Laure Cahen-Maurel. Fichte avec Schiller : La querelle des Heures à la lumière de Grâce et Dignité -/- 6. Quentin Landenne. La Bildung chez Schiller et Fichte, entre esthétique et politique -/- 7. Katia Hay. On the Tragic-Sublime and Tragic Freedom: Thinking with Schiller and Schelling -/- 8. Louis Carré. Vicissitudes de l’État organique : Kant, Hegel, Schiller -/- 9. Charlotte Morel. Conjoindre idéalisme et réalisme après Hegel : Les lectures de Schiller par Lotze et Lange -/- Résumés / Abstracts. (shrink)

Las 15 piezas que ahora lo conforman abrevan en la Historia, en confeciones personales y entrevistas, y mezclan la literatura y el periodismo de manera audaz y perfecta. Los protagonistas son hombres excepcionales y el momento que se ha elegido para contar son las visperas de sus muertes -tal vez el momento de mayor soledad y de mayor intimidad de un hombre. A traves de la magistral escritura de Tomas Eloy Martinez tenemos el privilegio de asistir a los ultimos (...) minutos de sus vidas, el momento previo a perderlo todo y cuando, resistiendo a la indiferencia del mundo, se suena con alguna inmortalidad. (shrink)

L’évolution du statut et de la libération des femmes dans la société espagnole contemporaine est ici étudiée à travers leur participation progressive dans une fête de Maures et Chrétiens du pays valencien. Leur trajectoire, liée aux contextes politiques et sociaux successifs, est marquée, dès le début du XXe siècle, par leur appropriation de rôles festifs jusque là réservés aux hommes. Mais ce n’est qu’à partir des années 1960 qu’elles commencent à revendiquer leur identité propre, et cette émancipation se traduit par (...) l’adoption de costumes masculins. Grâce à cette phase de marginalisation, caractérisée par le travestissement, les femmes, représentées par les « Negras », vont peu à peu reconquérir leur « féminité ». (shrink)

L’évolution du statut et de la libération des femmes dans la société espagnole contemporaine est ici étudiée à travers leur participation progressive dans une fête de Maures et Chrétiens du pays valencien. Leur trajectoire, liée aux contextes politiques et sociaux successifs, est marquée, dès le début du XXe siècle, par leur appropriation de rôles festifs jusque là réservés aux hommes. Mais ce n’est qu’à partir des années 1960 qu’elles commencent à revendiquer leur identité propre, et cette émancipation se traduit par (...) l’adoption de costumes masculins. Grâce à cette phase de marginalisation, caractérisée par le travestissement, les femmes, représentées par les « Negras », vont peu à peu reconquérir leur « féminité ». (shrink)

A partir de la “mitodología” y la fenomenología de las religiones, analizo el cuento “Blancanieves y los siete enanos” e identifico ele- mentos que sugieren un origen lunar e iniciático de él; además, encuentro semejanzas entre Blancanieves y algunas otras sacerdotisas de la luna.

I address the problem of the distinction between semantic and conceptual representations from general considerations about how to distinguish a representational kind. I consider three different ways of telling representational kinds apart – in terms of structure, processing and content – and I examine if semantic representations may constitute a distinct kind with respect to each of them. I argue that the best options for semantic representation to be regarded as a distinct representational kind with respect to each of the (...) three criteria conflict with each other, since it appears respectively as an atomic representation, as a sort of procedural rule or as a structured complex. (shrink)

I address the problem of the distinction between semantic and conceptual representations from general considerations about how to distinguish a representational kind. I consider three different ways of telling representational kinds apart – in terms of structure, processing and content – and I examine if semantic representations may constitute a distinct kind with respect to each of them. I argue that the best options for semantic representation to be regarded as a distinct representational kind with respect to each of the (...) three criteria conflict with each other, since it appears respectively as an atomic representation, as a sort of procedural rule or as a structured complex. (shrink)

Concernant l’éducation à la vie affective et sexuelle, depuis septembre 2018, la circulaire de Jean-Michel Blanquer remplace celle de 2003. Si, comme la précédente, elle préconise trois séances annuelles, elle innove avec une articulation entre trois champs de compétences : biologique, psycho-émotionnel et juridico-social. L’auteure, qui exerce en centre de planification et d’éducation familiale et anime des interventions auprès d’adolescents au collège, présente ce dispositif, vignette à l’appui. Par un extrait de séance en groupe mixte, elle témoigne du sens de (...) la mixité, de l’importance de la mise en mots et de la difficulté d’un échange en présence de l’autre sexe et de l’adulte sur le sujet fragile et délicat de la sexualité. (shrink)

Neuropsychologist Mario Martinez is a pioneer in the science of the mindbody--his term for that essential oneness of cognition and biology--and a passionate advocate for its power to reshape our lives, if we work with it consciously. In The MindBody Self, he builds on the foundation he laid in... MindBody Code to explore the cultural conditions that coauthor our reality and shape every aspect of our lives, from health and longevity to relationships and self-esteem. Then he offers practical tools (...) we can use to shed outworn patterns and create sustainable change. You'll read about: How our cultural beliefs affect the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease; The difference between growing older (which we all do) and "aging" by our culture's standards (which we can learn not to do); What happens when we move "beyond the pale" of our tribe's expectations; How to navigate adversity using uncertainty as a guide; Biocognitive tools for a healthy life. (shrink)

This article proposes to retrace the path of trust that Paul Ricœur has drawn across his works. If the concept of trust is never themed as such, nevertheless it unfolds in subtle ways in fields as diverse as ethics, morality, politics, and religion. We will argue that trust is a solid but fragile foundation for Ricœur’s recognition theory. Rooted in man’s structural disproportion, trust is a perpetual tension between the finitude of existence and the infinitude of mutual recognition, between the (...) ability and fallibility of the human being -it is thus a continuous search, always disappointing but always renewed, of a mediation between the self and the other, the hope of happiness and the reality of evil. The analysis of various forms of trust, including interpersonal and institutional forms, will then be coupled with a study of trust in practical terms, based on Ricœur’s approach to healthcare relationships, or the perception of foreigners. (shrink)