We study computably enumerable equivalence relations (ceers) on N and unravel a rich structural theory for a strong notion of reducibility among ceers.

In this article, I contend that a concept of hope in terms of process theology can better deal with Miguel De La Torre's criticisms of theology of hope than Jurgen Moltmann's rightly famous treatment of this topic.

We investigate the meaning of the wave function by analyzing the mass and charge density distributions of a quantum system. According to protective measurement, a charged quantum system has effective mass and charge density distributing in space, proportional to the square of the absolute value of its wave function. In a realistic interpretation, the wave function of a quantum system can be taken as a description of either a physical field or the ergodic motion of a particle. The essential difference (...) between a field and the ergodic motion of a particle lies in the property of simultaneity; a field exists throughout space simultaneously, whereas the ergodic motion of a particle exists throughout space in a time-divided way. If the wave function is a physical field, then the mass and charge density will be distributed in space simultaneously for a charged quantum system, and thus there will exist gravitational and electrostatic self-interactions of its wave function. This not only violates the superposition principle of quantum mechanics but also contradicts experimental observations. Thus the wave function cannot be a description of a physical field but a description of the ergodic motion of a particle. For the later there is only a localized particle with mass and charge at every instant, and thus there will not exist any self-interaction for the wave function. Which kind of ergodic motion of particles then? It is argued that the classical ergodic models, which assume continuous motion of particles, cannot be consistent with quantum mechanics. Based on the negative result, we suggest that the wave function is a description of the quantum motion of particles, which is random and discontinuous in nature. On this interpretation, the square of the absolute value of the wave function not only gives the probability of the particle being found in certain locations, but also gives the probability of the particle being there. We show that this new interpretation of the wave function provides a natural realistic alternative to the orthodox interpretation, and its implications for other realistic interpretations of quantum mechanics are also briefly discussed. (shrink)

Green finance plays a crucial bridge as an intermediary between finance and the environment, facilitating resource allocation. The disclosure of environmental information (EID) is vital for promoting sustainable economic development. This study utilizes panel data covering the period from 2012 to 2019, focusing on Chinese companies listed in high-polluting industries. The findings demonstrate that green finance policies have a significant positive impact on EID, while increased managerial power has a detrimental effect. However, green finance policies can mitigate the negative consequences (...) arising from moral hazard and adverse selection resulting from managerial power. They enhance the quality of EID by restricting long-term loan resources for polluting entities. The heterogeneity test reveals that the effectiveness of green finance policies in promoting EID varies across different regions of China. In non-state-owned companies, green finance policies are more effective in constraining managerial power. The moderating effect of green finance on managerial power is weakened by improvements in internal control. Green financing can offset the adverse impact of managerial power on EID when debt levels are high. Our research plays a crucial role in advancing micro-academic studies in the field of green finance. By strengthening internal controls for corporate managers and promoting EID policies, we provide essential support and guidance to decision-makers. (shrink)

The relation between quantum collapse, consciousness and superluminal communication is analyzed. As we know, quantum collapse, if exists, can result in the appearance of quantum nonlocality, and requires the existence of a pre- ferred Lorentz frame. This may permit the realization of quantum superluminal communication (QSC), which will no longer result in the usual causal loop in case of the existence of a preferred Lorentz frame. The possibility of the existence of QSC is further analyzed under the assumption that quantum (...) collapse is a real process. We demonstrate that the combination of quantum collapse and the consciousness of the observer will permit the observer to distinguish nonorthogonal states in principle. This provides a possible way to realize QSC. Some implications of the existence of QSC are briefy discussed. (shrink)

We show that the motion of particles may be essentially discontinuous and random.

We present a theory of discontinuous motion of particles in continuous space-time. We show that the simplest nonrelativistic evolution equation of such motion is just the Schroedinger equation in quantum mechanics. This strongly implies what quantum mechanics describes is discontinuous motion of particles. Considering the fact that space-time may be essentially discrete when considering gravity, we further present a theory of discontinuous motion of particles in discrete space-time. We show that its evolution will naturally result in the dynamical collapse process (...) of the wave function, and this collapse will bring about the appearance of continuous motion of objects in the macroscopic world. (shrink)

Science has made a mighty advance since it originated in ancient Greece more than 2500 years ago. Yet we still live in Plato's cave today; we think everything around us moves continuously, but continuous motion is merely a shadow of real motion. This book will lead you to walk out the cave along a logical and comprehensible road. After passing Zeno's arrow, Newton's inertia, Einstein's light, and Schrodinger's cat, you will reach the real world, where every thing in the universe, (...) whether it is an atom or a ball or even a star, ceaselessly jumps in a random and discontinuous way. In a famous metaphor, God does play dice with the universe. Discovering motion is not continuous but discontinuous and random is like finding the Earth is not at rest but moving. The new discovery may finally solve Zeno's paradoxes and the quantum puzzle, and it will lead to a profound shift in our world view. (shrink)

Strengthening a theorem of D.W. Kueker, this paper completely characterizes which countable structures do not admit uncountable L ω 1 ω -elementarily equivalent models. In particular, it is shown that if the automorphism group of a countable structure M is abelian, or even just solvable, then there is no uncountable model of the Scott sentence of M. These results arise as part of a study of Polish groups with compatible left-invariant complete metrics.

The unique relation between logic and truth is crucial for understanding Fregean conception of logic. Frege has an insight that the nature of logic resides in the “truth“, which he finally locates in the assertoric-force of a sentence. Though Frege admits that assertoric-force is ineffable in ordinary language, he coins in his conceptual notation for such a force a much-disputed sign, i.e., judgment-stroke. In this paper, I will try to demonstrate that judgment-stroke is not adequate for the task its inventor (...) has assigned to it. Accordingly, it is misconceived and inconducive to clarify Frege’s vague insight into the protorelation. The mistake of judgment-stroke for the sign of assertoric-force has its root in Frege’s ignorance of the significant difference between “judgment” and assertion”, which will be elucidated at length in the light of Husserl’s theory of “doxic-modification“. In the end, based on a further elucidation of the activity of assertion, I will advance a tentative interpretation of the vague insight Frege has concerning the protorelation. (shrink)

Although memories are more retrievable if observers’ emotional states are consistent between encoding and retrieval, it is unclear whether the consistency of emotional states increases the likelihood of successful memory retrieval, the precision of retrieved memories, or both. The present study tested visual long-term memory for everyday objects while consistent or inconsistent emotional contexts between encoding and retrieval were induced using background grey-scale images from the International Affective Picture System. In the study phase, participants remembered colours of sequentially presented objects (...) in a negative or positive context. In the test phase, participants estimated the colours of previously studied objects in either negative versus neutral or positive versus neutral contexts. Note, IAPS images in the test phase were always visually different from those initially paired with the studied objects. We found that reinstating negative context and positive context at retrieval resulted in better mnemonic precision and a higher probability of successful retrieval, respectively. Critically, these effects could not be attributed to a negative or positive context at retrieval alone. Together, these findings demonstrated dissociable effects of emotion on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of visual long-term memory retrieval. (shrink)

The relationship between quantum collapse and consciousness is reconsidered under the assumption that quantum collapse is an objective dynamical process. We argue that the conscious observer can have a distinct role from the physical measuring device during the process of quantum collapse owing to the intrinsic nature of consciousness; the conscious observer can know whether he is in a definite state or a quantum superposition of definite states, while the physical measuring device cannot “know”. As a result, the consciousness observer (...) can distinguish the definite states and their quantum superposition, while the physical measuring device without consciousness cannot do. This provides a possible quantum physical method to distinguish man and machine. The new result also implies that consciousness has causal efficacies in the physical world when considering the existence of quantum collapse. Accordingly consciousness is not reducible or emergent, but a new fundamental property of matter. This may establish a quantum basis for panpsychism, and make it be a promising solution to the hard problem of consciousness. Furthermore, it is suggested that a unified theory of matter and consciousness includes two parts: one is the psychophysical principle or corresponding principle between conscious content and matter state, and the other is the complete quantum evolution of matter state, which includes the definite nonlinear evolution element introduced by consciousness and relating to conscious content. Lastly, some experimental schemes are presented to test the proposed quantum theory of consciousness. (shrink)

We show that consciousness may violate the basic quantum principle, according to which the nonorthogonal quantum states can't be distinguished. This implies that the physical world is not causally closed without consciousness, and consciousness is a fundamental property of matter.

Marx's theory of alienation has some elements of an epistemology, but it is primarily a methodology. This is because alienation and the supersession of alienation are nothing but negation and a negation of the negation, a kind of historical dialectics. In using this methodology to analyze the contradictions between human existence and essence, Marx thoroughly exposed and criticized the callousness of relationships among humanity in capitalist society. On this basis, he considered socialist revolution and socialist production to be the means (...) for eliminating human alienation and for realizing human freedom, and thereby set forth an epistemology. (shrink)

In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx commented that beauty is "the objectification of human essence.".

As all past philosophies superseded religion, their systems were established on the basis of comprehending a true human essence. As Marx pointed out, after first elaborating various concepts of religion, politics, morality, legal philosophy, and aesthetics, philosophers then kowtowed and became the slaves to those very concepts. Such a condition should be completely altered. From the time when Marx voiced these criticisms and placed "man" at the center of world history, while also pointing out that establishing the position of the (...) subject is proof of human freedom—that is, of human essence—and from the time when Marx emphasized that the real human world, including various social relations, ideological states, and the natural world "possessed by man," is the product of human creativity and a human manifestation formed in history and developed historically, and that man should and can emancipate himself from all that, all previous notions of the human essence became outdated and were no longer worth being seriously debated. From that time on, the philosophy of "man" has transcended the realm of speculative philosophy and gained unprecedented significance both in practice and in reality, and has become an active, initiating force in the modern socialist movement. (shrink)

We analyze the possible implications of spacetime discreteness for the special and general relativity and quantum theory. It is argued that the existence of a minimum size of spacetime may explain the invariance of the speed of light in special relativity and Einstein’s equivalence principle in general relativity. Moreover, the discreteness of spacetime may also result in the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics, which may provide a possible solution to the quantum measurement problem. These interesting results might (...) have some important implications for a complete theory of quantum gravity. (shrink)

Strengthening known instances of Vaught Conjecture, we prove the Glimm-Effros dichotomy theorems for countable linear orderings and for simple trees. Corollaries of the theorems answer some open questions of Friedman and Stanley in an L ω 1ω -interpretability theory. We also give a survey of this theory.

The remarkable connections between gravity and thermodynamics seem to imply that gravity is not fundamental but emergent, and in particular, as Verlinde suggested, gravity is probably an entropic force. In this paper, we will argue that the idea of gravity as an entropic force is debatable. It is shown that there is no convincing analogy between gravity and entropic force in Verlinde’s example. Neither holographic screen nor test particle satisfies all requirements for the existence of entropic force in a thermodynamics (...) system. As a result, there is no entropic force in the gravity system. Furthermore, we show that the entropy increase of the screen is not caused by its statistical tendency to increase entropy as required by the existence of entropic force, but in fact caused by gravity. Therefore, Verlinde’s argument for the entropic origin of gravity is problematic. In addition, we argue that the existence of a minimum size of spacetime, together with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum theory, may imply the fundamental existence of gravity as a geometric property of spacetime. This provides a further support for the conclusion that gravity is not an entropic force. (shrink)

We study the possible connection between self-consciousness and quantum process. It is shown that the self-consciousness function can help to measure the collapse time of wave function under some condition, while the usual physical device without self-consciousness can't. Furthermore, we show that the observer with self-consciousness can distinguish the definite state and the superposition of definite states under some stronger condition. This provides a practical physical method to differentiate man and machine, and will also help to find the possible existence (...) of self-consciousness in the animal kingdom. We finally give some further discussions about these new results. (shrink)

We prove that the strong Martin conjecture is false. The counterexample is the first-order theory of infinite atomic Boolean algebras. We show that for this class of Boolean algebras, the classification of their (ω + ω)-elementary theories can be reduced to the classification of the elementary theories of their quotient algebras modulo the Frechet ideals.

With the rapid development of the Internet and the normalization of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, Online health communities have gradually become one of the important ways for people to obtain health information, and users have to go through a series of information processing when facing the massive amount of data. Understanding the factors influencing user information processing is necessary to promote users’ health literacy, health knowledge popularization and health behavior shaping. Based on the Heuristic-Systematic Model, Information Ecology Theory, Privacy (...) Trade-Off and Self-Efficacy Theory, we constructed a model of factors influencing user information processing in online health communities. We found that information quality and emotional support had indirect effects on heuristic and systematic information processing, and these effects were mediated by privacy concerns and self-efficacy. In our research model, systematic information processing was most positively influenced directly by self-efficacy. Privacy concerns had a direct negative correlation with both dual information processing pathways. Therefore, OHCs managers should develop relevant regulations to ensure the information quality in OHCs and improve privacy protection services to promote user information processing by improving users’ self-efficacy and reducing their privacy concerns. Providing a user-friendly and interactive environment for users is also recommended to create more emotional support, thus facilitating more systematic information processing. (shrink)

In this paper we define and study conditional problems and their degrees. The main result is that the class of conditional degrees is a lattice extending the ordinary Turing degrees and it is dense. These properties are not shared by ordinary Turing degrees. We show that the class of conditional many-one degrees is a distributive lattice. We also consider properties of semidecidable problems and their degrees, which are analogous to r.e. sets and degrees.

Let E be a coanalytic equivalence relation on a Polish space X and (A n ) n∈ω a sequence of analytic subsets of X. We prove that if lim sup n∈K A n meets uncountably many E-equivalence classes for every K ∈ [ω] ω , then there exists a K ∈ [ω] ω such that ⋂ n∈K A n contains a perfect set of pairwise E-inequivalent elements.

We define some variations of the Scott rank for countable models and obtain some inequalities involving the ranks. For mono-unary algebras we prove that the game rank of any subtree does not exceed the game rank of the whole model. However, similar questions about linear orders remain unresolved.

A recent issue of Topics in Cognitive Science featured 11 thoughtful commentaries responding to our article “What happened to cognitive science?” (Núñez et al., 2019). Here, we identify several themes that arose in those commentaries and respond to each. Crucial to understanding our original article is the fundamental distinction between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary endeavors: Cognitive science began (and has stayed) as multidisciplinary but has failed to move on to form a cohesive interdisciplinary field. We clarify and elaborate our original argument (...) and reiterate the importance of a data‐driven evaluation of the current status of the field, which exhibits a marked disciplinary imbalance, a lack of a coherent conceptual core, and a striking absence of a consistent curriculum in the institutions that grant degrees in this domain. Half a century after the creation of cognitive science, it may now be a good time to revisit goals and visions for how to best approach the ever‐fascinating scientific study of the mind(s). (shrink)

Since environmental ethics research started in China in the 1980s, it has been deeply influenced by environmental ethics theory in the United States. Some Chinese environmental philosophers have adopted the key concept of intrinsic value to construct Chinese environmental ethics. However, in recent decades, the concept of intrinsic value has been criticized by scholars in both the United States and China. Many Chinese have found that environmental ethics in the United States that is founded on the concept of intrinsic value (...) is incompatible with Chinese philosophy and culture. They have begun a new effort that is aimed at developing a localized environmental ethics based on traditional Chinese philosophy. However, the Chinese scholars’ theoretical effort neglects the important concept of wilderness that is emerging from preservation and conservation practices in China. In this context, the emotion of wonder and its interrelationship with intrinsic value is the new paradigm for constructing a Chinese environmental ethics. (shrink)

By focusing on human virtues rather than the general morality of rational beings, Kant’s virtue theory presents systematic arguments from the perspectives of reason and experiential emotion, norms and disposition, spirituality and humanity, etc., which is of great significance to an overall understanding of Kantian ethics, thus clarifying misunderstandings from the past decades.

Estas páginas reúnen una serie de escritos personales, testimoniales o autobiográficos del filósofo, traductor, escritor y profesor José Gaos, uno de los pensadores de la lengua española más importantes e influyentes del siglo xx. Nace el presente libro de la necesidad práctica de tener un conjunto de textos suyos que contribuyan a dibujar su enérgico y rico perfil intelectual, filosófico y literario; y a la de explicar en cierto modo la fecundidad de la reflexión crítica diseminada en el orbe de (...) la lengua española, de la cual él mismo es en parte responsable, gracias a su misión y vocación intelectuales. El libro se abre con una introducción de Adolfo Castañón, académico de número de la Real Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, poeta, ensayista, editor, crítico literario y bibliófilo. En 2009 fue ganador del Premio Xavier Villaurrutia de 2008, máximo galardón para las letras mexicanas, por Viaje a México. Ensayos, crónicas y retratos, publicado por Iberoamericana Vervuert. El colofón corre a cargo de Ángeles Gaos de Camacho, quien evoca la imagen de su padre, en un emotivo monólogo. (shrink)