scholarly journals The Beliefs and Intentions of Buridan's Ass

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-226
Author(s):  
FINNUR DELLSÉN ◽  
NATHANIEL SHARADIN
Keyword(s):  
Practical Rationality ◽  
Buridan’S Ass ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Rational Actions ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACT:The moral of Buridan's ass is that it can sometimes be rational to perform one action rather than another even though one lacks stronger reason to do so. Yet, it is also commonly believed that it cannot ever be rational to believe one proposition rather than another if one lacks stronger reason to do so. This asymmetry has been taken to indicate a deep difference between epistemic and practical rationality. According to the view articulated here, the asymmetry should instead be explained by the difference between rational intentions and rational actions. Thus, it turns out, cases such as Buridan's ass do not indicate an asymmetry between epistemic and practical rationality as such.

Adjectives and their keyness: a corpus-based analysis of tourism discourse in English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Durán-Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Domain Specific ◽  
Adventure Tourism ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Relevant Reference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Do So

This paper attempts to shed some light on the importance of adjectives in the linguistic characterisation of tourism discourse in English in general and in adventure tourism in particular as well as to prove how significant the difference in usage is compared to the general language. It seeks to understand the role that adjectives play in this specific subdomain and to contribute to the linguistic characterisation of tourism discourse in this respect. It also aims to confirm or reject previous assumptions regarding the use, and frequency of use, of adjectives and adjectival patterns in this specialised domain and, in general, to promote the study of adjectivisation in domain-specific discourses. To do so, it proposes a corpus-based study that measures the keyness of adjectives in promotional texts of the adventure tourism domain in English by comparing their usage in the compiled corpus to the two most relevant reference corpora of English (coca and the bnc).

scholarly journals A Secular Critique of Religious Ethics and Politics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cliteur
Keyword(s):  
Extreme Case ◽  
Moral Autonomy ◽  
Religious Ethics ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Central Notion ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Ethics And Politics

This chapter discusses the difference between a nonsecular or religious critique of religious ethics and politics and a specifically secular critique. It introduces the central notion of a secular critique, autonomy, and its two types, moral and political. Moral autonomy entails the separation of religion from ethics. The ideal of making that separation is called “moral secularism.” The opposite of moral autonomy is “moral heteronomy.” An extreme case of moral heteronomy is discussed: Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son when God commanded him to do so. Next, the importance of political autonomy and political secularism is illustrated with reference to the conflict between the king Ahab (the model of a secular ruler) and the prophet Elijah (the model of a religious leader). Some stories in the holy scriptures of the monotheist religions held in common by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are unfavorable toward secularism (both moral and political).

Rule Fitness and Pathology in Learning Classifier Systems

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Kovacs
Keyword(s):  
Value Functions ◽  
Classifier Systems ◽  
Reward Function ◽  
Learning Classifier ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
General Rules ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Value Function ◽  
Do So

It has long been known that in some relatively simple reinforcement learning tasks traditional strength-based classifier systems will adapt poorly and show poor generalisation. In contrast, the more recent accuracy-based XCS, appears both to adapt and generalise well. In this work, we attribute the difference to what we call strong over general and fit over general rules. We begin by developing a taxonomy of rule types and considering the conditions under which they may occur. In order to do so an extreme simplification of the classifier system is made, which forces us toward qualitative rather than quantitative analysis. We begin with the basics, considering definitions for correct and incorrect actions, and then correct, incorrect, and overgeneral rules for both strength and accuracy-based fitness. The concept of strong overgeneral rules, which we claim are the Achilles' heel of strength-based classifier systems, are then analysed. It is shown that strong overgenerals depend on what we call biases in the reward function (or, in sequential tasks, the value function). We distinguish between strong and fit overgeneral rules, and show that although strong overgenerals are fit in a strength-based system called SB-XCS, they are not in XCS. Next we show how to design fit overgeneral rules for XCS (but not SB-XCS), by introducing biases in the variance of the reward function, and thus that each system has its own weakness. Finally, we give some consideration to the prevalence of reward and variance function bias, and note that non-trivial sequential tasks have highly biased value functions.

Pure and Applied Research in Linguistics: Is the Difference Merely One of Motivation?

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.P. Corder
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Academic World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Learned Societies ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Own Name ◽  
Do So

It is perhaps natural that in the early years of emergence of a new field of study and research its practitioners should from time to time ask themselves what is the nature of the activity they are engaged in. The need to do so may stem from a number of different causes: philosophical, sociological and psychological. The practitioners may feel the need to establish a personal identity, that is, some accepted place for themselves in the social structure of the academic world, to achieve respect and recognition as workers in the field of scholarship, a role in the institution of higher studies. They may feel that the discipline they profess is not properly recognised within the scholarly domain, its place not clearly determined in the structure of science or scholarship, its value to society not appreciated; and that consequently it does not attract research funds in its own name, permit the establishment of courses and programmes which lead to academic degrees or qualifications bearing its name, or of learned societies devoted to discussing its problems and disseminating its notions. All of these factors I believe play a part in the motivations for the constantly renewed discussion of WHAT IS APPLIED LINGUISTICS? None of them is in any way reprehensible or unworthy. The intensity or frequency with which these discussions occur is a response to the prevailing orthodox views about the discipline itself and its relation to neighbouring disciplines found in the society where the discussions take place, and to the degree to which its practitioners (i.e. people who call themselves applied linguists) feel oppressed, unrecognised or undervalued by the members of the institution in which they work and with whom they interact. This is a whole field of investigation open to the sociologist of science to describe and explain.

Correction method for the asymmetry of the tangential beam in Couette (or Searle) geometry used in rheo-small-angle neutron scattering

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Nettesheim ◽  
Ulf Olsson ◽  
Peter Lindner ◽  
Walter Richtering
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Scattering ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Small Angle ◽  
Small Angle Neutron Scattering ◽  
Correction Method ◽  
Shear Cell ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Scattering Cross Sections ◽  
Final Expression

A method of correcting the asymmetry in the scattering of the tangential beam configuration in a rheo-small-angle neutron scattering experiment is proposed. The asymmetry of the scattering in the tangential beam configuration can be attributed to the difference in pathlength for neutrons that are scattered toward compared with those which are scattered away from the axis of rotation of the shear cell. The pathlength problem is solved and a final expression for the two-dimensional scattering intensity is given. The results from these calculations are compared with experimental data, which offer a different option to correct this asymmetry, namely by just measuring the scattering of H2O/D2O mixtures with absolute scattering cross sections identical to those of the respective samples. However, the situation for anisotropic media is more complex and the correction procedure described here is less effective.

scholarly journals Breaking the symmetry of geminates in diachrony and synchrony

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 164-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Russo ◽  
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn
Keyword(s):  
Consonant Cluster ◽  
Structural Units ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Internal Forces ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Control Relation

Autosegmentalism invariably represents geminates in a symmetrical one-to-many relationship — as feature bundles or root nodes attached to two structural units: x-slots, moras, or C-slots. This symmetry, however, is often not reflected in their diachronic origin. For instance, in Blevins’ (2008) Type 1 pathway, only the second C of a consonant cluster (CC) ever determines the geminate: CxCy > CyCy, *CxCx (e.g. Latin > Italian). Moreover, although most synchronic processes identify geminates as symmetrical, there is an exception: geminate integrity. Unlike CCs and long vowels (LVs), geminates never ‘break’ by epenthesis: *CyCy > CyVCy. We propose that this is central to understanding the true nature of geminates, and present analyses in two frameworks. The first is ‘control by contiguity’, which uses head-dependent ‘control chains’ (Russo 2013). A control relation applies between a specified and an unspecified position: -C. Inalterability and integrity result from the asymmetry of the geminate’s positions. The second is based on Strict CV. This restricts a geminate’s melody to one of its two skeletal positions. Unlike CC and LVs, geminates do not involve a ‘trapped’ empty V position that could host epenthesis and cause breaking; the difference between LVs and geminates follows from framework-internal forces and suggests that melodic branching always requires licensing. These two approaches share the insight that the representation of geminates is not symmetrical, like that of long vowels.

Method of Generated Responses and Schizophrenic Deficit

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 975-982
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Bercik ◽  
John H. Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Paired Associates ◽  
High Dominance ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Control ◽  
Two Populations ◽  
Do So

Schizophrenic and control Ss were compared on the method of generated responses (MGR) and conventional paired-associates (PA), using lists of stimuli which elicited either primarily one response or several responses. The low-dominance list was more difficult, and schizophrenics were generally slower in learning. The MGR, with Ss producing their own responses, was easier than conventional PA (yoked controls). While the MGR reduced the difference between the low- and high-dominance lists, it did not do so differentially for the two populations. The results were discussed in terms of Broen and Storms' theory of “collapsed” response hierarchies in schizophrenia.

Two-step, Nerve-tap, Tanglefoot: Tapdance Typologies in Cinema

2017 ◽  
pp. 211-227
Author(s):  
Steven Connor
Keyword(s):  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Tap Dance ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Elementary Form ◽  
Do So

Tap dance reminds cinema of its origins in the turn-of-the-century vernacular of vaudeville, circus, carnival and other diffuse kinds of attractions and spectacles. In fact one can make out, in the difference between the smooth aerial flights of a Fred Astaire and the earthier moves of a Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, a rhythmic struggle between the technical sophistication of the cinema in its developed form, and its lowlier, more vulgarly corporeal origins and appetites. This chapter examines the contrast between the clog-dancing rustic (black or Irish) and the sophisticated man-about-town. To do so testifies to a class ambivalence that is never quite resolved in tap dance, which always retains the traces of its ostentatiously corporeal origins, a kind of comic awkwardness that resists being lifted up into the condition of high art. Cutting athwart its slick syncopations, tap dance always acts like a kind decomposition of cinema to its elements of sound and movement, most importantly in its play with the mechanization of human bodies. Tap dance therefore provides an elementary form of cinema’s transaction between body and image, gravity and light.

scholarly journals Generation of families of spectra in PT -symmetric quantum mechanics and scalar bosonic field theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 371 (1989) ◽  
pp. 20120049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Schmidt ◽  
S. P. Klevansky
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Complex Analysis ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Quantum Mechanical ◽  
Bosonic Field ◽  
Symmetric Quantum ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Do So

This paper explains the systematics of the generation of families of spectra for the -symmetric quantum-mechanical Hamiltonians H = p 2 + x 2 (i x ) ϵ , H = p 2 +( x 2 ) δ and H = p 2 −( x 2 ) μ . In addition, it contrasts the results obtained with those found for a bosonic scalar field theory, in particular in one dimension, highlighting the similarities to and differences from the quantum-mechanical case. It is shown that the number of families of spectra can be deduced from the number of non-contiguous pairs of Stokes wedges that display symmetry. To do so, simple arguments that use the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation are used, and these imply that the eigenvalues are real. However, definitive results are in most cases presently only obtainable numerically, and not all eigenvalues in each family may be real. Within the approximations used, it is illustrated that the difference between the quantum-mechanical and the field-theoretical cases lies in the number of accessible regions in which the eigenfunctions decay exponentially. This paper reviews and implements well-known techniques in complex analysis and -symmetric quantum theory.

scholarly journals Determination of mass hierarchy with νμ → ντ appearance and the effect of nonstandard interactions

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 1750060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Rashed ◽  
Alakabha Datta
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetry Parameter ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
New Physics ◽  
Mass Hierarchy ◽  
Normal Hierarchy ◽  
Inverted Hierarchy ◽  
Leptonic Sector ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
The Difference

Crucial developments in neutrino physics would be the determination of the mass hierarchy (MH) and measurement of the CP phase in the leptonic sector. The patterns of the transition probabilities [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are sensitive to these oscillation parameters. An asymmetry parameter can be defined as the difference of these two probabilities normalized to their sum. The profile of the asymmetry parameter gives a clear signal of the mass ordering as it is found to be positive for inverted hierarchy and negative for normal hierarchy. The asymmetry parameter is also sensitive to the CP phase. We consider the effects of nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI) on the determination of the mass hierarchy. Since we assume the largest new physics effects involve the [Formula: see text] sector only, we ignore NSI in production and study the NSI effects in detection as well as along propagation. We find that the NSI effects can significantly modify the prediction of the asymmetry parameter though the MH can still be resolved.

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