The Epistemology of Logic

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
Jared Warren

This chapter shows that unrestricted inferentialism/conventionalism leads to a naturalistically satisfying account of our a priori knowledge of logical validity. The chapter first lays the groundwork by discussing the general question of what conditions arguments need to meet in order to lead to knowledge of their conclusions. Following Boghossian, the chapter then argues that inferentialism/conventionalism is particularly well posed to allow rule-circular arguments to lead to a priori knowledge of the validity of our basic rules. Restricted inferentialists were often forced to complicate and sometimes abandon their accounts of logical knowledge in the face of bad company. By contrast, unrestricted inferentialism has no problem at all with bad company. All told, conventionalism gives a naturalistic account of our a priori knowledge of logic.

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Morando ◽  
Paolo Secchi

We study the boundary value problem for a linear first-order partial differential system with characteristic boundary of constant multiplicity. We assume the problem to be “weakly” well posed, in the sense that a uniqueL2-solution exists, for sufficiently smooth data, and obeys an a priori energy estimate with a finite loss of tangential/conormal regularity. This is the case of problems that do not satisfy the uniform Kreiss-Lopatinskiĭ condition in the hyperbolic region of the frequency domain. Provided that the data are sufficiently smooth, we obtain the regularity of solutions, in the natural framework of weighted conormal Sobolev spaces.


2022 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Fan Yang ◽  
Ashok Samraj Thangarajan ◽  
Gowri Sankar Ramachandran ◽  
Wouter Joosen ◽  
Danny Hughes

Battery-free Internet-of-Things devices equipped with energy harvesting hold the promise of extended operational lifetime, reduced maintenance costs, and lower environmental impact. Despite this clear potential, it remains complex to develop applications that deliver sustainable operation in the face of variable energy availability and dynamic energy demands. This article aims to reduce this complexity by introducing AsTAR, an energy-aware task scheduler that automatically adapts task execution rates to match available environmental energy. AsTAR enables the developer to prioritize tasks based upon their importance, energy consumption, or a weighted combination thereof. In contrast to prior approaches, AsTAR is autonomous and self-adaptive, requiring no a priori modeling of the environment or hardware platforms. We evaluate AsTAR based on its capability to efficiently deliver sustainable operation for multiple tasks on heterogeneous platforms under dynamic environmental conditions. Our evaluation shows that (1) comparing to conventional approaches, AsTAR guarantees Sustainability by maintaining a user-defined optimum level of charge, and (2) AsTAR reacts quickly to environmental and platform changes, and achieves Efficiency by allocating all the surplus resources following the developer-specified task priorities. (3) Last, the benefits of AsTAR are achieved with minimal performance overhead in terms of memory, computation, and energy.


Author(s):  
Kostas P. Soldatos

A spring/rod model is presented that describes one-dimensional behaviour of solids susceptible to large or small viscoelastic deformation. Derivation of its constitutive equation is underpinned by the fact that the internal energy, which the elastic part of deformation stores in the spring, changes in time with the observed strain as well as with some, unknown part of the strain-rate. The latter emerges through the action of a viscous flow potential and is the source of inelastic deformation. Thus, unlike its conventional viscoelasticity counterparts, the model does not postulate a priori a rule that relates strain with viscous flow formation. Instead, it considers that such a rule, as well as other important features of combined elastic and inelastic material response, should become known a posteriori through the solution of a relevant, well-posed boundary value problem. This paper begins with considerations compatible with large viscoelastic deformations and gradually progresses through simpler modelling situations. The latter also include the case of small viscoelastic strain that underpins formulation of classical, spring-dashpot viscoelastic models. In an example application, a relevant closed-form solution is obtained for a spring undergoing small viscoelastic deformation under the influence of a viscous flow potential which is quadratic in the stress.


2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin de Boer

Abstract In this article I argue that Kant considered Hume’s account of causality in the Enquiry to be primarily relevant because it undermines proofs for the existence of God and, moreover, that this interpretation is plausible and text-based. What the Prolegomena calls ‘Hume’s problem’ is, I claim, the more general question as to whether metaphysics can achieve synthetic a priori knowledge of objects at all. Whereas Hume denied this possibility, I show how the solution Kant develops in the Critique of Pure Reason is in agreement with Hume’s critique of dogmatic metaphysics, but salvages the synthetic a priori principles he takes to be constitutive of empirical cognition.


2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (suppl 6) ◽  
pp. 2848-2853
Author(s):  
Diomedia Zacarias Teixeira ◽  
Nelson dos Santos Nunes ◽  
Rose Mary Costa Rosa Andrade Silva ◽  
Eliane Ramos Pereira ◽  
Vilza Handan

ABSTRACT Objective: To reflect on the sensitive behaviors of indigenous healthcare professionals based on the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas, to ratify completeness, equity, and humanity. Method: reflective study. Reflection: Studies have identified inadequacies in meeting the indigenous singularities. In the hospital and outpatient settings, they are diluted in the search for care. The difficulty of the professionals to admit them generates conflicts and non-adherence of indigenous individuals to treatments that disregard their care practices. In Lévinas, consciousness requires, "a priori," sensitivity to access the Infinity on the Face of the Other, which in the face-to-face encounters is presented to the Self as radical Alterity, proposing an Ethical relationship through transcendence. The freedom of the Self as to the Other is finite, as the Self cannot possess the Other, and infinite for its responsibility for the Other. Final considerations: The Self builds essence and existence in responsibility. In the Ethics of Alterity, in Lévinas, reflections are proposed that influence sensitive behaviors.


1999 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 41-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Waxman

In this paper, I shall argue that the most moderate and balanced way to view Kant's transcendental philosophy is as a species of psychological investigation analogous to Hume's, but refounded on a doctrine of pure (a priori) sensibility, such as Hume never allowed himself (and may never even have thought of). This might seem to fly in the face of what many interpreters of Kant deem conventional wisdom: that the burden of proof is on one who claims that psychology is essential to transcendental philosophy. On this view, there is to be found in Kant ‘a more austere strictly transcendental philosophy’, which needs to be carefully distinguished from the psychological doctrines in which it is enmeshed; and they would insist on being convinced of the contrary before abandoning a position that, in their eyes, is the most moderate and balanced an interpreter of Kant can adopt. My purpose in this two-part essay is to urge them to think again. For while there can be no question of Kant's opposition to empiricism, it is equally certain that his praise for Hume was never freer or more unreserved than in respect of the latter's psycho-genetic approach to cognition. So, rather than supposing that Kant ipso facto rejected solutions to philosophical problems grounded on psychology when he rejected Hume's empiricism, it seems to me that the more moderate and balanced interpretive approach is to begin by supposing that Kant's transcendental philosophy is a species of philosophical psychology in the same mould as Hume's, differing from it only by virtue of involving a priori syntheses of a manifold of a priori intuition.


Geophysics ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 1781-1793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Richard ◽  
Roger Bayer ◽  
Michel Cuer

The aim of this paper is to use linear inverse theory to interpret gravity surveys in mining exploration by incorporating a priori information on the densities and data in terms of Gaussian or uniform probability laws. The Bayesian approach and linear programming techniques lead to the solution of well‐posed questions resulting from the exploration process. In particular, we develop a method of measuring the possible heterogeneity within a given domain by using linear programming. These techniques are applied to gravity data taken over the massive sulfide deposit of Neves Corvo (Portugal). We show how crude constraints on the densities lead to a first estimation of the location of sources, while further geologic constraints allow us to estimate the heterogeneity and to put definite bounds on the ore masses.


Author(s):  
A. C. L. Ashton ◽  
A. S. Fokas

We study the equations governing a fluid-loaded plate. We first reformulate these equations as a system of two equations, one of which is an explicit non-local equation for the wave height and the velocity potential on the free surface. We then concentrate on the linearized equations and show that the problems formulated either on the full or the half-line can be solved by employing the unified approach to boundary value problems introduced by one of the authors in the late 1990s. The problem on the full line was analysed by Crighton & Oswell (Crighton & Oswell 1991 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 335 , 557–592 (doi:10.1098/rsta.1991.0060)) using a combination of Laplace and Fourier transforms. The new approach avoids the technical difficulty of the a priori assumption that the amplitude of the plate is in L d t 1 ( R + ) and furthermore yields a simpler solution representation that immediately implies that the problem is well-posed. For the problem on the half-line, a similar analysis yields a solution representation, which, however, involves two unknown functions. The main difficulty with the half-line problem is the characterization of these two functions. By employing the so-called global relation, we show that the two functions can be obtained via the solution of a complex-valued integral equation of the convolution type. This equation can be solved in a closed form using the Laplace transform. By prescribing the initial data η 0 to be in H 〈5〉 5 ( R + ), or equivalently four times continuously differentiable with sufficient decay at infinity, we show that the solution depends continuously on the initial data, and, hence, the problem is well-posed.


Author(s):  
Bridget M. Waller ◽  
Eithne Kavanagh ◽  
Jerome Micheletta ◽  
Peter R. Clark ◽  
Jamie Whitehouse

AbstractA wealth of experimental and observational evidence suggests that faces have become increasingly important in the communication system of primates over evolutionary time and that both the static and moveable aspects of faces convey considerable information. Therefore, whenever there is a visual component to any multicomponent signal the face is potentially relevant. However, the role of the face is not always considered in primate multicomponent communication research. We review the literature and make a case for greater focus on the face going forward. We propose that the face can be overlooked for two main reasons: first, due to methodological difficulty. Examination of multicomponent signals in primates is difficult, so scientists tend to examine a limited number of signals in combination. Detailed examination of the subtle and dynamic components of facial signals is particularly hard to achieve in studies of primates. Second, due to a common assumption that the face contains “emotional” content. A priori categorisation of facial behavior as “emotional” ignores the potentially communicative and predictive information present in the face that might contribute to signals. In short, we argue that the face is central to multicomponent signals (and also many multimodal signals) and suggest future directions for investigating this phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Claudius Wagemann

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is a method, developed by the American social scientist Charles C. Ragin since the 1980s, which has had since then great and ever-increasing success in research applications in various political science subdisciplines and teaching programs. It counts as a broadly recognized addition to the methodological spectrum of political science. QCA is based on set theory. Set theory models “if … then” hypotheses in a way that they can be interpreted as sufficient or necessary conditions. QCA differentiates between crisp sets in which cases can only be full members or not, while fuzzy sets allow for degrees of membership. With fuzzy sets it is, for example, possible to distinguish highly developed democracies from less developed democracies that, nevertheless, are rather democracies than not. This means that fuzzy sets account for differences in degree without giving up the differences in kind. In the end, QCA produces configurational statements that acknowledge that conditions usually appear in conjunction and that there can be more than one conjunction that implies an outcome (equifinality). There is a strong emphasis on a case-oriented perspective. QCA is usually (but not exclusively) applied in y-centered research designs. A standardized algorithm has been developed and implemented in various software packages that takes into account the complexity of the social world surrounding us, also acknowledging the fact that not every theoretically possible variation of explanatory factors also exists empirically. Parameters of fit, such as consistency and coverage, help to evaluate how well the chosen explanatory factors account for the outcome to be explained. There is also a range of graphical tools that help to illustrate the results of a QCA. Set theory goes well beyond an application in QCA, but QCA is certainly its most prominent variant. There is a very lively QCA community that currently deals with the following aspects: the establishment of a code of standards for QCA applications; QCA as part of mixed-methods designs, such as combinations of QCA and statistical analyses, or a sequence of QCA and (comparative) case studies (via, e.g., process tracing); the inclusion of time aspects into QCA; Coincidence Analysis (CNA, where an a priori decision on which is the explanatory factor and which the condition is not taken) as an alternative to the use of the Quine-McCluskey algorithm; the stability of results; the software development; and the more general question whether QCA development activities should rather target research design or technical issues. From this, a methodological agenda can be derived that asks for the relationship between QCA and quantitative techniques, case study methods, and interpretive methods, but also for increased efforts in reaching a shared understanding of the mission of QCA.


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