"Hypotheses fingimus": Cartesian Natural Philosophy

In this paper, I would like to present the methodological views of two representatives of the early modern Cartesian school: Jacques Rohault and Pierre-Sylvain Régis. Firstly, I want to present the methodological objections of Cartesians to Aristotelian and Scholastic natural philosophy. Then, I want to show how Cartesians strived for a combination of empirical and speculative procedures in their explanations of natural processes. Lastly, I would like to explain the reasons and forms of the hypothetical methodology which was significant for Cartesian natural philosophy. My aim is to refute the idea of the methodological naivety of Cartesians and point out the importance of hypothetical reasoning in the genesis of modern science.

Examining the Guji Oromo Ethnomathematical Games and Concepts

This chapter explores how the Guji Oromo people undertake ethnomathematical activities by applying their indigenous methods. Ethnomathematical activities include counting, locating (the activity of grouping, clustering, making network, etc.), measuring (the actions of quantifying, weighting, etc.), designing (planning, building, and pattern activities), playing (puzzles, paradoxes, models, games, hypothetical reasoning), and explaining (how to do things, activities [e.g., classifications, conventions, generalizations, and symbolic explanations]). This predominantly qualitative study identifies the indigenous ethnomathematical games and concepts and assesses the potential effectiveness of an integration of the ethnomathematics and formal mathematics on the learning/teaching experiences of pupils and teachers. Impacts of such integration on pupils' performance in mathematics assessment are examined. Such an action could enable to amalgamate the Western knowledge system with an African knowledge system to create synergy that might boost the quality of primary mathematics education in Ethiopia.

Diversity and Ethnic Conflicts

This chapter evaluates the cultural, psychological, and moral issues surrounding revenge, justice, and forgiveness. Revenge is conceptualized as symbolic behavior showing wrongdoers that insults will be met with reprisal. Viewed through Fritz Heider’s lens, revenge is also an effort to change the underlying belief-attitude of the wrongdoer, often through aggressive retribution predicated on indignation and sometimes hatred. The legal system has sought to efficiently preempt, neutralize, and dilute these emotions by permitting victims a measure of legitimate revenge under the aegis of public order. However, as ethnic conflicts show, the legal system cannot abolish the zeal for revenge. In ethnic strife, each side perceives itself as the legitimate victim, removing claims for justice out of the realm of right or wrong and framing them mainly as issues of ethnic identification. A case in point is the author’s 1992–1993 study of the children of Nazis and the children of Holocaust survivors. The conference findings showed that the views and feelings the participants inherited from their parents created a barrier to establishing equal moral relations. One potential antidote to this conundrum resides in Immanuel Kant’s mandate: sapere aude, dare to know. One specific method for persuading individuals to pursue this mandate and eliminate belief perseverance is through an exercise in hypothetical reasoning, which trains people to live with ambiguity and multiple truths, and to develop flexibility in their belief systems. Ultimately, however, the finest balm for suffering and injustice is compassion.

AlphaGo, Locked Strategies, and Eco-Cognitive Openness

Locked and unlocked strategies are at the center of this article, as ways of shedding new light on the cognitive aspects of deep learning machines. The character and the role of these cognitive strategies, which are occurring both in humans and in computational machines, is indeed strictly related to the generation of cognitive outputs, which range from weak to strong level of knowledge creativity. I maintain that these differences lead to important consequences when we analyze computational AI programs, such as AlphaGo, which aim at performing various kinds of abductive hypothetical reasoning. In these cases, the programs are characterized by locked abductive strategies: they deal with weak (even if sometimes amazing) kinds of hypothetical creative reasoning, because they are limited in what I call eco-cognitive openness, which instead qualifies human cognizers who are performing higher kinds of abductive creative reasoning, where cognitive strategies are instead.

Entrevista com o Prof. Alberto Naibo

É com muito prazer que a revista Kínesis apresenta abaixo a publicação de uma entrevista com o jovem filósofo italiano Alberto Naibo. Atualmente mestre de conferências em Lógica na Universidade Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne, Alberto fez tanto sua graduação quanto seu mestrado em Filosofia na Universidade de Bolonha. Uma vez em Paris, ele defendeu em 2013 sua tese de doutorado, cujo título é “Le statut dynamique des axiomes: des preuves aux modèles”, sob a orientação de Jean-Baptiste Joinet. Em 2014, realizou pós-doutorado no IHPST (Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques), do qual ele é agora membro permanente, participando do projeto HYPOTHESES – Hypothetical Reasoning: its Proof - Theoretic Analysis. Ele dirige no presente momento, com Liesbeth de Mol, Maël Pégny e Shahid Rahman, um seminário de história e filosofia da informática, em colaboração entre o IHPST e a equipe STL (Savoirs, Textes, Langage) da Universidade de Lille.

Entretien avec Prof. Alberto Naibo

C'est avec un grand plaisir que la revue Kínesis annonce la publication de l'entretien ci-dessous avec le jeune philosophe italien Alberto Naibo. Actuellement maître de conférences en Logique à l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Alberto a fait ses études de licence et de master en Philosophie à l'Université de Bologne. Arrivé à Paris en 2008, il a soutenu en 2013 une thèse de doctorat intitulée “Le statut dynamique des axiomes : des preuves aux modèles”, sous la direction de Jean-Baptiste Joinet. En 2014, il a été chercheur post-doctoral à l'IHPST (Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques) – dont il est désormais membre permanent – dans le cadre du projet HYPOTHESES – Hypothetical Reasoning: its Proof-Theoretic Analysis. Il anime actuellement, avec Liesbeth de Mol, Maël Pégny et Shahid Rahman, un séminaire d’histoire et de philosophie de l’informatique, en collaboration entre l’IHPST et l’équipe STL (Savoirs, Textes, Langage) de l’Université Lille.