Taking Up Thagard’s Challenge: A Formal Model of Conceptual Revision

Thagard (1992) presented a framework for conceptual change in science based on conceptual systems. Thagard challenged belief revision theorists, claiming that traditional belief-revision systems are able to model only the two most conservative types of changes in his framework, but not the more radical ones. The main aim of this work is to take up Thagard’s challenge, presenting a belief-revision-like system able to mirror radical types of conceptual change. We will do that with a conceptual revision system, i.e. a belief-revision-like system that takes conceptual structures as units of revisions. We will show how our conceptual revision and contraction operations satisfy analogous of the AGM postulates at the conceptual level and are able to mimic Thagard’s radical types of conceptual change.

Forest Spirits in the Udmurt Worldview

Forest spirits are widely represented in the Udmurt traditional belief system. The present study is aimed at systematising traditional folk beliefs about the best-known mythological beings living in the woods, namely the n’ulesmurt (‘forest man’), palesmurt (lit: ‘half-man’), and obyda (‘forest woman’). The article provides a detailed description of the appearance of forest spirits, analyses their distinctive features and functions, and presents how beliefs about those mythological beings have evolved over the last centuries.

Humans or Machines? Scientific Determinism within the Context of Yoruba Human Ontology

Freewill has been a subject of intense study in the history of philosophy, this revolves around the debate that are humans free or are their actions determined? While there has been a lot of questions on the nature of human will, the search for answers remains relevant in contemporary studies as seen in the entrance of neuroscience to this quest. Neuroscience, in the study of the human will arrived at a conclusion based on empirical studies that freewill is an illusion because the human will is determined by cerebral activities. The discovery in the field of neuroscience therefore challenges the traditional belief about freewill and our beliefs that humans are in full control of their will. This submission indicated that human decisions for actions were initiated before humans became aware of them, that is, likening humans to machines, thereby creating a lacuna especially within the Yoruba religious and cultural contexts. This study therefore, interrogated the position of neuroscience on the human will by focusing on how scientific determinism can be viewed from the Yoruba worldview. Scientific determinism evident in the field of neuroscience was examined with a view to situating the findings of neuroscience on human will within the context of Yoruba human ontology.

The Banishment of Death

Leibniz upholds immortalism in its extreme form. Nothing ever really dies, for animals (and not only their souls) are indestructible except by God’s power. Eighteenth-century philosophers described Leibniz’s doctrine as exilium mortis or “the banishment of death”, which most of them rejected as an implausible, ridiculous, or even scandalous notion. In order to understand this negative reaction, this chapter reconstructs the German debate among Leibniz’s contemporaries and immediate posterity on such issues as: Is the banishment of death a novelty or just an updated version of some traditional belief? How can the living body preserve its own identity through the dramatic transformations caused by death? On the other hand, the general hostility that surrounded the banishment-of-death doctrine suggests that the denial of natural mortality was actually perceived as a threat to Christian dogma – which challenges the naive assumption that immortalist claims are mere expression of a philosopher’s pious concerns.

Pig-Humans and Human-Pigs

This chapter examines the body of Dayak myths regarding humans and pigs who travel between their respective villages, transform into the “other” in the process, and face attendant dangers as well as rewards. The fragile boundary between human and pig identities is reflected in the traditional belief that spirits may perceive humans as pigs and so hunt and kill them. Dayak address this threat by sacrificing domestic pigs in their stead, the logic of which is underpinned by the shared dualistic natures of humans and pigs: pigs can be both wild and domesticated, and humans can be both their domestic selves and — in the eyes of spirits — wild pigs. Pig–human substitutions and transformations are a form of mimesis. Omens from the spirit world that foretell good or ill events are mimetic, as is the ritual theater by which ill omens are neutralized. Human understanding and strategic manipulation of these mimetic relations is ontological in character, recognizing the existence of multiple realities. Mimesis helps the Dayak to see that the way they view themselves may not be the way others view them; and it depicts awareness of other views — other ontologies — as literally a matter of life or death.

Investigating the origin and authenticity of Victoria Cross medals using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

The Victoria Cross is the United Kingdom’s premier military award for bravery, presented for gallantry during active operations. Since its inception in 1856 just 1358 have been awarded, and, due to their rarity and historic interest, have become highly prized amongst private and public collections. Unresolved, however, is a debate about the source material of the medals. Some authorities adhere to a traditional belief that all medals have been cast from the bronze of guns captured from the Russians at Sebastopol. Furthermore, controversy is attached to the authenticity of some VCs. In this study we used X-ray fluorescence spectrometry data to compare the metal compositions of 100 Victoria Crosses, covering 7% of those ever issued. Using Gaussian mixture modelling we identify that Victoria Crosses fall into four distinct clusters, confirming that the primary split occurred between medals issued prior to and after 1914. Using these data we investigate the potential of X-ray fluorescence to inform the study of medals whose authenticity have been queried, showing some have unusually similar compositions to other VCs. This paper highlights how X-ray fluorescence data in conjunction with clustering approaches can be used to effectively and non-destructively investigate the authenticity and history of Victoria Crosses.

Assessing Human Reproductive Cloning and Creationism from the Perspectives of Raelianism and African Belief

This paper appraised the issues involved in human reproductive cloning and creationism from the standpoints of Raelian religion and African traditional belief. The methods adopted are descriptive and evaluative. The findings include the fact that human cloning is one of the religious tenets of Raelianism; and that African tradition and culture totally reject reproductive cloning on the ground of its unnaturalness. Finally, the paper from the African traditional paradigm concluded that human reproductive cloning is totally condemnable and should not be practiced on human beings on the ground of unnaturalness, distortion, negation, imperfection, and aberration.