A Conceptual Model for Situating Purposes in Artificial Institutions

{In multi-agent systems, artificial institutions connect institutional concepts, belonging to the institutional reality, to the concrete elements that compose the system. The institutional reality is composed of a set of institutional concepts, called Status-Functions. Current works on artificial institutions focus on identifying the status-functions and connecting them to the concrete elements. However, the functions associated with the status-functions are implicit. As a consequence, the agents cannot reason about the functions provided by the elements that carry the status-functions and, thus, cannot exploit these functions to satisfy their goals. Considering this problem, this paper proposes a model to express the functions -- or the purposes -- associated with the status-functions. Examples illustrate the application of the model in a practical scenario, showing how the agents can use purposes to reason about the satisfaction of their goals in institutional contexts.

Contemporary Udmurt Culture. I, II

Many interesting books are born out of international cooperation. Often cooperation agreements between academic institutions are purely formal, their function primarily declarative: we have many good partners abroad, we are connected with so many international institutions. But sometimes this cooperation indeed exists and gives good results. This is the case with the two-volume work being reviewed here: Contemporary Udmurt Culture, published by the University of Tallinn, but relying on work conducted by both the Udmurt Research Institute and the Estonian Literary Museum. Behind the institutional reality, however, there is human agency: the initiators of this book, the editors, are a group of scholars who have long been acquainted through different international events and have had the opportunity to discuss several issues which led to the desire to achieve this work.

The creation of institutional reality, special theory of relativity, and mere Cambridge change

Saying so can make it so, J. L. Austin taught us long ago. Famously, John Searle has developed this Austinian insight in an account of the construction of institutional reality. Searle maintains that so-called Status Function Declarations, allegedly having a “double direction of fit” (i.e. a world-to-word and a word-to-world direction of fit), synchronically create worldly institutional facts, corresponding to the propositional content of the declarations. I argue that Searle’s account of the making of institutional reality is in tension with the special theory of relativity—irrespective of whether the account is interpreted as involving causal generation or non-causal grounding of worldly institutional facts—and should be replaced by a more modest theory which interprets the results of Status Function Declarations in terms of mere Cambridge change and institutional truth. I end the paper by indicating the import of this more modest theory for theorizing about the causal potency of institutional phenomena generated by declarations.

How Are Species Discovered?

The aim of this paper is twofold: The general aim is to shed light on the structure of species discoveries new to biology by bringing together a practice-oriented philosophy of science perspective with a philosophy of language perspective. The more specific aim is to argue that and to show how the overall structure of biological species discoveries comprises aspects of both institutional and non-institutional reality. The author proceeds as follows: (1) he shows that placing the focus on the topic of scientific discoveries enables us to circumvent two long-standing problems. (2) He analyzes three fictional cases of discoveries in order to bring about a greater sensitivity for the concept of discovery. (3) He takes a closer look at a real example – the discovery of a deep-sea anglerfish – and identifies the main structural features of species discovery processes in biology. (4) In order to connect these results with Searle’s account of institutional reality, he provides an overview of the conceptual apparatus needed here. (5) In bringing Searle’s account together with the structural features of species discoveries developed before, he shows to what extent declarative speech acts play a central role in species discovery processes in biology.

Are musical works sound structures?

This paper is about the dilemma raised against musical ontology by Roger Scruton, in his The Aesthetics of Music: either musical ontology is about certain mind-independent ?things? (sound structures) and so music is left out of the picture, or it is about an ?intentional object? and so its puzzles are susceptible of an arbitrary answer. I argue the dilemma is merely apparent and deny that musical works can be identified with sound structures, whether or not conceived as abstract entities. The general idea is this: both Platonism and nominalism about musical works are a kind of fetishism: musical works are not ?things?, in Danto?s sense of ?mere real things?; they rather involve complex relationships between objects, events, and different kinds of functional properties. For this, I draw on Levinson and Howell?s notion of indication, combined with Searle?s approach to institutional reality... with a little twist of my own.

Nepal’s Search for Prosperity through Transit Diplomacy

This article traces out the causes for why Nepal’s search for prosperity through transit diplomacy appears to be an un accomplished venture. Identifying different indicators of Nepal’s transit diplomacy, it specifies to what extent Nepal can execute its transit diplomacy and to what extent it cannot. This article also argues that Nepal’s proposal of trilateral ism to its immediate neighbours, India to the South and China to the North, itself, so far has not been institutionalized through any means of trilateral dialogues or ministerial-level meetings. It has only been reduced to the status of a metaphor merely inferring Nepal’s possibilities to bridge two emerging economies in the neighbourhood, which are, however, deemed as the prime actors of Easternization process itself. Hypothesizing that the venture of transit diplomacy has not gained sufficient momentum, this article does not only assess the reluctance of India in providing momentum to trilaterialism, but underlines Nepal’s lack of preparation and assertiveness which have actually sidelined her plausible role to make it happen at Nepal’s larger interest. The idea of trilateralism should, therefore, bear an institutional reality. Without such an institutionalization, Nepal’s quest for prosperity through transit diplomacy might not yield expected results, and shall always dwell on the status of an un accomplished venture.

Institutional ontology for Conceptual Modeling

Conceptual models are intended to capture knowledge about the world. Hence, the design of conceptual models could be informed by theories about what entities exist in the world and how they are constituted. Further, a common assumption within the field of conceptual modeling is that conceptual models and information systems describe entities in the real world, outside the systems. An alternative view is provided by an ontological commitment that recognizes that the institutional world is constructed through language use and the creation of institutional facts. Such an ontological commitment implies that there is an institutional reality, which, to a great extent, is constructed using information infrastructures. Accordingly, conceptual models have not only a descriptive role but also a prescriptive one, meaning that modelers set up a framework of rules that restrict and enable people to construct institutional reality using information infrastructures. Understanding the prescriptive role of conceptual models may revive the area of conceptual modeling in the information systems research community. Reviving conceptual modeling through institutional modeling is motivated by the effect that implemented conceptual models have on information infrastructures and institutions. The purpose of this article is to propose an institutional ontology that can support the design of information infrastructures. The ontology is theoretically informed by institutional theory and a communicative perspective on information systems design, as well as being empirically based on several case studies. It is illustrated using a case study in the welfare sector. A number of guidelines for modeling institutional reality are also proposed.

Politics, Power, and the Divine: TheRex Sacrorumand the Transition from Monarchy to Republic at Rome

Whether the result of internal revolution or external factors, in the late sixth centuryBCRome underwent regime change. A king, or at least a sole ruler of some sort, was replaced by a governmental system in which power was distributed amongst a wider aristocratic group. Just what that elite group comprised at that point in time remains open to question, and the institutional reality is certainly more complicated than the simple shift from monarchy to consulship portrayed in the later literary sources;1but as part of that change, according to Roman tradition, a priesthood was instituted to perform the deposed king’s sacred duties. This priesthood provides us with an opportunity to reappraise the role of religion in the development of the Roman state, and a useful locus from which to assess changes in religious and political power in the transition from monarchy to Republic at Rome.