0000000000009655
AUTHOR
Cali' Carmelo
showing 11 related works from this author
Representation
2020
Representation is a primitive notion of many philosophical theories and of cognitive science. It is assumed as an intuitively understandable label assigned to the functions by which a biological or an artificial agent takes part in the world in an epistemological or a behavioral manner. It is employed to define the conditions for the semantic individuation of the states of the agent. The notion of representation was introduced systematically in the Scholastics’ view of cognition. In modern philosophy, the term is often used as a verb. Representation becomes the function of a class of mental states. In contemporary philosophy, the debate over the semantic individuation of states is intertwin…
Shape
2020
In geometry, shape is the object of theorems associated to a class of transformations. It corresponds to the invariant properties of regions, figures, solids, which are not altered by transformations. The concept of shape implies the concepts of space, upon which transformations are acted, and metric, if distance is preserved, or a measurement function. The invariant properties of shape are fundamental to perception too. However, the classes of transformations build a hierarchy along which shape is more and more abstract from the Euclidean to the topological group, and accordingly, a greater number of perceptual properties are being lost. The science of perception addresses also the questio…
Analogy
2020
Analogy is a mode of reasoning that is employed in problem solving, logic, science and art. The scheme of analogical reasoning is centred on the detection of similarity or common features across domains. Copi and Cohen (2005), Keynes (1921), Carnap (1980) suggested what analogical reasoning consists of. De Finetti (1938) proposed an alternative treatment of analogy as inference on what is invariant across statistical distributions of distinct event kinds. In problem solving theory, cognitive models of the content and the structural mapping of analogy has been built. Science and art has provided important test beds for models.
Measurement
2020
The basic idea of measurement is that objects exhibit an attribute for which questions like “do objects exhibit the attribute to the same degree or for any pair of them does one exhibit it more or less than the other?” make sense. It implies ordering objects that show an equal, a greater or lesser amount of one attribute, The notion of order is captured by the concept of a binary relation that is at least a weak order. Stevens (1946, 1951) classified four types of scales through which the assignment of objects to numbers can be achieved. These two approaches converge on the Representational Theory of Measurement, according to which it is the construction of functions from a set of data to a…
Line
2020
In the Elements of Geometry, Euclid defines the line as “a length without breadth,” an element without width and depth. The concept of line occurs in propositions, both theorems and proofs, given the postulates that it is possible to draw a straight line between any two points and to extend continuously any line. In Euclid’s Optics, lines are the subject of theorems. Rubin studied the perceptual conditions that could have given an intuitive contribution to the definition of geometrical objects that like in Euclid’s geometry do not occur in experience, yet have a relation with visual constructions. Pictures exploit markings endowed with perceptual linearity and continuity which realize lines…
Organization
2020
Organization is the explanandum that philosophical and scientific theories take into account for objects, individuals and their assembly, whose structure is characterized by the interdependence of parts to such an extent that it cannot be explained through decomposition. Organization is a critical attribute of nearly, minimally and not decomposable systems. The more interdependent are the parts, the more integrated is the system. Correspondingly, the organization can be intended as the mark of the trade-off between the interaction among parts or sub-systems and within them. Organization may come about in many forms. the concept of organization has been brought in many domains to advocate th…
Picture
2020
Pictures are a presentation whose structure is decomposable into a surface, an arrangement of markings, the appearance of something in front of, before or behind the surface, the reference to a scene of the real or a possible world, whose aspects and concrete or abstract states of affairs are displayed by the appearance. Pictures are a kind of markings, namely patterns perceived on a surface, which do not yet convey information about it. Markings depend on surfaces. No marking exists without a surface, while the opposite is true. There is a variety of markings according to the technique and the tools chosen to produce them. Surfaces serve as a medium either as a support or as that which aff…
Model
2020
The term model is polysemous. It refers to concrete objects, which are chosen or made through the techniques of arts, crafts, and engineering, as well as to abstract constructions, which are built by formal, theoretical, and statistical means for descriptive, explanatory, and normative aims. The term is also extended to the effective procedure by which scientific activity may be carried out according to rules, by which it can be considered valid in order to provide knowledge.
Eidetics
2020
The term eidetics denotes the domain of eidetic imagery and its study. The standard phenomenon of eidetic imagery consists in seeing a stimulus that is no longer present, when the experimenter is allowed to infer from subjects’ reports or experimental protocols that “seeing” is different from remembering or experiencing an after-image. After a prolonged period from mid-1930 to about 1960 in which the interest in this phenomenon had died out, research was resumed on the grounds of findings which seemed to point at the ability of extracting information from no longer present stimuli, which showed to be different from sensory and recognition memory. The functional role of eidetic imagery in co…
Diagrams
2020
Diagrams are two-dimensional representations of a domain in which relations among elements like points, lines, open/bounded regions on a plane match relations among the elements of that domain. Diagrams are means of surrogate reasoning, namely of exploring the possibilities to reduce or eliminate the uncertainty imparted by a problem through operations on external aids. The study of diagrams addresses formal and cognitive issues.
Visualization/Visibility
2020
The term visualization is employed to refer to the capacity of making visible properties, relations, objects and state of affairs which either are no longer presented through perception or depends upon concepts and theoretical definitions, which regard domains that lie outside the scope of perception. In the strict sense, visualization is the kind of experience akin to perception, which is enabled by the structure and the function of imagery. From a functional standpoint, then, the capacity of visualization relies on a not arbitrary mapping between visual-spatial representations and what they stand for. In this broader sense, it is connected with perception and rule-based qualitative reason…