Search results for "Explication"
showing 10 items of 19 documents
On the "Strength" of Behavior.
2020
AbstractThe place of the concept of response strength in a natural science of behavior has been the subject of much debate. This article reconsiders the concept of response strength for reasons linked to the foundations of a natural science of behavior. The notion of response strength is implicit in many radical behaviorists’ work. Palmer (2009) makes it explicit by applying the response strength concept to three levels: (1) overt behavior, (2) covert behavior, and (3) latent or potential behavior. We argue that the concept of response strength is superfluous in general, and an explication of the notion of giving causal status to nonobservable events like latent behavior or response strengt…
Questions in Cognitive Mimetics
2021
Human thinking advances through questions and answers. Any field of human endeavor is permeated by the presence of questions, answers and presuppositions. Questions have a kind of universality, whereby one can place the question marks on anything, including questions themselves. The process of asking the right questions about the right things and in the right way are key for the explication of an approach. Recently, we have begun thinking about an approach to the design of intelligent technology: Cognitive mimetics. In brief, the idea is to take inspiration of empirical human thinking in specific contexts to develop AI solutions. The purpose of this article is to question this approach from…
What Can Linguistics Do to Technology Design?
2021
Intelligent technologies have already revolutionized the economy, and they will continue to do so via autonomous, AI-based systems and artefacts. Artefacts can handle much more intellectually complicated tasks than was possible before. However, the technological transformation will set new demands for technology design and designers. Designing electromechanical technologies has been based on natural science, but intelligent technologies will extensively use knowledge of human research and information processing to create new artefacts. Intelligent information processing has so far been possible only for biological systems and especially for human minds. Therefore, their functions and behavi…
Minimum message length clustering: an explication and some applications to vegetation data
2001
In this paper, we examine the application of a particular approach to induction, the minimum message length principle and illustrate some of the problems that can be addressed through its use. The MML principle seeks to identify an optimal model within some specified parameterised class of models and for this paper we have chosen to concentrate on a single model class, that of mixture separation or fuzzy clustering. The first section presents, in outline, an MML methodology for fuzzy clustering. We then present some applications, including the nature of the within-cluster model, examination of the univocality of results for different groups of species and the effectiveness of presence data …
Fuzzy Set Theory as a Methodological Bridge between Hard Sciences and Humanities
2013
In this paper, we will investigate the possible role of fuzzy set theory (FST), and more generally the ensemble of technologies and theoretical approaches known as soft computing, as a methodological bridge between hard sciences and humanities. We will try, building on previous works, to investigate the “family links” between these disciplines and show how FST may be of help in promoting a connection between the “two cultures”. We will discuss Carnap and his paradox of explication, the dilemma between imagination and rigor according to Bateson, the problem of interdisciplinarity, and the consequences of precision and exactness. C
Explanatory Reasoning: A Probabilistic Interpretation
2016
This paper deals with inference guided by explanatory considerations –specifically with the prospects for a probabilistic interpretation of it. After pointing out some differences between two sorts of explanatory reasoning – i.e.: abduction and “inference to the best explanation” – in the first section I distinguish two tasks: (a) to discern which explanation is the best one; (b) to assess whether the best explanation deserves to be legitimately believed. In Sect. 20.2 I discuss some recent definitions of explanatory power based on “reduction of uncertainty” (Schupbach and Sprenger 2011; Crupi and Tentori 2012). Even though a probabilistic framework is a promising option here, I will argue …
“Etymologia Est Origo Vocabulorum…”
1985
SUMMARYThe study wants to contribute to the explication of Isidore of Sevilla's conception of etymology starting with the definition "Etymologia est origo vocabulorum, cum vis verbi vel nominis per interpretationem colligitur" (Etym. I, xxix, 1). At first sight the problem of interpretation results from the contradiction between the static character of the principal clause (est origo) and the dynamic character of the subordinate clause (colligitur). This contradiction is resolved in favour of the dynamic aspect by changing origo into originatio on the basis of a teleological and historical interpretation. In a second step, an attempt has been made to arrive at a comprehensive assessment of …
2018
Smartphones and other mobile devices have fundamentally changed patterns of Internet use in everyday life by making online access constantly available. The present paper offers a theoretical explication and empirical assessment of the concept of online vigilance, referring to users' permanent cognitive orientation towards online content and communication as well as their disposition to exploit these options constantly. Based on four studies, a validated and reliable self-report measure of online vigilance was developed. In combination, the results suggest that the Online Vigilance Scale (OVS) shows a stable factor structure in various contexts and user populations and provides future work i…
Experience of the City: An Eco-Phenomenological Perspective
2018
The field of ecological philosophy is a quite young field, encompassing Erazim Kohak’s environmental ethics and Arne Naess’ concepts of deep ecology and ecosophy, David Seamon’s phenomenological ecology, Ted Toadvine’s, Charles S. Brown’s, David Wood’s eco-phenomenological investigations, and, above all, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka’s phenomenology of life. At the same time, the theme of urban phenomenology taps deeply into Martin Heidegger’s conception of authentic dwelling (disruptions of dwelling may be exposed as symptoms of ecological crisis, and authentic dwelling as a possible remedy for that). Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of the For-Itself (especially its spatializing/spatialized character)…