Search results for "uncertainty."
showing 10 items of 972 documents
Comprehensive Uncertainty Management in MDPs
2013
Multistage decision-making in robots involved in real-world tasks is a process affected by uncertainty. The effects of the agent’s actions in a physical en- vironment cannot be always predicted deterministically and in a precise manner. Moreover, observing the environment can be a too onerous for a robot, hence not continuos. Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a well-known solution inspired to the classic probabilistic approach for managing uncertainty. On the other hand, including fuzzy logics and possibility theory has widened uncertainty representa- tion. Probability, possibility, fuzzy logics, and epistemic belief allow treating dif- ferent and not always superimposable facets of unce…
Agamennone βουληφόρος? La sovranità alla prova del processo deliberativo
2022
Starting with the Iliad, Agamemnon is mostly depicted at the centre of dramatic deliberative situations. This feature is also present in fifth-century literature, particularly in some plays in which Agamemnon’s decision-making ability in uncertainty comes into tension with other characters in order to determine the ‘right’ decision and adequate leadership features. In this paper, I will focus on the Euripides’ play Iphigenia in Aulis (405 a.C.). In this tragedy the behaviour of the Achaean king draws our attention, as he is not equipped to handle his role and responsibilities. In the same years, also historiography is interested in the nature and risks of the deliberative process, as Thucyd…
Merito, responsabilità e incertezza nel dibattito su Mitilene (Tucidide III 39 ss.)
2017
Questo contributo analizza le due sezioni esordiali dell’antilogia di Cleone e Diodoto sulla punizione da infliggere ai Mitilenesi per la loro rivolta, presentata da Tucidide nel III libro. Nei due incipit, così come in altri punti chiave dell’agone retorico, gli oratori definiscono le categorie di “responsabilità” e “responsabilizzazione”, “titolo” e “merito”. Attraverso la contrapposizione tra i due discorsi, Tucidide mette in luce l’“incertezza” come condizione necessaria e qualificante di una autentica “deliberazione”. This paper analyzes the introductive sections in the antilogical speeches of Cleon and Diodotus on the punishment that Mytileneans deserve for their revolt (Thucydides, b…
«I molteplici casi della sorte». Disastri della guerra e della natura in Tucidide
2018
Il capitolo 23 del primo libro di Tucidide conclude il proemio e ricapitola gli elementi chiave della visione storiografica dello storico ateniese. Sopo aver connesso il primato della guerra alla sua durata e ad un impressionante elenco di sofferenze (pathemata) Tucidide aggiunge un secondo elenco di disastri naturali (terremoti, eclissi, la peste). Questo contributo si propone di indagare il rapporto tra le due serie di disastri nel quadro della più ampia visione tucididea sulla guerra e sulla condotta umana. Accostando ai pathemata l’elenco dei disastri naturali, lungi dal volere individuare nella straordinaria sovversione dell’ambiente naturale un effetto delle decisioni umane o un annun…
FROM UNBURDENING TO LIBERATED EMBODIED SIMULATION A HISTORY OF CONCEPTS
2020
What is imagination? How to think this «act» (action)? How to describe its phenomenology? And, above all, how to situate its very space in human behavior and mind? Can we outline a topic of imagination? I suggest that an ap- propriate blend between the tradition of philosophical anthropology, from Johann Gottfried Herder to Hans Blumenberg, and the new neuroscientific interpretation of «embodied simulation», could help us to refine our concept of imagination. I quote Herder just to refer to a noble forerunner of this genealogy, being the focus of my paper on a more controversial figure, namely Arnold Gehlen, author of an inspiring work of twentieth-century anthropology, Man. His Nature and …
Looking at the impact of collaborative policies on intangibles and outcomes through dynamic performance governance
2023
The Etorkizuna Eraikiz (EE) case study provides thought-provoking insights on the role of intangibles as driving forces for a collaborative network governance primarily lead by the civil society. Among such factors are: 1) social cohesion around core values rooted in cultural traditions (e.g. language and gastronomy); 2) natural and historical assets; 3) human and social capital; and 4) policy innovation. All of them are at the same time framed in an ideal continuity with history, and consistently transposed into the future (Bianchi et al., 2019, p. 104). The fast and intensive growth in both the collaborative network and the achieved outcomes experienced since the inception of the EE ‘mode…
La "razionalità" delle vittime di estorsione e l'impatto dell'overload informativo
2016
Il capitolo presenta un breve excursus tra le contrapposte interpretazioni del fenomeno mafioso e in particolare di quello estorto. Prende poi in considerazione i concetti di incertezza, rischio e overload informativo per vedere come sono stati trattati dalla teoria sociologica contemporanea e come è possibile utilizzare tali concetti nell'interpretazione dello stato delle vittime di estorsione. Si analizzano infine la prospettiva culturista nella sua versione 2.0 e gli effetti dell'overload informativo sulle vittime. The chapter presents a brief excursus between the opposing interpretations of the mafia phenomenon and in particular of the extorted one. It then takes into consideration the …
Responsibility in uncertain times: an institutional perspective on precaution
2008
Precaution is a key issue in environmental governance. Variously defined, intensively debated and introduced in many regulations, its meaning, scope and application remain problematic. This article argues that the controversy on precaution is a matter of culturally patterned expectations concerning the production and use of knowledge and the related social positions and responsibilities. The way uncertainty and its role in the policy process are understood is crucial. For some precaution is a flawed concept, to be accommodated to the current expert-based cooperative scheme. For others it is a major innovation requiring a rearrangement of the latter. Precautionary policies may evolve in dif…
A probabilistic compressive sensing framework with applications to ultrasound signal processing
2019
Abstract The field of Compressive Sensing (CS) has provided algorithms to reconstruct signals from a much lower number of measurements than specified by the Nyquist-Shannon theorem. There are two fundamental concepts underpinning the field of CS. The first is the use of random transformations to project high-dimensional measurements onto a much lower-dimensional domain. The second is the use of sparse regression to reconstruct the original signal. This assumes that a sparse representation exists for this signal in some known domain, manifested by a dictionary. The original formulation for CS specifies the use of an l 1 penalised regression method, the Lasso. Whilst this has worked well in l…
Fuzziness and social life: Informal notions, formal definitions
2012
A clear bidirectional path exists between everyday social and cultural life and the formal notions of uncertainty. If in recent times there has been a resurgence of the contribution of the formal notions of fuzziness and vagueness to disciplines such as aesthetics, medicine and more generally humanities, it is also true that concepts and phenomena from everyday reality are continually and usefully reused in order to build formal definitions that are more akin to the essence of things. In this paper, some notions connected with the handling of uncertainty, and particularly with FST, are outlined with the aim of benefitting the spontaneous emergence of new paths toward an unified theory of un…