Human relationships have been explained through various elements such as emotion, social norms, and roles. However, these approaches have limitations in providing an integrated explanation of the process through which relationships are formed, stabilized, and transformed over time. In particular, emotion-centered explanations are effective in explaining the initial trigger of relationship formation but fail to sufficiently account for persistence and stability, while norm- or role-based approaches can present the external framework of relationships but are limited in explaining how structures are (...) formed within actual interaction. Based on these limitations, this paper understands human relationships as a dynamic structure in which emotion, ethical interaction, and trust are connected over time. Emotion functions as the starting point of relationship formation by triggering interaction, and through repetitive interaction, behavioral patterns such as responsibility, consistency, and respect for boundaries are formed, which constitute the structure of relationships. As this process accumulates, predictability and mutual expectations emerge between individuals, leading to the formation of trust. Furthermore, this paper argues that emotion, ethical interaction, and trust do not proceed in a one-directional sequence, but rather form a cyclical structure in which established trust reshapes subsequent emotional experiences and patterns of interaction. This cyclical structure functions as an integrated theoretical framework for explaining how human relationships are formed, stabilized, and weakened over time. Accordingly, this paper does not reduce human relationships to a single element, but presents an analytical framework that explains, in an integrated manner, the starting point of relationship formation, the formation of structure through repetitive interaction, and the cyclical process of change centered on trust. (shrink)

Dynamic Structure of Reality makes available in English some of the most mature thought of the modern Spanish philosopher Xavier Zubiri. He first presented this material as a set of 1968 public lectures in Madrid. They were collected, edited, and published in 1989 as Estructura dinámica de la realidad. In 1962 Zubiri had published Sobre la esencia, a work of metaphysics that was praised by critics with one qualification: its treatment of reality was too static. The 1968 course was (...) devised as a response to those critics. Dynamic Structure of Reality retraces the road Hegel traveled concerning the creation of a self and how that self is realized by an interplay between spirit and nature. Like his great predecessor José Ortega y Gasset, and like his great Jewish contemporary Emmanuel Levinas, Zubiri takes religion in all seriousness and locates its questions within the questions of modern philosophy. In harmony with science, he advances a new idea of becoming. Reality, not being, becomes. As reality’s traits are revealed, in different degrees, reality resembles God, the universal self-giver. Zubiri systematically touches on many disciplines to show the varieties of self-giving--throughout the universe--of structural dynamism. (shrink)

In this paper, we defend a theory of structure that we term ontodynamic structural realism. The theory rests on four core assumptions: the Galilean assumption (A1), the Noetherian assumption (A2), the Banach-Tarski-Bueno assumption (A3), and the Prigoginean assumption (A4). The latter provides a principled Prigoginean extension to ontic structural realism by incorporating insights from non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Whereas standard versions of ontic structural realism typically rely on fundamental physics and therefore say relatively little about dissipative structures, far-from-equilibrium dynamics, and the (...) emergence of complex or biological organization, our framework offers a unified account of these phenomena within a structural realist ontology. In particular, we introduce a generative mechanism in which structure emerges through symmetry-breaking driven by the dynamical operator (F), together with a maintenance condition that explains how such structures persist over time in non-equilibrium settings. In the richer, Prigoginean regime, this persistence is captured by a flux-dependent stabilizer subgroup (H(s, Φ)) that reflects the role of energy, matter, and information gradients in sustaining organized states. The resulting framework, onto-dynamic structural realism, yields a formally well-defined and internally coherent account of the emergence and persistence of structure across multiple scales of the universe. (shrink)

Psychiatric diagnostic covariation suggests that the underlying structure of psychopathology is not one of circumscribed disorders. Quantitative modeling of individual differences in diagnostic patterns has uncovered several broad domains of mental disorder liability, of which the Internalizing and Externalizing spectra have garnered the greatest support. These dimensions have generally been estimated from lifetime or past-year comorbidity patters, which are distal from the covariation of symptoms and maladaptive behavior that ebb and flow in daily life. In this study, structural models (...) are applied to daily diary data ( Median = 94 days) of maladaptive behaviors collected from a sample ( N = 101) of individuals diagnosed with personality disorders (PDs). Using multilevel and unified structural equation modeling, between-person, within-person, and person-specific structures were estimated from 16 behaviors that are encompassed by the Internalizing and Externalizing spectra. At the between-person level (i.e., individual differences in average endorsement across days) we found support for a two-factor Internalizing–Externalizing model, which exhibits significant associations with corresponding diagnostic spectra. At the within-person level (i.e., dynamic covariation among daily behavior pooled across individuals) we found support for a more differentiated, four-factor, Negative Affect-Detachment-Hostility-Disinhibition structure. Finally, we demonstrate that the person-specific structures of associations between these four domains are highly idiosyncratic. (shrink)

The risk mapping derived from the various economic activities presented by Thomas Aquinas enables the development of different typologies, which can then be cross-referenced with one another. Risk can be classified according to activity, such as loan, commercial exchange or limit cases of market exchange; according to whether it is a quantitative or qualitative risk; according to whether it is an error in understanding the transaction, a commercial risk imposed by external conditions on the co-contractors, or a strategic risk, which (...) is an internal risk arising from the lack of information on the co-contractor’s intention. They can also be distinguished according to whether the risk relates to the licitness of the activity, the conditions under which it is carried out or a remuneration risk. Finally, a distinction must be made between risks explicitly named by Aquinas, risks implicitly deducible from the situation described and risks induced by Aquinas’s treatment of the situation. This approach reveals a dynamic structure of risk in Aquinas’s thought, with risks emerging both upstream of the operation—concerning the nature of the activity and the nature of the good exchanged—and during the operation itself, involving a range of additional risks. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue in favor of a structural turn in social contract theory. More precisely, I argue that dealing with the complex and dynamic nature of the social world requires an emphasis on social structures greater than what contractarians often consider. I take structures to be the dynamic and non-random networks of interdependence among all active components that shape society. I also constrain my focus to a growing body of literature on diversity that explores plausible contractarian alternatives given (...) the complexity of modern societies. I argue that shifting weight from diversity to structures in theorizing alternative contractarian frameworks would be an improvement. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Never Mind the Gap: Neurophenomenology, Radical Enactivism, and the Hard Problem of Consciousness” by Michael D. Kirchhoff & Daniel D. Hutto. Upshot: It is not clear what Kirchhoff and Hutto mean by identity when they claim that there is no gap between the phenomenal and the physical. Understanding the relation between causation and diachronic constitution, I suggest that phenomenal-physical existence is better characterized as a dynamically articulated form, structure, or gestalt.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It is the goal of this article to present and discuss the phenomenological interpretation of quantum mechanics of the twentieth-century Spanish philosopher Xavier Zubiri. After presenting an introduction to Zubiri and his relationship with phenomenology, we discuss the prominent role of the natural sciences, namely, physics, in the author’s philosophical system. To a certain extent, one can say that, in the footsteps of Edmund Husserl, one of Zubiri’s chief concerns was to develop a philosophical system that could accommodate the discoveries (...) of contemporary science. Following a brief presentation of Zubiri’s discussion on physics, the article focuses on his interpretation of quantum mechanics. As we shall see, Zubiri’s original interpretation of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in terms of the phenomenological notion of light may provide a significant, although limited, contribution for a deeper understanding of quantum indeterminacy. In addition, we suggest that the Zubirian notions of reality, intelligence, and actuality, which dominate the last stage of his philosophy, may provide a key hermeneutic framework that allows a fresh philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics. -/- . (shrink)

This paper presents a computational model that integrates a dynamically structured holographic memory system into the ACT-R cognitive architecture to explain how linguistic representations are encoded and accessed in memory. ACT-R currently serves as the most precise expression of the moment-by-moment working memory retrievals that support sentence comprehension. The ACT-R model of sentence comprehension is able to capture a range of linguistic phenomena, but there are cases where the model makes the wrong predictions, such as the over-prediction of retrieval interference (...) effects during sentence comprehension. Here, we investigate one such case involving the processing of sentences with negative polarity items and consider how a dynamically structured holographic memory system might provide a cognitively plausible and principled explanation of some previously unexplained effects. Specifically, we show that by replacing ACT-R's declarative memory with a dynamically structured memory, we can explain a wider range of behavioral data involving reading times and judgments of grammaticality. We show that our integrated model provides a better fit to human error rates and response latencies than the original ACT-R model. These results provide proof-of-concept for the unification of two independent computational cognitive frameworks. (shrink)

A comprehensive and rather technical critical summary of psychological theories of perception. The notion of "dynamic structure" underlies the critical discussion and serves, in the final chapter, as the central concept in a general theory of behavior.--R. H.

How people understand the fundamental dynamics of stock and flow is an important basic theoretical question with many practical applications. In this paper, we present a universal frame for understanding stock-flow reasoning in terms of the theory of force dynamics. This deep-level analysis is then applied to two different presentation formats of SF tasks in the context of climate change. We can explain why in a coordinate-graphic presentation misunderstandings occur, whereas in a verbal presentation a better understanding is found. We (...) end up with recommendations for presentation formats that will help people to better understand SF dynamics. Better public SF understanding might in turn also enhance corresponding public action – such as enhancing pro-environmental actions in relation to climate change. (shrink)

Este artículo examina el carácter dinámico de la concepción plotiniana de la realidad a partir de la apropiación particular del filósofo de la identidad de las nociones de “ser”, “vivir” y “pensar”. En particular, se defiende que esta propuesta se caracteriza tanto por su adopción de motivos clásicos (sobre todo de la epistemología aristotélica) como por la extensión de la estructura triádica del Intelecto a la realidad como un todo. Esta extensión permitirá a Plotino tanto mostrar la continuidad entre los (...) distintos niveles de la realidad (por la procedencia de la vida en general de la Vida del Intelecto) como dar cuenta de la necesidad y posibilidad de que el alma humana ascienda al Intelecto. De esta manera, se muestra cómo la estructura dinámica del Intelecto determina los momentos contemplativo, autoconstitutivo y creativo de cada una de las hipóstasis del sistema de Plotino. (shrink)

Haptic-based vibrotactile biofeedback (BF) is a promising technique to improve rehabilitation of balance in stroke patients. However, the extent to which BF training changes temporal structure of the center of pressure (CoP) trajectories remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effect of vibrotactile BF training on the temporal structure of CoP during quiet stance in chronic stroke patients using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Nine chronic stroke patients (age; 81.56±44 months post-stroke) received a balance training regimen using a (...) vibrotactile BF system twice a week over four weeks. A Wii Balance board was used to record five 30 s trials of quiet stance pre- and post-training at 50 Hz. DFA revealed presence of two linear scaling regions in CoP indicating presence of fast- and slow-scale fluctuations. Averaged across all trials, fast-scale fluctuations showed persistent dynamics ( = 1.05 ±.08 for ML and  = 0.99 ±.17 for AP) and slow-scale fluctuations were anti-persistent ( = 0.35 ±.05 for ML and  = 0.32 ±.05 for AP). The slow-scale dynamics of ML CoP in stroke patients decreased from pre-training to post-BF training ( = 0.40 ±.13 vs. 0.31 ±.09). These results suggest that the vibrotactile BF training affects postural control strategy used by chronic stroke patients in the ML direction. Results of the DFA are further discussed in the context of balance training using vibrotactile BF and interpreted from the perspective of intermittent control of upright stance. (shrink)

Proponents of mechanistic explanations have recently proclaimed that all explanations in the neurosciences appeal to mechanisms. The purpose of the paper is to critically assess this statement and to develop an integrative account that connects a large range of both mechanistic and dynamical explanations. I develop and defend four theses about the relationship between dynamical and mechanistic explanations: that dynamical explanations are structurally grounded, that they are multiply realizable, possess realizing mechanisms and provide a powerful top-down heuristic. (...) Four examples shall support my points: the harmonic oscillator, the Haken–Kelso–Bunz model of bimanual coordination, the Watt governor and the Gierer–Meinhardt model of biological pattern formation. I also develop the picture of “horizontal” and “vertical” directions of explanations to illustrate the different perspectives of the dynamical and mechanistic approach as well as their potential integration by means of intersection points. (shrink)

Many recent studies of dynamics in formal argumentation within AI focus on the well-known formalism of Dung’s argumentation frameworks (AFs). Despite the usefulness of AFs in many areas of argumentation, their abstract notion of arguments creates a barrier for operators that modify a given AF, e.g., in the case that dependencies between arguments have been abstracted away that are important for subsequent modifications. In this paper we aim to support development of dynamic operators on formal models in abstract argumentation by (...) providing constraints imposed on the modification of the structure that can be used to incorporate information that has been abstracted away. Towards a broad reach, we base our results on the general formalism of abstract dialectical frameworks (ADFs) in abstract argumentation. To show applicability, we present two cases studies that adapt an existing extension enforcement operator that modifies AFs: in the first case study, we show how to utilize constraints in order to obtain an enforcement operator on ADFs that is allowed to only add support relations between arguments, and in the second case study we show how an enforcement operator on AFs can be defined that respects dependencies between arguments. We show feasibility of our approach by studying the complexity of the proposed structural constraints and the operators arising from the case studies, and by an experimental evaluation of an answer set programming (ASP) implementation of the enforcement operator based on supports. (shrink)

We propose a reformulation of ontic structural realism (OSR) that replaces the traditional primacy of relata-independent structures with a dynamic framework grounded in constraint propagation. Drawing on recent debates in the philoso- phy of physics and the foundations of quantum field theory and quantum gravity, we introduce the notion of structural actualism, where physical individuation, causal propagation, and locality emerge from stabilization regimes over constraint spaces. In this framework, a field or system is not defined by intrinsic properties or met- (...) ric embedding, but by a triplet (R, Σ, τ ) representing structural tension, admissible configurations, and propagation relations. We analyze three case studies—quantum excitations in QFT, effective locality in background-independent theories, and mod- ular causal reconstruction—showing how they can be reinterpreted as regimes of constraint coherence. The resulting ontology avoids commitment to objects or background structures, offering instead a theory of dynamically grounded physical structure. We conclude by examining implications for the identity of field-theoretic entities, the emergence of locality, and the interpretation of fields as constraint man- ifolds. This structural shift provides a parsimonious and testable alternative to both substantivalist and purely relational approaches in fundamental physics. (shrink)

Waqf system is a judical and financial institution of social security as well as the institutions which conduct educational, cultural, religious, public works, social aid and health investments. The waqf founders lined the services idealized by them in their deeds of trustee. It is aimed that these services countinue forever. This process survived for centuries primarily stemmed from this legal infrastructure, financial resources and efficient inspecting recording order. The accountancy culture which is on the basis of auditing and proper for (...) information characteristics of the accountancy within the Ottoman financial tradition may be read from the accountancy books kept in the awqaf. From another point of view that the waqf culture had survived for centuries primarily stemmed from this efficient, inspecting record order. (shrink)

This paper develops and benchmarks the Relational Zero State (RZS) framework as an action-free, graph-dynamical model for pre-geometric cosmology. The starting point is not a spacetime Lagrangian, but a weighted relational network (graph) and node fields updated by explicit rules constrained by a stability principle (“Romero Law”). A reproducible workflow (“Universe Factory”) is provided to generate synthetic universes on a laptop and to track phase-transition diagnostics such as component unification (percolation), global communication onset (spectral connectivity growth), and saturation (stability (...) plateaus). -/- A core requirement is low-redshift validation. Mechanisms intended to amplify early rare events must remain compatible with the established low- and intermediate-redshift large-scale-structure (LSS) phenomenology. To isolate the specific RZS statistical effect—symmetric heavy-tail amplification of rare peaks with minimal impact on the two-point sector—controlled surrogate tests are performed using BOSS DR12 LOWZ and CMASS power-spectrum targets (NGC/SGC) and multiple k-windows. Iterative amplitude-adjusted Fourier transform (IAAFT) surrogates hold the target two-point spectrum fixed by construction while varying only the one-point distribution. Across catalogs and parameter sweeps, the heavy-tail prescription keeps skewness consistent with zero, increases excess kurtosis, and boosts tail exceedance in the high-sigma regime, consistent with an even-order (trispectrum-like) signature rather than a two-point modification. -/- All scripts, figures, and summary tables are included for reproducibility and direct scrutiny. -/- . (shrink)

Protein structure is dynamic: the intrinsic flexibility of polypeptides facilitates a range of conformational fluctuations, and individual protein chains can assemble into complexes. Proteins are also dynamic in evolution: significant variations in secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure can be observed among divergent members of a protein family. Recent work has highlighted intriguing similarities between these structural and evolutionary dynamics occurring at various levels. Here we review evidence showing how evolutionary changes in protein sequence and structure are often (...) closely related to local protein flexibility and disorder, large‐scale motions and quaternary structure assembly. We suggest that these correspondences can be largely explained by neutral evolution, while deviations between structural and evolutionary dynamics can provide valuable functional insights. Finally, we address future prospects for the field and practical applications that arise from a deeper understanding of the intimate relationship between protein structure, dynamics, function and evolution. (shrink)

Scientific theories of consciousness identify its contents with the spatiotemporal structure of neural population activity. We follow up on this approach by stating and motivating Dynamical Emergence Theory, which defines the amount and structure of experience in terms of the intrinsic topology and geometry of a physical system’s collective dynamics. Specifically, we posit that distinct perceptual states correspond to coarse-grained macrostates reflecting an optimal partitioning of the system’s state space—a notion that aligns with several ideas and results (...) from computational neuroscience and cognitive psychology. We relate DET to existing work, offer predictions for empirical studies, and outline future research directions. (shrink)

Ontic Structural Realism (OSR) proposes a radical reconception of metaphysical ontology: not as a theory of objects and their intrinsic properties, but as a framework grounded in re- lational structure. This paper defends a dynamic and moderate version of OSR, arguing that metaphysical individuation is not fundamental but emerges from invariant configurations within evolving structural systems. Drawing on recent debates in metaphysics and the formalism of quantum physics, we formulate a theory of identity as structural persistence under morphic tran- (...) sitions. This account avoids eliminativist extremes while dissolving the metaphysical privilege of objecthood, thereby aligning ontology with the non-individualistic core of modern physics. (shrink)

Every physical theory has two different forms of mathematical equations to represent its target systems: the dynamical and the kinematical. Kinematical constraints are differentiated from equations of motion by the fact that their particular form is fixed once and for all, irrespective of the interactions the system enters into. By contrast, the particular form of a system's equations of motion depends essentially on the particular interaction the system enters into. All contemporary accounts of the structure and semantics of (...) physical theory treat dynamics, i.e., the equations of motion, as the most important feature of a theory for the purposes of its philosophical analysis. I argue to the contrary that it is the kinematical constraints that determine the structure and empirical content of a physical theory in the most important ways: they function as necessary preconditions for the appropriate application of the theory; they differentiate types of physical systems; they are necessary for the equations of motion to be well posed or even just cogent; and they guide the experimentalist in the design of tools for measurement and observation. It is thus satisfaction of the kinematical constraints that renders meaning to those terms representing a system's physical quantities in the first place, even before one can ask whether or not the system satisfies the theory's equations of motion. (shrink)

By briefly reviewing three well-known scientific revolutions in fundamental physics (the discovery of inertia, of special relativity and of general relativity), I claim that problems that were supposed to be crying for a dynamical explanation in the old paradigm ended up receiving a structural explanation in the new one. This claim is meant to give more substance to Kuhn’s view that revolutions are accompanied by a shift in what needs to be explained, while suggesting at the same time the (...) existence of a pattern that is common to all of the discussed case-studies. It remains to be seen whether also quantum mechanics, in particular entanglement, conforms to this pattern. (shrink)

In dynamic system control, cognitive mechanisms and abilities underlying performance may vary depending on the nature of the task. We therefore investigated the effects of system structure and its interaction with cognitive abilities on system control performance. A sample of 127 university students completed a series of different system control tasks that were manipulated in terms of system size and recurrent feedback, either with or without a cognitive load manipulation. Cognitive abilities assessed included reasoning ability, working memory capacity, and (...) cognitive reflection. System size and recurrent feedback affected overall performance as expected. Overall, the results support that cognitive ability is a good predictor of performance in dynamic system control tasks but predictiveness is reduced when the system structure contains recurrent feedback. We discuss this finding from a cognitive processing perspective as well as its implications for individual differences research in dynamic systems. (shrink)

Every manifestation of information, semiosis and meaning we have been able to study experimentally has a physical form. Neglect of their dynamical (energetic) ground tends towards dualism or idealism, leaving the causal basis of semiosis and the causal powers of representations mysterious. Consideration of the necessary physical requirements for the embodiment of semiotic categories imposes a discipline on semiotics required for its integration into the rest of science, especially for the emerging field of biosemiotics, as well as any future (...) extensions to chemistry physics or other realms that might constitute a general, primal semiotics. Without this discipline, or something equally strong, there is a risk of projection of anthropomorphic semiotic terminology onto unsuitable hosts, leading, if unchecked, to the sort of animism that biology in particular has only recently escaped. The problem is suspect whenever teleological notions are used outside of mental or social contexts.1 Although our animistic ancestors may have had a closer rapport with Nature than modern scientists, contemporary scientific explanation requires an understanding of causal structure (Salmon 1984). On the other hand, unless the causal rendition of semiosis can capture full blown cognitive semiosis, it is likely to be too restrictive for the evaluation of primal semiosis in general. (shrink)

_The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche_ first appeared in the _Collected Works_ in 1960. In this new edition bibliographical citations and entries have been revised in the light of subsequent publications in the _Collected Works_, and essential corrections have been made. The book traces an important line of development in Jung's thought from 1912 onwards. The earliest of the papers elaborates Freud's concept of sexual libido into that of psychic energy. In those that follow we see how, Jung, (...) discarding one by one the traditional 'philosophical' hypotheses, gradually arrived at a concept which is even more controversial than psychic energy was in its day ^DDL namely, psychic reality. The book contains the first mention of the archetype in Jung's writings as well as his later views on its nature. There is also a valuable account of the therapeutic uses of 'active imagination' first described in an essay written in 1916. (shrink)

Musical rhythm abilities—the perception of and coordinated action to the rhythmic structure of music—undergo remarkable change over human development. In the current paper, we introduce a theoretical framework for modeling the development of musical rhythm. The framework, based on Neural Resonance Theory, explains rhythm development in terms of resonance and attunement, which are formalized using a general theory that includes non-linear resonance and Hebbian plasticity. First, we review the developmental literature on musical rhythm, highlighting several developmental processes related to (...) rhythm perception and action. Next, we offer an exposition of Neural Resonance Theory and argue that elements of the theory are consistent with dynamical, radically embodied and ecological approaches to cognition and development. We then discuss how dynamical models, implemented as self-organizing networks of neural oscillations with Hebbian plasticity, predict key features of music development. We conclude by illustrating how the notions of dynamical embodiment, resonance, and attunement provide a conceptual language for characterizing musical rhythm development, and, when formalized in physiologically informed dynamical models, provide a theoretical framework for generating testable empirical predictions about musical rhythm development, such as the kinds of native and non-native rhythmic structures infants and children can learn, steady-state evoked potentials to native and non-native musical rhythms, and the effects of short-term, long-term, and very-long term learning on music perception-action. (shrink)

The paper discusses the possible implications of the relational framework of Pure Shape Dynamics for the metaphysics of time. The starting point of the analysis is an interpretation of shapes in ontic structural realist terms, which gives rise to the notion of self-subsisting structure. The relational version of a Newtonian-particle toy model is introduced and discussed as a concrete example.

van Bentham et al. (Merging frameworks for interaction: DEL and ETL, 2007) provides a framework for generating the models of Epistemic Temporal Logic ( ETL : Fagin et al., Reasoning about knowledge, 1995; Parikh and Ramanujam, Journal of Logic, Language, and Information, 2003) from the models of Dynamic Epistemic Logic ( DEL : Baltag et al., in: Gilboa (ed.) Tark 1998, 1998; Gerbrandy, Bisimulations on Planet Kripke, 1999). We consider the logic TDEL on the merged semantic framework, and its extension (...) with the labeled past-operator “ P ϵ ” (“The event ϵ has happened before which. . .”). To axiomatize the extension, we introduce a method for transforming a given model into a normal form in a suitable sense. These logics suggest further applications of DEL in the theory of agency, the theory of learning, etc. (shrink)

Aim of the present paper is to provide a formal characterization of various different notions of responsibility within groups of agents (Who did that? Who gets the blame? Who is accountable for that? etc.). To pursue this aim, the papers proposes an organic analysis of organized collective agency by tackling the issues of organizational structure, role enactment, organizational activities, task-division and task-allocation. The result consists in a semantic framework based on dynamic logic in which all these concepts can be (...) represented and in which various notions of responsibility find a formalization. The background motivation of the work consists in those responsibility-related issues which are of particular interest for the theory and development of multi-agent systems. (shrink)

This paper proposes a model for implementation of intrinsic natural language sentence meaning in a physical language understanding system, where 'intrinsic' is understood as 'independent of meaning ascription by system-external observers'. The proposal is that intrinsic meaning can be implemented as a point attractor in the state space of a nonlinear dynamical system with feedback which is generated by temporally sequenced inputs. It is motivated by John Searle's well known (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3: 417–57, 1980) critique of the (...) then-standard and currently still influential computational theory of mind (CTM), the essence of which was that CTM representations lack intrinsic meaning because that meaning is dependent on ascription by an observer_._ The proposed dynamical model comprises a collection of interacting artificial neural networks, and constitutes a radical simplification of the principle of compositional phrase structure which is at the heart of the current standard view of sentence semantics because it is computationally interpretable as a finite state machine. (shrink)

Alter elaborates and defends an ambitious argument advanced by Chalmers against physicalism. As Alter notes, the argument is valid. But I will argue that not all its premises are true. In particular, it is false that all physical truths are purely structural. In denying this, I focus not on the objects of pure physical theory but on the homely, macroscopic objects of our daily lives.

Hierarchical Bayesian models (HBMs) provide an account of Bayesian inference in a hierarchically structured hypothesis space. Scientific theories are plausibly regarded as organized into hierarchies in many cases, with higher levels sometimes called ‘paradigms’ and lower levels encoding more specific or concrete hypotheses. Therefore, HBMs provide a useful model for scientific theory change, showing how higher‐level theory change may be driven by the impact of evidence on lower levels. HBMs capture features described in the Kuhnian tradition, particularly the idea that (...) higher‐level theories guide learning at lower levels. In addition, they help resolve certain issues for Bayesians, such as scientific preference for simplicity and the problem of new theories. *Received July 2009; revised October 2009. †To contact the authors, please write to: Leah Henderson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 32D‐808, Cambridge, MA 02139; e‐mail: [email protected]. (shrink)

Dynamical systems model physical processes, but also computing, informational inquiry, or interaction in games. Some attractive modal logics exist for analyzing high-level behavior of dynamical systems, such as Dynamic Topological Logic. Adding to these, we focus on the fine-structure of states, associating them with assignments of values to variables. We present a logic with a perspicuous syntax for reasoning about dependencies over time. We study the properties of this system by presenting an effective reduction to a basic (...) modal logic of functional dependence. This can be seen as justifying a common intuition that temporal dependence is a special case of general dependence when we follow the course of time. We also consider the addition of standard temporal modalities to this logic, where the reductive intuition no longer holds in general. On this base, we then introduce topological structure, and investigate the logic of continuous dependence given a continuous transition function, which can also be seen as modelling not just dependence but monotonic dependence for patterns of growth. Finally, we briefly discuss some further logical structures in dynamical systems such as term equalities, independence and non-deterministic choice. (shrink)

This paper develops a logical theory that unifies all three standard types of argumentative attack in AI, namely rebutting, undercutting and undermining attacks. We build on default justification logic that already represents undercutting and rebutting attacks, and we add undermining attacks. Intuitively, undermining does not target default inference, as undercutting, or default conclusion, as rebutting, but rather attacks an argument’s premise as a starting point for default reasoning. In default justification logic, reasoning starts from a set of premises, which is (...) then extended by conclusions that hold by default. We argue that modeling undermining defeaters in the view of default theories requires changing the set of premises upon receiving new information. To model changes to premises, we give a dynamic aspect to default justification logic by using the techniques from the logic of belief revision. More specifically, undermining is modeled with belief revision operations that include contracting a set of premises, that is, removing some information from it. The novel combination of default reasoning and belief revision in justification logic enriches both approaches to reasoning under uncertainty. By the end of the paper, we show some important aspects of defeasible argumentation in which our logic compares favorably to structured argumentation frameworks. (shrink)