Modal realism -- Time, space, world -- Existence -- Actuality -- Modal realism and modal tense -- Transworld individuals and their identity -- Existensionalism -- Impossibility -- Proposition and relief -- Fictional worlds -- Epistemology.

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional individual. So is his favorite pipe. Our pre-theoretical intuition says that neither of them is real. It says that neither of them really, or actually, exists. It also says that there is a sense in which they do exist, namely, a sense in which they exist “in the world of” the Sherlock Holmes stories. Our pre-theoretical intuition says in general of any fictional individual that it does not actually exist but exists “in the world of” (...) the relevant fiction. I wish to defend this pretheoretical intuition. To do so, I need to defend two claims: that fictional individuals do not actually exist, and that they exist “in the world of” the relevant fiction. The aim of this paper is to defend the first claim. (shrink)

Mark Jago’s four arguments against Takashi Yagisawa’s extended modal realism are examined and shown to be ineffective. Yagisawa’s device of modal tense renders three of Jago’s arguments harmless, and the correct understanding of predications of modal properties of world stages blocks the fourth one.

When philosophers discuss philosophical views, theories, or arguments, their discussion is often not metaphysically innocent. Given certain substantial but widely accepted assumptions concerning relativization of truth, the worlds framework, and understanding ontological issues in terms of domains of discourse, it can be argued that the extent of metaphysical involvement of some philosophical discussion is considerable. In particular, philosophical discussion concerning modal metaphysics frequently makes the discussants incur nontrivial ontological commitments.

Deep theorizing about possibility requires theorizing about possible objects. One popular approach regards the notion of a possible object as intertwined with the notion of a possible world. There are two widely discussed types of theory concerning the nature of possible worlds: actualist representationism and possibilist realism. They support two opposing views about possible objects. Examination of the ways in which they do so reveals difficulties on both sides. There is another popular approach, which has been influenced by the philosophy (...) of Alexius Meinong. The Meinongian approach is relevant to theorizing about possible objects because it attempts to construct a general theory of objects other than ordinary concrete existing objects. Independently of the debate about the nature of possible worlds or about Meinongianism, it is not always as straightforward as it may at first appear to determine whether putative possible objects are indeed possible. Another category of object similar to that of a possible object is the category of a fictional object. Although initially attractive, the idea that fictional objects are possible objects should not be accepted blindly. An important instance of theoretical usefulness of possible objects is their central role in the validation of two controversial theorems of a simple quantified modal logic. (shrink)

It may appear that in order to be any way at all, a thing must exist. A possible – worlds version of this claim goes as follows: (E) For every x, for every possible world w, Fx at w only if x exists at w. Here and later in (R), the letter ‘F’ is used as a schematic letter to be replaced with a one – place predicate. There are two arguments against (E). The first is by analogy. Socrates is (...) widely admired now but he does not exist now. So, it is not the case that for every x, for every time t, Fx at t only if x exists at t. Possible worlds are analogous to times. Therefore, (E) is false (cf., Kaplan 1973: 503 – 05 and Salmon 1981: 36 – 40). For the second argument, replace ‘F’ with ‘does not exist’. (E) then says that for every x, for every possible world w, x does not exist at w only if x exists at w. This is obviously false. Therefore (E) is false (cf., Kaplan 1977: 498). Despite their considerable appeal, these arguments are not unassailable. The first argument suffers from the weakness inherent in any argument from analogy; the analogy it rests on may not.. (shrink)

We show that the evasion number $\mathfrak {e}$ can be added to Cichoń’s maximum with a distinct value. More specifically, it is consistent that $\aleph _1<\operatorname {\mathrm {add}}(\mathcal {N})<\operatorname {\mathrm {cov}}(\mathcal {N})<\mathfrak {b}<\mathfrak {e}<\operatorname {\mathrm {non}}(\mathcal {M})<\operatorname {\mathrm {cov}}(\mathcal {M})<\mathfrak {d}<\operatorname {\mathrm {non}}(\mathcal {N})<\operatorname {\mathrm {cof}}(\mathcal {N})<2^{\aleph _0}$ holds.

Those who object to David Lewis' modal realism express qualms about philosophical respectability of the Lewisian notion of a possible world and its correlate notion of an inhabitant of a possible world. The resulting impression is that these two notions either stand together or fall together. I argue that the Lewisian notion of a possible world is otiose even for a good Lewisian modal realist, and that one can carry out a good Lewisian semantics for modal discourse without Lewisian possible (...) worls. I do so by generalizing Lewis' own idea that restrictions on quantification come and go with the pragmatic wind and relativizing possible worlds as shifting domains of discourse. I then suggest a way to soften the infamous incredulous stare. (shrink)

This article contributes to the critical engagement with luck egalitarianism by advancing two arguments. Firstly, it questions the cogency of the dichotomies – e.g., luck/choice, person/circumstance, agency/structure – and the accompanying moral ideal of pure voluntarism. This makes it difficult for luck egalitarianism to dissect appropriately the inequalities embedded in social relations, such as social networks and involuntary associations, in which voluntariness and contingency as well as agency and structure are intertwined. Secondly, it suggests that the relational approach, which has (...) been developed, inter alia, in the empirical study of inequality, provides a morally and practically adequate perspective on egalitarian justice. The relational approach achieves this by converging upon those in‐between social relations that are irreducible to the macro‐level structure and to micro‐level agency. Moreover, a relationally sensitive perspective on inequality can adeptly respond to the difficulties that luck‐egalitarian theories encounter. (shrink)

The key concept utilized in this book to understand the international system is neither hegemony, hierarchy, nuclear bipolarity, nor pecking order; instead it is the global social contract. Lamenting the lack of a global polling study on the basis of global sampling theory and the lack of a global quasi-legislative study covering all the multilateral treaties, we have decided to study the link between the citizens’ preferences in values and norms and sovereign states’ participation in multilateral treaties systematically and empirically. (...) By providing the empirical evidence that global citizens’ preference about values and norms converges approximately with sovereign states’ participation in multilateral treaties, it can be concluded that the global social contract could be imagined and minimally envisaged. Part I describes how our initial hunch-cum-hypothesis has developed into the conceptual formulation of the problem: Rousseau and Locke Writ Global. Deploying the World Value Survey (R. Inglehart et al) and the Multilateral Treaties Survey (Lien T.Q. Le and Takashi Inoguchi), we present the degree of association between citizens’ preference in value orientation and states’ preference in treaty participation and argue that our initial hunch-cum-hypothesis has been approximately validated when we formulate states’ participation in multilateral treaties as a bundle of global quasi-legislative contracts. (shrink)

Modal Dimensionalism is a metaphysical theory about possible worlds that is naturally suggested by the often-noted parallelism between modal logic and tense logic. It says that the universe spreads out not only in spatiotemporal dimensions but also in a modal dimension. It regards worlds as nothing more or less than indices in the modal dimension in the way analogous to the way in which Temporal Dimensionalism regards temporal points and intervals as indices in the temporal dimension. Despite its naturalness and (...) intuitive appeal. Modal Dimensionalism has been largely ignored while the debates between David Lewis and his critics have dominated the discourse on the nature of possible worlds. It is high time that we took Modal Dimensionalism seriously as a viable alternative. (shrink)

I propose and defend a surprisingly simple yet useful analysis of existence according to which existence is a relation between a thing and a set: a thing x bears the relation of existence to a set S if and only if x is a member of S . This simple set-theoretic analysis of existence demystifies existence and is powerful and flexible enough to serve important theoretical purposes.

Given the rise of globalization and coinciding increase in cultural clashes among diverse nations, it has become eminently clear to scholars of political thought that there exists a critical gap in the knowledge of non-Western philosophies and how Western thought has been influenced by them. This gap has led to a severely diminished capacity of both state and nonstate actors to communicate effectively on a global scale. The political theorists, area scholars, and intellectual historians gathered here by Takashi Shogimen (...) and Cary J. Nederman examine the exchange of political ideas between Europe and Asia from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. They establish the need for comparative political thought, showing that in order to fully grasp the origins and achievements of the West, historians of political thought must incorporate Asian political discourse and ideas into their understanding. By engaging in comparative studies, this volume proves the necessity of a cross-disciplinary approach in guiding the study of the global history of political thought. (shrink)

Critical examination of Graham Priest's views on nothing.

We explore the understanding of conscious states in terms of spatio-temporal dynamics through modelling a mobile agent. Conscious states are associated with an agent's spontaneous and deterministic fluctuation between attachment to and detachment from the surroundings. It is because of this fluctuating nature, we argue, that an agent can perceive structure in the world. Perception requires a conscious state in physical devices. This is a central concern of this paper, and we examine it by simulating a mobile agent equipped with (...) an interconnected Fitz-Hugh-Nagumo (FHN) neuron network with delayed signal transmissions. The agent can move around a space by sensing the environment pattern through the input neurons and computing the motor outputs via the FHN network. The agent shows a variety of motion styles and a spontaneous selection of motion styles responding to the surroundings. Such a phenomenon is named embodied chaotic itinerancy (ECI), as an extension of chaotic itinerant dynamics, which is known to be a typical dynamic with a high degree of freedom. We take this selective mode of response to be significant, particularly those interacting with spatial pattern, as an inevitable property of conscious states. (shrink)

We show that the e-degree 0'e and the map u ↦ u' are definable in the upper semilattice of all e-degrees. The class of total e-degrees ≥0'e is also definable.

Affective computing research has advanced emotion recognition systems using facial expressions, voices, gaits, and physiological signals, yet these methods are often impractical. This study integrates mouse cursor motion analysis into affective computing and investigates the idea that movements of the computer cursor can provide information about emotion of the computer user. We extracted 16–26 trajectory features during a choice-reaching task and examined the link between emotion and cursor motions. Participants were induced for positive or negative emotions by music, film clips, (...) or emotional pictures, and they indicated their emotions with questionnaires. Our 10-fold cross-validation analysis shows that statistical models formed from “known” participants could predict nearly 10%–20% of the variance of positive affect and attentiveness ratings of “unknown” participants, suggesting that cursor movement patterns such as the area under curve and direction change help infer emotions of computer users. (shrink)

I argue that Aristotle’s arguments in passages regarding chance in the Physics and in passages about ignorance in action in the Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics presuppose two different uses of ‘for the sake (ἕνεκα) of something’, which are able to explain respectively the wish or thought of agents and the type or nature of what they actually do. In my view, however, this does not commit Aristotle, in the ‘ignorance’ passages from the two Ethics, to holding that the type or (...) nature of what the agents actually do is for the sake of killing or wounding. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAnother individual’s gaze automatically shifts an observer’s attention to a location. This reflexive response occurs even when the gaze is presented subliminally over a short period. Another’s gaze also increases the preference level for items in the gaze direction; however, it was previously unclear if this effect occurs when the gaze is presented subliminally. This study showed that the preference levels for nonsense figures looked at by a subliminal gaze were significantly greater than those for items that were subliminally looked (...) away from. Targets that were looked at by a subliminal gaze were detected faster ; however, the participants were unable to detect the gaze direction. These results indicate that another individual’s gaze automatically increases the preference levels for items in the gaze direction without conscious awareness. (shrink)

The Asia Barometer was launched on 6 May 2003 with an international symposium held at the University of Tokyo. It was executed in ten Asian societies in summer 2003. With the first AsiaBarometer survey data in their hands, Asian social scientists got together at the University of Tokyo in January 2004 to present and discuss their papers and discuss the second AsiaBarometer survey to be conducted in summer 2004. In March 2004 discussion papers came out from the Institute of Oriental (...) Culture, University of Tokyo. By the end of 2004 the AsiaBarometer Sourcebook will come out also. This research note summarizes the AsiaBarometer's aims, scope and strength. (shrink)

The paper attempts to construct a global model of a social contract using well-known metaphors of two great philosophers: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke. By modelling a global social contract, I mean the formulation of a social contract using two sets of data: one is global citizens' preferences about values and norms while the other is sovereign states' participation in multilateral treaties. Both Rousseau and Locke formulate their versions of social contract theories in the national context of eighteenth-century Europe. This (...) paper tries my hands on extending their theories to the global context. This paper attempts to link empirically the relationship between global citizens' preferences as gauged by the World Values Survey and sovereign states' participation in 120 multilateral treaties deposited to the United Nations. To see the link between citizens and treaties (quasi-legislative outcomes, sort of), dimensional similarities of the cosmos of citizens' preference and the cosmos of sovereign states' willingness to join multilateral treaties are examined. Once done, all the sovereign states are located in each of the two cosmoses, citizens and states, and the correlation coefficients between them are measured. Based on these empirical results, the nature of the global quasi-legislative process is clarified. Conclusions and implications are drawn. (shrink)

Part I conceptualizes Rousseau’s and Locke’s ideas of social contract to be writ global and formulated as a bundle of global quasi-social contracts. Part II formulates sovereign states’ participation in multilateral treaties as global quasi-legislative behavior. Factor-analyzing six instrumental variables of sovereign states’ participation in multilateral treaties yields three dimensions of speed, angle and strategy whereupon the typology of global quasi-legislative behavior by sovereign states is constructed. Chapter 7 presents the rankings of 193 sovereign states and ten geo-historico-cultural groups on (...) three dimensions, i.e., speed, angle, and strategy when sovereign states join or opt not to join multilateral treaties. Chapter 8 presents the hexagonal profiles of sovereign states, first globally, then regionally focusing on Asia. Hexagonal profiles are constructed to show the distance from world mean by six policy domains. (shrink)

In recent decades, Asian subsidiaries of Japanese manufacturing multi-national enterprises (MNEs) have faced heightened competitions from local firms to underscore the strategic importance of developing competent “host country nationals” (HCNs) to overcome their liability of foreignness. In addition, in recent literature on global MNEs, the importance of “boundary spanners” (BSs) has been pointed out in facilitating knowledge sharing across intra-organizational boundaries. Given these discussions, this study focuses on an interesting contingent relationship in the role of BSs observed in author’s interviews. (...) i.e., In cases of “bad BSs,” “knowledge appropriation” can take place where newly promoted HCNs would monopolize their knowledge and information, and the mitigating processes of notion gap problem in grey areas management are heavily stagnated. Whereas in cases of “good BSs,” “knowledge sharing” would take place where newly promoted HCNs would be willing to share them with other members, and the mitigating processes of the notion gap problem are steadily progressed. The study proposes a framework illustrating conditions under which HCNs choose knowledge sharing over appropriation. The analysis identifies two key factors influencing this choice: dependence on personal skills and prospects for growth opportunities. The findings suggest a dynamic relationship where knowledge sharing leads to effective control and efficient knowledge transfer, fostering virtuous cycles, while knowledge appropriation results in inefficiencies, creating vicious cycles. The study calls for further research on dynamic aspects of this contingent relationship and suggests practical strategies for shifting from knowledge appropriation to sharing, thereby enhancing organizational performance in foreign subsidiaries. (shrink)

The theory of global legislative politics claims a perspective revolution of a sort in international relations research. We argue that instead of focusing on sources of power like wealth, might and ideology, i.e., the trinity of the Cold War period, and instead of focusing on communication messages in international relations, we had better examine the interaction modes and attributes of communications in international relations. When digitalized globalization permeates each and every part of the earth, the distinction between the three levels (...) of analysis, i.e., individual, domestic (national) and international, has ceased to function neatly. Everything is connected to everything else; connectivity functions closely with vulnerability; complexity contains unpredictability. The development of multilateral treaties has played a key role in shaping and sharing an unprecedented liberal world order under digitalized globalization with two conditions: decline of use of violence and growth of democracy. (shrink)

Let us call a sentential context semantically transparent if and only if all synonymous expressions are substitutable for one another in it salva veritate. A sentential context is semantically opaque if and only if it is not semantically transparent. Nathan Salmon has boldly advanced a refreshingly crisp theory according to which belief contexts are semantically transparent.1 If he is right, belief contexts are much better behaved than widely suspected.2 Impressive as it is, I do not believe that Salmon's theory is (...) completely satisfactory. I shall not try to refute his theory, however. My aim is more modest. It is to show that his theory, in conjunction with a number of auxiliary but important claims he makes to buttress the theory, seems to lead to semantic opacity of belief contexts. (shrink)

The author considers three Japanese verbs that may be the counterparts of the English “know” and “believe.” As verbs of thinking, they typically form mental predicates, which are sensitive to the difference in grammatical person in Japanese. He also shows how difference in person is connected to aspectual properties of these verbs. Some Japanese verbs for mental activities may take two sentential complements, one for their objects and the other for their contents. It is argued that the verb _shiru_, a (...) counterpart of “know,” is one such two-complement verb. It is suggested that the object complement of _shiru_ must be a definite noun phrase, and it is the source of the factivity of _shiru_. The two-complement structure of _shiru_ and other Japanese verbs suggests that a mental activity may have its own object, as well as its content, and it is important to consider their relation to each other. (shrink)

As Qing China entered the nineteenth century, the prosperity of the previous era gave way to internal and external troubles, such as the rapid expansion of population growth, social mobility, and the resulting ineffectiveness of the governing system.

This chapter shows the hexagonal profiles of sovereign states’ legislative behavior, first globally (Brazil, Sweden, Iran, New Zealand, Slovakia, South Korea, Nigeria, Uzbekistan), then regionally on Asia (Japan, China, North Korea, Indonesia, Bangladesh, South Korea and Uzbekistan). Hexagonal profiles are constructed to show the distance from world mean by six policy domains, i.e., human rights, peace and security, trade, commerce and communication, environment, intellectual property, labor, health).

In this chapter we use the Multilateral Treaties Survey data. Each treaty is described using six attributes: policy domains, year of deposit, year of membership, regional group, number of current members, treaty participation Index. The core of the Treaty Participation Index, is constituted by the number of years lapsed between sovereign states’ signing and ratifying multilateral treaties. The Treaties Participation Index is shown for 193 sovereign states as well as for ten geo-historico-cultural groups (Sub-Saharan Africa, Sinic East, Returned West, Reformed (...) West, Orthodox East, Old West, New West, Latin America, Islamic East, and Indic East) and for six policy domains (human rights, peace and disarmaments, trade, commerce and communications, the environment, intellectual property, labor). (shrink)

Modal realists should fashion their theory by postulating and taking seriously the modal equivalent of tense, or modal tense. This will give them a uniform way to respond to five different objections, one each by Skyrms, Quine, and Peacocke, and two by van Inwagen, and suggest a non-Lewisian path to modal realism.

It seems to be a challenging task for those non-Western scholars who are deeply immersed in European intellectual resources to theorise multiple forms of modernity and deparochialise political theory. What difficulty awaits us in non-Western contexts, when we attempt to throw off these shackles and to open up alternative views of modernity? To address this question, this article attempts to critically examine Maruyama Masao (丸山眞男, 1914–1996), an influential scholar on the history of Japanese political thought, with respect to his view (...) of Japanese modernity, thereby exploring what obstacles await him in pursuing the multiplicity view of modernity and how he actually or potentially overcomes them. In doing so, I develop two arguments. First, Maruyama's move towards multiple modernities remains incomplete because he fails to throw off the shackles of universal history. Second, however, we can identify an alternative way in his own thought that, though not taken by himself, potentially goes beyond universal history towards multiple modernities. (shrink)

In this article, I highlight the following points. In 2022, the publication of the two volumes Inédits I (1946-1947) and Inédits II (1947-1949) was a great surprise. Among the many discoveries I made, I will focus here on the reading notes Merleau-Ponty had prepared on Hegel’s Aesthetics. I suggest that the motives of his reading of Hegel’s Aesthetics must be understood according to two aspects, intimately linked: they are first due to the fact that he himself was trying to formulate (...) his own theory of art and aesthetics; and second that he had in mind Sartre’s work What is Literature? I show that, indeed, in his reading of the Aesthetics, Merleau-Ponty very clearly focuses on the distinction between the different genres of art and on their historical divisions. This is a point that leads me to raise the following question: What are the distinctions between artistic genres in Merleau-Ponty? Here, for me it is above all a question of taking into account Merleau-Ponty’s reservations, exposed in his later essay “Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence,” concerning the Sartrean conception of literature which distinguishes poetry from prose. Ultimately, I defend the idea that Merleau-Ponty proposes an experience of art that is inter-genre and inter-media, which opens an indefinite horizon from the historical limitation of art. Based on his theory of language and art, he thus recognized the historicity of language and art, while considering the possibility of transforming this historicity into something open. (shrink)

Osmoregulation in insects is an essential process whereby changes in hemolymph osmotic pressure induce the release of diuretic or antidiuretic hormones to recruit individual osmoregulatory responses in a manner that optimizes overall homeostasis. However, the mechanisms by which different osmoregulatory circuits interact with other homeostatic networks to implement the correct homeostatic program remain largely unexplored. Surprisingly, recent advances in insect genetics have revealed several important metabolic functions are regulated by classic osmoregulatory pathways, suggesting that internal cues related to osmotic and (...) metabolic perturbations are integrated by the same hormonal networks. Here, we review our current knowledge on the network mechanisms that underpin systemic osmoregulation and discuss the remarkable parallels between the hormonal networks that regulate body fluid balance and those involved in energy homeostasis to provide a framework for understanding the polymodal optimization of homeostasis in insects. (shrink)