Arguments In Mind Research Articles

Defending and expanding industrial democracy and worker cooperatives in an age of neoliberal globalisation

ABSTRACT Neoliberalism has reinforced inequality, environmental collapse, famine, refugee crises, supply chain vulnerabilities and more. We agree with Gibson-Graham (2006) that the core of the issue for a post-capitalist politics is to overcome the sense of the inevitability of the dominant system of political economy. With this argument in mind, we analyse the diversity, innovativeness, and resilience of two specific manufacturing alternatives to neoliberal capitalism: the Norwegian industrial democracy and the Mondragon Cooperative Experience. The cases show that each example arises from a unique history, environment, and has unique structures. This diversity shows that there are many paths to workplace democracy, such systems are capable of innovation, and they are internationally competitive. Our comparison also reveals that no successful equilibrium is ever static. Scaling (up or out) to secure market share presents a challenge potentially existential for both models. Reviewing their efforts for meeting these challenges conclude our analysis.

Evaluation of the Reality of the Intangible Assets of Some Companies Listed in the Iraq Stock Exchange

The modern business environment witnessed many transformations during the nineties of the last century, most notably the increasing importance of the intangible elements represented in knowledge, technology, individual skills and other factors that have become the main source of wealth and income and the enhancement of the competitive advantages owned by business enterprises that help them survive and grow. This was accompanied by an increase in the market value of business establishments in a manner that exceeds many times its book value, especially in knowledge and technology-intensive sectors such as communications, medicine and software. This made the financial statements lose a lot of their solvency and comparability. Intangible assets are one of the contributing factors in determining the discrepancy between the company's value according to its accounting records, and the company's value according to its market value. With that argument in mind, it is necessary to understand the true nature of intangible assets from the point of view of financiers. Intangible assets are important for many establishments in most industrial sectors such as patents, goodwill, and service sectors such as computer software development work.

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The extended mind argument against phenomenal intentionality

This paper offers a novel argument against the phenomenal intentionality thesis (or PIT for short). The argument, which I'll call the extended mind argument against phenomenal intentionality, is centered around two claims: the first asserts that some source intentional states extend into the environment, while the second maintains that no conscious states extend into the environment. If these two claims are correct, then PIT is false, for PIT implies that the extension of source intentionality is predicated upon the extension of phenomenal consciousness. The argument is important because it undermines an increasingly prominent account of the nature of intentionality. PIT has entered the philosophical mainstream and is now a serious contender to naturalistic views of intentionality like the tracking theory and the functional role theory (Loar 1987, 2003; Searle 1990; Strawson 1994; Horgan and Tienson 2002; Pitt 2004; Farkas 2008; Kriegel 2013; Montague 2016; Bordini 2017; Forrest 2017; Mendelovici 2018). The extended mind argument against PIT challenges the popular sentiment that consciousness grounds intentionality.

Uncertainty in Quantum Rule-Based Systems

This article deals with the problem of the uncertainty in rule-based systems (RBS), but from the perspective of quantum computing (QC). In this work we first remember the characteristics of Quantum Rule-Based Systems (QRBS), a concept defined in a previous article by one of the authors of this paper, and we introduce the problem of quantum uncertainty. We assume that the subjective uncertainty that affects the facts of classical RBSs can be treated as a direct consequence of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics (QM), and we also assume that the uncertainty associated with a given hypothesis is a consequence of the propagation of the imprecision through the inferential circuits of RBSs. This article does not intend to contribute anything new to the QM field: it is a work of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses QC techniques to solve the problem of uncertainty in RBSs. Bearing the above arguments in mind a quantum model is proposed. This model has been applied to a problem already defined by one of the authors of this work in a previous publication and which is briefly described in this article. Then the model is generalized, and it is thoroughly evaluated. The results obtained show that QC is a valid, effective and efficient method to deal with the inherent uncertainty of RBSs

Enhancing protein backbone angle prediction by using simpler models of deep neural networks

Protein structure prediction is a grand challenge. Prediction of protein structures via the representations using backbone dihedral angles has recently achieved significant progress along with the on-going surge of deep neural network (DNN) research in general. However, we observe that in the protein backbone angle prediction research, there is an overall trend to employ more and more complex neural networks and then to throw more and more features to the neural networks. While more features might add more predictive power to the neural network, we argue that redundant features could rather clutter the scenario and more complex neural networks then just could counterbalance the noise. From artificial intelligence and machine learning perspectives, problem representations and solution approaches do mutually interact and thus affect performance. We also argue that comparatively simpler predictors can more easily be reconstructed than the more complex ones. With these arguments in mind, we present a deep learning method named Simpler Angle Predictor (SAP) to train simpler DNN models that enhance protein backbone angle prediction. We then empirically show that SAP significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods on well-known benchmark datasets: for some types of angles, the differences are above 3 in mean absolute error (MAE). The SAP program along with its data is available from the website https://gitlab.com/mahnewton/sap.

The Limits to the Participation of the Taxpayer in Tax Dispute Resolution Procedure Under the Dispute Resolution Directive

This article intends to analyse whether the participation of a taxpayer can be further enhanced in tax dispute resolution under Directive (EU) 2017/1852. As a response to increasing arguments in support of a taxpayer’s participation, the analysis engages with broader legal concepts and human rights law with a specific focus on the right to a fair trial and normative standards. With this distinction of arguments in mind, the article outlines policy options of increasing the participation of the taxpayer in the procedure. Tax dispute resolution, MAP, arbitration, Directive (EU) 2017/1852, taxpayer’s participation, legitimate interest, right to a fair trial, Standing Committee

Performance of Sectors’ Export and Their Effects on Economic Growth in Ethiopia: (Disaggregate Approach)

In numerous trade theories; economist argue export orientation boosts total productivity and output growth through its sympathetic effect on the efficiency of resource allocation, capacity utilization, economies of scale and technological advancement. But some other state that the effects of export varies country to country and items to items depending on the level of development. Having these and others arguments in mind, the performance as well as the short run and long run effects of disaggregate export on Ethiopian economic growth mainly designed in advance. To this end, the 41 years data has been collected from different sources and analyzed using both descriptive and econometric techniques. The findings of descriptive analysis reveal the performance of agriculture and service exports have been improved in amid 1992/93 and 2014/15. In particular it is portrayed that the unprecedented service export has been leading the export sector throughout post reform period. Conversely, with minor improvement; the performance industry export has been poor throughout the study period. Likewise the result of VECM model reveals; in the long run all sectors’ export significantly affect economic growth and in the short run their individual contribution is insignificant to the economy. In sum albeit the short run contribution of each disaggregate export to economic growth is insignificant, since their donation is significant in the long run; indispensible measure should be taken to develop export in general and each disaggregate export in particular. Key words : disaggregate export, economic growth and VECM model JEL Code T07 DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-11-05 Publication date :June 30 th 2019

IN DEFENSE OF NON-CAUSAL LIBERTARIANISM

Abstract Non-Causal Libertananism (NCL) is a libertarian position that aims to provide a non-causal account of action and freedom to do otherwise. Non-Causal Libertarianism has been recently criticized from a number of quarters, notably from proponents of free will skepticism and agent-causation. The main complaint that has been voiced against NCL is that it does not provide a plausible account of an agent’s control over her action, and, therefore, the account of free action it offers is inadequate. Some critics (mainly agent-causationists) have even gone so far as to claim that NCL does not offer a plausible account of action. This paper is intended to defend NCL against these charges. It addresses specifically, The Disappearing Agent Objection, Peter van Inwagen’s Mind Argument, and some objections by Randolph Clarke.

The Incipient Mind Argument

AbstractThe incipient mind argument is the central argument of Evan Thompson’s solution to the so-called mind-body problem. This paper challenges Evan Thompson’s (and Francisco Varela’s) assumption of a pristine form of subjectivity, as well as of interiority in unicellular life forms. I claim that this assumption makes sense only as a useful strategy for an absolutist account of mind. In this paper, I argue that Thompson’s thesis is erroneous at the object-level, as well as at the meta-level of his argumentation. By paying greater attention to the meta-level of his exposition, I show that Thompson’s assumption of an “incipient mind” obeys an absolutist, two- sided pattern of thinking and, therefore, that his argumentation fails to give an accurate account of the systemic generation and development of mind. After demonstrating this, I suggest an innovative action-based approach to mind in order to accurately give an account of its real-constructive development.

Transforming Henry James ed. by Anna De Biasio, Anna Despotopoulou, and Donatella Izzo (review)

Reviewed by: Transforming Henry James ed. by Anna De Biasio, Anna Despotopoulou, and Donatella Izzo Laurence Raw Transforming Henry James. Ed. Anna De Biasio, Anna Despotopoulou, and Donatella Izzo. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2013. 470 pp. $88.34 (hardcover). The title of this book, Transforming Henry James, as the editors suggest in their introduction, carries two possible meanings: through repeated critical interventions (such as those collected in this volume), the notion of “Henry James” as an object of study is transformed, while “Henry James” as a subject redefines our understanding of certain concepts—for example, homosexuality. This highly generalized framework [End Page E-12] provides the justification for a variety of contributions based on papers given at the Fifth International Conference of the Henry James Society held at the John Cabot Centre, University of Rome, from 7–10 July 2011. The sheer range of essays is breathtaking, penned by James scholars both familiar and unfamiliar. In the opening section, “Geographies of Memory and Belonging,” established names such as Leland S. Person and Martha Banta offer contrasting evaluations of James’s periods abroad. Banta surveys his encounters with Italians inside and outside the United States. In the Italian context he found them cultured and civilized, but when he returned to the United States he found the Italian immigrants along the Jersey shore to be more “at home”—i.e., conversant with American mores—than he was (38). Banta emphasizes a basic truism about James’s travel writings: they tell us more about the author’s shifting states of mind than the places he purports to describe. Person looks at Roderick Hudson in relation to the early letters, showing how the novel represents a highly competent distillation of James’s foreign experiences that helped him deal with “over-refinement” in his writing (69). The second section, “Literary Tourism,” extends our understanding of how foreign travel inspired James’s technique. Anna De Biasio’s “The Author’s House as Tourist Space” looks at three different texts—the essay “The Birthplace” (1903), sightseeing in Lamb House as recounted by South African writer Michael Heyns (2002), and tourism as discussed in Colm Tóibín’s The Master (2004). De Biasio argues that all of these texts posit a rhetoric of “displaced forms”—a rupture of ideas between things and the people and cultures that shaped them (117). The best means of dealing with this rupture is to treat the “house”—both the physical house and the house of the imagination—as the equivalent of the act of creation. Tatiana Petrovich Njegosh returns to James’s Italian journals to discuss how he presents vignettes of a country experiencing profound transformation (140). Bearing De Biasio’s argument in mind, we might also argue that the journals reveal a mind undergoing similar transformation. The third section shifts focus somewhat to analyze notions of hospitality—the product, perhaps, of minds who have already acclimatized themselves to the transformative processes described in the previous section. Julie Rivkin’s essay on Jamesian afterlives is a fascinating analysis of how “The Birthplace” can be used by readers to define themselves in relation to the author. She terms this process “living in James”—dwelling in gilded chambers of art accompanied by an acknowledgment of the modest conditions of existence we need to fulfill—an academic house, an academic name. We need to know what it means to make a living in order to participate in a community of recognition such as the Henry James Society (175). Collin Meissner’s essay takes a more thematic approach to friendship in James by using The American and The Portrait of a Lady, while Merle A. Williams shows how friendship and hospitality are transformed (even debased) in The Awkward Age into far less noble emotions driven by pride (208). Inevitably the section on Jamesian sexuality incorporates some powerful pieces. Pierre A. Walker reads The Bostonians as a critique of compulsory heterosexuality wherein silences function as vehicles for transgressive ideas. James does not express overt criticism; what he doesn’t say assumes more significance (222). Alan M. Nadel views The Awkward Age as highly innovative, adumbrating a period in which novelists were very different (in terms...

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Russian Federation

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a concept for business from within developed, Western economies. Such economies are underpinned by functioning institutions, where compliance with regulation is assumed. Recently, however, the ability of this traditional understanding of CSR to take account of the different economic and institutional arrangements found in non-Western contexts has been challenged. It has been argued that CSR research needs to be more contextualized and that the Western interpretation and assumptions about what CSR is and how it is enacted needs to be broadened and challenged to take account of different stages of economic development. With this argument in mind, this article presents a contextualized critique of CSR undertaken in the Russian Federation. Based on a qualitative study involving managers within privatized Russian firms, this article explores the type, nature, and scope of CSR undertaken and attendant motivation of firms to engage in CSR practice. By taking account of the historical and cultural antecedents of both the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet transition period, the author reveals that while the market is driving conventional forms of CSR within some Russian firms, the historical legacy of both the Soviet Union and more recent political developments have a stronger influence on the type and nature of CSR undertaken. These findings challenge the assumptions about both the voluntary nature of CSR and the prerequisites needed for CSR to take place.

Governing projects under complexity: theory and practice in project management

In this paper we argue that the fledgling field of project and program governance has the potential to make a major scholarly and practical contribution. One that not only has the potential to mainstream project management within the broader business and management field, but to also cement its place as a dominant voice in the successful governance of the strategic intentions of organizations, societies, and nations. With this argument in mind three themes organize present discussion in this issue of International Journal of Project Management: the first concerns how we should make sense of governance, something that is clarified through a review of the current state of play in the literature; the second theme comprises papers that report research conducted on governance in projects, using insights from surveys, case studies and other systematic forms of empirical observation. The third theme focuses on theoretical models of governance, ranging from distributed knowledge management and learning perspectives on project governance to systems engineering approaches. While we do not claim that this issue is exhaustive, we do believe it provides a sign post about the current state of play, and the potential future of governance in project and program management as a mainstream domain of research, theory and practice.

THE ASSIMILATION ARGUMENT AND THE ROLLBACK ARGUMENT

AbstractSeth Shabo has presented a new argument that attempts to codify familiar worries about indeterminism, luck, and control. His ‘Assimilation Argument’ contends that libertarians cannot distinguish overtly randomized outcomes from exercises of free will. Shabo claims that the argument possesses advantages over the Mind Argument and Rollback Argument, which also purport to establish that indeterminism is incompatible with free will. I argue first that the Assimilation Argument presents no new challenges over and above those presented by the Rollback Argument, and second that the Rollback Argument itself neither presents a deep challenge to, nor raises the cost of, accepting libertarianism.

90Y/177Lu-DOTATATE therapy: survival of the fittest?

90Y/177Lu-DOTATATE therapy: survival of the fittest?

A Comeuppance Theory of Narrative and Emotions

In an important book of evolutionary literary theory, William Flesch argues that we tell stories to exercise our sense of moral outrage. In this essay I try to spell out some of the consequences of his view. First I give an overview of his argument. Then I revisit a major work of fiction—George Eliot's Middlemarch—with his arguments in mind. Eliot's novel also raises issues about the way that narrative connects with emotions, issues that, I argue, illuminate the structure of narrative itself.

Farewell to the luck (and Mind) argument

In this paper I seek to defend libertarianism about free will and moral responsibility against two well-known arguments: the luck argument and the Mind argument. Both of these arguments purport to show that indeterminism is incompatible with the degree of control necessary for free will and moral responsibility. I begin the discussion by elaborating these arguments, clarifying important features of my preferred version of libertarianism—features that will be central to an adequate response to the arguments—and showing why a strategy of reconciliation (often referred to as “deliberative libertarianism”) will not work. I then consider four formulations of the luck argument and find them all wanting. This discussion will place us in a favorable position to understand why the Mind argument also fails.

Against the Mind Argument

The Mind Argument is an argument for the incompatibility of indeterminism and anyone’s having a choice about anything that happens. Peter van Inwagen rejects the Mind Argument not because he is able to point out the flaw in it, but because he accepts both that determinism is incompatible with anyone’s having a choice about anything that happens and that it is possible for someone to have a choice about something that happens. In this paper I first diagnose and clear up a confusion in recent discussions of the Mind Argument and then go on to show why it is a bad argument.

So Queer Yet So Straight: Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain

THE TERM NEW QUEER CINEMA was coined by film critic B. Ruby Rich to describe emergence in early 1990s of a number of independent films that dealt frankly, even aggressively, with politics, culture, and identity (New Queer).1 Writing for Guardian in September 2005, Rich described Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005) as the most important film to come out of America in years, and credited it with bringing about a shift in of a scope and tenor so profound as to signal a new era (Hello par. 2). With Rich's argument in mind, I explore in this article some of challenges involved in seeing Ang Lee as an exponent of cinema. Through a close reading of his two queer films-The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Brokeback Mountain-I shall define particular quality that sets these films apart from other films. What makes these films distinguished and original, I argue, is not so much that Lee has embraced cinema per se; rather, in each film Lee has come up with a cogent and credible way to reconcile sensibility of queer with formalist aesthetic of narratives. In process, Lee may have perfected his own subgenre-the queer film done straight-through his ability to balance and preserve both power of queer content and integrity of straight narrative style. Strange Bedfellows: Queer and Ang Lee There are broadly three ways to categorize cinema (Benshoffand Griffin 1-2).2 The first way is to look at status of filmmakers: cinema describes films made by gays and lesbians. The second is to look at content of films: cinema describes films that address issues relevant to gays and lesbians. The third way is to look at reception of films: cinema describes films that are watched by gays and lesbians. The implication of reception can be narrow or broad. Narrowly, it means being embraced as a movie by audiences. Broadly, it means being subjected to a theoretical approach to cinema; hence potentially any film can be queered by a interpretation. Most of filmmakers who belong to New Queer Cinema movement of 1990s have benefited directly from insights of theory.3 For them, filmmaking and theoretical practices are interconnected. Consequently, works of these filmmakers tend to reflect polemical concerns of postmodernism and avant-garde theory. These films are characterized by their idiosyncratic visual vocabulary; theoretical sophistication; overt political thrust; self-conscious stylization; uncompromising thematic exploration; and intellectual skepticism of conventional metanarratives.4 By any of above criteria, Ang Lee would seem a most unlikely advocate of cinema. Lee is a Taiwanese American whose first language is Chinese. Lee is a married heterosexual with no apparent political affiliation or background in civil rights activism. Lee, to date, has directed ten major films, films so diverse in subject matter that he is arguably most wide-ranging of contemporary mainstream directors, his two films making up only a part of his range.5 And despite enthusiastic receptions of Brokeback Mountain, Lee can hardly claim to enjoy a cult following among audiences. Moreover, his directing style shows no evidence of being influenced by theory. Lee is no Foucaultian auteur; rather, he is a literalist who favors adaptation of literary fictions, and invariably he stays faithful to his source material. On top of this, Lee's approach to filmmaking is conspicuously unpostmodernist, being character-plot oriented rather than style-polemic oriented. Lee favors a traditional humanist and social-realist approach to storytelling, so much so that to describe him as a classical filmmaker would strike most people as apt.6 One way to summarize all this is to say that typical Ang Lee film is very straight-used here to mean not so much heterosexual as straight/brword. …

A New Version of the Mind Argument Refuted

Peter van Inwagen attempts to demonstrate the apparent incompatibility of free will and indeterminism through an imaginative thought experiment. He imagines God repeatedly “rolling the world back” to its state one minute prior to the performance of an undetermined, putatively free action and then letting it “go forward” again. Van Inwagen argues that the outcome most friendly to the supposition that the agent acted freely, in which she does otherwise about half the time, is one which apparently shows that her original act was a matter of chance, and thus not free. I argue that neither this outcome nor any other implies that her action was not free.