Logical Dilemma Research Articles

Towards the intellectual compatibilism

In present thesis, the author deals with the problem of free will and the possibility of its existence. He discovers the falsity of libertarianism radically conceived, according to which (radical) indeterminism is required for free will. But if we show that radical indeterminism is false, and if we deny any type of compatibilism as well, a logical dilemma once called an "Ancient Dilemma" enters the scene: If neither determinism nor indeterminism is consistent with free will, then free will simply cannot exist. The author provides a solution for this dilemma, while attempting to prove human freedom consistent. As he believes, however, this cannot be done until some important distinctions are provided, especially between External and Internal Determinism. While the author refutes External Determinism (and External Compatibilism), he defends Internal (or Intellectual) Determinism (as well as respective compatibilism). In the ending passage of his treatment, the author compares his philosophical solution of the free will problem with some recent scientific theories, especially with the physicalistically concieved Law of Conservation of Energy.

Analysis of the Possible Demand of Stablecoins

Stablecoins, which are anchored by certain assets, have been gaining market attention in recent years as a branch of cryptocurrencies. The dollar domination in currency markets exists in cryptocurrency since some mainstream stablecoins anchor dollar. Looking back to when the Bretton Woods system was established, the dollar was pegged to gold and gradually became the worlds main currency. Dollar-based global stablecoins havent been completely developed, and their use on a global scale carries financial risks. This paper discusses the objectives of stablecoins and the differences between vision and reality based on existing literature and research data. In the process of realizing price stability, stablecoins also generate credit risk, and fall into the logical dilemma that leaving fiat currency and achieving price stability cannot be achieved simultaneously. This paper suggests that the compromise of stablecoin to centralization can solve part of current problems. Nevertheless, decentralization needs to be studied continuously in order to achieve stablecoins objectives.

The logic of children's family education practice in ethnic tourism areas under the background of rural revitalization——Based on the perspective of capital type transformation

This study used the research methods of interviews and participatory observation to investigate the current situation of family education of Yao children in Dazhai Yao Town, Longji Town, a tourist attraction in Longsheng County, Guangxi, and found that the practice of family education of children in ethnic minority areas showed the characteristics of "equality", "freedom" and "practicality". The logical dilemma of this characteristic lies in the one-way transformation of cultural capital into economic capital. In the construction of family education for children and children in ethnic minority areas, economic capital should be transformed into cultural capital through such means as carrying out family education guidance and extracurricular education activities.

Human Civilization’s New Forms Research: The Prospect of Practice and the Pattern of China

The development and progress of human civilization requires the joint efforts of the whole world People of all nation and crying out belong to their own unique cultural symbols and vivid stories and loud words. However, the current situation of the international discourse ecosystem is at a standstill. The central reason is that the peak hegemonic countries do not want human civilization to be further developed, and because that would shatter its existing international standing. With the logical construction of "historical context", " discourse ecology", "Chinese characteristics", " logical dilemma", "world respect" and "global orientation", explaining the inevitable laws and attributes of human civilization development towards a new order. Standing under the Future and destiny of all mankind concept, the beautiful vision of building a community of shared future for mankind, submitting creative the Practice patterns of Chinese-style modernization to the world and reconstruct a new realm of human civilization development.

The transformation from value determination to value realization: the logical dilemma of the Okishio theorem

PurposeDifferent from Marx's analysis of the dialectical relationship between the production and realization of surplus value, the Okishio theorem only shows one aspect of the contradictory movement of the total social capital, that is, the reverse effect of the realization of surplus value on the production of surplus value.Design/methodology/approachThe production of surplus value and the realization of surplus value are simplified into one process. This simplification eliminates the contradiction between the production and realization of surplus value, and the antagonistic contradiction between accumulation and consumption and the antagonistic production-distribution relationship in capitalist society are naturally covered up.FindingsTherefore, it cannot explain the actual expansion way of the falling general rate of profit as the historical development law of capitalism. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the Okishio theorem places the analysis of the general rate of profit back into the social reproduction model with department equilibrium, which points out the significance of wage income to the realization of surplus value and outlines the macro mechanism of the realization of surplus value reacting to the production of surplus value. It also strongly promotes the research progress of the law that the profit rate tends to decline.Originality/valueThe mistake of the Okishio theorem is that the exchange process in the labor market forms the real wage rate. It determines the production price of wage goods, which thereby determines that the production price of capital goods and general rate of profit, the production of surplus value and realization of surplus value are simplified into the same process, and only the value that can be realized is the real value.

Thomas Hobbes and the dilemmas of the natural state

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on some the ideas of Thomas Hobbes, one of the foundersof modern political philosophy, best known for his masterpiece, Leviathan. The aim of this essayis not to provide a full scale analysis of Hobbes’ main work, nor to present his moral or politicalphilosophy, nor to reflect on the significance of his impact on later political thinkers. The aim ismore modest, and the theme under scrutiny is more narrow: the paper is devoted to a criticalanalysis of the main premise (state of the nature) of Hobbes’ theory of power, including theambivalent character of the state of nature, as well as the logical dilemmas that arise duringthe analysis.
 After a general presentation of Hobbes’s philosophy and of the logical construction of hiswork, I will tend to focus on two aspects of the state of nature: firstly, I will analyse the assumedanalogy between the state of nature and the Book of Genesis; secondly, I will examine whetherthe „war of all against all” is an axiomatic outcome of the „primitive” state. It turns out, that theanswers for these questions are not so unanbiguous.

Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification with Multi-Fidelity Data and Gaussian Processes for Impedance Cardiography of Aortic Dissection.

In 2000, Kennedy and O’Hagan proposed a model for uncertainty quantification that combines data of several levels of sophistication, fidelity, quality, or accuracy, e.g., a coarse and a fine mesh in finite-element simulations. They assumed each level to be describable by a Gaussian process, and used low-fidelity simulations to improve inference on costly high-fidelity simulations. Departing from there, we move away from the common non-Bayesian practice of optimization and marginalize the parameters instead. Thus, we avoid the awkward logical dilemma of having to choose parameters and of neglecting that choice’s uncertainty. We propagate the parameter uncertainties by averaging the predictions and the prediction uncertainties over all the possible parameters. This is done analytically for all but the nonlinear or inseparable kernel function parameters. What is left is a low-dimensional and feasible numerical integral depending on the choice of kernels, thus allowing for a fully Bayesian treatment. By quantifying the uncertainties of the parameters themselves too, we show that “learning” or optimising those parameters has little meaning when data is little and, thus, justify all our mathematical efforts. The recent hype about machine learning has long spilled over to computational engineering but fails to acknowledge that machine learning is a big data problem and that, in computational engineering, we usually face a little data problem. We devise the fully Bayesian uncertainty quantification method in a notation following the tradition of E.T. Jaynes and find that generalization to an arbitrary number of levels of fidelity and parallelisation becomes rather easy. We scrutinize the method with mock data and demonstrate its advantages in its natural application where high-fidelity data is little but low-fidelity data is not. We then apply the method to quantify the uncertainties in finite element simulations of impedance cardiography of aortic dissection. Aortic dissection is a cardiovascular disease that frequently requires immediate surgical treatment and, thus, a fast diagnosis before. While traditional medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance tomography, or echocardiography certainly do the job, Impedance cardiography too is a clinical standard tool and promises to allow earlier diagnoses as well as to detect patients that otherwise go under the radar for too long.

A difficulty in Arrow’s impossibility theorem

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it evaluates the impossibility proposition, called the “Arrow impossibility theorem” (AIT), which is widely attributed to Arrow’s social choice theory. This theorem denies the possibility of arriving at any collective majority resolution in any group voting system if the social choice function must satisfy “certain natural conditions”. Second, it intends to show the reasons behind the proliferation of this impossibility impression.Design/methodology/approachTheoretical and philosophical.FindingsArrow’s mathematical model does not seem to suggest or support his impossibility thesis. He has considered only one voting outcome, well known by the phrase “the Condorcet paradox”. However, other voting results are equally likely from his model, which might suggest unambiguous majority choice. This logical dilemma has been created by Arrow’s excessive dependence on the language of mathematics and symbolic logic.Research limitations/implicationsThe languages of mathematics and symbolic logic – numbers, letters and signs – have definite advantages in scientific argumentation and reasoning. These numbers and letters being invented however do not have any behavioural characteristics, which suggests that conclusions drawn from the model merely reflect the author’s opinions. The AIT is a good example of this logical dilemma.Social implicationsThe modern social choice theory, which is founded on the AIT, seems to be an academic assault to the system of democratic governance that is dominating current global village. By highlighting weaknesses in the AIT, this paper attempts to discredit this intellectual omission.Originality/valueThe paper offers a counter example to show that the impossibility of social choice is not necessarily implied by the Arrow’s model. Second, it uses Locke’s theory of human understanding to explain why the concerned social scientists are missing this point. This approach is probably entirely novel in this area of research.

Logical Paradoxes and Paradoxical Constellations in Medicolegal Assessment

In medicolegal contexts, the expert is confronted with a number of apparent or seemingly paradox constellations that are mostly not even explicit to the assessor involved, yet when they occur, they may have a profound effect on the shaping of the expert’s opinion and, subsequently, on the outcome of litigation. Because the paradoxes in this forensic work have not been made explicit for the most part in the field, it can be assumed that forensic experts themselves are often unaware of paradoxical situations and logical incoherence to be found in many cases. Difficulties to positively diagnose somatoform and dissociative disorders in disability claimants and compensation-seeking litigants are among the most prominent of these paradoxes. For example, in these diagnoses, presumably unconscious core motives and an involuntarily, unconsciously distorted symptom presentation (both being central for the diagnosis) might contrast with conscious symptom magnification and pursuit of monetary interests on the part of the complainant (external incentives in the form of disability or compensation seeking). Other paradoxes discussed in more detail are linked with symptom validity assessment in forensic psychology. Logical dilemmas and paradoxes, if not placed at the forefront in forensic psychological evaluations, potentially undermine the quality of forensic determinations.

Evolution of a genome-encoded bias in amino acid biosynthetic pathways is a potential indicator of amino acid dynamics in the environment.

Overcoming the stress of starvation is one of an organism’s most challenging phenotypic responses. Those organisms that frequently survive the challenge, by virtue of their fitness, will have evolved genomes that are shaped by their specific environments. Understanding this genotype–environment–phenotype relationship at a deep level will require quantitative predictive models of the complex molecular systems that link these aspects of an organism’s existence. Here, we treat one of the most fundamental molecular systems, protein synthesis, and the amino acid biosynthetic pathways involved in the stringent response to starvation. These systems face an inherent logical dilemma: Building an amino acid biosynthetic pathway to synthesize its product—the cognate amino acid of the pathway—may require that very amino acid when it is no longer available. To study this potential “catch-22,” we have created a generic model of amino acid biosynthesis in response to sudden starvation. Our mathematical analysis and computational results indicate that there are two distinctly different outcomes: Partial recovery to a new steady state, or full system failure. Moreover, the cell’s fate is dictated by the cognate bias, the number of cognate amino acids in the corresponding biosynthetic pathway relative to the average number of that amino acid in the proteome. We test these implications by analyzing the proteomes of over 1,800 sequenced microbes, which reveals statistically significant evidence of low cognate bias, a genetic trait that would avoid the biosynthetic quandary. Furthermore, these results suggest that the pattern of cognate bias, which is readily derived by genome sequencing, may provide evolutionary clues to an organism’s natural environment.

Expressivism and Moral Dilemmas: A Response to Marino

Simon Blackburn’s expressivist logic of attitudes aims to explain how we can use non-assertoric moral judgements in logically valid arguments. Patricia Marino has recently argued that Blackburn’s logic faces a dilemma: either it cannot account for the place of moral dilemmas in moral reasoning or, if it can, it makes an illicit distinction between two different kinds of moral dilemma. Her target is the logic’s definition of validity as satisfiability, according to which validity requires an avoidance of attitudinal inconsistency. Against Marino’s arguments, I contend that expressivists following Blackburn are able to show how we appreciate the validity of arguments found in dilemma-contexts, and that Marino’s argument concerning the distinction between contingent moral dilemmas and logical moral dilemmas rests on a mistake concerning the logical representation of a contingent dilemma.

Response to “Comment on ‘A centroid molecular dynamics study of liquid para-hydrogen and ortho-deuterium’ ” [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 057101 (2005)

The issue of the proper classical limit for approximate quantum dynamical methods is discussed, especially as it applies to liquid para-hydrogen. The conclusion is that a logical dilemma arises, in which the quantum system is in one thermodynamic state but the classical system for the same volume is in a different thermodynamic state. This dilemma also points to the likelihood that a certain class of approximate quantum dynamical methods, in which the initial conditions are weighted by a quantum distribution function but the dynamics are then run with classical trajectories, will contain a systematic error in the dynamical results for such systems.

Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Godel. John W. Dawson, Jr.

<i>Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Godel</i>. John W. Dawson, Jr.

Logical dilemmas: the life and work of Kurt Godel

Logical dilemmas: the life and work of Kurt Godel

Deciphering an enigma

A Logical Journey: From Godel to Philosophy (Representation of Mind) by Hao Wang MIT Press: 1996. Pp. 402. $40, £33.95 Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Death of Kurt Godel by John Dawson A. K. Peters: 1996. Pp. 376. $49.95, £36

Origins of the Self in Early Infancy: Is Perception Sufficient?

Origins of the Self in Early Infancy: Is Perception Sufficient?

Extending the Moral Community: Logical and Psychological Dilemmas

Although the virtues of an extended moral community make it a valid and necessary goal, such an inclusive view also creates problems of a logical and psychological nature. Moral issues are thorny, and an expanded view of the moral community does not “solve” the basic thorny issues of morality. Instead, it puts some of these issues into high relief. This paper examines some of the dilemmas that confront us when we seek to extend our moral community beyond ourselves and our blood relations.

Improving the methodological approach to farming systems research

Applications of Farming Systems Research (FSR) as well as the literature on the subject have grown extensively over the past decade. However, too little emphasis has been placed on classifying methodological issues leading to confusion in the organisation and administration of FSR programmes and projects. This has limited the practical usefulness of FSR. This paper examines closely three major methodological issues concerning FSR—the extent of knowledge of farmers of their circumstances, the optimality of traditional farming systems and farmer testing of improved technology. After the resolution of logical dilemmas associated with these issues (and based on the resolutions), the paper presents an approach to the conduct of FSR which should increase its efficiency in improving the economic conditions of small farmers world-wide.

The Logical Case for "Wrongful Life"

Suits that claim that a child would be better off never having been born often founder on conceptual and logical dilemmas. However, the correct interpretation of "wrongful life" does not require a comparison between existence and nonexistence. The New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in the Procanik case to limit damages to extraordinary medical expenses, barring recovery for pain and suffering, is a reasonable resolution.

Dexamethasone Suppression Test and Diagnosis of Melancholia

To the Editor. — The dialogue between Carroll and two alert readers (Archives1981;38:1067-1068) reflects two blind spots in the article on the dexamethasone suppression test (DST): (1) the logical dilemma, as pointed out by Murphy, of comparing a purely clinical descriptive diagnosis (the gold standard) with a newly advocated biologic marker laboratory test, and (2) the insensitivity of the authors, as pointed out by Cochran, to the uselessness of a diagnostic test that is only 50% sensitive. A third blind spot should be emphasized: the gap between the physician of first contact and the scientist at the tertiary center. When Carroll stated that "the routine use of this simple test byu internists, family practitioners, and psychiatrists who treat depressed patients may help to reduce the diagnostic confusion," he confused specificity, sensitivity, and common sense.