Logical Dimensions Research Articles

Diskursivität. Zur logischen Erklärung der Hermeneutik Ricoeurs

This article explores the logical dimensions of Ricoeur’s definition of Discursivity. This is a key aspect for understanding not only the general meaning of Hermeneutics, but also the particular relevance of the concept in the author’s practical philosophy. Ricoeur developed his theory of Discourse after introducing a semiologic turn to his Phenomenological work. Discourse is not reduced to immediate (dialogical) communication, even though it begins with it. Taken as a principle of discursive historicity, text plays a major role in the constitution of this theory – it is considered as a model for detachment in communication. Ricoeur distinguishes different levels of meaning (word, sentence, text, culture) and separates three discursive dimensions, irreducible to one another: Rhetorics, Poetics and Hermeneutics. At this point, the article should explain the role of Hermeneutics, particularly when compared to the other two disciplines. The article will conclude by underlining the role of Reflexivity and the analogical unity of Discursivity.

American Literature and the Public Sphere

Discussions of the public sphere in American literary scholarship commonly overemphasize the role that print plays in defining public discourse, neglecting the persistent importance of verbal arts such as oratory, and at the same time assuming a sharp divide between printed texts and oral performances. This opposition between printed works and oral forms has both practical and aesthetic consequences. Practically speaking, such approaches ignore the substantial overlap and integration of spoken and written or printed texts, while in aesthetic terms they ignore the considerable phonemic appeal that printed texts possess. The graphic element of print appeals to the visual and logical dimensions of language; printed works also frequently appeal to our pleasure in the aural qualities of language through incantation, rhyming, anti-logical rhythms, free verse, and rhetorical flights.1 The phenomenology attributed to print shapes accounts of the public sphere and literature's role within it.2 In “Whitman Drunk,” the essay that concludes his 2002 collection Publics and Counterpublics, Michael Warner identifies print as the dominant material and symbolic form shaping Whitman's poetics and the emergent queer counterpublic sphere that Whitman influenced. At the end of the essay, Warner quotes passages from two poems that foreground the themes of physical presence and mediation in relation to print. “To a Stranger” describes how “You,” presumably the reader, “give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return, / I am not to speak to you” (Warner 286). These lines are important for Warner's argument because they highlight the tension between physical intimacy and anonymity in Whitman's poetry, which Warner relates to “the phenomenology of cruising” (287). He argues that “I am not to speak to you” both reflects the conditions of anonymous sexuality and refers to the poem's printedness. A second passage, this time from “Song for Occupations,” makes Whitman's preoccupation with the forms of print even clearer: “I was chilled with the cold types and cylinder and wet paper between us./I pass so poorly with paper and types…. I must pass with the contact of bodies and souls” (287). Warner concludes that in this passage, Whitman creates “jarring conventions of representation” that juxtapose the materials of print with the physical contact of bodies. Whitman pursues “cultivated perversity at the metadiscursive level,” Warner explains, in order to “make sex public” (288). He suggests that Whitman chose print as the medium for his poetry with the aim of forming a counterpublic of readers who might participate in a creative transformation of society by pursuing new modes of embodied expression. It is widely recognized that Whitman's poetry played a prominent role in the formation of gay and queer identities. How important were his material and symbolic uses of print to that project?

Living Text or Exquisite Corpse?

David Parker's recent attempt to bring the fields of textual criticism and biblical theology closer together includes the surprising claim that New Testament text critics are not (and should not be) interested in reconstructing the `original text' of the Bible. Parker supports this claim with two arguments, one having to do with the logical dimensions of the issue, and the other dealing with the theological dimensions. The present article attempts to show that both these arguments are questionable.

What can the Philosophy of Mathematics Learn from the History of Mathematics?

This article canvasses five senses in which one might introduce an historical element into the philosophy of mathematics: 1. The temporal dimension of logic; 2. Explanatory Appeal to Context rather than to General Principles; 3. Heraclitean Flux; 4. All history is the History of Thought; and 5. History is Non-Judgmental. It concludes by adapting Bernard Williams’ distinction between ‘history of philosophy’ and ‘history of ideas’ to argue that the philosophy of mathematics is unavoidably historical, but need not and must not merge with historiography.

The empirical basis of equilibrium: Mach, Vailati, and the lever

About a century ago, Ernst Mach argued that Archimedes’s deduction of the principle of the lever is invalid, since its premises contain the conclusion to be demonstrated. Subsequently, many scholars defended Archimedes, mostly on historical grounds, by raising objections to Mach’s reconstruction of Archimedes’s deduction. In the debate, the Italian philosopher and historian of science Giovanni Vailati stood out. Vailati responded to Mach with an analysis of Archimedes’s deduction which was later quoted and praised by Mach himself. In this paper, my objective is to show that the debate can be further advanced, as Mach indicated, by reframing it in terms of the empirical vs. the logical dimensions of mechanics. In this way, I will suggest, the debate about Archimedes’s deduction can be resolved in Mach’s favour.

Rocky Bottoms: Techno-Fallacies of an Age of Information

I am here to fight for truth, justice and the American way . —Superman 1978 This article uses a true fiction speech by Mr. Richard Rocky Bottoms to illustrate a number of background beliefs underlying contemporary perspectives on social control, borders and surveillance, and on technology more broadly. Rocky Bottoms exists only in the imagination, but the arguments he puts forth and the behavior he reflects are prevalent, and increasingly dominant, in the post-9/11 cultures of industrial nations. His speech is a composite of remarks, many of them direct quotes, that I have gathered as part of a research project on surveillance over several decades. The speech is critically analyzed in light of 38 techno-fallacies of the information age. The fallacies identified may involve empirical, logical, or value dimensions.

Visual culture as a strategic approach to art production in education

The concept of visual culture challenges traditional approaches to art production in education. Art education lacks adequate concepts for understanding contemporary productive processes. The article suggests that the theoretical framework for the productive process should be reconsidered. Visual culture as a strategic approach focuses on conditions surrounding viewing rather than on the substance of aesthetic objects. A new terminology is needed for use in student and teacher dialogue. The article presents a model for teaching art production based on a visual culture approach to visual arts and mass media. This approach differentiates between and elaborates on ‘dimensions of pictorial logic’, ‘production strategies’, ‘concept thematizing’ and ‘reflexive positioning’.

Mission statements in Canadian hospitals.

One of the most popular management tools in the world, the mission statement also is subject to widespread criticism. In order to improve our understanding of the mission statement's strategic value and to provide actionable recommendations for healthcare organizations, the paper adopted a social constructionist perspective in a mission statement study conducted among Canadian hospital executives. The paper found seven factors underlying 23 possible mission statement content items. Four of these (grand inspiration, benefactors, competitive orientation and business definition) corresponded to the dimensions of dominant managerial logic proposed by von Krogh and Grand, and were positively related to various behavioral, financial performance and mission achievement measures. The findings indicate that not all mission statement components are created equal and that the recommendations of major strategy texts may require reconsideration where this particular institutional context is concerned.

Summary

Dynamic analysis of software systems has long proven to be a practical approach to gain understanding of the operational behavior of the system. This workshop brought together researchers in the field of dynamic analysis to discuss the breadth of the field, order the field along logical dimensions, expose common issues and approaches, and stimulate synergistic collaborations among the participants.

Birth characteristics and different dimensions of intellectual performance in young males: a nationwide population‐based study

To study the effect of size at birth on different dimensions of intellectual capacity. The study comprised a population-based cohort including all male single births without congenital malformations in Sweden from 1973 to 1976, and conscripted before 1994 (n = 168 068). Information from the Swedish Birth Register was individually linked to the Swedish Conscript Register. The test of intellectual performance included four different dimensions: logical, spatial, theoretical and verbal capacity. These data were available for 80-86% of the males at conscription. Compared with boys born appropriate for gestational age, males born small for gestational age (SGA) had an increased risk for subnormal performance in all four dimensions. Among males born SGA who were also of short adult stature at conscription, and in individuals born SGA with a head circumference <-- 2 SDS at birth, the risk of subnormal performance was most marked in the logical dimension (OR 1.52; CI 1.25-1.84 and 1.33; 1.15-1.55, respectively). Being born small for gestational age is associated with increased risk of subnormal capacity in all four dimensions of intellectual performance. In SGA males, short adult stature, or a small head circumference at birth is especially associated with the risk of subnormal logical performance.

Semantic abstractions in the multimedia domain

Information searching by exactly matching content is traditionally a strong point of machine searching; this is not, however, how human memory works and is rarely satisfactory for advanced retrieval tasks in any domain-multimedia in particular, where the presentational aspects can be equally important to the semantic information content. A combined abstraction of the conceptual and presentational characteristics of multimedia applications, leading on the one hand to their conceptual structure (with classic semantics of the real-world modeled by entities, relationships, and attributes) and on the other to the presentational structure (including media type, logical structure, temporal synchronization, spatial (on the screen) "synchronization" and interactive behavior) is developed in this paper. Multimedia applications are construed as consisting of "Presentational Units:" elementary (a media object with play duration and screen position), and composite (recursive structures of PUs in the temporal, spatial, and logical dimensions). The fundamental concept introduced is that of Semantic Multimedia Abstractions (SMA): qualitative abstract descriptions of multimedia applications in terms of their conceptual and presentational properties at an adjustable level of abstraction. SMAs, which could be viewed as metadata, form an abstract space to be queried. A detailed study of possible abstractions (from multimedia applications to SMAs and SMA-to-SMA), a definition and query language for Semantic Multimedia Abstractions (SMA-L) and the corresponding SMA model (equivalent to extended OMT), as well as an implementation of a system capable of wrapping the presentational structure of XML-based documents complete this work, whose contribution lays in the classically fruitful boundary between AI, software engineering, and database research.

Justification and Time in Hegel's Phenomenology

H. S. Harris, in his two-volume study of Hegel's Phenomenology, endorses both the titles that Hegel gave to this work. As a science of experience, Harris says, the Phenomenology situates us within the psychology of the singular self, the self's sense of its own consciousness, and exhibits therein “the conceptual structure of pure science.” As the phenomenology of spirit, the Phenomenology shows how an individual situated within his or her own experience and history belongs to the universal life of a spirit that encompasses all history and all selfhood. Thus, the Phenomenology demonstrates that the temporality of the singular self holds within itself eternity; and it conceives this eternity as the pure logic of philosophical science which is “the interpretation of its world by a rationally scientific community.” Harris intends to show that the Phenomenology is a continuous science in its own right, and that the logic developed in Hegel's philosophical system simply detaches this scientific, logical dimension from its embeddedness in the concreteness of human experience.

The challenges of midwifery practice for critical thinking

Midwives are now working in a complex and rapidly changing society. This paper states some of the challenges midwives are facing: appraisal of evidence and translating it to practice, explaining their actions and their judgement and advancing their practice. Consequently, the growing need for midwives to think critically has gathered momentum in the last decade. Critical thinking can be a source of energy that midwives may use to meet these challenges. This paper illustrates how the four dimensions of critical thinking: logical dimension, framework dimension, pragmatic and attitudinal dimension can help midwives to think more accurately and more defensibly.

The Cohomological Dimension of a Resultant Variety in Prime Characteristicp

Ž . 2 2 Ž . Let F s, t s X s q 2 X st q X t 1 F i F 3 be a collection of bii i0 i1 i2 nary quadratic forms with indeterminate coefficients over a field k and let w x R s k X . The aim of this paper is to compute the cohomoi, j 1F iF 3, 0 F jF 2 logical dimension of the ideal I ; R generated by the following Sylvester Ž . Ž . Ž . Ž . resultants: Res F , F , Res F , F , Res F , F , and Res F q F , F . 1 2 1 3 2 3 1 2 3 The closed points of the affine variety defined by I correspond to coefficients of the three forms having a common zero. Thus, in the w x Ž terminology of L1 , I is a resultant system for F , F , and F compare 1 2 3 w x. with Theorem 1.b in L1 . In general, if F , . . . , F are binary forms of 1 s degrees d G d G ??? G d , one can show that a resultant system is 1 2 s s Ž . Ž w x. generated by at least 1 q Ý 1 q d elements Theorem 1 in L1 and ts3 t one would like to know if this lower bound is sharp. In our case, where s s 3 and d s d s d s 2, the question is whether 1 2 3 4Ž . I can be generated by three elements. This would imply that H R s 0 I and this is the motivation behind the main result of this paper. 4Ž . It turns out that it is possible to show that H R s 0 working in the I Ž . subring of joint invariants of G s GL 2, k acting on R via change of Ž . variables in s, t . This calculation is based on some recent results by Lyubeznik on F-modules, which include an algorithm for deciding whether local cohomology modules over regular rings of prime characteristic p vanish. To the best of the author’s knowledge, Theorem 9 in this paper is the first application of this algorithm. Yan has recently produced a 4Ž . w x topological argument showing that H R vanishes in characteristic 0 Y . I

Reaization of the neighboring logic symmetry for boolean ordered set

By means of Logic symmetric relation, the single neighboring Logic path forN dimensions Boolean ordered set is solved. A new method of determining any logic neighboring subset in limited dimension is proposed. Its results are intuitional and realizable for computer.

Music psychopathology. III. Musical expression and psychiatric disease.

Musical expression of the instrumental playing of 61 mentally ill patients and 29 controls recorded several times was assessed by means of a short polarity profile. The performances were reversibly impaired in correlation with the psychopathology. Musical expression followed a systematic variation according to nosological classification. Endogenous-depressive patients could be clearly distinguished from neurotic-depressive patients due to weakened motoric qualities in their playing. In schizophrenia, motoricity did not seem to be so much involved, although the performances were altered in the dimension of musical logic and order. Maniform syndromes had the least effect on musical expression.

Marxian Metaphysics and Individual Freedom

The principles of historical materialism involve Marx in making two crucial claims about freedom. The first is that the revolutionary proletariat is, in an important sense, more free than its class antagonist the bourgeoisie. The second is that the beneficiaries of a successful proletarian revolution—the members of a solidly established communist society—enjoy a greater freedom than even proletarians engaged in revolutionary praxis. It is perhaps natural to take Marx to be operating here with what might be called a logically continuous notion of freedom, established communists enjoying to perfection (or as near as maybe) what revolutionary proletarians merely imperfectly experience and what the bourgeoisie entirely misses. But whatever one's views might be about what Marx in fact says about freedom this cannot be what he ought to say for his theory of freedom to work. The kind of line Marx (and Marxists) need to take finds a significant precedent in his economics where we find a theory implying two quite distinct logical dimensions in that the principles and concepts designed to apply to the transactions of capitalism (commodity, capital, wage-labour, surplus-value, and so on) necessarily lack descriptive purchase on communist economic reality. The existence of these two dimensions, and particularly Marx's comparative silence as to the nature of the second, reflect his conviction that the transition between the two systems must be marked by a profound conceptual as well as material break. Consequently it is not unreasonable, perhaps, to look for an analogous discontinuity in his metaphysics and to expect to find two distinct varieties of freedom, the one reflecting the nature of class society, the other of human community.

Optimizing gate interconnections in four-phase dynamic logic m.o.s. l.s.i. technology

Dynamic logic circuit technology has been used widely to implement large-scale integrated (l.s.i.) circuits using metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistors (m.o.s.f.e.t). One of the factors which determines the overall dimensions of a custom-designed random logic l.s.i. circuit is the number of interconnection tracks as they occupy a large part of the chip between functional modules. This paper describes a multiplexing technique, which allows a reduction in the number of interconnection tracks between modules in l.s.i. circuits implemented using the four-phase dynamic logic technology of the major—minor configuration. It is shown that the operating speed or performance of the circuit is not affected by this technique.

"Historical and Philosophical Dimensions of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science," ed. Robert E. Butts and Jaakko Hintikka

"Historical and Philosophical Dimensions of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science," ed. Robert E. Butts and Jaakko Hintikka

Un jeune homme de bonne famille. Logique de l'accusation et de la confession en Côte d'Ivoire.

M. Auge—A Young Manfrom a Good Family: The Logic of Accusation and Confession in the Ivory Coast. Analysis of the confession, made to 'prophet' Atcho, at Bregbo, by Biaise, a young Aladian. The examination of the facts disclosed, as well as the rather précise identification of both his victims and his associâtes, underlines how closely his confession fits with the intellectual schemata underlying pre-Christian witcheraft beliefs and practices. Unhappy events—especially sickness—are not interpreted in a random fashion: an attempt is made hère to reveal the logical dimensions of interprétation, which incorporate the unequal relationships stemming from the various actors' social position, [pp. 177-218]