Semantic View Research Articles

Unreliable Intuitions: A New Reply to the Moral Twin‐Earth Argument

AbstractThis article is concerned with Mark Timmons and Terence Horgan's influential twin‐earth argument against the semantic views of that school of thought in metaethics that has come to be known as “Cornell realism”. The semantic views of Cornell realism have been developed in greatest detail by Richard Boyd, and it is Boyd's view that is targeted by Timmons and Horgan. In the first part of the article, the twin‐earth argument is introduced and two versions of it are disentangled. Thereafter, a defensive strategy is developed against the most powerful version of the argument. The conclusion of the article is that Timmons and Horgan's argument does not succeed in showing that the semantic views associated with Cornell realism are false.

What Scientific Theories Could Not Be

According to the semantic view of scientific theories, theories are classes of models. I show that this view—if taken literally—leads to absurdities. In particular, this view equates theories that are distinct, and it distinguishes theories that are equivalent. Furthermore, the semantic view lacks the resources to explicate interesting theoretical relations, such as embeddability of one theory into another. The untenability of the semantic view—as currently formulated—threatens to undermine scientific structuralism.

Proof-Theoretic Semantics, Self-Contradiction, and the Format of Deductive Reasoning

From the point of view of proof-theoretic semantics, it is argued that the sequent calculus with introduction rules on the assertion and on the assumption side represents deductive reasoning more appropriately than natural deduction. In taking consequence to be conceptually prior to truth, it can cope with non-well-founded phenomena such as contradictory reasoning. The fact that, in its typed variant, the sequent calculus has an explicit and separable substitution schema in form of the cut rule, is seen as a crucial advantage over natural deduction, where substitution is built into the general framework.

A ‘Semantic’ View of Scientific Models for Science Education

In this paper I inspect a ‘semantic’ view of scientific models taken from contemporary philosophy of science—I draw upon the so-called ‘semanticist family’, which frontally challenges the received, syntactic conception of scientific theories. I argue that a semantic view may be of use both for science education in the classrooms of all educational levels, and for research and innovation within the discipline of didactics of science. I explore and characterise a model-based account of the nature of science, and derive some implications that may be of interest for our community.

Social networking federation: A position paper

This paper proposes the concept and the technology of social networking federation as a paradigm where information on various social network systems can be seamlessly integrated in order to provide users a uniform and semantic view of their social connections. Such a uniformly fused social network provides a single point of access where all information with respect to one’s social networks can be queried and reasoned about. The goal of the research is to establish a foundation of integrating and assimilating information within multiple social network systems. We designed a reference model of social networking federation system in this paper, as well as some prototype application to demonstrate its paradigm. We believe our work would provide a novel vision of future online social network.

Multiple realizability and the semantic view of theories

Multiply realizable properties are those whose realizers are physically diverse. It is often argued that theories which contain them are ipso facto irreducible. These arguments assume that physical explanations are restricted to the most specific descriptions possible of physical entities. This assumption is descriptively false, and philosophically unmotivated. I argue that it is a holdover from the late positivist axiomatic view of theories. A semantic view of theories, by contrast, correctly allows scientific explanations to be couched in the most perspicuous, powerful language available. On a semantic view, traditional notions of multiple realizability are thus very hard to motivate. At best, one must abandon either the idea that multiple realizability is an interesting scientific notion, or else admit that multiply realizable properties do not automatically block scientific reductions.

Eurípides, Andrómaca 1197-1199

In the dirge that closes Euripides’ Andromache the form κατάρξω (l. 1199) has been traditionally interpreted as a 1st sg. fut. act. (‘I will begin the funeral song for my dead master’). Allegedly, the chorus is taking on a leading role, which breaks genre conventions. This interpretation is problematic from the point of view of syntax and semantics. Difficulties disappear if κατάρξω is interpreted as a 2nd sg. aor. mid. with a Doric augment (‘you have begun the funeral ritual for my dead master’).

On the Unification of Process Semantics: Logical Semantics

We continue with the task of obtaining a unifying view of process semantics by considering in this case the logical characterization of the semantics. We start by considering the classic linear time-branching time spectrum developed by R.J. van Glabbeek. He provided a logical characterization of most of the semantics in his spectrum but, without following a unique pattern. In this paper, we present a uniform logical characterization of all the semantics in the enlarged spectrum. The common structure of the formulas that constitute all the corresponding logics gives us a much clearer picture of the spectrum, clarifying the relations between the different semantics, and allows us to develop generic proofs of some general properties of the semantics.

The Semantic Mapping of Archival Metadata to the CIDOC CRM Ontology

In this article we analyze the main semantics of archival description, expressed through Encoded Archival Description (EAD). Our main target is to map the semantics of EAD to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) ontology as part of a wider integration architecture of cultural heritage metadata. Through this analysis, it is concluded that an EAD document is a hierarchy of documentation elements and attributes and that through this documentation the archive is semantically expressed via 3 hierarchies: hierarchy of physical objects, hierarchy of information objects, and hierarchy of linguistic objects. These semantic views of the archive and its description (e.g., finding aid) as well as their interrelationships are mapped to CIDOC CRM.

Defending the Semantic View: what it takes

In this paper, a modest version of the Semantic View is motivated as both tenable and potentially fruitful for philosophy of science. An analysis is proposed in which the Semantic View is characterized by three main claims. For each of these claims, a distinction is made between stronger and more modest interpretations. It is argued that the criticisms recently leveled against the Semantic View hold only under the stronger interpretations of these claims. However, if one only commits to the modest interpretation for all the claims, then the view obtained, the Modest Semantic View, is tenable and fruitful for the philosophy of science.

Meaning in music and language: Three key differences: Comment on “Towards a neural basis of processing musical semantics” by Stefan Koelsch

Koelsch [4] takes a broad view of semantics (unlike, e.g., [3]), and presents a variety of evidence suggesting that,like language, instrumental music can communicate not only emotional or affective meaning, but also iconic, indexi-cal, and symbolic meaning. He concludes that the study of musical semantics and its relation to linguistic semanticscan advance our understanding of the neural representation of semantics in general. Koelsch’s paper demonstratesthat evidence from neuroscience can inform old debates about musical semantics, and we agree with his point thatlinguistic and musical meaning may have more in common than has been generally appreciated. However, it is alsoimportant to recognize salient differences between linguistic and musical meaning. We point to three key features oflinguistic semantics that are distinct from musical semantics: specificity, compositionality, and communication.As discussed by Koelsch [4], a growing body of evidence suggests that music, like language, can activate aspects ofextramusical meaning, as revealed by elevated N400 responses to semantic incongruity. However, the meaning evokedby music is far less

Design decisions in interactive geometry software

Software design is increasingly being recognized as an important factor in student learning when interacting with interactive geometry software (IGS). A categorization of the operations possible within an IGS is used to identify and analyse design decisions made in a number of current IGS programs: Cabri II Plus, Cabri 3D, Cinderella, GeoGebra and Geometer’s Sketchpad. The analysis, in the context of exploring the area of a circle, is focused on construction, dragging, and alternative spatial and semantic views. A wide diversity of both design issues and individual design decisions was identified, illustrating both the scarcity of research in this area and a number of inevitable tensions, such as between functionality and complexity, and between static and dynamic geometry, related to which future research questions might be posed.

The categorical and the hypothetical: a critique of some fundamental assumptions of standard semantics

The hypothetical notion of consequence is normally understood as the transmission of a categorical notion from premisses to conclusion. In model-theoretic semantics this categorical notion is ‘truth’, in standard proof-theoretic semantics it is ‘canonical provability’. Three underlying dogmas, (I) the priority of the categorical over the hypothetical, (II) the transmission view of consequence, and (III) the identification of consequence and correctness of inference are criticized from an alternative view of proof-theoretic semantics. It is argued that consequence is a basic semantical concept which is directly governed by elementary reasoning principles such as definitional closure and definitional reflection, and not reduced to a categorical concept. This understanding of consequence allows in particular to deal with non-wellfounded phenomena as they arise from circular definitions.

Semantic visualization of 3D urban environments

The purpose of this work is the semantic visualization of complex 3D city models containing numerous dynamic entities, as well as performing interactive semantic walkthroughs and flights without predefined paths. This is achieved by using a 3D multilayer scene graph that integrates geometric and semantic information as well as by the performance of efficient geometric and what we call semantic view culling. The proposed semantic-geometric scene graph is a 3D structure composed of several layers which is suitable for visualizing geometric data with semantic meaning while the user is navigating inside the 3D city model. BqR-Tree is the data structure specially developed for the geometric layer for the purpose of speeding up rendering time in urban scenes. It is an improved R-Tree data structure based on a quadtree spatial partitioning which improves the rendering speed of the usual R-trees when view culling is implemented in urban scenes. The BqR-Tree is defined by considering the city block as the basic and logical unit. The advantage of the block as opposed to the traditional unit, the building, is that it is easily identified regardless of the data source format, and allows inclusion of mobile and semantic elements in a natural way. The usefulness of the 3D scene graph has been tested with low structured data, which makes its application appropriate to almost all city data containing not only static but dynamic elements as well.

The Case of Interactive Metaphor

The Case of Interactive MetaphorThe author analyses the limits of metamorphosis, i.e. possibility of an utterance with idiomatic or non-conventional, disturbing selection requirements of syntagmatic components being considered as metaphorical. The phenomena of metaphor and metonymy are interpreted from the point of view of condensation of surface structure of a sentence, as well as from the point of view of intentional semantics. The author presents elements of metaphor theory as a pragmatic re-codification, treating metaphor as a kind of "multi-vocality" or an intertext.

A new account of rationality and semantics

The aim of this paper is to show how a new outlook on human cognitive abilities, and in accordance with this a different view of rationality, can influence semantics and one of the most prominent debates in this field, namely, conflict between Fregeans and non Fregean anti-indiviidualists. This new account of rationality will help us difuse some of the main motivators for Fregean view of semantics and it will help us in justifying non-Fregean anti-individualism but also in eliminating some of the apparent contradictions in Fregean anti-individualism of, e.g. Campbell and Evans. In this attempt of bringing together some of the latest insights into human cognition and semantics I will be dealing mainly with Jessica Brown's outlook on motivation for Fregean sense and Ruth Millikan's embedded view on rationality.

Knowledge sharing in dynamic virtual enterprises: A socio-technological perspective

The success of a virtual enterprise depends largely on the effective collaboration of its members in orchestrating their knowledge, skills, core competences and resources, in order to enhance competitive capabilities and respond better to business opportunities. In this paper we address the challenges of knowledge sharing in dynamic virtual enterprises. We take a socio-technological approach by proposing a human-centered knowledge sharing solution and architecture. Specifically, we propose a knowledge resource space model to represent heterogeneous knowledge resources, both explicit and implicit. We then introduce a knowledge sharing community model and adopt an agent based solution to perform the functions of knowledge sharing among members of a dynamic virtual enterprise. Our solution incorporates the concepts of agent society and semantic ontology. Knowledge sharing in dynamic virtual enterprises is performed with three types of ties: knowledge agent to knowledge agent, knowledge agent to knowledge item, and knowledge item to knowledge item. We measure agent-to-agent ties by preference correlation using the contribution degree of one agent to another and the preference similarity degree between two agents. We define a semantic view to show agent-to-item ties and use semantic links in the knowledge resource space model to reflect item-to-item ties. We also elaborate the co-evolution mechanism of collective intelligence across enterprises throughout the lifecycle of a dynamic virtual enterprise. A case study is presented to validate our approach.

The Semantic Tagging Model of Chinese Question Chunk Based on Description Logic

To solve the problem of Chinese question cannot provide deep semantic information for syntactic analysis, the paper proposes a semantic tagging model of Chinese question chunk based on description logics. With the knowledge of HNC’s concept symbols to get semantic information about the words, and by starting with the connotation of the concept categories, it preliminarily analyzes the logic structure of specific question sentences. Finally, with description logics reasoning mechanism, we get question semantic view and practical verify the validity of it.

Some Limitations to the Psychological Orientation in Semantic Theory

The psychological orientation treats semantics as a matter of idealized computation over symbolic structures, and semantic relations like denotation as relations between linguistic expressions and these structures. I argue that results similar to Godel’s incompleteness theorems and Tarski’s theorem on truth create foundational difficulties for this view of semantics.

Toward a scientific framework for the Personal Meaning Organization (PMO) paradigm: neuroimaging and genetic studies

Introduction Reciprocity with primary care-givers drives subjects’ adaptive abilities towards the construction of the most useful Personal Meaning Organization (PMO) with respect to their developmental environment. Materials and methods We analyzed the post-rationalist approach over the last ten years focusing on the construction of a specific framework for distinguishing immediate experience from explanations of the experience, the moviola technique, and the analysis of awareness and resistance. Functional neuroimaging (fNI) was used to conduct a scientific in vivo study of PMO. Results Predictable, invariable care-giver behaviors allow an inward focus and a physical view of reciprocity: when reciprocity is high, a controller-type inward PMO develops; when it is low, the inward PMO develops in a detached manner. The Controller PMO is focused on the need for protection/exploration; the Detached PMO is focused on need for expression during isolation. Variable, non-predictable care-giver behavior allows an outward focus and a semantic view of reciprocity: when reciprocity is high, a contextualized outward PMO develops; when it is low, a principle-oriented outward PMO develops. The former interprets changes in the relational environment one by one; the latter focuses on the management of antithetical aspects of reality. Discussion Focusing on the PMO promotes the emergence of adaptive individual resources, thereby improving skills needed for the control of perturbing emotions and more flexible behavior strategies.