Uniqueness Argument Research Articles

The unity argument: Phenomenology's departure from Kant

AbstractPhenomenology questions the centrality that Kant attributes to the “I think.” It claims that on the pre‐reflective level experience is selfless as unity is given. I call this the “unity argument.” The paper explores the significance of this claim by focusing on the work of Edmund Husserl. What interests me is that although the unity argument claims that we can account for the unity of experience without appealing to the an “I think,” Husserl agrees with Kant that experience must be owned. Moreover, he endorses Kant's dictum that ‘the “I think” must be capable of accompanying all my presentations’. The aim of the paper is to explore how Husserl can consistently appeal to Kant's account of the “I think” and at the same time contend that on the pre‐reflective level experience is selfless. The thesis I wish to advance is that although the unity argument acknowledges that experience is necessarily mine, it reveals that it is a necessary feature of self‐reference that I have never taken absolute ownership over my experience. This may explain why our sense of self can often be out of tune with the way we live our lives.

Variable agentivity: Polysemy or underspecification

Many English verbs typically used agentively allow non-agentive uses. Some recent approaches assume such verbs are unspecified for agentivity, although in principle, polysemy is also an option. We demonstrate the complexity of variable agentivity through an in-depth examination of the English verb sweep, which shows variable agentivity due to both underspecification and motivated polysemy. Drawing on corpus data, we identify two senses for sweep, each with unique argument realization options and interpretive properties. The prototypical uses of this verb, which involve the use of a broom, are obligatorily agentive; however, we claim they instantiate a specialized sense. We argue that the verb’s basic sense, which underlies all its other uses, is unspecified for agentivity, being found with agentive and non-agentive subjects. We formulate event structures for both senses that encode the grammatically relevant components of meaning common across all the verb’s uses: an entity moves along a surface while imparting a force via contact with it. We show that the event structure for the specialized sense, which fixes the moving entity to be a broom, is derived via established processes involving the lexicalization of instruments and routine goal-oriented activities. We demonstrate how the argument realization options and interpretive properties that the verb shows in each sense emerge from applying established principles of argument realization and semantic composition to these event structures.

Effects of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics on Human Labour: A Systematic Review

AbstractThis systematic literature review paper, written by Channarong Intahchomphoo, Jason Millar, Odd Erik Gundersen, Christian Tschirhart, Kris Meawasige and Hojjat Salemi, examines academic research publications to learn about the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics on human labour. Papers were collected from three academic databases: Scopus, Web of Science and ABI/INFORM Collection. From 710 papers, 159 papers were included. The article finds that the effects of AI and robotics on human labour can be categorised as: (i) positive effects, (ii) negative effects, and (iii) neutral or unsure effects. The positive effects have five reasons regarding AI and robotics’ potential to: do dangerous work, do tedious work with high efficiency and accuracy, do some aspects of computing work, do work that human labour does not want to do and be used to deal with the labour shortage, and help to reduce business production and maintenance costs. The negative effects are based on two reasons, that AI and robotics will take over human labour in part or entirely, thereby creating unemployment crises, and will not only replace manually repetitive jobs from human labour but also cognitive jobs, causing human labour to fear that their jobs will be replaced by AI and robotics. The neutral and unsure effects are based on various unique arguments. The findings of this review are used to suggest future research for academic communities and practical recommendations to legal professionals and policy makers.

Establishing the accuracy of self-diagnosis in psychiatry

ABSTRACT Self-diagnosis in psychiatry is where individuals diagnose themselves rather than rely upon official diagnosticians to supply a psychiatric diagnosis. The accuracy of self-diagnosis is a contested topic. In this paper, I outline what arguments are needed to see self-diagnosis as accurate and how different approaches to self-diagnosis require different arguments. I show how different arguments are required to justify accuracy for an autistic individual judging they are autistic compared to non-autistic individuals judging they are not autistic. Different arguments are required if a self-diagnosing individual accepts or rejects official diagnostic criteria. Finally, different arguments are required depending upon whether diagnoses are seen as objective entities, the product of theoretical virtues or practically useful groupings. All these approaches require unique arguments to justify the accuracy of self-diagnosis. Identifying the required arguments for different approaches is a stepping stone toward establishing whether those arguments and which of those arguments can be successfully justified.

How reverse logistics and sustainable supply chain initiatives influence sustainability performance: the moderating role of organisational learning capability

PurposeThis research attempts to explore how reverse logistics (RL) and sustainable supply chain initiatives (SSCI) affect sustainability performance (SP) in the manufacturing industry under the moderating effects of organisational learning capability (OLC). At the same time, this study is expected to allow manufacturers to advance towards a high level of model generation in the green economy.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study was obtained from 451 manufacturing companies in the Hebei Province, China. This study develops a model and tests all hypothesised relationships using partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with two-step analytical procedures.FindingsThe results indicate that SSCI and RL have a positive relationship with SP, and SSCI is positively related to RL. Moreover, the OLC moderates the relationship between RL and SP as well as the relationship between SSCI and SP.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study yield valuable managerial insights on how the effective implementation of green practices, coupled with the utilisation of learning capabilities, can contribute to improving the sustainability of manufacturing firms. The study has certain limitations that suggest potential avenues for future research, the most significant of which is our reliance on data from a single country, which may impede the generalisability of the findings.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature on SP by considering RL and SSCI and offers a unique theoretical argument that describes the relationships by considering the moderating effect of OLC, which has not been empirically explored.

Uniqueness and numerical scheme for spherical shell-structured sources from the far field patterns with at most two frequencies

It is well known that the far field patterns at finitely many frequencies are not enough to uniquely determine a general source. To establish uniqueness, we consider the acoustic scattering of spherical shell-structured sources. We show that the spherical shell-structured sources can be identified from the far field patterns with at most two frequencies. Precisely, we show that the number and the centers (i.e., locations) of the spherical shells can be uniquely determined by the far field patterns at a fixed frequency. Furthermore, the scattering strengths, the inner and outer diameters are uniquely determined by the far field patterns at two frequencies. Motivated by the uniqueness arguments, a numerical scheme is proposed for reconstructing the spherical shell-structured sources. A migration series method is designed to located the centers. The numerical simulations show that the reconstruction quality is the same as the direct sampling method. Furthermore, an iterative method is designed for computing the inner diameters and outer diameters. An important feature of the proposed iterative method is that it avoids computing any derivatives. The convergence of the iterative method is also proved. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed numerical scheme.

Overcoming bias in the comparison of human language and animal communication.

Human language is a powerful communicative and cognitive tool. Scholars have long sought to characterize its uniqueness, but each time a property is proposed to set human language apart (e.g., reference, syntax), some (attenuated) version of that property is found in animals. Recently, the uniqueness argument has shifted from linguistic rules to cognitive capacities underlying them. Scholars argue that human language is unique because it relies on ostension and inference, while animal communication depends on simple associations and largely hardwired signals. Such characterizations are often borne out in published data, but these empirical findings are driven by radical differences in the ways animal and human communication are studied. The field of animal communication has been dramatically shaped by the "code model," which imagines communication as involving information packets that are encoded, transmitted, decoded, and interpreted. This framework standardized methods for studying meaning in animal signals, but it does not allow for the nuance, ambiguity, or contextual variation seen in humans. The code model is insidious. It is rarely referenced directly, but it significantly shapes how we study animals. To compare animal communication and human language, we must acknowledge biases resulting from the different theoretical models used. By incorporating new approaches that break away from searching for codes, we may find that animal communication and human language are characterized by differences of degree rather than kind.

A New Argument for Uniqueness about Evidential Support

Abstract In this paper I identify a family of explanatory demands facing permissivists, those who deny the uniqueness thesis, according to which every body of evidence rationally permits exactly one doxastic attitude for a person to have in light of that evidence. Call a pair of a body of evidence and a proposition a permissive case just in case there is more than one attitude that is permitted for someone who has that body of evidence to take to that proposition. Uniquers claim that there are no permissive cases, and permissivists deny this. The uniqueness thesis is a strong claim, and is vulnerable to counterexamples because it is a universal generalization, and indeed, many permissivists argue for their view by identifying putative counterexamples to the uniqueness thesis. However, in virtue of advancing these putative counterexamples, permissivists incur explanatory demands. If some, but not all, cases are permissive cases, then permissivists owe us an explanation of why some cases are permissive and others are not. Likewise, for each permissive case, permissivists must explain why some attitudes towards the proposition are permitted and others are not. Permissivists draw arbitrary lines between permissive and impermissive cases, and between permitted and impermitted attitudes, giving rise to distinctions which need explaining. I shall argue that permissivists cannot discharge these explanatory burdens in a satisfying way. After carefully presenting these explanatory demands in section 2, I consider how permissivists might answer them in section 3. I argue that the only permissivists who are able to successfully answer the explanatory demands are extreme permissivists like subjective Bayesians. Most philosophers, however, will find this epistemological outlook implausible because it contains no substantive constraints on rational belief. I also show that previous attempts by permissivists to explain why there are permissive cases merely relocate, rather than answer, the explanatory demands I have identified. The final section argues that permissivists cannot soften up the explanatory demands, either. I show that permissivist cannot appeal to the vagueness of the notion of a permissive case, or of an attitude's being permitted, in order to make the line between the permitted and the impermitted attitudes appear less arbitrary. Nor, I argue, can the permissivist hold that our ignorance of which cases are permissive, and how permissive they are, lessens the explanatory burdens they face. Unfortunately, permissivists have been most interested in attempting to identify a counterexample to the uniqueness thesis, and have not been concerned with the explanatory demands which they incur in so doing. If my arguments are successful, then, permissivism is a much less plausible view than it is currently given credit for, and, at the very least, permissivists have a lot of work to do in further articulating and generalizing their view so as to provide an adequate explanation of the scope of epistemic permission.

MULLĀ ṢADRĀ'S CRITICISM OF REINCARNATION

The concept of reincarnation is believed to be the rebirth of humans in the world as a form of part of their life journey in accordance with their actions during life with various forms of reincarnation—including being able to be reborn as humans or animals. This article aims to discuss Mullā Ṣadrā’s eschatological thoughts, especially his criticism of the concept of reincarnation which has been believed by Hindus and Buddhists. Reincarnation is a topic of discussion for philosophers including Islamic philosophers in discussing the spirit, soul, body, death, and resurrection. Ṣadrā’s rejection of the concept of reincarnation is found in one of his main works entitled al-Asfār al-Arba‘ah. By using analytical and descriptive methods, it was concluded that Mullā Ṣadrā rejected the concept of reincarnation with his five philosophical arguments, including the natural unity argument, the material and form needs argument, Kawn and Fasād’s argument, the vacuum argument, and the argument with five premises. These philosophical arguments are based on Ṣadrā’s main philosophical principle, namely the substantial movement of the soul. Even though he rejects the concept of reincarnation, Ṣadrā still believes in the resurrection of the soul and body after death, which will continue the journey towards the highest perfection in the afterlife.

The usage of there sentences with become: the relationship between change of state and appearance/occurrence

Numerous studies have investigated the kinds of verbs that can be used with there constructions. Generally, only existence and appearance verbs can occur in there constructions. However, some cases have been observed involving verbs not lexically expressing existence or appearance. This study focuses on there sentences with the verb become which are noteworthy in the following two respects. First, although the verb become is not an existence or appearance verb but a change-of-state verb, the verb is felicitously used with there constructions. Second, become is used without an adjectival or nominal complement, a unique argument realization pattern of the verb not found in other syntactic contexts. This study, based on a detailed examination of actual data in corpora, claims that there sentences with become express the appearance/occurrence of an entity. Although the postverbal noun is structurally a subject in there constructions and the subject of the verb become is usually interpreted as an entity undergoing a change, the postverbal noun of there sentences with become is an entity that has arisen as a result of the changing event.

TRACING DISTINCTIVE HUMAN MORAL EMOTIONS? THE CONTRIBUTION OF A THEOLOGY OF GRATITUDE

AbstractDarwin thought that the moral sense was among the most challenging aspects of human life to account for through evolutionary explanations. This article seeks to probe the question about human uniqueness primarily from a theological perspective by focusing in depth on one distinctive moral sentiment, gratitude, particularly in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. It uses that example as a case study about how to consider the validity of arguments for human uniqueness within the broader compass of the cultural evolution of sociality and morality within the human sciences, including evolutionary anthropology. Further questions about the evolution of religion surface in this discussion since gratitude, from a theological perspective, necessarily includes gratitude to God as a fundamental aspect of religious faith and practice.

Averroes on Intellect: from Aristotelian Origins to Aquinas’s Critique

<i>Averroes on Intellect: from Aristotelian Origins to Aquinas’s Critique</i>

The “Who Is He?” Commentary Attributed to St. Gregory of Narek [Արուսյակ Թամրազյան. Գրիգոր Նարեկացուն Վերագրվող Մեկնութիւն Ո՞վ Է Դա-ի երկը] by Arusyak T‘amrazyan

Reviewed by: The “Who Is He?” Commentary Attributed to St. Gregory of Narek [Արուսյակ Թամրազյան. Գրիգոր Նարեկացուն Վերագրվող Մեկնութիւն Ո՞վ Է Դա-ի երկը] by Arusyak T‘amrazyan Arpi Nakashian (bio) Arusyak T‘amrazyan, The “Who Is He?” Commentary Attributed to St. Gregory of Narek [Արուսյակ Թամրազյան. Գրիգոր Նարեկացուն Վերագրվող Մեկնութիւն Ո՞վ Է Դա-ի երկը]. Yerevan, Nairi, 2019, 512 pp. Available online at https://www.matenadaran.am/ftp/el_gradaran/A.T'amrazyan.pdf. The scholarly world is indebted to the late Hrach‘ya T‘amrazyan, former head of the Matenadaran, for his extensive research and writing on the Narekean School, particularly for his three volumes of essays entitled Grigor Narekats‘i and the School of Narek [Գրիգոր նարեկացին եւ նարեկեան դպրոցը], published by Nairi in 2013, 2016 and 2017. Now, his daughter, Matenadaran research scholar Arusyak T‘amrazyan, has added to that legacy with a new volume on one of Grigor Narekats‘i’s lesser-known works: his commentary on Job 38–39, a passage often referred to by its first words, “Who Is He?” Edited by Abraham Terian and Gohar Muradyan, the book comprises four chapters, a full transcription of the Narek text, five appendices, and is followed by a bibliography of manuscript and printed sources (pp. 499–508). The subject of T‘amrazyan’s work is a significant but understudied piece attributed to St. Gregory of Narek on the Book of Job. Her writing is a valuable addition to the various works already existing on the Book of Job in Armenian, including Claude Cox’s study of the [End Page 187] Armenian Book of Job1 and more recently, Elya Saribekyan’s article on “Theological Issues in Grigor Tat‘ewats‘i’s Scholia on Job.”2 The four chapters of the volume make up a loosely constructed description of various aspects of the evolution of the commentaries on the Book of Job 38–39 in the Armenian tradition, beginning with their basis in Cyril of Jerusalem’s catechetical lectures. Each chapter section is a short, unique argument that can stand alone or serve as a stepping-stone to the next. The author uses her footnotes to provide a running subtext. T‘amrazyan’s greatest contributions in this volume are two: the first is her reconstruction of the Narek text. Narek’s commentary was published in volume 12 of the series Armenian Classical Authors [Մատենագիրք Հայոց], pp. 885–910, with a one-page introduction by Hakob K‘yoseyan. However, the printed text is based on the only surviving manuscript of the work, Venice ms. 1030/339, dated 1299. The manuscript is severely damaged in many places, and the first pages are entirely missing. T‘amrazyan reconstructs significant parts of the defective text, based both on close physical examination of the manuscript and on comparative study with other commentaries that make use of the Narek material. An extensive footnote at the beginning of the reconstructed text (n. 360, pp. 358–359) describes T‘amrazyan’s reconstruction process. Facsimile fragments from the manuscript are included on pp. 115–116, with a detailed description. T‘amrazyan’s second major contribution in this volume is her comparison of the Narek commentary on Job 38–39 with other relevant works. In chapter 1, she primarily highlights resonance between the commentary and Grigor Narekats‘i’s other works, in particular his Book of Prayers, Festal Odes, and Commentary on the Song of Songs. Among her observations, she emphasizes that the underlying theme of the Book of Prayers is Job’s story, and that Narek, in the persona of Job, is the subject of his own narration. In chapter 2, [End Page 188] she traces references to Job 38–39 in Narekats‘i’s works. She examines themes and symbolism, focusing special attention on the themes and imagery of fragrance and sacrifice. The closing section of the chapter briefly suggests a connection between the sacrifice imagery found in the commentary and the reading of Job 38–39 during Lent. In addition, she discusses the themes’ biblical background or context and compares them with themes that appear in Armenian hymnography. While chapters 1–2 focus on the interconnections within Grigor Narekats‘i’s own works, chapter 3 explores connections with the commentaries of other Church fathers who have written on the Book of Job. The chapter begins with an introduction to the sole surviving manuscript...

Феномен сакрализации воды в религиозных доминантах монгольских народов

Water as a natural phenomenon is one of the most revered objects in the religious culture of the Mongolian peoples. The sacralization of water not only as an ethnocultural phenomenon in the space of the Great Steppe, but also as a vital category of life support is recorded in almost all areas of religious practices of the Mongolian sphere from the most archaic to developed practices of Buddhist culture, which spread among the Mongolian peoples in different chronological periods. At the same time, despite some ethno-differentiating features, the practice of veneration of the Water by the Mongolian meta-ethnic community is a unique ethno-consolidating argument in its structure.

Symmetry and symmetry breaking for the fractional Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality

In this paper, we will consider the fractional Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequalityΛ(∫Rn|u(x)|p|x|βpdx)2p≤∫Rn∫Rn(u(x)−u(y))2|x−y|n+2γ|x|α|y|αdydx where γ∈(0,1), n≥2, and α,β∈R satisfyα≤β≤α+γ,−2γ<α<n−2γ2, and the exponent p is chosen to bep=2nn−2γ+2(β−α), such that the inequality is invariant under scaling. We first study the existence and nonexistence of extremal solutions. Our next goal is to show some results on the symmetry and symmetry breaking region for the minimizers; these suggest the existence of a Felli-Schneider type curve separating both regions but, surprisingly, we find a novel behavior as α→−2γ. The main idea in the proofs, as in the classical case, is to reformulate the fractional Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality in cylindrical variables. Then, in order to find the radially symmetric solutions we need to solve a non-local ODE.For this equation we also get uniqueness of minimizers in the radial symmetry class; indeed, we show that the unique continuation argument of Frank-Lenzmann (Acta'13) can be applied to more general operators with good spectral properties. We provide, in addition, a completely new proof of non-degeneracy which works for all critical points. It is based on the variation of constants approach and the non-local Wronskian of Ao-Chan-DelaTorre-Fontelos-González-Wei (Duke'19).

Vaccine discourse in white nationalist online communication: A mixed-methods computational approach

IntroductionResearch has indicated a growing resistance to vaccines among U.S. conservatives and Republicans. Following past successes of the far-right in mainstreaming health misinformation, this study tracks almost two decades of vaccine discourse on the extremist, white nationalist (WN) online message-board Stormfront. We examine the argumentative repertoire around vaccines on the forum, and whether it assimilated to or challenged common arguments for and against vaccines, or extended it in ways unique to the racist WN agenda. MethodsWe use a mixed-methods approach, combining unsupervised machine learning of 8892 posts including the term “vaccin*“, published on Stormfront between 2001 and 2017. We supplemented the computational analysis with a manual coding of randomly sampled 500 posts, evaluating the prevalence of pro- and anti-vaccine sentiment, previously identified pro- and anti-vaccine arguments, and WN-specific arguments. ResultsDiscourse was dynamic, increasing around specific events, such as outbreaks and following legal debates about vaccine mandates. We identified four themes: conspiracies, science, race and white innovation. The prominence of themes over time was relatively stable. Our manual coding identified levels of anti-vaccine sentiment that were much higher than found in the past on mainstream social media. Most anti-vaccine posts relied on common anti-vaccine tropes and not on WN conspiracy theories. Pro-vaccination posts, however, were supported by unique race-based arguments. ConclusionWe find a high volume of anti-vaccine sentiment among WN on Stormfront, but also identify unique pro-vaccine arguments that echo the group's racist ideology. Public health implicationAs with past health-related conspiracy theories, high levels of anti-vaccine sentiment in online far-right sociotechnical information systems could threaten public health, especially if it ‘spills-over’ to mainstream media. Many pro-vaccine arguments on the forum relied on racist, WN reasoning, thus preventing the authors from recommending the use of these unethical arguments in future public health communications.

Оборонная политика ЕС в призме датских телевизионных дебатов

Denmark held the referendum on removing the country’s EU-defence opt-out on June 1, 2022. The referendum has resulted in extensive televised socio-political discussions not only about integration opt-outs, but also about the upcoming development of the EU CSDP and whether its foreseeable future suits Denmark’s interests. The article analyzes the two rounds of television debates on the abolition of the defense opt-out broadcast on the leading national TV channel ‘DR1’. The ratio of utilitarian and value arguments of supporters and opponents of the abolition of Danish exceptions in the field of EU defense integration was considered. The arguments provided by the participants of the debates were divided into several groups regarding ‘Danish security’, ‘Denmark's influence in the EU’, ‘defense spending’, ‘compatibility between EU and NATO’, ‘solidarity with allies’ and other aspects. Unique arguments and statements that were difficult to attribute to one group or another are also highlighted. The television debates mirror Denmark's dubious position towards the EU – on the one hand, the desire for a stronger and more independent role for the EU in world politics and the EU's more substantial contribution to the regional stability, and on the other hand, reluctance to deepen defense cooperation and limited resources, with the latter raising a question of priorities between NATO and EU defence initiatives. During the debates the advocates for Denmark’s deeper integration within the EU CSDP stressed their strict adherence to intergovernmental approach in the field of defence cooperation.

Two and One-Half Arguments for Idealism

John Foster, an Oxford analytical philosopher, and Borden Parker Bowne, the founder of “Boston Personalism” at the turn of the twentieth century both presented unique arguments for idealism that are deeply different from one another. Because neither is now well known, this paper lays out their reasoning as carefully and as clearly as possible, finding Bowne’s case for personalist idealism to be the stronger of the two in terms of ontology. But the inquiry is framed on the problems of the moral affordances of ontology and of the need of moral philosophy for grounding in ontology. Although this is a very large area, a partial conclusion—the “half argument” of the title—is drawn for further development.

On regularity of weak solutions for the Navier–Stokes equations in general domains

AbstractLet u be a weak solution of the instationary Navier–Stokes equations in a completely general domain which additionally satisfies the strong energy inequality. Firstly, we prove that u is regular if the kinetic energy is left‐side Hölder continuous with Hölder exponent and with a sufficiently small Hölder seminorm. This result extends the previous ones by several authors [5, 6, 7, 8] in which the domain Ω is additionally supposed to be bounded or have the uniform C2‐boundary . Secondly, we show that if and for all with a sufficiently small positive constant C then u is regular in [0, T). Our proofs use the theory about the existence of local strong solutions and uniqueness arguments in the general domain.

Progress of migration scholarship over 60 years of International Migration

Progress of migration scholarship over 60 years of <i>International Migration</i>