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  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    “X” meansX: Fodor/Warfield semantics (1994)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 4 (1994), S. 215-231 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Meaning ; representation ; disjunction problem ; Twin-Earth ; Fodor ; asymmetric causal dependency ; actual ; naturalized semantics ; information
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract In an earlier paper, we argued that Fodorian Semantics has serious difficulties. However, we suggested possible ways that one might attempt to fix this. Ted Warfield suggests that our arguments can be deflected and he does this by making the very moves that we suggested. In our current paper, we respond to Warfield's attempts to revise and defend Fodorian Semantics against our arguments that such a semantic theory is both too strong and too weak. To get around our objections, Warfield proposes a modified reading of one of Fodor's conditions and proposes adding a new condition to the theory. We show that neither the modified reading nor the additional condition saves the asymmetric causal dependency approach to naturalized semantics.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00974146
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  • 2
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Can computers carry content ‘inexplicitly’? (1994)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 4 (1994), S. 333-344 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Emergence ; content ; information ; representation ; computers
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract I examine whether it is possible for content relevant to a computer's behavior to be carried without an explicit internal representation. I consider three approaches. First, an example of a chess playing computer carrying ‘emergent’ content is offered from Dennett. Next I examine Cummins’ response to this example. Cummins says Dennett's computer executes a rule which is inexplicitly represented. Cummins describes a process wherein a computer interprets explicit rules in its program, implements them to form a chess-playing device, then this device executes the rules in a way that exhibits them inexplicitly. Though this approach is intriguing, I argue that the chess-playing device cannot exist as imagined. The processes of interpretation and implementation produce explicit representations of the content claimed to be inexplicit. Finally, the Chinese Room argument is examined and shown not to save the notion of inexplicit information. This means the strategy of attributing inexplicit content to a computer which is executing a rule, fails.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00974198
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  • 3
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    The many uses of ‘belief’ in AI (1991)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 1 (1991), S. 55-73 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Belief ; syntax ; propositions ; meaning ; information ; tractability ; degrees of confidence ; dispositions
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Within AI and the cognitively related disciplines, there exist a multiplicity of uses of ‘belief’. On the face of it, these differing uses reflect differing views about the nature of an objective phenomenon called ‘belief’. In this paper I distinguish six distinct ways in which ‘belief’ is used in AI. I shall argue that not all these uses reflect a difference of opinion about an objective feature of reality. Rather, in some cases, the differing uses reflect differing concerns with special AI applications. In other cases, however, genuine differences exist about the nature of what we pre-theoretically call belief. To an extent the multiplicity of opinions about, and uses of ‘belief’, echoes the discrepant motivations of AI researchers. The relevance of this discussion for cognitive scientists and philosophers arises from the fact that (a) many regard theoretical research within AI as a branch of cognitive science, and (b) even if theoretical AI is not cognitive science, trends within AI influence theories developed within cognitive science. It should be beneficial, therefore, to unravel the distinct uses and motivations surrounding ‘belief’, in order to discover which usages merely reflect differing pragmatic concerns, and which usages genuinely reflect divergent views about reality.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00360579
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  • 4
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Infons as mathematical objects (1992)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 2 (1992), S. 185-201 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Constraint ; individuation scheme ; infon ; information ; representation ; type
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract I argue that the role played by infons in the kind of mathematical theory of information being developed by several workers affiliated to CSLI is analogous to that of the various number systems in mathematics. In particular, I present a mathematical construction of infons in terms of representations and informational equivalences between them. The main theme of the paper arose from an electronic mail exchange with Pat Hayes of Xeroxparc. The exposition derives from a talk I gave at theTheories of Partial Information conference held at the University of Texas at Austin, January 1990.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00704457
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  • 5
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Counting information: A note on physicalized numbers (1996)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 6 (1996), S. 229-238 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Continuum ; counting ; energy ; infinite ; information ; Landauer ; limits ; physical
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Existing work on the ultimate limits of computation has urged that the apparatus of real numbers should be eschewed as an investigative tool and replaced by discrete mathematics. The present paper argues for a radical extension of this viewpoint: not only the continuum but all infinitary constructs including the rationals and the potential infinite sequence of whole numbers need to be eliminated if a self-consistent investigative framework is to be achieved.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00391287
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  • 6
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    The Engagement of Religion and Biology: A Case Study in the Mediating Role of Metaphor in the Sociobiology of Lumsden & Wilson (2000)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 15 (2000), S. 669-698 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: analogy ; biological systems ; causation ; complexity ; emergent materialism ; hierarchy ; human sociobiology ; information ; metaphor ; methodological reduction ; ontological reduction ; part-whole relations ; physical systems ; religion and science ; self-organization ; social systems ; theory constitution ; theory reduction
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract I claim that explanations of human behaviour by Edward O. Wilsonand Charles Lumsden are constituted by a religiously functioningmetaphysics: emergent materialism. The constitutive effects areidentified using six criteria, beginning with a metaphorical re-description of dissimilarities between levels of organization interms of the lower level, and consist of conceptual andexplanatory reductions (CER). Wilson and Lumsden practice CER,even though CER is not required by emergent materialism. Theypreconceive this practice by a re-description which conflates thelevels of organization and explain failure of CER in terms oftechnical, not ontological or epistemological reasons. Iinterpret these three practices as a reaction of Wilson againsthis early Christian religious beliefs. Statements by Wilsonindicate this reaction ultimately constitutes his explanations ofsocial, moral and religious behaviour. Tested knowledge about matter at the lower level functions as ametaphysical belief when applied to the higher level becausethere it is untested. I offer twelve criteria for the diagnosisof religious functions of this metaphysical materialism, five ofwhich are satisfied. I show that the constitutive effects of thismaterialism in sociobiology are due to its religious functions,are beneficial for science and do not destroy its public nature.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006688908463
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  • 7
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    The mind body problem and the second law of thermodynamics (1987)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 2 (1987), S. 271-275 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Mind ; body ; entropy ; information ; dualism ; second law of thermodynamics
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Cartesian mind body dualism and modern versions of this viewpoint posit a mind thermodynamically unrelated to the body but informationally interactive. The relation between information and entropy developed by Leon Brillouin demonstrates that any information about the state of a system has entropic consequences. It is therefore impossible to dissociate the mind's information from the body's entropy. Knowledge of that state of the system without an energetically significant measurement would lead to a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00128833
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  • 8
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Entropy and information in evolving biological systems (1989)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 4 (1989), S. 407-432 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: evolution ; entropy ; information ; hierarchy ; ecology ; phylogeny ; natural selection
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Integrating concepts of maintenance and of origins is essential to explaining biological diversity. The unified theory of evolution attempts to find a common theme linking production rules inherent in biological systems, explaining the origin of biological order as a manifestation of the flow of energy and the flow of information on various spatial and temporal scales, with the recognition that natural selection is an evolutionarily relevant process. Biological systems persist in space and time by transfor ming energy from one state to another in a manner that generates structures which allows the system to continue to persist. Two classes of energetic transformations allow this; heat-generating transformations, resulting in a net loss of energy from the system, and conservative transformations, changing unusable energy into states that can be stored and used subsequently. All conservative transformations in biological systems are coupled with heat-generating transformations; hence, inherent biological production, or genealogical proesses, is positively entropic. There is a self-organizing phenomenology common to genealogical phenomena, which imparts an arrow of time to biological systems. Natural selection, which by itself is time-reversible, contributes to the organization of the self-organized genealogical trajectories. The interplay of genealogical (diversity-promoting) and selective (diversity-limiting) processes produces biological order to which the primary contribution is genealogical history. Dynamic changes occuring on times scales shorter than speciation rates are microevolutionary; those occuring on time scales longer than speciation rates are macroevolutionary. Macroevolutionary processes are neither redicible to, nor autonomous from, microevolutionary processes.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00162588
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  • 9
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Evolution in thermodynamic perspective: An ecological approach (1989)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 4 (1989), S. 373-405 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Noneequilibrium thermodynamics ; information ; informed patters of energy flow ; ecological hierarchy ; geneological hierarchy ; succession ; development ; Darwinian tradition ; reductionism ; teleology ; natural selection
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Recognition that biological systems are stabilized far from equilibrium by self-organizing, informed, autocatalytic cycles and structures that dissipate unusable energy and matter has led to recent attempts to reformulate evolutionary theory. We hold that such insights are consistent with the broad development of the Darwinian Tradition and with the concept of natural selection. Biological systems are selected that re not only more efficient than competitors but also enhance the integrity of the web of energetic relations in which they are embedded. But the expansion of the informational phase space, upon which selection acts, is also guaranteed by the properties of open informational-energetic systems. This provides a directionality and irreversibility to evolutionary processes that are not reflected in current theory. For this thermodynamically-based program to progress, we believe that biological information should not be treated in isolation from energy flows, and that the ecological perspective must be given descriptive and explanatory primacy. Levels of the ecological hierarchy are relational parts of ecological systems in which there are stable, informed patterns of energy flow and entropic dissipation. Isomorphies between developmental patterns and ecological succession are revealing because they suggest that much of the encoded metabolic information in biological systems is internalized ecological information. The geneological hierarchy, to the extent that its information content reflects internalized ecological information, can therefore be redescribed as an ecological hierarchy. This thermodynamic approach to evolution frees evolutionary theory from dependence on a crypto-Newtonian language more appropriate to closed equilibrial systems than to biological systems. It grounds biology non-reductively in physical law, and drives a conceptual wedge between functions of artifacts and functions of natural systems. This countenances legitimate use of teleology grounded in natural, teleomatic laws.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00162587
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  • 10
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    A semiotical reflection on biology, living signs and artificial life (1991)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 6 (1991), S. 325-340 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Artificial life ; biology ; information ; Peirce ; philosophy of science ; semiotic realism ; semiotics ; tign ; teleology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract It is argued, that theory sf signs, especially in the tradition of the great philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) can inspire the study of central problems in the philosophy of biology. Three such problems are considered: (1) The nature of biology as a science, where a semiotically informed pluralistic approach to the theory of science is introduced. (2) The peculiarity of the general object of biology, where a realistic interpretation of sign- and information-concepts is required to see sign-processes as immanent in nature. (3) The possibility of an artificial construction of life, hereby discussed as a conceptual problem in the present form of the artificial life project and its implied definition of life.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00132235
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  • 11
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    An ecological approach to biosystem thermodynamics (1992)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 7 (1992), S. 35-60 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Action principles ; ecosystem structure ; evolution ; information ; natural selection ; non-equilibrium thermodynamics ; teleology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract The general attributes of ecosystems are examined and a naturally occurring “reference ecosystem” is established, comparable with the “isolated” system of classical thermodynamics. Such an autonomous system with a stable, periodic input of energy is shown to assume certain structural characteristics that have an identifiable thermodynamic basis. Individual species tend to assume a state of “least dissipation”; this is most clearly evident in the dominant species (the species with the best integration of energy acquisition and conservation). It is concluded that ecosystem structure results from the antagonistic interaction of two nearly equal forces. These forces have their origin in the Principle of Most Action (“least dissipation” or “least entropy production”) and the universal Principle of Least Action. “Most action” is contingent on the equipartitioning of the energy available, through uniform interaction of similar individuals. The trend to “Least action” is contingent on increased dissipation attained through increasing diversity and increasing complexity. These principles exhibit a basic asymmetry. Given the operation of these opposing principles over evolutionary time, it is argued that ecosystems originated in the vicinity of thermodynamic equilibrium through the resonant amplification of reversible fluctuations. On account of the basic asymmetry the system was able to evolve away from thermodynamic equilibrium provided that it remained within the vicinity of “ergodynamic equilibrium” (equilibrium maintained by internal work, where the opposing forces are equal and opposite). At the highest level of generalization there appear to be three principles operating: i) maximum association of free-energy and materials; ii) energy conservation (deceleration of the energy flow) through symmetric interaction and increased homogeneity; and iii) the principle of least action which induces acceleration of the energy flow through asymmetrical interaction. The opposition and asymmetry of the two forces give rise to natural selection and evolution.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00130163
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  • 12
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Entropy in evolution (1986)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 1 (1986), S. 5-24 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Entropy ; evolution ; information ; thermodynamics
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Daniel R. Brooks and E. O. Wiley have proposed a theory of evolution in which fitness is merely a rate determining factor. Evolution is driven by non-equilibrium processes which increase the entropy and information content of species together. Evolution can occur without environmental selection, since increased complexity and organization result from the likely “capture” at the species level of random variations produced at the chemical level. Speciation can occur as the result of variation within the species which decreases the probability of sharing genetic information. Critics of the Brooks-Wiley theory argue that they have abused terminology from information theory and t thermodynamics. In this paper I review the essentials of the theory, and give an account of hierarchical physical information systems within which the theory can be interpreted. I then show how the major conceptual objections can be answered.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00127087
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  • 13
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    The extended replicator (1996)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 11 (1996), S. 377-403 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: development ; developmental systems ; gene ; genetic information ; evolution ; information ; inheritance ; interactor ; Lamarck ; Meme ; replicator ; selection ; unit of selection ; vehicle ; Weismann
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract This paper evaluates and criticises the developmental systems conception of evolution and develops instead an extension of the “gene's eye” conception of evolution. We argue (i) Dawkin's attempt to segregate developmental and evolutionary issues about genes is unsatisfactory. On plausible views of development it is arbitrary to single out genes as the units of selection. (ii) The genotype does not carry information about the phenotype in any way that distinguishes the role of the genes in development from that other factors. (iii) There is no simple and general causal criterion which distinguishes the role of genes in development and evolution. (iv) There is, however, an important sense in which genes but not every other developmental factor represent the phenotype. (v) The idea that genes represent features of the phenotype forces us to recognise that genes are not the only, or almost the only, replicators. Many mechanisms of replication are involved in both development and evolution. (vi) A conception of evolutionary history which recognises both genetic and non-genetic replicators, lineages of replicators and interactors has advantages over both the radical rejection of the replicator/interactor distinction and the conservative restriction of replication to genetic replication.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00128788
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  • 14
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Reinventing Molecular Weismannism: Information in Evolution (1998)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 13 (1998), S. 37-59 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: causation ; development ; information ; natural kinds ; traits ; Weismannism
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Molecular Weismannism is the claim that: “In the development of an individual, DNA causes the production both of DNA (genetic material) and of protein (somatic material). The reverse process never occurs. Protein is never a cause of DNA”. This principle underpins both the idea that genes are the objects upon which natural selection operates and the idea that traits can be divided into those that are genetic and those that are not. Recent work in developmental biology and in philosophy of biology argues that an acceptance of Molecular Weismannism requires the tacit assumption that genetic causes are different in kind from other developmental causes. They argue that if this assumption proves to be unwarranted then we should abandon, not just gene selectionism and gene centred functional solutions to the units of selection problem, but also the very notion that there is any such thing as a “genetic trait”. A group of possible causal distinctions (proximity, ultimacy and specificity) are explored and found wanting. It is argued that an extended version of information theory, while not strong enough to support Molecular Weismannism, will support both the claim that traits can be divided into those that are genetic and those that are not as well as the claim that there is good reason to privilege genetic causes within evolutionary and developmental explanations. The outcome of this for the units of selection debate is explored.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006573021270
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  • 15
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Fares and Free Riders on the Information Highway (1997)
    Springer
    Journal of business ethics 16 (1997), S. 1439-1445 
    Details
    ISSN: 1573-0697
    Keywords: access ; information ; internet ; legislation ; libraries
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Economics
    Notes: Abstract Public policy issues around access to networked information are explored and examined. Long viewed as the quintessential public good, information has evolved into a critically important market commodity in little more than a generation. New technologies and a political climate in which the meaning of universal access to information is no longer commonly understood and in which its importance is no longer taken for granted pose significant challenges for American society. Libraries, as information commons, offer the means of meeting those challenges. Historical, economical, and professional factors that shape the conflict are described and discussed.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1005791300561
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  • 16
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Animal Consciousness and Ethics in Asia and the Pacific (1997)
    Springer
    Journal of agricultural and environmental ethics 10 (1997), S. 249-267 
    Details
    ISSN: 1573-322X
    Keywords: Animals ; Asia ; consciousness ; Australia ; Hong Kong ; India ; Israel ; Japan ; New Zealand ; The Philippines ; Russia ; Singapore ; Thailand
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract The interactions between humans, animals and the environment have shaped human values and ethics, not only the genes that we are made of. The animal rights movement challenges human beings to reconsider interactions between humans and other animals, and maybe connected to the environmental movement that begs us to recognize the fact that there are symbiotic relationships between humans and all other organisms. The first part of this paper looks at types of bioethics, the implications of autonomy and the value of being alive. Then the level of consciousness of these relationships are explored in survey results from Asia and the Pacific, especially in the 1993 International Bioethics Survey conducted in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. Very few mentioned animal consciousness in the survey, but there were more biocentric comments in Australia and Japan; and more comments with the idea of harmony including humans in Thailand. Comparisons between questions and surveys will also be made, in an attempt to describe what people imagine animal consciousness to be, and whether this relates to human ethics of the relationships.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1007774409131
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