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Adam Smith’s "The Theory of Moral Sentiments": A Critical Commentary
by John McHughMany contemporary readers are just now discovering Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). It is increasingly being recognised as a foundational text in moral philosophy and in Adam Smith's oeuvre more generally. This is the first companion to guide readers through TMS and uncover what Smith thinks, why he thinks it, why he might be wrong to think it! While Adam Smith is best known for a Wealth of Nations there is a history of seriously misinterpreting this text as an unnuanced celebration of unfettered capitalism. The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a kind of corrective to these naïve readings. As such, any serious consideration of Adam Smith's work should also include TMS. John McHugh's guide provides detailed analysis of TMS while never losing sight of the text in the context of Smith's writings and world view more generally. It offers both an introduction to the importance and insight of TMS while also functioning as a great way in to Adam Smith as a philosopher.
Adam Smith’s "The Theory of Moral Sentiments": A Critical Commentary
by John McHughMany contemporary readers are just now discovering Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). It is increasingly being recognised as a foundational text in moral philosophy and in Adam Smith's oeuvre more generally. This is the first companion to guide readers through TMS and uncover what Smith thinks, why he thinks it, why he might be wrong to think it! While Adam Smith is best known for a Wealth of Nations there is a history of seriously misinterpreting this text as an unnuanced celebration of unfettered capitalism. The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a kind of corrective to these naïve readings. As such, any serious consideration of Adam Smith's work should also include TMS. John McHugh's guide provides detailed analysis of TMS while never losing sight of the text in the context of Smith's writings and world view more generally. It offers both an introduction to the importance and insight of TMS while also functioning as a great way in to Adam Smith as a philosopher.
The Adaptable Mind: What Neuroplasticity and Neural Reuse Tell Us about Language and Cognition
by John ZerilliA familiar trope of cognitive science, linguistics, and the philosophy of psychology over the past forty or so years has been the idea of the mind as a modular system-that is, one consisting of functionally specialized subsystems responsible for processing different classes of input, or handling specific cognitive tasks like vision, language, logic, music, and so on. However, one of the major achievements of neuroscience has been the discovery that the brain has incredible powers of renewal and reorganization. This "neuroplasticity," in its various forms, has challenged many of the orthodox conceptions of the mind which originally led cognitive scientists to postulate hardwired mental modules. This book examines how such discoveries have changed the way we think about the structure of the mind. It contends that the mind is more supple than prevailing theories in cognitive science and artificial intelligence acknowledge. The book uses language as a test case. The claim that language is cognitively special has often been understood as the claim that it is underpinned by dedicated-and innate-cognitive mechanisms. Zerilli offers a fresh take on how our linguistic abilities could be domain-general: enabled by a composite of very small and redundant cognitive subsystems, few if any of which are likely to be specialized for language. In arguing for this position, however, the book takes seriously various cases suggesting that language dissociates from other cognitive faculties. Accessibly written, The Adaptable Mind is a fascinating account of neuroplasticity, neural reuse, the modularity of mind, the evolution of language, and faculty psychology.
The Adaptable Mind: What Neuroplasticity and Neural Reuse Tell Us about Language and Cognition
by John ZerilliA familiar trope of cognitive science, linguistics, and the philosophy of psychology over the past forty or so years has been the idea of the mind as a modular system-that is, one consisting of functionally specialized subsystems responsible for processing different classes of input, or handling specific cognitive tasks like vision, language, logic, music, and so on. However, one of the major achievements of neuroscience has been the discovery that the brain has incredible powers of renewal and reorganization. This "neuroplasticity," in its various forms, has challenged many of the orthodox conceptions of the mind which originally led cognitive scientists to postulate hardwired mental modules. This book examines how such discoveries have changed the way we think about the structure of the mind. It contends that the mind is more supple than prevailing theories in cognitive science and artificial intelligence acknowledge. The book uses language as a test case. The claim that language is cognitively special has often been understood as the claim that it is underpinned by dedicated-and innate-cognitive mechanisms. Zerilli offers a fresh take on how our linguistic abilities could be domain-general: enabled by a composite of very small and redundant cognitive subsystems, few if any of which are likely to be specialized for language. In arguing for this position, however, the book takes seriously various cases suggesting that language dissociates from other cognitive faculties. Accessibly written, The Adaptable Mind is a fascinating account of neuroplasticity, neural reuse, the modularity of mind, the evolution of language, and faculty psychology.
Adaptation and Autonomy: Adaptive Preferences in Enhancing and Ending Life (Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics #10)
by Juha Räikkä Jukka VareliusThis volume gathers together previously unpublished articles focusing on the relationship between preference adaptation and autonomy in connection with human enhancement and in the end-of-life context. The value of individual autonomy is a cornerstone of liberal societies. While there are different conceptions of the notion, it is arguable that on any plausible understanding of individual autonomy an autonomous agent needs to take into account the conditions that circumscribe its actions. Yet it has also been suggested that allowing one’s options to affect one’s preferences threatens autonomy. While this phenomenon has received some attention in other areas of moral philosophy, it has seldom been considered in bioethics. This book combines for the first time the topics of preference adaptation, individual autonomy, and choosing to die or to enhance human capacities in a unique and comprehensive volume, filling an important knowledge gap in the contemporary bioethics literature.
Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action
by Mercedes ValmisaIf you are from the West, it is likely that you normally assume that you are a subject who relates to objects and other subjects through actions that spring purely from your own intentions and will. Chinese philosophers, however, show how mistaken this conception of action is. Philosophy of action in Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the Western philosophical narrative. While the latter usually assumes we are discrete individual subjects with the ability to act or to effect change, Classical Chinese philosophers theorize that human life is embedded in endless networks of relationships with other entities, phenomena, and socio-material contexts. These relations are primary to the constitution of the person, and hence acting within an early Chinese context is interacting and co-acting along with others, human or nonhuman. This book is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers, one which attempts to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency-what Mercedes Valmisa calls "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin) As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires heightened self- and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response. These capacities allow the agent to "co-raise" courses of action ad hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to cope with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines. Valmisa exemplifies how to build meaningful philosophical theories without treating individual books or putative authors as locations of stable intellectual positions, opening brand-new topics in Chinese and comparative philosophy.
Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action
by Mercedes ValmisaIf you are from the West, it is likely that you normally assume that you are a subject who relates to objects and other subjects through actions that spring purely from your own intentions and will. Chinese philosophers, however, show how mistaken this conception of action is. Philosophy of action in Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the Western philosophical narrative. While the latter usually assumes we are discrete individual subjects with the ability to act or to effect change, Classical Chinese philosophers theorize that human life is embedded in endless networks of relationships with other entities, phenomena, and socio-material contexts. These relations are primary to the constitution of the person, and hence acting within an early Chinese context is interacting and co-acting along with others, human or nonhuman. This book is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers, one which attempts to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency-what Mercedes Valmisa calls "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin) As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires heightened self- and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response. These capacities allow the agent to "co-raise" courses of action ad hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to cope with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines. Valmisa exemplifies how to build meaningful philosophical theories without treating individual books or putative authors as locations of stable intellectual positions, opening brand-new topics in Chinese and comparative philosophy.
Adapting Proofs-as-Programs: The Curry--Howard Protocol (Monographs in Computer Science)
by Iman Poernomo John N. Crossley Martin WirsingThis monograph details several important advances in the direction of a practical proofs-as-programs paradigm, which constitutes a set of approaches to developing programs from proofs in constructive logic with applications to industrial-scale, complex software engineering problems. One of the books central themes is a general, abstract framework for developing new systems of programs synthesis by adapting proofs-as-programs to new contexts.
Adapting the United Nations to a Post-Modern Era: Lessons Learned (Global Issues)
by W. KnightThis volume addresses the central theme of adjusting the United Nations system in light of, firstly, the broadening definition of security, secondly, a perceived shift from modernity to post-modernity; and finally, the contemporary debate about reform, adaptation and institutional learning in multilateral institutions during transnational periods. The UN has not been successful in learning appropriate lessons that could facilitate requisite changes to its structure and operations. Thus the authors in this study focus on the lessons learned from the organizations' recent performance in collective security, preventative diplomacy, preventative deployment, peacekeeping, peacemaking, peace maintenance, and international legal, environmental and trade regulation.
Adaptive and Learning Systems: Theory and Applications
by Kumpati S. NarendraThis volume offers a glimpse of the status of research in adaptive and learning systems in 1985. In recent years these areas have spawned a multiplicity of ideas so rapidly that the average research worker or practicing engineer is overwhelmed by the flood of information. The Yale Workshop on Applications of Adaptive Systems Theory was organized in 1979 to provide a brief respite from this deluge, wherein critical issues may be examined in a calm and collegial environment. The fourth of the series having been held in May 1985, it has now become well established as a biennial forum for the lively exchange of ideas in the ever changing domain of adaptive systems. The scope of this book is broad and ranges from theoretical investigations to practical applications. It includes twenty eight papers by leaders in the field, selected from the Pro ceedings of the Fourth Yale Workshop and divided into five sections. I have provided a brief introduction to each section so that it can be read as a self-contained unit. The first section, devoted to adaptive control theory, suggests the intensity of activity in the field and reveals signs of convergence towards some common themes by workers with rather different moti vation. Preliminary results concerning the reduced order model problem are dramatically changing the way we view the field and bringing it closer to other areas such as robust linear control where major advances have been recently reported.
Adaptive Knowing: Epistemology from a Realistic Standpoint
by J.K. FeiblemanThe acquisition of knowledge is not a single unrelated occasion but rather an adaptive process in which past acquisitions modify present and future ones. In Part I of this essay in epistemology it is argued that coping with knowledge is not a passive affair but dynamic and active, involving its continuance into the stages of assimilation and deployment. In Part II a number of specific issues are raised and discussed in order to explore the dimensions and the depths of the workings of adaptive knowing. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS "Activity as A Source of Knowledge" first appeared in Tulane Studies in Philosophy, XII, 1963; "Knowing, Doing and Being" in Ratio, VI, 1964; "On Beliefs and Believing" in Tulane Studies, XV, 1966; "Absent Objects" in Tulane Studies, XVII, 1968; "The Reality Game" in Tulane Studies, XVIII, 1969; "Adaptive Responses and The Ecosys tem" in Tulane Studies, XVIII, 1969; "The Mind-Body Problem" in the Philosophical Journal, VII, 1970; and "The Knowledge of The Known" in the International Logic Review, I, 1970. PART I COPING WITH KNOWLEDGE CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE I. THE CHOSEN APPROACH You are about to read a study of epistemology, one which has been made from a realistic standpoint. It is not the first of such interpre tations, and it will not be the last.
Adaptive Logics for Defeasible Reasoning: Applications in Argumentation, Normative Reasoning and Default Reasoning (Trends in Logic #38)
by Christian StraßerThis book presents adaptive logics as an intuitive and powerful framework for modeling defeasible reasoning. It examines various contexts in which defeasible reasoning is useful and offers a compact introduction into adaptive logics. The author first familiarizes readers with defeasible reasoning, the adaptive logics framework, combinations of adaptive logics, and a range of useful meta-theoretic properties. He then offers a systematic study of adaptive logics based on various applications. The book presents formal models for defeasible reasoning stemming from different contexts, such as default reasoning, argumentation, and normative reasoning. It highlights various meta-theoretic advantages of adaptive logics over other logics or logical frameworks that model defeasible reasoning. In this way the book substantiates the status of adaptive logics as a generic formal framework for defeasible reasoning.
Adaptive Preferences and Women's Empowerment (Studies in Feminist Philosophy)
by Serene J. KhaderKhader offers a deliberative perfectionist approach to identifying and responding to adaptive preferences-- deprived people's preferences that perpetuate their deprivation. She argues that adaptive preferences are deficits in flourishing that are causally related to deprivation and claims that intervention aimed at transforming them is compatible with respect for persons and cultures.
Adaptive Resonance Theory Microchips: Circuit Design Techniques (The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science #456)
by Teresa Serrano-Gotarredona Bernabé Linares-Barranco Andreas G. AndreouAdaptive Resonance Theory Microchips describes circuit strategies resulting in efficient and functional adaptive resonance theory (ART) hardware systems. While ART algorithms have been developed in software by their creators, this is the first book that addresses efficient VLSI design of ART systems. All systems described in the book have been designed and fabricated (or are nearing completion) as VLSI microchips in anticipation of the impending proliferation of ART applications to autonomous intelligent systems. To accommodate these systems, the book not only provides circuit design techniques, but also validates them through experimental measurements. The book also includes a chapter tutorially describing four ART architectures (ART1, ARTMAP, Fuzzy-ART and Fuzzy-ARTMAP) while providing easily understandable MATLAB code examples to implement these four algorithms in software. In addition, an entire chapter is devoted to other potential applications for real-time data clustering and category learning.
Adaptive Thinking: Rationality In The Real World
by Gerd GigerenzerWhere do new ideas come from? What is social intelligence? Why do social scientists perform mindless statistical rituals? This vital book is about rethinking rationality as adaptive thinking: to understand how minds cope with their environments, both ecological and social. Gerd Gigerenzer proposes and illustrates a bold new research program that investigates the psychology of rationality, introducing the concepts of ecological, bounded, and social rationality. His path-breaking collection takes research on thinking, social intelligence, creativity, anddecision-making out of an ethereal world where the laws of logic and probability reign, and places it into our real world of human behavior and interaction. Adaptive Thinking is accessibly written for general readers with an interest in psychology, cognitive science, economics, sociology,philosophy, artificial intelligence, and animal behavior. It also teaches a practical audience, such as physicians, AIDS counselors, and experts in criminal law, how to understand and communicate uncertainties and risks.
Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World (Evolution and Cognition)
by Gerd GigerenzerWhere do new ideas come from? What is social intelligence? Why do social scientists perform mindless statistical rituals? This vital book is about rethinking rationality as adaptive thinking: to understand how minds cope with their environments, both ecological and social. Gerd Gigerenzer proposes and illustrates a bold new research program that investigates the psychology of rationality, introducing the concepts of ecological, bounded, and social rationality. His path-breaking collection takes research on thinking, social intelligence, creativity, and decision-making out of an ethereal world where the laws of logic and probability reign, and places it into our real world of human behavior and interaction. Adaptive Thinking is accessibly written for general readers with an interest in psychology, cognitive science, economics, sociology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and animal behavior. It also teaches a practical audience, such as physicians, AIDS counselors, and experts in criminal law, how to understand and communicate uncertainties and risks.
Adaptivity and Learning: An Interdisciplinary Debate
by Reimer Kühn Randolf Menzel Wolfram Menzel Ulrich Ratsch Michael M. Richter Ion-Olimpiu StamatescuAdaptivity and learning have in recent decades become a common concern of scientific disciplines. These issues have arisen in mathematics, physics, biology, informatics, economics, and other fields more or less simultaneously. The aim of this publication is the interdisciplinary discourse on the phenomenon of learning and adaptivity. Different perspectives are presented and compared to find fruitful concepts for the disciplines involved. The authors select problems showing representative traits concerning the frame up, the methods and the achievements rather than to present extended overviews.
Addiction: A Philosophical Perspective
by C. ShelbyAddiction argues that addiction should be understood not as a disease but as a phenomenon that must be understood on many levels at once. Employing a complex dynamic systems approach and philosophical methodology, Shelby explains addiction as an irreducible neurobiological, psychological, developmental, environmental, and sociological phenomenon.
Addiction Becomes Normal: On the Late-Modern American Subject
by Jaeyoon ParkAddiction is now seen as an ordinary feature of human nature, an idea that introduces new doubts about the meaning of our desires. Over the last forty years, a variety of developments in American science, politics, and culture have reimagined addiction in their own ways, but they share an important understanding: increasingly, addiction is described as normal, the natural result of a body that has been exposed to potent stimuli. This shift in thinking suggests that addiction is a condition latent in all of us, a common response to a society rich in thrills. In Addiction Becomes Normal, Jaeyoon Park provides a history and critical analysis of the normalization of addiction in late-modern American society. By exploring addiction science, diagnostic manuals, judicial reform, and public health policy, he shows how seeing addiction as normal has flourished in recent decades and is supported throughout cultural life in the United States by the language of wellness, psychotherapy, and more. Building on Michel Foucault’s depiction of the human figure, Park argues that this shift reflects the emergence of a new American subject, one formed by the accretion of experiences. This view of the human subject challenges the idea that our compulsions reflect our characters, wills, or spirits. For if addiction is an extreme but ordinary attachment, and if compulsive consumption resembles healthy behavior, then desire is no longer an expression of the soul so much as the pursuit of a past reward. A perceptive work of recent history and political theory, Addiction Becomes Normal raises new questions about what it means to be human in America today.
Addiction Becomes Normal: On the Late-Modern American Subject
by Jaeyoon ParkAddiction is now seen as an ordinary feature of human nature, an idea that introduces new doubts about the meaning of our desires. Over the last forty years, a variety of developments in American science, politics, and culture have reimagined addiction in their own ways, but they share an important understanding: increasingly, addiction is described as normal, the natural result of a body that has been exposed to potent stimuli. This shift in thinking suggests that addiction is a condition latent in all of us, a common response to a society rich in thrills. In Addiction Becomes Normal, Jaeyoon Park provides a history and critical analysis of the normalization of addiction in late-modern American society. By exploring addiction science, diagnostic manuals, judicial reform, and public health policy, he shows how seeing addiction as normal has flourished in recent decades and is supported throughout cultural life in the United States by the language of wellness, psychotherapy, and more. Building on Michel Foucault’s depiction of the human figure, Park argues that this shift reflects the emergence of a new American subject, one formed by the accretion of experiences. This view of the human subject challenges the idea that our compulsions reflect our characters, wills, or spirits. For if addiction is an extreme but ordinary attachment, and if compulsive consumption resembles healthy behavior, then desire is no longer an expression of the soul so much as the pursuit of a past reward. A perceptive work of recent history and political theory, Addiction Becomes Normal raises new questions about what it means to be human in America today.
Adding Talk To The Equation: A Self-Study Guide for Teachers and Coaches on Improving Math Discussions
by Lucy WestFor more than 20 years, Lucy West has been studying mathematical classroom discourse. She believes that teachers need to understand what their students are thinking as they grapple with rich mathematical tasks and that the best way to do so is through talking and listening. In this video-rich edition of Adding Talk to the Equation: Discussions and Discovery in Mathematics, she invites teachers into real-life classrooms where all students stay in the game, stay motivated about learning, and ultimately deepen their understanding. Designed for math teachers and coaches in grades 18, this self-study guide showcases elementary and middle school classrooms where teachers inspire even the most reluctant students to share their ideas. Through the stories of skilled teachers, West offers play-by-play commentary as they get more comfortable with new talk moves and learn to tune in and respond to students' math conversations. Although these discussions occur in math class, the strategies can be used to create a respectful, productive environment for any subject area. This video-based resource examines the importance of creating a safe learning environment; the value of thinking, reasoning, and questioning; the role of active, accountable listening; and the necessity of giving all students a you can do this message. West also emphasizes that slowing down, even in the face of time constraints, is crucial for creating a classroom where all students feel they have something to contribute. This guide includes transcripts of the case studies, with insightful commentary from West that gives you a window into her thinking and the complexities of the work she is doing with teachers, as well as her reflections on missed opportunities.
Adding Talk To The Equation: A Self-Study Guide for Teachers and Coaches on Improving Math Discussions
by Lucy WestFor more than 20 years, Lucy West has been studying mathematical classroom discourse. She believes that teachers need to understand what their students are thinking as they grapple with rich mathematical tasks and that the best way to do so is through talking and listening. In this video-rich edition of Adding Talk to the Equation: Discussions and Discovery in Mathematics, she invites teachers into real-life classrooms where all students stay in the game, stay motivated about learning, and ultimately deepen their understanding. Designed for math teachers and coaches in grades 18, this self-study guide showcases elementary and middle school classrooms where teachers inspire even the most reluctant students to share their ideas. Through the stories of skilled teachers, West offers play-by-play commentary as they get more comfortable with new talk moves and learn to tune in and respond to students' math conversations. Although these discussions occur in math class, the strategies can be used to create a respectful, productive environment for any subject area. This video-based resource examines the importance of creating a safe learning environment; the value of thinking, reasoning, and questioning; the role of active, accountable listening; and the necessity of giving all students a you can do this message. West also emphasizes that slowing down, even in the face of time constraints, is crucial for creating a classroom where all students feel they have something to contribute. This guide includes transcripts of the case studies, with insightful commentary from West that gives you a window into her thinking and the complexities of the work she is doing with teachers, as well as her reflections on missed opportunities.
Additive Number Theory: Festschrift In Honor of the Sixtieth Birthday of Melvyn B. Nathanson
by David Chudnovsky Gregory ChudnovskyThis impressive volume is dedicated to Mel Nathanson, a leading authoritative expert for several decades in the area of combinatorial and additive number theory. For several decades, Mel Nathanson's seminal ideas and results in combinatorial and additive number theory have influenced graduate students and researchers alike. The invited survey articles in this volume reflect the work of distinguished mathematicians in number theory, and represent a wide range of important topics in current research.
Addressing Ethnic Conflict through Peace Education: International Perspectives
by Z. Bekerman C. McGlynnThis collection on peace education includes contributions from an international group of scholars representing a wide variety of geographical conflict areas and exemplifying the multiple venues of peace educational labour. A strong emphasis is given to integrative and sustained long-term peace education efforts.
Adlai Stevenson's Lasting Legacy
by A. LieblingTwice unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President of the United States, Adlai Stevenson played a key role in American politics throughout much of the middle of the Twentieth Century. This collection of essays from Senator Eugene McCarthy, Arthur Schlesinger, and others, looks at Stevenson's past and current societal significance.