In recent years, scientists have engaged in a vigorous debate regarding the value of so-called gain-of-function (GOF) experiments involving highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) and other pathogens with pandemic potential (PPP). Of particular concern have been experiments whereby something is done to PPP, such as HPAIV, and the pathogen acquires a new property, or GOF, that makes the ...

Seventeen years ago, John McCarthy wrote the note Epistemological challenges for connectionism as a response to Paul Smolensky’s paper On the proper treatment of connectionism. I will discuss the extent to which the four key challenges put forward by McCarthy have been solved, and what are the new challenges ahead. I argue that there are fewer epistemological challenges for connectionism, but p...

Many who take a dismissive attitude towards metaphysics trace their view back to Carnap’s ‘Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology’ (1950a). But the reason Carnap takes a dismissive attitude to metaphysics is a matter of controversy. I will argue that no reason is given in ‘Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology’, and this is because his reason for rejecting metaphysical debates was given in ‘Pseudo-Pro...

12Abstract. Social action depends on the knowledge about all levels of emergent structure and this knowledge is not limited to but produced by the local binary interactions, thus requiring reflexivity and intentionality. This knowledge resides in the impersonal area of symbol systems and is produced by a metalanguage which carries the knowledge of emergent structure beyond local networks to the...