In the summer of 1978 a decision was made to devote a special issue of the SIGART newsletter to the subject of knowledge representation research. To assist in ascertaining the current state of people's thinking on this topic, the editors (Ron Brachman and myself) decided to circulate an informal questionnaire among the representation community. What was originally planned as a simple list of qu...

“Flat pre-semantics” lets each parameter of truth (etc.) be considered separately and equally, and without worrying about grammatical complications. This allows one to become a little clearer on a variety of philosophical-logical points, such as the usefulness of Carnapian tolerance and the deep relativity of truth. A more definite result of thinking in terms of flat pre-semantics lies in the a...

The theory of “institutions” [40] is a categorical universal model theory which formalises the intuitive notion of logical system, including syntax, semantics, and the satisfaction between them. It provides the most complete form of abstract model theory, free of commitement to any particular logic, the only one including signature morphisms, model reducts, and even mappings (morphisms) between...

Cognitive sciences such as developmental psychology, cognitive ethology and cognitive archaeology continuously produce evidence of high-level thinking in nonlinguistic creatures. José Luis Bermúdez applies this evidence in formulating a philosophical theory of non-linguistic thought, the main elements of which I summarise here. While I agree with most of the positive aspects of his theory of no...

This paper explores the semiotic status of algebraic variables. To do that we build on a structuralist and post-structuralist train of thought going from Mauss and Lévi-Strauss to Baudrillard and Derrida. We import these authors’ semiotic thinking from the register of indigenous concepts (such as mana), and apply it to the register of algebra via a concrete case study of generating functions. T...

Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was the foremost contributor to the mathematical and philosophical foundations of probability in the twentieth century, and his thinking on the topic is still potent today. In this article we first review the three stages of Kolmogorov’s work on the foundations of probability: (1) his formulation of measure-theoretic probability, 1933, (2) his frequentist theory of...

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s relation to Gestalt Psychology is typically understood through the lens of his engagement with Wolfgang Köhler’s work. Though valuable, this framing may obscure certain broader points similarity between methodological approach and school considered as a whole. In what follows I pursue line thought by comparing discussion rule-following in Philosophical Investigations Max W...

In the last decades, Systems Biology (including cancer research) has been driven by technology, statistical modelling and bioinformatics. In this paper we try to bring biological and philosophical thinking back. We thus aim at making different traditions of thought compatible: (a) causality in epidemiology and in philosophical theorizing-notably, the "sufficient-component-cause framework" and t...

Education is in a state of rapid change. The influx of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) lead us to question: “How do we find the balance between continuity and discontinuity whilst critically renewing our educational traditions?” The paper develops a philosophical understanding that transcends utopian and dystopian claims that IT is either “becoming education” or “destroyin...

‖ Subsequently to the preceding article by Otto Meyerhof some words on Nelson’s significance for the philosophy of mathematics might be added. Nelson belonged to those philosophers whose way of thinking resulted from a familiarity with the spirit of the exact sciences. For him, mathematics and theoretical physics formed the methodical ideal that he strived to achieve in elaborating his philosop...