The Twin Earth Chronicles

The Twin Earth Chronicles PDF Author: Andrew Pessin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315284790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
In 1975, Putnam published a paper called The Meaning of 'Meaning', which challenged the orthodox view in the philosophies of language and mind. The article's Twin Earth conclusions about meaning, thought and knowledge were shocking. This work contains writings on the subject of Twin Earth.

The Twin Earth Chronicles

The Twin Earth Chronicles PDF Author: Andrew Pessin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315284790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
In 1975, Putnam published a paper called The Meaning of 'Meaning', which challenged the orthodox view in the philosophies of language and mind. The article's Twin Earth conclusions about meaning, thought and knowledge were shocking. This work contains writings on the subject of Twin Earth.

The Twin Earth Chronicles

The Twin Earth Chronicles PDF Author: Andrew Pessin
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 9781557787200
Category : Language and languages
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description


Conceptual Atomism and the Computational Theory of Mind

Conceptual Atomism and the Computational Theory of Mind PDF Author: John-Michael Kuczynski
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027252050
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
What is it to have a concept? What is it to make an inference? What is it to be rational? On the basis of recent developments in semantics, a number of authors have embraced answers to these questions that have radically counterintuitive consequences, for example: • One can rationally accept self-contradictory propositions (e.g. Smith is a composer and Smith is not a composer).• Psychological states are causally inert: beliefs and desires do nothing. • The mind cannot be understood in terms of folk-psychological concepts (e.g. belief, desire, intention). • One can have a single concept without having any others: an otherwise conceptless creature could grasp the concept of justice or of the number seven. • Thoughts are sentence-tokens, and thought-processes are driven by the syntactic, not the semantic, properties of those tokens. In the first half of Conceptual Atomism and the Computational Theory of Mind, John-Michael Kuczynski argues that these implausible but widely held views are direct consequences of a popular doctrine known as content-externalism, this being the view that the contents of one's mental states are constitutively dependent on facts about the external world. Kuczynski shows that content-externalism involves a failure to distinguish between, on the one hand, what is literally meant by linguistic expressions and, on the other hand, the information that one must work through to compute the literal meanings of such expressions. The second half of the present work concerns the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM). Underlying CTM is an acceptance of conceptual atomism – the view that a creature can have a single concept without having any others – and also an acceptance of the view that concepts are not descriptive (i.e. that one can have a concept of a thing without knowing of any description that is satisfied by that thing). Kuczynski shows that both views are false, one reason being that they presuppose the truth of content-externalism, another being that they are incompatible with the epistemological anti-foundationalism proven correct by Wilfred Sellars and Laurence Bonjour. Kuczynski also shows that CTM involves a misunderstanding of terms such as “computation”, “syntax”, “algorithm” and “formal truth”; and he provides novel analyses of the concepts expressed by these terms. (Series A)

Empty Ideas

Empty Ideas PDF Author: Peter Unger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019069601X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
During the middle of the twentieth century, philosophers generally agreed that, by contrast with science, philosophy should offer no substantial thoughts about the general nature of concrete reality. Instead, philosophers offered conceptual truths. It is widely assumed that, since 1970, things have changed greatly. This book argues that's an illusion that prevails because of the failure to differentiate between "concretely substantial" and "concretely empty" ideas.

Wittgenstein, Language and Information: "Back to the Rough Ground!"

Wittgenstein, Language and Information: Author: David Blair
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402045832
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
“The more narrowly we examine language, the sharper becomes the con?ict - tween it and our requirement. (For the crystalline purity of logic was, of course, not a result of investigation; it was a requirement. ) The con?ict becomes intolerable; the requirement is now in danger of becoming empty. —We have got onto slippery ice where there is no friction and so in a certain sense the conditions are ideal, but also, just because of that, we are unable to walk. We want to walk; so we need 1 friction. Back to the rough ground!” —Ludwig Wittgenstein This manuscript consists of four related parts: a brief overview of Wittgenstein’s p- losophy of language and its relevance to information systems; a detailed explanation of Wittgenstein’s late philosophy of language and mind; an extended discussion of the re- vance of his philosophy to understanding some of the problems inherent in information systems, especially those systems which rely on retrieval based on some representation of the intellectual content of that information. And, fourthly, a series of detailed footnotes which cite the sources of the numerous quotations and provide some discussion of the related issues that the text inspires. The ?rst three of these parts can each be read by itself with some pro?t, although they are related and do form a conceptual whole.

The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles PDF Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451678193
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The tranquility of Mars is disrupted by humans who want to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.

When Time Began

When Time Began PDF Author: Zecharia Sitchin
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0380770717
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Offers evidence that visitors from outer space helped usher in humankind's first new age of scientific growth and spiritual enlightenment.

The King Who Refused to Die

The King Who Refused to Die PDF Author: Zecharia Sitchin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1591437555
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Zecharia Sitchin’s secret allegorical novel that brings to life the key concepts of his bestselling book The 12th Planet • Reimagines the Epic of Gilgamesh in the context of Sitchin’s discoveries • Details ancient Sumerian sex rituals, the Anunnaki lineage of the gods who lived in Sumer, Anunnaki spacecraft technology, the workings of the Oracle of Anu, and Gilgamesh’s relationship with the goddess Ishtar Written in secret so as not to incite criticism about his controversial discoveries, this novel from the late Zecharia Sitchin brings to life the key themes of his bestseller The 12th Planet. The story begins in London as Astra arrives at the British Museum’s opening for their new Gilgamesh exhibit. There she meets a handsome stranger who knows secrets about her that no stranger should know, including the source of the unusual scar on her hand. Taking her to his apartment, he reveals that she is descended from the goddess Ishtar and that he is the modern-day avatar of Gilgamesh seeking to claim the eternal life Ishtar denied him so long ago. Reenacting their sacred sex ritual from eons ago, they find themselves transported to ancient Sumer as Gilgamesh and Ishtar, where he is at last able to continue his quest for immortality. But as Gilgamesh fulfills his sacred duties with Ishtar, something goes awry and the Oracle of Anu will not renew its blessing upon his kingship. Following the direction of his mother, the Anunnaki goddess Ninsun--the source of his partial divinity--Gilgamesh flees the city for the Anunnaki forbidden zone in search of a way to the planet Nibiru and eternal life. Travel alongside Gilgamesh and his immortal companion Enkidu as they escape the fate pronounced by the oracle, discover a Tablet of Destiny meant for Ishtar, fight off Marduk’s raiders, and foil the plot of the high priest, Gilgamesh’s half-brother who is seeking Gilgamesh’s crown for himself. Retelling the Epic of Gilgamesh in the context of his discoveries about the Anunnaki, Zecharia Sitchin weaves a tale of ancient ceremony, accidental betrayal, gods among men, interplanetary travel, and a quest for immortality spanning millennia.

Exploring Mars

Exploring Mars PDF Author: Scott Hubbard
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816528969
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The Red Planet has been a subject of fascination for humanity for thousands of years, becoming part of our folklore and popular culture. The most Earthlike of the planets in our solar system, Mars may have harbored some form of life in the past and may still possess an ecosystem in some underground refuge. The mysteries of this fourth planet from our Sun make it of central importance to NASA and its science goals for the twenty-first century.ÊÊ In the wake of the very public failures of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, NASA embarked on a complete reassessment of the Mars Program. Scott Hubbard was asked to lead this restructuring in 2000, becoming known as the "Mars Czar." His team's efforts resulted in a very successful decade-long series of missions--each building on the accomplishments of those before it--that adhered to the science adage "follow the water" when debating how to proceed. Hubbard's work created the Mars Odyssey mission, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Phoenix mission, and most recently the planned launch of the Mars Science Laboratory.Ê Now for the first time Scott Hubbard tells the complete story of how he fashioned this program, describing both the technical and political forces involved and bringing to life the national and international cast of characters engaged in this monumental endeavor.Ê Blending the exciting stories of the missions with the thrills of scientific discovery, Exploring Mars will intrigue anyone interested in the science, the engineering, or the policy of investigating other worlds. Ê

The Review of Metaphysics

The Review of Metaphysics PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 1022

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Book Description