Coherentism,Truth, and Witness Agreement

Coherentists on epistemic justification claim that all justification is inferential, and that beliefs, when justified, get their justification together (not in isolation) as members of a coherent belief system. Some recent work in formal epistemology shows that “individual credibility” is needed for “witness agreement” to increase the probability of truth and generate a high probability of truth. It can seem that, from this result in formal epistemology, it follows that coherentist justification is not truth-conducive, that it is not the case that, under the requisite conditions, coherentist justification increases the probability of truth and generates a high probability of truth. I argue that this does not follow.     

Relational properties, causal powers and psychological laws

This paper argues that Twin Earth twins belong to the same psychological natural kind, but that the reason for this is not that the causal powers of mental states supervene on local neural structure. Fodor’s argument for this latter thesis is criticized and found to rest on a confusion between it and the claim that Putnamian and Burgean type relational psychological properties do not affect the causal powers of the mental states that have them. While it is true that Putnamian and Burgean type relational psychological properties do not affect causal powers, it is false that no relational psychological properties do. Examples of relational psychological properties that do affect causal powers are given and psychological laws are sketched that subsume twins in virtue of them instantiating these relational properties rather than them sharing the narrow contents of their thoughts.     

Ten Myths of Science: Reexamining What We Think We Know About the Nature of Science

This article addresses and attempts to refute several of the most widespread and enduring misconceptions held by students regarding the enterprise of science. The ten myths discussed include the common notions that theories become laws, that hypotheses are best characterized as educated guesses, and that there is a commonly-applied scientific method. In addition, the article includes discussion of other incorrect ideas such as the view that evidence leads to sure knowledge, that science and its methods provide absolute proof, and that science is not a creative endeavor. Finally, the myths that scientists are objective, that experiments are the sole route to scientific knowledge and that scientific conclusions are continually reviewed conclude this presentation. The paper ends with a plea that instruction in and opportunities to experience the nature of science are vital in preservice and inservice teacher education programs to help unseat the myths of science.     

The Gergonne and Nagel centers of an n-dimensional simplex

In contrast with the analogous situation for a triangle, the cevians that join the vertices of a tetrahedron to the points where the faces touch the insphere (or the exspheres) are not concurrent in general. This observation led the present author and P. Walker in [4] to devise alternative definitions of the Gergonne and Nagel centers of a tetrahedron that do not assume the concurrence of such cevians and that coincide with the ordinary definitions in the case of a triangle. They then proved that the Gergonne center exists and is unique for all tetrahedra and that the Nagel center, though unique, exists only for tetrahedra that satisfy certain conditions. In this article, we extend these definitions to simplices of any dimension. By keeping the requirement that the Gergonne center be interior and relaxing such a condition for the Nagel center, we prove that both centers exist and are unique for all simplices, thus polishing the definitions and generalizing the results of the above-mentioned article.     

Forecasting corporate failure using ensemble of self-organizing neural networks

For more than a decade, the number of research works that deal with ensemble methods applied to bankruptcy prediction has been increasing. Ensemble techniques present some characteristics that, in most situations, allow them to achieve better forecasts than those estimated with single models. However, the difference between the performance of an ensemble and that of its base classifier but also between that of ensembles themselves, is often low. This is the reason why we studied a way to design an ensemble method that might achieve better forecasts than those calculated with traditional ensembles. It relies on a quantification process of data that characterize the financial situation of a sample of companies using a set of self-organizing neural networks, where each network has two main characteristics: its size is randomly chosen and the variables used to estimate its weights are selected based on a criterion that ensures the fit between the structure of the network and the data used over the learning process. The results of our study show that this technique makes it possible to significantly reduce both the type I and type II errors that can be obtained with conventional methods.     

Event-driven control statements

Charles T. Zahn has recently proposed a new and promising statement that encourages structured thinking and that may also be said to make programming become documentation. D. E. Knuth has suggested that this statement may be of importance in future languages, and it has been thoroughly discussed in the literature. However, it seems that the statement is not properly suited for problems requiring nested constructs, and it is argued that this is caused by the long implicit jumps in the statement. It is also shown that by introducing an event-variable and by permitting different events to share actions, the statement will become even more useful. A modified statement is proposed and demonstrated on a number of standard ill-structured algorithms that normally call for the use of GOTOs.     

Tight global linear convergence rate bounds for Douglas–Rachford splitting

Recently, several authors have shown local and global convergence rate results for Douglas–Rachford splitting under strong monotonicity, Lipschitz continuity, and cocoercivity assumptions. Most of these focus on the convex optimization setting. In the more general monotone inclusion setting, Lions and Mercier showed a linear convergence rate bound under the assumption that one of the two operators is strongly monotone and Lipschitz continuous. We show that this bound is not tight, meaning that no problem from the considered class converges exactly with that rate. In this paper, we present tight global linear convergence rate bounds for that class of problems. We also provide tight linear convergence rate bounds under the assumptions that one of the operators is strongly monotone and cocoercive, and that one of the operators is strongly monotone and the other is cocoercive. All our linear convergence results are obtained by proving the stronger property that the Douglas–Rachford operator is contractive.     

An isoperimetric estimate and W^{1,p}-quasiconvexity in nonlinear elasticity

A class of stored energy densities that includes functions of the form with , g and h convex and smooth, and is considered. The main result shows that for each such W in this class there is a such that, if a 3 by 3 matrix satisfies , then W is -quasiconvex at on the restricted set of deformations that satisfy condition (INV) and a.e. (and hence that are one-to-one a.e.). Condition (INV) is (essentially) the requirement that be monotone in the sense of Lebesgue and that holes created in one part of the material not be filled by material from other parts. The key ingredient in the proof is an isoperimetric estimate that bounds the integral of the difference of the Jacobians of and by the -norm of the difference of their gradients. These results have application to the determination of lower bounds on critical cavitation loads in elastic solids. Received January 5, 1998 / Accepted March 13, 1998     

Translations in affine Klingenberg spaces

An old question regarding the world we live in concerns what is real regarding points and lines: if two distinct lines intersect, is their intersection a unique point? In this paper, we take the approach that the answer is no, that all the points in the intersection are somehow close to one another (neighbourly) and that two non-neighbourly points determine a unique line. These are the Affine Klingenberg spaces (AK-spaces). How does one put a logical structure on points and lines that reflect the preceding view of reality? History has shown that such a structure is based upon the concept of coordinatization, which leads naturally to algebraic structures that allow a faithful representation of incidence, which in turn reflects the existence of relations between points and lines that recognise incidence. The preceding view of reality is not new, and the history of this subject is of approaches that are too general (there are conditions on neighbourly points). Our approach is novel in that it is based upon a minimum number of assumptions that yield the existence of dilatations that are translations: the corner stones of coordinatization.     

Optimal control of nonlinear evolution inclusions

In this paper, we study the optimal control of nonlinear evolution inclusions. First, we prove the existence of admissible trajectories and then we show that the set that they form is relatively sequentially compact and in certain cases sequentially compact in an appropriate function space. Then, with the help of a convexity hypothesis and using Cesari's approach, we solve a general Lagrange optimal control problem. After that, we drop the convexity hypothesis and pass to the relaxed system, for which we prove the existence of optimal controls, we show that it has a value equal to that of the original one, and also we prove that the original trajectories are dense in an appropriate topology to the relaxed ones. Finally, we present an example of a nonlinear parabolic optimal control that illustrates the applicability of our results.This research was supported by NSF Grant No. DMS-88-02688.     

Decomposable polymatroids and connections with graph coloring

We introduce ideas that complement the many known connections between polymatroids and graph coloring. Given a hypergraph that satisfies certain conditions, we construct polymatroids, given as rank functions, that can be written as sums of rank functions of matroids, and for which the minimum number of matroids required in such sums is the chromatic number of the line graph of the hypergraph. This result motivates introducing chromatic numbers and chromatic polynomials for polymatroids. We show that the chromatic polynomial of any 2-polymatroid is a rational multiple of the chromatic polynomial of some graph. We also find the excluded minors for the minor-closed class of polymatroids that can be written as sums of rank functions of matroids that form a chain of quotients.     

Some arguments against intentionalism

Recently, many have argued that phenomenal content supervenes on representational content; i.e. that the phenomenal character of an experience is wholly determined (metaphysically, not causally) by the representational content of that experience. This paper it identifies many counter-examples to intentionalism. Further, this paper shows that, if intentionalism were correct, that would require that an untenable form of representational atomism also be correct. Our argument works both against the idea that phenomenal content supervenes on “conceptual” content and also against the idea that it supervenes on “non-conceptual” content. It is also shown that the distinction between conceptual and non-conceptual content has been wrongly conceived as distinction between different kinds of information: in fact, it is a distinction between ways of packaging information that is, in itself, neither conceptual or non-conceptual.     

Star partitions on graphs

Given an undirected graph, a star partition is a partition of the nodes into subsets with at least two nodes so that the subgraph induced by each subset has a spanning star. Star partitions are related to well-known problems concerning domination in graphs and edge covering. We focus on the Constrained Star Partition Problem (CSP) that asks for finding a star partition of given cardinality. The problem is new and presents interesting peculiarities. We explore the relation between the cardinalities of star partitions and domatic bipartitions, showing that there are star partitions of any cardinality between minimum and maximum values, and that a similar but weaker result holds for domatic bipartitions. We study the computational complexity of different versions of star partition and domatic bipartition problems, proving that most of them, in particular CSP, constrained domatic bipartition and balanced domatic bipartition, are NP-complete. We also show that star partition problems are polynomial on trees and, more generally, on bounded treewidth graphs. We introduce an integer linear programming formulation that defines a polytope containing all the star partitions of a graph, showing that its vertices have only integral components for trees, which implies that linear programming can be used to solve weighted star partition problems on trees.     

Notes on sectionally complemented lattices. IV How far does the Atom Lemma go?

There are two results in the literature that prove that the ideal lattice of a finite, sectionally complemented, chopped lattice is again sectionally complemented. The first is in the 1962 paper of G. Grätzer and E. T. Schmidt, where the ideal lattice is viewed as a closure space to prove that it is sectionally complemented; we call the sectional complement constructed then the 1960 sectional complement. The second is the Atom Lemma from a 1999 paper of the same authors that states that if a finite, sectionally complemented, chopped lattice is made up of two lattices overlapping in an atom and a zero, then the ideal lattice is sectionally complemented. In this paper, we show that the method of proving the Atom Lemma also applies to the 1962 result. In fact, we get a stronger statement, in that we get many sectional complements and they are rather close to the componentwise sectional complement.     

On the joint characterization of the distributions of the true income and the proportion of the reported income to the true income through a model of under-reported incomes

In this note, we assume that the reported income is related to the true income by the so-called ‘error-in-variables’ model, a model which assumes that the observed incomes are under-reported. In the context of this model, the distribution of the reported income suitably truncated below coincides with that of the true income, and suitable truncated above with that of the random proportion of the reported income to the true income if, and only if, the distribution of the true income is Pareto and that of the proportion is of the power function form.     

Against Phenomenal Conservatism

Recently, Michael Huemer has defended the Principle of Phenomenal Conservatism: If it seems to S that p, then, in the absence of defeaters, S thereby has at least some degree of justification for believing that p. This principle has potentially far-reaching implications. Huemer uses it to argue against skepticism and to defend a version of ethical intuitionism. I employ a reductio to show that PC is false. If PC is true, beliefs can yield justification for believing their contents in cases where, intuitively, they should not be able to do so. I argue that there are cases where a belief that p can behave like an appearance that p and thereby make it seem to one that p.     

Optimization in “self‐modeling” complex adaptive systems

When a dynamical system with multiple point attractors is released from an arbitrary initial condition, it will relax into a configuration that locally resolves the constraints or opposing forces between interdependent state variables. However, when there are many conflicting interdependencies between variables, finding a configuration that globally optimizes these constraints by this method is unlikely or may take many attempts. Here, we show that a simple distributed mechanism can incrementally alter a dynamical system such that it finds lower energy configurations, more reliably and more quickly. Specifically, when Hebbian learning is applied to the connections of a simple dynamical system undergoing repeated relaxation, the system will develop an associative memory that amplifies a subset of its own attractor states. This modifies the dynamics of the system such that its ability to find configurations that minimize total system energy, and globally resolve conflicts between interdependent variables, is enhanced. Moreover, we show that the system is not merely “recalling” low energy states that have been previously visited but “predicting” their location by generalizing over local attractor states that have already been visited. This “self‐modeling” framework, i.e., a system that augments its behavior with an associative memory of its own attractors, helps us better understand the conditions under which a simple locally mediated mechanism of self‐organization can promote significantly enhanced global resolution of conflicts between the components of a complex adaptive system. We illustrate this process in random and modular network constraint problems equivalent to graph coloring and distributed task allocation problems. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 16: 17–26, 2011     

On automorphisms of groups,rings, and algebras

We consider the structure of groups and algebras that can be represented as automorphisms, respectively derivations, of bilinear maps. Representations of that sort arise when we attempt to describe the automorphisms of groups, rings, and algebras that are nilpotent. We introduce exact sequences that capture structure and prove theorems of Morita and Skolem–Noether type. We apply these results to compute automorphisms of groups and rings.     

Positive derivations on archimedean lattice-ordered rings

It is known that the only positive derivation on a reduced archimedean f-ring is the zero derivation. We investigate derivations on general archimedean lattice-ordered rings. First, we consider semigroup rings over cyclic semigroups and show that, in the finite case, the only derivation that is zero on the underlying ring is the zero derivation and that, in the infinite case, such derivations are always based on the derivative. Turning our attention to lattice-ordered rings, we show that, on many algebraic extensions of totally ordered rings, the only positive derivation is the zero derivation and that, for transcendental extensions, derivations that are lattice homomorphisms are always translations of the usual derivative and derivations that are orthomorphisms are always dilations of the usual derivative. We also show that the only positive derivation on a lattice-ordered matrix ring over a subfield of the real numbers is the zero derivation, and we prove a similar result for certain lattice-ordered rings with positive squares. The second author thanks Hamilton College for its support of his visits to the first author in Houston. He also thanks John Miller for his friendship and hospitality over the last thirty years.     

Entitlement, Justification, and the Bootstrapping Problem

According to the bootstrapping problem, any view that allows for basic knowledge (knowledge obtained from a reliable source prior to one??s knowing that that source is reliable) is forced to accept that one can utilize a track-record argument to acquire justification for believing that one??s belief source is reliable; yet, we tend to think that acquiring justification in this way is too easy. In this paper I argue, first, that those who respond to the bootstrapping problem by denying basic knowledge succumb to over-intellectualizing epistemology, and secondly, reliabilist views avoid over-intellectualization only at the expense of sanctioning bootstrapping as a benign procedure. Both of these outcomes are difficult to bear. To ward off each of these unsavory outcomes, I propose an alternative solution that draws on a distinction between two separate epistemic concepts: entitlement and justification.