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Topic Review
Burden of Proof
The burden of proof (Latin: onus probandi, shortened from Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat) is the obligation on a party in a dispute to provide sufficient warrant for its position.
  • 11.0K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bicameralism (Psychology)
Bicameralism[Note 1] (the condition of being divided into "two-chambers") is a controversial hypothesis in psychology and neuroscience which argues that the human mind once operated in a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys—a bicameral mind, and that the evolutionary breakdown of this division gave rise to consciousness in humans. The term was coined by Julian Jaynes, who presented the idea in his 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, wherein he made the case that a bicameral mentality was the normal and ubiquitous state of the human mind as recently as 3,000 years ago, near the end of the Mediterranean bronze age.
  • 7.8K
  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Cognitive Evaluation Theory
Cognitive evaluation theory (CET) is a theory in psychology that is designed to explain the effects of external consequences on internal motivation. Specifically, CET is a sub-theory of self-determination theory that focuses on competence and autonomy while examining how intrinsic motivation is affected by external forces in a process known as motivational "crowding out." CET uses three propositions to explain how consequences affect internal motivation:
  • 3.2K
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Kübler-Ross Model
The Kübler-Ross model, or the Five Stages of Grief, postulates a series of emotions experienced by terminally ill patients prior to death, or people who have lost a loved one, wherein the five stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Although commonly referenced in popular media, the existence of these stages has not been empirically demonstrated and the model is not considered helpful in explaining the grieving process. It is considered to be of historical value but outdated in scientific terms and in clinical practice. The model was first introduced by Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying, and was inspired by her work with terminally ill patients. Motivated by the lack of instruction in medical schools on the subject of death and dying, Kübler-Ross examined death and those faced with it at the University of Chicago's medical school. Kübler-Ross's project evolved into a series of seminars which, along with patient interviews and previous research, became the foundation for her book. Although Kübler-Ross is commonly credited with creating stage models, earlier bereavement theorists and clinicians such as Erich Lindemann, Collin Murray Parkes, and John Bowlby used similar models of stages of phases as early as the 1940s. Later in her life, Kübler-Ross noted that the stages are not a linear and predictable progression and that she regretted writing them in a way that was misunderstood. "Kübler-Ross originally saw these stages as reflecting how people cope with illness and dying," observed grief researcher Kenneth J. Doka, "not as reflections of how people grieve."
  • 2.7K
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Naturalism
In philosophy, naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe. According to philosopher Steven Lockwood, naturalism can be separated into an ontological sense and a methodological sense. "Ontological" refers to ontology, the philosophical study of what exists. On an ontological level, philosophers often treat naturalism as equivalent to materialism. For example, philosopher Paul Kurtz argues that nature is best accounted for by reference to material principles. These principles include mass, energy, and other physical and chemical properties accepted by the scientific community. Further, this sense of naturalism holds that spirits, deities, and ghosts are not real and that there is no "purpose" in nature. This stronger formulation of naturalism is commonly referred to as metaphysical naturalism. On the other hand, the more moderate view that naturalism should be assumed in one's working methods as the current paradigm, without any further consideration of whether naturalism is true in the robust metaphysical sense, is called methodological naturalism. With the exception of pantheists—who believe that Nature is identical with divinity while not recognizing a distinct personal anthropomorphic god—theists challenge the idea that nature contains all of reality. According to some theists, natural laws may be viewed as secondary causes of God(s). In the 20th century, Willard Van Orman Quine, George Santayana, and other philosophers argued that the success of naturalism in science meant that scientific methods should also be used in philosophy. According to this view, science and philosophy are not always distinct from one another, but instead form a continuum.
  • 2.5K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Fuzzy VS Bivalent Logic
In this work a comparison is attempted between the Aristotle’s traditional bivalent logic, which dominated for centuries on the human way of thinking, and the relatively recent Zadeh’s fuzzy logic, which has already found many and important applications to almost all sectors of the human activity. It is concluded that, although the enormous progress of science and technology owes a lot to bivalent logic, fuzzy logic which completes and extends it, fits much better to our everyday life situations and to the scientific way of thinking.
  • 2.0K
  • 20 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap (/ˈkɑːrnæp/; German: [ˈkaʁnaːp]; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. He is considered "one of the giants among twentieth-century philosophers."
  • 1.5K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Evolutionary Theory of the Self
When trying to understand the self in terms of the brain, neuroscientists have found contradictory results and paradoxes. Nevertheless, Gonzalo Munevar has argued that neuroscience in an evolutionary context can give a proper explanation of the self. His Evolutionary Theory of the Self depends on, “the ability by the brain to coordinate new sensory information in light of the organism’s internal states and in the context of its personal history and genetic inheritance." His theory is an alternative conception for the explanation of the self, which takes into account the evolutionary biology of the brain. Organisms that are highly complex execute the function of telling self from other with the brain and the immune system. To fulfill the function of recognizing self from other, the brain uses past experiences and genetic inheritance (e.g. survival, reproduction). The self is defined by these functions that distinguish an organisms from other organisms, which allow them to act as one whole entity in social and physical environments. Simply put, the theory revolves around the idea that the brain constitutes the self, which represents itself in a variety of internal states. The brain/self evolves for action to be able to interact with social and physical environments. It is suggested that the brain performs a complex list of tasks to complete these interactions to distinguish self from other. This defines the brain to be characteristically distributive to complete complex tasks, and thus suggests that the self is also distributive. Therefore, the Evolutionary Theory of the Self detours from the traditional conceptions that include the self being a centralized, unitary mechanism that is both conscious (sense of self) and compiled of a collection of episodic memories. Alternatively, it suggests that the conception of self is mostly unconscious, and the brain evolves from past experiences and genetic inheritance to create the evolutionary self. In Munevar’s study, “fMRI Study of Self vs. Others’ Attributions of Traits Consistent with Evolutionary Understanding of the Self,” he aimed to demonstrate the experimental feasibility of this conception of the self as a distributive system, and discovered results complimenting the Evolutionary Theory of the Self while resolving the contradictions and paradoxes of traditional conceptions of self.
  • 1.5K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Journal Axioms
Axioms (ISSN 2075-1680) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of mathematics, mathematical logic and mathematical physics, published quarterly online by MDPI. It's now indexed within SCIE (Web of Science), Scopus, dblp, and other databases.
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Logical Syntax of Language
Rudolf Carnap (/ˈkɑːrnæp/; German: [ˈkaʁnaːp]; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. He is considered "one of the giants among twentieth-century philosophers."
  • 1.1K
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Functional Attitude Theory
Functional attitude theory (FAT) suggests that beliefs and attitudes are influential to various psychological functions. Attitudes can be influential on many processes such as being utilitarian (useful), social, relating to values, or a reduction of cognitive dissonance. They can be beneficial and help people interact with the world. In the late 1950s when psychoanalysis and behaviorism reigned supreme as the foci of psychological studies, Smith, Bruner, and White (1956) and Katz (1960) separately and independently developed typologies of human attitudes in relation to the functions to which they believed the attitudes served. This theory proposes that attitudes are held by individuals because they are important and integral to psychological functioning. The function of an attitude is more important than whether the attitude is accurate or correct.
  • 1.0K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The Incoherence of the Philosophers (تهافت الفلاسفة Tahāfut al-Falāsifaʰ in Arabic) is the title of a landmark 11th-century work by the Persian theologian Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazali and a student of the Asharite school of Islamic theology criticizing the Avicennian school of early Islamic philosophy. Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi (Alpharabius) are denounced in this book, as they follow Greek philosophy even when it contradicts Islam. The text was dramatically successful, and marked a milestone in the ascendance of the Asharite school within Islamic philosophy and theological discourse. The book favors faith over philosophy in matters specifically concerning metaphysics or knowledge of the divine.
  • 783
  • 08 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Property
In logic and philosophy (especially metaphysics), a property is a characteristic of an object; a red object is said to have the property of redness. The property may be considered a form of object in its own right, able to possess other properties. A property, however, differs from individual objects in that it may be instantiated, and often in more than one object. It differs from the logical/mathematical concept of class by not having any concept of extensionality, and from the philosophical concept of class in that a property is considered to be distinct from the objects which possess it. Understanding how different individual entities (or particulars) can in some sense have some of the same properties is the basis of the problem of universals.
  • 765
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Difference
Difference is a key concept of philosophy, denoting the process or set of properties by which one entity is distinguished from another within a relational field or a given conceptual system. In the Western philosophical system, difference is traditionally viewed as being opposed to identity, following the Principles of Leibniz, and in particular, his Law of the identity of indiscernibles. In structuralist and poststructuralist accounts, however, difference is understood to be constitutive of both meaning and identity. In other words, because identity (particularly, personal identity) is viewed in non-essentialist terms as a construct, and because constructs only produce meaning through the interplay of differences (see below), it is the case that for both structuralism and poststructuralism, identity cannot be said to exist without difference.
  • 685
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
PC Usage and Concepts of Mathematics and Logic
Early education in new technologies such as robotics and programming is emerging as an option in many primary schools, and its popularity is on the rise. However, currently, there is a significant disparity between areas, schools, and families in access to this type of education. In most cases, resorting to private extracurricular classes is necessary if elementary school students are to acquire these skills. 
  • 652
  • 15 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Scriptural Reasoning
Scriptural Reasoning ("SR") is one type of interdisciplinary, interfaith scriptural reading. It is an evolving practice in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, and sometimes members of other faiths, meet to study their sacred scriptures together, and to explore the ways in which such study can help them understand and respond to particular contemporary issues. Originally developed by theologians and religious philosophers as a means of fostering post-critical and postliberal corrections to patterns of modern reasoning, it has now spread beyond academic circles. The claims made by some of Scriptural Reasoning's founder practitioners that they have requisite knowledge of ancient traditions of Islamic, Jewish and Christian exegesis and also the authority to apply such traditional wisdom to correct modernist binarist or fundamentalist readings, have been challenged by theologians of different faiths. The practical outworking of some Scriptural Reasoning projects have been criticised for alleged lack of parity between participating religions, and alleged instrumentalising of sacred texts for political and financial purposes.
  • 601
  • 04 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Evidence-based Subjective Logic
Evidence-based subjective logic (EBSL) is a variant of subjective logic in which the transitivity of opinions (discounting) is handled by applying weights to the evidence underlying the opinions. Subjective logic is based on Dempster–Shafer belief theory. The discounting rule in EBSL makes it possible to handle arbitrary trust networks.
  • 468
  • 03 Nov 2022
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