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Drawing on dialogues between Michael Ball and Ben Fine, this paper proposes provisioning approaches as a way of reintegrating theoretical and institutional work on rent. Recent debates on financialisation and rent theory overlook the potential contribution of provisioning approaches because urban studies typically take the work of Ball as reference point. By looking at provisioning approaches beyond Ball, the paper shows that such approaches are already making important contributions to financialisation research. It then proposes an interpretation of provisioning approaches as extending Marx's method of moving between abstract and concrete and thereby integrating agentic and theoretic understandings of rent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous work, summarized in this paper, we proposed an operation of parallel composition for rewriting-logic theories, allowing compositional specification of systems and reusability of components. The present paper focuses on compositional verification. We show how the assume/guarantee technique can be transposed to our setting, by giving appropriate definitions of satisfaction based on transition structures and path semantics. We also show that simulation and equational abstraction can be done componentwise. Appropriate concepts of fairness and deadlock for our composition operation are discussed, as they affect satisfaction of temporal formulas. We keep in parallel a distributed and a global view of composed systems. We show that these views are equivalent and interchangeable, which may help our intuition and also has practical uses as, for example, it allows global-style verification of a modularly specified system. Under consideration in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated techniques and tools for the construction and analysis of systems are inevitable to manage the complexity of the current systems. Such techniques and tools are the subject of interest of the International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems—TACAS. This special issue of Software Tools for Technology Transfer presents extended versions of five selected papers from the 25th edition of TACAS that took place in 2019. All of the papers included into this special issue aim at various aspects of automated design and formal verification and hence contribute to development of more reliable computer systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Francis Picabia's Bobinage (Bobbin, Winding or Coil) is a pencil and ink work produced on gouache-painted paper between 1921–1922. The free-floating forms in this piece appear, at first glance, to be studies in geometric abstraction. Yet, they, and the work's title, make both semiotic and real-world references. The admixture of perspectives is notable, for it retains traces of the Cubist visual language that motivated Picabia and his peers as well as the imagery of the early twentieth-century technical diagrams that, as has been demonstrated by scholars, inspired his work. Examining Coil and other of Picabia's artworks in tandem with the scholarship that has investigated these influences, this article explores the artist's engagement with the very issue of representation. Through this investigation, this paper considers the ways in which Picabia's work alludes to gender in a manner that privileges masculinity yet calls attention to the destabilizing effects of modernity—and modern representations—on notions about gender and, even, what it means to be human. Contextualized thusly, Coil represents not an abstract divergence but rather a continuation of the artist's technical, gender, and, one could say, even cyborg investigations, revealing his engagement with new and innovative ways of perceiving, conceiving, and depicting modern experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basic Structure Doctrine, developed by the Supreme Court of India to protect the Constitution of India 1950 from undesirable amendments by Parliament, has seen tremendous growth in its 51 years of existence. This paper argues that despite its evolving scope, the doctrine suffers from an abstraction problem: it insufficiently addresses the abstraction level at which basic features should be identified. The judicial techniques employed to identify these features also do not adequately address this problem. A review of the Supreme Court’s application of the doctrine in cases involving a basic structure challenge to constitutional amendments reveals that basic features have been identified at varying abstraction levels. Consequently, this paper proposes a “stratification test” that categorizes the Constitution’s basic features and the facets of these features as two distinct abstraction levels. It argues that recognizing and stratifying varying abstraction levels is essential for effective constitutional dialogue, experimentation, and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with the presumption that the 'act of counseling' must involve the strategic 'method of dialogue', and by doing so, the practitioners/counselors do indeed 'philosophize' with their counselees. Such a strategic method involves "... attending and encouraging, restating and paraphrasing, reflecting content and feeling, clarifying and perception checking, and summarizing." This method may be traced way back in the philosophic dialogues of Socrates (though in a subtle manner), which have been compiled in the dialogues of Plato. In Aristotle, we find that this method of dialogue is relatively less apparent than in Socrates and Plato, but it continues to be applied. It becomes the aporetic method: the solution of the problem results from a discussion of all possible opinions/beliefs: the 'act of midwifery' in the method of dialogue seems a crucial aspect of 'Socratic perspective', and conducive to the act of philosophical counseling. This paper shall focus on a particular piece of work called Aristophanes' Clouds. In modern times, it definitely seems to make sense in the process of philosophical counseling where the counselee is supposed to reach the solution to her/his dilemma (with the assistance of the counselor). This is supposed to be conversational, mimetic, and sometimes rhetoric as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that properties of cognitive/conceptual representations and formal‐logical structures of linguistic meaning can be inter‐translated, recast, transformed into one another, and so united together, even though cognitive/conceptual representations and formal‐logical structures of linguistic meaning are apparently distinct in ontology and divergent in their form or character. While cognitive/conceptual representations are ultimately rooted in sensory‐motor systems, formal‐logical structures of linguistic meaning are abstractions detached from and independent of the actualized world. This paper sketches out the foundations of how representations of linguistic meaning in terms of cognitive/conceptual structures in Cognitive/Conceptual Semantics can be unified with those in terms of formal‐logical structures in Formal Semantics. This is done by recasting cognitive/conceptual representations in terms of formal‐logical structures of linguistic meaning and re‐encoding formal‐logical structures of linguistic meaning in terms of cognitive/conceptual representations. Then, these two types of semantic representations, thus shown representationally equivalent, will be related to a series of derivations across levels in neuronal networks and dynamics. The general discussion on unifying cognitive/conceptual representations of linguistic meaning with formal‐logical structures is contextualized within the broader context of theorizing in cognitive science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze the shift in Twardowski's views between his early psychologistic theory of logic and his later anti-psychologistic theory. In particular, I point out that the interpretation suggesting that this change merely involves Twardowski enriching his ontology with products encounters a certain problem in light of his earlier views. To present this problem more precisely, I discuss the foundations of Twardowski's theory of products, focusing on aspects relevant to the issue of psychologism. Based on this, I reconstruct Twardowski's theory of logic and highlight where he identified the fallacy of psychologism. I contrast this reconstructed theory with Twardowski's earlier views at key points and demonstrate that the difference between his early psychologistic theory and his later anti-psychologistic theory is a matter of a shift in emphasis rather than a significant change in the theoretical system itself, and that Twardowski himself understood it as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising demands and competition for water resources within all sectors are placing increasing pressure on the environment. Almost all direct abstractions in England require a licence (permit) from the regulatory authority, the Environment Agency. Assessing and setting 'reasonable' peak quantities of water that can be legally abstracted in an environmentally sustainable manner is central to the whole licence determination process. To protect environmental flows and other abstractors within each catchment, the regulatory authority needs to be able to set sensible limits in the licence conditions, including total seasonal volumes and peak rates of water use, particularly for abstractions from hydrologically sensitive surface water sources. This paper describes the development of a methodology to assess the 'reasonable' peak rates of water use for agricultural irrigation in support of catchment water resources management and planning. A daily time step water balance model was used to simulate peak monthly and daily water requirements for irrigation using long-term historical weather records for agroclimatically contrasting sites. The model-simulated outputs were then compared against observed data from selected case study farms, and against data reported in a national water abstraction database. Guidelines were then developed for setting peak monthly, daily, hourly, and absolute abstraction rates for irrigation, taking into account the environmental sensitivity of different types of water source. The application of the procedure and its relevance in other countries where catchment water resources are under intense pressure from agriculture are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a novel approach to defining, teaching, and assessing creativity by examining its origins and delineating the processes involved. The rationale for introducing this framework developed from studying existing thinking and questioning the current metrics for measuring creativity, which we posit are unfit for purpose. We reach this conclusion because rather than accepting the existing focus on outcomes, we perceive creativity as a process based on different types of logic. Drawing upon the earlier work of De Bono and Kolb, we explore the creative process through the lenses of humour and systems engineering to reveal and develop a range of demonstrable skills and key techniques that can be learned, taught and assessed. By using the identified system inputs of creative logic, dialectic conflicts (dualities), alternate narratives, and abstraction, we ultimately present a possible framework for evaluating creativity without relying on subjective assessment. This methodology and framework can be applied in all educational contexts, from cross-curricular mainstream learning to a focus on excluded and hard-to-reach learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of technical concepts is a prerequisite for science education. Education cannot proceed satisfactorily unless the teacher and the pupil have the same (or at least very similar) conceptions of the same content under the same word. The process of concept acquisition (crystallization) starts with motivation (the pupil’s willingness to acquire the concept), proceeds through isolated models and their generalization to generic models and abstraction. In this paper, one of the pathways by which crystallization can be fostered, i.e., systematic work with isolated models, is presented. Examples representing typical models, atypical models and apparent models are sought for basic systematic categories (classification of birds, fish, etc.). For reference purposes, QR codes linking to worksheets for teachers and pupils are embedded in the paper. This method can be recommended for practicing the understanding of all taxonomic categories as well as other abstract scientific concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some tools introduced by Linnebo to show that mathematical entities are thin objects can also be applied to non‐mathematical entities, which have been thought to be thin as well for a variety of reasons. In this paper, I discuss some difficulties and opportunities concerning the application of abstraction and interpretational modalities to mereological sums. In particular, I show that on one hand some prima facie attractive candidates for the role of an explanatory plural abstraction principle for mereological sums (in terms of pluralities of summed entities) are not really explanatory; on the other hand, singular abstraction principles (in terms of single summed entities) are materially inadequate. Nonetheless, explanatory criteria of identity and conditions of existence for mereological sums are provided by classical extensional mereology independent of abstraction principles. Thus, given classical extensional mereology, the reasons why, according to Linnebo, mathematical abstracted entities are thin also hold for mereological sums. Finally, I contend that interpretational modalities can be used to characterise the process by which a subject adds sums of previously admitted entities to the domain of quantification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this short paper, we analyse whether assuming that mathematical objects are "thin" in Linnebo's sense simplifies the epistemology of mathematics. Towards this end, we introduce the notion of transparency and show that not all thin objects are transparent. We end by arguing that, far from being a weakness of thin objects, the lack of transparency of some thin objects is a fruitful characteristic mark of abstract mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between a conveyance's validity and its underlying contract has been a classic but unsettled topic for comparative private lawyers over the past three decades. This paper attempts to add positivist and normative observations drawn from property transfer theories and practices in English and Chinese law. A jurisdiction adopting an 'intent plus' model does not necessarily recognise a separate intent to convey distinct from the intent in the underlying contract, as exemplified by Chinese law, while a jurisdiction adopting the 'intent alone' model does not necessarily deny the separate intent to convey, as exemplified by English law. One advantage for a jurisdiction that takes the separatist approach is its flexibility, so that it can still choose between pure causality, pure abstraction, or context-based abstraction at a later stage. Recent developments show that English and Chinese law are moving towards this approach. As to whether flaws in the underlying contract infect the validity of the conveyance, the English position depends on vitiating factors, whereas the mainstream Chinese judgments tend to be pro-causal. Justifications favouring causality provided in the English and Chinese academia are different, though neither can stand up to scrutiny. The detecting opportunity argument submitted in this paper helps to justify abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the current age is best understood as a theological age in that its normal approach to the world is one based on a high level of abstraction. Theology stands in contrast with piety, which derives much more from immediate experience and embodies common sense. The cultural and intellectual development of Europe and the West can be understood in terms of the interaction of two distinct modes of thinking and viewing the world, namely theology and piety, and the way in which theology has come to dominate Western culture to the detriment of piety. Hence, the dominance of Greek rationalism within the West has led to a one-sided culture that gives priority to rationalist modes of thought. There has been a continuing tradition of piety in the West, but its existence has tended to be somewhat fugitive as can be seen, for example, in Musil's depiction of the 'other condition' and in J S Mill's personal breakdown caused by an excess of theology. The implications of a theological approach for history are evident as historical developments are viewed through the rigid prisms of perspectives that either fragment the study of history into a series of disconnected narratives endowed with their unique telos or impose an all-encompassing narrative that erases differences as well as potentialities. In both cases, it is the theological mode of thought—which has dominated the West since the so-called birth of rationalism—that turns history into ideology. This paper contends that the current condition calls for a new history of philosophy that captures and responds to the crisis affecting the West's self-understanding and sense of purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics plays a fundamental role in ecological research, yet its uses remain strikingly separate from advances in the environmental social sciences and humanities. In this paper, I work to address this impasse and outline the motivation and scope for an 'ecological mathematics', an approach to doing mathematics in environmental research which foregrounds relationship, embodiment and human difference. I begin by tracing the historical emergence of mathematics in ecology, noting how life processes have been conceptualised in a way which forces them to fit the ideals of mathematical models transplanted from the physical sciences. I then investigate the cultural factors shaping the evolution of mathematical thought, eliciting a malleability in how mathematical knowledge relates to the more-than-human world. This provides a place from which to rethink the role of abstraction in ecological thought, and develop mathematical methods grounded in ecological concepts. Drawing on ethnographic and perceptual accounts of space and time, I work with topological concepts from both mathematics and the social sciences to suggest a new correspondence between these subjects, elaborating a way of employing mathematical techniques which enliven, rather than deaden, the ecologies under study. The paper concludes with important philosophical clarifications to the approach of an ecological mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem Based Learning has extended its scope from the medical domain to every other domain, bringing out the learning benefits and connecting with real world applications. Reflections are one of the components of problem based learning that help to achieve self-directed learning and critical thinking. There are several ways to solve a problem in problem based learning, and one way to enhance the process is to use computational thinking. The abstraction can help in knowledge construction and writing reflections that can connect beyond the systems of study. This study proposes to design case studies for reflections with and without abstraction. The data of 37 students was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to understand the nature of the reflections. Model problems were used as case studies. A qualitative study was carried out using descriptive, in vivo, and focused coding methods, arriving at themes, and ttest performed on two sets of quantitative results. The work brings out some intriguing results that are presented in this paper. Abstraction in reflections can positively contribute to generalizing the system and connecting to the real-world applications beyond the case study that is under consideration. Abstractions help in knowledge construction and application extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Filosofía (La Plata) is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper contributes to the philosophical accounts of generalisation in formal modelling by introducing a conceptual framework that allows for recognising generalisations that are epistemically beneficial in the sense of contributing to the truth of a model result or component. The framework is useful for modellers themselves because it is shown how to recognise different kinds of generalisation on the basis of changes in model descriptions. Since epistemically beneficial generalisations usually de-idealise the model, the paper proposes a reformulation of the well-known distinction between abstraction and idealisation. A reformulated notion of abstraction is needed because the extant accounts yield wrong judgments when model-modifications introduce implicit assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is well known, Husserl develops his early phenomenological concept of "species" by elaboratinga novel form of abstraction, whichhe calls "ideating" abstraction. This paper traces systematic parallels between the works of Lotze, Bolzano and Husserl in order to gain a better understanding of Husserl's theory of abstraction and his early conception of species. Two lines of interpretation are central to this paper. The first concerns a critique of the Kantian understanding of "concept" (and thus also of the Kantian understanding of analyticity). The second line of interpretation relates to abstraction itself. In contrast to the British empiricists, all three thinkers understand abstraction as a positive, logical and non-psychological process of bringing about an abstract attribute. Furthermore, we will recognize the importance of Bolzano's syntactic structure of representations (Vorstellungen) for Husserl's understanding of abstraction in the 2nd Logical Investigation. We will see that Husserl's "ideating abstraction" depends on syncategorematic forms and cannot be understood detached from a correctly formulated proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new reading of Moroccan abstract painter Jilali Gharbaoui through the lens of decolonization. Gharbaoui fits uncomfortably into the narrative of modernism in Morocco. Unlike other painters, interested in direct connections between their shapes or abstractions and traditional visual culture or Islamic art as a postcolonial claim of local identity, Gharbaoui's work is more elusive. Many critics have framed his abstraction primarily through his schizophrenia, as Gharbaoui died from suicide in 1971; this continual recourse to biography over the actual art objects puts Gharbaoui definitively at the margins of narratives of modernism. Moreover, this analysis precludes close attention to the ways in which Gharbaoui, like other painters of his generation, was shaped by the discourses of decolonization and the role that art could play in the new nation. Within this paper, in contrast, staying close to the work itself allows the possibility to understand the active ways in which Gharbaoui was negotiating questions of what postcolonial modernism could be. He sought to position himself as an international artist that was continually trying to bypass traditional aesthetics as a statement about modernity, but equally saw himself as deeply marked by his homeland. Read in dialogue and confrontation with cosmopolitanism, Gharbaoui's oeuvre can be analyzed in terms of the multiple ways in which Gharbaoui tried to understand the materiality of the art itself, his relationship to the space of production, and the political stakes of abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of recent papers, Emily Katz has argued that on Aristotle's view mathematical sciences are in an important respect no different from most natural sciences: They study sensible substances, but not qua sensible. In this paper, I argue that this is only half the story. Mathematical sciences are distinctive for Aristotle in that they study things 'from', 'through' or 'in' abstraction, whereas natural sciences study things 'like the snub'. What this means, I argue, is that natural sciences must study properties as they occur in the subjects from which they are originally abstracted, even where they reify these properties and treat them as subjects. The objects of mathematical sciences, on the other hand, can be studied as if they did not really occur in an underlying subject. This is because none of the properties of mathematical objects depend on their being in reality features of the subjects from which they are abstracted, such as bodies and inscriptions. Mathematical sciences are in this way able to study what are in reality non-substances as if they were substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pensamiento Educativo is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Facultad de Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a methodological discussion of two recent 'endogeneity critiques' of the Kaleckian model and the concept of distribution-led growth. From a neo-Keynesian perspective, it is criticized because it treats distribution as quasi-exogenous, while in Skott (2017. Weaknesses of 'wage-Led growth.' Review of Keynesian Economics, 5(3), 336–359), distribution is viewed as endogenously determined by a series of (exogenous) institutional factors and social norms, and therefore one should focus on these instead of the functional distribution of income per se. The paper discusses how abstraction is used in science and economics, and uses the criteria proposed by Lawson (1989. Abstraction, tendencies and stylised facts: A realist approach to economic analysis. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 13(1), 59–78) and Mäki (1992. On the method of isolation in economics. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, 26, 19–54; 1994. Isolation, idealization and truth in economics. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, 38, 147–168) for what constitutes an appropriate abstraction. Based on this discussion, it concludes that the criticisms are weak, although some of the issues raised by Skott provide some interesting directions for future work within the Kaleckian framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Wetlands is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During thermal utilization of biomass, a complex array of reactions ensues in the oxidative environment between fragments of the biomass and reactive species. In the low-temperature window, hydroperoxyl (HO2) radicals assume a central role prior to the establishment of the O/H radical pool. Anisole, cresol, guaiacol and vanillin are often utilized as representative model compounds to comprehend the combustion chemistry of the phenolic entities in biomass and oxygen-containing derived bio-oil. This paper reports thermo-kinetic parameters for the reactions of HO2 radicals with anisole, cresol, guaiacol and vanillin. Computed activation enthalpies entail facile values for H abstraction from the side-chain functional groups in the investigated compounds. H abstraction from the hydroxyl groups incurs lower activation energies in reference to methyl sites in cresol and guaiacol. Hence, H abstraction from the OH sites in these two molecules proceeds at a faster reaction rate constant when compared to abstraction from the methyl site. In the vanillin molecule, abstraction from the aldehydic and hydroxyl sites portrays comparable importance. The effect of scaling vibrational frequencies and the type of applied quantum tunneling on the computed reaction rate constants were thoroughly explored. Analysis of entropies of activation indicates that the transition states exhibit a product-like character. While ignition delay times of fuels often exhibit a profound sensitivity towards initial H abstraction reactions by HO2, we found that ignition delay times of the four title molecules remain almost unchanged when updating literature kinetics models with new reaction rate constants calculated herein. It is anticipated that reported outcomes from this study aid in formulating a better understanding of the complex chemical reactions that dictate oxidative decomposition of oxygenated bio-oil model compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an existential-phenomenological perspective on the schizoid personality, its struggles, coping capacities, and creative strategies. The writings of Kierkegaard, particularly in terms of his exploration of the concept of 'shut-upness,' or 'inclosing reserve,' and its relationship to despair can be decisively instructive in facilitating and promoting the therapeutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reference architecture is a key architectural asset for the systems engineer, that intends both to simplify its work and to guarantee the exhaustiveness of the coverage of its system analyses. This paper proposes formal definitions for a reference architecture, based on the theory of abstract interpretation that formalizes the notion of abstraction, which covers respectively large and small‐scale families of systems. These definitions are illustrated by automotive, building, and mining case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lockwood has argued that taking a set-oriented perspective is critical for successful combinatorial enumeration. To date, however, the research literature has not yet captured the cognitive processes involved in taking such a perspective. In this theoretical paper, we elaborate the constructs of spatial structuring and spatial-numerical linked structuring from within our constructivist theoretical perspective to provide a cognitive account of how students conceptualize and generate combinatorial composites. Our elaborations emerged from analyzing and reflecting on data from two constructivist teaching experiments examining undergraduate students' combinatorial concepts, mental actions, and strategies. We define multiple constructs in our theoretical approach, including spatial-temporal-enactive (or S*-) structuring, two specific forms of S*-structuring (intra-composite and inter-composite structuring), numerical structuring, and S*-numerical linked structuring. We then illustrate how our framework can be used to analyze students' physical/mental actions and operations when engaging in combinatorial inquiry. Critically, our findings suggest that successful and meaningful combinatorial enumeration depends on constructing intra-composite S*-structuring for single combinatorial composites, then abstracting, reflecting on, generalizing, and linking this intra-composite structuring to an inter-composite structuring to generate the set of combinatorial composites. We conclude with a discussion of how our paper contributes to existing research on combinatorial reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We contribute to the ongoing discussion on mathematical structuralism by focusing on a question that has so far been neglected: when is a structure part of another structure? This paper is a first step towards answering the question. We will show that a certain conception of structures, abstractionism about structures, yields a natural definition of the parthood relation between structures. This answer has many interesting consequences; however, it conflicts with some standard mereological principles. We argue that the tension between abstractionism about structure and classical mereology is an interesting result and conclude that the mereology of abstract structures is a subject that deserves further exploration. We also point out some connections between our discussion of the mereology of structures and recent work on non-well-founded mereologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peculiar legacy of Husserl's mereology, chiefly studied by analytic philosophers interested in ontology, has led to a partial understanding of the III. LU, which is too often reduced to a chapter of "formal ontology". Yet, the power of this Investigation goes far beyond: it enabled Husserl to deal, in the framework of a unified theory, with a vast range of particular problems. The paper focuses on one of these issues, namely abstraction, so as to expose how Husserl instrumentalizes his formal tools in order to tackle material issues. The existence of an up and down pattern is uncovered: Husserl first reinterprets the psychological problem of abstraction in ontological terms ("bottom-up"), before coming back to the original problem with new insights ("top-down"). The second, correlative aim of the paper is to emphasize the key role played by Friedrich Schumann, a forgotten yet crucial character for Husserl's conception of abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to highlight the tension lying between the lived bodily experiences of women, and the predefined cultural entanglements which condition and shape those experiences. Unlike men, women suffer much particularly for and with their bodies. This raises a crucial question regarding the ontology of their sufferings. Body, the biological location of humans distinguishes between the sexes and appropriates the cultural inscriptions. But how does the corporeality facilitates the conflation of chromosomal sex with the categories of gender? How do women relate to these entanglements and make sense of their bodies? A critical study of Indian English novels, from the mid-19th century to the successive periods, demonstrates how female body has been imagined and represented under the trajectory of such difficulties, and how in course of time these representations have changed. Interestingly, despite the palpable changes, one thing remains static - the disagreement between the lived experiences of women about their bodies and the way it is perceived in a given cultural situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, we develop a theory of thinking based on an attempt to formalize the construction of mental representations as described in psychoanalytic theory. In previous work, we described Freud's and Matte Blanco's structural Unconscious in a formal model in which the properties of unconscious representations are captured by particular sets-infinite singletons-that can be derived in first-order logic language. Here, we afford the issue of the finitization of unconscious representations by assuming that the mind can form an all-purpose modality, originating from abstraction from infinite singletons; in this way, a symmetric prelogical setting for mental representations is formally created, and this is interpreted in a quantum spin model by a modal (necessity) projector. Then, by introducing time, one can describe the links that mental representations can establish with reality, and hence finitize the representations. The modality is so split into finite components, here termed positive, negative and irreal; the splitting of the modality is traced back to the decomposition of the spin observables by means of the Pauli matrices, which can offer a quantum semantics to the method applied. Here, we suggest that the development of the modal approach and its quantum logic implementation can be considered as a proper formalization of some aspect of the psychoanalytic theory of thinking proposed by Bion; namely, we will show that the process of abstraction leading from raw data to preconceptions, and therefore to the definition of the content-container relationship, is adequately captured by our model, and further correspondences can be detected with Bion's theory about links and transformations, implying different ways in which the mind can get in touch with both internal and external reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Torsten Hägerstrand's career can be understood as a protracted experiment in thinking creatively about space and human–environment interactions. He continually sought to abstract – select, simplify and exclude – from the complexity of spatiotemporal processes in ways that differed from customs at a given point in time. This article argues that Hägerstrand's Diorama, Path and Project, one of TESG's most influential papers published in 1982, elaborated the diorama in English as a conceptual device to enact a different mode of abstraction in geography and interdisciplinary research. An undervalued conceptual device with which Hägerstrand was never entirely comfortable himself, the diorama is still worth engaging with at the current time of climate emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the majority of port city literature, the evolution of port cities is still explained as an inevitable or 'logical' process whereby maritime land-uses gradually migrate from city centres towards waterfront zones with deep water access. Between the 1950s and 2000s, obsolete port areas around the world have surely become waterfront redevelopment sites, often with high-end urban property development, signified by iconic architectural projects. As observed and described in the port city of Amsterdam, the financial-economic success of this 'port-out, city-in' process has led to land-use conflict, observed also in other port cities around the world. This paper questions, however, whether the land-use conflict in Amsterdam, observed ten years ago, is just an observation, or part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. To answer this question, we engage in a meta-discussion about the port–city interface model itself. By performing an in-depth case study in the 2018–2019 period, we reconstructed the evolution of a fierce land-use conflict in the port–city interface of Amsterdam. We conclude that the key causal mechanism was context-specific, but also that generic 'port-out, city-in' discourse has been an important contingent condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Echoing the increasing emphasis on STEM literacy, computational thinking has become a national priority in K-12 schools. Scholars have acknowledged abstraction as the keystone of computational thinking. To foster K-12 students' computational thinking and STEM literacy, students' ability to think abstractly should be enhanced. However, the existing curriculum in K-12 education may not adequately equip learners with the proper abstraction needed for the STEM workforce. Given the absence of a synthesized understanding of abstraction, effective instructional guidance for fostering student abstraction is also elusive. To overcome the gap in understanding abstraction, we attempted to conceptualize a synthesized framework of abstraction in computational thinking and proposed a set of design guidelines that may enhance students' uptake of abstraction. In this paper, we describe the importance of abstraction in computational thinking and existing challenges in developing students' ability to perform abstraction. Then, by reviewing the cognitive dimensions of abstraction and the role of abstraction in computing education, we identify three cognitive processes underlying abstraction in computational thinking (e.g., filtering information, locating similarities, and mapping problem structures). We thereby propose a conceptual framework of abstraction in computational thinking. Finally, design guidelines for fostering abstraction in computational thinking are provided with illustrated examples of a tailored STEM-integrative learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstraction and idealization are the two notions that are most often discussed in the context of assumptions employed in the process of model building. These notions are also routinely used in philosophical debates such as that on the mechanistic account of explanation. Indeed, an objection to the mechanistic account has recently been formulated precisely on these grounds: mechanists cannot account for the common practice of idealizing difference-making factors in models in molecular biology. In this paper I revisit the debate and I argue that the objection does not stand up to scrutiny. This is because it is riddled with a number of conceptual inconsistencies. By attempting to resolve the tensions, I also draw several general lessons regarding the difficulties of applying abstraction and idealization in scientific practice. Finally, I argue that more care is needed only when speaking of abstraction and idealization in a context in which these concepts play an important role in an argument, such as that on mechanistic explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work and research described in this paper draws upon the idea of the post digital to create (1) art for humanization of technology and (2) art as manifestation of digital qualities in the physical world, e.g., through digital-analog convergence and through enriching our experiences with hybrid constellations of techniques, concepts and aesthetics. This work consists of two parts: practice-based research in the arts and conceptualizations arising from art and design practice. Four art projects are presented in this thesis: Metaphone, Delete By Haiku, S T R A T I C, and Panorama Time. In this practice, post-digital approach manifests through the hacking activities and disruptive techniques. These thrive on a set of constitutive concepts: machine aesthetics, digital upcycling, aleatoricism and chance, deletion, repetition, fault aesthetics and glitch aesthetics. Those post-digital aesthetic principles depend on machinic, systematic behaviors in the technologies I explore. Machine aesthetics expose operational and mechanical principles and behaviors. Digital upcycling is a repurposing design process wherein function follows form to add value to old defunct objects. I deploy chance in the design process through a "rolling a dice" approach. I use both deletion and insertion repetitively as design principles. In my work, I also induce technical faults and take deliberate control of machine glitches. These are all aesthetic approaches that help transform the "cold" appearance of information technologies and bring them closer to people, thereby humanizing technology. Some of the aesthetic principles (e.g., machine aesthetics or glitch aesthetics) might not seem "natural" or "human" but I use them to explore digital materiality analogously to how steel, iron and other materials were approached from the early phases of the industrial revolution and Modernism. As such these aesthetic principles are ways of interrogating the digital thriving off a cultural-historical point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the emergence of abstraction through the use of a new kind of motion detector—WiiGraph—with 11-year-old children. In the selected episodes, the children used this motion detector to create three simultaneous graphs of position vs. time: two graphs for the motion of each hand and a third one corresponding to their difference. They explored relationships that can be ascribed to an equation of the type A – B = C. We examine the notion of abstraction on its own, without assuming a dualism abstract-concrete according to which more of one is less of the other. We propose a distinct path for the attainment of abstraction, which involves navigating a surplus of sensible qualities. The work described in this paper belongs to early algebra, we suggest, because it involves the elementary symbolic treatment of unknowns and generals. More broadly, it advances a perspective on the nature of mathematical abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of the constitution of behaviour and its effects on the observers and on those observed, in the case of a 'direct load-control' experiment in the electricity sector in France. Typical of the rise of the behavioural approach to understanding demand in the electricity sector, that experiment lasted seven years and involved several hundred households. It aimed at sorting out human behaviours from that of heating systems and of buildings in order to prepare for 'demand-response' market designs. The paper proposes to consider behaviour as happening. Speaking of the happening of behaviour takes inspiration from performance art and serves to emphasize two crucial elements. First, it indicates that behaviour is more the product of a staged performance of those observed, than of a classical scientific instrumentation of an external reality. Second, it refers to the element of surprise that such a performed behaviour provokes on the part of observers. The surprise belongs to a quite different world from that of the machine-like action and well-delineated unit of the behaviour. Speaking of the happening of behaviour is a way to hold together two contradictory takes on life: that of the richness of the singular experience and that of the powerfulness of the generalized abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]