Foundations of Science最新文献

This paper examines the interplay between integrative explanatory pluralism and the quest for unified theories. We argue that when grounded in virtues associated with satisfactory explanations, integrative pluralism exhibits an inherent instability stemming from the conflict between the demand for unity and the commitment to preserving a patchwork of disparate partial explanations. A case study in cognitive science illuminates the challenges of maintaining both systematicity and depth in explanations within this framework. While this instability does not render integrative pluralism fundamentally flawed, it stresses the importance of a diachronic analysis of scientific dynamics and norms. The conclusion highlights the continued value of integrative pluralism in interdisciplinary research programs, while emphasizing its role as a temporary rather than permanent approach.

Accurate skin lesion segmentation is an important task in dermatology for facilitating early diagnosis and treatment planning. The challenges in skin lesion segmentation comprehend the variability in lesion, low contrast, heterogeneous backgrounds, overlapping or connected lesions, noise and certain artifacts. Despite of these challenges, Deep learning models accomplish remarkable results for skin lesion segmentation by automatically learning discriminative features. The current research introduces a novel approach utilizing the ASSP-based Deeplabv3+ for skin lesion segmentation along with other UNET-based learners while employing VGG-16, VGG-19 and Dense nets as encoders. In addition, an analysis is conducted on GAN-UNET to evaluate the potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence in generating segmented images of skin lesions. Three benchmark medical image datasets, namely ISIC-2016, ISIC-2018, and HAM10000 Lesion Boundary Segmentation, are used to evaluate all five models. The models are trained exclusively on the ISIC-2018 dataset. A comparative analysis is performed, comparing the performance of these models against state-of-the-art segmentation methods, focusing on standard computer vision metrics. The proposed Deeplabv3+ model outperforms by showcasing its ability to accurately delineate skin lesions and surpassing existing techniques in terms of segmentation accuracy as 0.97, Jaccard coefficient as 0.84 and dice coefficient as 0.91.

In quantum information and computation, entanglement is a resource. When combining concepts, the application of entanglement outside of micro-physical systems is an useful tool. We suggest new cognitive image-based tests that do not need to be translated. No prior knowledge of terms related to the concepts is required, therefore the choice is more intuitive. We examine the merging of two concepts that establish non-classical statistical correlation and present an entanglement-aware vector encoding algorithm. This research’s added value results in an automated system that teaches artificial intelligence to identify and handle entangled concepts.

Quantum mechanics poses several challenges in ontological elucidation. Contextuality threatens determinism and favors realism about possibilia. Indistinguishability challenges traditional identity criteria associated with individual objects. Entanglement favors holistic and relational approaches. These issues, in close connection with different interpretations of quantum mechanics, have given rise to various proposals for the ontology of quantum mechanics. There is a proposal that is realistic about possibilia, where quantum systems are seen as bundles of possible intrinsic properties. This proposal is developed in close connection with modal interpretations and addresses quantum contextuality straightforwardly. There are also proposals based on relations, associated with the relational quantum mechanics interpretation. In this paper, features of these proposals are combined to obtain a modal bundle-theorist relational proposal. Its aim is to consistently and straightforwardly address both contextuality and the holistic and relational aspects of quantum mechanics arising from quantum entanglement. The proposal, if some additional principles are assumed, may turn out to be both an instance of moderate structuralism and priority monism.

Language not only reflects and cocreates social universes but can also be and is performative regarding the planetary common good, e.g., through international treaties and agreements. This paper investigates the rationale and feasibility of altering the language used by Glasgow Climate Pact to a posthuman mode that addresses the issue of more-than-human inequality by becoming inclusive toward nonhuman actors, and presents a selection of edited excerpts. The main findings state that (1) the language of the Glasgow Climate Pact is inadequate concerning its expected agency, (2) the reasons for this include its anthropocentrism, capitalocentrism and technocentrism, and (3) it is possible to rephrase the Glasgow Climate Pact and similar documents to address the diagnosed problems in a radically inclusive way. This paper represents a starting point for a discussion on the interrelations between climate and language and on the importance of language used by policy documents in the optics of climate action.

The foundations of biology have been a topic of debate for the past few decades. The traditional perspective of the Modern Synthesis, which portrays organisms as passive entities with a limited explanatory role in evolutionary theory, is giving way to a new paradigm where organisms are recognized as active agents, actively shaping their own phenotypic traits for adaptive goals. Within this context, this article raises the question of whether contemporary biological theory is undergoing a cognitive revolution. This inquiry can be approached in two ways: from a theoretical standpoint, exploring the centrality of the cognitive sciences in current theoretical biology; and from a historical perspective, examining the resemblance between the current state of theoretical biology and the Cognitive Revolution of the mid-twentieth century. Both inquiries yield affirmative answers, though important nuances will be emphasized. The cognitive sciences’ explanatory framework is employed to elucidate the agentic characteristics of organisms, establishing a clear parallelism between the Cognitive Revolution and the present state of theoretical biology.

The problem of explaining color perception has fascinated painters, philosophers and scientists throughout the history. In many cases, the ideas and discoveries about color perception in one of these categories influenced the others, thus resulting in one of the most remarkable cross-fertilization of human thought. At the end of the nineteenth century, two models stood out as the most convincing ones: Young-Helmholtz’s trichromacy on one side, and Hering’s opponency on the other side. The former was mainly supported by painters and scientists, although with some noticeable exceptions as, e.g., Otto Runge, while the majority of philosophers supported the latter. These two apparently incompatible models were proven to be two complementary parts of the hugely complex chain of events which leads to human color perception. Recently, a rigorous mathematical theory able to incorporate both trichromacy and opponency has been developed thanks to the use of the language and tools of quantum information. In this paper, we discuss the placement of this model within the philosophical theories about color.

It is widely believed that mathematics carries a substantial part of the explanatory burden in science. However, mathematics can also play important heuristic roles of a different kind, being a source of new ideas and approaches, allowing us to build toy models, enhancing expressive power and providing fruitful conceptualizations. In this paper, we focus on the application of dynamical systems theory (DST) within the extended cognition (EC) field of cognitive science, considering this case study to be a good illustration of a general phenomenon. In the paper, we justify both a negative and a positive claim. The negative claim is that dynamical systems theory hardly plays any explanatory role in EC research. We justify our claim by analyzing several accounts of the explanatory role of mathematics and stressing the way mathematical arguments are used in explanations. Our positive claim is that even though, for now, DST has no explanatory power in many of the EC approaches, it still plays an important heuristic role there. In particular, using mathematical notions improves the expressive power of the language and gives a sense of understanding of the phenomena under investigation. The case study of EC allows us to identify and analyze this important role of mathematics, which seems to be neglected in contemporary discussions.

The vision of integrating artificial intelligence in education is part of an ongoing push for harnessing digital solutions to improve teaching and learning. Drawing from Jasanoff (Future imperfect: Science, technology, and the imaginations of modernity. In S. Jasanoff, & S. H. Kim (Eds.), Dreamscapes of modernity: Sociotechnical imaginaries and the fabrication of power (pp. 1–33). The University of Chicago Press, 2015. 10.7208/9780226276663) and Hasse (Socratic ignorance in processes of learning with technology. In H. Bound, A. Edwards, & A. Chia (Eds.), Workplace learning for changing social and economic circumstances (pp. 76–90). Routledge, 2023), this paper deliberates on how sociotechnical imaginaries are interrelated to the implications of new technologies, such as AI, in education. Complicating Hasses’s (Socratic ignorance in processes of learning with technology. In H. Bound, A. Edwards, & A. Chia (Eds.), Workplace learning for changing social and economic circumstances (pp. 76–90). Routledge, 2023) call for the development of Socratic ignorance to consider our predispositions about new technologies and open new prospects of thought, this paper revisits postphenomenology (Ihde, Technology and the lifeworld: From garden to earth. Indiana University Press, 1990; Ihde, Postphenomenology: Essays in the postmodern context. Northwestern University Press, 1993; Ihde, Postphenomenology and technoscience. The Peking University lectures. State University of New York Press, 2009) and Feenberg’s (Critical theory of technology, Oxford University Press, 1991; Between reason and experience, MIT Press, 2010; Techne: Res Philos Technol 24:27–40, 2020) critical constructivist theories. While embracing the notion of Socratic ignorance, this paper stresses the importance of developing a nuanced understanding of technology that realizes its lack of neutrality and supports the creation of a deeper understanding of how knowledge is produced, deployed, and interpreted in the digital age. Thus, this paper argues that an amalgam of Hasse’s call for advancing Socratic ignorance combined with postphenomenology and critical constructivism can support students in developing a critical understanding of technology and opening new landscapes of imaginaries.