- Table View
- List View
Logical Abilities in Children: Logical Inference: Underlying Operations (Logical Abilities in Children #2)
by Daniel N. OshersonOriginally published in 1974, the second volume of four (Logical Inference: Underlying Operations) provides a process-model for the solution of certain syllogistic reasoning problems. Testable predictions of the model are easily derived, and the available evidence supports the model’s description of the real-time mental steps mediating these logical abilities. A theory of development, connected to the model, makes these volumes all the more important for cognitive, developmental, and educational psychologists, as well as educators and linguists.
Logical Abilities in Children: Organization of Length and Class Concepts: Empirical Consequences of a Piagetian Formalism (Logical Abilities in Children #1)
by Daniel N. OshersonOriginally published in 1974, a wide and interesting set of intellectual abilities in children are examined here. Volume 1 of 4 (Organization of Length and Class Concepts: Empirical Consequences of a Piagetian Formalism) converts an axiomatization of classes and asymmetrical relationships (proper to Piaget’s discipline of Genetic Epistemology) into a model of the development of these notions in children. Here may be one of the only attempts to derive predictive consequences from the more philosophically oriented writings of the Genevan School.
Logical Abilities in Children: Reasoning and Concepts (Logical Abilities in Children #4)
by Daniel N. OshersonOriginally published in 1976, this fourth and final volume in a series that met with critical acclaim is concerned with a certain kind of answer to the question "What distinguishes the concepts that are a natural part of human languages from those that are merely expressible in language?" The kind of answers contemplated rely on formal properties of the logics that overlay the two sorts of concepts. The author presents a substantive theory of natural concepts which helps to make concrete the methodological proposals. In order to make the theory more manageable, it is restricted to sentential modifiers expressed in English. Although these proposals are substantive, the methodology they exemplify may be of even more significance. Some of the ideas in the author’s approach derive from the work of Chomsky, and several issues relevant to the growth of logical thinking are also treated with data that speak to questions raised in Volume 3, concerning qualitative change through development. This final volume in the series will be essential reading for all concerned with both logical abilities in children, their development, and novel methodological approaches to research bearing on this and related issues.
Logical Abilities in Children: Reasoning in Adolescence: Deductive Inference (Logical Abilities in Children #3)
by Daniel N. OshersonOriginally published in 1975, this volume (3 of 4) presents an expanded model of certain deductive abilities in children and adults. A partial explanation of the growth of these abilities was suggested in Volume 2 of this series, and it is amplified here, both with regard to propositional logic and the logic of class inclusion. A new methodology is employed, the issue of the effect of content in deductive reasoning is covered, and developmental questions are reformulated. Although only data from experiments with adolescents are presented here, the volume sets the stage for potentially illustrating developmental comparisons, a topic pursued in Volume 4 of this novel and inventive series.
Logical Empiricism and Naturalism: Neurath and Carnap’s Metatheory of Science (Vienna Circle Institute Library)
by Joseph BentleyThis text provides an extensive exploration of the relationship between the thought of Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap, providing a new argument for the complementarity of their mature philosophies as part of a collaborative metatheory of science. In arguing that both Neurath and Carnap must be interpreted as proponents of epistemological naturalism, and that their naturalisms rest on shared philosophical ground, it is also demonstrated that the boundaries and possibilities for epistemological naturalism are not as restrictive as Quinean orthodoxy has previously suggested. Both building on and challenging the scholarship of the past four decades, this naturalist reading of Carnap also provides a new interpretation of Carnap’s conception of analyticity, allowing for a refutation of the Quinean argument for the incompatibility of naturalism and the analytic/synthetic distinction. In doing so, the relevance and potential importance of their scientific meta-theory for contemporary questions in the philosophy of science is demonstrated.This text appeals to students and researchers working on Logical Empiricism, Quine, the history of analytic philosophy and the history of philosophy of science, as well as proponents of naturalized epistemology.
Logical Empiricism and the Physical Sciences: From Philosophy of Nature to Philosophy of Physics (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science)
by Sebastian Lutz; Adam Tamas TubolyThis volume has two primary aims: to trace the traditions and changes in methods, concepts, and ideas that brought forth the logical empiricists’ philosophy of physics and to present and analyze the logical empiricists’ various and occasionally contrary ideas about the physical sciences and their philosophical relevance. These original chapters discuss these developments in their original contexts and social and institutional environments, thus showing the various fruitful conceptions and philosophies behind the history of 20th-century philosophy of science. Logical Empiricism and the Natural Sciences is divided into three thematic sections. Part I surveys the influences on logical empiricism’s philosophy of science and physics. It features chapters on Maxwell’s role in the worldview of logical empiricism, on Reichenbach’s account of objectivity, on the impact of Poincaré on Neurath’s early views on scientific method, Frank’s exchanges with Einstein about philosophy of physics, and on the forgotten role of Kurt Grelling. Part II focuses on specific physical theories, including Carnap’s and Reichenbach’s positions on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Reichenbach’s critique of unified field theory, and the logical empiricists’ reactions to quantum mechanics. The third and final group of chapters widens the scope to philosophy of science and physics in general. It includes contributions on von Mises’ frequentism; Frank’s account of concept formation and confirmation; and the interrelations between Nagel’s, Feigl’s, and Hempel’s versions of logical empiricism. This book offers a comprehensive account of the logical empiricists’ philosophy of physics. It is a valuable resource for researchers interested in the history and philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, and the history of analytic philosophy.
Logical Fictions in Medieval Literature and Philosophy
by Virginie GreeneIn the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, new ways of storytelling and inventing fictions appeared in the French-speaking areas of Europe. This new art still influences our global culture of fiction. Virginie Greene explores the relationship between fiction and the development of neo-Aristotelian logic during this period through a close examination of seminal literary and philosophical texts by major medieval authors, such as Anselm of Canterbury, Abélard, and Chrétien de Troyes. This study of Old French logical fictions encourages a broader theoretical reflection about fiction as a universal human trait and a defining element of the history of Western philosophy and literature. Additional close readings of classical Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, and modern analytic philosophy including the work of Bertrand Russell and Rudolf Carnap, demonstrate peculiar traits of Western rationalism and expose its ambivalent relationship to fiction.
Logical Form: Between Logic and Natural Language (Synthese Library #393)
by Andrea IaconaLogical form has always been a prime concern for philosophers belonging to the analytic tradition. For at least one century, the study of logical form has been widely adopted as a method of investigation, relying on its capacity to reveal the structure of thoughts or the constitution of facts. This book focuses on the very idea of logical form, which is directly relevant to any principled reflection on that method. Its central thesis is that there is no such thing as a correct answer to the question of what is logical form: two significantly different notions of logical form are needed to fulfill two major theoretical roles that pertain respectively to logic and to semantics. This thesis has a negative and a positive side. The negative side is that a deeply rooted presumption about logical form turns out to be overly optimistic: there is no unique notion of logical form that can play both roles. The positive side is that the distinction between two notions of logical form, once properly spelled out, sheds light on some fundamental issues concerning the relation between logic and language.
Logical Positivism (The Library Of Philosophical Movements)
by A. J. AyerEdited by a leading exponent of the school, this book offers--in the words of the movement's founders--logical positivism's revolutionary theories on meaning and metaphysics, the nature of logic and mathematics, the foundations of knowledge, the content of psychological propositions, ethics, sociology, and the nature of philosophy itself.
Logical Skills: Social-Historical Perspectives (Studies in Universal Logic)
by Claude Rosental Julie Brumberg-ChaumontThis contributed volume explores the ways logical skills have been perceived over the course of history. The authors approach the topic from the lenses of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and history to examine two opposing perceptions of logic: the first as an innate human ability and the second as a skill that can be learned and mastered. Chapters focus on the social and political dynamics of the use of logic throughout history, utilizing case studies and critical analyses.Specific topics covered include:the rise of logical skillsproblems concerning medieval notions of idiocy and rationalitydecolonizing natural logicnatural logic and the course of timeLogical Skills: Social-Historical Perspectives will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in the fields of history, sociology, philosophy, and logic. Psychology and colonial studies scholars will also find this volume to be of particular interest.
Logicism and its Philosophical Legacy
by William DemopoulosThe idea that mathematics is reducible to logic has a long history, but it was Frege who gave logicism an articulation and defense that transformed it into a distinctive philosophical thesis with a profound influence on the development of philosophy in the twentieth century. This volume of classic, revised and newly written essays by William Demopoulos examines logicism's principal legacy for philosophy: its elaboration of notions of analysis and reconstruction. The essays reflect on the deployment of these ideas by the principal figures in the history of the subject - Frege, Russell, Ramsey and Carnap - and in doing so illuminate current concerns about the nature of mathematical and theoretical knowledge. Issues addressed include the nature of arithmetical knowledge in the light of Frege's theorem; the status of realism about the theoretical entities of physics; and the proper interpretation of empirical theories that postulate abstract structural constraints.
Logics Of Hierarchy: The Organization of Empires, States, and Military Occupations
by Alexander CooleyPolitical science has had trouble generating models that unify the study of the formation and consolidation of various types of states and empires. The business-administration literature, however, has long experience in observing organizations. According to a dominant model in this field, business firms generally take one of two forms: unitary (U) or multidivisional (M). The U-form organizes its various elements along the lines of administrative functions, whereas the M-form governs its periphery according to geography and territory. In Logics of Hierarchy, Alexander Cooley applies this model to political hierarchies across different cultures, geographical settings, and historical eras to explain a variety of seemingly disparate processes: state formation, imperial governance, and territorial occupation. Cooley illustrates the power of this formal distinction with detailed accounts of the experiences of Central Asian republics in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, and compares them to developments in the former Yugoslavia, the governance of modern European empires, Korea during and after Japanese occupation, and the recent U. S. occupation of Iraq. In applying this model, Logics of Hierarchy reveals the varying organizational ability of powerful states to promote institutional transformation in their political peripheries and the consequences of these formations in determining pathways of postimperial extrication and state-building. Its focus on the common organizational problems of hierarchical polities challenges much of the received wisdom about imperialism and postimperialism.
Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory #Vol. 26)
by David Howarth Jason GlynosThis book proposes a novel approach to practising social and political analysis based on the role of logics. The authors articulate a distinctive perspective on social science explanation that avoids the problems of scientism and subjectivism by steering a careful course between lawlike explanations and thick descriptions. Drawing upon hermeneutics, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, and post-analytical philosophy, this new approach offers a particular set of logics – social, political and fantasmatic – with which to construct critical explanations of practices and regimes. While the first part of the book critically engages with lawlike, interpretivist and causal approaches to critical explanation, the second part elaborates an alternative grammar of concepts informed by an ontological stance rooted in poststructuralist theory. In developing this approach, a number of empirical cases are included to illustrate its basic concepts and logics, ranging from the apartheid regime in South Africa to recent changes in higher education. The book will be a valuable tool for scholars and researchers in a variety of related fields of study in the social sciences, especially the disciplines of political science and political theory, international relations, social theory, cultural studies, anthropology and philosophy.
Logics of Disintegration: Post-Structuralist Thought and the Claims of Critical Theory
by Peter DewsThis book examines the relationship between post-structuralism and Frankfurt School critical theory. It also questions the "novelty" of post-structuralist claims, using, for instance, the debate between Fichte and Schelling to show that such terrain as radical subjectivity has been broached before. The book explores the danger of allowing post-structuralism to remain unchecked and the possible "disastrous" political consequences of such a "radical" theory.
Logics of Genocide: The Structures of Violence and the Contemporary World (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Martin Shuster Anne O’ByrneThis book is concerned with the connection between the formal structure of agency and the formal structure of genocide. The contributors employ philosophical approaches to explore the idea of genocidal violence as a structural element in the world. Do mechanisms or structures in nation-states produce types of national citizens that are more susceptible to genocidal projects? There are powerful arguments within philosophy that in order to be the subjects of our own lives, we must constitute ourselves specifically as national subjects and organize ourselves into nation states. Additionally, there are other genocidal structures of human society that spill beyond historically limited episodes. The chapters in this volume address the significance—moral, ethical, political—of the fact that our very form of agency suggests or requires these structures. The contributors touch on topics including birthright citizenship, contemporary mass incarceration, anti-black racism, and late capitalism. Logics of Genocide will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy, critical theory, genocide studies, Holocaust and Jewish studies, history, and anthropology.
Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation
by William H. Sewell Jr.While social scientists and historians have been exchanging ideas for a long time, they have never developed a proper dialogue about social theory. William H. Sewell Jr. observes that on questions of theory the communication has been mostly one way: from social science to history. Logics of History argues that both history and the social sciences have something crucial to offer each other. While historians do not think of themselves as theorists, they know something social scientists do not: how to think about the temporalities of social life. On the other hand, while social scientists' treatments of temporality are usually clumsy, their theoretical sophistication and penchant for structural accounts of social life could offer much to historians. Renowned for his work at the crossroads of history, sociology, political science, and anthropology, Sewell argues that only by combining a more sophisticated understanding of historical time with a concern for larger theoretical questions can a satisfying social theory emerge. In Logics of History, he reveals the shape such an engagement could take, some of the topics it could illuminate, and how it might affect both sides of the disciplinary divide.
Logics of War: Explanations for Limited and Unlimited Conflicts
by Alex WeisigerMost wars between countries end quickly and at relatively low cost. The few in which high-intensity fighting continues for years bring about a disproportionate amount of death and suffering. What separates these few unusually long and intense wars from the many conflicts that are far less destructive? In Logics of War, Alex Weisiger tests three explanations for a nation's decision to go to war and continue fighting regardless of the costs. He combines sharp statistical analysis of interstate wars over the past two centuries with nine narrative case studies. He examines both well-known conflicts like World War II and the Persian Gulf War, as well as unfamiliar ones such as the 1864-1870 Paraguayan War (or the War of the Triple Alliance), which proportionally caused more deaths than any other war in modern history. When leaders go to war expecting easy victory, events usually correct their misperceptions quickly and with fairly low casualties, thereby setting the stage for a negotiated agreement. A second explanation involves motives born of domestic politics; as war becomes more intense, however, leaders are increasingly constrained in their ability to continue the fighting. Particularly destructive wars instead arise from mistrust of an opponent's intentions. Countries that launch preventive wars to forestall expected decline tend to have particularly ambitious war aims that they hold to even when fighting goes poorly. Moreover, in some cases, their opponents interpret the preventive attack as evidence of a dispositional commitment to aggression, resulting in the rejection of any form of negotiation and a demand for unconditional surrender. Weisiger's treatment of a topic of central concern to scholars of major wars will also be read with great interest by military historians, political psychologists, and sociologists.
Logischer Empirismus, Lebensreform und die deutsche Jugendbewegung: Logical Empiricism, Life Reform, and the German Youth Movement (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts Wiener Kreis #32)
by Christian Damböck Günther Sandner Meike G. WernerThis open-access book is the first to investigate the roots of Logical Empiricism in the context of the Life Reform and the German Youth Movements. Rudolf Carnap and Hans Reichenbach are the key protagonists; they both belonged to the German Youth Movement and developed their early philosophical views in this setting. By combining scholarly essays with unpublished and hard to access manuscripts, letters, and articles, this volume recasts our understanding of the early years of Logical Empiricism.
Logistics In Warfare: The Significance Of Logistics In The Army Of The Cumberland During The Tullahoma And Chickamauga Campaigns
by Major Douglas H. GaluszkaThis is a study of the logistical system that supported the Union armies in the Civil War, focusing on the Army of the Cumberland under the command of Major General William S. Rosecrans in 1863. It begins with a description of the logistical bureaus in the War Department in Washington, D.C. and the challenges they had in developing the national logistical support structure in the first years of the war. Next, the support structure in the Department of the Cumberland is described, to include the challenges in maintaining the rail link from Nashville, Tennessee, back to Louisville, Kentucky. Finally, the performances of the commanders and logisticians in the field during the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns are explored, with an emphasis on the problems with transportation.This study concludes that the logisticians overcame enormous problems to create a logistical system that allowed the commanders to win the war. In the Army of the Cumberland, the support was exceptional when compared to the challenges that were faced. Logistics became a limiting factor because of the senior leadership's poor planning, disregarded orders, and unrealistic expectations which doomed both the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns from achieving decisive results even before they had begun.This study attempts to put the rarely explored, but extremely significant, field of logistics in its proper place of importance in the study of military history. Logistics is inextricably tied with strategy and tactics; without logistics, victory is not possible.
Logistics Matters and the U.S. Army in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949
by Lee KrugerThis book examines the U. S. Army's presence in Germany after the Nazi regime's capitulation in May 1945. This presence required the pursuit of two stated missions: to secure German borders, and to establish an occupation government within the assigned U. S. zone and sector of Berlin. Both missions required logistics support, a critical aspect often understated in existing scholarship. The security mission, covered by the combat troops, declined between 1945 and 1948, but grew again with the Berlin Blockade/Airlift in 1948, and then again with the Korean crisis in 1950. The logistics mission grew exponentially to support this security mission, as the U. S. Army was the only U. S. Government agency possessing the ability and resources to initially support the occupation mission in Germany. The build-up of 'Little Americas' during the occupation years stood forward-deployed U. S. military forces in Europe in good stead over the ensuing decades.
Logistics and Politics in the Middle East
by Kristian Coates UlrichsenAn examination of how the logistical demands of the British military campaigns in Palestine and Mesopotamia led to a more intrusive and authoritarian form of imperial control in 1917-18. This early example of Western military intervention in the Middle East provoked a localized backlash in 1919-20 whose effects continue to be felt today.
Logistics and Transportation Security: A Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Guide to Resilience
by Maria G. Burns"Professor Burns has captured the essence of transportation security, one of today's most pressing concerns. As the rate of globalization and world trade increases, security and supply chain resilience are at the core of one‘s global transportation network. This is a timely and well written contribution to the industry." John A. Moseley, Senior Dir
Logistics in World War II, 1939–1943: 1939-1945
by John NorrisJohn Norris shows how logistics, though less glamorous than details of the fighting itself, played a decisive role in the outcome of every campaign and battle of World War Two. The author marshals some astounding facts and figures to convey the sheer scale of the task all belligerents faced to equip vast forces and supply them in the field. He also draws on firsthand accounts to illustrate what this meant for the men and women in the logistics chain and those depending on it at the sharp end. Many of the vehicles, from supply trucks to pack mules, and other relevant hardware are discussed and illustrated with numerous photographs. This first volume of two looks at the early years of the war, so we see, for example, how Hitler's panzer divisions were kept rolling in the Blitzkrieg (a German division in 1940 still had around 5000 horses, requiring hundreds of tons of fodder) and the British army's disastrous loss of equipment at Dunkirk. This is a fascinating and valuable study of a neglected aspect of World War Two.
Logistics in the Falklands War: A Case Study in Expeditionary Warfare
by Kenneth L. PrivratskyA military logistics expert analyzes the detailed coordination employed by the British during the Falklands War in 1982. While many books have been written on the Falklands War, this is the first to focus on the vital aspect of logistics. The challenges were huge: the lack of preparation time, the urgency, the huge distances involved, and the need to requisition ships from trade to name but four. After a brief discussion of events leading to Argentina&’s invasion, the book details the rush to re-organize and deploy forces, dispatch a large task force, the innovative solutions needed to sustain the task force, the vital staging base at Ascension Island, the in-theatre resupply, the set-backs, and finally the restoring of order after victory. Had the logistics plan failed, victory would have been impossible and humiliation inevitable, with no food for the troops, no ammunition for the guns, no medical support for casualties, etc. The lessons learned have never been more important with increasing numbers of out-of-area operations required in remote trouble spots at short notice. The Falklands experience is crucial for the education of new generations of military planners and fascinating for military buffs, and this book fills an important gap.&“With inadequate training, little intelligence, no contingency plan, a politically driven rush and at 8,000 miles, it is not surprising that logistics during Op CORPORATE were confusing and challenging. It has taken a US Army general to explain why. We should all be grateful.&” —Michael Clapp, Commander Amphibious Task Force&“A timely book that explores the logistical challenges of projecting decisive combat power across transoceanic distances.&” —Marine Corps Gazette
Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades
by John H. PryorHow were the Crusades made possible? There have been studies of ancient, medieval and early modern warfare, as well as work on the finances and planning of Crusades, but this volume is the first specifically to address the logistics of Crusading. Building on previous work, it brings together experts from the fields of medieval Western, Byzantine and Middle Eastern studies to examine how the marches and voyages were actually made. Questions of manpower, types and means of transportation by land and sea, supplies, financial resources, roads and natural land routes, sea lanes and natural sailing routes - all these topics and more are covered here. Of particular importance is the attention given to the horses and other animals on which transport of supplies and the movement of armies depended.