Incomparable Values

Incomparable Values

Author: John Nolt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-01-14

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1000515265

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

People tend to rank values of all kinds linearly from good to bad, but there is little reason to think that this is reasonable or correct. This book argues, to the contrary, that values are often partially ordered and hence frequently incomparable. Proceeding logically from a small set of axioms, John Nolt examines the great variety of partially ordered value structures, exposing fallacies that arise from overlooking them. He reveals various ways in which incomparability is obscured: using linear indices to summarize partially ordered data, relying on an inadequately defined concept of parity, or conflating incomparability with vagueness. Incomparability can enrich and clarify a range of topics including the paradoxes of Derek Parfit, rational decision theory, and the infinite values of theology. Finally, Nolt shows how to generalize many of the concepts introduced earlier, explores the intricate depths of certain noteworthy partially ordered value structures, and argues for the finitude of value. Incomparable Values will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in ethics, value theory, rational decision theory, and logic.


Making Comparisons Count

Making Comparisons Count

Author: Ruth Chang

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-21

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1135714703

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book attempts to answer two questions: Are alternatives for choice ever incomparable? and In what ways can items be compared? The arguments offered suggest that alternatives for choice no matter how different are never incomparable, and that the ways in which items can be compared are richer and more varied than commonly supposed.


Environmental Ethics for the Long Term

Environmental Ethics for the Long Term

Author: John Nolt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-09-25

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1317615883

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Broad in scope, this introduction to environmental ethics considers both contemporary issues and the extent of humanity’s responsibility for distant future life. John Nolt, a logician and environmental ethicist, interweaves contemporary science, logical analysis, and ethical theory into the story of the expansion of ethics beyond the human species and into the far future. Informed by contemporary environmental science, the book deduces concrete policy recommendations from carefully justified ethical principles and ends with speculations concerning the deepest problems of environmental ethics. Pedagogical features include chapter outlines, annotated suggestions for further readings, the explanations of key terms when first mentioned, and an extensive glossary.


Computers and Games

Computers and Games

Author: Jonathan Schaeffer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2003-11-20

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 3540400311

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Computers and Games (CG) series began in 1998 with the objective of showcasing new developments in arti?cial intelligence (AI) research that used games as the experimental test-bed. The ?rst two CG conferences were held at Hamamatsu,Japan(1998,2000).ComputersandGames2002(CG2002)wasthe third event in this biennial series. The conference was held at the University of Alberta(Edmonton,Alberta,Canada),July25–27,2002.Theprogramconsisted of the main conference featuring refereed papers and keynote speakers, as well as several side events including the Games Informatics Workshop, the Agents in Computer Games Workshop, the Trading Agents Competition, and the North American Computer Go Championship. CG 2002 attracted 110 participants from over a dozen countries. Part of the successoftheconferencewasthatitwasco-locatedwiththeNationalConference of the American Association for Arti?cial Intelligence (AAAI), which began in Edmonton just as CG 2002 ended. The CG 2002 program had 27 refereed paper presentations. The papers ranged over a wide variety of AI-related topics including search, knowledge, learning, planning, and combinatorial game theory. Research test-beds included one-player games (blackjack, sliding-tile puzzles, Sokoban), two-player games (Amazons, awari, chess, Chinese chess, clobber, Go, Hex, Lines of Action, O- ello, shogi), multi-player games (Chinese checkers, cribbage, Diplomacy, hearts, spades), commercial games (role-playing games, real-time strategy games), and novel applications (Post’s Correspondence Problem).


Ordered Algebraic Structures

Ordered Algebraic Structures

Author: Jorge Martínez

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1475736274

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the 28th of February through the 3rd of March, 2001, the Department of Math ematics of the University of Florida hosted a conference on the many aspects of the field of Ordered Algebraic Structures. Officially, the title was "Conference on Lattice Ordered Groups and I-Rings", but its subject matter evolved beyond the limitations one might associate with such a label. This volume is officially the proceedings of that conference, although, likewise, it is more accurate to view it as a complement to that event. The conference was the fourth in wh at has turned into aseries of similar conferences, on Ordered Algebraic Structures, held in consecutive years. The first, held at the University of Florida in Spring, 1998, was a modest and informal affair. The fifth is in the final planning stages at this writing, for March 7-9, 2002, at Vanderbilt University. And although these events remain modest and reasonably informal, their scope has broadened, as they have succeeded in attracting mathematicians from other, related fields, as weIl as from more distant lands.


Moral Strata

Moral Strata

Author: John R. Welch

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 331908013X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume recreates the received notion of reflective equilibrium. It reconfigures reflective equilibrium as both a cognitive ideal and a method for approximating this ideal. The ideal of reflective equilibrium is restructured using the concept of discursive strata, which are formed by sentences and differentiated by function. Sentences that perform the same kind of linguistic function constitute a stratum. The book shows how moral discourse can be analyzed into phenomenal, instrumental, and teleological strata, and the ideal of reflective equilibrium reworked in these terms. In addition, the work strengthens the method of reflective equilibrium by harnessing the resources of decision theory and inductive logic. It launches a comparative version of decision theory and employs this framework as a guide to moral theory choice. It also recruits quantitative inductive logic to inform a standard of inductive cogency. When used in tandem with comparative decision theory, this standard can aid in the effort to turn the undesirable condition of reflective disequilibrium into reflective equilibrium.


Ethics at 3:AM

Ethics at 3:AM

Author: Richard Marshall

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 019063572X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

3AM magazine follows up their 2014 publication Philosophy at 3AM: Questions and Answers with a new collection interviews, this time focused on ethics. Interviewer Richard Marhsall presents 26 interviews, balanced both in terms of specialty, gender, and seniority, so that the result is a balanced and engaging portrait of the state of the art in ethics today


Partially Ordered Groups

Partially Ordered Groups

Author: Andrew Martin William Glass

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9789810234935

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The author's style of writing is very lucid, and the material presented is self-contained. It is an excellent reference text for a graduate course in this area, as well as a source of material for individual reading".Bulletin of London Mathematical Society


Principles of Security and Trust

Principles of Security and Trust

Author: Riccardo Focardi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-03-30

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 366246666X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Principles of Security and Trust, POST 2015, held as part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2015, in London, UK, in April 2015. The 17 regular papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 57 submissions. In addition, one invited talk is included. The papers have been organized in topical sections on information flow and security types, risk assessment and security policies, protocols, hardware and physical security and privacy and voting.


Knowledge, Science, and Values

Knowledge, Science, and Values

Author: Tadeusz Czezowski

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-06-20

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9004457682

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the contents: Some ancient problems in modern form. - On the humanities. - On the method of analytic description. - On the problem of induction. - On discussion and discussing. - On happiness. - How to understand the meaning of life'. - How to construct the logic of goods? - The meaning and the value of life. - Conflicts in ethics. - What are values? - Three attitudes towards the world. - On two views of the world. - A few remarks on rationalism and empiricism. - Identity and the individual in its persistence. - Sensory cognition and reality. - Philosophy at the crossroads."