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247Cognitive Constructivism, Eigen-Solutions, and Sharp Statistical HypothesesCybernetics and Human Knowing 14 (1): 9-36. 2007.In this paper epistemological, ontological and sociological questions concerning the statistical significance of sharp hypotheses in scientific research are investigated within the framework provided by Cognitive Constructivism and the FBST (Full Bayesian Significance Test). The constructivist framework is contrasted with the traditional epistemological settings for orthodox Bayesian and frequentist statistics provided by Decision Theory and Falsificationism.
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245Jacob's Ladder and Scientific OntologiesCybernetics and Human Knowing 21 (3): 9-43. 2014.The main goal of this article is to use the epistemological framework of a specific version of Cognitive Constructivism to address Piaget’s central problem of knowledge construction, namely, the re-equilibration of cognitive structures. The distinctive objective character of this constructivist framework is supported by formal inference methods of Bayesian statistics, and is based on Heinz von Foerster’s fundamental metaphor of objects as tokens for eigen-solutions. This epistemological perspect…Read more
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188Karl Pearson and the Logic of Science: Renouncing Causal Understanding (the Bride) and Inverted Spinozism.South American Journal of Logic 4 (1): 219-252. 2018.Karl Pearson is the leading figure of XX century statistics. He and his co-workers crafted the core of the theory, methods and language of frequentist or classical statistics – the prevalent inductive logic of contemporary science. However, before working in statistics, K. Pearson had other interests in life, namely, in this order, philosophy, physics, and biological heredity. Key concepts of his philosophical and epistemological system of anti-Spinozism (a form of transcendental idealism) are c…Read more
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333Bayesian epistemic values: focus on surprise, measure probability!Logic Journal of the IGPL 22 (2): 236-254. 2014.
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205Jacob’s Ladder: Logics of Magic, Metaphor and Metaphysics: Narratives of the Unconscious, the Self, and the AssemblySophia 59 (2): 365-385. 2020.In this article, we discuss some issues concerning magical thinking—forms of thought and association mechanisms characteristic of early stages of mental development. We also examine good reasons for having an ambivalent attitude concerning the later permanence in life of these archaic forms of association, and the coexistence of such intuitive but informal thinking with logical and rigorous reasoning. At the one hand, magical thinking seems to serve the creative mind, working as a natural vehicl…Read more
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293Logically-consistent hypothesis testing and the hexagon of oppositionsLogic Journal of the IGPL 25 (5): 741-757. 2017.Although logical consistency is desirable in scientific research, standard statistical hypothesis tests are typically logically inconsistent. To address this issue, previous work introduced agnostic hypothesis tests and proved that they can be logically consistent while retaining statistical optimality properties. This article characterizes the credal modalities in agnostic hypothesis tests and uses the hexagon of oppositions to explain the logical relations between these modalities. Geometric s…Read more
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479Continuous versions of Haack’s puzzles: equilibria, eigen-states and ontologiesLogic Journal of the IGPL 25 (4): 604-631. 2017.This article discusses some continuous limit cases of Susan Haack’s crossword puzzle metaphor for the coherent development and foundation of science. The main objective of this discussion is to build a bridge between Haack’s foundherentism and the epistemological framework of objective cognitive constructivism, including its key metaphor of objects as tokens for eigen-solutions. The historical development of chemical affinity tables is used to illustrate our arguments.
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260The New Logic of Willard Van Orman Quine and its Significance for the Success of Logic in BrazilLogic and Logical Philosophy 28 789-793. 2019.
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373Jacob’s Ladder: Logics of Magic, Metaphor and MetaphysicsSophia 59 (2): 365-385. 2020.In this article, we discuss some issues concerning magical thinking—forms of thought and association mechanisms characteristic of early stages of mental development. We also examine good reasons for having an ambivalent attitude concerning the later permanence in life of these archaic forms of association, and the coexistence of such intuitive but informal thinking with logical and rigorous reasoning. At the one hand, magical thinking seems to serve the creative mind, working as a natural vehicl…Read more
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603A sharper image: the quest of science and recursive production of objective realitiesPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology 24 (2): 255-297. 2020.This article explores the metaphor of Science as provider of sharp images of our environment, using the epistemological framework of Objective Cognitive Constructivism. These sharp images are conveyed by precise scientific hypotheses that, in turn, are encoded by mathematical equations. Furthermore, this article describes how such knowledge is pro-duced by a cyclic and recursive development, perfection and reinforcement process, leading to the emergence of eigen-solutions characterized by the fo…Read more
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486The Rules of Logic Composition for the Bayesian Epistemic e-ValuesLogic Journal of the IGPL 15 (5-6): 401-420. 2007.In this paper, the relationship between the e-value of a complex hypothesis, H, and those of its constituent elementary hypotheses, Hj, j = 1… k, is analyzed, in the independent setup. The e-value of a hypothesis H, ev, is a Bayesian epistemic, credibility or truth value defined under the Full Bayesian Significance Testing mathematical apparatus. The questions addressed concern the important issue of how the truth value of H, and the truth function of the corresponding FBST structure M, relate t…Read more
São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |