H Kim

In this dissertation, I discuss how each individual's mental world is represented and shared with others. We understand and use a concept or the meaning of a general term to identify the objects falling under the term. There are two distinct approaches to research on the problems of concepts and meaning: the psychological approach and the formal approach. My major concern is to consider the possibility of reconciling these two different approaches, and for this I propose a psychologically plausible formal framework of conceptualization. ;Within the proposed framework I develop a theory-based account of concepts and explain how an agent activates a perspective in response to a situation in which reasoning using a concept is called for. Theories are represented as sets of facts and rules, both strict and defeasible and each theory is organized in a coherent perspective which stands for an agent's mental state or an agent's model of another agent's perspective. ;In my analysis of perspectival representation, I discuss how my notion of perspective is related to other mental phenomena such as consciousness and intentionality. Through a critique of Searle, I clarify some important properties of mental processes. Examining his connection principle and his notions of consciousness and intentionality, I augment his notion of Background, arguing that my notion of perspective replaces the Background in Searle's sense. ;My computational and philosophical account of perspectives and theories withstands evaluation from the empirical point of view represented by recent psychological studies. This investigation initiates a new research program in psychology, the study of perspectival cognitive processes. My notion of perspectival cognitive process is explained in the context of recent neuropsychological models suggesting a new way to interpret my notion of deep-level perspectival representation. Furthermore, Mangan's functional analysis of fringe phenomena and Baars's Global Workspace theory can be expanded to take into account how perspectival processes bridge the gap between conscious and unconscious processes

This paper discusses how we understand and use a concept or the meaningof a general term to identify the objects falling under the term. There aretwo distinct approaches to research on the problems of concepts and meaningthe psychological approach and the formal (or logical) approach. My majorconcern is to consider the possibility of reconciling these two differentapproaches, and for this I propose to build a psychologically plausibleformal system of conceptualization. That is, I will develop a theory-basedaccount of concepts and propose an explanation of how an agent activates aperspective (which consists of theories) in response to a situation in whichreasoning using a concept is called for. Theories are represented as sets offacts and rules, both strict and defeasible. Each theory is organized in acoherent perspective which stands for an agent's mental state or an agent'smodel of another agent's perspective. Perspectives are organized intohierarchies and the theory for a concept in one perspective may defeat thetheory for the same concept in another perspective. Which perspective issuperior is context-dependent.

South Korean cultivators share features with counterparts in both the global south and north. This combination of traits has produced a diversity of sources that underpin a food sovereignty movement. A case study of t’ojong, or native, seed activism illustrates how local systems of meaning and particular constellations of interests make food sovereignty appealing to a broad coalition of farmers, consumers, part-time cultivators, agricultural scientists, and activists for farmers and for women. The country’s experience demonstrates that responses to market encroachment on food production provide only part of the force driving food sovereignty movements.

We conducted stress psychotherapy using an expert system via computer networks, telephones and facsimiles in Gifu City, Japan. Through the therapy, we have obtained some distinct knowledge about the source of stress, stress related disorders and illness.This paper reports some of the results categorized as follows; adolescents, housewives, career women, geriatric persons, researchers, salarymen and managers. For example, the stresses of career women are due to sexual harassment in their working time and serving tea and coffee to clients. About half of them have felt a lack of personal satisfactions with friends, spouses, children and in-laws. They also expressed problems in time-management between family and office work and difficulty in accomplishing tasks impart due to distractions. When they feel lack of self esteem due to self-demand and self-blaming, they have a problem in expressing their own feelings and thus keep their problems and pressures to themselves. Emotional symptoms manifested by stress are developed personal sensitivity, and pre-menstrual tension. The career women pre-menstrual tensions are four times higher then for housewives. Psychological disorders caused by stress are hostility, anxiety and depression. Physiological disorders include tension headaches, migraine headaches and insomnia. A few of the career women experienced sacroiliac pain and duodenal ulcers. We believe that our expert system for the stress management is convenient and user friendly for stress diagnosis and to seek treatment to find ways to alleviate stress