Peter Øhrstrøm

Surveillance, persuasion, and panopticon

The surveillance in public and private places, both physically and digitally, is increasing for different reasons. In this paper we intend to discuss surveillance and persuasive technology in an ethical perspective with an eye to its historical and cultural context. In section 1, we present some different tendencies of surveillance in society. In section 2, we elaborate on some important historical ideas on surveillance. In section 3, we consider the use of persuasive technology for surveillance purposes. In section 4, we discuss the development towards increasing surveillance in society, at work, in public places etc. In section 5, we draw up some ethical concerns on surveillance, and finally. In section 6, we discuss the question of a possible need for a public and democratic control of the use of surveillance technology.

Branching time, indeterminism and tense logic

This paper deals with the historical and philosophical background of the introduction of the notion of branching time in philosophical logic as it is revealed in the hitherto unpublished mail-correspondence between Saul Kripke and A.N. Prior in the late 1950s. The paper reveals that the idea was first suggested by Saul Kripke in a letter to A.N. Prior, dated September 3, 1958, and it is shown how the elaboration of the idea in the course of the correspondence was intimately intervowen with considerations of how to represent indeterminism and of the adequacy of tensed logic in light of special relativity. The correspondence underpins the point that Prior’s later development of branching time may be understood as a crucial part of his attempt at the formulating a conceptual framework integrating basic human notions of time and free choice.

C. S. Pierce and the Quest for Gamma Graphs

This paper deals with some aspects of the history of C. S. Peirces Existential Graphs. In his construction of this graphical method during 1896–1897 Peirce was motivated by some interesting considerations regarding diagrammatical reasoning. In the present paper this motivation will be briefly discussed. Whereas Peirce managed to bring the graphical systems of Alpha and Beta Graphs to a high degree of perfection, his treatment of the Gamma Graphs remained tentative and unfinished. Some of his suggestions can also be shown to be mistaken. It is, however, clear that Peirce with his Gamma Graphs was aiming at a complicated system in which one can deal with a number of interesting problems regarding various kinds of modality. Peirce, himself, was well aware of the shortcomings of his treatment of the Gamma Graphs, and he mainly concentrated on the formulation of a Gamma agenda for his followers.

Towards a handy interactive persuasive diary for teenagers with a diagnosis of autism

The HANDS project is designed for Helping Autism-diagnosed Navigate and Develop Socially (HANDS) and combines studies within the pedagogical and psychological fields with the more technological field of Persuasive Design (PD). Functional deficits in social ability are considered in teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in relation to underlying structural neurological deficits, and the implications of motivation are discussed. Design-requirement proposals are made for the Handy Interactive Persuasive Diary (HIPD) to customize its functionality to meet the specific needs of this population in order to support the development of their social skills. The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the expected role of the HIPD considered from a psychological perspective.

Minds and Computers

Here, the author presents a formal description for a knowledge system which distinguishes between information and knowledge. According to principle (1), knowledge is defined in terms of justification and demonstration. To know is to be able to judge correctly. The author defines the knowledge state (k-state) and the information state (i-state) and discusses their counterparts in CTT. Here, CTT is reconsidered as a framework for knowledge representation where the roles of the various constructs of CTT (types, contexts, proofs, etc) are associated to knowledge concepts. In this way, CTT becomes a framework for knowledge representation where the retrieving and extending of information is accurately formalised and plays a crucial role. The idea of contexts as constructive possible worlds is expanded and used to describe the connection between i-states and k-states. Judgements are pieces of knowledge whose collection represents an agent’s actual knowledge (formally represented as a knowledge frame, or k-frame). Kripke models and Kripke semantics are used to interpret the notion of contexts as possible worlds. Finally, the author studies the knowledge framework in further detail explaining how information can be updated and knowledge can be extended and how the notion of infinity is treated constructively. In chapter 4, the author returns to the distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge. The distinction between information and knowledge is further emphasised using constructions. The author uses mathematics to illustrate the difference between implicit and explicit and between information and knowledge. According to the author, a mathematical deduction makes explicit what is implicit in its assumptions and the various kinds of information present in a book of mathematics does not represent knowledge for someone who does not possess the meaning of the notions involved. In my opinion, the best way to review the motivation for and explain the usefulness of this work is to use the author’s own final words on page 193:

Ockhamistic logics and true futures of counterfactual moments

Various Ockhamistic logics are compared, with the aim of making clear the role of true futures of counterfactual moments, i.e. true futures of moments outside the true chronicle. First, we give an account of A.N. Priors (1967) original Ockhamistic semantics, where the truth of a formula is relative to a moment and a chronicle. We prove that this is equivalent to a semantics put forward by Thomason and Gupta (1980), where truth is relative to a moment and a so-called chronicle function which assigns a chronicle to each moment. This is the case because true futures of counterfactual moments do not matter in Thomson and Guptas semantics. Later, we discuss how two options considered by Belnap and Green (1994) might be formalised. They come about by associating either a chronicle or a chronicle function to be given once and for all. The first of the two options is unable to give an account of certain statements from natural language, and the second option invalidates an intuitively valid formula. We propose a new Ockhamistic semantics where the formula in question is valid, and furthermore, where true features of counterfactual moments are taken into account. Finally, we discuss possible applications within artificial intelligence.

Existential Graphs and Tense Logic

In this paper it is argued that the founder of modern tense logic, A.N. Prior was very much inspired by the logic and philosophy of C.S. Peirce. It is also demonstrated how the most important tense logical systems of Prior, Kt, Kc and Kb, can be reformulated in terms of the existential graphs invented by Peirce.

Teaching Logic through Web-Based and Gamified Quizzing of Formal Arguments

In this paper the focus is on the construction, use, pedagogical potential, and long-term sustainability of certain web-based tools designed for teaching logic. A series of web-based tools have been implemented as a two-part system, and the tools have been tested and evaluated in a number of practical experiments. The first part of the system is a student-facing Java-Applet running in the students browser, implemented using the Prolog programming language as embodied in a Java implementation called Prolog+CG. The second part is a teacher-oriented, server-based backend for logging the progress of students. In the paper, we provide a presentation of the pedagogical and technical ideas of construction that underpin the tools which have been made so far. It is explained how the tools can be developed as web applications using gamified quizzing. We then provide an evaluation of the potential of log data as learning analytics offered by these tools in the context of university courses introducing basic logic and formal aspects of argumentation. We also describe how we have used and evaluated the tools in a real learning context, using both quantitative, log-based data and qualitative interview. The evaluation also includes a discussion of the ethical aspects concerning the logging of student data. We also provide some insights on how the tools can and have been made sustainable.

The role of credibility in the design of mobile solutions to enhance the social skill‐set of teenagers diagnosed with autism

Purpose – Helping Autism‐diagnosed teenagers navigate and develop socially (HANDS) is an EU research project in progress. The aim of HANDS is to investigate the potential of persuasive technology as a tool to help young people diagnosed, to whatever degree, as autistic. The HANDS project set out to develop mobile ICT solutions to help young people with autism become more fully integrated into society and the purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the design behind the HANDS toolset.Design/methodology/approach – The topic of credibility is approached from an analytical, as well as an ethical, angle in order to address issues of credibility in relation to designing assistive technological tools. In addition, the authors set out to explore possible ways in which credibility can be evaluated. The paper presents a preliminary method for the evaluation of credibility; but which requires further refinement, as well as empirical support in order to inform us about issues of system credibility. Therefo...

A.N. Prior's Logic

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a brief biography of Arthur Norman Prior with particular focuses on his logic. Arthur Norman Prior was born on December 4th, 1914 in Masterton in the North Island of New Zealand. The chapter focuses on main trends in Priors philosophical logic: (1) the logic of ethics, (2) how temporal logic began: human freedom and divine foreknowledge, (3) the logic of existence, (4) the syntax of tempo-modal logic, (5) the semantics of tempo-modal logic, and (6) four grades of tense-logical- involvement. Prior dealt with many problems within philosophical logic and it was very important for him to view logic as strongly related to reality. He firmly rejected formalism—that is, the theory that logic is just about symbols and not about things. He held that “logic is not primarily about language, but about the real world.” In his opinion, only the present exists. In the same way as only one possible world is real, Prior maintained that only one instant is real. In this way, the tenses are essential for the understanding of reality.