What are the key philosophical and theoretical foundations of posthumanism?4 answersThe key philosophical and theoretical foundations of posthumanism encompass a diverse range of perspectives and theories. Posthumanism draws on various philosophical movements such as postmodernism, new materialism, object-oriented ontology, post-phenomenology, and non-representational theory. It challenges traditional human-centric views by emphasizing interconnectedness, mutual dependence, and co-evolution between humans, nonhumans, and technology. Posthumanism also explores the reevaluation of humanistic myths, the decentering of the human, and the entanglements of humans with other life forms and nonliving matter. Additionally, posthumanism delves into ethical perspectives, ontology, epistemology, and axiology to shape the posthuman society's worldviews and values. The posthuman paradigm shift further extends the notion of art, leading to a radical realignment of epistemology, anthropology, and ethics, challenging the exceptional ontological position of humans in the world.
How can density functional theory be used to study the properties of materials?4 answersDensity functional theory (DFT) is a powerful tool for studying the properties of materials. It allows for the evaluation of material properties such as electronic structure, lattice constants, formation energies, and vacancy formation energies. DFT calculations can be used to predict the behavior of materials prior to synthesis, providing valuable insights into their applicability in various fields such as catalysis, energy storage, electronics, and more. DFT has become widely used in computational chemistry and materials science due to its theoretical foundations, a variety of density-functional approximations, and practical implementations. It can be applied to study diverse compositions, configurations, and morphology of materials, aiding in the design and optimization of novel materials for specific applications. Additionally, DFT models can be used to study the properties of materials under external factors such as magnetic fields, providing insights into their behavior in different environments.
What are the theoretical foundations of Google Translate?4 answersGoogle Translate's theoretical foundations can be traced back to the development of machine translation methods after World War II. Initially, rule-based methods were used, but the current algorithmic statistical methods have become dominant. These methods involve a collaboration between algorithms and human input, with an emphasis on the relationship between technology, language, and speakers. The operative logic of Google Translate represents a new model of translation called uniform multilingualism, where lingual plurality on the user side is mediated by lingual uniformity on the system side. This is achieved through an English language algorithm, which has recently been replaced by an artificial neural network interlingual algorithm. The shift in Google Translate's algorithm is significant and has implications for the translation process.
How does moral foundations theory relate to marijuana legalization?4 answersMoral Foundations Theory (MFT) has been linked to attitudes toward marijuana legalization, with religiosity playing a significant role in shaping these attitudes. Research by Krystosek found that greater religiosity was associated with reduced support for marijuana legalization, although religious salience was not the strongest correlate of attitudes toward legalization. This suggests that MFT, particularly the moral foundation of purity/sanctity, may influence attitudes toward marijuana legalization through the lens of religiosity and social control theory.
What is moral foundations theory?3 answersMoral Foundations Theory (MFT) posits that the human mind contains modules specialized in moralizing different dimensions of the social world, such as Authority, Loyalty, Purity, Harm, Fairness, and Liberty. MFT suggests that moral judgments are driven by these modular and ideologically variable moral foundations, which are represented in the brain and shaped by political beliefs. The theory explains the moral values underlying different cultural and political ideologies, including harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. Furthermore, MFT predicts that moral behavior reflects at least five foundational traits, each with significant heritability. In the field of Natural Language Processing, MFT has been used to infer moral values from text data and perform downstream tasks. Overall, Moral Foundations Theory provides a framework for understanding the cognitive and neural basis of moral reasoning and the influence of moral foundations on individual and group behavior.
What are the theories related to formalism?4 answersSupposition Theory, Buridan's Notion of Consequentia, and Obligationes as Logical Games are theories related to formalism. Formal theories in the natural and social sciences often involve mathematical relationships specifying how one subset of variables depends upon another, and successful theory construction often involves identifying invariances, independence assumptions, and other algebraic conditions prior to constructing a theory. General relativity is a generally covariant, locally Lorentz covariant theory that can be modified to retain the same graviton degrees of freedom while explicitly breaking Lorentz covariance. In the context of probabilistic theories, a formalism called "formalism locality" has been developed, which treats space and time on an equal footing and ensures that calculations pertaining to any region of spacetime employ only mathematical objects associated with that region.