William Rapaport

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York | SUNY Buffalo · Department of Computer Science and Engineering

If qualia are mental, and if the mental is functional, then so are qualia. But, arguably, qualia are not functional. A resolution of this is offered based on a formal similarity between qualia and numbers. Just as certain sets “play the role of” the number 3 in Peano’s axioms, so a certain physical implementation of a color plays the role of, say,...

Turner (2018) argues that computer programs must have purposes, that implementation is not a kind of semantics, and that computers might need to understand what they do. I respectfully disagree: Computer programs need not have purposes, implementation is a kind of semantic interpretation, and neither human computers nor computing machines need to u...

A response to a recent critique by Cem Bozşahin of the theory of syntactic semantics as it applies to Helen Keller, and some applications of the theory to the philosophy of computer science.

A critical survey of some attempts to define ‘computer’, beginning with some informal ones (from reference books, and definitions due to H. Simon, A.L. Samuel, and M. Davis), then critically evaluating those of three philosophers (J.R. Searle, P.J. Hayes, and G. Piccinini), and concluding with an examination of whether the brain and the universe ar...

Computationalism should not be the view that (human) cognition is computation; it should be the view that cognition (simpliciter) is computable. It follows that computationalism can be true even if (human) cognition is not the result of computations in the brain. If semiotic systems are systems that interpret signs, then both humans and computers a...

I survey a common theme that pervades the philosophy of computer science (and philosophy more generally): the relation of computing to the world. Are algorithms merely certain procedures entirely characterizable in an “indigenous,” “internal,’ “intrinsic,” “local,” “narrow,” “syntactic” (more generally: “intra-system”), purely-Turing-machine langua...

VardiMoshe Y.. On epistemic logic and logical omniscience. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 293–305. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

LadnerRichard E. and ReifJohn H.. The logic of distributed protocols (preliminary report). Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 207–222. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

ThomasonRichmond H.. Paradoxes and semantic representation. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 225–239. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

MorgensternLeora. A first order theory of planning, knowledge, and action. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 99–114. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

GeisslerChristophe and KonoligeKurt. A resolution method for quantified modal logics of knowledge and belief. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 309–324. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

LakemeyerGerhard. Steps towards a first-order logic of explicit and implicit belief. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 325–340. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

SmullyanRaymond M.. Logicians who reason about themselves. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 341–352. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

KonoligeKurt. What awareness isn't: a sentential view of implicit and explicit belief. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 241–250. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

FaginRonald and VardiMoshe Y.. Knowledge and implicit knowledge in a distributed environment: preliminary report. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 187–206. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

DworkCynthia and MosesYoram. Knowledge and common knowledge in a Byzantine environment I: crash failures. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 149–169. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

MartinsJoão P. and ShapiroStuart C.. Theoretical foundations for belief revision. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 383–398. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

LambertKarel. Meinong and the principle of independence. Its place in Meinong's theory of objects and its significance in contemporary philosophical logic. Modern European philosophy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge etc. 1983, xvi + 175 pp. - Volume 51 Issue 1 - William J. Rapaport

This paper discusses the theoretical background and some of the results of an interdisciplinary, cognitive-science research project on the comprehension of narrative text. The unifying theme of our work has been the notion of a deictic center: a mental model of spatial, temporal, and character information contributed by the reader of the narrative...

In this reply to James H. Fetzer’s “Minds and Machines: Limits to Simulations of Thought and Action”, the author argues that computationalism should not be the view that (human) cognition is computation, but that it should be the view that cognition (simpliciter) is computable. It follows that computationalism can be true even if (human) cognition...

Ford’s “Helen Keller Was Never in a Chinese Room” claims that my argument in “How Helen Keller Used Syntactic Semantics to Escape from a Chinese Room” fails because Searle and I use the terms ‘syntax’ and ‘semantics’ differently, hence are at cross purposes. Ford has misunderstood me; this reply clarifies my theory. KeywordsChinese room argument–S...

Ford’s “Helen Keller Was Never in a Chinese Room” claims that my argument in “How Helen Keller Used Syntactic Semantics to Escape from a Chinese Room” fails because Searle and I use the terms ‘syntax’ and ‘semantics’ differently, hence are at cross purposes. Ford has misunderstood me; this reply clarifies my theory.

This essay presents and defends a triage theory of grading: Any item to be graded should get full credit if it is clearly or substantially correct, minimal credit if it is clearly or substantially incorrect, and partial credit if and only if it is neither of the above; no other (intermediate) grades should be given. Other issues discussed include g...

This essay presents and defends a triage theory of grading: An item to be graded should get full credit if and only if it is clearly or substantially correct, minimal credit if and only if it is clearly or substantially incorrect, and partial credit if and only if it is neither of the above; no other (intermediate) grades should be given. Details o...

Contextual vocabulary acquisition (CVA) is the active, deliberate acquisition of a meaning for an unknown word in a text by reasoning from textual clues, prior knowledge, and hypotheses developed from prior encounters with the word, but without external sources of help such as dictionaries or people. Published strategies for doing CVA vaguely and u...

The SNePS knowledge representation, reasoning, and acting system has several features that facilitate metacognition in SNePS-based agents. The most prominent is the fact that propositions are represented in SNePS as terms rather than as sentences, so that propositions can occur as arguments of propositions and other expressions without leaving firs...

Is the brain a digital computer? Searle says that this is meaningless; I say that it is an empirical question. Is the mind a computer program? Searle says no; I say: properly understood, yes. Can the operations of the brain be simulated on a digital computer? Searle says: trivially yes; I say yes, but that it is not trivial.

William J Rapaport, B.A. (mathematics), University of Rochester, 1968; M.A., Ph.D. (philosophy), Indiana University, 1974, 1976; M.S. (computer science), SUNY Buffalo, 1984, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Philosophy, and a member of the Center for Cognitive Sci...

A computer can come to understand natural language the same way Helen Keller did: by using “syntactic semantics”—a theory of how syntax can suffice for semantics, i.e., how semantics for natural language can be provided by means of computational symbol manipulation. This essay considers real-life approximations of Chinese Rooms, focusing on Helen K...

This essay explores the implications of the thesis that implementation is semantic interpretation. Implementation is (at least) a ternary rela- tion: I is an implementation of an 'Abstraction' A in some medium M. Examples are presented from the arts, from language, from computer science and from cognitive science, where both brains and computers ca...

There are many branches of philosophy called "the philosophy of X," where X = disciplines ranging from history to physics. The philosophy of artificial intelligence has a long history, and there are many courses and texts with that title. Surprisingly, the philosophy of computer science is not nearly as well-developed. This article proposes topics...

The second part contains the centerpiece: Turing's 1950 paper from Mind, "Com-puting Machinery and Intelligence," accompanied by three "ephemera": two early (1951) and difficult-to-find articles by Turing, "Intelligent Machinery, a Heretical The-ory" and "Can Digital Computers Think?", and a transcript of a 1952 BBC radio interview with Turing, M....

"Context" is notoriously vague, and its uses multifarious. Researchers in "contextual vocabulary acqui-sition" differ over the kinds of context involved in vocabulary learning, and the methods and benefits thereof. This paper presents a computational theory of contextual vocabulary acquisition, identifies the relevant notion of context, exhibits th...

This paper introduces semantic networks to a philosophical audience and surveys several approaches to semantic-network semantics that, at the original time of writing (1985) had not previously been treated in the AI or computational-linguistics literature (but see ¡ 12), though there is a large philosophical literature investigating them in some de...

Context effects during Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game playing are investigated. The Cooperation Index (CI) – a quantity computed as a relation between payoffs – defines a cooperativeness scale, along which PD games can be distributed. Context is selected by manipulating the CI range of the games played. It is found that the level of cooperation depen...

Introduction We are developing a system, Cassie, that defines unknown words from their linguistic context combined with background knowledge [Ehrlich & Rapaport, 1997; Rapaport & Ehrlich, 2000]. This work is of significance for cognitive science, education, computational linguistics and philosophy of mind. Cassie is built on SNePS, a semantic-netwo...

Syntactic semantics is a holistic, conceptual-role-semantic theory of how computers can think. But Fodor and Lepore have mounted a sustained attack on holistic semantic theories. However, their major problem with holism (that, if holism is true, then no two people can understand each other) can be fixed by means of negotiating meanings. Syntactic s...

Contextual" vocabulary acquisition is the active, deliberate acquisition of a meaning for a word in a text by reasoning from textual clues and prior knowledge, including language knowledge and hypotheses developed from prior encounters with the word, but without external sources of help such as dictionaries or people. But what is "context"? Is it j...

Syntactic semantics is a holistic, conceptual-role-semantic theory of how computers can think. But Fodor & Lepore have mounted a sustained attack on holistic semantic theories. However, their major problem with holism (that, if holism is true, then no two people can understand each other) can be fixed by means of negotiating meanings. Syntactic sem...

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of cognition. Cognition includes mental states and processes such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, language understanding and generation, visual and auditory perception, learning, consciousness, and emotions. Some cognitive scientists limit their study to human cognition; others consider cognitio...

We are developing algorithms for computational contextual vocabulary acquisition (CVA; computing a meaning for an unknown word from context) and applying the computational CVA system to build an educational curriculum for enhancing students' abilities to use CVA strategies in their reading. The knowledge gained from case studies of students using o...

We discuss a research project that develops and applies algorithms for computational contextual vocabulary acquisition (CVA): learning the meaning of unknown words from context. We try to unify a disparate literature on the topic of CVA from psychology, first- and secondlanguage acquisition, and reading science, in order to help develop these algor...

Tlus paper surveys .,veral approaches to 'emantlc-network vetoantics that have not prevouMv en treat m the AI or computatmnal lingresets htcrature. though there s a large phdo. .)phcal hterature nvugaUng them n ndetad. In parucular, promonal mantc network (exemplmed hv NcP),r ths cud. t m argued that only a l'ullv n[enlonal ("Menongmn") are presn t...

This essay continues my investigation of `syntactic semantics': the theory that, pace Searle's Chinese-Room Argument, syntax does suffice for semantics (in particular, for the semantics needed for a computational cognitive theory of natural-language understanding). Here, I argue that syntactic semantics (which is internal and first-person) is what...

We discuss a research project that develops and applies algorithms for computational contextual vocabulary ac- quisition (CVA): learning the meaning of unknown words from context. We try to unify a disparate literature on the topic of CVA from psychology, first- and second- language acquisition, and reading science, in order to help develop these a...

The proper treatment of computationalism, as the thesis that cognition is computable, is presented and defended. Some arguments of James H. Fetzer against computationalism are exam ined and found wanting, and h is positive theory of minds as semiotic systems is shown to be consistent with computationalism. An objection is raised to an argument of S...

Introduction Francesco Orilia William J. Rapaport Dipartimento di filosofia e scienze umane Department of Computer Science, Universita di Macerata Department of Philosophy, 62100 Macerata, Italy and Center for Cognitive Science orilia@unimc.it State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14260-2000, U.S.A. rapaport@cs.buffalo.edu 1 De Re Hec...

I advocate a theory of “syntactic semantics” as a way of understanding how computers can think (and how the Chinese-Room-Argument objection to the Turing Test can be overcome): (1) Semantics, considered as the study of relations between symbols and meanings, can be turned into syntax – a study of relations among symbols (including meanings) – and h...

A theory of "syntactic semantics" is advocated as a way of understanding how computers can think (and how the Chinese-Room-Argument objection to the Turing Test can be overcome): (1) Semantics, as the study of relations between symbols and meanings, can be turned into syntax---a study of relations among symbols (including meanings)---and hence synt...

The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of reading, with contributions from computer science, psychology, and philosophy. This book highlights cutting-edge research relevant to the building of a computational model of reading comprehension, as in the processing and understanding of a natural language text or story. A distinguishin...

http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/pub/WWW/faculty/rapaport/ Abstract. The proper treatment of computationalism, as the thesis that cognition is computable, is presented and defended. Some arguments of James H. Fetzer against computationalism are examined and found wanting, and his positive theory of minds as semiotic systems is shown to be consistent with...

As part of an interdisciplinary project to develop a computational cognitive model of a reader of narrative text, we are developing a computational theory of how natural-language-understanding systems can automatically acquire new vocabulary by determining from context the meaning of words that are unknown, misunderstood, or used in a new sense. `C...

ractions in a regular text file; suppose for the sake of example that you call it yourfile.demo. Use a semicolon (`;') as a comment indicator. Then, to "step through" your input file, start SNePS, and, at the *-prompt, type: (demo "yourfile.demo" :av) Pressing the return key steps through your input file. If you want to just load all the info, type...

What is the computational notion of "implementation"? It is not individuation, instantiation, reduction, or supervenience. It is, I suggest, semantic interpretation. This document is Technical Report 97-15 (Buffalo: SUNY Buffalo Department of Computer Science) and Technical Report 97-5 (Buffalo: SUNY Buffalo Center for Cognitive Science). 1 INTRODU...

In 1982,1 made the transition from being a professional philosopher to being a professional computer scientist and “intelligence artificer” (to use Daniel Dennett’s happy term)—“professional” in the sense that that is now how I earn my living, though not in the sense that that is how I live my professional life—for my philosophical and artificial-i...

The following “academic family tree”, listing Hector-Neri Castañeda’s Ph.D. students, their students (i.e., Castañeda’s “grandstudents”), etc., is, no doubt, an incomplete and inaccurate list. Anyone reading this document is encouraged to send corrections and/or additional information to the compiler.

We present a computational analysis of de re, de dicto, and de se belief and knowledge reports. Our analysis solves a problem first observed by Hector-Neri Casta~neda, namely, that the simple rule `(A knows that P ) implies P ' apparently does not hold if P contains a quasi-indexical. We present a single rule, in the context of a knowledge-represen...

This document was originally intended to be a section of Schagrin, Morton L.; Rapaport, William J.; & Dipert, Randall R. (1985), Logic: A Computer Approach (New York: McGraw-Hill). This document discusses the ternary (i.e., 3-place) if-then-else sentential connective, which is based on the if-then-else instruction of computer programming languages....

This document consists of three papers: "Virtual Relations", by Dale Jacquette; a reply, "Virtual Universals", by William J. Rapaport; and "A Note in Reply to William J. Rapaport on Virtual Relations". They were originally presented at the Marvin Farber Conference on the Ontology and Epistemology of Relations, SUNY Buffalo, 17 September 1994. This...

This document consists of two papers: "The Ontology of Cyberspace: Preliminary Questions", by David R. Koepsell, and "Comments on `The Ontology of Cyberspace'," by William J. Rapaport. They were originally presented at the Tri-State Philosophical Association Meeting, St. Bonaventure University, 22 April 1995. This document is SUNY Buffalo Departmen...

This project concerns the development and implementation of a computational theory of how human readers and other natural-language-understanding systems can automatically expand their vocabulary by determining the meaning of a word from context. The word might be unknown to the reader, familiar but misunderstood, or familiar but being used in a new...

This chapter discusses the way by which it is possible to understand natural language and whether a computer could do so. It presents the argument that although a certain kind of semantic interpretation is needed for understanding natural language, it is a kind that only involves syntactic symbol manipulation of precisely the sort of which computer...

My pocket calculator (Cal) has certain arithmetical abilities: it seems Cal calculates. That calculating is thinking seems equally untendentious. Yet these two claims together provide premises for a seemingly valid syllogism whose conclusion -- Cal thinks -- most would deny. I consider several ways to avoid this conclusion, and find them mostly wan...

SNePS, the Semantic Network Processing System, is an intensional propositional semantic network that has been designed to be the mind of a computational cognitive agent. In this article, the main features of SNePS are sketched, its antecedents are discussed, and some example current uses are described.

Philosophy and AI presents invited contributions that focus on the different perspectives and techniques that philosophy and AI bring to the theory of rationality. Philosophers have found that the concepts and technology of artificial intelligence provide useful ways to test theories of knowledge and reason. Conversely, researchers in artificial in...

Introduction to a Special Issue onCognitive Science and Artificial IntelligenceWilliam J. RapaportDepartment of Computer Scienceand Center for Cognitive ScienceState University of New York at BuffaloIt is well known that people from other disciplines have made significant contributions to philosophyand have influenced philosophers. It is also true...

This paper describes the SNePS knowledge-representation and reasoning system. SNePS is an intentional, propositional, semantic-network processing system used for research in AI. The author looks at how predication is represented in such a system when it is used for cognitive modeling and natural- language understanding and generation. In particular...

This paper discusses issues in the representation of fictional entities and the representation of propositions from fiction, using SNePS. It briefly surveys four philosophical ontological theories of fiction and sketches an epistemological theory of fiction (to be implemented in SNePS) using a story operator and rules for allowing propositions to m...

There are many situations where linguistic and pictorial data are jointly presented to communicate information. A computer model for synthesising information from the two sources requires an initial interpretation of both the text and the picture followed by consolidation of information. The problem of performing general-purpose vision (without apr...

PlotkinGordon and StirlingColin. A framework for intuitionistic modal logics. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 399–406. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

SmithBrian Cantwell. Varieties of self-reference. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 19–43. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

RivièresJim Des and LevesqueHector J.. The consistency of syntactical treatments of knowledge. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 115–130. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

HintikkaJaakko. Reasoning about knowledge in philosophy: the paradigm of epistemic logic. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 63–80. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

HalpernJoseph Y.. Reasoning about knowledge: an overview. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 1–17. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

LandmanFred. Pegs and alecs. An abridged version of LIII 656. Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge, Proceedings of the 1986 conference, edited by HalpernJoseph Y., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Los Altos1986, pp. 45–61. - Volume 53 Issue 2 - William J. Rapaport

This paper is concerned with heuristics for segmenting narratives into units that form the basic elements of discourse representations and the constrain the application of focusing algorithms. The following classes of discontinuities are identified: figure-groud, space, time, perspective, and topic. It is suggested that rhetorical relations between...

Narrative passages told from a character's perspective convey the character's thoughts and perceptions. We present a discourse process that recognizes characters' thoughts and perceptions in third-person narrative. An effect of perspective on reference in narrative is addressed: references in passages told from the perspective of a character reflec...

An abstract is not available.

In this essay, I consider how it is possible to understand natural language and whether a computer could do so. Briefly, my argument will be that although a certain kind of semantic interpretation is needed for understanding natural language, it is a kind that only involves syntactic symbol manipulation of precisely the sort of which computers are...