The informational turn in Philosophy: any novelty in the study of Mind?

The concept of information is analyzed starting from Adams' hypothesis in The Informational Turn in Philosophy, according to which there has been a far-reaching turn in Philosophy following the publication of Turing's article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Adams maintains that new guidelines are being indicated in philosophical research, having the concept of "information" as the basis for treatment of classical problems, such as the relationships between mind-body, perception-action, and the nature of knowledge, amongst others. Partially agreeing with Adams, we believe, however, that his hypothesis faces difficulties, the most fundamental of which concerns the different meanings given to the concept of information. We argue that even though the concept of information underlying the mechanicist proposal of Turing, according to which "to think is to compute", is indeed being employed in Philosophy, this is not because of its mechanistic nature, but mainly due to the representationist presupposition dominant in this area. From this point of view, the informational turn in philosophy would not provide any great novelty, given that since the earliest days philosophical approaches to the nature of mind have always been mainly representationist. The novelty would not lie specifically in the Turing thesis, but in reflections on the nature of information, especially ecological information, and its relation to action.

Higher order turän inequalities

The celebrated Turân inequalities P 2 n(x)-P n-x(x)P n+1(x) ≥ 0, x ε[-1,1], n ≥ 1, where P n(x) denotes the Legendre polynomial of degree n, are extended to inequalities for sums of products of four classical orthogonal polynomials. The proof is based on an extension of the inequalities γ 2 n - γ n-1γ n+1 ≥ 0, n ≥ 1, which hold for the Maclaurin coefficients of the real entire function ψ in the Laguerre-Pölya class, ψ(x) = ∑ ∞ n=0 γ nx n / n!. ©1998 American Mathematical Society.

Sharp Turán inequalities via very hyperbolic polynomials

We present new sharp inequalities for the Maclaurin coefficients of an entire function from the Laguerre-Pólya class. They are obtained by a new technique involving the so-called very hyperbolic polynomials. The results may be considered as extensions of the classical Turán inequalities. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.

Representações do feminino em Dom Casmurro e The Turn of the Screw

Pós-graduação em Letras - FCLAS

Higher order turán inequalities for the Riemann ξ-function

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)