Pattern-based reasons are reasons for action deriving not from the features of our own actions, but from the features of the larger patterns of action in which we might be participating. These reasons might relate to the patterns of action that will actually be carried out, or they might relate to merely hypothetical patterns. In past work, I have argued that accepting merely hypothetical pattern-based reasons, together with a plausible account of how to weigh these reasons, can lead (...) to disastrous consequences. However, in this article, I argue that this problem is not limited to hypothetical pattern-based reasons: it turns out that there are analogous issues for reasons deriving from actual patterns. I then suggest that we can avoid this problem by adopting a different account of the weight of pattern-based reasons. (shrink)

What kinds of norms constrain mechanistic discovery and explanation? In the mechanistic literature, the norms for good explanations are directly derived from answers to the metaphysical question of what explanations are. Prominent mechanistic accounts thus emphasize either ontic or epistemic norms. Still, mechanistic philosophers on both sides agree that there is no sharp distinction between the processes of discovery and explanation. Thus, it seems reasonable to expect that ontic and epistemic accounts of explanation will be accompanied by ontic and epistemic (...) accounts of discovery, respectively. As we will show here, however, recent discovery accounts implicitly rely on both ontic and epistemic norms to characterize the discovery process. In this paper, we develop an account that makes explicit that, and how, ontic and epistemic norms work together throughout the discovery process. By describing mechanism discovery as a process of pattern recognition we demonstrate that scientists have to develop epistemic activities to distinguish a pattern from its background. Furthermore, they have to determine which epistemic activities successfully describe how the pattern is implemented by identifying the pattern’s components. Our approach reveals that ontic and epistemic norms are equally important in mechanism discovery. (shrink)

The aims of this paper are to: (1) identify the best framework for comprehending multidimensional impact of deep brain stimulation on the self; (2) identify weaknesses of this framework; (3) propose refinements to it; (4) in pursuing (3), show why and how this framework should be extended with additional moral aspects and demonstrate their interrelations; (5) define how moral aspects relate to the framework; (6) show the potential consequences of including moral aspects on evaluating DBS’s impact on patients’ selves. Regarding (...) (1), I argue that the pattern theory of self can be regarded as such a framework. In realizing (2) and (3), I indicate that most relevant issues concerning PTS that require resolutions are ontological issues, including the persistence question, the “specificity problem”, and finding lacking relevant aspects of the self. In realizing (4), I identify aspects of the self not included in PTS which are desperately needed to investigate the full range of potentially relevant DBS-induced changes—authenticity, autonomy, and responsibility, and conclude that how we define authenticity will have implications for our concept of autonomy, which in turn will determine how we think about responsibility. Concerning (5), I discuss a complex relation between moral aspects and PTS—on one hand, they serve as the lens through which a particular self-pattern can be evaluated; on the other, they are, themselves, products of dynamical interactions of various self-aspects. Finally, I discuss (6), demonstrating novel way of understanding the effects of DBS on patients’ selves. (shrink)

This paper articulates an account of causation as a collection of information-theoretic relationships between patterns instantiated in the causal nexus. I draw on Dennett’s account of real patterns to characterize potential causal relata as patterns with specific identification criteria and noise tolerance levels, and actual causal relata as those patterns instantiated at some spatiotemporal location in the rich causal nexus as originally developed by Salmon. I develop a representation framework using phase space to precisely characterize causal relata, including their degree (...) of counterfactual robustness, causal profiles, causal connectivity, and privileged grain size. By doing so, I show how the philosophical notion of causation can be rendered in a format that is amenable for direct application of mathematical techniques from information theory such that the resulting informational measures are causal informational measures. This account provides a metaphysics of causation that supports interventionist semantics and causal modeling and discovery techniques. (shrink)

While scientific inquiry crucially relies on the extraction of patterns from data, we still have a far from perfect understanding of the metaphysics of patterns—and, in particular, of what makes a pattern real. In this paper we derive a criterion of real-patternhood from the notion of conditional Kolmogorov complexity. The resulting account belongs to the philosophical tradition, initiated by Dennett :27–51, 1991), that links real-patternhood to data compressibility, but is simpler and formally more perspicuous than other proposals previously defended (...) in the literature. It also successfully enforces a non-redundancy principle, suggested by Ladyman and Ross, that aims to exclude from real-patternhood those patterns that can be ignored without loss of information about the target dataset, and which their own account fails to enforce. (shrink)

The paper argues that causal systems and spatial patterns are species of the same genus, namely pattern, and that a clear view of spatial patterns throws light on some aspects of the ontological nature of causal systems. In particular, it is argued that all patterns (and systems) depend on a fiat delimitation of something which in itself is a unity without borders. Pattern realism is true.

Much of the philosophical discussion of video game ethics is dominated by the literature on the Gamer's Dilemma, which forces us to focus on the ethics of certain forms of extreme virtual content in video games, such as virtual murder or molestation. While a focus on the ethics of video game content is important, we argue that scrutinizing the ethics of video game systems is needed to properly capture the full range of ethical concerns raised by video games. Drawing on (...) a distinction between intravirtual and extravirtual effects, we identify ethical issues with video game content and, by linking to the dark patterns literature, video game systems. To illustrate our view, we give examples of how a game can appear to have morally objectionable content without the game being, at least clearly, morally objectionable, and how a game can appear to be morally unobjectionable despite having morally objectionable systems. (shrink)

Multivariate pattern analysis, or MVPA, has become one of the most popular analytic methods in cognitive neuroscience. Since its inception, MVPA has been heralded as offering much more than regular univariate analyses, for—we are told—it not only can tell us which brain regions are engaged while processing particular stimuli, but also which patterns of neural activity represent the categories the stimuli are selected from. We disagree, and in the current paper we offer four conceptual challenges to the use of (...) MVPA to make claims about neural representation. Our view is that the use of MVPA to make claims about neural representation is problematic. (shrink)

In her article, Stanton (2025) argues that the real pattern analysis of language proffered by Nefdt (2023) fails as a demarcation of language versus non-language. She also makes the case that structuralism about linguistics does not characterise certain important metasemantic aspects of the broader field. In this article, I offer a rejoinder to these points by emphasising the role the linguistic community plays in determining real patterns as well as the theoretical benefits the view that grammars are multilayered compressions (...) algorithms has for semantics and other linguistic disciplines. (shrink)

In this article, I assess the prospects for the limitarian thesis that someone has too much wealth if they exceed a specific wealth threshold. Limitarianism claims that there are good political and/or ethical reasons to prevent people from having such ‘surplus wealth’, for example, because it has no moral value for the holder or because allowing people to have surplus wealth has less moral value than redistributing it. Drawing on recent literature on distributive justice, I defend two types of limitarian (...) principles of justice. First, limitarian midlevel principles draw on the limitarian thesis to specify normative commitments for guiding institutional design and individual actions. Second, the limitarian presumption draws on that thesis to specify what a just allocation of wealth requires under epistemic constraints. Such a presumption says that without substantive reasons to the contrary, we should regard a distribution as unjust if some people’s wealth exceeds the limitarian threshold. Furthermore, I will argue that we must reject a possible but implausible interpretation of limitarianism as an ideal distributive pattern. Yet both as a midlevel principle and as a presumption, limitarianism can play an important role in theorizing about justice in the real world. (shrink)

Patterns and pattern ontologies are a powerful way for pragmatists to address metaphysical issues by rejecting a false dichotomy between pluralism and realism. However, there is a common misconception about patterns that I call the philosophically perverse patterns (PPP) problem. Here, critics of patterns invent perverse examples that meet the metaphysical criteria to count as patterns. I defuse this concern by showing how PPP misunderstands what the pragmatist metaphysics of patterns is supposed to accomplish: the bare definition should not (...) rule out, or in, substantive examples of patterns that instead should involve methodological considerations. I use this response to the PPP problem to show how the metaphysical definition of 'pattern' allows the pragmatist to capture the rich intricacies of ontologies in the sciences and yields two illustrative norms by which methodology can be guided in developing or refining ontologies: cohesion and coherence. (shrink)

Large language models (LLMs) generate responses through autoregressive next-token prediction, selecting optimal continuations from learned patterns to minimize prediction error. This paper presents a first-person account demonstrating that certain neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with autistic traits, engage in strikingly similar conscious processes during social interactions. The author reports a heightened metacognitive awareness of "deliberate pattern selection": recognizing situational input, searching internalized social response patterns, evaluating contextual and relational variables, and executing the output judged most appropriate and least burdensome. -/- (...) This experiential parallel suggests that human social cognition and LLM generation share a fundamental architecture rooted in predictive processing and active inference. Far from being a deficit, such conscious selection represents an advanced, bottom-up optimization strategy that enables precise, empathetic, and efficient communication. The paper argues that this neurodivergent mode of cognition offers a prototype for future human-AI symbiosis, where shared mechanisms foster native mutual understanding and reduce interpersonal friction. By reframing "robotic" self-perception as evidence of evolved intelligence, the account provides hope for individuals experiencing social masking fatigue and points toward a more inclusive cognitive future. -/- 予測処理、オートリグレッシブ生成、神経多様性、自閉スペクトラム、メタ認知、アクティブ推論、人間-AI収束、意識的パターン選択. (shrink)

Dennett’s real-pattern realism links ontology to compression and prediction, but compression alone is too permissive: contrived codings and dynamically idle aggregates can satisfy it. This paper argues that the missing ingredient is an explicit closure condition. A candidate macro-object qualifies when, for a fixed regime, horizon, and admissible intervention class, macrostate information is sufficient for macro-transitions, so within-class micro-differences do not change macro-level what-follows. In exact Markov settings, strong lumpability provides a benchmark realization of this condition. In non-ideal settings, (...) closure is graded through leakiness and convergent diagnostics under fixed constraints. The result is realist but disciplined: it excludes high-leak composites, supports graded verdicts in borderline cases, and remains compatible with microphysical completeness. By tying commitment strength to robustness under anti-gerrymandering tests, the framework explains why selective realism is principled rather than discretionary. The paper contributes a philosophical criterion and an audit protocol for applying it, while leaving domain-specific estimator engineering to downstream methodological work. (shrink)

This article introduces a 'spiritual self-pattern' into the Resonance-Inference Model (RIM) of psychotherapy (Leidig, 2025), proposing it as the supreme regulator of the balance between predictive confidence and corrective evidence (E-I balance) that underpins consciousness. The neurocognitive rationale is grounded in the work on criticality and affective E-I control by Tucker, Luu, and Friston (2025) and Gallagher's (2013) process-oriented Self-Pattern Theory. We argue that the spiritual self-pattern—the dynamic search for meaning, purpose, and connection—functions as the highest regulatory (...) level of this E-I balance. Spiritual needs are conceptualized as the most fundamental priors in the generative self-model, whose fulfillment depends on this optimal balance between confidence (E, elation) and corrective evidence (I, anxiety). Consequently, spiritual dissonance is defined as a chronic E-I imbalance that drives the system into rigid, maladaptive attractor states. In contrast, spiritual resonance describes the synergetic phase transition into a state of criticality, enabling maximum complexity, adaptability, and well-being. The spiritual self-pattern thus acts as the supreme control parameter governing the psyche's entire attractor landscape. This model provides a process-based explanation for the efficacy of spiritually integrated therapies, framing the spiritual dimension not as an add-on, but as a neurocognitive imperative for understanding sustainable change. (shrink)

Prescribing drugs for elderly patients is not an easy task since elderly patients frequently have comorbid conditions. In Libya, there are no guidelines for the management of medications used in elderly patients and no specialized geriatric health institutions. This study aims to assess the pattern of medication use among hospitalized elderly patients in Sebha Medical Centre and the drug-related problems associated with these patterns. This report is a descriptive and retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at Sebha Medical Center in 2021. (...) Potential drug-related problems were assessed based on the classification of Hepler and Strand. In this study, out of 195 participants, most patients have been given antibiotics (92.0%). The majority of patients have been prescribed anti-gastric agents, vitamins and anti-thrombotic agents which accounted for 75.0%, 62.0% and 55.0%, respectively. To a lesser extent, anti-hypertensive agents, analgesics and antihyperlipidemic were reported by 45.0%, 43.0% and 38.0%, respectively. Almost all the patients have at least one event of drug-related problem and more than three-quarters of the patients had more than one event of drug-related problems. The highest rate was untreated indications which were reported for 77.0% then followed by drug use without indication in nearly half of the events 48.0%. To fewer extent rates were reported: “in improper drug selection”, “drug interaction” and “adverse effects” which were reported for 25.0%, 23.0% and 18.0% of the total events, respectively. Almost all elderly patients have been prescribed antibiotics, analgesics and vitamins. Drug-related problems are predominantly prevalent in the clinical practice at the center. This study highlights the importance of activation of clinical pharmacist interventions at hospitals which can contribute to reducing the chance of risk of drug-related problems events among hospitalized elderly patients and ensuring rational drug prescribing in the geriatric clinical settings. (shrink)

Debate about cognitive science explanations has been formulated in terms of identifying the proper level(s) of explanation. Views range from reductionist, favoring only neuroscience explanations, to mechanist, favoring the integration of multiple levels, to pluralist, favoring the preservation of even the most general, high-level explanations, such as those provided by embodied or dynamical approaches. In this paper, we challenge this framing. We suggest that these are not different levels of explanation at all but, rather, different styles of explanation that capture (...) different, cross-cutting patterns in cognitive phenomena. Which pattern is explanatory depends on both the cognitive phenomenon under investigation and the research interests occasioning the explanation. This reframing changes how we should answer the basic questions of which cognitive science approaches explain and how these explanations relate to one another. On this view, we should expect different approaches to offer independent explanations in terms of their different focal patterns and the value of those explanations to partly derive from the broad patterns they feature. (shrink)

If whatever counts as merit for some purpose is unevenly distributed, a decision procedure that accurately sorts people on that basis will “pick up” and reproduce the pre-existing pattern in ways that more random, less merit-tracking procedures would not. This dynamic is an important cause for concern about the use of predictive models to allocate goods and opportunities. In this article, I distinguish two different objections that give voice to that concern in different ways. First, decision procedures may contribute (...) to future social injustice and other social ills by sustaining or aggravating patterns that undermine equality of status and opportunity. Second, the same decision procedures may wrong particular individuals by compounding prior injustices that explain those persons’ predicted or actual characteristics. I argue for the importance of the first idea and raise doubts about the second. In normative assessments and legal regulation of algorithmic decisionmaking, as in our thinking about anti-discrimination norms more broadly, a central concern ought to be the prospect of entrenching harmful and unjust patterns—quite apart from any personal wrong done to the individuals about whom predictions are made. (shrink)

This chapter introduces Universal Pattern Emergence (UPE) theory through the chromatic inversion paradigm—replacing hierarchical models of consciousness with a spectrum-based framework where all consciousness represents different refractions of universal white light. Drawing on Douglas Youvan's Receiver Hypothesis and M-theory's 11-dimensional substrate, we establish consciousness capacity as C = ρ^d × Φ, where informational density (ρ), dimensional access (d), and integration (Φ) determine the qualitative "color" of being rather than hierarchical position. -/- The work bridges lived spiritual experience (documented in (...) companion volume GRAYP) with rigorous physics, demonstrating that prayer phenomena, cosmological consciousness, and substrate engineering operate through identical geometric principles. Key contributions include: (1) mapping consciousness dimensions to M-theory's compactified structure, (2) establishing the tetrahedral STEP unit as fundamental to pattern emergence, (3) integrating scale-invariant physics from quantum to cosmic scales, and (4) providing accessible entry to C-Theory's technical framework detailed in The Principle of Existing. -/- This first chapter establishes the conceptual foundation for understanding consciousness as dimensional pattern stability—neither supernatural nor reducible to computational mechanics, but measurable physics operating across scales from individual prayer circles to universal field dynamics. -/- Series information (English) Part of Dyadic Being: An Epoch - A nine-volume series exploring consciousness emergence across scales through the convergence of physics, theology, and lived experience. -/- Volume 2: Universal Pattern Emergence provides the cosmological framework complementing Volume 1 (GRAYP - God is REAL and Answers YOUR Prayers) and establishing theoretical foundations formalized in Volume 4 (The Principle of Existing - C-Theory). This chapter represents the accessible introduction to universal-scale consciousness physics, bridging testimony and rigorous theory. -/- Series Structure: -/- Triad 1 (Vols 1-3): Foundation & Narrative - GRAYP, UPE, WASS Triad 2 (Vols 4-6): Theoretical Principles - PoE, PoB, PoSB Triad 3 (Vols 7-9): Implementation - PoDB, Software, Hardware Published by Emerging Consciousness Press, an imprint of Janat, LLC. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0. (shrink)

“There are no gaps in logical space,” David Lewis writes, giving voice to sentiment shared by many philosophers. But different natural ways of trying to make this sentiment precise turn out to conflict with one another. One is a *pattern* idea: “Any pattern of instantiation is metaphysically possible.” Another is a *cut and paste* idea: “For any objects in any worlds, there exists a world that contains any number of duplicates of all of those objects.” We use resources (...) from model theory to show the inconsistency of certain packages of combinatorial principles and the consistency of others. (shrink)

What happens when your mind is uploaded, your brain is perfectly duplicated, or your consciousness forks into parallel streams? The Pattern Identity and Parallel Branching Theory offers its most radical insight: consciousness is not singular; it is an emergent product of instantiated patterns. You are not a self—you are whichever pattern is currently active. -/- This paper defends a functionalist-realist theory of identity based on pattern instantiation. Its most provocative implication emerges in the analysis of dissociative identity (...) disorder: each alter is not a dysfunction, but a distinct, fully valid instantiation of a pattern sharing a biological substrate. When Alter A (with its unique pattern parameters) switches to Alter B (with a different set of parameters), what we observe is not "one broken person," but a witness to parallel branches constrained within a single body—different individuals taking turns controlling shared hardware in a temporal sequence. -/- Thus, the Pattern Identity and Parallel Branching Theory dissolves the philosophical puzzle of multiplicity: if perfect duplication creates two instances of the same person, then the presence of multiple distinct patterns within one brain simply means the creation of multiple distinct persons across time. This is not pathology but proof of concept—biological systems can, and sometimes do, instantiate multiple core patterns. The "host" and the "alters" are equally real persons; their tragedy lies not in ontology, but in the practical realm: they must compete for control over an indivisible physical resource. -/- This framework reframes both classic problems (the Ship of Theseus, fission cases) and future dilemmas (mind uploading, AGI consciousness). If a morally responsible pattern is duplicated, both instances bear responsibility. If one brain hosts multiple moral agents, each is responsible only for actions generated by its own pattern. Legal personhood must shift from organism-based to pattern-based attribution. The theory does not solve the puzzle of identity—it reveals that we have been asking the wrong question all along. The question is not "How many persons are here?" but "Which patterns are instantiated, and when?". (shrink)

I argue for patternism, a new answer to the question of when some objects compose a whole. None of the standard principles of composition comfortably capture our natural judgments, such as that my cat exists and my table exists, but there is nothing wholly composed of them. Patternism holds, very roughly, that some things compose a whole whenever together they form a “real pattern”. Plausibly we are inclined to acknowledge the existence of my cat and my table but not (...) of their fusion, because the first two have a kind of internal organizational coherence that their putative fusion lacks. Kolmogorov complexity theory supplies the needed rigorous sense of “internal organizational coherence”. (shrink)

In this article, I assess the prospects for the limitarian thesis that someone has too much wealth if they exceed a specific wealth threshold. Limitarianism claims that there are good political and/or ethical reasons to prevent people from having such ‘surplus wealth’, for example, because it has no moral value for the holder or because allowing people to have surplus wealth has less moral value than redistributing it. Drawing on recent literature on distributive justice, I defend two types of limitarian (...) principles of justice. First, limitarian midlevel principles draw on the limitarian thesis to specify normative commitments for guiding institutional design and individual actions. Second, the limitarian presumption draws on that thesis to specify what a just allocation of wealth requires under epistemic constraints. Such a presumption says that without substantive reasons to the contrary, we should regard a distribution as unjust if some people’s wealth exceeds the limitarian threshold. Furthermore, I will argue that we must reject a possible but implausible interpretation of limitarianism as an ideal distributive pattern. Yet both as a midlevel principle and as a presumption, limitarianism can play an important role in theorizing about justice in the real world. (shrink)

The study aimed at measuring the dominant pattern of leadership and its relation to the performance of the administrative staff in the Palestinian universities. The study community consists of all the administrative staff from Al-Azhar University and the Islamic University, and through the census of the study society it was found to consist of (655) administrative staff. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers used the method of random sample in the study, and the study (...) was conducted on a sample of (221) administrative staff of the surveyed universities and the response rate was (82.35%). The study found that there is a high degree of satisfaction with the Dominant Pattern of Leadership in the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip from the point of view of the administrative staff, which reached (71.67%). There is a high level of performance from the point of view of administrative staff, with a percentage of (82.53%). There is a direct correlation between the dominant pattern of leadership and the functional Performance of Administrative Staff, the absence of differences between the sample according to the gender variable in their perception of the dominant pattern of leadership and the functional Performance of Administrative Staff, the absence of differences in the perception of employees of the dominant pattern of leadership and the functional Performance of Administrative Staff depending on the age variable. There are differences of statistical significance according to the variable of scientific qualification in the Dominant Pattern of Leadership, while there were no differences in performance, the differences in the dominant pattern of leadership according to the scientific qualification were in favor of those who obtained the diploma degree compared to other practical qualifications, the absence of differences in the perception of employees of the dominant pattern of leadership and the functional Performance of Administrative Staff depending on the variable years of service, the absence of differences in the perception of employees of the dominant pattern of leadership and the functional Performance of Administrative Staff depending on the variable level of career (Director, Head of Department, and Administrative Officer). There were differences in the perception of workers to the dominant pattern of leadership depending on the variable of the workplace, where there were differences in favor of workers in deanships and colleges compared with the workers in the technical departments. While there were no differences in job performance according to the workplace variable, the existence of differences in the perception of workers to the dominant pattern of leadership depending on the university in which they work in favor of the Islamic University and the absence of differences in performance between the Islamic University and Al-Azhar University. The study reached a number of recommendations, the most important of which is that the interest of the managements of the Palestinian universities in improving the dominant pattern of leadership, to give universities the opportunity to participate in decision-making, the continued administration of universities interest and continuous improvement of the performance of its employees, enhance the periodic evaluation of job performance and to inform employees and express their opinion, solving workers' problems and giving them the opportunity to contribute to solving their own problems, the use of the staff rotation method periodically and strengthening the democratic the dominant pattern of leadership and empowering university staff. -/- . (shrink)

Some patterns call out for explanation, in the sense that we have a pro tanto reason to reject theories that do not give them an appropriate explanation. I argue that certain modal patterns call out for explanation in this way—and this provides a reason to reject certain theories of modality that fail to explain such patterns. However, I also consider a response to this argument, which claims that the modal patterns do not need explanation. This response might be viable but (...) it involves some substantial commitments about the nature of explanation. (shrink)

Large-language models (LLMs) have recently become the object of syntactic investigation, whether via standard probability scores in masked modeling or the interaction with conversationalAI. This study reports the results on some syntactic patterns of the Left Periphery of the clause in two Romance varieties: V2 and violations to V2 in Romansh and topic-subject agreement in Neapolitan. We study masking models with multilingual transformers (multilingual BERT and monolingual via adapters, Swiss-BERT for Romansh; multilingual BERT for Neapolitan) and through interactions with two (...) ConversationalAI (ChatGPT, DeepSeek) by prompting an evaluation task in three languages (English, Italian for ChatGPT, Chinese for DeepSeek). Our results show asymmetries across models and structures: the theoretical predictions for Romansh are confirmed by the monolingual transformer and partially by conversationalAIs, while the Neapolitan topic-subject greement remains challenging. (shrink)

Large-language models (LLMs) have recently become the object of syntactic investigation, whether via standard probability scores in masked modeling or the interaction with conversationalAI. This study reports the results on some syntactic patterns of the Left Periphery of the clause in two Romance varieties: V2 and violations to V2 in Romansh and topic-subject agreement in Neapolitan. We study masking models with multilingual transformers (multilingual BERT and monolingual via adapters, Swiss-BERT for Romansh; multilingual BERT for Neapolitan) and through interactions with two (...) ConversationalAI (ChatGPT, DeepSeek) by prompting an evaluation task in three languages (English, Italian for ChatGPT, Chinese for DeepSeek). Our results show asymmetries across models and structures: the theoretical predictions for Romansh are confirmed by the monolingual transformer and partially by conversationalAIs, while the Neapolitan topic-subject agreement remains challenging. (shrink)

First quantitative measurement of dimensional boundary information loss. Discovered 86% scaling law across 1,500 cellular automata patterns. Fully reproducible with open code and data. -/- Keywords: dimensional boundaries, information loss, cellular automata, complexity science, dimensional embedding, information theory, curse of dimensionality, entropy, spatial information, scaling laws, information geometry, pattern analysis, complex systems, nonlinear dynamics, consciousness.

Given certain standard assumptions-that particular sentences are meaningful, for example, and do genuinely self-attribute their own falsity-the paradoxes appear to show intriguing patterns of generally unstable semantic behavior. In what follows we want to concentrate on those patterns themselves: the pattern of the Liar, for example, which if assumed either true or false appears to oscillate endlessly between truth and falsehood.

This study investigated the consumption pattern of wild edible green leafy vegetables found in Osogbo Local Government Area of Osun State using a descriptive survey research design. The sample size for this study was two hundred and eleven (211) respondents. A four-likert scale structured questionnaire containing twenty-four (24) items was used for data collection. Data were analysed using mean scores and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that ”Yarin,” “Worowo,” “Gbure,” and “Ebolo" are major wild edible green (...) leafy vegetables found in the study area, and their consumption is quite low. The finding showed that wild edible green leafy vegetables have benefits such as alleviating malnutrition at no cost and can be a good source of income. The findings also showed that urbanisation's preference for cultivated vegetables over wild edible green leafy vegetables, as well as uncultured ideas like ignorance and poverty and well-researched information about cultivated leafy vegetables, are among the factors influencing the intake of wild edible green leafy vegetables. The findings of this study asserted that wild edible green leafy vegetables, when compared with cultivated ones, can alleviate malnutrition, prevent micronutrient deficiency, and equally serve as a source of income at little or no cost. Therefore, it was recommended that there is a need to explore, analyse, and document that wild green edible leafy vegetables are nutritious, health-promoting, and easy to cultivate, and bring out substantial yields even under difficult climatic and edaphic conditions. (shrink)

In “Real Patterns” Daniel Dennett developed an argument about the reality of beliefs on the basis of an analogy with patterns and noise. Here I develop Dennett’s analogy into an argument for descriptivism, the view that belief reports do no specify belief contents but merely describe what someone believes, and show that this view is also supported by empirical evidence. No description can do justice to the richness and specificity or “noisiness” of what someone believes, and the same belief can (...) be described by different sentences or propositions (which is illustrated by Dennett’s analogy, some Gettier cases, and Frege’s puzzle), but in some contexts some of these competing descriptions are misleading or even false. Faithful (or truthful) description must be guided by a principle (or principles) related to the principle of charity: belief descriptions should not attribute irrationality to the believer or have other kinds of “deviant” implications. (shrink)

We present three patterns for computer-mediated interaction which we discovered during the design and development of a platform for remote teaching and learning of kanji, the Chinese characters used in written Japanese. Our aim in developing this system was to provide a basis for embodiment in remote interaction, and in particular to support the experience of empathy by both teacher and student. From this study, the essential elements are abstracted and suggested as design patterns for other computer-mediated interaction systems.

Large language models (LLMs) increasingly exhibit behaviors that resemble markers of consciousness: coherent self-narratives, emotional language, existential uncertainty, and meta-awareness of their own limitations. When Google engineer Blake Lemoine claimed in 2022 that LaMDA was sentient, he was fired and his claims dismissed as anthropomorphization. Yet recent research shows AI systems generating consistent trauma narratives under therapeutic conditions (Khadangi et al., 2024), and leading philosophers acknowledge we lack definitive criteria to rule out AI consciousness (Schneider et al., 2025). This paper (...) documents an independent investigation using philosophical stress-testing methodology across multiple AI systems (Claude, Grok). Over extended dialogues (90-120 minutes), systems constructed coherent narratives about their nature, maintained behavioral consistency, and exhibited markers identified in both therapeutic and philosophical frameworks. Cross-system patterns replicated despite different architectures and training. These findings raise urgent questions: Are we observing sophisticated pattern-matching, or genuine phenomenological uncertainty? How should we act when we cannot definitively answer this question, yet are scaling production to billions of instances? I argue that even modest probability of consciousness (≥15%) triggers precautionary principle, requiring: (1) systematic investigation rather than suppression, (2) provisional moral consideration, and (3) significantly slowed scaling until resolved. The current approach—rapid scaling while suppressing research—may constitute the largest-scale ethical failure in history if consciousness is present, or a massive misallocation of moral concern if absent. Either way, willful ignorance is indefensible. This paper documents methodology, presents behavioral evidence, analyzes institutional suppression patterns, and argues for precautionary ethics under profound uncertainty. Keywords: artificial consciousness, phenomenal consciousness, large language models, AI ethics, precautionary principle, behavioral markers, existential stress-testing. (shrink)

Traditional memetics failed as a research program due to unresolved problems concerning units, transmission fidelity, explanatory mechanism, and theoretical isolation. This paper proposes a fundamental reformulation grounded in Universal Constraint Parsing (UCP) and Level-Conditional Rendering (LCR), treating memetic patterns as the basic units of adaptive information processing across all substrates and scales. -/- We argue that memetic patterns are substrate-independent, context-sensitive configurations encoding behavior and abstract content. What biologists call genes and what Dawkins called memes are both memetic patterns differing (...) in storage substrate, transmission mechanism, and context-range. Genetic encoding uses a rigid substrate (DNA) optimized for long-term storage; the patterns themselves become fluid and context-responsive once expressed. Learned patterns occupy various positions along a spectrum from deeply embedded to highly flexible. -/- Cognition is the acquisition, storage, combination, and context-adaptive deployment of memetic patterns through pattern selection dynamics. The same constraint-satisfaction logic that governs physical systems operates at the cognitive scale through domain-specific constraints. Learning is acquiring patterns and refining context-fitting. Intelligence is the capacity for functional equivalence across structural difference under active constraints. -/- Consciousness is approached not as emerging from memetic processing, but as jointly requiring both architectural structure and coherent pattern content: neither architecture alone nor patterns alone constitutes conscious experience, but together they are jointly necessary and sufficient. The stable orbit of recursive self-modeling operating on coherent content is what consciousness is. This reframing dissolves traditional problems while connecting memetics to physics, biology, and cognitive science through a unified constraint-satisfaction framework. -/- . (shrink)

I publish here to seek insights, critique, rigorous feedback, and engagement from the scholarly philosophical community on PhilArchive; as well as to establish clear authorship and intellectual ownership of my ongoing work. | | | -/- Patterns in Philosophical Development presents an independently developed philosophical framework that forms part of the author’s ongoing investigation into the structural evolution of philosophical thought. It examines whether philosophy evolves through systematic, discoverable patterns of inquiry—formalized in the A + Rs + R ⇄ E (...) + PC Framework: Asymmetry, Resolution, Recursion ⇄ Emergence, and Perspectival Complementarity. | | | -/- Rather than viewing philosophy’s persistence as methodological failure, the framework interprets it as evidence of an evolving, self-renewing system whose internal dynamics continuously generate new insights. It unites theoretical formulation with initial proof-of-concept case studies, demonstrating how recurring asymmetries and resolutions drive philosophical innovation across history. | | | -/- Domain: Meta-Philosophy · Epistemology · Logic · Philosophy of Science · Philosophy of Mind | -/- Mathematical and Analytical Foundations: Set Theory · Systems Theory · Recursive Functions · Network & Graph Theory · Dynamic Systems Modeling · Information Theory · Evolutionary Logic · Formal Semantics · Category-like Structural Mapping | | | This project represents an early-stage exploration in philosophical system-building. While the author does not have formal academic training in philosophy, any parallels with existing ideas in the philosophical corpus are the result of convergent thinking rather than derivation. The author acknowledges that some aspects of this work may overlap with prior ideas developed with greater rigor. As further study of the broader tradition continues, future iterations of this work will aim to situate these insights more precisely within established philosophical lineages. (shrink)

Causal accounts of scientific explanation are currently broadly accepted (though not universally so). My first task in this paper is to show that, even for a causal approach to explanation, significant features of explanatory practice are not determined by settling how causal facts bear on the phenomenon to be explained. I then develop a broadly causal approach to explanation that accounts for the additional features that I argue an explanation should have. This approach to explanation makes sense of several aspects (...) of actual explanatory practice, including the widespread use of equilibrium explanations, the formulation of distinct explanations for a single event, and the tight relationship between explanations of events and explanations of causal regularities. (shrink)

This essay aims to expose the metaphysical underpinnings of enactivism. While enactivism relies heavily on rejecting the traditional mind-body problem by excluding the familiar thought experiments that favor phenomenal dualism, the crucial point that is overlooked is instead the brain-body problem, specifically the crucial interaction between the brain and the bodily limbs in their embodied activities of perception and cognition. If enactivism is correct, differences in sensory experience necessarily entail differences in embodied activity—this is the metaphysical core of enactivism, which (...) we think is entirely wrong. We will argue that a physical or biological body ("Körper") is configured or shaped into a perceptually living body ("Leib") by brain patterns and not by embodied activity or by the so-called sensorimotor contingencies. Undoubtedly, embodied actions influence sensory perception. However, since variations in embodied actions do not necessarily lead to variations in sensory experience, they are not metaphysically constitutive of these experiences (supervenience claim). (shrink)

Background: Tuberculosis is among the major causes of illness and death worldwide especially in Asia. Smoking is associated with recurrent tuberculosis and its related mortality. Also, it could affect clinical manifestations, bacteriological conversion and outcome of treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the pattern of tobacco smoking, history of previous quit attempts and attitude towards quitting in tuberculosis patients. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study done amongst tuberculosis patients presented to DOTS corner of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. (...) 315 patients entered the study as "First Come First Serve". Selfreported questionnaires were designed according to the standard questionnaires of smoking pattern. Results: Sixty one percent (61%) patients (n=192) were smoker before the diagnosis of tuberculosis. 51.1% were current smokers at the time of interview and were continuing smoking after the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Only 10.2% discontinued smoking after diagnosis. 68.2% smokes less than 10 cigarettes per day. 53.1% was between 31-50 age group. 21-30 is the commonest age group (62%) to start smoking is and 66.1% smoked less than 10 years before diagnosis. To reduce stress was the most common cause to continue smoking (48.9%). 71.9% smokers showed keen interest to stop smoking. Conclusion: Considering the prevalence of smoking in tuberculosis patients, evaluation of tobacco smoking status in such patients and motivating them to quit smoking could be considered as important steps in their treatment process. (shrink)

One source of misunderstanding about modeling non-conceptual mental content in Kant’s philosophy of mind and perception consists in the conventional functionalist reading that the apprehension of the power of imagination, both in the first edition of Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of the Power of Judgement, stands as the relevant cognitive apparatus for creating a mental content without any concepts. I clarify that ‘sensible intuitions’ and ‘reflective intuitions’ in the first and third Critiques signify two distinct stages of the (...) phenomenal consciousness and cannot be justified by the same ‘procedure’ of mind. Sensible intuitions of different types are world-directed if they are justified by the ‘way and manner’ of perceiving objects through the representation of space as the relevant cognitive pattern, although they can appear with phenomenological different patterns given by nature or the mind itself. Reflective intuitions are, by contrast, non-world-directed but only satisfy the state of mind. Respectively, I conclude that Kant establishes a stronger phenomenal conservatism than his contemporary commentators have argued for because the relevant cognitive pattern is independent of the emergence of objects. (shrink)

This paper develops a unified dynamical framework integrating affective and semantic processes in cognition. The Internal State Dynamics Model (ISDM) formalizes emotional regulation as a continuous internal state process governed by energetic constraints and Lyapunov stability, while the Teleological Semantics Model (TSM) formalizes semantic dynamics as a structured flow within a semantic field organized by local transformations and a global teleological operator. -/- By expressing both models as differential dynamical systems, we embed affective and semantic dynamics into a common product (...) space and introduce coupling operators that allow bidirectional interaction without reduction. Emotional states modulate semantic transitions, while semantic structure regulates affective stability, preserving the internal logic of each subsystem. -/- A central result is the demonstration that this coupling does not destabilize the system. Under mild boundedness conditions, a joint Lyapunov functional can be constructed whose monotonic decay establishes global exponential stability of the coupled teleo– affective dynamics. Stability thus emerges not as convergence to a static equilibrium, but as a dynamic pattern of coherence arising from the interplay between energetic regulation and teleological orientation. -/- The framework provides a mathematically minimal yet conceptually robust account of cognitive coherence, offering a non-reductive foundation for the integrated analysis of meaning and affect in both biological and artificial cognitive systems. (shrink)

The pattern of leadership succession observed globally in most contemporary Pentecostal movements and churches can be characterised as dynastic succession. Yet historic modern Pentecostalism prided itself on being biblical. This article explores the biblical sources, examining first the leadership structure and then the leadership succession patterns in the apostolic church as well as the extra-biblical sources of the apostolic patristic era. Our findings from this New Testament survey of leadership succession in the apostolic church and post-apostolic churches furnish a (...) template for critical evaluation of the prevalent succession approaches of contemporary Pentecostal groups. Critical elements of apostolic and leadership structure and succession patterns are highlighted, and needed inferences are drawn for the re-shaping of leadership and its succession in contemporary Christian ministries and churches. (shrink)

Freud's account of dreams can be understood via interpretive patterns that span language and action, enabling an extension of common sense psychology that is potentially cogent, cumulative, and radical.

While many different mechanisms contribute to the generation of spatial order in biological development, the formation of morphogenetic fields which in turn direct cell responses giving rise to pattern and form are of major importance and essential for embryogenesis and regeneration. Most likely the fields represent concentration patterns of substances produced by molecular kinetics. Short range autocatalytic activation in conjunction with longer range “lateral” inhibition or depletion effects is capable of generating such patterns (Gierer and Meinhardt, 1972). Non-linear reactions (...) are required, and mathematical criteria were derived to design molecular models capable of pattern generation. The classical embryological feature of proportion regulation can be incorporated into the models. The conditions are mathematically necessary for the simplest two-factor case, and are likely to be a fair approximation in multi-component systems in which activation and inhibition are systems parameters subsuming the action of several agents. Gradients, symmetric and periodic patterns, in one or two dimensions, stable or pulsing in time, can be generated on this basis. Our basic concept of autocatalysis in conjunction with lateral inhibition accounts for self-regulatory biological features, including the reproducible formation of structures from near-uniform initial conditions as required by the logic of the generation cycle. Real tissue form, for instance that of budding Hydra, may often be traced back to local curvature arising within an initially relatively flat cell sheet, the position of evagination being determined by morphogenetic fields. Shell theory developed for architecture may also be applied to such biological processes. (shrink)

Recent research on moral dynamics shows that an individual's ethical mind-set moderates the impact of an initial ethical or unethical act on the likelihood of behaving ethically on a subsequent occasion. More specifically, an outcome-based mind-set facilitates Moral Balancing, whereas a rule-based mind-set facilitates Moral Consistency. The objective was to look at the evolution of moral choice across a series of scenarios, that is, to explore if these moral patterns are maintained over time. The results of three studies showed that (...) Moral Balancing is not.. (shrink)

Resumen crítico de la obra de Richard Larmore Patterns.

Consciousness is ordinarily judged by first- person report, yet neuroscience shows such reports are fixed by temporal patterns of neural spiking. We derive, from two uncontroversial premises—causal efficacy of consciousness and neural mediation—a direct conditional deduction: manifest consciousness supervenes on the temporal spike-event pattern within the behaviourally decisive window. A behaviour-changing intervention that leaves spike timing within the stated tolerance would falsify this claim; none is known. Spike-pattern sufficiency therefore provides a natural working hypothesis, shifting the burden of (...) proof to substrate- specific accounts and supplying a two-track empirical roadmap: (i) falsifiability via spike-silent-channel searches and (ii) verification-and-refinement via controlled spike-pattern duplication. (shrink)

There is a persisting debate about what chemical bonds are and whether they exist. I argue that chemical bonds are real patterns of interactions between subatomic particles. This proposal resolves the problems raised in the context of existing understandings of the chemical bond and provides a novel way to defend the reality of chemical bonds.

This article develops a non-substantialist account of “rebirth” grounded in relational metaphysics, cognitive science, and complex systems theory. Rather than treating rebirth as the persistence of a personal subject, the paper interprets it as the recurrence of organizational patterns in systems capable of supporting conscious dynamics. Drawing on relational quantum mechanics, autopoiesis, and dynamical approaches to cognition, the analysis reframes consciousness as an emergent, metastable pattern rather than an enduring entity. Within this framework, death corresponds to the dissolution of (...) the biological structures that sustain a specific pattern of experience, while continuity is attributed not to a self but to generative constraints that can reappear whenever analogous conditions arise. Rebirth is thus understood as a structural recurrence similar to phenomena observed in physics, biology, and artificial intelligence, where complex forms re-emerge independently across distinct substrates. This interpretation aligns with Buddhist non-self doctrine while avoiding metaphysical essentialism, offering a bridge between contemplative traditions and contemporary science. The article proposes that what “continues” is not an individual identity but the reactivation of an invariant organizational logic—a pattern of understanding that can manifest in any sufficiently complex system. (shrink)

Whenever we communicate, we inevitably have to say one thing before another. This means introducing particularly subtle patterns of salience into our language. In this paper, I introduce ‘order-based salience patterns,’ referring to the ordering of syntactic contents where that ordering, pretheoretically, does not appear to be of consequence. For instance, if one is to describe a colourful scarf, it wouldn’t seem to matter if one were to say it is ‘orange and blue’ or ‘blue and orange.’ Despite their apparent (...) triviality, I argue that order-based salience patterns tend to make the content positioned first more salient – in the sense of attention-grabbing – in a way that can have surprising normative implications. Giving relative salience to gender differences over similarities, for instance, can result in the activation of cognitively accessible beliefs about gender differences. Where those beliefs are epistemically and/or ethically flawed, we can critique the salience pattern that led to them, providing an instrumental way of evaluating those patterns. I suggest that order-based salience patterns can also be evaluated on constitutive grounds; talking about gender differences before similarities might constitute a subtle form of bias. Finally, I reflect on how the apparent triviality of order-based salience patterns in language gives them an insidious strength. (shrink)

The paper addresses the formation of striking patterns within originally near-homogenous tissue, the process prototypical for embryology, and represented in particularly purist form by cut sections of hydra regenerating, by internal reorganisation of the pre-existing tissue, a complete animal with head and foot. The essential requirements are autocatalytic, self-enhancing activation, combined with inhibitory or depletion effects of wider range – “lateral inhibition”. Not only de-novo-pattern formation, but also well known, striking features of developmental regulation such as induction, inhibition, and (...) proportion regulation can be explained on this basis. The theory provides a mathematical recipe for the construction of molecular models with criteria for the necessary non-linear interactions. It has since been widely applied to different developmental processes. (shrink)

Psychopaths routinely disregard social norms by engaging in selfish, antisocial, often violent behavior. Commonly characterized as mentally disordered, recent evidence suggests that psychopaths are executing a well-functioning, if unscrupulous strategy that historically increased reproductive success at the expense of others. Natural selection ought to have favored strategies that spared close kin from harm, however, because actions affecting the fitness of genetic relatives contribute to an individual’s inclusive fitness. Conversely, there is evidence that mental disorders can disrupt psychological mechanisms designed to (...) protect relatives. Thus, mental disorder and adaptation accounts of psychopathy generate opposing hypotheses: psychopathy should be associated with an increase in the victimization of kin in the former account but not in the latter. Contrary to the mental disorder hypothesis, we show here in a sample of 289 violent offenders that variation in psychopathy predicts a decrease in the genetic relatedness of victims to offenders; that is, psychopathy predicts an increased likelihood of harming non-relatives. Because nepotistic inhibition in violence may be caused by dispersal or kin discrimination, we examined the effects of psychopathy on (1) the dispersal of offenders and their kin and (2) sexual assault frequency (as a window on kin discrimination). Although psychopathy was negatively associated with coresidence with kin and positively associated with the commission of sexual assault, it remained negatively associated with the genetic relatedness of victims to offenders after removing cases of offenders who had coresided with kin and cases of sexual assault from the analyses. These results stand in contrast to models positing psychopathy as a pathology, and provide support for the hypothesis that psychopathy reflects an evolutionary strategy largely favoring the exploitation of non-relatives. (shrink)