Arts and Humanities

Sort by

Article
Arts and Humanities
Humanities

Dalitso Mvula

,

Elijah Muntanga

Abstract: Examination malpractice remains a significant challenge in higher education, undermining academic integrity and the credibility of qualifications. This study aimed to explore students’ perceptions of invigilation as a strategy for preventing academic dishonesty, assess the adequacy of current invigilation practices, and examine how different types of invigilation influence cheating behaviors. An exploratory quantitative research design was employed, collecting data from 295 Zambian university students using a structured electronic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, including means and standard deviations, were used to summarize participants’ responses. The results revealed that a majority of students perceive invigilation as effective in reducing cheating (M = 3.90, SD = 1.13) and are generally satisfied with the adequacy of current invigilation practices (M = 3.64, SD = 1.14). Strict invigilation was identified as the most effective approach to deterring malpractice (58.4%), while students reported moderate variability in adherence to proper examination procedures (M = 3.59, SD = 1.24). However, perceptions of the effectiveness of specific types of invigilation were lower (M = 2.54, SD = 0.58), suggesting that while supervision is valued, its implementation and style can influence its deterrent effect. The study concludes that vigilant, well-staffed, and consistently applied invigilation practices are crucial for maintaining examination integrity and minimizing academic dishonesty.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Humanities

Wei Meng

,

Ting Wu

Abstract: This study takes Liu Tongfang's article Marx's Intellectual Measure, published in Guangming Daily, as its sole subject of investigation. Its objective is to examine the theoretical validity and interpretative boundaries of the author's approach to synthesising Marx's thought through the concept of ‘measure’. This analysis is conducted across three dimensions: conceptual legitimacy, historical interpretative mechanisms, and consistency with the Sinicisation of Marxism in the new era. The research thereby addresses the core question: ‘Does this article possess an academic argumentative structure that is reviewable, reproducible, and testable?’ Methodologically, this paper constructs and implements a triple-algorithm review process comprising ‘formal logical audit—generative verification through intellectual history—contemporaneous consistency testing.’ Employing a Chinese clause-numbering system and rule-driven quantitative metrics, it conducts structured, reproducible evidence audits on: the semantic stability of core concepts; the sufficiency of boundaries in social stage delineation; the explicitness of contradiction mechanism chains; and the operationality of era mapping. Calculations yield the following indices: Boundary Adequacy Index (Boundary Adequacy Index ≈ 0.389), Normative Substitution Index for Mechanism Explanation (Normative Substitution Index ≈ 0.161), Mechanism Explicitness Score (Mechanism Explicitness ≈ 0.738), and Sentence Coverage Rate (Sentence Coverage Rate ≈ 0.421). These quantitative outcomes anchor the scope of argumentation and strength of reasoning. Findings indicate that ‘scale’ concurrently fulfils dual functions of empirical description and normative evaluation within the text. Its transdisciplinary migration from physical or existential spatial extension to the boundaries of consciousness, cognition, and value lacks requisite mediating rules and verifiable derivation chains, thereby generating auditable semantic slippage risks. The text exhibits strong macro-level coherence in its phased narrative of ‘prehistory and true human history’ alongside ‘human dependency, material dependency, and free individuality.’ However, insufficient articulation of boundary conditions concerning mutual exclusivity, exhaustiveness, and transitional forms renders the phasing closer to a value hierarchy than a falsifiable explanatory model. Though multiple passages simultaneously present the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production alongside the developmental goal of free individuality, key arguments exhibit a tendency to substitute normative objectives for mechanism-chain decomposition, thereby weakening the testability of historical materialist explanations. The integration of Marx's theoretical resources across different periods within the intellectual history lacks explicit annotation of generative differences and methodological shifts, while the world-historical narrative insufficiently bridges the stage structure of capitalism with the deepening of imperialism theory. Within the framework of Sinicised Marxism in the new era, the indicator-based mapping interface for ‘people-centred development, practical verification, and Chinese-style modernisation’ remains relatively weak, hindering its direct translation into an operational evaluation system. The research concludes that Marx's Measure of Thought demonstrates theoretical ambition in its comprehensive exposition and value synthesis, yet its pivotal arguments require enhanced reviewability and reproducibility through conceptual semantic constraints, explicit phase boundary conditions, and the explicitation of contradiction mechanism chains. The proposed ‘logical-historical-epochal’ triple-audit framework and quantitative indicator system can provide transferable, top-tier structural assessment tools and standardised rewriting pathways for similar comprehensive philosophical texts.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Architecture

Darko Kahle

Abstract: Architect Vladimir Potočnjak (1904-1952), a cofounder of Croatian Modern Movement is almost nonexistent in the recent Croatian architectural history. The research of archival sources, accompanied by acquired drawings and books from his library, comprised thor-ough analysis of his realizations, projects and publications. Potočnjak graduated from the Architectural Department of Zagreb’s Institute of Technology in 1926 and apprenticed to Adolf Loos in Paris where he improved drawing skills, subsequently to Ernst May in Frankfurt a/M and finally to Hugo Ehrlich in Zagreb. Between 1931 and 1945 he was li-censed architectural engineer in Kingdom of Yugoslavia and successively in the Inde-pendent State of Croatia, additionally an architectural critic and theoretician preoccupied with problems of standardization. After 1945 he was appointed senior manager for archi-tecture in the collectivized Croatian Stately Design and Planning Institute. Cooperating with Zlatko Neumann, junior architects Antun Ulrich and Dragica Perak, in 1947 he won Yugoslav competition for the Federal Government Presidency Palace, later the Federal Ex-ecutive Council Palace, today the Palata “Srbije”. Fully preoccupied to its construction un-til his death, he concurrently translated Ernst Neufert’s “Bauordnungslehre” in Serbo-Croatian. Although classically educated, Potočnjak blended Modern Architectural narrative with layers of German Expressionism, visible on seminal drawings of Palata “Srbije”.

Article
Arts and Humanities
History

Ruth H. Thurstan

Abstract: Fish and shellfish are nutritionally important foods, yet consumption in many high-income countries remains low and concentrated on a narrow set of environmentally costly species. In the United Kingdom, fish consumption is dominated by a small group of fish—the so-called “Big Five”—which is often treated as an inevitable outcome of supply, convenience and ingrained consumer preferences. However, little empirical evidence exists on how and when such preferences emerged, or whether present-day patterns reflect historical continuity or cultural loss. This limits our ability to interpret current consumer behaviour and to design socially and culturally grounded interventions aimed at diversifying fish consumption. Here, I use published recipes sourced from a British domestic magazine, as a consumer-facing archive, to reconstruct long-term shifts in the cultural visibility of fish. While not a measure of consumption, popular media is widely understood to reflect and reinforce prevailing cultural norms, in this case, assumptions about which fish species were considered available and familiar to domestic cooks. I analyse 1,192 fish and shellfish recipes published between 1923 and 2025, documenting changes in species prominence, diversity, and composition. Sixty-six species were recorded, yet representation became increasingly concentrated over time. From the 1970s onwards, the ‘Big Five’ accounted for more than 60% of all species mentions, coinciding with a statistically significant decline in diversity of species representation and a marked restructuring of species composition. Flatfish, herring, and oysters—once culturally prominent—declined substantially, while salmon, prawns, and tuna became entrenched. Although species richness declined only weakly, diversity fell significantly, indicating increasing homogenisation rather than simple loss of species. These findings demonstrate that contemporary UK fish preferences are historically contingent, shaped by interacting changes in supply, trade, policy, and cultural norms, rather than fixed consumer tastes. By linking supply-side transformations to domestic food cultures, this study reveals how ecological and market changes becomes normalised in everyday consumption. More broadly, it shows how historical perspectives derived from cultural sources can inform strategies to diversify diets, revive under-utilised species, and align future seafood consumption with health and environmental sustainability goals.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Jakub Mácha

Abstract: This paper defends the thesis that LLM hallucinations are best explained as a truth representation problem: Current models lack an internal representation of propositions as truth-bearers, so truth and falsity cannot constrain generation in the way factual discourse requires. It begins by surveying leading explanations—computational limits on self-verification, deficiencies in training data as truth sources, and architectural factors—and argues that they converge on the same underlying representational deficit. Next, it reconstructs the philosophical background of current LLM design, showing how optimization for fluent continuation aligns with coherence-style evaluation and with a broadly structuralist, relational semantics, before turning to David Chalmers’s recent attempt to secure propositional interpretability by drawing on Davidson/Lewis-style radical interpretation and by locating propositional content in “middle-layer” structures; it argues that this approach downplays the ubiquity of hallucination and inherits instability from post-training edits. Finally, the paper offers a positive proposal: Atomic propositions should be represented in the basic vector layer, reviving a logical-atomist program as a principled route to reducing hallucination.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Humanities

Abdul Aziz Al Aman

,

Paromita Biswas

,

Chandan Sardar

,

Piyali Das Mukherjee

,

Jaita Mukherjee

,

Manoj Kumar Yadav

,

Nabin Thakur

Abstract: The study investigated the effect of Green Information and Communication Technology Adoption (GICTA) on adolescents’ perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral adaptations regarding environmental sustainability at the higher secondary level. To determine causal relationships, a true experimental randomized pretest–post-test design was adopted. The sample comprised 84 adolescent boys and girls from schools of Kolkata, representing Science, Commerce, and Arts streams by one-to-one matched process to get equivalent experimental and control groups. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect data that measured perception, attitude and behavioral adaptation across the three environmental dimensions, i.e. pollution, energy efficiency and waste management. The experimental group received a structured GICTA-based intervention across 16 instructional sessions, while the control group received no intervention. Analysis of data was carried out using t-tests, ANOVA and MANOVA which demonstrated that GICTA produced significant and substantial improvements in perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral adaptations among adolescents, with large effect sizes in the experimental group and negligible changes in the control group. The intervention was gender-neutral, which effectively removed the pre-existing gender differences in all domains. Behavioral adaptation was found to have the highest gains, then attitudinal and perceptual changes. Stream-wise analysis showed that Science students had experienced the greatest gains, Commerce students had a neutral effect and Arts students had weaker results, with no significant interactions effects. Comprehensively, the results make GICTA an effective, comprehensive, and pedagogically viable method of instilling complete environmental adaptation in adolescents.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Archaeology

Masayuki Kanazawa

Abstract: In this study, we employed the 5-meter Accuracy Digital Elevation Model (DEM) developed by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, to analyze the spatial distribution of Yayoi-period archaeological sites. Rather than relying on conventional regional cross-tabulations—such as prefecture-level classifications—this approach adopts a Geographic Information System (GIS)–based analysis that enables higher spatial precision as well as more intuitive and visually accessible interpretation. Through this methodology, we aim to reconstruct the geographical conditions of ancient Japan at the end of the Yayoi period, approximately 1,800 years ago, and to offer a new perspective on the long-standing debate concerning the location of Yamatai (Yamataikoku). The results of analyses using the 5m DEM substantially increase the likelihood that Yamatai was located in northern Kyushu. In addition, northern Kyushu exhibits highly distinctive patterns of land use that vary markedly by region. The areas surrounding present-day Asakura City and Ogori City appear to have been specialized primarily for military purposes. In contrast, the Yoshinogari site—one of the largest Yayoi-period settlements in Japan—shows a pronounced specialization in agriculture, particularly large-scale wet-rice cultivation. The area corresponding to modern Fukuoka City, meanwhile, functioned as a major urban center in which both military and agricultural functions were concentrated. Furthermore, the “Jimmu’s Eastern Expedition” undertaken by the first Emperor Jimmu cannot necessarily be dismissed as a purely legendary event; it likely reflects certain historical facts. By introducing a GIS-based approach that has been relatively underutilized in previous research, this study serves as a pilot project while simultaneously representing an ambitious attempt to expand the horizons of visualization in ancient Japanese historical studies.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Literature and Literary Theory

Mustak Ahmed

Abstract:

Mamun Hussain’s literary works occupy a distinctive position in contemporary Bangladeshi literature, combining clinical precision with deep ethical concern for social suffering. This article offers a critical interpretation of Hussain’s corpus through the framework of Critical Theory, incorporating insights from the Frankfurt School, postcolonial theory, and biopolitical analysis. It argues that Hussain’s fiction and essays function as a form of social diagnosis, exposing the structural mechanisms through which power, ideology, and institutional control produce normalized suffering in postcolonial Bangladesh. Drawing upon close readings of major texts including Hospital Bengal, Nikropolis, Human Pain: A Detailed Description, and Agenda of Armed Forces and Land Management Conflicts, the article demonstrates how Hussain constructs a literary ethics grounded in vulnerability, memory, and resistance. His narrative strategies—fragmentation, documentary realism, and stylistic restraint—disrupt ideological closure and foreground what Critical Theory terms “damaged life.” The study situates Hussain within broader debates on postcolonial disenchantment, the failure of modernity, and the politics of representation, arguing that his work constitutes a form of “negative humanism” that preserves human dignity without resorting to sentimental consolation or utopian illusions. Ultimately, this article positions Mamun Hussain’s literature as an ethical archive of contemporary Bangladesh, offering a powerful critique of domination while defending literature’s role as moral witness in contemporary Bangladesh, offering a powerful critique of domination while defending literature’s role as moral witness in conditions of systemic injustice.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Art

Margarida Graça

,

Nuno Martins

,

Miguel Terroso

Abstract: This study is part of the FAIST research project - Agile, Intelligent, Sustainable and Technological Factory, coordinated by the Footwear Technology Centre of Portugal (CTCP), which aims to develop an innovative production process through the creation of a sustainable footwear model fully adapted to the user’s foot anatomy and personalized according to individual aesthetic preferences. Within this context, the need emerged to design an online platform with an interface capable of effectively addressing user needs throughout all stages of the personalization process, from three-dimensional (3D) foot scanning to the aesthetic personalization of the model, while ensuring an efficient, intuitive, and pleasant navigation experience. Thus, this work aims to demonstrate how the design process of a footwear personalization platform, across its different phases, can contribute to the revitalization of the Portuguese footwear industry, as well as to describe its effectiveness, with the goal of being potentially adapted and implemented in similar contexts. The adopted methodology was based on the principles of Design Thinking, an approach centered on user needs. The development of the platform involved the creation of personas, the definition of the information architecture, the development of wireframes and workflows, and the execution of usability tests using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The results demonstrate a high success rate, validating the proposed solution with users and confirming the suitability of the applied methodologies.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Archaeology

Johann Michael Köhler

,

Jialan Cao

,

Peter Mike Günther

,

Michael Geschwinde

Abstract:

An archaeological exposure near Hachum, featuring a Ditch profile interpreted as part of a Neolithic earthwork, was characterized using DNA analyses of bacterial 16S rRNA from soil samples. The results showed that the middle and lower parts of the Ditch fill could be clearly distinguished from each other and from the surrounding area based on the composition of soil bacterial DNA. Genera detected predominantly in the lower part of the Ditch suggest that, after the Ditch was completed, organic matter, animal dung, and possibly even human feces were accumulated at the bottom. The investigations demonstrate that analyses of soil bacterial communities can provide valuable insights into the history and function of a Neolithic earthwork and, more generally, represent an important additional source of information for interpreting archaeological contexts that are devoid of or poor in finds.

Review
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Shruthi Jarali

Abstract: This study integrates Vedic philology, ritual history, and philosophical hermeneutics in a multi-layered analysis of Agnihotra. Particularly in the Yajurveda, where its exterior performance is linked to varṇa and āśrama, it elucidates Agnihotra's technical structure and śākhā-specific methods by drawing on Śruti sources. The conceptual extension of ritual eligibility when dharma declines is explained by an analysis of Purāṇic and Smṛti depictions of Yuga decline. Then, passages from the Upaniṣadic and Bhagavadgītā are considered to demonstrate how Agnihotra is internalized as niṣkāma-karma and jñāna-yajña, creating a continuum between philosophical insight and ritual practice leading to mokṣa. Lastly, the Mādhyandina and Kāṇva recensions of the Śukla Yajurveda are compared to see whether they are appropriate for Agnihotra during the Kali Yuga. The latter maintains earlier, more intricate ritual levels, while the former provides systematic clarity. This study concludes that the Kāṇva recension offers greater scope for academic analysis śākhā for Agnihotra practice in Kali Yuga.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic

Abstract: As intelligent autonomous systems (IAS) continue to assume increas-ingly central roles in safety- and mission-critical domains such as transportation,healthcare, finance, and infrastructure management, humans are becoming una-ble to monitor or intervene in real time. This shift is driven by the speed, data-processing capacity, and adaptivity of IAS. To manage this complexity, a newparadigm is emerging: IAS controlling and monitoring other IAS, a developmentthat introduces at the same time practical efficiency and profound practical andethical challenges.This article explores the multi-layered delegation of responsibilities within IASecosystems, where decisions influencing human lives and well-being are madewith minimal human intervention. One often-overlooked consequence of this del-egation is the capacity of AI systems to shape and create new human habits,whether through personalized persuasion, behavioral feedback loops, or autono-mous decision enforcement. As humans increasingly adapt their behaviors to ma-chine-optimized environments, questions arise about autonomy, agency, and re-sponsibility for resulting behavior changes.Drawing on insights from recent research on responsibility delegation in IAS andon AI-driven habit formation, the article critically examines how responsibilityshould be distributed across human actors, autonomous systems, and institutions.Framed within the principles of Digital Humanism, I argue for a value-sensitivegovernance model that ensures transparency, explainability and human oversighteven in complex IAS-to-IAS control scenarios.I propose a normative framework for responsibility attribution that accounts forboth the technical architecture of IAS networks and the behavioral effects thesesystems have on human users. The article concludes by addressing the ethicalrisks of diminished human agency, manipulation through behavioral design, andthe need for institutional mechanisms that align IAS operations with fundamentalhuman values.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Jae Lee

Abstract: This paper addresses the mind-body problem by highlighting the concept of continuity. Building on philosophical definitions, it introduces an "ontology of continuity" thesis to bridge the mental and the physical. Based on the thesis, the paper introduces a “neuro-subjective interactive (NSI)” model, which incorporates empirical studies from brain science. The model suggests that subjective experiences and neural activities are inter-dependent. Instead of separating between human mentality and its physical base, the paper posits that our mentality is constituted by both physical (neural) and non-physical (subjective) elements. This approach addresses two major challenges in the mind-body problem: causal overdetermination and physical causal closure.

Data Descriptor
Arts and Humanities
History

Tobias Perschl

,

Pauline Schmidt

,

Sebastian Gassner

,

Malte Rehbein

Abstract: This paper publishes 735,000 historical passenger entries from the German North Sea port of Bremen, created between 1830 and 1939, and now structured, enriched, and processed into a research-ready database. It provides an overview of the original archival documents and their datafication, beginning with a historical account of why the passenger lists were created and which information they recorded. Building on extensive prior work—largely carried out by family researchers—the lists were transcribed manually and first made available online in 2003. To enhance their analytical value, we computationally post-processed these data through: (1) data cleaning, especially addressing spelling variants and transcription errors; (2) data normalisation, including conversion into standardised formats; and (3) data augmentation by adding identifiers, geographic information, and multiple classifications. Finally, we discuss limitations of the resulting dataset as well as its analytical potential.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Architecture

Münire Rumeysa Çakan

,

Emre Kishalı

,

Asil Yaman

Abstract: Rural architectural systems in the Mediterranean reflect a long-term entanglement between human agency, material conditions, and environmental constraints. This study uses this framework to explore architectural continuity in settlements near ancient Phoenix in Türkiye. It aims to understand how rural building practices like stone masonry, traditional carpentry, and spolia reuse have persisted from antiquity. The methodology combines UAV photogrammetry, GIS analysis, and oral histories to reveal spatial patterns and craft traditions across generations. Findings show structures are transmitted through technical knowledge, with stone and timber co evolving with local livelihoods. The Aegean's technical traditions share heritage with the Dodecanese islands of Symi and Tilos, supported by fieldwork and literature comparing masonry and craft techniques. The work emphasizes the need for conservation strategies that connect digital documentation with community experience to preserve this cross-border cultural landscape amid environmental threats and declining craftsmanship.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Other

Tianqing Zhang

,

Ce Wang

,

Victor Kuzmichev

,

Xiaolong Dond

,

Lin Xing

Abstract: This study develops an innovative method for the attribution and visual reconstruction of hand-woven fabrics using artificial intelligence, employing Chinese Hong'an Homespun as a case study. The paper proposes a comprehensive algorithm integrating microscopic analysis, physical micro-model creation, and bimodal prompt engineering. The semantic differential method with a five-point scale was applied for objective evaluation of visual replica of historical fabrics. Comparative testing of AI models (Midjourney, ChatGPT, Qwen3, DouBaoAI, HailuoAI) revealed significant differences in their ability to reproduce characteristic features of hand weaving. The results demonstrate the superiority of detailed prompts with precise quantitative parameters and confirm the effectiveness of micro-models as visual anchors. The research establishes new standards in the digital documentation of cultural heritage and opens prospects for preserving traditional textile techniques. The most successful AI are Midjourney and ChatGPT have achieved an average score of 0.88 on the semantic scale, confirming the practical applicability of the method.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Archaeology

Alberto Donini

Abstract: In this article, Engineer Alberto Donini presents an innovative method, the “Relative Erosion Method” (REM), which he developed to determine the construction date of ancient structures. He applies this method to the two largest pyramids on the Giza Plateau—those of Akhet Khufu (“The Luminous Spirit of Khufu”) and Khafra—as well as to two of the three smaller Queens’ pyramids located next to the pyramid of Akhet Khufu. Is it possible that the current archaeological dating of these ancient Egyptian monuments is incorrect? Is it also possible that the alternative dates proposed by various researchers are likewise incorrect? To address these questions, the author analyses the pyramids of Giza from an unconventional perspective in order to determine the most probable period of their construction. The REM is based on the ratio between two types of erosion affecting the same type of rock in the same location: one with a known date and the other with a date to be determined. This ratio is then used to calculate the age of the stone block under examination.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Andreas Schilling

Abstract: The functioning of complex natural structures, such as living systems, still lacks a generally accepted theoretical basis with respective empirical experimental verification for decades. We propose a class of experiments to test whether such systems could be subject to an unknown ordering principle that cannot be captured by known physical laws. We hypothesise that the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle enables ordering phenomena in nearly chaotic systems in the sense of a strong emergence principle, which would not be expected when they are modelled conventionally, as several authors have already formulated in various forms. To account for the harsh conditions prevailing in living systems that may preclude fragile macroscopic quantum coherence, our hypothesis does not require such coherence at all, contrary to earlier related proposals. To test this hypothesis, two virtually identical and sufficiently complex experimental setups should be compared. One setup will operate with deterministic pseudo-random number generators at key sensitive points, while the other one will use quantum-based physical random- number generators, the two setups being otherwise identical. Existing artificial neural networks are proposed as possible test objects, and their performance under identical training conditions can be used as a quantitative benchmark. As this working hypothesis extends far beyond artificial networks, a successful outcome of such an experiment could have significant implications for many other branches of science.

Concept Paper
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Moninder Singh Modgil

,

Dnyandeo Dattatray Patil

Abstract: This study constructs a comprehensive philosophical and mathematical framework for understanding perceptual stillness, conscious awareness, and their representations in modern art and music. It integrates contemplative insights from Eckhart Tolle’s notion of the “Power of Now” with neurogeometric and physical models of cognition, drawing parallels between meditative silence and harmonic equilibrium in sound. The inquiry extends across multiple disciplines — phenomenology, cognitive neuroscience, acoustics. The paper proposes that consciousness, in its unconditioned state, can be mathematically described as a limit condition of cognitive curvature Rij = 0, paralleling the zero-curvature manifold in differential geometry. Here, awareness functions as a self-luminous field where perception is no longer mediated by temporal differentiation. This zero-curvature condition finds empirical support in neuroscientific studies of the Default Mode Network (DMN), where meditative absorption produces near-zero entropy. A unique contribution of this paper lies in bridging these contemplative and scientific paradigms with the symbolic and aesthetic expressions found in 20th-century rock music. Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” is interpreted as an acoustic and existential meditation on the ineffable quality of presence, where lyrical and rhythmic minimalism reflect the collapse of cognitive noise into inner quietude. Similarly, Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse,” from The Dark Side of the Moon.

Article
Arts and Humanities
Philosophy

Jiaqi Guo

Abstract:

In the philosophy of language, Frege's (1892) distinction between sense and reference provided a foundational framework for identity statements, while Putnam's (1975) "Twin Earth" thought experiment, with its astonishing insight, pushed the externalist position to its extreme, successfully challenging the internalist model of meaning and setting the basic agenda for debates on referential determinacy for the subsequent decades. However, despite the highly inspirational nature of these pioneering works, an intriguing phenomenon is that the debates they sparked—such as discussions around core cases like Theseus's ship and identical particles—seem to have fallen into a kind of impasse. This article attempts to argue that this impasse may not stem from the depth of the problem itself, but precisely from an unexamined deep presupposition shared by these otherwise highly convincing theories: namely, the belief that there exists some single, decisive level (whether microscopic physical structure or historical causation) that can once and for all answer the identity question. This article proposes that, rather than continuing to seek a superior single answer under this presupposition, a more productive approach may be to reflect on this presupposition itself. To this end, we develop an analytical framework of hierarchical relativity. Interestingly, this framework shows that those seemingly opposing excellent theories can actually be understood as special cases of this framework at different levels; the difficulties they encounter become inevitable precisely when they attempt to make assertions across levels. Therefore, this framework is not intended to negate the work of predecessors, but aims to provide a new path for resolving a series of philosophical puzzles arising from category mistakes by clarifying the valid scope of application of those works.

of 59

Prerpints.org logo

Preprints.org is a free preprint server supported by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.

Subscribe

Disclaimer

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Privacy Settings

© 2026 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated