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Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

The maintenance of large volatile knowledge bases is the focus of this project. The viewpoint from which the study is being conducted is that of certain extensions of current logic programming systems, primarily the so-called metalanguage systems in which a logic programming language is amalgamated with a portion of its metalanguage. Major thrusts of the work include (1) study of the extent to which such representation mechanisms as frames and semantic nets can be logically treated (thus yielding a measure of independence of representation for the rest of the work), and (2) the use of the metalanguage facilities for the maintenance of consistency and integrity under change and other questions of analysis of the knowledge base. Computer-based systems to aid human intelligence analysts are instances of a generic class of systems known as tracking systems. Such systems minimally consist of knowledge base in which records representing the analyst's concerns are stored. A useful organization of such knowledge bases distinguishes between events and event-lines. Events are relatively discrete in time, such as signal reports or activity reports, while event-lines are extended, continuous sequences of events. Events may be thought of as discrete points, plotted on some event-line. One maybe also impose a hierarchical structure among event-lines with individual event-lines constituting components of some higher-level event line. Keywords: Metaprolog; Programming language.

The logics of knowledge are modal logics that have been shown to be effective in representing and reasoning about knowledge in multi-agent domains. Relatively few computational frameworks for dealing with computation of models and useful transformations in logics of knowledge (e.g., to support multi-agent planning with knowledge actions and degrees of visibility) have been proposed. This paper explores the use of logic programming (LP) to encode interesting forms of logics of knowledge and compute Kripke models. The LP modeling is expanded with useful operators on Kripke structures, to support multi-agent planning in the presence of both world-altering and knowledge actions. This results in the first ever implementation of a planner for this type of complex multi-agent domains.

One important challenge for probabilistic logics is reasoning with very large knowledge bases (KBs) of imperfect information, such as those produced by modern web-scale information extraction systems. One scalability problem shared by many probabilistic logics is that answering queries involves "grounding" the query---i.e., mapping it to a propositional representation---and the size of a "grounding" grows with database size. To address this bottleneck, we present a first-order probabilistic language called ProPPR in which that approximate "local groundings" can be constructed in time independent of database size. Technically, ProPPR is an extension to stochastic logic programs (SLPs) that is biased towards short derivations; it is also closely related to an earlier relational learning algorithm called the path ranking algorithm (PRA). We show that the problem of constructing proofs for this logic is related to computation of personalized PageRank (PPR) on a linearized version of the proof space, and using on this connection, we develop a proveably-correct approximate grounding scheme, based on the PageRank-Nibble algorithm. Building on this, we develop a fast and easily-parallelized weight-learning algorithm for ProPPR. In experiments, we show that learning for ProPPR is orders magnitude faster than learning for Markov logic networks; that allowing mutual recursion (joint learning) in KB inference leads to improvements in performance; and that ProPPR can learn weights for a mutually recursive program with hundreds of clauses, which define scores of interrelated predicates, over a KB containing one million entities.

A concise English grammar, rendered easy to every capacity, so that (without any other help) a person may acquire the knowledge of the English language. ... To which are added, a short compendium of logic and rhetoric, and A sketch of the constitution of England. By Benjamin Rhodes. 1795.. Digitized from IA40313514-69 . Previous issue: bim_eighteenth-century_the-story-of-the-moor-of_parr-wolstenholme_1795 . Next issue: bim_eighteenth-century_emma-corbett-or-the-mise_pratt-mr-samuel-jacks_1781_1 .

A concise English grammar, rendered easy to every capacity, so that (without any other help) a person may acquire the knowledge of the English language. ... To which are added, a short compendium of logic and rhetoric, and A sketch of the constitution of England. By Benjamin Rhodes. 1795.. Digitized from IA40313514-69 . Previous issue: bim_eighteenth-century_the-story-of-the-moor-of_parr-wolstenholme_1795 . Next issue: bim_eighteenth-century_emma-corbett-or-the-mise_pratt-mr-samuel-jacks_1781_1 .

This paper examines the role that formal logic ought to play in representing and reasoning with commonsense knowledge, We take issue with the commonly held view (as expressed by Newell [1980)) that the use of representations based on formal logic is inappropriate in most applications of artificial intelligence. We argue to the contrary that there is an important set of issues, involving incomplete knowledge of a problem situation, that so far have been addressed only by systems b)ased on formal logic and deductive inference, and that, in some sense, probably can be dealt with only by systems based on logic and deduction. We further argue that the experiments of the late l960s on problem- solving by theorem-proving did not show that the use of logic and deduction in AI systems was necessarily inefficient, but rather that what was needed was better control of the deduction process, combined with more attention to the computational properties of axioms.

Knowledge of accounting before the evolution of academic economic knowledge was practical knowledge. In the context of the studies about the development of accounting techniques, the debates leave out the bookkeeper. The hypothesis here is that, due to the diversification of investments on the behalf of the personal properties in late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, an expert accountant appeared as bookkeeper of the personal account books at the merchant bankers’ households. In Florence, future merchants were trained in elementary schools and later on in classes the masters of abacus. In their exercise books, the masters of abacus published, we find a lot of algebraic problems which are illustrated by accounting operations. However, at least in Florence manuals on accounting did not exist. So, the young merchant bankers and bookkeepers learned by doing. A case study about an accountant, Matteo Brandolini, who was the bookkeeper of the papal banker’s son Alamanno Salviati, shall exemplify this tendency. When the patricians and merchant bankers invested more extensively in secondary markets, they were in the need of highly qualified staff.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (i) we argue that the structure of commonsense knowledge must be discovered, rather than invented; and (ii) we argue that natural language, which is the best known theory of our (shared) commonsense knowledge, should itself be used as a guide to discovering the structure of commonsense knowledge. In addition to suggesting a systematic method to the discovery of the structure of commonsense knowledge, the method we propose seems to also provide an explanation for a number of phenomena in natural language, such as metaphor, intensionality, and the semantics of nominal compounds. Admittedly, our ultimate goal is quite ambitious, and it is no less than the systematic 'discovery' of a well-typed ontology of commonsense knowledge, and the subsequent formulation of the long-awaited goal of a meaning algebra.

Book digitized by Google from the library of the University of Michigan and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Book digitized by Google from the library of the University of Michigan and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

This episode of Learning Machines 101 explains how to use first-order logic and Markov logic nets to represent common sense knowledge in machine learning algorithms links to free software for implementing Markov logic nets and a free database of common-sense knowledge is provided.

469 p. 19 cm

Remnants of time employed in prose and verse, or, Short essays and composures on various subjects

The improvement of the mind: or, a supplement to the art of logic: containing a variety of remarks and rules for the attainment and communication of useful knowledge, in religion, in the sciences, and in common life. By Isaac Watts, D.D. 1784.. Digitized from IA40310414-26 . Previous issue: bim_eighteenth-century_a-collection-of-psalms-a_1767 . Next issue: bim_eighteenth-century_the-improvement-of-the-m_watts-isaac_1784_0 .

Artifact-centric models for business processes recently raised a lot of attention, as they manage to combine structural (i.e. data related) with dynamical (i.e. process related) aspects in a seamless way. Many frameworks developed under this approach, although, are not built explicitly for planning, one of the most prominent operations related to business processes. In this paper, we try to overcome this by proposing a framework named Dynamic Knowledge Bases, aimed at describing rich business domains through Description Logic-based ontologies, and where a set of actions allows the system to evolve by modifying such ontologies. This framework, by offering action rewriting and knowledge partialization, represents a viable and formal environment to develop decision making and planning techniques for DL-based artifact-centric business domains.

We develop an incremental-tableau-based decision procedure for the multi-agent epistemic logic MAEL(CD) (aka S5_n (CD)), whose language contains operators of individual knowledge for a finite set Ag of agents, as well as operators of distributed and common knowledge among all agents in Ag. Our tableau procedure works in (deterministic) exponential time, thus establishing an upper bound for MAEL(CD)-satisfiability that matches the (implicit) lower-bound known from earlier results, which implies ExpTime-completeness of MAEL(CD)-satisfiability. Therefore, our procedure provides a complexity-optimal algorithm for checking MAEL(CD)-satisfiability, which, however, in most cases is much more efficient. We prove soundness and completeness of the procedure, and illustrate it with an example.

The improvement of the mind. Or, a supplement to the art of logic: containing a variety of remarks and rules for the attainment and communication of useful knowledge in religion, in the sciences, and in common life. By Isaac Watts, D.D. 1787.. Digitized from IA40310412-28 . Previous issue: bim_eighteenth-century_hor-lyric-poems-chie_watts-isaac_1758 . Next issue: bim_eighteenth-century_the-wood-lark-containin_1784 .

The improvement of the mind. Or, a supplement to the art of logic: containing a variety of remarks and rules for the attainment and communication of useful knowledge in religion, in the sciences, and in common life. By Isaac Watts, D.D. 1787.. Digitized from IA40310412-28 . Previous issue: bim_eighteenth-century_hor-lyric-poems-chie_watts-isaac_1758 . Next issue: bim_eighteenth-century_the-wood-lark-containin_1784 .

xx, 627 p. ; 23 cm

xx, 627 p. ; 23 cm

Modern modal logic begins with the work of C.I. Lewis early on in the present century. We can think of Lewis thinking to himself as follows: Well, I can't analyze the notions of metaphysical or logical possibility and necessity; but I can sure formulate alternative axiomatizations of such notions. I can then compare and contrast such axiomatic systems and see what I learn. Thus were born the Lewis Systems, S1-S5, axiomatizing increasingly strong conceptions of necessity. Another 40 or so years went by before the purely axiomatic approach was properly systematized and rendered fit for human consumption. In current lore, a certain axiomatic system, K, is central. The standard presentation of K consists of infinitely many axioms plus one axiom scheme and two rules of inference... It may be, then, that to take epistemic/doxastic logics seriously, one must both be working from within that conceptualization of cognitive states according to which they are either essentially or importantly language involving and, further, conceive of the language(s) in question on the model of standard formal languages, as consisting, that is, of eternal sentences only. This could be taken as an argument to the effect that the proper home of epistemic/doxastic logic is theoretical computer science -- precisely the locus of its greatest current vitality.

Modern modal logic begins with the work of C.I. Lewis early on in the present century. We can think of Lewis thinking to himself as follows: Well, I can't analyze the notions of metaphysical or logical possibility and necessity; but I can sure formulate alternative axiomatizations of such notions. I can then compare and contrast such axiomatic systems and see what I learn. Thus were born the Lewis Systems, S1-S5, axiomatizing increasingly strong conceptions of necessity. Another 40 or so years went by before the purely axiomatic approach was properly systematized and rendered fit for human consumption. In current lore, a certain axiomatic system, K, is central. The standard presentation of K consists of infinitely many axioms plus one axiom scheme and two rules of inference... It may be, then, that to take epistemic/doxastic logics seriously, one must both be working from within that conceptualization of cognitive states according to which they are either essentially or importantly language involving and, further, conceive of the language(s) in question on the model of standard formal languages, as consisting, that is, of eternal sentences only. This could be taken as an argument to the effect that the proper home of epistemic/doxastic logic is theoretical computer science -- precisely the locus of its greatest current vitality.

Fuzzy logic, which is based on fuzzy sets theory introduced by Zadeh in 1965, provides a rich and meaningful addition to standard logic. The applications which may be generated from or adapted to fuzzy logic are wide-ranging and provide the opportunity for modeling under conditions which are imprecisely defined. In this article we develop a fuzzy model for assessing student groups' knowledge and skills. In this model the students' characteristics under assessment (knowledge of the subject matter, problem solving skills and analogical reasoning abilities) are represented as fuzzy subsets of a set of linguistic labels characterizing their performance, and the possibilities of all student profiles are calculated. In this way, a detailed quantitative/qualitative study of the students' group performance is obtained. The centroid method and the group's total possibilistic uncertainty are used as defuzzification methods in converting our fuzzy outputs to a crisp number. According to the centroid method, the coordinates of the center of gravity of the graph of the membership function involved provide a measure of the students' performance. Techniques of assessing the individual students' abilities are also studied and examples are presented to illustrate the use of our results in practice.

27

32 p. 28 cm

Open Answer Set Programming (OASP) is an undecidable framework for integrating ontologies and rules. Although several decidable fragments of OASP have been identified, few reasoning procedures exist. In this article, we provide a sound, complete, and terminating algorithm for satisfiability checking w.r.t. Forest Logic Programs (FoLPs), a fragment of OASP where rules have a tree shape and allow for inequality atoms and constants. The algorithm establishes a decidability result for FoLPs. Although believed to be decidable, so far only the decidability for two small subsets of FoLPs, local FoLPs and acyclic FoLPs, has been shown. We further introduce f-hybrid knowledge bases, a hybrid framework where \SHOQ{} knowledge bases and forest logic programs co-exist, and we show that reasoning with such knowledge bases can be reduced to reasoning with forest logic programs only. We note that f-hybrid knowledge bases do not require the usual (weakly) DL-safety of the rule component, providing thus a genuine alternative approach to current integration approaches of ontologies and rules.

Open Answer Set Programming (OASP) is an undecidable framework for integrating ontologies and rules. Although several decidable fragments of OASP have been identified, few reasoning procedures exist. In this article, we provide a sound, complete, and terminating algorithm for satisfiability checking w.r.t. Forest Logic Programs (FoLPs), a fragment of OASP where rules have a tree shape and allow for inequality atoms and constants. The algorithm establishes a decidability result for FoLPs. Although believed to be decidable, so far only the decidability for two small subsets of FoLPs, local FoLPs and acyclic FoLPs, has been shown. We further introduce f-hybrid knowledge bases, a hybrid framework where \SHOQ{} knowledge bases and forest logic programs co-exist, and we show that reasoning with such knowledge bases can be reduced to reasoning with forest logic programs only. We note that f-hybrid knowledge bases do not require the usual (weakly) DL-safety of the rule component, providing thus a genuine alternative approach to current integration approaches of ontologies and rules.

xii, 398 p

This paper is in the public domain in USA. Metadata comes from the CrossRef API, see full record in the source URL below.

This paper is in the public domain in USA. Metadata comes from the CrossRef API, see full record in the source URL below.

This paper is in the public domain in USA. Metadata comes from the CrossRef API, see full record in the source URL below.

This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

x p., 1 l., [13]-469 p. 19 cm

In this paper we introduce Epistemic Strategy Logic (ESL), an extension of Strategy Logic with modal operators for individual knowledge. This enhanced framework allows us to represent explicitly and to reason about the knowledge agents have of their own and other agents' strategies. We provide a semantics to ESL in terms of epistemic concurrent game models, and consider the corresponding model checking problem. We show that the complexity of model checking ESL is not worse than (non-epistemic) Strategy Logic

The concepts of event and anomaly are important building blocks for developing a situational picture of the observed environment. We here relate these concepts to the JDL fusion model and demonstrate the power of Markov Logic Networks (MLNs) for encoding uncertain knowledge and compute inferences according to observed evidence.

The concepts of event and anomaly are important building blocks for developing a situational picture of the observed environment. We here relate these concepts to the JDL fusion model and demonstrate the power of Markov Logic Networks (MLNs) for encoding uncertain knowledge and compute inferences according to observed evidence.

The concepts of event and anomaly are important building blocks for developing a situational picture of the observed environment. We here relate these concepts to the JDL fusion model and demonstrate the power of Markov Logic Networks (MLNs) for encoding uncertain knowledge and compute inferences according to observed evidence.

Progress in Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Extraction, Multi-agent Systems, Logic Programming, and Constraint Solving 10th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence, EPIA 2001 Porto, Portugal, December 17–20, 2001 Proceedings Author: Pavel Brazdil, Alípio Jorge Published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg ISBN: 978-3-540-43030-8 DOI: 10.1007/3-540-45329-6 Table of Contents: Agent Programming in Ciao Prolog Multi-relational Data Mining: A Perspective A Comparison of GLOWER and Other Machine Learning Methods for Investment Decision Making Parallel Implementation of Decision Tree Learning Algorithms Reducing Rankings of Classifiers by Eliminating Redundant Classifiers Non-parametric Nearest Neighbor with Local Adaptation Selection Restrictions Acquisition from Corpora Classification Rule Learning with APRIORI-C Proportional Membership in Fuzzy Clustering as a Model of Ideal Types Evolution of Cubic Spline Activation Functions for Artificial Neural Networks Multilingual Document Clustering, Topic Extraction and Data Transformations Sampling-Based Relative Landmarks: Systematically Test-Driving Algorithms before Choosing Recursive Adaptive ECOC models A Study on End-Cut Preference in Least Squares Regression Trees The Use of Domain Knowledge in Feature Construction for Financial Time Series Prediction Optimizing the Sharpe Ratio for a Rank Based Trading System Choice: The Key for Autonomy Dynamic Evaluation of Coordination Mechanisms for Autonomous Agents Evolving Multi-agent Viewpoints — An Architecture Enabling Agents to Update Their Knowledge and to Prefer

xx, 627 p. ; 23 cm

xx, 627 p. ; 23 cm

xx, 627 p. ; 23 cm

xx, 627 p. ; 23 cm

Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

In recent work, Stalnaker proposes a logical framework in which belief is realized as a weakened form of knowledge. Building on Stalnaker's core insights, and using frameworks developed in previous work by Bjorndahl and Baltag et al., we employ topological tools to refine and, we argue, improve on this analysis. The structure of topological subset spaces allows for a natural distinction between what is known and (roughly speaking) what is knowable; we argue that the foundational axioms of Stalnaker's system rely intuitively on both of these notions. More precisely, we argue that the plausibility of the principles Stalnaker proposes relating knowledge and belief relies on a subtle equivocation between an "evidence-in-hand" conception of knowledge and a weaker "evidence-out-there" notion of what could come to be known. Our analysis leads to a trimodal logic of knowledge, knowability, and belief interpreted in topological subset spaces in which belief is definable in terms of knowledge and knowability. We provide a sound and complete axiomatization for this logic as well as its uni-modal belief fragment. We then consider weaker logics that preserve suitable translations of Stalnaker's postulates, yet do not allow for any reduction of belief. We propose novel topological semantics for these irreducible notions of belief, generalizing our previous semantics, and provide sound and complete axiomatizations for the corresponding logics.

1Problems of Philosophy

By Bertrand Russell

The Problems of Philosophy is one of Bertrand Russell's attempts to create a brief and accessible guide to the problems of philosophy. Focusing on problems he believes will provoke positive and constructive discussion, Russell concentrates on knowledge rather than metaphysics.<br></br>Russell guides the reader through his famous distinction between "knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description" and introduces important theories of Plato, Aristotle, René Descartes, David Hume, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel and others to lay the foundation for philosophical inquiry by general readers and scholars alike. (Summary from Wikipedia)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 different recordings of <em>The Hour of Twilight</em> by George William Russell, published in "Collected Poems" in 1913. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of November 18th, 2007.

3Forgiveness (Russell)

By George William Russell

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of <em>Forgiveness</em> by George William Russell. This was the weekly poetry project for June 7th, 2009.

4Frozen Pirate

By William Clark Russell

Sailing adventure with storms, icebergs, shipwrecks, treasure, and the reawakening of a pirate frozen in suspended animation for nearly fifty years (Summary by P. Cunningham)

5Proposed Roads to Freedom

By Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, political activist and Nobel laureate. He led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 1900s and is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. In this book, written in 1918, he offers his assessment of three competing streams in the thought of the political left: Marxian socialism, anarchism and syndicalism.<br /> (Summary by Wikipedia/Carl Manchester)

We meet Miss Lucretia Lane as she is dressing for her marriage to Captain Francis Reynolds of the British Merchant Service. Though he loves her truly, she has severe misgivings. She goes through with the wedding in spite of this, but refuses to live with her new husband, and cannot be enticed or cajoled to do so. Then on the day the Captain is scheduled to ship out, she receives word that he has been gravely injured and his dying request is to see his wife. She flies to his side... and thus begins an adventure spanning eight years - love, loathing, shipwreck, love lost, and redemption. (Summary by P. Cunningham and Nadine Eckert-Boulet)

This is a collection of short stories of mystery and romance, set at sea, in the times of the great sea voyages.

8Analysis of Mind

By Bertrand Russell

A neat work on philosophy of mind by the 20th century analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell. (Summary by sidhu177)

9Marriage at Sea

By William Clark Russell

Herbert Barclay is desperately in love with Grace Bellassys, but a number of factors stand in the way of their happiness, the biggest of which is the person of Lady Amelia Roscoe, Grace's guardian. Lady Amelia has several objections to the union, one of which is the fact that Herbert is not a Papist, and to separate the two young people, she has sent Grace to school in France. The two decide to elope, but this is just the start of the adventure... - Summary by Carolin

10Last Entry

By William Clark Russell

This is a sea-faring novel set in 1837. A wealthy former seaman from London and his daughter, who is engaged to be married, set sail on his newly restored schooner, headed for the equator for the purpose of restoring his health. Also aboard are a captain and crew. Soon, distractions, diversions, discontent and much more occur. William Clark Russell (1844–1911) was an English writer best known for his nautical novels. ~ Lee Smalley

'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism' is a series of lectures by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) that touches on numerous topics, including the nature of propositions, the relations of propositions to facts and of different types of words to the varieties of things, what kinds of facts there are, existence, monism and pluralism, and aspects of philosophical logic and of reference. Guiding the lectures, at least according to Russell's headnote to his lectures, is Russell's intent to fully flesh out ideas he learned from his former pupil, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

Bertrand Russell gave the Lowell Lectures in March and April of 1914; these lectures produced 'Our Knowledge of the External World'. Russell attempts to analyze the relationship of the crude data of our senses to the notions of physics such as space, time, and matter. Russell takes his analysis to illustrate the method of logical analysis used to such wonderful effect by thinkers in the late nineteenth-century to the notions of continuity, infinity, and the infinitesimal. These analyses effected a new epoch of clarity in the philosophy of mathematics; Russell hopes that a similar new age of clarity can be effected in the rest of philosophy through logical analysis; here, he undertakes the first stages of this analysis in the philosophy of physics. Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind.

Bertrand Russell wrote 'Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy' while imprisoned for protesting Britain's involvement in World War I. Russell summarizes the significance of the momentous work of mathematicians in the late nineteenth-century. He further describes his own philosophy of mathematics, Logicism (the view that all mathematical truths are logical truths), and his earlier, influential work solving the paradoxes that plagued mathematical foundations, which crystallized after ten years of dogged effort into the co-authored (with Alfred North Whitehead), three-volume 'Principia Mathematica'. Russell emphasizes the importance of a doctrine of types, the truth of Logicism, and the clarity brought to the philosophy of mathematics by the method of logical analysis. (summary by Landon D. C. Elkind)

This anthology collects a number of fascinating strands of Bertrand Russell's thought. "Mathematics and the Metaphysicians" details the impact of the 1900 World Congress of Philosophers on Russell's development and the hope that new methods in mathematics could be applied to the solution of ancient philosophical problems. Many of the subsequent essays show the evolution of this hope as Russell worked on the foundations of mathematics and applied the new methods to the reconstruction of physical objects on the basis of sense-data, and the redefinition of matter and cause. (Landon D. C. Elkind)

15Problem of China

By Bertrand Russell

In 1920-21 Bertrand Russell lived and taught in Peking (Beijing), publishing this book on his return to England. In 1920 he had visited Bolshevik Russia, talked to Lenin, and was unimpressed by what he had seen. China, however, was another matter. Like many travelers, he often saw what he wanted to see, and after Europe’s Great War, he found many signs of hope in China. In that country, he was welcomed by the young intellectuals who saw him as a representative of modern and scientific thought. They, however, were trying to cast off much of the old tradition that they thought held China back, and they were often opposed to Russell’s urging that they hold on to much of their own tradition, which he saw as superior to that of Europe, particularly after the terrible slaughter of 1914-18 on the continent. His work is very much a product of its time, and today, almost a century later, many are still trying to explain China -- a very different China from Russell's -- to an outside world. (Nicholas Clifford)

16Political Ideals

By Bertrand Russell

This is a book by the famous 20th century British philosopher Bertrand Russell on Political Ideals. It was written during the course of World War 1 and contains a critique on the politico economic situation of then Europe. What is interesting is that some of his beliefs are still relevant today. (Summary by Sid)

William Clark Russell is well-known for his maritime stories, for which he could draw upon his own experiences as a sailor in the British Navy. This is one of the finest examples of his maritime ghost stories.<br></br>Everyone knows the story of the ghostly ship, the Flying Dutchman, which is cursed and doomed to sail the seven seas forever, bringing destruction to anyone crossing its path. Geoffrey Fenton, narrator of this story, is one of those unlucky persons who do cross this ship's path, and who even gets captured by it. When he finds himself on the famous Death Ship, the adventure of his life begins, including deadly storms, pirates, and a very particular beautiful damsel in distress. - Summary by Carolin

In this piece, Bertrand Russell offers an account of propositions. This essay has been widely regarded as a turning point in Russell's thought: fresh from his prison sentence, during which he read numerous works of psychology, he now rejects the existence of the unitary, lasting metaphysical subject and the act-object analysis of sensation. He here embraces the view advocated by American philosophers like William James, namely, neutral monism. This far-ranging essay includes a lengthy discussion of behaviorism and of the structure of facts, complete with an endorsement of negative facts and criticisms of attempts to avoid them. - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

This 1912 book remains among the most widely-used and well-written introductions to philosophy in English. It was aimed to be an accessible introduction to philosophy for the average shopkeeper in England in 1912. Despite its accessibility It has engaged scholarly philosophical commentators on a range of issues raised in the work. Above all it conveys in easy and witty manner the philosophical frame of mind to those that have never encountered it before. It was almost immediately, and remains today, a classic. <i>This recording is dedicated to Jill Evans, Esq.</i> (Landon D. C. Elkind)

George William Russell -- better known by his pen name "A.E." -- was an Irish writer, poet and mystic, a lifelong friend of William Butler Yeats, and an original member of Ireland's Theosophical Society. In a letter to a friend, penned several years before he died, he wrote: "I know no mechanism is going to solve the world's problems. Nothing will, except the spiritual life." This volume of poems contains his first published work and reflects on the mysteries of nature and the divine, of life and the universe. (Summary by Nemo)

This is a book of remarkable nautical ghost and horror stories written by William Clark Russell in 1893. The stories are for the most part set on ships and bring the reader on board for ghostly nights, wonderful sights, and strange occurrences. (Summary by Carolin)

22One Hundred Years In Yosemite: The Story Of A Great Park And Its Friends

By Carl Parcher Russell

This recording of the 1931 (1947 second edition) book about Yosemite National Park comprises the narrative text about the Park from its discovery by non-natives in the Indian War of 1851 to the mid-twentieth century. The printed book contains dozens of early photographs and drawings, as well as an extensive timeline and bibliography, which are not here recorded. The author (1894-1967) was an ecologist, historian, and administrator. He was an officer of the U.S. National Park Service for thirty four years, serving as the Chief Naturalist of Yosemite from 1923-1929 and later as Park Superintendent. - Summary by David Wales

This book records Bertrand Russell's impressions of the new regime after a 1920 visit to Russia following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, including his meetings with Lenin, Trostky, and Gorky. It includes a chapter that was authored by Dora Black, educational theorist and feminist author, and Russell's spouse. This chapter was unfortunately removed in the second edition, which was issued after Dora and Bertrand divorced. This recording is dedicated to my darling wife, Jill. Happy Hanukkah and Happy 2020! - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

24Frozen Pirate (version 2)

By William Clark Russell

Drawing on his own experience as a merchant seaman, Russell gives us the fictionalized narrative of one Paul Rodney who found an icebound vessel in the South Atlantic, while captaining a pirate ship. Russell has been hailed as the pre-eminent English writer of his ilk, compared to such American writers as Melville and Dana. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

25My Danish Sweetheart Volume 1

By William Clark Russell

Young Hugh Tregarthen has grown up in a seafaring Cornish family, but is not born to follow the family tradition. Against his mother's wishes, he is coxswain of a lifeboat -- an important job along the treacherous coastline, which makes his mother proud, despite her misgivings. One morning, as he sets out for his boat Janet, invalid Mrs. Tregarthen warns her son of an ominous dream she had the previous night. He laughs it off... but sometimes, dreams come true. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Six out of seven essays appearing here were reprinted from other publications; indeed, this 1910 collection went out of print, so that two of the essays occurring here were reprinted in Russell's 1917 "Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays". Nonetheless, this essay records Russell's thinking at a critical juncture, just before the publication of Volume I of the co-authored "Principia Mathematica" and just after the passing of the American pragmatist, William James. These essays record Russell's reactions to pragmatism and its theory of truth, as well as the ethical aspects of philosophy suitable for co-existing alongside the new logical method in philosophy, announced subsequently in the 1914 "Our Knowledge of the External World: as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy". - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind