Papers by Kirk Kanzelberger
Evil is really only a privation." This philosophical commonplace reflects an ancient solution to ... more Evil is really only a privation." This philosophical commonplace reflects an ancient solution to the problem of theodicy in one of its dimensions: is evil of such a nature that it must have God as its author? Stated in this particular way, it also reflects the commonplace identification of the real with natural being-the realm of what exists independently of human thought and perspectives-as opposed to all that is termed, by comparison, "merely subjective" and "unreal". If we stick with this way of construing the meaning of "reality", then by the excellent arguments of the tradition we are also stuck with defending the sufficiency of privation as a response to what evil "really is".
A highly-efficient ANSI-C facility is described for intelligently comparing a query string with a... more A highly-efficient ANSI-C facility is described for intelligently comparing a query string with a series of database strings. The bipartite weighted matching approach taken tolerates ordering violations that are problematic for simple automaton or string edit distance methods---yet common in practice. The method is character and polygraph based and does not require that words are properly formed in a query. Database characters are processed at a rate of approximately 2.5 million per second using a 200MHz Pentium Pro processor. A subroutine-level API is described along with an simple executable utility supporting both command-line and Web interfaces. An optimized Web interface is also reported consisting of a daemon that preloads multiple databases, and a corresponding CGI stub. The daemon may be initiated manually or via inetd. Keywords: String Comparison/Similarity, Text/Database Search/Retrieval, Bipartite Matching/Assignment, Edit Distance. Both authors are with the NEC Research ...
We report an efficient and highly portable ANSI C implementation of the Buss-Yianilos minimum-cos... more We report an efficient and highly portable ANSI C implementation of the Buss-Yianilos minimum-cost matching algorithm for quasi-convex tours. A generic O(log n) time implementation of the required\Omega predicate is included, resulting in worst-case O(n log n) runtime for arbitrary cost functions. A constant-time\Omega is provided for two special cases: the circle under Euclidean distance, and the real line where cost is defined as the square root of interpoint distance. In both of these settings, runtime is then O(n). Code is also provided for circular tours with cost defined as the square root of angular distance (arclength). In this case, the generic\Omega computation is employed. The test programs generate pseudorandom node patterns. To ensure correctness, a straightforward O(n 3 ) dynamic programming solution may be optionally enabled, and the test programs will compare its result with that of the BussYianilos algorithm. As an additional option, the test programs produce PostSc...
International Philosophical Quarterly
A highly-efficient ANSI-C facility is described for intelligently comparinga query string with a ... more A highly-efficient ANSI-C facility is described for intelligently comparinga query string with a series of database strings. The bipartiteweighted matching approach taken tolerates ordering violations that areproblematic for simple automaton or string edit distance methods---yetcommon in practice. The method is character and polygraph basedand does not require that words are properly formed in a query.Database characters are processed at a
... Implementation1 Samuel R. Buss, University of California, San Diego Kirk G. Kanzelberger, NEC... more ... Implementation1 Samuel R. Buss, University of California, San Diego Kirk G. Kanzelberger, NEC Research Institute David Robinson, University of California, San Diego Peter N. Yianilos, NEC Research Institute April 4, 1996 Abstract ... xñ is said to beli ne -like if starting from ...
Reality, 2020
“Evil is really only a privation.” This philosophical commonplace reflects an ancient solution to... more “Evil is really only a privation.” This philosophical commonplace reflects an ancient solution to the problem of theodicy in one of its dimensions: is evil of such a nature that it must have God as its author? Stated in this particular way, it also reflects the commonplace identification of the real with natural being—the realm of what exists independently of human thought and perspectives—as opposed to all that is termed, by comparison, “merely subjective” and “unreal”. If we stick with this way of construing the meaning of “reality”, then by the excellent arguments of the tradition we are also stuck with defending the sufficiency of privation as a response to what evil “really is”.
In this article, we argue against both ways of being stuck. We argue, first, that a one-sided focus upon the being of nature blocks an adequate understanding of the world we actually live in: the semiotically constituted lifeworld that is the proper locus of human realities, including moral evil. We argue, second, that the positivity of moral evil consists not only, nor even primarily, in the positivity of “action” as such, but in structures of objectivity engendered by creative reason that oppose the due end, and that involve a specific genus of pure object which we call a mystical daydream. Like any objects, these objects are communicable and formative in relation to the lifeworld, within which they in turn engender further interpretants for both those who do and those who suffer evil, thanks to the causality of signs.
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Papers by Kirk Kanzelberger
In this article, we argue against both ways of being stuck. We argue, first, that a one-sided focus upon the being of nature blocks an adequate understanding of the world we actually live in: the semiotically constituted lifeworld that is the proper locus of human realities, including moral evil. We argue, second, that the positivity of moral evil consists not only, nor even primarily, in the positivity of “action” as such, but in structures of objectivity engendered by creative reason that oppose the due end, and that involve a specific genus of pure object which we call a mystical daydream. Like any objects, these objects are communicable and formative in relation to the lifeworld, within which they in turn engender further interpretants for both those who do and those who suffer evil, thanks to the causality of signs.
In this article, we argue against both ways of being stuck. We argue, first, that a one-sided focus upon the being of nature blocks an adequate understanding of the world we actually live in: the semiotically constituted lifeworld that is the proper locus of human realities, including moral evil. We argue, second, that the positivity of moral evil consists not only, nor even primarily, in the positivity of “action” as such, but in structures of objectivity engendered by creative reason that oppose the due end, and that involve a specific genus of pure object which we call a mystical daydream. Like any objects, these objects are communicable and formative in relation to the lifeworld, within which they in turn engender further interpretants for both those who do and those who suffer evil, thanks to the causality of signs.