Noesis: A Search Engine and Index for Academic Philosophy Across Disciplines

FAIN: FX-50044-08

Anthony F. Beavers
University of Evansville (Evansville, IN 47722-1000)

Noesis: Philosophical Research Online is an index and limited area search engine dedicated to open access, academic philosophy on the Internet. By limiting its search scope, Noesis effectively reduces search returns to reliable, academic content managed collectively by professional philosophers. Unlike many other resources in philosophy, Noesis overcomes traditional divisions that isolate the various conversations within the discipline and allows ideas to cross-fertilize. It thereby encourages the growth and development of knowledge within the profession. By sharing philosophical information in an organized way with potentially millions of users worldwide, Noesis also helps the profession bring philosophy to a broader audience. The purpose of this proposal is to ask the NEH for the means to develop this project further by allowing me to travel regularly from the University of Evansville to Indiana University, where digital resources are readily available.

Associated Products

Noesis and the Encyclopedic Internet Vision. (Article)
Title: Noesis and the Encyclopedic Internet Vision.
Author: Anthony F. Beavers
Abstract: Noesis is an Internet search engine dedicated to mapping the profession of philosophy online. In this paper, I recount the history of the project’s development since 1998 and discuss the role it may play in representing philosophy optimally, adequately, fairly, and accessibly. Unlike many other representations of philosophy, Noesis is dynamic in the sense that it constantly changes and inclusive in the sense that it lets the profession speak for itself about what philosophy is, how it is practiced, and why it is important. In this paper, I explain how Noesis is dynamic and inclusive. I close by suggesting why such a communitarian representation of the profession is both timely and necessary.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://evansville.academia.edu/AnthonyBeavers/Papers/229289/Noesis_and_the_Encyclopedic_Internet_Vision
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Noesis and the Encyclopedic Internet Vision
Publisher: Synthese 182.2 (2011): 315-333.

Typicality Effects and Resilience in Evolving Dynamic Networks (Article)
Title: Typicality Effects and Resilience in Evolving Dynamic Networks
Author: Anthony F. Beavers
Abstract: This paper is part of a larger project to determine how to build agent-based cognitive models capable of initial associative intelligence. Our method here is to take McClelland’s 1981 “Jets and Sharks” dataset and rebuild it using a nonlinear dynamic system with an eye toward determining which parameters are necessary to govern the interactivity of agents in a multi-agent cognitive system. A few number of parameters are suggested concerning diffusion and infusion values, which are basically elementary forms of infor- mation entropy, and multi-dimensional overlap from properties to objects and then from objects back to the properties that define them. While no agent-based model is presented, the success of the dynamic systems that are presented here suggest strong starting points for further research in building cognitive complex adaptive systems.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://evansville.academia.edu/AnthonyBeavers/Papers/380839/Typicality_Effects_and_Resilience_in_Evolving_Dynamic_Networks
Format: Other
Periodical Title: FS-10-03
Publisher: The Association for the Advancement of Artifical Intelligence Press

Information-Theoretic Teleodynamics in Natural and Artificial Systems (Article)
Title: Information-Theoretic Teleodynamics in Natural and Artificial Systems
Author: Anthony F. Beavers and Christopher D. Harrison
Abstract: In this paper, we employ the method of computational philosophy, the use of computational techniques to aid in the discovery of philosophical insights that might not be easily discovered otherwise, to show that it is not unreasonable to suggest 1) that there are genuine teleological causes in nature, 2) that such causes can be computed from Newtonian (“push”) causation, provided that other architectural and environmental conditions are met, and 3) that it is possible to do so without recourse to semantics by taking an information-theoretic approach to measuring information flow in a system.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://evansville.academia.edu/AnthonyBeavers/Papers/983655/Information-Theoretic_Teleodynamics_in_Natural_and_Artificial_Systems
Format: Other
Periodical Title: In A Computable Universe: Understanding Computation & Exploring Nature as Computation
Publisher: World Scientific

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