One of the principal challenges to human survival will be for human beings, embedded in a plurality of cultural contexts, to engage with and learn from one another respectfully in the continuing task of creating a more liveable world. I argue here that theoretical psychology can contribute to setting some of the terms for this effort through the kind of conception it advances of the person as agent. I discuss broadly two philosophical perspectives toward human agency which have become prominent (...) in psychology in the last few decades, the humanistic and the hermeneutic. I argue that these two different frameworks make complementary contributions to the project of understanding ourselves and furthering the development of our humanity. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

Proposes that to the extent that psychotherapy allows the individual to exercise greater freedom in his or her life it does so through enhancing psychological agency. The conceptions of free will and of agency used here are influenced strongly by J. F. Rychlak's discussion of the human capacity for "dialectical" thinking. The author discusses these conceptions of agency in terms of some of R. Schafer's recent ideas regarding psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A. H. Jenkins further notes that this conception of individuality is (...) contextually embedded and thus is fully compatible with the idea of a person devoted to others in mutually gratifying relationships and committed to self-definition through participation in community life. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

Reviews the book Time and psychological explanation by Brent D. Slife . In this book Prof. Slife has taken on the task of showing how the Western conception of time is a construct whose use in psychology is in need of just such a review. The object of Slife's critique is the modern Western tradition which takes time to be an objective and linear entity. This perspective, of course, derives from the work and thinking of Sir Isaac Newton, and it (...) is an orientation which has been fundamental to the development of Western science and culture since the period of the Enlightenment. Prof. Slife argues that the Newtonian time paradigm rests on five somewhat overlapping conceptual elements which are basic to traditional scientific explanation. These are the notions of "objectivity," "continuity," "linearity," "universality," and "reductionism." Some of these characteristics can be seen to be features of the way Newton envisioned time itself and some are aspects of events to be accounted for, because they exist in absolute time. In sum Prof. Slife has made a philosophically literate case for the need to analyze the limiting effects of Newtonian notions of time on psychology's theory and practice. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

Within current debates about the future impact of Artificial Intelligence on human society, roughly three different perspectives can be recognised: the technology-centric perspective, claiming that AI will soon outperform humankind in all areas, and that the primary threat for humankind is superintelligence; the human-centric perspective, claiming that humans will always remain superior to AI when it comes to social and societal aspects, and that the main threat of AI is that humankind’s social nature is overlooked in technological designs; and the (...) collective intelligence-centric perspective, claiming that true intelligence lies in the collective of intelligent agents, both human and artificial, and that the main threat for humankind is that technological designs create problems at the collective, systemic level that are hard to oversee and control. The current paper offers the following contributions: a clear description for each of the three perspectives, along with their history and background; an analysis and interpretation of current applications of AI in human society according to each of the three perspectives, thereby disentangling miscommunication in the debate concerning threats of AI; and a new integrated and comprehensive research design framework that addresses all aspects of the above three perspectives, and includes principles that support developers to reflect and anticipate upon potential effects of AI in society. (shrink)

Il presente contributo mira a gettare luce sulla figura ebraica dello Schlemihl, per come questa è venuta ad assumere, nei discorsi di Rahel Varnhagen, Hannah Arendt e Lea Ritter Santini, la funzione extra-letteraria di dispositivo di riconoscimento e schema esistenziale. È nella triangolazione dei discorsi e delle vite di queste tre intellettuali appartenenti, ognuna a suo modo, alla cultura tedesca, che la figura dello Schlemihl ha esemplarmente dispiegato la sua forza genetica, come metafora di un destino in cui, fin dal (...) momento del suo apparire letterario nella società dei salotti berlinesi di primo Ottocento grazie ad Adelbert von Chamisso, hanno riconosciuto se stesse coloro che hanno dovuto ritagliare la propria vita sul fondamento dello sradicamento e di una esclusione primigenia. In quella che potrebbe essere compresa come una vera e propria genealogia, il riferirsi allo Schlemihl di Rahel Varnhagen, Hannah Arendt e Lea Ritter Santini restituisce il senso comune di uno sfaccettato subire e agire lo sradicamento, entro la cornice di un discorso prismatico – sotto forma di lettere, saggi e poesie – che nel nutrirsi di vita e pensiero ha saputo raccontare la marginalità nelle sue forme differenti e contigue. (shrink)

In this text, we intend to develop the elements that make up the criticism that Hannah Arendt presents at the end of the interview granted to the German writer Adelbert Reif in the summer of 1970 to the concept of state and modern government, and that are not developed by Arendt at that moment. To this end, we will initially expose Arendt's criticism of the emptying of public space and the attempt to reduce political participation to the electoral process. (...) To counteract these problems inherent to the modern concept of state and government, Hannah Arendt mentions, even slightly, the possibility of a council-state. However, in this text Arendt does not explore these concepts and experiences, but only relates them to the need for transformation of the modern concept of state and government, i.e., it allows the perception of the actuality of her previous reflection. In view of this, the hypothesis explored in this text is that this 1970 interview serves as a reading key to understand the relevance and actuality of the parallel between parties x council developed by the author in On Revolution in 1963 and adds a new element, namely, the theme of the need to institutionalize a forgotten experience: the councils. (shrink)

La lumière et l’ombre constituent un couple conceptuel qui, également dans la cadre de la philosophie, induit de nombreuses allusions . La lumière se présente, historiquement parlant, comme un paradigme des lumières . Typiquement dans ce paradigme apparaît l’hésitation dans le tournant des lumières au romantisme : l’ombre se voit revalorisée dans le sillage de la transformation romantique du côté sombre de l’existence humaine. Sur l’exemple de la nouvelle L’histoire merveilleuse de Peter Schlemihl d’Adelbert von Chamisso, il est possible (...) d’illustrer de façon prégnante ce tournant de la lumière vers l’ombre. Cet article présente une interprétation philosophique de l’aliénation de l’ombre en tant que perte d’identité, comme illustré dans le conte. Après cette interprétation, suivra une tentative de déterminer la structure du rapport entre le corps et l’ombre comme lien avec l’identité. En aucun cas l’ombre ne doit être réduite à un simple phénomène secondaire, mais doit être observée en tant qu’élément important de la constellation formant l’identité. . Bien que son apparition soit caractérisée par l’éphémère, l’ombre fait essentiellement/proprement partie de l’identité du corps, le corps étant défini justement par le fait qu’il produit l’ombre lorsqu’il est éclairé. Le rapport de la lumière, du corps et de l’ombre se rapproche par conséquent de l’exemplification d’un modèle alternatif de l’identité, d’après quoi une simple caractéristique potentielle devient indispensable dans une occasion particulière . Avec le concept d’identité occasionnelle, il est possible de corriger la rigide notion ontologique de l’identité. (shrink)

Licht und Schatten bilden ein Begriffspaar, welches auch innerhalb der Philosophie Anlass zu vielen Anspielungen gegeben hat . Licht gilt, geschichtlich gesehen, als Paradigma der Aufklärung . Bezeichnenderweise gerät dieses Paradigma am Übergang vom Zeitalter der Aufklärung zur Romantik ins Wanken: Es kommt zu einer Aufwertung des Schattens im Zuge der romantischen Verklärung der dunklen Seiten der menschlichen Existenz. Am Beispiel von Adelbert von Chamissos Novelle Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte lässt sich diese Abwendung vom Licht zum Schatten prägnant illustrieren. (...) Im vorliegenden Text soll eine philosophische Interpretation des in ihr geschilderten Schattenraubs als Identitätsverlust gegeben werden. Im Anschluss an diese Interpretation soll eine Strukturbestimmung des Verhältnisses von Körper und Schatten als Identitätsbeziehung versucht werden. Keineswegs darf der Schatten zur bloßen Begleiterscheinung degradiert werden, sondern muss als wesentliches Element einer identitätsbildenden Konstellation angesehen werden . Obwohl seine Erscheinung nur flüchtigen Charakter hat, gehört der Schatten wesentlich zur Identität des Körpers, da sich ein Körper gerade dadurch definieren lässt, dass er bei Beleuchtung Schatten wirft. Das Licht-Körper-Schatten-Verhältnis kann daher zur Exemplifizierung eines alternativen Identitätsmodells herangezogen werden, demzufolge ein bloß potentielles Merkmal eines Gegenstandes bei einer bestimmten Gelegenheit zu einem notwendigen wird. Mit dem Konzept einer okkasionellen Identität lässt sich ein ontologisch rigides Identitätsverständnis korrigieren. (shrink)

Light and shadow create a conceptual pair which gives rise to a number of allusions in philosophy . Historically speaking, light is the paradigm of the Enlightenment . Significantly, in this paradigm certain vacillations appeared at the transition from the Age of Enlightenment to Romanticism: an appreciation of the shadow in the wake of the Romantic idealization of the dark side of human existence rises. Using the example of Adelbert von Chamisso’s work Peter Schlemihl’s Remarkable Story, the point of (...) turn from light to shadow can be fruitfully illustrated. This paper is a philosophical interpretation of the shadow alienation as loss of identity. Following this interpretation an attempt to define the structure of relationship between body and shadow as an identity relationship will be presented. By no means should shadow be degraded to a mere concomitant, it must be considered as an essential element of an identity-forming constellation . Although its appearance is characterised by short duration, the shadow belongs to the essential identity of the body, given that the body is defined exactly by the fact that it casts shadows when illuminated. The reciprocity of the light, the body and the shadow is therefore used to exemplify an alternative identity model, according to which a potential feature of an object on a particular occasion becomes necessary. With the concept of occasional identity it becomes possible to correct an ontologically rigid understanding of identity. (shrink)