With regard to current debates on the ethical implementation of AI, especially two demands are linked: the call for explainability and for ultimate human responsibility. In the medical field, both are condensed into the role of one person: It is the physician to whom AI output should be explainable and who should thus bear ultimate responsibility for diagnostic or treatment decisions that are based on such AI output. In this article, we argue that a black box AI indeed creates a (...) rationally irresolvable epistemic situation for the physician involved. Specifically, strange errors that are occasionally made by AI sometimes detach its output from human reasoning. Within this article it is further argued that such an epistemic situation is problematic in the context of ultimate human responsibility. Since said strange errors limit the promises of explainability and the concept of explainability frequently appears irrelevant or insignificant when applied to a diverse set of medical applications, we deem it worthwhile to reconsider the call for ultimate human responsibility. (shrink)

In multiple parts of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant describes how time is dependent on space – which is the fundament of his distinction between inner and outer sense. However, he does not provide us with an argument for this dependency. In this article, two reasons for this dependency thesis are introduced. The first one aims at providing a conceptual link between time and space but runs into conflict with the Transcendental Aesthetic. The second one shifts our focus from (...) the conceptual level to a priori possible objects of experience: Time cannot provide such objects, which are different from our subjective states due to its one-dimensionality. Only space makes such objects possible. (shrink)

Various theories on personal goal striving rely on the assumption that failure raises doubts about the goal. Yet, empirical evidence for an association between objective failure experiences and doubts about personal long-term goals is still missing. In a longitudinal field study, applicants for a job as a police trainee (n = 172, Mage = 25.15, 55 females and 117 males) were accompanied across three measurement times over a period of five months. We investigated the effects of failure and initial expectation (...) of success (in the standardized selection process) on doubts regarding the superordinate goal of becoming a police officer. As hypothesized, both failure and low initial expectation of success as well as their interaction led to increased goal-related doubts over time. The findings provide first empirical evidence for the role of failure in the emergence of goal-related doubts in personal long-term goals and, therefore, the disengagement process as it is hypothesized in various theories on goal striving and life-span development. (shrink)

The psychopathological phenomenon of delusions of influence comprises variable disturbances of the self-environment-border leading to the feeling of external influence on thoughts, feelings, impulses or behaviors. Delusions of influence are a hallmark in psychotic illness, but nevertheless, attenuated forms can also appear in healthy individuals. Here we present a newly developed paradigm to induce and assess feelings of external influence during instructed imaginations in healthy individuals. In the current study, we asked 60 healthy individuals to visually imagine different objects. To (...) induce feelings of external influence, we applied one of three different physical setups, and informed the participants whether or not an external influence was attempted during the respective trial. The physical setup as well as the information given to the participants alone were able to modulate the feeling of external influence in all three interventions. The impact of information significantly exceeded the impact of the physical setup on the ratings of experienced external influence. Moreover, the response latency correlated with the estimated feeling of external influence. Additional analyses addressed the influence of the emotional content of imagined objects and examined the intensity and emotional valence of the imaginations. Further supplemental analyses correlated external influence estimation of the participants with other psychopathological measures. In conclusion, this study endorses a quantitative model of psychopathological characteristics, in this case feelings of external influence that can be induced by external cues. (shrink)

How much freedom of choice agents have in a society depends on two things: on the relevant alternatives they face, and on their capabilities to judge and make use of these alternatives. In this paper a third condition of freedom of choice is put on the list: relations. Social life very much depends upon the reliable fulfilment of expectations in relations. These expectations direct choice and may restrict or increase freedom. It is argued that not to be in relations of (...) unjustified domination is a further condition of freedom for agents in a society. (shrink)

‚DiskriminierungDiskriminierung‘ istReligionund Diskriminierung meistens synonym mit ‚negativer Diskriminierung‘, einem sozialen Prozess der BenachteiligungBenachteiligung, soziale, Ablehnung und Ausgrenzung von Angehörigen bestimmter Gruppen aus attraktiven sozialen Positionen. Die am Prozess Beteiligten sehen dabei implizit oder explizit Menschen mit einem bestimmten Merkmal als sozial unter anderen stehend an. Dies sind Merkmale wie Religion, Herkunft, sexuelle Orientierung, Geschlecht, langerfristige körperliche, seelische, geistige oder Sinnesbeeinträchtigungen, die für die persönliche Identität von Menschen relevant sind.

RassismusRassismusund SexismusSexismus sind komplexe, wenn nicht sogar diffuse soziale Phänomene. Als rassistisch oder sexistisch werden bestimmte natürliche und rechtliche Personen, deren Überzeugungen, Werteinstellungen, einzelne Handlungen oder Handlungsmuster, verbreitete soziale Praktiken und gesellschaftliche Institutionen gekennzeichnet, aber auch Gegenstände wie Bilder und sprachliche Gebilde – Ausdrücke, Sätze, Texte. Mit beiden Begriffen wird immer etwas moralisch Verwerfliches bezeichnet. Das Kernübel in Fällen von Rassismus und Sexismus ist schwer genau dingfest zu machen. Extensional sind sie gekennzeichnet durch eine nicht gerechtfertigte Verletzung des gleichen moralischen (...) Status durch Geringschätzung oder Geringerschätzung von Personen aufgrund ihrer Zuordnung zu einer bestimmten Herkunft respektive zum weiblichen Geschlecht. (shrink)

Man sollte verzeihen, gegeben bestimmte Bedingungen. Gleichzeitig ist es dem eigenen Gutdünken überlassen, ob man verzeiht. Passt das zusammen? Nein und ja. Wenn man nur einen weiten Begriff von Verzeihen für adäquat hält, dann passt es nicht zusammen. Dann gehört zum Verzeihen begrifflich dazu, das alles wieder gut ist im Zusammenleben. Wenn man einen engen Begriff von Verzeihen davon unterscheidet und ihn für angemessen hält, dann passt es zusammen. Dann kann man verzeihen, ohne dass danach die persönliche Beziehung wieder so (...) ist wie vorher. Man kann verzeihen, ohne sich zu versöhnen. Ersteres fällt in den Bereich des moralischen Sollens, letzteres in das persönliche Gutdünken. Ich plädiere dafür, unsere Praxis des Verzeihens so aufzufassen, dass darin dieser Unterschied zwischen Verzeihen in einem weiteren Sinne und Verzeihen in einem engeren Sinne gemacht wird. (shrink)