This Article takes the perspective of law and philosophy, integrating insights from computer science. First, I will argue that in the era of big data analytics we need an understanding of privacy that is capable of protecting what is uncountable, incalculable or incomputable about individual persons. To instigate this new dimension of the right to privacy, I expand previous work on the relational nature of privacy, and the productive indeterminacy of human identity it implies, into an ecological understanding of privacy, (...) taking into account the technological environment that mediates the constitution of human identity. Second, I will investigate how machine learning actually works, detecting a series of design choices that inform the accuracy of the outcome, each entailing trade-offs that determine the relevance, validity and reliability of the algorithm’s accuracy for real life problems. I argue that incomputability does not call for a rejection of machine learning per se but calls for a research design that enables those who will be affected by the algorithms to become involved and to learn how machines learn — resulting in a better understanding of their potential and limitations. A better understanding of the limitations that are inherent in machine learning will deflate some of the eschatological expectations, and provide for better decision-making about whether and if so how to implement machine learning in specific domains or contexts. I will highlight how a reliable research design aligns with purpose limitation as core to its methodological integrity. This Article, then, advocates a practice of “agonistic machine learning” that will contribute to responsible decisions about the integration of data-driven applications into our environments while simultaneously bringing them under the Rule of Law. This should also provide the best means to achieve effective protection against overdetermination of individuals by machine inferences. (shrink)

The essays in Fanon and the Decolonization of Philosophy all trace different aspects of the mutually supporting histories of philosophical thought and colonial politics in order to suggest ways that we might decolonize our thinking. From psychology to education, to economic and legal structures, the contributors interrogate the interrelation of colonization and philosophy in order to articulate a Fanon-inspired vision of social justice. This project is endorsed by his daughter, Mireille Fanon-Mendès France, in the book's preface.

. Three logical squares of predication or quantification, which one can even extend to logical hexagons, will be presented and analyzed. All three squares are based on ideas of the non-traditional theory of predication developed by Sinowjew and Wessel. The authors also designed a non-traditional theory of quantification. It will be shown that this theory is superfluous, since it is based on an obscure difference between two kinds of quantification and one pays a high price for differentiating in this way: (...) losing the definability between the existence- and all-quantifier. Therefore, a combination of non-traditional predication and classical quantification is preferred here. (shrink)

Nursing migration: global treasure hunt or disaster‐in‐the‐making?International nurse migration — moving from one country to another in the search of employment — is the focus of this article. The majority of member states of the World Health Organization report a shortage, maldistribution and misutilisation of nurses. International recruitment has been seen as a solution. The negative effects of international migration on the ‘supplier’ countries may be recognised today but are not effectively addressed.Nurse migration is motivated by the search for professional (...) development, better quality of life and personal safety. Pay and learning opportunities continue to be the most frequently reported incentives for nurse migration, especially by nurses from less‐developed countries. Career opportunities were considered key incentives for nurses emigrating from high‐income countries. Language was reported to be a significant barrier. The positive global economic/social/professional development resulting from international migration needs to be weighed against a substantial ‘brain and skills drain’ experienced by supplier countries. The vulnerable status of migrant nurses is also of concern in certain cases. The focus on short‐term solutions as opposed to resolving the problem of a worldwide shortage of nurses causes great concern. Recent initiatives attempt to curb or channel international recruitment. The delicate balance between recognising the right of individual nurses to migrate and a collective concern for the health of a nation’s population must be achieved. (shrink)

The implementation of inclusive policies is largely dependent on teachers´ willingness to accommodate students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream classrooms, which is affected by their perceived competence and attitudes. This study investigated attitudes of pre- and in-service teachers toward students with two types of SEN: challenging behavior and learning difficulties. The three components of attitude (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) were assessed using indirect and direct measures. Results revealed that teachers held negative implicit attitudes toward challenging behavior and learning (...) difficulties, however implicit attitudes did not vary as a function of the type of SEN. Ratings of the stereotypical dimensions warmth and competence and overall ratings of scholastic achievement were affected by professional status and type of SEN. Professional status, implicit attitudes and stereotypical knowledge together explained 52 and 43% of the variance in teachers´ ratings of academic proficiency for students with challenging behavior and learning difficulties, respectively. Results are interpreted within the theoretical framework and implications for teacher training are discussed. (shrink)

In this contribution, I will argue that the image of a balance is often used to defend the idea of a trade-off. To understand the drawbacks of this line of thought, I will explore the relationship between online security technologies and fundamental rights, notably privacy, nondiscrimination, freedom of speech and due process. After discriminating between three types of online security technologies, I will trace the reconfiguration of the notion of privacy in the era of smart environments. This will lead to (...) an inquiry into the metaphor of the scale, building on the triple test regarding the justification of the limitation of fundamental rights such as privacy. The conclusion will be that in the case of a trade-off, infringing measures will have to be balanced by effective safeguards. No trade-off without balance. (shrink)

Que nous apprend la vie publique urbaine de notre culture morale et politique? Comment perçoit-on les autres, et comment définit-on, dans l'espace limité des rencontres auxquelles nous expose le côtoiement urbain le plus routinier, le périmètre de ce que l'on doit à autrui, ce que l'on peut en attendre, en craindre ou en exiger? Des métamorphoses de la mendicité à la politisation du phénomène de «harcèlement de rue», l'étude des «relations en public» chère au sociologue américain Erving Goffman est ici (...) prolongée, pour analyser la façon dont les formes ordinaires de la coexistence urbaine participent à la fabrique de nos cultures démocratiques. L'ethnographie de longue durée menée par Carole Gayet-Viaud montre, au fil des séquences d'enquête, mêlant observations des espaces publics urbains (rues, transports, jardins, terrasses de café, etc.) et entretiens relatifs à ces expériences, le travail normatif à l'œuvre dans ces échanges. La définition des choses dues entre inconnus, telles que la vie publique les donne à voir, dessine ainsi une civilité irréductible à un corpus de règles qu'il ne s'agirait que d'appliquer. C'est, bien plutôt, une activité permanente de réglage des conduites, qui inscrit, dans des pratiques d'apparence anodine, aux frontières des sphères morale et politique, une définition située des exigences de la vie commune, des égards qui articulent un sens du juste et du convenable, et tentent de les faire coïncider."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The focus of this book is on the epistemological and hermeneutic implications of data science and artificial intelligence for democracy and the Rule of Law. How do the normative effects of automated decision systems or the interventions of robotic fellow 'beings' compare to the legal effect of written and unwritten law? To investigate these questions the book brings together two disciplinary perspectives rarely combined within the framework of one volume. One starts from the perspective of 'code and law' and the (...) other develops from the domain of 'law and literature'. Integrating original analyses of relevant novels or films, the authors discuss how computational technologies challenge traditional forms of legal thought and affect the regulation of human behavior. Thus, pertinent questions are raised about the theoretical assumptions underlying both scientific and legal practice. (shrink)

Who Needs Stories if You Can Get the Data? ISPs in the Era of Big Number Crunching Content Type Journal Article Category Special Issue Pages 371-390 DOI 10.1007/s13347-011-0041-8 Authors Mireille Hildebrandt, Institute of Computer and Information Sciences (ICIS), Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands Journal Philosophy & Technology Online ISSN 2210-5441 Print ISSN 2210-5433 Journal Volume Volume 24 Journal Issue Volume 24, Number 4.

By taking seriously the idea that democracy is a way of life, a pragmatist approach to democracy invites us to reconsider how manners and the political realm of free thought may be related. The present contribution argues that civil interactions are part of the experience of citizenship and represent one of the ways through which political principles can come to life. Civility is therefore described as an activity rather than a set of rules, the role of which in democratic life (...) has been often underestimated. In civil interactions, people struggle and hesitate, and even fight to establish conditions of respect, trust, solidarity, or authority. They practically define the bond between people who have nothing more in common than living in the same society. Far from being a mere mechanical or conservative repetition of inherited habits, civil interactions, when studied closely, exhibit the constant effort people make to promote what they care about. Civility should therefore be considered as an activity the difficulties associated with which aim at embodying through sociability, the political link between citizens. Hospitality to difference, helpfulness, attention to others, even quarrels over what is fair, discussions and reflections about the relevance of the categories through which people perceive one another, have to be analysed in this perspective, as effective parts of the activity of caring for the common world. (shrink)

Euthanasia remains controversial in Canada and an issue of debate among physicians. Most studies have explored the opinion of health professionals regarding its legalization, but have not investigated their intentions when faced with performing euthanasia. These studies are also considered atheoretical. The purposes of the present study were to fill this gap in the literature by identifying the psychosocial determinants of physicians’ intention to practice euthanasia in palliative care and verifying whether respecting the patient’s autonomy is important for physicians.

Both corporate and global governance seem to demand increasingly sophisticated means for identification. Supposedly justified by an appeal to security threats, fraud and abuse, citizens are screened, located, detected and their data stored, aggregated and analysed. At the same time potential customers are profiled to detect their habits and preferences in order to provide for targeted services. Both industry and the European Commission are investing huge sums of money into what they call Ambient Intelligence and the creation of an ‘Internet (...) of Things’. Such intelligent networked environments will entirely depend on real time monitoring and real time profiling, resulting in real time adaptation of the environment. In this contribution the author will assess the threats and opportunities of such autonomic profiling in terms of its impact on individual autonomy and refined discrimination and indicate the extent to which traditional data protection is effective as regards profiling. (shrink)

In this contribution we will explore some of the implications of the vision of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) for law and legal philosophy. AmI creates an environment that monitors and anticipates human behaviour with the aim of customised adaptation of the environment to a person’s inferred preferences. Such an environment depends on distributed human and non-human intelligence that raises a host of unsettling questions around causality, subjectivity, agency and (criminal) liability. After discussing the vision of AmI we will present relevant research (...) in the field of philosophy of technology, inspired by the post-phenomenological position taken by Don Ihde and the constructivist realism of Bruno Latour. We will posit the need to conceptualise technological normativity in comparison with legal normativity, claiming that this is necessary to develop democratic accountability for the implications of emerging technologies like AmI. Lastly we will investigate to what extent technological devices and infrastructures can and should be used to achieve compliance with the criminal law, and we will discuss some of the implications of non-human distributed intelligence for criminal liability. (shrink)

Nous sommes une seule et même espèce humaine, mais nous avons parfois différentes manières de nous manifester. Les diverses expressions de l’humain sont les signifiants d’un même signifié : l’homme. Ce dernier a donc une marge de manœuvre plus ou moins grande qui lui permet de mener la vie digne qui convient. Pour ce faire, il doit travailler son image du monde afin de la rendre adéquate au concept du meilleur des mondes possibles. Il a besoin de faire en sorte (...) que le monde dans lequel il vit ne soit pas ce qu’il est, c’est-a-dire littéralement insensé. Le retour aux valeurs africaines est un ressourcement nécessaire. Il nous permet d’apporter notre pierre à l’édifice humain. D’où l’avènement des différents mouvements de réaction tels que la négritude, l’ethnophilosophie, etc. (shrink)

Nous sommes une seule et même espèce humaine, mais nous avons parfois différentes manières de nous manifester. Les diverses expressions de l’humain sont les signifiants d’un même signifié : l’homme. Ce dernier a donc une marge de manœuvre plus ou moins grande qui lui permet de mener la vie digne qui convient. Pour ce faire, il doit travailler son image du monde afin de la rendre adéquate au concept du meilleur des mondes possibles. Il a besoin de faire en sorte (...) que le monde dans lequel il vit ne soit pas ce qu’il est, c’est-a-dire littéralement insensé. Le retour aux valeurs africaines est un ressourcement nécessaire. Il nous permet d’apporter notre pierre à l’édifice humain. D’où l’avènement des différents mouvements de réaction tels que la négritude, l’ethnophilosophie, etc. (shrink)

Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing interrogates the legal implications of the notion and experience of human agency implied by the emerging paradigm of autonomic computing, and the socio-technical infrastructures it supports. The development of autonomic computing and ambient intelligence âe" self-governing systems âe" challenge traditional philosophical conceptions of human self-constitution and agency, with significant consequences for the theory and practice of constitutional self-government. Ideas of identity, subjectivity, agency, personhood, intentionality, and embodiment are all central to the functioning of modern (...) legal systems. But once artificial entities become more autonomic, and less dependent on deliberate human intervention, criteria like agency, intentionality and self-determination, become too fragile to serve as defining criteria for human subjectivity, personality or identity, and for characterizing the processes through which individual citizens become moral and legal subjects. Are autonomic âe" yet artificial âe" systems shrinking the distance between (acting) subjects and (acted upon) objects? How âe~distinctively humanâe(tm) will agency be in a world of autonomic computing? Or, alternatively, does autonomic computing merely disclose that we were never, in this sense, âe~humanâe(tm) anyway? A dialogue between philosophers of technology and philosophers of law, this book addresses these questions, as it takes up the unprecedented opportunity that autonomic computing and ambient intelligence offer for a reassessment of the most basic concepts of law. (shrink)

Privacy, Due process and the Computational Turn: The Philosophy of Law Meets the Philosophy of Technology engages with the rapidly developing computational aspects of our world including data mining, behavioural advertising, iGovernment, profiling for intelligence, customer relationship management, smart search engines, personalized news feeds, and so on in order to consider their implications for the assumptions on which our legal framework has been built. The contributions to this volume focus on the issue of privacy, which is often equated with data (...) privacy and data security, location privacy, anonymity, pseudonymity, unobservability, and unlinkability. Here, however, the extent to which predictive and other types of data analytics operate in ways that may or may not violate privacy is rigorously taken up, both technologically and legally, in order to open up new possibilities for considering, and contesting, how we are increasingly being correlated and categorizedin relationship with due process – the right to contest how the profiling systems are categorizing and deciding about us. (shrink)

Mireille Hadas-Lebel shines a spotlight on the complex life and works of Philo, the illustrious Alexandrian Jewish philosopher, offering a fascinating insight into a seminal religious thinker at the crossroads of Judaism and Hellenism.

Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing interrogates the legal implications of the notion and experience of human agency implied by the emerging paradigm of autonomic computing, and the socio-technical infrastructures it supports. The development of autonomic computing and ambient intelligence âe" self-governing systems âe" challenge traditional philosophical conceptions of human self-constitution and agency, with significant consequences for the theory and practice of constitutional self-government. Ideas of identity, subjectivity, agency, personhood, intentionality, and embodiment are all central to the functioning of modern (...) legal systems. But once artificial entities become more autonomic, and less dependent on deliberate human intervention, criteria like agency, intentionality and self-determination, become too fragile to serve as defining criteria for human subjectivity, personality or identity, and for characterizing the processes through which individual citizens become moral and legal subjects. Are autonomic âe" yet artificial âe" systems shrinking the distance between (acting) subjects and (acted upon) objects? How âe~distinctively humanâe(tm) will agency be in a world of autonomic computing? Or, alternatively, does autonomic computing merely disclose that we were never, in this sense, âe~humanâe(tm) anyway? A dialogue between philosophers of technology and philosophers of law, this book addresses these questions, as it takes up the unprecedented opportunity that autonomic computing and ambient intelligence offer for a reassessment of the most basic concepts of law. (shrink)

Gilles de Corbeil figures as the initiator of the scientific teaching of medicine in Paris at a time when medicina became physica. He studied medicine at the famous school of Salerno, and his teaching was based upon Salernitan theories and practice. He showed himself very concerned with teaching methods and attached great importance to memorizing. This explains why he composed medical poetry so as to provide a mnemonic aid for his students. As a teacher, he took care of his students' (...) reading, offering them advise. He insisted on the importance of a personal relationship between teacher and student, evoking his own relationship with his Salernitan masters, but repeatedly criticized the students of his time. (shrink)

Les notions de «mort» et de «mourir», parfois utilisées sans distinctions dans la littérature, font référence à deux dimensions fort différentes pour la personne en fin de vie, de même que pour toutes les personnes appelées à en prendre soin . Alors que la personne malade voit venir la mort, elle doit vivre son mourir. La mort succède ainsi au mourir, dans le temps. Par ailleurs, une réflexion d’ordre philosophique permet de préciser que la mort s’avère une ordonnance de la (...) nature, elle est privation de la vie et un mystère. Et en tant que mystère, elle prendra forme selon les différentes croyances attribuées à l’immortalité de l’âme. Quant au mourir, il est l’épreuve par excellence d’une situation-limite. De plus, en dépit du caractère unique et individuel de cette expérience nouvelle pour tous, il assume différents visages. Si l’espoir de «connaître une belle mort» se conçoit aisément, le mourir n’en demeure pas moins le moment le plus tragique de l’existence humaine. (shrink)