From the point of view of the history and philosophy of science, the relationship of Descartes' to Aristotle's concept of nature has not been grasped in an entirely satisfactory way. In this article, the two concepts will be subjected to a comparative analysis, beginning with the outstanding feature that both concepts of nature are characterized by a contradistinction to the non-natural: Aristotle separates nature and technology; Descartes opposes nature to thinking. My thesis is that these (...) meanings have found privileged application in specific contexts of experience: the field of application especially suitable for the Aristotelian concept is the experience of everyday life, while for the Cartesian concept it is subjective experience. Historically, the relationship between meaning and experience is of help in understanding the conditions in which the two concepts arose. The topical relevance of the concepts to modern society is a consequence of the continued existence of the favored contexts of experience. Roughly stated, we sometimes still perceive in an Aristotelian way and at other times think in a Cartesian way. (shrink)

The topic of this contribution is the tension between the everyday dichotomy of nature and technology and the nanotechnological understanding of the world. It is essential to nanotechnology that nature and technology not be categorically opposed as the manmade and the non-manmade, but rather regarded as parts of a structurally identical whole. After the introduction, I will address three points: In a brief first section I will formulate a few questions and a thesis about the nanotechnological (...) developments that can be expected to come. In the main section I will assess four aspects of everyday understanding of nature and technology that are used to legitimate nanotechnology. Finally I will discuss whether an everyday understanding of nature can be conceived as a critical authority with respect to the nanotechnology program. (shrink)

Recently, the distinction between nature and technology has been increasingly questioned. We are told that the changes to nature made possible by technology had reached such dimensions that it was no longer possible to clearly differentiate between nature and technology. Against the critical voices, I argue for the possibility and necessity of applying a version of the distinction that I call “classical”. I begin by examining selected historical origins of this distinction and thereby discussing (...) some of its critics debated today – namely Hans Blumenberg, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway and Philippe Descola. In the next section, I introduce a concept of hybrid of nature and technology, which is suitable for delimiting and differentiating the scope of the classical distinction. I also need the concept of hybrid in order to assess the current tendencies in the development of the nature-technology relation, which are the subject of the last section. Against the background of these tendencies, I conclude by compiling some arguments in favour of maintaining the classical distinction between nature and technology. (shrink)

Von den zahllosen Vorstellungen, die heute dem öffentlichen Reden über Natur zugrundeliegen, gehört die aristotelische Naturbegrifflichkeit zweifellos immer noch zu den einflußreichsten. Während in der Tradition des aristotelischen Denkens Natur und Technik zwei verschiedene Seinsweisen bezeichnen, verwerfen die Naturwissenschaften jede substantielle Unterscheidung zwischen den beiden Sphären. Die zunehmende Technisierung der Welt macht zudem einen Begriff problematisch, der im wesentlichen das von humanen Eingriffen Ungestörte subsumiert. Kann das öffentliche Verständnis, soweit es aristotelisch geprägt ist, die Tendenz zur Veränderung (...) und Ersetzung von Natur durch Technik überhaupt noch angemessen erfassen? Dieser Frage möchte ich auf zwei Ebenen nachgehen. Zum einen setze ich die aristotelische Unterscheidung von Natur und Technik weitestgehend als Dichotomie voraus, sehe von ihren lebensweltlichen Bezügen ab und konfrontiere sie exemplarisch mit einigen, teils schon vollzogenen, teils zu erwartenden Verschiebungen im Verhältnis dieser beiden Sphären. Insofern die Binnenperspektive der Individuen außer Betracht bleibt und es sich vornehmlich um Prozesse handelt, die die Grundlagen der materiellen Lebensverhältnisse betreffen, könnte man von der „gesellschaftlichen Ebene“ sprechen. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich ein spezieller, zunehmend verengter Kontext, in dem die Entgegensetzung noch sinnvoll Anwendung findet(I). Zum anderen rekonstruiere ich die aristotelische Begrifflichkeit im Horizont eines lebensweltlichen Verständnisses. Hierbei werde ich weniger von einer wechselseitigen Ausschließung der beiden Sphären ausgehen als von der Annahme, daß Natur und Technik die gegenüberliegenden Ränder eines Übergangsfeldes von Zuständen bezeichnen, in denen beide gleichsam gemischt enthalten sind. Die begrifflichen Hilfsmittel für diese Vermittlung finden sich bei Aristoteles selbst. Es handelt sich um die Individuationsprinzipien Stoff und Form, die in ihrer Anwendung auf die Definition von Natur eine differenziertere Wahrnehmung des Technischen gestattet. (shrink)

Two criteria are proposed for characterizing the diverse and not yet perspicuous relations between nanotechnology and nature. They assume a concept of nature as that which is not made by human action. One of the criteria endorses a distinction between natural and artificial objects in nanotechnology; the other allows for a discussion of the potential nanotechnological modification of nature. Insofar as current trends may be taken as indicative of future development, nanotechnology might increasingly use the model of (...) nature as a point of orientation, while many of its products will continue to be clearly distinguished from nature. (shrink)

Auch unter den Bedingungen der Verwissenschaftlichung und Technisierung der Gesellschaft bleiben wesentliche Aspekte von Aristoteles' Naturbegriff kontextrelativ anwendbar: In lebensweltlicher Erfahrung finden Bestimmungen der (extensionalen) Entgegensetzung von Natur und Technik, in wissenschaftlicher Erfahrung unabhängig davon bestehende (intensionale) Natureigenschaften bevorzugte Anwendungen. Die Abgrenzung von Natur gegen Technik hat für kulturelle Orientierungen, öffentliche Diskurse und politische Handlungsentscheidungen, in denen die materiellen Folgen menschlicher Tätigkeiten thematisch sind, grundlegende Bedeutung. Für den Kontext der Wissenschaften dienen die disziplinenübergreifenden, an den Naturwissenschaften (...) orientierten Selbstorganisationstheorien als Beispiel der Anwendbarkeit. (shrink)

Two criteria are proposed for characterizing the diverse and not yet perspicous relations between nanotechnology und nature. They assume a concept or nature as that which is not made by human action. One of the criteria endorses a distinction between natural and artificial objects in nanotechnology: the other allows for a discussion of the potential nanotechnological modification of nature. Insofar as current trends may be taken as indicative of future development, nanotechnology might increasingly use the model of (...) nature as a point of orientation, while many of its products will continue to be clearly distinguished from nature. (shrink)

Vier Entwicklungtendenzen des Verhältnisses von Natur und Technik betreffen industrielle Gesellschafen als Ganzes: 1. der zunehmende Naturferne Technik, 2. zunehmende Naturnähe der Technik, 3. vermehrte Hybridzustände von Natur und Technik und 4. zunehmende Eindringtiefe der Technik in die Natur. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser teils gegenläufigen Tendenzen kann von Grenzen der Technisierung in industriellen Gesellschaften nicht im Allgemeinen, sondern nur in Bezug auf besondere Kontexte gesprochen werden. Zu ihnen gehört die Lebenswelt als ein (...) nichtprofessioneller der und privater Erfahrungsbereich, es immer noch erlaubt, kulturwirksam zwischen Natur und Technik zu unterscheiden. Zwei Beispiele werden diskutier: Die Wahrnehmung des Leibes, der sich als das lebensweltliche Zentrum das Natur erweist, sensibel auf Technisierungen reagiert, und der die Grenzen der Technisierung Reproduktion. Abschließend werden Gründe dafür angeführt, warum die Lebenswelt gegenüber Technisierungen, deren bevorzugtes Objekt sie ist, bisher in erstaunlicher Distanz geblieben ist. (shrink)

Im ersten Teil(Abschnitte 2 und 3) rekapituliere ich einige grundlegende Bestimmungen des Dualismus von Natur und Geist, wie er auf Rene Descartes' Philosophie im 17. Jahrhundert zurückgeht. Damit soll nicht nur die bis heute anhaltende berechtigte Kritiken diesem Dualismus, sondern auch ihre unverkennbare Wirkungslosigkeit besser verständlich werden. Der bis in die Gegenwart reichende Einfluß der Natur-Geist-Entgegensetzung läßt vermuten, daß auch die Kritik noch in seinem Bann steht. In dieser Situation empfiehlt es sich, Abstand durch eine Besinnung auf die (...) vorangehende aristotelische Naturauffassung zu gewinnen. Deshalb stelle ich im zweiten Teil (Abschnitt 4) eine Interpretation von Aristoteles' Seelenlehre vor, die als Alternative oder zur Reformierung des cartesischen Dualismus geeignet ist. Dabei beschränke ich mich auf die mentalen Naturrepräsentationen, da ich ihnen den größten Stellenwert für Descartes' heutige Relevanz beimesse. Diese thematische Eingrenzung erlaubt es, mit der Seelenlehre auf Aristoteles' Naturbegriff zu rekurrieren, ohne die für ihn typische Opposition zum Begriff der Technik berücksichtigen zu müssen. Zur Begründung der modernen Naturwissenschaft war und ist die Ablehnung der antiken Kontrastierung von Natur und Technik unverzichtbar. Daß aber trotz der Legitimität dieser Zurückweisung zahlreiche Gründe für den aristotelischen Naturbegriff sprechen, geht auch auf seinen immer noch fruchtbaren anticartesischen Gehalt zurück. (shrink)

Im ersten Abschnitt skizziere ich die ursprüngliche aristotelische Unterscheidung von Natur und Technik. Auf die neuzeitliche Kritik an ihr, die sich anschließenden historischen Veränderungen ihrer gesamtgesellschaftlichen Anwendungsbedingungen sowie auf zukünftig mögliche Szenarien des Verhältnisses von Natur und Technik gehe ich im zweiten Abschnitt ein. In den nachfolgenden zwei Abschnitten fokussiere ich meine Ausführungen auf die Lebenswelt und diskutiere exemplarisch die Anwendung der Unterscheidung auf die äußere Wahrnehmung, die Leibwahrnehmung und die Reproduktionstechnologie. Es geht mir in diesen (...) beiden Abschnitten weniger um den Nachweis der durch Technisierungen bedingten Erosion der Lebenswelt als umgekehrt um die Begründung der fortbestehenden Brauchbarkeit der aristotelischen Unterscheidung in der Lebenswelt. (shrink)

Das Verhältnis von Lebenswelt und Wissenschaft befindet sich mit ungewissem Ausgang in stetiger Bewegung. In diesem Prozess ist das treibende Element die Wissenschaft, die Technisierungen ermöglicht und mit ihren Erkenntnissen die Welt überzieht. Trotz der fortschreitenden Verwissenschaftlichung hat sich die Lebenswelt jedoch ihre Eigenständigkeit bewahrt. Die vorliegenden Studien tragen zur Aufklärung dieses erstaunlichen Phänomens bei. Sie weisen Strukturdifferenzen der beiden Erfahrungsweisen auf und zeigen, wie sie mit- und gegeneinander existieren. Zugleich wird deutlich, dass ein Ende der lebensweltlichen Eigenständigkeit einen fundamentalen (...) Wandel für die gesellschaftliche Stellung nichtwissenschaftlicher Erfahrung bedeuten würde. Die Untersuchungen sind begrifflich, wissenschaftstheoretisch und phänomenologisch orientiert. Sie gehen von einem weitgefassten Wissenschaftsbegriff aus, der auch Technikwissenschaften sowie wissenschaftliche Anwendungen umfasst. In den Fallbeispielen kommt den Naturwissenschaften und dem Naturbegriff eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu. Der Lebensweltbegriff schließt in kritischer Distanz an die Sozialphänomenologie von Alfred Schütz und die Phänomenologie Edmund Husserls an. (shrink)

Abstract: This paper provides a phenomenological interpretation of technological and natural childbirth. By using Heidegger’s ontology of technology to think about childbirth I argue that these two types of contemporary childbirth present us with a false dilemma as both reflect the same norms Heidegger associates with modernity, namely order, control, and efficiency. The paper briefly explains Heidegger’s concept of the enframing as the essence of the technological age while focusing on how it helps us to avoid falling into a (...) technophilic or technophobic trap. Although the technophobic approach popularized by Lamaze gained some favor with feminists who saw the increased use of reproductive technology as an extension of patriarchal control over women’s bodies, I argue that this natural birthing technique incorporated order and control in ways that are similar to its technophilic counterpart. In order to move beyond what I call the reproductive enframing, it is necessary to recognize the false dilemma presented by the technological and natural alternatives. (shrink)

This essay sketches an expanded theoretical conception of the roles of nature and technology in history, one that is based on a social ontology that does not separate nature and society. History has long been viewed as the realm of past human action. On this conception, nature is treated largely as an Other of history, and technology is construed chiefly as a means for human fulfillment. There is no history of nature, and the history (...) of technology becomes the history of useful products. The essay discusses the changes wrought in these understandings by a social ontology that depicts social existence as inherently transpiring in nexuses of practices and material arrangements. The first implication is that the domain of history should be expanded from the realm and course of past human activity to the realm and course of past practice–arrangement nexuses. In turn, this wider conception transforms the significance of nature and technology in history. Until recently, most accounts of the relationship between society/history and nature have presumed that society and history are separate from nature. On my account, by contrast, nature is part of society: a component of the practice–arrangement nexuses through which social life progresses. Human history, consequently, is a social–natural history that encompasses the varying presence and roles of nature in human coexistence. Technology, meanwhile, is not just useful products, and not just a mediator of society/history and nature. It also is something through which humans manage social life and the nature that is part of it, largely by drawing nature into this site and thereby conjointly transforming society, technology, and nature in history; and something that, over time, plays an increasingly central role in the nexuses where social life transpires. Through technology, in short, social–natural history takes form and advances. (shrink)

기술과 문명은 지구생태계를 교란시켜 왔고, 지구는 최대의 위기상황을 맞이하고 있다. 여러 곳에서 이상기후들이 발생하며 인간뿐 아니라 지구 곳곳의 동식물들을 위기로 내몰고 있다. 기술과 관련해서는 인공지능로봇에 지배될지도 모른다는 우려가 제기되고 있다. 인간과 비인간, 인간과 자연간의 대립에서 인간이 존재론적 우위를 점하고 있음에도 이 사태를 낙관적으로 바라보기에는 너무 늦었다는 진단이 나오고 있다. 이와 같은 비관적 태도에서 벗어나 생태공동체를 구축하기 위한 새로운 패러다임의 전환이 요구된다. 이러한 전환을 위해 인간과 기술, 그리고 자연 개념은 새롭게 정립될 필요가 있다. 이를 위해 우리는 메를로-퐁티의 몸 현상학과 살존재론을 이론적 (...) 근거로 하여 시몽동의 개체화발생이론과 앙상블 그리고 라투르의 ANT(Actor-network theory, 행위자연결망이론)를 살펴볼 것이다. 인간, 자연, 기술에 관한 논의는 기존의 개념적 틀에서 벗어나 새로운 의미를 가지고 패러다임을 구성될 것이며, 이는 생태공동체의 기초개념으로 작동하리라 여긴다. (shrink)

Algorithmic biases, or algorithmic unfairness, have been a topic of public and scientific scrutiny for the past years, as increasing evidence suggests the pervasive assimilation of human cognitive biases and stereotypes in such systems. This research is specifically concerned with analyzing the presence of discursive biases in the text generated by GPT-3, an NLPM which has been praised in recent years for resembling human language so closely that it is becoming difficult to differentiate between the human and the algorithm. The (...) pertinence of this research object is substantiated by the identification of race, gender and religious biases in the model’s completions in recent research, suggesting that the model is indeed heavily influenced by human cognitive biases. To this end, this research inquires: How does the Natural Language Processing Model GPT-3 replicate existing social biases?. This question is addressed through the scrutiny of GPT-3’s completions using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a method which has been deemed as amply valuable for this research as it is aimed at uncovering power asymmetries in language. As such, the analysis is specifically centered around the analysis of gender and race biases in the model’s generated text. Research findings suggest that GPT-3’s language generation model significantly exacerbates existing social biases while replicating dangerous ideologies akin to white supremacy and hegemonic masculinity as factual knowledge. (shrink)

There is something frustrating in the concept of algorithm that can even worry: its limitations. An algorithm does not need the time to define itself, it possesses in its structure everything that defines it and can work exclusively in a site, such as a computer, which is itself another finite system. Whenever a particular algorithm will be executed it will always be inexorably equal to itself because the number of possible states is finite. A logical­mathematical algorithm is essentially very different (...) from a living being that reveals its being only in the passage of time, in the relationship with the environment, in the happening of events. On the contrary there is a strong relationship between living things and the art, since art essentially needs time to express itself. The art has a time dimension, if for no other reason, because the purpose of art is reaching human beings. But art, through technology, can also broaden its horizons. Art can make use of the technology and can do exactly as the man whose expression is, to grow, to expand, to discover new identities, to conduct an investigation in those distant places, on the border with the irrational. (shrink)

Independent philosopher Lee (recently of the U. of Manchester) attends to the deeper implications of ecologically insensitive technology beyond its polluting effects. Contrasting modern with premodern worldviews provides the context for exploring how new sciences like biotechnology require an expanded environmental ethos encompassing both the biotic and the abiotic. The author considers misconceived the notions of nature as either a work of art or a mere social construct per some postmodern thinking. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, (...) OR. (shrink)

Despite the fact that they are in most respects environmentally benign, electricity-generating wind turbines frequently encounter a great deal of resistance. Much of this resistance is aesthetic in character; wind turbines somehow do not "fit" in the landscape. On one (classical) view, landscapes are beautiful to the extent that they are "scenic," well-balanced compositions. But wind turbines introduce a discordant note, they are out of "scale." On another (ecological) view, landscapes are beautiful if their various elements form a stable and (...) integrated organic whole. But wind turbines are difficult to integrate into the biotic community; at least in certain respects, they are like "weeds." Moreover, there is a reason why the 100-meter, three bladed wind turbines now favored by the industry cannot very well be accommodated to any landscape view. They are, as Albert Borgmann would put it, characteristic of contemporary technology, distanced "devices" for the production of a commodity rather than "things" with which one can engage. It follows that the only way in which the aesthetic resistance to wind turbines can be overcome is to make them more "thing-like." One such "thing-like" turbine is discussed. (shrink)

Despite the fact that they are in most respects environmentally benign, electricity-generating wind turbines frequently encounter a great deal of resistance. Much of this resistance is aesthetic in character; wind turbines somehow do not "fit" in the landscape. On one view, landscapes are beautiful to the extent that they are "scenic," well-balanced compositions. But wind turbines introduce a discordant note, they are out of "scale." On another view, landscapes are beautiful if their various elements form a stable and integrated organic (...) whole. But wind turbines are difficult to integrate into the biotic community; at least in certain respects, they are like "weeds." Moreover, there is a reason why the 100-meter, three bladed wind turbines now favored by the industry cannot very well be accommodated to any landscape view. They are, as Albert Borgmann would put it, characteristic of contemporary technology, distanced "devices" for the production of a commodity rather than "things" with which one can engage. It follows that the only way in which the aesthetic resistance to wind turbines can be overcome is to make them more "thing-like." One such "thing-like" turbine is discussed. (shrink)

Nature and Mortality is a challenging look at some of the major public issues of our time through the eyes of one of our most influential and probing liberal humanists. It is a frank account on where we stand today on such controversial matters as human embryology, genetic engineering, euthanasia and abortion. Warnock's views may seem like a red rag to a bull to some, but her contribution to the debate is always stimulating. Enlivened by autobiographical anecdote and some (...) delicious side-swipes, Nature and Mortality is Mary Warnock at her most perceptive, wise and entertaining. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the treatment of nature and technology in the writings of two prominent early Zionist thinkers, A. D. Gordon and Theodor Herzl. At the heart of Herzl’s vision, we find technocrats applying industrial systems to dominate the naked nature that Gordon is committed to preserve. Gordon, in contrast, describes Jewish national revival as triggered by farmers utilizing Eretz Israel’s natural world to extract Jews from industrial society, underwriting Herzl’s Zionist vision. Expanding the analysis to the (...) domains of nature and technology reveals the two thinkers’ creeds to be rival Zionist ideologies in which nature and technology serve as catalysts for competing visions of national revival. (shrink)

Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, technological innovation. Based on several in-depth case-studies, and informed theoretically by the sociology of scientific (...) knowledge, the book shows how the public understanding of science questions raises issues of the epistemic commitments and institutional structures which constitute modern science. It suggests that many of the inadequacies in the social integration and uptake of science might be overcome if modern scientific institutions were more reflexive and open about the implicit normative commitments embedded in scientific cultures. (shrink)

The article offers a new interpretation of the technique and its evolution. The ideas about the technique of Aristotle, F. Bacon, P. Engelmeir, N.Berdyaev are analyzed, as well as the understanding of nature, on the basis of which the technique is comprehended and conceptualized. The author's hypothesis is that it is necessary to distinguish between two fundamentally different understandings of technology and the lines of its development: one, where technology is understood as engineering and conceptualized within the (...) framework of the first nature, and the other, technology as technology, conceptualized within the framework of the idea of the second nature. In addition, the author shows that in the twentieth century there is a convergence of both lines of technology development, entailing a synthesis of engineering and technology. The atomic project is given as an illustration. On the basis of the proposed ideas, an explanation of the peculiar explosion of the development of technology in the XIX and XX centuries and the emergence of technoprime is outlined. To analyze the features of the second nature, the work of Dmitry Efremenko is considered, who suggests the genesis of megamachines, distinguishing between their two main types and outlining the third. Another component of the second nature is technology, in which, in addition to the sequence of operations and the conditions that ensure them, the author highlights the division of labor, attitudes to economy, standardization and quality of products, research and optimization or restructuring of production activities. In conclusion, the article points out three consequences of the synthesis of engineering and technology, as well as the crisis of technology in modernity: the need to revise ideas about nature, technology and the modern project, as well as the importance of studying the second nature. (shrink)

This article’s premise is that science holds the promise of deepening religious perspectives on creation. The natural sciences have convincingly proved that nature is not static, or a ready-made creation dropped from heaven. Theologians need to read nature as scientists see it and engage with that understanding theologically.The concept of resonance is applied to denote this tangential relationship as an eco-social constructivist understanding of reality. Two proponents, one scientist and one theologian, have been chosen who share this view (...) of a holistic reality, and the objective is to determine the degree of resonance viable of these magisteria. A method of polycentric hermeneutics is thus pursued.Although we referred to the concept of consilience regarding von Humboldt’s enterprise, it is not in the authors’ scope to achieve this with science and theology as disciplines sui generis. However, if resonance becomes vital in understanding reality, faith is inevitable. If a creation theology seeks a degree of plausibility, it requires the feedback-loop methodology of science. We all share one earth: the closer we all come to a shared end, the closer we also come together and relativise differences. The naturalist Edward O. Wilson suggested that science and religion should set aside their differences to save the planet. Resonance has the potential to let new horizons emerge in our mutual endeavour to come to grips with reality and to map out certain tangentially overlapping magisteria.Contribution: Through resonance, the thought constructs of a scientist and a theologian are juxtaposed. An iterative hermeneutics’ importance is emphasised in the theology and science discourse, if faith seeks understanding and leads to awe. And the conclusion is that the ‘spiritual dimension’ and the ‘natural dimension’ do not only overlap but are tangential, as they engage with the same reality. (shrink)

This paper addresses the generally neglected topic of Vandana Shiva’s ontology. It is argued that there is a significant ontological component to Shiva’s ecofeminist philosophy and that this ontology underpins her ecological and feminist views. Shiva’s ontology provides a standpoint from which she can critique dichotomous ontologies of domination and oppression, and from which she can identify life-sustaining modes of existence. It is argued that this ontology is implicit in most of her works and is best grasped through the analysis (...) of her critique of Western scientific metaphysics. It is further argued that this implied ontology is a continuation of the Hindu-ecofeminist ontology of Prakriti explicitly set forth in Shiva’s Staying Alive (1989). Both forms of Shiva’s ontology, the explicit and the implicit, will be reconstructed and their points of continuity detailed. (shrink)

In this paper it is highlighted and argued that Boscovich’s natural sciences theory is so deeply rooted in metaphysics and pervaded by it, we can maintain that it is a distinctive example of sharp-­witted, clever and far­-reaching metaphysical natural philosophy. Critically engaging with the unsubstantiated denial of metaphysics and several centuries long attempts to overcome it, I demonstrate that by metaphysical thinking Boscovich arrived at his unique notion of attractive­repulsive force and gained insight into the structure of things, by which (...) he anticipated, among other things, the theory of relativity and quantum physics. Although Boscovich greatly and successfully used quantitative methods while solving problems from geodesy, astronomy, optics, civil engineering statistics, hydraulic engineering and other fields – the most important parts of his natural sciences legacy, which made him transpose several centuries, are supported by geometric intuition and carried out mainly by qualitative methods, that is, metaphysical speculation. Also, I explain how for the creation and development of electromagnetism it was crucial to describe electromagnetic phenomena using Boscovich’s unique law of force and his theory of the structure of matter, what was explicitly stated by the ‘father of electromagnetism’ James Clerk Maxwell. Boscovich would have never reached these ideas by the exact scientific method, only by metaphysically founded and guided ‘proper thinking’. (shrink)

The theme of the 10th Annual Research Ethics Conference organized by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (2018) was “Evolution of Research Ethics in Uganda and the Region: Past, Present and Future”. We were asked to address the topic: “The History of CIOMS and the recent changes in the international ethics guidelines: implications for local research”. The thrust of the conference was to track progress in ensuring ethical conduct of research, highlight challenges encountered, and to propose strategies (...) for effective and meaningful implementation of international ethical guidelines in local contexts. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to comment on the implications of the history of CIOMS ethical guidelines and suggest strategies for their effective and meaningful implementation in the East African region, and perhaps the whole of Sub‐Saharan Africa. Inferring from the ‘evolutionary’, ‘flexible’, and ‘general’ nature of the CIOMS guidelines, we proposed a six‐point strategy for ensuring their effective and meaningful implementation in local contexts. This strategy is in the form of obligations for local research regulators and researchers, the fulfillment of which will go a long way towards their smooth and meaningful implementation in local contexts. These obligations are: ensuring evidence‐based adaptation of each individual guideline; ensuring sufficiently judicious and motivated RECs membership; acting proactively to ensure harmony between bioethics and local legal regimes; cultivating a ‘bioethics culture’ among the public; moving towards regional bioethics governance; and playing an active and meaningful role in future revisions of these guidelines. (shrink)

The essays contained in Beyond the Juxtaposition of Nature and Culture represent an attempt by scholars from Canada, Germany, and Mexico to come to grips with the innovative work of the American philosopher and anthropologist Lawrence Krader who has proposed nothing less than a new theory of nature, according to which there are at least three different orders--the material-biotic, the quantum, and the human--which differ from one another according to their different configurations of space-time, and which cannot (...) be reduced the one to the others. Each author takes up Krader's theory in relation to its impact on their own discipline: sociology, anthropology, the study of myth, the theory of labor and value, economics, linguistics, and aesthetics. The question of how nature and culture can be integrated within a theoretical framework which links them in difference and nexus and allows each their non-reductive space leads each of the contributors to move in their thinking beyond the old dualisms of materialism and idealism, fact and value, nature and culture. (shrink)

This paper advances ways in which the understandings of “nature” and “creation” can be seen to overlap through specialized relations between humans and their environment. The hope of redemption of nature, united with evidences of grace in the advancements of science, can become helpful guides toward a theological interpretation of technology and the emerging character of human relations with nature.

This paper begins from the premise that being in the image of God refers humanity neither to nature nor to its technology but to God. Two positions are thereby rejected: that nature should be treated as a source of salvation , and that redemptive significance may be ascribed to technology . Instead, theological judgments concerning technologyrequire the reconstruction of theological anthropology. To this end, the image of God is reconceived in terms of sociality, temporality, and spatiality (...) to show how humanity may be understood as imaging God in a technological society. (shrink)

Many of our current environmental problems stem from damage to the natural world through excessive use of modern technologies. Since these problems are now global in scope, it is helpful to take a comparative philosophical approach—in this case by way of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Martin Heidegger. Heidegger's thoughts on these topics are quite consonant with classical Daoist thinking, in part because he was influenced by it. Although Zhuangzi and Heidegger warn against the ways technology can impair rather than promote (...) human flourishing, they are not simply anti‐technological in their thinking. Both rather recommend a critical stance that would allow us to shift to a more reflective employment of less disruptive technologies. (shrink)

Many of our current environmental problems stem from damage to the natural world through excessive use of modern technologies. Since these problems are now global in scope, it is helpful to take a comparative philosophical approach—in this case by way of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Martin Heidegger. Heidegger’s thoughts on these topics are quite consonant with classical Daoist thinking, in part because he was influenced by it. Although Zhuangzi and Heidegger warn against the ways technology can impair rather than promote (...) human flourishing, they are not simply anti-technological in their thinking. Both rather recommend a critical stance that would allow us to shift to a more reflective employment of less disruptive technologies. (shrink)

Socio-cultural reality of the present time is marked by quite significant events. First, the active penetration into society of the latest information and communication technologies, which arose as a result of the rapid development of electronics. And secondly, the formation and spread of a special type of worldview under the general name of "postmodernism". It is the need for a philosophical understanding of these two events and determined the main idea of this article. The article also shows the role of (...) information technology in the transformation of the cultural reality of postmodernism. Also the main directions of application of information systems and innovative technologies in the field of education and science in general, and at studying of disciplines of a natural cycle in particular are covered. Peculiarities of studying natural sciences by students are revealed, didactic potential of ICT and its realization in the process of studying natural disciplines is considered, methodical analysis of the problem of application of information technologies in natural education is carried out. The principle of integration, multimedia clarity, interactive interaction of participants of educational process at application of new information technologies at studying of natural disciplines is allocated. It is determined that ICT in the teaching of natural sciences can intensify the educational process, accelerate the transfer of knowledge and experience, as well as improve the quality of teaching and education. (shrink)