The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. Open access article.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Jurisprudence is founded on the assumption that the foundations of legal knowledge are not fixed; rather, laws are contingent and so constitute the proper object of inquiry as to their underlying motivations and justifications. Therefore, by studying jurisprudence it is possible to acquire a generic and profound critical understanding of the law; which is facilitated by the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach to fundamental questions about the origin and purpose of legal doctrine, and the function of legal systems. Scrutiny of (...) primary sources within jurisprudence will encourage further development of the legal vocabulary, demystify theoretical legal language and enhance the critical faculties, by demonstrating how to approach and critically reflect on primary texts in legal philosophy. Finally, having become accustomed to applying a critical mindset, the jurisprudence scholar will develop the ability to make important connections between different theorists and theories, to articulate new insights and evaluate their wider societal implications, particularly in meeting the requirements of human flourishing and social justice. (shrink)

The telling of tales is always a troubling business, and the way in which we tell stories about ourselves and about others always involves a degree of ethical risk. Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling explores the troubling nature of storytelling through a reading of the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas is a thinker who has a complex relationship with literature and with storytelling. At times, Levinas is a teller of powerful tales about ethics; at other times, on ethical grounds, he disavows (...) storytelling altogether. Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling explores the tensions between philosophy and storytelling that run throughout Levinas's work. By asking about how Levinas tells and untells his stories, and by risking the telling of tales that Levinas himself does not dare to tell, this book opens up new ways of thinking about Levinas's ethics of responsibility. It may be, as Levinas often insists, that storytelling presents us with ethical dangers; but Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling makes the case that an ethics of responsibility may demand that, whilst mindful of these dangers, we nevertheless continually seek out new stories to tell about ourselves, about others and about the world. (shrink)

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Seeking ‘justice’ can mean many different things depending on the context, the person seeking it, and what they consider ‘justice’ to be. On the whole we do not have a clear shared understanding of what justice is in society, making delivering it difficult. Compounding this confusion is the lack of clear principles to guide ‘justice’ in practice, which leads to it being applied or operationalised in different ways, further muddying the waters. To develop a clear definition of justice on a (...) societal level would be impractical, and potentially impossible, however we can clarify how justice should be defined and applied within specific organisations. Within criminal justice systems, we lack a defined philosophical and ethical approach to practice. This lack of clarity filters through the whole organisational system, leading practitioners to use their own personal judgement in practice, a lack of consistency in practice, and approaches that may not be considered to be ‘just’ to be applied. Philosophy has always attempted to create guidance on what the right thing to do is, and so could be utilised to develop organisational structures that promote just practice and are underpinned by a clear definition of what ‘justice’ is in that context. This paper argues that we need to develop a practical philosophy of criminology to ensure that the structures and practices through which we carry out the law are in themselves just, and poses questions of what we want justice to be. (shrink)

This paper proposes to build on Gilbert Simondon’s theory of the concretization of technological objects and apply the developed theory to the emerging area of software studies. Simondon’s theory of concretization describes the process of development of technical objects by applying his theory of individuation to the technical sphere. It accounts for their development as a process of the progressive convergence of separate functional structural units so that this convergence draws them into a single unit of operation which enhances their (...) overall operation. Connected to this process of concretisation and convergence is the notion of the milieu, both in the sense that technical individuals create their own associated milieus within them which facilitates their operation as system but also that they adapt the environment around them. Although Simondon’s concretization is a powerful tool to account for technical development its concentration on purely technical matters “independent of social demand and the pressure it exerts upon the distribution and modifications of such objects” makes it unbalanced. Our contention, and the argument in this paper, is that it is not just technical developments which are involved in the concretization process but that we can discern other processes/forces involved, such as cultural, economic, social and material which also become concretized in any technical development. This assessment of concretization is also discussed by Feenberg as a ‘technological unconscious’ which is ‘interpreted as purely rational and separate from society’. Our project is to extend Simondon’s notions of concretization and milieu to transductively account for these other processes and thus give a broader realist interpretation of technologies. In conjunction with Simondon’s account of psychological and collective individuation, this aids the development not just of an account of technical evolution but also the recursive effect of technology upon these other areas. The recognition of software as an important area of contemporary study is reflected in the emerging discipline of Software Studies. As our encounter with software of different types become increasingly more common, especially with recent developments in networked and ubiquitous computing, we argue that it is of increasing importance to understand software from a realist points of view. We will put forward our interpretation of concretization as one way to describe this. Theorised as a Universal Turing Machine, the computer in-itself offers no reason for why software should develop in specific directions. The implication being that it’s development should escape constraint by the physical affordances that provide the developmental milieu of seemingly more material technologies. Of course there is a material side to the development of software, the constraint of processor speeds, restrictions on network bandwidth and data storage are obvious examples. However these material constraints cannot account entirely for the nature of softwares. What are the aspects that are involved in the concretization of software? How can we use Simondon’s concepts of milieu, transduction and concretization to account for these developments? To help answer these questions we propose to look at some examples where the Internet is the technical milieu where concretization occurs. Bibliography Dumouchel, P. ‘Gilbert Simondon’s Plea for a Philosophy of Technology’ In A. Feenberg and A. Hannay, Technology and the Politics of Knowledge. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Feenberg, A. Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited. Oxford: OUP. Fuller, M.. Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software. Autonomedia. Manovich, L.. Software Studies: Software Takes Command. Simondon, G. Du mode d'existence des objets techniques. Paris: Aubier. (shrink)

In a story by Franz Kafka, a caged man endures hunger as a public spectacle, an act of self-starvation antithetical to life. The attraction lies in taking life to the precipice of extinction. In witnessing the diminishing of vitality to its vanishing point, the value of life itself is somehow affirmed for the spectator. Echoes of Kafka can be found in the late art of Tadeusz Kantor whose aesthetic of “poor reality” underwent a radical transformation. As the ageing artist approached (...) death he began to use himself as his own “found object”. Where Kafka martyred himself in his writing, Kantor became a version of Kafka’s “Hunger Artist” and put the condition of his encroaching death on display. In his painting he returned to figuration in a series of self-portraits, and his presence in his theatre changed from that of demiurge-creator to participant-victim. This essay uses the metaphysics of Heidegger and Agamben to examine this turn in Kantor’s aesthetic in his series of late paintings and theatrical works between 1985 and his death in 1990. Common to this late work is the motif of the “poor room of the imagination”, a metaphysical space in which the artist rehearses both a yearning for life and his departure from it. In using his art to confront his own condition Kantor can be seen to affirm the value of life even as it approaches the condition of extinction. In this sense Kantor eschews the negative endings of Kafka’s fictional heroes. (shrink)

This text offers a novel contribution to the literature on core criminological theory by introducing the complex issues relating to the structuring and analysing of causation. This text traces the paradigm shift, or drift, that has occurred in the history of criminology and shows how the problem of causation has been a leading factor in these theoretical developments. This short book is the first of its kind and is an introductory text designed to introduce both seasoned criminologists as well as (...) students of criminology to the interesting intersections between the fields of criminology and the philosophy of the social sciences. The problem of causation is notoriously difficult and has plagued philosophers and scientists for centuries. Warr highlights the importance of grappling with this problem and demonstrates how it can lead to unsuccessful theorising and can prevent students from fully appreciating the development of thinking in criminology. This accessible account will prove to be a must-read for scholars of criminal justice, penology and philosophy of social science. (shrink)

This book considers how a dwelling can protect and promote both our anxieties and our relationships. Both essays use a non-traditional literature to explore being alone and being with others, rather than relying on the social science literature, and offer a distinct and original contribution to the housing studies literature.

If we do stop to think on housing, what do we see? What is housing and what does it do? These seem deceptively simple questions, but they are often left unanswered. The reason for this is that a lot of discourse on housing is really a concern for policy-making and the critical evaluation of existing policies. Discourse, is not, properly speaking, on housing at all. It is concerned with provision, distribution and access, but this thinking on housing stops at the (...) front door. It is only concerned with what is actually external to housing. But for most people, housing already exists and they have access to it. Housing is not then about policy, but about how we can use what is a complex object in a manner that allows us to live well. Housing, for most of us, is about what we do when the front door is firmly shut and we are free from the external world. These essays explore this idea of housing as an object that exists for use. Housing is pictured as an object that contains activity. These pieces look at what we do with housing once we have it and so provides a necessary underpinning for any understanding of why housing is important. A further purpose of these pieces is present different ways of thinking and writing on housing. It is an attempt to show that housing is a suitable topic for philosophical discourse. It is suggested that we can and should seek to establish a philosophy of housing, rather than just relying on the traditional social sciences. (shrink)

This book is about computer art, and its relations to art of a more traditional kind. Specifically, the book focuses on generative art, in its various forms, but particularly on art where the artists use programming, computer code, as a significant element of their work. We also deal with the context of such art, so some chapters consider much of what is often called ‘digital art’, but the focus remains on the generative. Much has been written about digital art in (...) general and we do not repeat what is easily read elsewhere except where understanding the context requires it/ At the core of computing is software; computer programming; code. Perhaps rather strangely, that the role of code in computer art has received relatively little attention and hence is our primary focus. We aim to indicate important continuities, as well as the many exciting differences. (shrink)

A study of the origins, purposes and ethics of punishment.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

This paper draws on Michel Foucault’s discussion of the concept of cynical parrhesia to explore some similarities between the kind of provocative dialogue practised by the Cynics and the provocative way in which some recent European contemporary dance pieces criticise contem- porary dance as an institution. It focuses on one ancient and one modern, twenty-first century example of provocative dialogue: the meeting between Diogenes and Alexander the Great, and that between gallery visitors and dancers in Production by Xavier Le Roy (...) and Ma° rten Spa° ngberg in response to an invitation to create a work for exhibition in an art gallery. The purpose of provoca- tive dialogue, Foucault argues, is not to make someone to accept the truth but to persuade them to internalise the voice of the provocateur and thus initiate within themselves a process of ethical self-criticism. This paper argues that Production offers opportunities for this ethical practice both to gallery visitors and to the institution that commissioned it. (shrink)

Children with autism spectrum disorders have persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities [1]. The prevalence of autism is estimated at 1-2 per 1000, and close to 6 per 1000 for ASD [23]. ASD is a lifelong disorder, and many individuals need high levels of support throughout their lives [28]. Even though no cure has been found, early intervention is critical for a positive long-term outcome. The interventions that (...) have received the most empirical support are early behavioral interventions. They usually involve one-on-one training provided by a therapist, in which children are trained to respond to environmental changes, understand and use language, and interact appropriately with others in social settings [8]. (shrink)

What does it mean to have breast cancer when your partner is a woman? How do LB women feel about the prospect of losing their breast? Are partners more or less empathic? Do they display more or less supportive behaviours? Subtle and nuanced understandings of the complex interplay of their identities, experiences and values in their everyday lives and in their interactions with providers of services; Decisions not to undergo breast reconstruction: they encountered attitudes based on heteronormative constructions of femininity (...) from surgeons providing care; NICE guidelines which recommended reconstruction immediately following surgery to remove the breast. (shrink)

The Psychology of Screenwriting is more than an interesting book on the theory and practice of screenwriting. It is also a philosophical analysis of predetermination and freewill in the context of writing and human life in our mediated world of technology. Drawing on humanism, existentialism, Buddhism, postmodernism and transhumanism, and diverse thinkers from Meister Eckhart to Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodor Adorno, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard and Gilles Deleuze, The Psychology of Screenwriting will be of use to screenwriters, film students, philosophers and (...) all those interested in contemporary theory. This book combines in-depth critical and cultural analysis with an elaboration on practice in an innovative fashion. It explores how people, such as those in the Dogme 95 movement, have tried to overcome traditional screenwriting, looking in detail at the psychology of writing and the practicalities of how to write well for the screen. This is the first book to include high-theory with screenwriting practice whilst incorporating the Enneagram for character development. Numerous filmmakers and writers, including David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, David Cronenberg, Pedro Almodóvar, Darren Aronofsky, Sally Potter and Charlie Kaufman are explored. The Psychology of Screenwriting is invaluable for those who want to delve deeper into writingfor the screen. (shrink)

A philosophical introduction to and interrogation of the work of Gilbert Simondon and its relation to contemporary media technology, communication and information.

The ‘feel’ of driving a Porsche is unlike that of seeing red. Sensorimotor theory and enactivism hold that looking for mechanisms or something ‘inside the head’ is a mistake in accounting for this. Consciousness does not ‘lie behind’ experience and action, but rather that it is in experience and action. Studying the actions organisms undertake in environments can provide insight into their consciousness and experience. Taking such actions as the locus of study, moreover, can provide greater insight than can studies (...) of mechanisms that drive such interactions. Studying organism-environment interaction in fact provides insight into mechanisms. However, it seems at least phenomenologically plausible that actions are caused and controlled by consciousness: that consciousness precedes action in significant ways. Phenomenology, whilst not irrelevant to a discussion of how things ‘feel’ needn’t form the central focus of a discussion here. In fact, this paper will discuss linguistic and epistemological aspects to the nature of experience so as to provide input to the field of enquiry opened in sensorimotor and enactivist studies. (shrink)

The volume consists of nine essays distributed in three groups. The first group of essays engages in an exploration and understanding of the philosophical debate on human enhancement by eliciting the philosophical assumptions and metaphors that characterise this literature. In his essay “Enhancement and the Vulnerable Body: Questioning some Philosophical Assumptions” (chapter 1), Mark Coeckelbergh explores the current debate on human enhancement polarized between ‘bioconservatives’ and ‘transhumanists’ and articulates some significant philosophical assumptions shared by both positions. In pointing out the (...) limitations of these approaches, his paper shows that there is space for a third more nuanced alternative that takes into account how technology transforms vulnerable bodies. (shrink)

Whereas standard approaches to risk and vulnerability presuppose a strict separation between humans and their world, this book develops an existential-phenomenological approach according to which we are always already beings-at-risk. Moreover, it is argued that in our struggle against vulnerability, we create new vulnerabilities and thereby transform ourselves as much as we transform the world. Responding to the discussion about human enhancement and information technologies, the book then shows that this dynamic-relational approach has important implications for the evaluation of new (...) technologies and their risks. It calls for a normative anthropology of vulnerability that does not ask which objective risks are acceptable, how we can become invulnerable, or which technologies threaten human nature, but which vulnerability transformations we want. To the extent that we can steer the growth of new technologies at all, this tragic and sometimes comic project should therefore be guided by what we want to become.​. (shrink)

Like other teletechnological practices, drone fighting as remote fighting gives rise to a paradox with regard to the relation between ethics and distance: on the one hand, it bridges physical distance in the sense that it enables spying on people and killing people in other parts of the world. On the other hand, it seems to increase moral distance: if you are far away from your target, it becomes easier to kill. However, based on interviews with drone crew as published (...) in the media, I show that the current surveillance tech­nologies used in drone fighting might mitigate this effect since they allow the viewer to build up a kind of in­timacy with targets. Then I argue that this moral proximity is only possible if we assume!hat in­terpretation and the construction of narrative play a key role in the·epistemology of surveillance. I compare military surveillance to surveillance in public spaces to elaborate this point and explore the relation be­tween automated surveillance, distance, and interpretation. I also argue that given the lack of shared soci­ality and communication, moral distance in surveillance and drone fighting can only partly be bridged by technology-mediated interpretation and narration. I conclude that we need more reflection on how technol­ogies could create the conditions under which moral metamorphosis and interpretative freedom is not only possible but also probable. (shrink)

Mainstream educational theory and practice tend to favour what Freire, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, has called ‘banking education’, in which students are seen as depositories of knowledge. But seeing pedagogy as a matter of simply communicating knowledge misses the epistemological complexities of our relationship with the world. By means of a reading of the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi, in this paper I intend to explore how the communication of not-knowing may be of central value in teaching and (...) learning. Arguing that our lives are characterised by an ‘epistemological chaos’ in which the distinctions between knowing and not-knowing can never be firmly established, I suggest that the Daoist texts may allow teachers and students to rethink the purpose of education as a matter of yang sheng, or ‘nourishing life, by means of developing skill in dealing with the epistemological chaos in which we are immersed. [China Media Research. 2014; 10: 10-19]. (shrink)

This is the second paper of three which concerns improving Passenger Departure Flow. The main aim of this paper is provide a summary of the research results, which includes both the reporting of empirical data collected at the Airport and the results obtained from simulation of existing flow for passenger departure process. The large quantity of data means this paper focuses on reporting data for the economy check-in element only. The project led towards development of rules for process of improvement (...) for the entire departure process and explored the benefits of using the Lean philosophy for improving a range of airport processes. Airport processes are completely different than the manufacturing and other service sectors due to the complex interlinking between different stake holders such as airline regulations, national/international law etc. (shrink)

Lean is an established process improvement philosophy to achieve the operational excellence and the benefits can be more than just improving the process. This is evident as the benefits of Lean are truly exploited in automotive, aerospace and manufacturing sectors. There are numerous implementations of Lean philosophy in service sector such as banking, higher education, software development etc. The main aim of this paper is provide an overview of Lean philosophy and explore the benefits for airport processes. The airport processes (...) are completely different than the manufacturing and other service sectors due to the complex interlinking between different stake holders such as airline regulations, national/international law etc. This paper exemplifies the Lean philosophy by drawing examples form Passenger Departure Process in Abu Dhabi International Airport. This paper starts with examining the background to the project and why airports have many characteristic features, which are fundamentally different to the manufacturing environment in which Lean was originally devised. Since its origins, Lean philosophy has been also applied to many service environments. Further, Lean philosophy is introduced and Lean principles and waste is discussed from the PDP perspective. Along this, a brief literature review is presented on the existing process improvement approaches used in the airports. The ultimate aim of the project which it has achieved was to develop a practical methodology of applying Lean principles to the PDP help airline managers and staff eliminates the waste of available resources and so increases the passenger flow through various stages of the process in line with Lean philosophy. (shrink)

Lean as a management paradigm has been applied extensively in manufacturing industries, and so little has been done in the area of its studies and application in managing affairs in education. This paper exemplifies the applicability of Lean Six Sigma approach for higher educational institutes. The problem solved is that of ineffective and inefficient admission process in the ELITE state polytechnic. The project is aimed at proffering a workable and a viable improvement process for the admission of candidates for the (...) ELITE state polytechnic that will be more attractive and have more value for customers and above all, create more wealth for the polytechnic community. The need for improvement is presented in responses from respondents in the question two of the questionnaires. A total of 70 respondents, representing 85% indicate their dissatisfaction with the admission process. To improve the admissions process, the Lean Six Sigma based methodology, DMAIC was applied. A qualitative research analysis was used in analyzing the questionnaires, since the method seeks to understand and the research problems from the perspective of the local population. A test shows positive results when compared with the old practice. There were improvements in a circle, takt, lead and utilization times, reductions in idle time and rework, likewise the process circle efficient. The results are presented in the current flow chart and the value stream maps. (shrink)

This essay explores the cultural translation of the Chinese classic, the Book of Changes or Yijing through a reflection on my own attempts to adapt, use and misuse the text in literary form. My own engagement with the Yijing began when I set out to write a novel- of sorts based on the Chinese classic. The process of writing this novel, Sixty-Four Chance Pieces: A Book of Changes, has required not only that I culturally translate the Yijing, but that I (...) allow myself to be culturally translated in turn by this text. By combining theoretical approaches from China and the West, and by crossing between theoretical reflection and storytelling, this essay explores the complexity of this double cultural translation of readers and texts by asking what it might mean to understand, misunderstand or fail to understand a text as it is transmitted between often divergent contexts. (shrink)

In the business world, one of the key challenges is how to survive in ever changing business environments and outperforming the competitors, while keeping the operational cost at minimum and profits at maximum level. In other words, this can be described as the problem of improving operational efficiency and reducing cost. Over the past few years due to global financial challenges, it has become even more important to improve the operational efficiency and reduce costs to survive through these tough conditions. (...) Like other successful implementations of Lean philosophy, especially in automobile, aerospace, steel and healthcare, it can be applied in cable manufacturing to achieve competitive, sustainable and profitable processes. The main focus of Lean philosophy is to create value for the stakeholders and end customers by reducing the non-value added activities or waste, and laying a strong foundation towards sustainable growth, by focusing on continuous process improvement. The overall philosophy provides a focused approach for continuous process improvement and the targeting of a variety of tools and methods to bring improvements. This paper presents case studies for Lean scheduling of manufacturing processes and exemplify how Lean scheduling processes allow organisations to maintain the continuous improvement philosophy. This paper also addresses the key elements of rescheduling processes i.e. how to schedule and when to schedule. Further, the paper will exemplify key benefits of Lean scheduling and how the Cable industry could benefit from the proposed approach. (shrink)

This study aimed to explore the lived experience of the working lives of midwives in the UK who practice independently of the NHS. It was designed to understand their motivations for working in this way and to explore their beliefs and values about midwifery care with particular emphasis on their perceptions of building and maintaining relationships with childbearing women. Hermeneutic phenomenology informed the methodology for the study and an adapted biographical narrative interpretive method (Wengraf 2001) was used for data collection. (...) In depth qualitative interviews were carried out with twenty Independent midwives in the UK between 2007 & 2009. Data were analysed using Ricoeur???s theory of interpretation (Ricoeur 1981). Keys findings indicate that motivated by a very strong sense of what it means to be ???with woman???; these midwives initially chose a career path in the NHS that enabled them to better enact this philosophy. However, constraints on their ability to enact this philosophy in the NHS combined with a desire to form more meaningful relationships with childbearing women and to support their individual needs informed a final move from the NHS into independent practice. Independent midwifery is experienced as very positive career move which results in considerable job satisfaction and an opportunity to use the full range of midwifery skills. Formation of the mother midwife relationship is perceived as a pivotal midwifery tool which facilitates understanding of individual childbearing women and their needs. Ricoeur???s theory of interpretation (1981) is utilized to explain how Independent midwives form relationships with their clients in this context. The concepts of ???time???, ???autonomy??? and ???risk??? are discussed in the light of study findings, contributing a unique insight into the working lives of Independent midwives, the mother midwife relationship and enactment of the ???with woman??? philosophy in this context. The study also demonstrates that whilst there are many positive aspects of working as an Independent midwife there are also several constraints and potential vulnerabilities. These include the blurring of work/life boundaries, financial insecurity and the consequences of working with clients who often have very complex needs and particular expectations of the midwife-client relationship. Supporting women???s choices, working flexibly to meet the needs of clients and respecting their right to autonomous decision making can place Independent midwives in a position of potential vulnerability and leave them subject to professional criticism. (shrink)