We are living in an algorithmic age where mathematics and computer science are coming together in powerful new ways to influence, shape and guide our behaviour and the governance of our societies. As these algorithmic governance structures proliferate, it is vital that we ensure their effectiveness and legitimacy. That is, we need to ensure that they are an effective means for achieving a legitimate policy goal that are also procedurally fair, open and unbiased. But how can we ensure that algorithmic (...) governance structures are both? This article shares the results of a collective intelligence workshop that addressed exactly this question. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to consider barriers to legitimate and effective algorithmic governance and the research methods needed to address the nature and impact of specific barriers. An interactive management workshop technique was used to harness the collective intelligence of this multidisciplinary group. This method enabled participants to produce a framework and research agenda for those who are concerned about algorithmic governance. We outline this research agenda below, providing a detailed map of key research themes, questions and methods that our workshop felt ought to be pursued. This builds upon existing work on research agendas for critical algorithm studies in a unique way through the method of collective intelligence. (shrink)

This paper analyses some current jurisprudential and conceptual issues in evidence and procedure from the perspective of a computational legal theory. It introduces a specific investigative device, Trojans operated by police during crime investigation, and analyses whether current formal approaches to legal reasoning can be modified in such a way that the software code underlying this device can represent the relevant legal constraints that should govern its operation. We will argue that traditional formalist theories of legal reasoning are typically restricted (...) to reasoning within a system, and incapable therefore of making the notion of “legal system” sufficiently explicit. We discuss possibilities to expand on these approaches and identify the necessary elements of a computational theory of legal reasoning in an age of porous borders.Resumen:En este ensayo se analizan algunos tópicos conceptuales y filosóficos de actualidad sobre el procedimiento y las pruebas desde la óptica de una teoría del derecho computacional. En él se presenta un mecanismo específico de investigación, relativo a los “troyanos” operados por la policía durante la investigación de delitos, y analiza si los enfoques formales contemporáneos sobre el razonamiento jurídico pueden ser modificados de tal modo que el código de sofware que subyace a este mecanismo puede representar las limitaciones jurídicas relevantes que deberían regir su operación. Los autores sostienen que las teorías formalistas tradicionales del razonamiento jurídico se limitan por lo general al razonamiento dentro de un sistema y, por lo tanto, son incapaces de hacer la noción de “sistema jurídico” suficientemente explícita. Asimismo, se discuten las posibilidades de ampliar estos enfoques e identificar los elementos necesarios de una teoría computacional del razonamiento jurídico en una era de fronteras porosas. (shrink)

This article reports the findings of AI4People, an Atomium—EISMD initiative designed to lay the foundations for a “Good AI Society”. We introduce the core opportunities and risks of AI for society; present a synthesis of five ethical principles that should undergird its development and adoption; and offer 20 concrete recommendations—to assess, to develop, to incentivise, and to support good AI—which in some cases may be undertaken directly by national or supranational policy makers, while in others may be led by other (...) stakeholders. If adopted, these recommendations would serve as a firm foundation for the establishment of a Good AI Society. (shrink)

International Commentary on Evidence, 2006 Vol. 4, Issue 2, 1-47 . [link to online version posted].

The paper introduces an approach to privacy enhancing technologies that sees privacy not merely as an individual right, but as a public good. This idea finds its correspondence in our approach to privacy protection through obfuscation, where everybody in a group takes a small privacy risk to protect the anonymity of fellow group members. We show how these ideas can be computationally realised in an Investigative Data Acquisition Platform. IDAP is an efficient symmetric Private Information Retrieval protocol optimised for the (...) specific purpose of facilitating public authorities’ enquiries for evidence. (shrink)

Jon Bing was not only a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and law and the legal regulation of technology. He was also an accomplished author of fiction, with an oeuvre spanning from short stories and novels to theatre plays and even an opera. As reality catches up with the imagination of science fiction writers who have anticipated a world shared by humans and non-human intelligences of their creation, some of the copyright issues he has discussed in his academic (...) capacity take on new resonance. How will we regulate copyright when robots are producers and consumers of art? This paper tries to give a sketch of the problem and hints at possible answers that are to a degree inspired by Bing’s academic and creative writing. (shrink)

Proliferation of data processing and data storage devices in the Internet of Things poses significant privacy risks. At the same time, faster and faster use-cycles and obsolescence of devices with electronic components causes environmental problems. Some of the solutions to the environmental challenges of e-waste include mandatory recycling schemes as well as informal second hand markets. However, the data security and privacy implications of these green policies are as yet badly understood. This paper argues that based on the experience with (...) second hand markets in desktop computers, it is very likely that data that was legitimately collected under the household exception of the Data Protection Directive will “leak” into public spheres. Operators of large recycling schemes may find themselves inadvertently and unknowingly to be data controller for the purpose of Data Protection law, private resale of electronic devices can expose the prior owner to significant privacy risks. (shrink)

Following an idea first proposed by Jerzy Wróblewski, this paperexamines the usefulness of formal logic for comparative legal analysis. Subject of the comparison are the doctrines of mistake and attempt in Germanand English criminal law. These doctrines are distinguished by the interaction of deontic, epistemic and alethic modalities. I propose a purely extensional logic which is based on Leśniewski’s substitutional interpretation ofquantification to analyse differences in the logical structure of the variouscriminal law doctrines.

The paper begins with the prerequisite assumption that social deprivation is a fragile and porous category. Thus, our hypothesis is, that how people are affected by the restrictions against the spreading of the coronavirus is often discussed in far too general and simplistic terms. It is often taken as a given, that the virus and the restriction measures not only have caused severe difficulties for us all (due to social distancing, fear, affected health, etc.), but that the measures have exacerbated (...) already previously existing forms of social deprivation. Therefore, it is assumed that marginalized groups are particularly affected by these effects of the pandemic. Two major German studies show the alleged effects of the relevant measures on adolescents and emerging adults (COPSY and FIBS) against the backdrop of social and economic deprivation; their results confirmed that social deprivation entails a higher degree of being affected by the pandemic.However, this picture becomes thwarted by considering the results of 10 narrative interviews, that were conducted by us with emerging adults in a German vocational training institute between April and August 2021 and showed variegated forms of experiencing issues related to the pandemic. In our analysis, we used the method of objective hermeneutics. In this paper, we present our considerations by outlining two contrastive experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to highlight the divergent ways in which the pandemic has been experienced even among individuals who previously had been affected by social deprivation – at least at first glance – in similar ways. The conceptual lens through which we interpret these two examples is, firstly, the one of precariousness and precarity (Butler 2009). And secondly, the concept of recognition derived from Honneth’s pertinent theory and Butler’s account of recognizability will play a pivotal role. While Honneth’s approach allows us to emphasize the normative and existential role of the fulfilment of our basic desire for recognition and the detrimental implications of disregard, Butler provides us with the means to thoroughly analyse the socio-historical conditions of misrecognition and social invisibility. Moreover, Butler focuses specifically on the recognizability of precariousness (Honneth’s triad of love, being respected as a rights bearer and solidarity shows a different focus). Combining qualitative research on precarious live circumstances with a theoretical perspective on recognition can also be found in a stunning research on couples in atypical working relations (Wimbauer and Motakef 2019). Proceeding from these theories and ‘applying’ them to our empirical material, we seek to call into question a too generalizing and hegemonic picture of how people were affected by pertinent restrictions. Qualitative interviews are able to point us to significant differences in the experience of the restrictions.In terms of an outlook, we suggest that a sensitization for previously excluded kinds of experiences forms a crucial basis for a less normalizing, that is, more inclusive account of interpreting the affectedness and needs of variegated social groups; the pandemic has influenced and altered structures of the recognition of vulnerability and, by the same token, made them more explicit. It thus is an occasion for a critical engagement with the recognizability of needs, deprivation, discrimination, and related phenomena. (shrink)

The European Medical Information Framework project, funded through the IMI programme, has designed and implemented a federated platform to connect health data from a variety of sources across Europe, to facilitate large scale clinical and life sciences research. It enables approved users to analyse securely multiple, diverse, data via a single portal, thereby mediating research opportunities across a large quantity of research data. EMIF developed a code of practice to ensure the privacy protection of data subjects, protect the interests of (...) data sharing parties, comply with legislation and various organisational policies on data protection, uphold best practices in the protection of personal privacy and information governance, and eventually promote these best practices more widely. EMIF convened an Ethics Advisory Board, to provide feedback on its approach, platform, and the EcoP. The most important challenges the ECoP team faced were: how to define, control and monitor the purposes for which federated health data are used; the kinds of organisation that should be permitted to conduct permitted research; and how to monitor this. This manuscript explores those issues, offering the combined insights of the EAB and EMIF core ECoP team. For some issues, a consensus on how to approach them is proposed. For other issues, a singular approach may be premature but the challenges are summarised to help the community to debate the topic further. Arguably, the issues and their analyses have application beyond EMIF, to many research infrastructures connected to health data sources. (shrink)

This handbook offers a deep analysis of the main forms of legal reasoning and argumentation from both a logical-philosophical and legal perspective. These forms are covered in an exhaustive and critical fashion, and the handbook accordingly divides in three parts: the first one introduces and discusses the basic concepts of practical reasoning. The second one discusses the main general forms of reasoning and argumentation relevant for legal discourse. The third one looks at their application in law as well as at (...) the different areas of legal reasoning. The handbook’s division in three parts reflects its conceptual architecture, since legal reasoning and argumentation are considered in relation to the more general types of reasoning. (shrink)

This document discusses the status of research on detection and prevention of financial fraud undertaken as part of the IST European Commission funded FF POIROT (Financial Fraud Prevention Oriented Information Resources Using Ontology Technology) project. A first task has been the specification of the user requirements that define the functionality of the financial fraud ontology to be designed by the FF POIROT partners. It is claimed here that modeling fraudulent activity involves a mixture of law and facts as well as (...) inferences about facts present, facts presumed or facts missing. The purpose of this paper is to explain this abstract model and to specify the set of user requirements. (shrink)

How can digitised assets of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums be reused to unlock new value? What are the implications of viewing large-scale cultural heritage data as an economic resource, to build new products and services upon? Drawing upon valuation studies, we reflect on both the theory and practicalities of using mass-digitised heritage content as an economic driver, stressing the need to consider the complexity of commercial-based outcomes within the context of cultural and creative industries. However, we also problematise the (...) act of considering such heritage content as a resource to be exploited for economic growth, in order to inform how we consider, develop, deliver and value mass-digitisation. Our research will be of interest to those wishing to understand a rapidly changing research and innovation landscape, those considering how to engage memory institutions in data-driven activities and those critically evaluating years of mass-digitisation across the heritage sector. (shrink)

Kant's Reason develops a novel interpretation of Kant’s conception of reason and its philosophical significance, focusing on two claims. First, it argues that Kant presents a powerful model for understanding the unity of theoretical and practical reason as two manifestations of a unified capacity for theoretical and practical understanding (or “comprehension”). This model allows us to do justice to the deep commonalities between theoretical and practical rationality, without reducing either to the other. In particular, through it, we see why the (...) activities of both theoretical and practical reason are governed by a version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, while also seeing why reason is essentially autonomous. At the same time, Kant's Reason also reads Kant as presenting us with a compelling picture of the role that reason (as a capacity or power) should play in a systematic approach to foundational philosophical questions. In doing so, it argues for an account of the fundamental norms that apply to rational beings that treats as fundamental neither substantive reasons or values nor merely structural rationality, but instead a robust conception of reason as a power or capacity — namely, the capacity for theoretical and practical understanding. The result is a form of “rational constitutivism” – one which contrasts both with the forms of “reasons fundamentalism” that are currently fashionable and the forms of “agency-first constitutivism” that have dominated much of Kantian metaethics. In this sense, the aim of the book is to vindicate Kant’s insistence that his philosophy represents nothing more or less than reason’s implicit self-understanding coming to explicit and systematic self-consciousness. (shrink)

In recent years, several philosophers - including Joshua Gert, Douglas Portmore, and Elizabeth Harman - have argued that there is a sense in which morality itself does not treat moral reasons as consistently overriding.2 My aim in the present essay is to develop and extend this idea from a somewhat different perspective. In doing so, I offer an alternative way of formalizing the idea that morality is modest about the weight of moral reasons in this way, thereby making more explicit (...) the connections between this thesis and similar issues in the epistemic sphere. In addition, I discuss how these ideas can transform our thinking about familiar questions in ethics such as the nature of self-effacement, the significance of reflective endorsement, the weight that moral reasons ought to be given in all things consideration, and the plausibility of “indirect” moral theories. Finally, I show that these ideas are compatible even with pictures of morality – such as Kant’s – on which morality might seem to anything but modest about its own importance. In doing so, I stress that it is possible to see morality as modest about the weight of specifically moral reasons, while also seeing all practical reasons as grounded in morality more indirectly – namely, by seeing morality as determining the weight that both moral and non-moral considerations deserve to have in all things considered deliberation. (shrink)

No discussion of academic freedom, research integrity, and patient safety could begin with a more disquieting pair of case studies than those of Nancy Olivieri and David Healy. The cumulative impact of the Olivieri and Healy affairs has caused serious self examination within the biomedical research community. The first part of the essay analyses these recent academic scandals. The two case studies are then placed in their historical context—that context being the transformation of the norms of science through increasingly close (...) ties between research universities and the corporate world. After a literature survey of the ways in which corporate sponsorship has biased the results of clinical drug trials, two different strategies to mitigate this problem are identified and assessed: a regulatory approach, which focuses on managing risks associated with industry funding of university research, and a more radical approach, the sequestration thesis, which counsels the outright elimination of corporate sponsorship. The reformist approach is criticised and the radical approach defended. (shrink)

Schafer contends that we suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information, and explores ways to restore our ability to hear the nuances of sounds around us.

It is well known that John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine contains strong autobiographical elements. Equally, the essay is an important 19th century contribution to the development of the history of theology. Another fact is lesswell known: in the case of Newman, biography and the history of ideas go hand in hand. This article aims to explain how Newman’s personal search for a spiritual home influenced his conception of the development of Christian thought. This is done (...) by analysing Newman’s own writing as well as looking at the critical appraisal of Newman’s thought by Rowan Williams. Both authors share an interest in the development of theological ideas but differ in their opinion on the necessity of continuity in this development. (shrink)

Der Autor hat Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes aus dem Abstrakten in das Konkrete übersetzt und die einzelnen Kapitel so entschlüsselt, dass sie für alle Leser nachvollziehbar sind. Da Hegels Abstraktionen zu keiner befriedigenden Erklärung der Welt führen, fordert der Autor in seiner Kritik dazu auf, zum gesunden Menschenverstand zurückzukehren.

Levinas' erstes Hauptwerk, Totalitat und Unendlichkeit, markiert den tiefsten Einschnitt in die Geschichte der Philosophie, der nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs zu verzeichnen war. Wie kein anderes steht es ganz unter dem Eindruck radikalster Gewalt, die den europaischen Kontinent verwustet hat. Dieser Gewalt setzt Levinas die unaufhebbare Alteritat des Anderen entgegen, mit der er einen unverfugbaren, zur Verantwortung fur den Anderen bestimmenden ethischen Anspruch verbindet. So entfaltet Levinas die Grundfrage aller Sozialphilosophie, die Frage nach dem Anderen, so, dass das (...) Ausgeliefertsein an eine eminent gewaltsame Geschichte nicht "das letzte Wort" hat. Dafur hat ethisches Denken einzustehen, das Levinas als sozialphilosophisches zur vorrangigen Aufgabe einer Ersten Philosophie erklart. In einem kooperativen Kommentar wird in die grundlegende Bedeutung dieses Ansatzes auf dem aktuellen internationalen Diskussionsstand eingefuhrt. Mit Beitragen von Hans-Christoph Askani, Gabriella Baptist, Alain David, Pascal Delhom, Matthias Flatscher, Alfred Hirsch, Antje Kapust, Alwin Letzkus, Burkhard Liebsch, Sophie Loidolt, Dieter Mersch, Christian Rossner, Hans-Martin Schonherr-Mann, Christina Schues, Sergej Seitz, Werner Stegmaier und Bernhard Taureck. (shrink)

In broad outlines, the first of these claims that beliefs and other cognitive states, on their own, can never motivate a new desire, intention, or action. Rather, on this view, what motivates us to desire, intend, or act is always the cooperation of some desire (or other conative state) with such cognitive states. Thus, on HTM, practical motivation is always the product of two fundamentally distinct categories of mental states operating in conjunction with one another.

This paper offers an economic analysis of one aspect of the possible liability for incorrect information traded on information markets: expert liability for incorrect asset valuation. The article does not address the questions of whether and under what circumstances an expert should bear contractual liability for an incorrect valuation. Rather, it assumes such contractual liability towards the person who has solicited the opinion and focuses instead on analyzing the circumstances under which the expert’s liability should be extended to third parties (...) as well. (shrink)

Im Zentrum des Buches steht ein kurzer Traktat des Albinos, der sogenannte Prologos. Albinos ist geistesgeschichtlich dem Mittelplatonismus zuzuordnen, der Phase des antiken Platonismus, die dem um 250 n.Chr. einsetzenden Neuplatonismus Plotins vorausging. Der antike Autor fuhrt den Leser seines Prologos mit folgenden Fragen an die Dialoge Platons heran: Was ist ein Dialog? In welche Typen lassen sich die Platonischen Dialoge einteilen? Mit welchem Dialog soll das Studium der Platonischen Dialoge beginnen? Welche Anordnung der Dialoge ist Platons Philosophie angemessen? Der (...) Prologos wurde in der alteren Forschung aus verschiedenen Grunden vernachlassigt: Zum einen glaubte man, die philosophische Position des Albinos besser aus dem umfangreicheren Didaskalikos, der ihm zunachst zugewiesen wurde, rekonstruieren zu konnen; zum anderen sahen die meisten Forscher in dem Prologos nur eine schlecht gearbeitete Zusammenfassung (Epitome). Diese Vorurteile grundeten auf der Monographie "Der Platoniker Albinos und der falsche Alkinoos", die J. Freudenthal 1879 publizierte. Seit einigen Jahren wird der Didaskalikos jedoch wieder Alkinoos, einem nur in den Handschriften auftauchenden und ansonsten unbekannten Autor, zugewiesen. Somit wurde der Weg fur eine unvoreingenommene Neubewertung des Prologos frei.Das Buch beginnt mit einem Uberblick uber die Forschungsgeschichte zum Prologos. Ein Durchgang durch Leben, Werk und Lehren des Albinos mundet in eine Einordnung des Traktats unter die Testimonien zu Albinos und dessen Lehrer Gaios. In einem dritten Abschnitt wird in dem Buch die zentrale Frage diskutiert, worum es sich bei dem Prologos handelt, um ein Exzerpt oder eine Epitome. Aus einer philologischen und philosophiehistorischen Untersuchung der Textstellen, die von Freudenthal in seiner oben erwahnten Monographie als verderbt beanstandet wurden, geht hervor, dass es sich bei dem Prologos um ein Exzerpt und nicht um eine Epitome handelt. In einem vierten Kapitel wird mittels eines formalen und funktionalen Vergleichs des Prologos mit spateren Einfuhrungsschriften dessen spezifischer Charakter herausgearbeitet: Der Prologos gibt sich als unkorrigierte Mitschrift einer Vorlesung zu erkennen und gewahrt als solche Einblick in den Horsaal eines Platonikers der Kaiserzeit. In einem langeren funften Abschnitt wird die handschriftliche Uberlieferung dargelegt und kritisch betrachtet. Reis beschreibt hier ausfuhrlich 21 griechische Handschriften und eine lateinische Ubersetzung unter kodikologischen, historischen und palaographischen Gesichtspunkten. Die Verflechtung der Textgeschichte mit derjenigen Platons und spaterer Platoniker macht diese Untersuchung wunschenswert. Die Abhangigkeit der Handschriften voneinander wird ermittelt, worauf eine kritische Edition des Prologos folgt. Die beigegebene Ubersetzung macht den Text auch interessierten Nicht-Grazisten zuganglich. (shrink)

In der 1970 gegründeten Reihe erscheinen Arbeiten, die philosophiehistorische Studien mit einem systematischen Ansatz oder systematische Studien mit philosophiehistorischen Rekonstruktionen verbinden. Neben deutschsprachigen werden auch englischsprachige Monographien veröffentlicht. Gründungsherausgeber sind: Erhard Scheibe (Herausgeber bis 1991), Günther Patzig (bis 1999) und Wolfgang Wieland (bis 2003). Von 1990 bis 2007 wurde die Reihe von Jürgen Mittelstraß mitherausgegeben.