No hubo que esperar el Renacimiento florentino para que se produjera una revolución en la concepción del artista. Casi un siglo antes, en 1359[1], el escultor Andrea Orcagna esculpió un discreto medallón, situado en un ángulo inferior del tabernáculo de la iglesia de Orsanmichele en Florencia[2] que constituye todo un manifiesto visible sobre el nuevo estatuto del artista y su misión: en aquél se asoma, en medio de un pequeño marco trilobulado, una figura femenina con un gran compás de dos (...) puntas en la mano, muy visible (el objeto puede tener más de setenta centímetro de alto), que una inscripción identifica como la Templanza (en griego Sôphrosyne). Se trata de una alegoría de una de las cuatro virtudes cardinales cristianas (las que daban acceso a los cardines, las juntas de las puertas del cielo), junto con la Prudencia, la Justicia y la Fortaleza, tomadas en último término de la “teología” (o lista de virtudes necesarias para la vida del alma) platónica -una de las grandes aportaciones de Platón a la comprensión y la importancia de de la vida interior-. (shrink)

Judges in multiple US states, such as New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California, and Florida, receive a prediction of defendants’ recidivism risk, generated by the COMPAS algorithm. If judges act on these predictions, they implicitly delegate normative decisions to proprietary software, even beyond the previously documented race and age biases. Using the ProPublica dataset, we demonstrate that COMPAS predictions favor jailing over release. COMPAS is biased against defendants. We show that this bias can largely be removed. Our proposed (...) correction increases overall accuracy, and attenuates anti-black and anti-young bias. However, it also slightly increases the risk that defendants are released who commit a new crime before tried. We argue that this normative decision should not be buried in the code. The tradeoff between the interests of innocent defendants and of future victims should not only be made transparent. The algorithm should be changed such that the legislator and the courts do make this choice. (shrink)

El presente artículo aborda la profunda relación de Nietzsche con el lenguaje desde la perspectiva de la filosofía, de la filología y de la poesía. Son reflexiones que remiten al interés del filósofo por la retórica, del filólogo por el estilo, y del poeta que hace uso del lenguaje lírico. Se analizarán cuestiones básicas en la escritura de Nietzsche como la musicalidad, el ritmo, el tono, la metáfora y el carácter dialógico de sus textos.

Machine learning classifiers are increasingly used to inform, or even make, decisions significantly affecting human lives. Fairness concerns have spawned a number of contributions aimed at both identifying and addressing unfairness in algorithmic decision-making. This paper critically discusses the adoption of group-parity criteria (e.g., demographic parity, equality of opportunity, treatment equality) as fairness standards. To this end, we evaluate the use of machine learning methods relative to different steps of the decision-making process: assigning a predictive score, linking a classification to (...) the score, and adopting decisions based on the classification. Throughout our inquiry we use the COMPAS system, complemented by a radical simplification of it (our SAPMOC I and SAPMOC II models), as our running examples. Through these examples, we show how a system that is equally accurate for different groups may fail to comply with group-parity standards, owing to different base rates in the population. We discuss the general properties of the statistics determining the satisfaction of group-parity criteria and levels of accuracy. Using the distinction between scoring, classifying, and deciding, we argue that equalisation of classifications/decisions between groups can be achieved thorough group-dependent thresholding. We discuss contexts in which this approach may be meaningful and useful in pursuing policy objectives. We claim that the implementation of group-parity standards should be left to competent human decision-makers, under appropriate scrutiny, since it involves discretionary value-based political choices. Accordingly, predictive systems should be designed in such a way that relevant policy goals can be transparently implemented. Our paper presents three main contributions: (1) it addresses a complex predictive system through the lens of simplified toy models; (2) it argues for selective policy interventions on the different steps of automated decision-making; (3) it points to the limited significance of statistical notions of fairness to achieve social goals. (shrink)

From the second half of the 10th century, mathematicians developed a new chapter in the geometry of conic sections, dealing with the theory and practice of their continuous drawing. In this article, we propose to sketch the history of this chapter in the writings of al-Qūhī and al-Sijzī. A hitherto unknown treatise by al-Sijzī - established, translated, and commented - has enabled us better to situate and understand the themes of this new research, and how it eventually approached the problem (...) of the classification of curves in previously unknown terms. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 1, Page 39-40, January 2012.

Principles of fairness and solidarity in AI ethics regularly overlap, creating obscurity in practice: acting in accordance with one can appear indistinguishable from deciding according to the rules of the other. However, there exist irregular cases where the two concepts split, and so reveal their disparate meanings and uses. This paper explores two cases in AI medical ethics – one that is irregular and the other more conventional – to fully distinguish fairness and solidarity. Then the distinction is applied to (...) the frequently cited COMPAS versus ProPublica dispute in judicial ethics. The application provides a broader model for settling contemporary and topical debates about fairness and solidarity. It also implies a deeper and disorienting truth about AI ethics principles and their justification. (shrink)

This paper examines the practice of using predictive systems to lengthen the prison sentences of convicted persons when the systems forecast a higher likelihood of re-offense or re-arrest. There has been much critical discussion of technologies used for sentencing, including questions of bias and opacity. However, there hasn’t been a discussion of whether this use of predictive systems makes sense in the first place. We argue that it does not by showing that there is no plausible theory of punishment that (...) supports it. (shrink)

In the highly contentious abortion arena, the new oral abortifacient technology RU486 is one among many actors. This article offers an arena analysis of the heterogeneous constructions of RU486 by various actors, including scientists, pharmaceutical compa nies, medical groups, antiabortion groups, women's health movement groups, and others who have produced situated knowledges. Conceptually, we find not only that the identity of the nonhuman actor-RU486 -is unstable and multiple but also that, in practice, there are other implicated actors—the downstream users and (...) consumers of the technology. If we try to follow all the actors, we find a fuller and more historicized arena, and, ironically, we too can be construed as implicated actors in it. (shrink)

Algorithmic systems and predictive analytics play an increasingly important role in various aspects of modern life. Scholarship on the moral ramifications of such systems is in its early stages, and much of it focuses on bias and harm. This paper argues that in understanding the moral salience of algorithmic systems it is essential to understand the relation between algorithms, autonomy, and agency. We draw on several recent cases in criminal sentencing and K–12 teacher evaluation to outline four key ways in (...) which issues of agency, autonomy, and respect for persons can conflict with algorithmic decision-making. Three of these involve failures to treat individual agents with the respect they deserve. The fourth involves distancing oneself from a morally suspect action by attributing one’s decision to take that action to an algorithm, thereby laundering one’s agency. (shrink)

Recent studies have shown that recidivism scoring algorithms like COMPAS have significant racial bias: Black defendants are roughly twice as likely as white defendants to be mistakenly classified as medium- or high-risk. This has led some to call for abolishing COMPAS. But many others have argued that algorithms should instead be given access to a defendant's race, which, perhaps counterintuitively, is likely to improve outcomes. This approach can involve either establishing race-sensitive risk thresholds, or distinct racial ‘tracks’. Is (...) there a moral difference between these two approaches? We first consider Deborah Hellman's view that the use of distinct racial tracks (but not distinct thresholds) does not constitute disparate treatment since the effects on individuals are indirect and does not rely on a racial generalization. We argue that this is mistaken: the use of different racial tracks seems both to have direct effects on and to rely on a racial generalization. We then offer an alternative understanding of the distinction between these two approaches—namely, that the use of different cut points is to the counterfactual comparative disadvantage, ex ante, of all white defendants, while the use of different racial tracks can in principle be to the advantage of all groups, though some defendants in both groups will fare worse. Does this mean that the use of cut points is impermissible? Ultimately, we argue, while there are reasons to be skeptical of the use of distinct cut points, it is an open question whether these reasons suffice to make a difference to their moral permissibility. (shrink)

We introduce _Interleave-Disjunction-Lock parallel multiple context-free grammars_ (IDL-PMCFG), a novel grammar formalism designed to describe the syntax of free word order languages that allow for extensive interleaving of grammatical constituents. Though interleaved constituents, and especially the so-called hyperbaton, are common in several ancient (Classical Latin and Greek, Sanskrit...) and modern (Hungarian, Finnish...) languages, these syntactic structures are often difficult to express in existing formalisms. The IDL-PMCFG formalism combines Seki et al.’s parallel multiple context-free grammars (PMCFG) with Nederhof and Satta’s IDL (...) expressions. We define the semantics of IDL-PMCFGs and study their expressivity, proving that IDL-PMCFG extends both PMCFG and IDL-CFG (context-free grammars equipped with IDL expressions) and that IDL-PMCFG parsing is \(\mathrm {NP}\) -hard. We then introduce COMPĀ, a programming language extending Ranta’s Grammatical Framework (GF) and built as a high-level front-end formalism to IDL-PMCFG for practical grammar development. We present a parsing algorithm for IDL-PMCFG inspired by earlier Earley-style PMCFG parsing algorithms and Nederhof and Satta’s IDL graphs and give a worst-case estimate of its complexity as a function of several metrics on IDL expressions, the size of the input and a new notion of the _G_-density of a language. (shrink)

Medical expertise plays a major role in large-scale welfare arrangements, for example, in private insurance companies. It symbolizes the objectivity and reliability of the procedures of risk selection and legitimates the acceptance and rejection of clients. To understand "reliability" in this context, this article discusses the introduction of chemical urine analysis for life insurance examination between 1880 and 1920. The article argues that reliability of urine analysis is not an intrinsic characteristic of the technology and thus cannot serve as the (...) explanation for the relevance of this technology as a means of risk selection. The construction of a "reliable technology" went hand in hand with the development of a standardized, uniform, and predictable performance of the test and an emergence of specific network—namely, a large-scale, bureaucratic insurance practice in which examination rooms of physicians became connected to the head offices of insurance companies by administrative means. During this process, the balance of power between medical examiners and insurance companies was reversed. Insurance compa nies depended on medicine for risk selection, but physicians increasingly had to act according to the rules set by life insurance companies. (shrink)

When agents insert technological systems into their decision-making processes, they can obscure moral responsibility for the results. This can give rise to a distinct moral wrong, which we call “agency laundering.” At root, agency laundering involves obfuscating one’s moral responsibility by enlisting a technology or process to take some action and letting it forestall others from demanding an account for bad outcomes that result. We argue that the concept of agency laundering helps in understanding important moral problems in a number (...) of recent cases involving automated, or algorithmic, decision-systems. We apply our conception of agency laundering to a series of examples, including Facebook’s automated advertising suggestions, Uber’s driver interfaces, algorithmic evaluation of K-12 teachers, and risk assessment in criminal sentencing. We distinguish agency laundering from several other critiques of information technology, including the so-called “responsibility gap,” “bias laundering,” and masking. (shrink)

El libro titulado “los avances del Derecho ante los avances de la medicina”, fruto de un Congreso internacional organizado por la Universidad Pontifica Comillas de Madrid en junio de 2008, recoge numerosos trabajos científicos en torno a cuatro grandes ámbitos en los que el legislador y el juzgador español están haciendo avanzar el Derecho al compás del avance en la ciencia médica: avances en la responsabilidad medica tanto civil, como patrimonial y penal; avances en la tutela de los derechos de (...) los pacientes, avances en los desafios jurídicos que plantea la investigación biomédica y avances en la seguridad de los pacientes. (shrink)

En la segunda parte de su trabajo, Boissier trata en profundidad el carácter y constitución del círculo de los Escipiones y su modulación de la humanitas al compás de sus relaciones con el helenismo. Si bien primero se detiene en deslindar las herencias y distancias entre el teatro de Terencio y el de Plauto y su tratamiento de la intimidad romana. Abordará a continuación el problema del cosmopolitismo de filiación helénica y su relación con el patriotismo romano de la mano (...) de Cicerón para terminar con una reflexión presentista que dice tanto de la Roma clásica como de la visión que Boissier tenía de su presente. (shrink)

María Zambrano Alarcón fue una filósofa metafísica española que vivió de lleno el siglo XX al compás de su circunstancia. Comprometida con los hechos más significativos de su tiempo, pertenece a la generación que algunos llaman "de la libertad", precedida de grandes maestros como Ortega, Unamuno, Machado y otros, preocupados todos por España, aspirando a una nueva sociedad y, según María, a una "nueva forma de vida". Durante la segunda mitad del siglo, Zambrano vivió en el exilio, donde dedicó cuarenta (...) años a plasmar su pensamiento en una obra tan extensa como intensa, labor que la sitúa entre las intelectuales europeas como Arendt o Weil, quienes por primera vez aportan al pensamiento filosófico una huella profundamente femenina aún por estudiar. Su metafísica se enmarca en la tradición occidental, cuyo objetivo principal es el universo y la vida humana. Discípula de Ortega y Gasset, su visión del hombre es la de un ser que se hace a base de nacimientos y renacimientos que lo ponen en movimiento espiritual, según su proyecto vital o vocación. Para María, la forma de la vida del hombre es la manera de vivir, la de su ética y su estética, la de la cultura a la que pertenece, el molde en el que se imprime. Y una vida será aquella que sepa discurrir por su tiempo a la manera despierta y libre como debe estarlo el hombre. (shrink)

I argue that we are wrong in thinking that all assertive sentences reflect reality. My argument is grounded on the semantics of comparative sentences. I also contend that utterances are designed to fit reality. My view relies on the idea that the notion of truth fit for sentences – a metalinguistic notion – is not metaphysical in nature, while a notion of truth capturing our intuitions concerning utterances of comparative sentences is. In that respect, intuitions concerning utterances of compa-rative sentences (...) have a metaphysical aspect.Argumento que estamos equivocados ao pensar que toda sentença assertiva reflete a realidade. Meu argumento está fundamentado na semântica de sentenças comparativas. Também defendo que proferimentos são feitos para se encaixar na realidade. Minha visão está baseada na idéia de que a noção de verdade adequada para sentenças – uma noção metalingüística – não é de natureza metafísica, enquanto que uma noção de verdade que capture nossas intuições sobre proferimentos de sentenças comparativas é desta natureza. Neste aspecto, intuições sobre proferimentos de sentenças comparativas têm um aspecto metafísico. (shrink)

Data-driven, decision-making technologies used in the justice system to inform decisions about bail, parole, and prison sentencing are biased against historically marginalized groups (Angwin, Larson, Mattu, & Kirchner 2016). But these technologies’ judgments—which reproduce patterns of wrongful discrimination embedded in the historical datasets that they are trained on—are well-evidenced. This presents a puzzle: how can we account for the wrong these judgments engender without also indicting morally permissible statistical inferences about persons? I motivate this puzzle and attempt an answer.

It is with great sadness that I record the death of Francisco Varela, who passed away at his home in Paris, on May 28, 2001. With his passing, the science of consciousness has lost one of its most brilliant, original, creative, and compas- sionate thinkers.

Este artículo aborda el aspecto poco estudiado de la ambigüedad moral y jurídica del verdugo —quien históricamente ha permitido al poder político la posibilidad de negación de la violencia moralmente repudiable—, a partir del análisis compa- rativo de tres casos míticos e históricos: 1) el suplicio del capitán Añasco a manos de la Gaitana durante la Conquista, 2) el martirio de Becket provocado por los caballeros de Enrique II de Inglaterra y 3) las masacres de liberales en la cordillera occidental (...) colombiana durante la Violencia. Se demuestra que la legitimidad de la violencia cruel se encuentra ligada a los conceptos de deber y sacrificio, pero requiere también una posibilidad de negación que preserve la moralidad de la au- toridad. Un demonio sin instrucciones que ejecuta autónomamente una voluntad colectiva de castigo aparece como mecanismo histórico necesario para modular la relación que el poder político mantiene con la crueldad funcional a sus fines. (shrink)

Este artículo ofrece una revisión sistemática de los debates sobre el anglo-eurocentrismo en los currículos universitarios de filosofía, enfocándose en la necesidad de mayor diversidad cultural. A partir de la revisión de 52 estudios de la última década, se distinguen seis debates principales que develan las implicaciones del anglo-eurocentrismo en la filosofía académica: 1) reconocer el etnocentrismo anglo-eurocéntrico en la identidad disciplinaria de la filosofía, 2) tomarse en serio el multiculturalismo filosófico, 3) recurrir en todo o en parte a las (...) filosofías comparadas, 4) buscar la diversidad mediante la filosofía intercultural, 5) girar la tuerca: de la normalización de la colonialidad filosófica a la interculturalidad nuestroamericana, y 6) incorporar las lecciones africanas contemporáneas para la diversificación del currículo filosófico. El artículo proporciona una guía orientativa de estos debates, resaltando las premisas y tesis en juego. Finalmente, se concluye con la sugerencia de repensar los currículos de los programas académicos de filosofía de las universidades colombianas al compás de la Política de educación superior inclusiva e intercultural. (shrink)

La Preisfrage de 1763 était, à l’époque, incroyablement actuelle. En effet, autour de 1761, à l’Académie de Berlin et en dehors d’elle, une somme de facteurs vint menacer la supériorité incontestée de la méthode démonstrative. Même si l’optimisme suscité par les mathématiques était encore victorieux, le paradigme de la certitude absolue était imperceptiblement en train de se transformer. On se distanciait d’un certain cartésianisme et, pour utiliser le mot de Voltaire, au « compas de la mathématique » on ajoutait (...) « le flambeau de l’expérience ». On jugeait le réquisit pur de la déduction logique trop élevé pour l’entendement humain, et l’on avait tendance à souligner les traits sensibles du plan syntaxique des figures géométriques ou des preuves des faits. Cette circonspection concernant la rhétorique de la démonstrationest bien visible dans les pages anonymes des réponses à cette Preisfrage : la plupart sont favorables à l’évidence géométrique en métaphysique, mais le scepticisme vis à vis des démonstrations mathématiques inflexibles est palpable. Le pruritus demonstrandi contenait-il déjà en lui-même, par son outrance, le germe du futur dédain pour les démonstrations en philosophie ? (shrink)

L’articolo si propone di mostrare alcuni aspetti della strategia platonica nella Repubblica. L’analisi è condotta ricostruendo in primo luogo il modo in cui si presentava a Platone la questione della giustizia, con particolare riferimento alla tradizione relativa a Dike e alla crisi della cultura cittadina ateniese, tra V e IV secolo; in secondo luogo segnala il rapporto ambivalente che Platone intrat¬tiene con la cultura socratica della giustizia interiore; si indirizza infine a mostrare le modalità costruttive con cui Platone propone di (...) risolvere il conflitto nell’anima e nella città, ricorrendo ad una poli¬tica delle emozioni che non necessariamente esclude la compas¬sione.This article intends to illustrate some aspects of the platonic strategy in the Republic. The analysis is carried out at first by revising the way in which Plato was faced with the question of justice, with particular emphasis on the Dike’s tradition and on the crisis of the Athenian urban culture, between the Vth and IVth centuries; secondly, it points out Plato’s ambivalent relationship with the Socratic culture of inner justice; it finally underlines the structural procedures according to which Plato intends to solve the conflict in the soul and in the city and to realize forms of social identity, resorting to a policy of emotions which does non necessarily exclude compassion. (shrink)

El uso de los Salmos en el NT refleja los desarrollos en la tradición judía del segundo tem- plo en la que surgió el movimiento de Jesús. En particular la conside- ración de los Salmos como escri - tura, la “Davidización” del “libro” de Salmos y la visión de David dotado de inspiración profética, que hace que los Salmos adquieran la condición de profecía de propó- sitos divinos. Sin embargo, compa- rar el uso de ciertos Salmos en el NT con (...) el uso de Salmos en otros escritos judíos del segundo templo revela un patrón distintivo y una interpretación que refleja las expe- riencias y convicciones novedosas del naciente movimiento de Jesús. (shrink)

Algorithm-assisted decision procedures—including some of the most high-profile ones, such as COMPAS—have been described as unfair because they compound injustice. The complaint is that in such procedures a decision disadvantaging members of a certain group is based on information reflecting the fact that the members of the group have already been unjustly disadvantaged. I assess this reasoning. First, I distinguish the anti-compounding duty from a related but distinct duty—the proportionality duty—from which at least some of the intuitive appeal of (...) the former illegitimately derives. Second, I distinguish between different versions of the anti-compounding duty, arguing that, on some versions, uses of algorithm-assisted decision procedures rarely clash with the anti-compounding duty. Third, drawing on examples of algorithm-assisted decision procedures, I present three objections to the idea that there is a reason not to compound injustice. The most important of these is that one can compound injustice in a non-disrespectful way, and that the wrongfulness of non-disrespectfully compounding injustice is fully explained by the proportionality duty. (shrink)

This paper addresses the question of the ethical significance of the theory of evolution in W. R. Sorley’s The Ethics of Naturalism. Sorley’s treatment is compa...