Artificial Intelligence (AI) often outperforms human doctors in terms of decisional speed. For some diseases, the expected benefit of a fast but less accurate decision exceeds the benefit of a slow but more accurate one. In such cases, we argue, it is often justified to rely on a medical AI to maximise decision speed – even if the AI is less accurate than human doctors.

This paper concerns the double standard debate in the ethics of AI literature. This debate essentially revolves around the question of whether we should subject AI systems to different normative standards than humans. So far, the debate has centered around the desideratum of transparency. That is, the debate has focused on whether AI systems must be more transparent than humans in their decision-making processes in order for it to be morally permissible to use such systems. Some have argued that the (...) same standards of transparency should be applied across the board, for AI systems and humans alike. Others have argued that we should hold AI systems to higher standards than humans in terms of transparency. In this paper, we first point out that there are structurally similar double standard debates to be had about other desiderata besides transparency, such as predictive accuracy. Second, we argue that when we focus on predictive accuracy, there are at least two reasons for holding AI systems to a lower standard than humans. (shrink)

The stakes associated with an algorithmic decision are often said to play a role in determining whether the decision engenders a right to an explanation. More specifically, “high stakes” decisions are often said to engender such a right to explanation whereas “low stakes” or “non-high” stakes decisions do not. While the overall gist of these ideas is clear enough, the details are lacking. In this paper, we aim to provide these details through a detailed investigation of what we will call (...) the “Simple Stakes Thesis”. The Simple Stakes Thesis, as it will turn out, is too simple. For even if the stakes associated with a specific one-off decision are low—and hence does not engender a right to an explanation—such decisions may nevertheless form part of a high stakes pattern or aggregate of decisions. In such cases, we argue, even a low stakes decision may engender a right to explanation. Not only does this show that the right to explanation is more demanding than so far recognized. It also shows that the stakes thesis is significantly harder to apply in practice. (shrink)

Many seem to think that AI-induced responsibility gaps are morally bad and therefore ought to be avoided. We argue, by contrast, that there is at least a pro tanto reason to welcome responsibility gaps. The central reason is that it can be bad for people to be responsible for wrongdoing. This, we argue, gives us one reason to prefer automated decision-making over human decision-making, especially in contexts where the risks of wrongdoing are high. While we are not the first to (...) suggest that responsibility gaps should sometimes be welcomed, our argument is novel. Others have argued that responsibility gaps should sometimes be welcomed because they can reduce or eliminate the psychological burdens caused by tragic moral choice-situations. By contrast, our argument explains why responsibility gaps should sometimes be welcomed even in the absence of tragic moral choice-situations, and even in the absence of psychological burdens. (shrink)

Hitchcock (2001a) argues that the distinction between singular and general causation conflates the two distinctions ‘actual causation vs. causal tendencies’ and ‘wide vs. narrow causation’. Based on a recent regularity account of causation I will show that Hitchcock’s introduction of the two distinctions is an unnecessary multiplication of causal concepts.

Christian Jakob Kraus (1753–1807), political economist and Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Königsberg, has long been neglected by historians, dismissed as a translator, a teacher, and a derivative disciple of Adam Smith. This article posits sociability as a useful category for understanding Kraus’s life, thought, and legacy. It aims to thereby reposition him as a meaningful figure in the late German Enlightenment. First, Kraus is presented as a natural Einsiedler who, surrounded by the commercially vibrant (...) Königsberg, comes to champion a methodology foregrounding praxis, lived experience, and the application of ideas for communal benefit. This ‘sociable’ approach to knowledge is contextualised within broader critiques of scholarly esotericism across Germany. Second, his work is treated as a case study elucidating the interdependence of individualism and sociability in the wider European Enlightenment. I argue that Kraus expressed a ‘sociable individualism,’ drawing upon Smith and Immanuel Kant, which harmonised autonomy and community. (shrink)

Recently, scholars have disputed whether Locke's political theory should be read as the groundwork of secular liberalism or as a Protestant political theology. Focusing on Locke's mature theory of toleration, the article raises a central question: What if these two readings are compatible? That is, what would be the consequences if Locke's political philosophy has theological foundations, but has also given shape to secular liberalism? Examining Locke's theory in the Letter Concerning Toleration , the article argues that this is indeed (...) the case. The liberal model of toleration is a secularization of the theology of Christian liberty and its division of society into a temporal political kingdom and the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Therefore, when liberal toleration travels beyond the boundaries of the Christian West or when western societies become multicultural, it threatens to lose its intelligibility. (shrink)

This book concentrates upon how economic rationalities have been embedded into particular historical practices, cultures, and moral systems. Through multiple case-studies, situated in different historical contexts of the modern West, the book shows that the development of economic rationalities takes place in the meeting with other regimes of thought, values, and moral discourses. The book offers new and refreshing insights, ranging from the development of early economic thinking to economic aspects and concepts in the works of classical thinkers such as (...) Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Karl Marx, to the role of economic reasoning in contemporary policies of art and health care. With economic rationalities as the read thread, the reader is offered a unique chance of historical self-awareness and recollection of how economic rationality became the powerful ideological and moral force that it is today. (shrink)

In life, identity is based on many things. In death, people tend to be identified more on the basis of religion: separate cemeteries for Jews, Buddhists and the Plymouth Brethren, separate quarters for Muslims, Yezidis, Bahá’í and Orthodox Christians. However, it is not true that cemeteries are only a place for religious division. They are also public spaces and, as such, places where people from all walks of life go. Cemeteries are places where religious preferences and customs are negotiated in (...) a very special way. In this article, practical and theological aspects of cemeteries are discussed from an inter-religious point of view. What areas of conflict are there? How do people of different faiths reflect on each other and the option of cohabiting in death? To what extent are the preferences of different religious groups met in Swedish cemeteries? To some extent, these practical and theological questions pertaining to cemeteries may serve as a lens that sharpens our eyes to challenges of religious freedom and our chance to live (and die) together. (shrink)

Recently, scholars have disputed whether Locke's political theory should be read as the groundwork of secular liberalism or as a Protestant political theology. Focusing on Locke's mature theory of toleration, the article raises a central question: What if these two readings are compatible? That is, what would be the consequences if Locke's political philosophy has theological foundations, but has also given shape to secular liberalism? Examining Locke's theory in the Letter Concerning Toleration, the article argues that this is indeed the (...) case. The liberal model of toleration is a secularization of the theology of Christian liberty and its division of society into a temporal political kingdom and the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Therefore, when liberal toleration travels beyond the boundaries of the Christian West or when western societies become multicultural, it threatens to lose its intelligibility. (shrink)

The book explores ancient interpretations and usages of the famous Delphic maxim “know yourself”. The primary emphasis is on Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman sources from the first four centuries CE. The individual contributions examine both direct quotations of the maxim as well as more distant echoes. Most of the sources included in the book have never previously been studied in any detail with a view to their use and interpretation of the Delphic maxim. Thus, the book contributes significantly to (...) the origin and different interpretations of the maxim in antiquity as well as to its reception history in ancient philosophical and theological discourses. The chapters of the book are linked to each other by numerous cross-references which makes it possible to compare the different views of the maxim with each other. It also helps readers to notice relationships and trajectories within the material. The explorations of the relevant sources are also set in the context of ongoing debates about the shape and nature of ancient conceptions of self and self-knowledge. The book thus demonstrates the wide variety of philosophical and theological approaches in that the injunction to know oneself could be viewed and how these interpretations provide windows into ancient discourses about self and self-knowledge. (shrink)

In this article our aim is to present some of the coordinates of the debate around common good. Starting by recognizing the importance of common good for the Christian worldview after the presence of it in St. Paul’s “the manifestation of Spirit is given for the common good”, we will present two ways of interpreting the development of our moral and emotional tendencies that have to do with two different evolutionary approaches. By the end of the article, we hope (...) to have established the argumental advantage of the cooperativist in front of the social Darwinist, opening the possibility for a possible interpretation of evolution as guided towards common good. (shrink)

Inheritance is about cold cash and warm emotions. On a macroeconomic level inherited wealth is a source of inequality, but on a personal level it is a gift between relatives that can involve gratitude, but also a sense of obligation and duty continuity, but also conflicts. These perspectives often clash in public discussions about inheritance law and taxation. This article discusses the implicit notions about inheritance and their relationship to positions in the public debate in three Danish filmic works: Per (...) Fly’s Inheritance (2003), first season of the TV-series The Heirs (2014) and Christian Sønderby Jepsen’s The Will (2011). (shrink)

In den letzten 25 Jahren hat das chinesische Recht eine beeindruckende Entwicklung erfahren. In zunehmendem Maße wird es Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen, und in Deutschland erscheinen in immer größerer Zahl Publikationen, die das chinesische Recht für die Rechtsvergleichung erschließen oder es rechtsvergleichend mit anderen Rechtsordnungen erörtern. In der neuen Schriftenreihe Schriften zum chinesischen Recht, die im Auftrag der Deutsch-Chinesischen Juristenvereinigung von Professor Dr. Uwe Blaurock, Freiburg, Professor Dr. Ulrich Manthe, Passau, Dr. Knut B. Pißler, Hamburg, und Professorin Dr. Christiane Wendehorst, Göttingen, (...) herausgegeben wird, sollen in erster Linie Monographien, wie etwa herausragende Dissertationen oder Habilitationsschriften erscheinen, darüber hinaus aber auch Tagungsbände sowie kommentierte Übersetzungen wichtiger chinesischer Gesetze oder zweisprachige Gesetzessammlungen. Es soll hiermit der wissenschaftliche Gedankenaustausch mit China gefördert und für rechtsvergleichend arbeitende Juristen eine Publikationsplattform geschaffen werden. Ein besonderer Gesichtspunkt ist dabei auch der Praxisbezug der veröffentlichten Werke. Die Herausgeber hoffen, dass die Schriften zum chinesischen Recht künftig einen wesentlichen Bestandteil des rechtlichen Dialogs zwischen Deutschland und China bilden werden und wünschen ihnen eine wohlwollende Aufnahme in der juristischen Öffentlichkeit. (shrink)

Selon Fries, si la philosophie post-kantienne annule les principaux résultats de la révolution critique, une telle erreur d’interprétation a été rendue possible par certaines ambiguités de la théorie kantienne : Kant n’a pas su rigoureusement distinguer la connaissance transcendantale de son objet, à savoir la connaissance a priori ; ce qui l’a ainsi conduit à la tenir elle-même pour une connaissance a priori et à manquer ainsi son caractère psycho-empirique. Cette lecture critique de Kant, qui constituera le fil conducteur de (...) ses œuvres ultérieures, est déjà présente dans la première publication de Fries, « Sur le rapport de la psychologie empirique à la métaphysique » (1798) que nous traduisons ici en français. (shrink)

Professeur à Iéna, berceau historique de l'idéalisme allemand, Fries (1773-1843) y incarne une autre postérité du kantisme. Il tient la voie dans laquelle la philosophie s'est engagée après Kant pour un néodogmatisme et entreprend une critique psychologique - ou anthropologique - de la raison.

Early modern political thought transformed toleration from a prudential consideration into a moral obligation. Three questions need to be answered by any explanation of this transition: Did religious toleration really become an obligation of the state in this period? If this was the case, how could tolerating heresy and idolatry possibly become a moral duty to Christians? How could Europeans both condemn practices as idolatrous and immoral, and yet insist that these practices ought to be tolerated? To answer these questions, (...) the article shows how the early policy of toleration in British India was constituted by a Protestant theological framework. Toleration turned into a moral obligation, it is argued, because the Reformation had identified liberty in the religious realm as God's will for humanity. This gave rise to a dynamic in which Christian states and churches were continuously challenged for their violations of religious liberty. The principle of toleration developed as a part of this dynamic. (shrink)

Die Gotteslehre des Hugo von St. Victor - nebst einer einleitenden Untersuchung über Hugos Leben und seine hervorragendsten Werke ist ein unveränderter, hochwertiger Nachdruck der Originalausgabe aus dem Jahr 1897. Hansebooks ist Herausgeber von Literatur zu unterschiedlichen Themengebieten wie Forschung und Wissenschaft, Reisen und Expeditionen, Kochen und Ernährung, Medizin und weiteren Genres. Der Schwerpunkt des Verlages liegt auf dem Erhalt historischer Literatur. Viele Werke historischer Schriftsteller und Wissenschaftler sind heute nur noch als Antiquitäten erhältlich. Hansebooks verlegt diese Bücher neu und (...) trägt damit zum Erhalt selten gewordener Literatur und historischem Wissen auch für die Zukunft bei. (shrink)

Jakob Friedrich Fries estime que Kant a fait de funestes concessions au dogmatisme philosophique, dont il avait pourtant mieux que quiconque mis au jour les contradictions. Ainsi n’a-t-il pas distingué de façon suffisamment rigoureuse la connaissance transcendantale de son objet. Il en a conclu que la connaissance transcendantale était elle aussi a priori et a cherché à fonder les jugements synthétiques a priori sur des connaissances elles-mêmes a priori. Kant a ainsi été victime d’un « préjugé de la preuve (...) » auquel il a donné la forme spécifique d’un « préjugé du transcendantal » : dans la mesure où la « déduction transcendantale » cherche à donner une « preuve transcendantale » de la validité de nos connaissances, la théorie kantienne de la connaissance est donc menacée par un cercle logique. Aussi la déduction transcendantale bien comprise ne peut-elle être, selon Fries, qu’une déduction subjective, psychologique ou anthropologique, ce qui ne signifie pas pour autant que Fries entende réduire la philosophie à la psychologie, contrairement à ce que lui reprocheront les contempteurs de son psychologisme. (shrink)

Jakob Friedrich Fries estime que Kant a fait de funestes concessions au dogmatisme philosophique, dont il avait pourtant mieux que quiconque mis au jour les contradictions. Ainsi n’a-t-il pas distingué de façon suffisamment rigoureuse la connaissance transcendantale (qui est une connaissance de connaissances) de son objet (à savoir la connaissance a priori à laquelle elle se rapporte). Il en a conclu que la connaissance transcendantale était elle aussi a priori et a cherché à fonder les jugements synthétiques a priori (...) sur des connaissances elles-mêmes a priori. Kant a ainsi été victime d’un « préjugé de la preuve » auquel il a donné la forme spécifique d’un « préjugé du transcendantal » : dans la mesure où la « déduction transcendantale » cherche à donner une « preuve transcendantale » de la validité de nos connaissances, la théorie kantienne de la connaissance est donc menacée par un cercle logique. Aussi la déduction transcendantale bien comprise ne peut-elle être, selon Fries, qu’une déduction subjective, psychologique ou anthropologique, ce qui ne signifie pas pour autant que Fries entende réduire la philosophie à la psychologie, contrairement à ce que lui reprocheront les contempteurs de son psychologisme. (shrink)

In this article, I revisit Leibniz's early views on physical causation, more specifically, his relation to physical occasionalism focusing on the period from 1668 to 1676. An in-depth analysis of the Confession of Nature against the Atheists taken together with the Catholic Demonstrations, Leibniz's correspondence with Jakob Thomasius from 1668/69, and the Pacidius Philalethi (1676) serve as evidence that his position leads to physical occasionalism. This receives further confirmation by taking into account Leibniz's familiarity with Weigel's occasionalism in contrast (...) to Leibniz's later encounter of French occasionalism à la Cordemoy, La Forge, or Malebranche. Leibniz's exposure to Weigel's occasionalism, in turn, helps us better understand Leibniz's later critical reaction to occasionalism and how occasionalism helped him develop his own distinct views on causation as expressed in his mature philosophy. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 108 Heft: 2 Seiten: 311-312.

Luca M. Possati, Jean Grondin, Paul Ricoeur ; Aurore Dumont, François Dosse et Catherine Goldenstein, Paul Ricoeur: penser la mémoire ; Paul-Gabriel Sandu, Gert-Jan van der Heiden, The Truth of Language. Heidegger, Ricoeur and Derrida on Disclosure and Displacement ; Paul Marinescu, Marc-Antoine Vallée, Gadamer et Ricoeur. La conception herméneutiquedu langage ; Witold Płotka, Saulius Geniusas, Th e Origins of the Horizon in Husserl’s Phenomenology ; Delia Popa, Annabelle Dufourcq, La dimension imaginaire du réel dans la philosophie de Husserl ; (...) Maria GyemantDenis Seron, Ce que voir veut dire. Essai sur la perception ; Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Hans Friesen, Christian Lotz, Jakob Meier, Markus Wolf, Ding und Verdinglichung. Technik- und Sozialphilosophie nach Heidegger und der Kritischen Th eorie ; Bogdan MincăLarisa Cercel, John Stanley, Unterwegs zu einer hermeneutischen Übersetzungswissenschaft. Radegundis Stolze zu ihrem 60. Geburtstag ; Denisa Butnaru Johann Michel, Sociologie du soi. Essai d’herméneutique appliquée ; Ovidiu Stanciu, Jan Patočka, Aristote, ses devanciers, ses successeurs. Trad. fr. Erika Abrams ; Mădălina Diaconu, Emmanuel Alloa, Das durchscheinende Bild. Konturen einer medialen, Phänomenologie. (shrink)