Artificial intelligence is rapidly and radically changing our lives and world. This book is a multidisciplinary engagement with the present and future impacts of AI from the standpoint of Christian faith. It provides technological, philosophical, and theological foundations for thinking about AI, as well as a series of reflections on the impact of AI on relationships, behavior, education, work, and moral action. The book serves as an accessible introduction to AI as well as a guide to wise consideration, design, and (...) use of AI by examining foundational understandings and beliefs from a Christian perspective. (shrink)

The use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in environmental decision-making and the contingent valuation (CV) technique as input into traditional CBA to elicit environmental values in monetary terms has stimulated an extensive debate. Critics have questioned the appropriateness of both the method and the technique. Some alternative suggestions for the elicitation of environmental values are based on a social process of deliberation. However, just like traditional economic theory, these alternative approaches may be questioned on their implicit value judgements regarding the legitimacy (...) of the social-political organisation of the process of value elicitation. Instead of making assumptions a priori, research efforts should be focused on the processes by which actual public attitudes and preferences towards the environment can best be elicited and fed into environmental or other public policy decision-making. In the study presented in this paper, support was found for both the individual WTP based approach and a participatory social deliberation approach to inform the environmental decision-making process, suggesting that a combination of both approaches is most appropriate. (shrink)

This paper considers the problem that arises when the number of patients who need a resource exceeds the supply. An initial decision-making model is proposed that uses two essential criteria, medical prognosis and the priority of life-threatening situations. The model is then subjected to the criticism that it is grotesque to ignore questions relating to the value of, for example, a productive mother over against an aged recluse, and to treat them as having equal rights to access. It is argued (...) that this criticism need not be an expression of prejudice but may reflect a defendable view in which utilitarian considerations enter into the selection process provided that certain fundamental, or 'deontological' rights are observed for all. In the light of the discussion the model is modified in order to contain both a non-utilitarian feature that stresses the intrinsic importance of all persons, and a utilitarian feature that can allow one, in certain circumstances, to take consequences into account, especially those that follow from the 'irreplaceability' of some people. (shrink)

The contributors to this collection of essays offer a stimulating and varied range of approaches to this developing area. The volume includes discussions on the concept of education and such related topics as indoctrination and the nature and scope of the theory of education. Aspects of education including the field of moral education, and issues which are reflected prominently in the curricula of such subjects as Mathematics and Science in schools and colleges are considered.

G Langford; Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 2, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 31–41, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1968.tb00442.x.

G Langford; Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 2, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 31–41, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1968.tb00442.x.

Glenn Langford; Education and Values, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 22, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 283, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1988.t.

Glenn Langford; Education and Values, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 22, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 283, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1988.t.

Glenn Langford; Education is of the Whole Man, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 13, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 65–72, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-.

Glenn Langford; Education is of the Whole Man, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 13, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 65–72, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-.

Glenn Langford; Learning and Knowledge, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 12, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 41–50, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.19.

Glenn Langford; Learning and Knowledge, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 12, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 41–50, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.19.

Glenn Langford; Reply to Adrian Thatcher, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 14, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 129–136, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-975.

Glenn Langford; Reply to Adrian Thatcher, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 14, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 129–136, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-975.

In this note, I defend Melia 2000 against objections in Daly and Langford 2010. I show that my formulation of the Comprehension Schema is correct while their modification is inadequate and that their approach to the problem through infinitary sentences is irrelevant to my original arguments. Finally, I argue that it is not a puzzle that we could find mathematics indispensable in our theorising, even when the mathematics is false.

In his paper ‘The Problem of the Meaning of “Miracle” , Professor Michael J. Langford proffers a concept of miracles that derives its intelligibility from the familiar phenomenon of the interaction of minds. Miraculous occurrences are portrayed as a variant, though abnormal, form of what we may term ‘inter-psychosomatic influence’, God's mind being the ultimate determinant. Langford thinks that to speak significantly of miracles, the phenomenon should be understood as ‘not totally dissimilar to our previous experience’ ; hence (...) the familiar notion of inter-psychosomatic influence. He thinks, too, that to talk of miracles as God interfering directly with the natural order would be to admit that such interference would not upset our concept of human nature and responsibility, a consequence which, to Langford, would make it inconsistent for Christians to maintain the free-will defence in the face of the problem of evil. According to Langford, human interference with the natural order does not vitiate the preconditions of human responsibility, and so he thinks that his concept of miracle, which is only ‘an extension of the same phenomenon, of a kind that also does not disrupt either human freedom or the stable order that is the necessary context for human life’ , will provide a way out of the dilemma. Having agreed with Hume and Flew that it would be unreasonable ‘to explain an unusual event by introducing divine causation if we hadn't already got independent evidence for the divine’ , Langford nevertheless maintains that ‘unthought possibilities’ should not be ruled out in the manner of a ‘prejudiced theorist’ . He thinks that such possibilities are left open in his concept of miracle, which makes the prior assumption that ‘independent grounds for belief in God’ exist before affirming that, given that God exists, miracles may be consistently and substantively understood in terms of a special distinguishable sort of inter-psychosomatic influence. He concedes, of course that his concept would rule out ‘those miracles that appear to be quite apart from the working of grace through human minds’ . I think, however, that Langford's thesis is faulty at key places. (shrink)