Luciano Floridi presents a book that will set the agenda for the philosophy of information. PI is the philosophical field concerned with the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. This book lays down, for the first time, the conceptual foundations for this new area of research. It does so systematically, by pursuing three goals. Its metatheoretical (...) goal is to describe what the philosophy of information is, its problems, approaches, and methods. Its introductory goal is to help the reader to gain a better grasp of the complex and multifarious nature of the various concepts and phenomena related to information. Its analytic goal is to answer several key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest, arising from the investigation of semantic information. (shrink)

Sulla scia di un percorso già segnato da appuntamenti importanti e coinvolgenti istituzioni e studiosi italiani e stranieri, centri di studi specializzati, il Volume che qui si presenta raccoglie i contributi del Convegno Internazionale di Studi dedicato a: Lévinas e la cultura del XX secolo, tenutosi a Napoli tra il 10 ed il 12 aprile 2000: G. Lissa, S. Trigano, I. Kajon, E. Méir, S. Petrosino, E. D’Antuono, M. Signore, M. Zarader, D. Cohen-Lévinas, J. Colette, E. Baccarini, D. Banon, P. (...) Amodio, E. Arseneva, è. Levine, F. Ciaramelli, M. Caporale, G. Giannini. (shrink)

The article discusses the process of “conceptual borrowing”, according to which, when a new discipline emerges, it develops its technical vocabulary also by appropriating terms from other neighbouring disciplines. The phenomenon is likened to Carl Schmitt’s observation that modern political concepts have theological roots. The authors argue that, through extensive conceptual borrowing, AI has ended up describing computers anthropomorphically, as computational brains with psychological properties, while brain and cognitive sciences have ended up describing brains and minds computationally and informationally, as (...) biological computers. The crosswiring between the technical languages of these disciplines is not merely metaphorical but can lead to confusion, and damaging assumptions and consequences. The article ends on an optimistic note about the self-adjusting nature of technical meanings in language and the ability to leave misleading conceptual baggage behind when confronted with advancement in understanding and factual knowledge. (shrink)

This paper substitutes a structural hermeneutics for the sequential approach to the Tractatus and its manuscript, which leaves the manuscript completely unexplained. All the pieces come together only if we recognise that Wittgenstein's book is a hierarchical object that was composed following a top-down strategy. Therefore, we realise that the “summary on scattered sheets” represents the perspicuous version of the manuscript, the correlations with the Notebooks become obvious and the “supplements” can be reconstructed. A correct dating of the composition allows (...) us to understand how it was possible, without digital technologies except from an ingenious application of the decimal system, to achieve this formal masterpiece. (shrink)

This work fulfills the need for a conceptual and technical framework to improve understanding of Information Quality (IQ) and Information Quality standards. The meaning and practical implementation of IQ are addressed, as it is relevant to any field where there is a need to handle data and issues such as accessibility, accuracy, completeness, currency, integrity, reliability, timeliness, usability, the role of metrics and so forth are all a part of Information Quality. -/- In order to support the cross-fertilization of theory (...) and practice, the latest research is presented in this book. The perspectives of experts from beyond the origins of IQ in computer science are included: library and information science practitioners and academics, philosophers of information, of engineering and technology, and of science are all contributors to this volume. -/- The chapters in this volume are based on the work of a collaborative research project involving the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Google and led by Professor Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford. -/- This work will be of interest to anyone handling data, including those from commercial, public, governmental and academic organizations. The expert editors’ contributions introduce issues of interest to scientists, database curators and philosophers, even though the issues may be disguised in the language and examples common to a different discipline. (shrink)

The subject is Sextus Empiricus, one the chief sources of information on ancient philosophy and one of the most influential authors in the history of skepticism. Sextus' works have had an extraordinary influence on western philosophy, and this book provides the first exhaustive and detailed study of their recovery, transmission, and intellectual influence through Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. This study deals with Sextus' biography, as well as the history of the availability and reception of his works. (...) It also contains an extensive bibliographical section, including editions, translations, and commentaries. (shrink)

This study examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) from the retail sector deal with four challenges they face when adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies: the challenge of developing well-performing CSR projects and programs, building competitive advantages based on CSR, responding to local stakeholder issues in the host countries and learning from different CSR experiences on a worldwide basis. Based on in-depth case studies of two globally leading retail MNCs (with strong operations in Latin America), the concept of Transverse CSR Management (...) emerged. Transverse CSR Management is defined as a distinctive form of organizational configuration that crosses different functional areas, country operations, and the boundaries of the firm. In particular, this article makes three main contributions: (1) we identify four central challenges faced by MNC managers when developing their CSR strategies; (2) we propose the concept of Transverse CSR Management to face these central challenges (together, at the same time) and identify its key elements (top management, external stakeholders, functional areas, and country subsidiaries); and (3) we propose four mechanisms (hierarchical, relational, cultural, and collaborative) through which the concept of Transverse CSR Management can be implemented by practicing managers. This study provides valuable insights for MNC managers in headquarters and subsidiaries on the issues they need to address in order to successfully deal with the four CSR-related challenges. (shrink)

The fiduciary nature of the patient-physician relationship requires clinicians to act in the best interest of their patients. Patients are vulnerable due to their health status and lack of medical knowledge, which makes them dependent on the clinicians’ expertise. Competent patients, however, may reject the recommendations of their physician, either refusing beneficial medical interventions or procedures based on their personal views that do not match the perceived medical indication. In some instances, the patients’ refusal may jeopardize their health or life (...) but also compromise the clinician’s moral responsibility to promote the patient’s best interests. In other words, health professionals have to deal with patients whose behavior and healthcare decisions seem counterproductive for their health, or even deteriorate it, because of lack of knowledge, bad habits or bias without being the patients’ free voluntary choice. The moral dilemma centers on issues surrounding the limits of the patient’s autonomy and the clinician’s role to promote the well-being of the patient. In this paper we argue that the use of manipulative strategies, albeit considered beneficent, defeats the purpose of patient education and therefore should be rejected; and the appropriate strategy is to empower patients through patient education which enhances their autonomy and encourages them to become full healthcare partners as opposed to objects of clinical intervention or entities whose values or attitudes need to be shaped and changed through education. First, we provide a working definition of the concept of patient education and a brief historical overview of its origin. Second, we examine the nature of the patient-physician relationship in order to delineate its boundaries, essential for understanding the role of education in the clinical context. Third, we argue that patient education should promote self-rebiasing, enhance autonomy, and empower patients to determine their therapeutic goals. Finally, we develop a moral framework for patient education. (shrink)

This study investigates the antecedents of human rights infringements by emerging market firms. We used fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to examine HRIs in 245 firms based in eight emerging markets, between 2003 and 2012. Our findings disclose three equifinal configurations of high levels of HRIs, all involving EFs that have expanded to a high number of foreign markets: large, old, low performing state-owned enterprises operating in high quality institutions’ home and host markets, small, young, over-performing EFs operating in low (...) quality institutions’ home and host markets, and finally large, old, high performing SOEs, operating in low quality institutions’ home and host markets. We contribute to the literature by examining a novel dataset on HRIs by EFs, and by building a configurational explanation of HRIs that bridges the arguments of the institutional theory and strain theory literatures on corporate wrongdoing. (shrink)

O uso de drogas é complexo e multicausal com impactos para as pessoas, famílias e sociedade. Este estudo investigou legislações, políticas públicas e estratégias, que possam diminuir vulnerabilidades e contribuir para os ODS. Foi realizado levantamento documental, em legislações e documentos, para análise da realidade social, a partir das experiências profissionais, e ainda levantamento bibliográfico, na BVS e LILACS, de 2016 a 2018. Observou-se que o Estado se mantém disciplinador e entre as políticas mais relevantes estão a Redução de Danos, (...) os CAPS e o Consultório de Rua, marcadas pelo empirismo, obstáculos e desafios em relação à universalidade e equidade. Estratégias intersetoriais, podem ser utilizadas para se obter melhores condições de saúde e bem-estar, saneamento e água, educação, trabalho. A promoção da saúde corrobora na redução das vulnerabilidades e equidade, com maior sensibilização e qualificação dos profissionais das redes de atenção social, para acolher a população com competência e dignidade. (shrink)

In this paper we propose an approach to multi-source belief revision where the trust or credibility assigned to informant agents can be revised. In our proposal, the credibility of each informant represented as a strict partial order among informant agents, will be maintained in a repository called credibility base. Upon arrival of new information concerning the credibility of its peers, an agent will be capable of revising this strict partial order, changing the trust assigned to its peers accordingly. Our goal (...) is to formalize a set of change operators over the credibility base: expansion, contraction, prioritized, and non-prioritized revision. These operators will provide the capability of dynamically modifying the credibility of informants considering the reliability of the information. This dynamics will reflect a new perception of trust assigned to the informant, or extend the set of informants by admitting the addition of new informant agents. (shrink)

Inducement prizes have been long used to stimulate individuals and groups to accomplish diverse goals. Lately, governments have become more and more interested in these prizes and sought to include this kind of incentives within the set of policy tools available to promote science, technology, and innovation. To date, however, there has been little empirically-based scientific knowledge on how to design, manage, and evaluate innovation prizes. This note discusses aspects of the prize phenomenon and the opportunities and challenges related with (...) the use of innovation prizes as a government policy instrument. Compared to other incentive mechanisms, prizes are likely to present advantages to, for example, accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies that are held back for diverse reasons and help to leverage public money with external ideas, collaborative efforts, and the participation of diverse individuals and organizations. Still, despite these advantages and other interesting features of prizes, there are key questions that policy-makers and scholars must address to better understand this kind of incentives and further improve prize designs and implementations before governments move forward to a more widespread use of innovation prizes in science and technology policies. (shrink)

The philosophy of information (PI) is a new area of research with its own field of investigation and methodology. This article, based on the Herbert A. Simon Lecture of Computing and Philosophy I gave at Carnegie Mellon University in 2001, analyses the eighteen principal open problems in PI. Section 1 introduces the analysis by outlining Herbert Simon's approach to PI. Section 2 discusses some methodological considerations about what counts as a good philosophical problem. The discussion centers on Hilbert's famous analysis (...) of the central problems in mathematics. The rest of the article is devoted to the eighteen problems. These are organized into five sections: problems in the analysis of the concept of information, in semantics, in the study of intelligence, in the relation between information and nature, and in the investigation of values. (shrink)

If we read the Tractatus logico-philosophicus according to the decimal numbering of its propositions, we may understand, finally, the section about the self and the limits of language and world. Proposition 5.64 follows 5.63 (not 5.634); 5.634 follows 5.633 (not 5.6331); and so on. Thus, it becomes clear that the picture of the visual field (TLP 5.6331) cannot be what scholars have always quoted and discussed, i.e. a draft of an eye inside its field of sight. Actually, Wittgenstein’s original drafts (...) depict (to criticise it) the ordinary way of representing the visual field. Following him, the field of vision is ‘without limits’; it does not have a form that implies the existence of an eye, as far as the phenomenological experience does not have a form that implies the existence of an ‘I’. As a result, the current reproductions of the 5.6331 image must be rectified, and all references to this similitude should be radically amended. (shrink)

This paper presents a belief revision operator that considers time intervals for modelling norm change in the law. This approach relates techniques from belief revision formalisms and time intervals with temporalised rules for legal systems. Our goal is to formalise a temporalised belief base and corresponding timed derivation, together with a proper revision operator. This operator may remove rules when needed or adapt intervals of time when contradictory norms are added in the system. For the operator, both constructive definition and (...) an axiomatic characterisation by representation theorems are given. (shrink)

O uso de insetos para consumo por vezes é defendido alegando-se que tais animais: (1) são menos capazes de sofrer; (2) são pouco prejudicados com a morte; ou (3) deveriam ter um status moral menor (isto é, que deveriam receber uma menor consideração diante de danos equivalentes). Neste artigo desafiarei essas três alegações. Defenderei também que, mesmo que essas alegações fizessem sentido, delas não se segue que a exploração sobre insetos é justificável. Por fim, discutirei sobre o grau de importância (...) que deveríamos dar à situação dos insetos (e outros invertebrados) em geral. (shrink)

This article develops an axiomatic theory of induction that speaks to the recent debate on Bayesian orgulity. It shows the exact principles associated with the belief that data can corroborate universal laws. We identify two types of disbelief about induction: skepticism that the existence of universal laws of nature can be determined empirically, and skepticism that the true law of nature, if it exists, can be successfully identified. We formalize and characterize these two dispositions toward induction by introducing novel axioms (...) for subjective probabilities. We also relate these dispositions to the axiom of σ-additivity. (shrink)

An intelligent model of the incremental capacity curve of an automotive lithium-ferrophosphate battery is presented. The relative heights of the two major peaks of the IC curve can be acquired from high-current discharges, thus enabling the state of health estimation of the battery while the vehicle is being operated and in certain cases, aging mechanisms can be suggested. Our model has been validated using a large dataset representing different degradation scenarios, obtained from a recently available open-source database.

From Prototractatus to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The author aims to show that in the notebook in which Wittgenstein composed his Tractatus there is no discontinuity between the part published as ‘Prototractatus’ and the last few pages, not published because quite indistinguishable from the final work. The process by which the propositions are combined is homogeneous, following a rigorously top-down strategy: from the six main propositions on the first page to further levels of commentary and, finally, to the more detailed remarks of (...) the last stages. The puzzling chaos of the manuscript derives from his chronological recording of coherent interventions relating to the most different branches of the logic tree. In the first as in the final stage, these interventions were possible thanks to a ‘twin’ text, possibly organized on separate sheets of paper. Therefore, if we read the Tractatus by progressive levels of commentary, rather than sequentially, we then find the same progression of thought developed by Wittgenstein himself during the three years of compiling his manuscript. (shrink)

El presente trabajo propone un acercamiento a la identificación de las adscripciones de clase de los integrantes del movimiento por los derechos humanos en Argentina. Luego de constatar una integración policlasista del movimiento social, se centra en el predominio en su dirigencia y composición de integrantes de las clases medias y en ocasiones más específicamente de las clases de servicio. Primero se desarrollan algunas dimensiones subyacentes al concepto de “clase social”, para luego esbozar mediante diversos relevamientos la composición de distintos (...) organismos de derechos humanos. Finalmente, se concluye que si bien la adscripción de clase no fue determinante para la composición del movimiento, sí sentó las bases para una cultura política compartida y para la adopción de repertorios discursivos y de acción. (shrink)

En este ensayo se evidencia cómo la categoría de lo “apolineo” elaborada por Nietzsche es heredera de la visión tradicional de la Grecia serena dibujada por Winckelmann. De lo histórico del arte dedujo este carácter privilegiando la técnica escultórica como interpretación de la esencia de aquella cultura, mientras que Nietzsche la dedujo sobre todo de la mùsica. Sin embargo Apolo, así como Dionisos, producía un estado de posesión y se caracterizaba por su esencia violenta y a menudo mortífera. Con la (...) variante de una forma de adorcismo producido por diferentes ritmos e instrumentos, y que determinaba formas diferentes de sabiduría, esencialmente epistémica la de Apolo, sensitiva la de Dionisos. (shrink)

Con este ensayo el autor propone una crítica al actual principio de la necesidad de “raíces” para el ser humano. Esta expresión, que tendría que haber un carácter exclusivamente simbólico, en la cultura alemana romántica y post romántica, se hizo concreta. El hombre fue considerado un árbol, una planta y sus valores más elevados fueron expresados a través el peligroso binomio “Blut und Boden” (tierra y sangre). Por consecuencia se produjo una condena hacia el libre burgués, el ciudadano de la (...) nueva realidad urbana, y específcamente el Hebreo.Esto no quiere decir que el hombre no debe tener raíces ni pasado o tradiciones, pero que, consciente de esto, tiene que saberse liberar de su peso para proceder en sentido espacial como temporal. Al fn de moverse en el mundo, como un nómada como siempre fue, para crear cultura, que es decir dar al paisaje su propia imagen y sus valores. (shrink)

Mientras Spengler cree en un sistema cíclico que regula la historia de las culturas humanas y por lo tanto considera inevitable la destrucción de la civilización occidental, que dejará sus poderes (la técnica) a otras culturas que no los sabrán utilizar, Jünger, en cuanto a la Modernidad, ve la interrupción de la regularidad cíclica por la increíble aceleración de su tiempo, y por lo tanto considera posible una regeneración. Sin embargo, ambos, aunque expresen con fuerza el valor negativo de la (...) civilización actual, que encuentra su fiel expresión en la metrópolis, por su alejamiento de las raíces naturales, sienten el deber y tal vez el “privilegio” de ser parte de esta realidad para poder vivir heroicamente su destino. (shrink)

This article argues that an ethical framework will help to harness the potential of AI while keeping humans in control.