Una de las principales aportaciones del siglo XII fue lo que M.-D. Chenu llamó l'éveil de la conscience, que implicaba la afirmación de la subjetividad a través del conocimiento de sí mismo. Artífices de este "despertar" fueron Pedro Abelardo y San Bernardo.

Autonomy has been central to moral and political philosophy for millenia, and has been positioned as a critical aspect of both justice and wellbeing. Research in psychology supports this position, providing empirical evidence that autonomy is critical to motivation, personal growth and psychological wellness. Responsible AI will require an understanding of, and ability to effectively design for, human autonomy (rather than just machine autonomy) if it is to genuinely benefit humanity. Yet the effects on human autonomy of digital experiences are (...) neither straightforward nor consistent, and are complicated by commercial interests and tensions around compulsive overuse. This multi-layered reality requires an analysis that is itself multidimensional and that takes into account human experience at various levels of resolution. We borrow from HCI and psychological research to apply a model (“METUX”) that identifies six distinct spheres of technology experience. We demonstrate the value of the model for understanding human autonomy in a technology ethics context at multiple levels by applying it to the real-world case study of an AI-enhanced video recommender system. In the process we argue for the following three claims: 1) There are autonomy-related consequences to algorithms representing the interests of third parties, and they are not impartial and rational extensions of the self, as is often perceived; 2) Designing for autonomy is an ethical imperative critical to the future design of responsible AI; and 3) Autonomy-support must be analysed from at least six spheres of experience in order to approriately capture contradictory and downstream effects. (shrink)

This paper deals with intercultural aspects of privacy, particularly with regard to differences between Japanese and Western conceptions. It starts with a reconstruction of the genealogy of Western subjectivity and human dignity as the basic assumptions underlying Western views on privacy. An analysis of the Western concept of informational privacy is presented. The Japanese topic of ‘‘denial of self” (Musi) as well as the concepts of Seken, Shakai and Ikai (as analyzed by the authors of the companion piece on privacy (...) in Japan) give rise to intercultural comparisons. The paper addresses the question of privacy in cyberspace and mass media. Finally the question of freedom of speech is related to the Japanese concepts of Ohyake and Watakusi. (shrink)

The paper presents, firstly, a brief review of the long history\nof information ethics beginning with the Greek concept of parrhesia\nor freedom of speech as analyzed by Michel Foucault. The recent concept\nof information ethics is related particularly to problems which arose\nin the last century with the development of computer technology and\nthe internet. A broader concept of information ethics as dealing\nwith the digital reconstruction of all possible phenomena leads to\nquestions relating to digital ontology. Following Heidegger{\textquoteright}s\nconception of the relation between ontology and metaphysics, (...) the\nauthor argues that ontology has to do with Being itself and not just\nwith the Being of beings which is the matter of metaphysics. The\nprimary aim of an ontological foundation of information ethics is\nto question the metaphysical ambitions of digital ontology understood\nas today{\textquoteright}s pervading understanding of Being. The\nauthor analyzes some challenges of digital technology, particularly\nwith regard to the moral status of digital agents. The author argues\nthat information ethics does not only deal with ethical questions\nrelating to the infosphere. This view is contrasted with arguments\npresented by Luciano Floridi on the foundation of information ethics\nas well as on the moral status of digital agents. It is argued that\na reductionist view of the human body as digital data overlooks the\nlimits of digital ontology and gives up one basis for ethical orientation.\nFinally issues related to the digital divide as well as to intercultural\naspects of information ethics are explored {\textendash} and long\nand short-term agendas for appropriate responses are presented. (shrink)

– This paper aims to examine the present status of the research field intercultural information ethics including the foundational debate as well as specific issues., – A critical overview of the recent literature of the field is given., – The present IIE debate focuses on a narrow view of the field leaving aside comparative studies with non‐digital media as well as with other epochs and cultures. There is an emphasis on the question of privacy but other issues such as online (...) communities, governmentality, gender issues, mobile phones, health care and the digital divide are on the agenda., – The paper addresses basic issues of IIE that may open new vistas for research and practice in this field. (shrink)

The first aim is to provide well-articulated concepts by thinking through elementary phenomena of today s world, focusing on privacy and the digital, to clarify who we are in the cyberworld hence a phenomenology of digital whoness. The second aim is to engage critically, hermeneutically with older and current literature on privacy, including in today s emerging cyberworld. Phenomenological results include concepts of i) self-identity through interplay with the world, ii) personal privacy in contradistinction to the privacy of private property, (...) iii) the cyberworld as an artificial, digital dimension in order to discuss iv) what freedom in the cyberworld can mean, whilst not neglecting v) intercultural aspects and vi) the EU context.". (shrink)

This paper deals with the deuteros plous, literally ‘the second voyage’, proverbially ‘the next best way’, discussed in Plato’s Phaedo, the key passage being Phd. 99e4-100a3. I argue that (a) the ‘flight into the logoi’ can have two different interpretations, a standard one and a non-standard one. The issue is whether at 99e-100a Socrates means that both the student of erga and the student of logoi consider images (‘the standard interpretation’), or the student of logoi does not consider images but (...) that “consistency should suffice for truth” (‘the non-standard interpretation’); (b) the non-standard one implies the problem of the hypothesis, a problem analogous to the problem of the elenchus; (c) there is a structural analogy between Descartes’ ontological argument for the existence of God in his 5th Meditation and the final proof for the immortality of the soul in the Phaedo. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to address some of the questions on the notion of agent and agency in relation to property and personhood. I argue that following the Kantian criticism of Aristotelian metaphysics, contemporary biotechnology and information and communication technologies bring about a new challenge—this time, with regard to the Kantian moral subject understood in the subject’s unique metaphysical qualities of dignity and autonomy. The concept of human dignity underlies the foundation of many democratic systems, particularly in Europe (...) as well as of international treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Digital agents, artificial organisms as well as new capabilities of the human agents related to their embeddedness in digital and biotechnological environments bring about an important transformation of the human self-appraisal. A critical comparative reflection of this transformation is important because of its ethical implications. I deal first with the concept of agent within the framework of Aristotelian philosophy, which is the basis for further theories in accordance with and/or in opposition to it, particularly since modernity. In the second part of this paper, I deal with the concept of personhood in Kantian philosophy, which supersedes the Aristotelian metaphysics of substance and builds the basis of a metaphysics of the moral human subject. In the third part, I discuss the question of artificial agents arising from modern biology and ICT. Blurring the difference between the human and the natural and/or artificial opens a “new space” for philosophical reflection as well as for debate in law and practical policy. (shrink)

Corporations perform actions that can inflict harm with different levels of intensity, from death to material loss, to both companies’ internal and external stakeholders. Research has analysed corporate harm using the notions of corporate social irresponsibility and corporate crime. Critical management studies have been subjecting management and organizational practices and knowledge to critical analysis, and corporate harm has been one of the main concerns of CMS. However, CMS has rarely been deployed to analyse CSIR and corporate crime. Thus, the aim (...) of this paper is to critically analyse the perspectives of CSIR and corporate crimes on corporate harm via CMS in general and postcolonial studies in particular. The paper contributes by arguing that research on CSIR and corporate crime could be perceived as producing research that does not challenge the essence of contemporary corporation profit-seeking activities that ultimately produces corporate harm. We argue that CSIR and corporate crime are ideologies that assist in disguising the contradiction between producing shareholder value and the social good that is at the heart of the modern corporation system and the current economic system. Furthermore, the postcolonial view of CSIR and corporate crime highlights how they are based on a Western-centric view of corporate harm that ignores the realities and perspectives of the Global South, especially in situations where corporate harm leads to death in the Global South. (shrink)

The paper presents a critical appraisal of Floridi’s metaphysical foundation of information ecology. It highlights some of the issues raised by Floridi with regard to the axiological status of the objects in the “infosphere,” the moral status of artificial agents, and Floridi’s foundation of information ethics as information ecology. I further criticise the ontological conception of value as a first order category. I suggest that a weakening of Floridi’s demiurgic information ecology is needed in order not to forget the limitations (...) of human actors and/or of their surrogates, digital agents. I plea for a rational theoretical and practical view of such agents beyond utopian reasoning with regard to their potential moral status. (shrink)

The paper proposes (1.) a non-standard interpretation of the proverbial expression “deuteros plous” by giving a fresh look to Phaedo, 99c9-d1. Then (2.) it proceeds to the philosophical problem raised in this passage according to this interpretation, that is, the problem of the “hypothesis” or the “unproved principle”. It indicates finally (3.) the kernel of truth contained in the standard Interpretation and it concludes with some remarks on the “weakness of the logoi”.

The article tries to prove that the famous formula "epekeina tês ousias" has to be understood in the sense of being beyond being and not only in the sense of being beyond essence. We make hereby three points: first, since pure textual exegesis of 509b8–10 seems to lead to endless controversy, a formal proof for the metaontological interpretation could be helpful to settle the issue; we try to give such a proof. Second, we offer a corollary of the formal proof, (...) showing that not only self-predication of the form of the Good, but of any form is not possible, that is: no form of F has the form of F. Third, we apply Spinoza’s distinction between an ens imaginarium and a chimaera to Plato’s Idea of the Good. (shrink)

Este artículo reseña: Thomas CASADEI - Gianfrancesco ZANETTI, Manual de Filosofía del Derecho. Figuras, categorías, contextos, Prefacio y traducción de Fernando H. Llano Alonso, Madrid, Tecnos, 2023, 504 pp.

The paper addresses severalethical issues in online communication researchin light of digital ontology as well as theepistemological questions raised by theblurring boundary between fact and theory inthis field. The concept of ontology is used ina Heideggerian sense as related to the humancapacity of world construction on the basis ofthe givenness of our being-in-the-world.Ethical dilemmas of Internet research thusarise from the tension between bodily existenceand the proper object of research, i.e., onlineexistence. The following issues are beingconsidered: online identity, online language,online consent (...) and confidentiality. We alsoargue that research ethics in the US followsthe utilitarian tradition, while Europeanresearchers are deontologically oriented. Aguideline of best practice in online researchethics is proposed. (shrink)

We undertake the comparison between Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory and Alexandr Bodganov's Tektology as two theories proposing a holistic interpretation of reality and claiming to solve problems which are unsolvable via conventional philosophic and scientific theories and methodologies. Basic misunderstandings by some Soviet authors regarding the nature of these theories — especially in the case of Tektology — are pointed out. The comparison is made in what concerns the general origins and purposes of the theories, their approaches to (...) the problem of organization, their treatment of mathematics and their understanding of the cybernetic concept of regulation.We contend that Tektologycontains — some 15 years earlier — all the basic concepts which will be later developed by the General Theory of Systems. As we shall see, Tektology is the ultimate expansion of any theory of systems. This fact is widely ignored in contemporary specialized literature. (shrink)

We undertake the comparison between Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory and Alexandr Bogdanov's Tektology as two theories proposing a holistic interpretation of reality and claiming to solve problems which are unsolvable via conventional philosophic and scientific theories and methodologies. Basic misunderstandings by some Soviet authors regarding the nature of these theories -- especially in the case of Tektology -- are pointed out. The comparison is made in what concerns the general origins and purposes of the theories, their approaches to (...) the problem of organization, their treatment of mathematics and their understanding of the cybernetic concept of regulation. We contend that Tektology contains -- some 15 years earlier -- all the basic concepts which will be later developed by the General Theory of Systems. As we shall see, Tektology is the ultimate expansion of any theory of systems. This fact is widely ignored in contemporary specialized literature. We finally contend that both Tektology and the General Systems Theory are a sign of the times. A holistic secular monism is a respectable alternative to the failure of contemporary science and philosophy in guiding the life of men, in providing a raison d'être for human existence. However, we do not explore the soundness of this alternative. (shrink)

J. S. Mill and the Art of Compromise The word compromise means a kind of agreement and a concession to something harmful or wrong. I argue that particularly this second sense is quite relevant in the ethics of political action. John Stuart Mill focused upon this issue in his Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform 1859. I outline Mill's doctrine on compromise looking at the external and internal features of an acceptable measure of compromise. These features provide a set of conditions necessary (...) in order for compromise to take place, but they do not guarantee sufficient conditions. In order to assess Mill's political coherence and to draw a general distinction between strategic and ethical compromises the paper concludes by considering two compromise measures that Mill adopted while he was a Member of Parliament. (shrink)

Deepfakes are highly realistic, albeit fake, audiovisual contents created with AI. This technology allows the use of deceptive audiovisual material that can impersonate someone’s identity to erode their reputation or manipulate the audience. Deepfakes are also one of the applications of AI that can be used in cultural industries and even to produce works of art. On the one hand, it is important to clarify whether deepfakes in arts and culture are free from the ethical dangers mentioned above. On the (...) other hand, there are specific ethical issues in this field of application. Deepfake technologies can be used to include the performance of deceased persons in audiovisual materials for the dissemination of cultural heritage, and to generate images or sounds in the style of real authors, but deepfakes are also potentially misleading by blurring the boundary between artwork and reality, and raise questions about the relationship between technology, artificial creativity and authorship. The answer to these problems requires an analysis of the normative foundations of copyright to accommodate the new role of AI. (shrink)

The article examines the Socratic principle that (1) virtue is knowledge and its corollary that (2) nobody errs voluntarily (nemo sua sponte peccat). It tries to show (I) that both principles are paradoxa, i.e. from a phenomenological point of view, they seem to be false; (II) that nevertheless the platonic Socrates accepts both principles as true; and finally (III) that these principles are analytical truths a priori which can only be understood if a person (soul) finds them in him- or (...) herself. (shrink)

Reseña d ela obra de Stefania Zanardi, _Umanesimo e umanesimi. Saggio introduttivo alla storiografia di Eugenio Garin_, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2019, 129 pp.

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the dispute around meanings involving the homosexual male body characterized as bear. Based on the theoretical-methodological framework of Dialogic Discourse Analysis, an analysis was carried out of a Facebook group post with three sequences of commentaries on the bear body type. The analysis revealed that the heart of the meaning making dispute in the utterances holds two distinct evaluations: (i) the bear identified as a fat and hairy body, and (ii) the bear identified as a standard (...) body and with (some) body hair. Through the fat/not-fat and hairy/hairless oppositions, the standard gay body contests the bear body characteristics, notably the hair, for demonstrating more masculine traits. However, this position generates protests, almost always in an ironic and critical tone, from those who defend that bears represent the resistance of a category that fits, above all, the fat body. (shrink)

O presente artigo objetiva discutir como Richer de Reims, monge beneditino do século X, compôs um relato histórico baseando na construção narrativa totalmente ligada ao aparato estético com instrumento retórico. A partir de sua formação clássica, organizada pelo Abade Gerbert d’Aurillac, Richer constrói um texto de Histórias que compõe uma narrativa a partir de uma fórmula estética particular, que é a “reescrita”, ou “criação”, dos diálogos dos diversos personagens que aparecem no relato; com isso, faz com que as supostas “vozes” (...) de seus personagens ajudem-no na legitimação, política ou intelectual, daqueles para quem ele deixa transparecer sua preferência. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo analisa as disputas de sentido envolvendo o corpo homossexual masculino caracterizado como urso. Considerando o aporte teórico-metodológico da Análise Dialógica do Discurso, foi analisada uma postagem com três sequências de comentários que tematizavam o corpo urso em um grupo da rede social Facebook. A análise revelou que o centro da disputa de sentidos nos enunciados se detém em duas valorações distintas: (i) o urso identificado como um corpo gordo e peludo e (ii) o urso identificado como um (...) corpo padrão e com (alguns) pelos. Por meio das oposições gordo/não gordo e pelos/não pelos, o gay de corpo padrão disputa características do corpo urso, notadamente os pelos, para demonstrar mais traços de masculinidade. Contudo, essa posição gera, em tom quase sempre irônico e crítico, protesto daqueles que defendem que os ursos representam a resistência de uma categoria que se enquadra, acima de tudo, ao corpo gordo. (shrink)

O presente estudo tem o objetivo de mapear dissertações e teses brasileiras na área da Educação que, no método de investigação, utilizaram-se da Fenomenologia como referência. O levantamento foi realizado no Banco de Teses e Dissertações da Capes, encontrando-se 1.142 registros, dos quais 89 foram analisados, referentes aqueles orientados pelos pesquisadores com maior número de orientações nesta perspectiva. Constatou-se um aumento da presença da Fenomenologia nos estudos da área da Educação, além da grande diversidade de procedimentos adotados. Identificou-se, ainda, a (...) presença marcante da Hermenêutica, em detrimento de pesquisas fundadas exclusivamente na Fenomenologia Estrutural. (shrink)

The formation and evolution of multiculturalism and hybridization belong today to the leading research priorities of social sciences. These developments assumedly forward a kind of new or next society features of which seemingly emerge and may be captured in processes taking place in given partial structures. We think especially of subsystems that, at the origin, concretized utopic orientations that were abandoned over time to leave room to new ambitions. One such subsystem consists of the kibbutz that was for long viewed (...) as one of the most successful utopia that was both rigorous and performing, and which illustrates today an appropriate example of next-society emergence. The general validity of this assumption resides in this setting’s multigenerational survival through far reaching structural, cultural and ideological changes. A model of communitarian collectivity at its start that now is best defined by the oxymoron of “individualistic community”. (shrink)

We draw from Eisenstadt’s (2002) conceptualization of multiple modernities which he pro­posed to analyze processes marking modernity and their different versions in contemporary societies. These processes do not delete all pre-existing orientations, value affinities and social arrangements, and while modernity is recognizable everywhere, modern societies also differ at other respects. We formulate a similar contention for globalization. We point to three interacting and intermingling movers of social reality—globalization, multiculturalism and the national principle—which concretize everywhere, and according to contexts and a (...) priori features, specific models qualifying for the notion of multiple globalizations. Beyond the variety of multiple globalizations, this notion underlines the newness of our time and hints the “next society”. (shrink)

(1993). Integrating cooperation and conflict: Comments on Raymond Boudon's paper. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 29-31.

The numberless unprecedented situations attached today to the concept of transnational diaspora arise the debate of whether or not this phenomenon signals a new era. Our own contention is that it does represent a factor of new kinds of heterogenization of both the societal reality and of the diasporas themselves, as worldwide entities. It is in this dialectic perspective that we describe transnational diasporas as causes of discontinuity in our world and point out to the qualitative change in the social (...) fabrics that they represent. Among other aspects, dual or threefold homeness that is bound to the transnational condition signifies for diasporans a slipping away from the totalistic character of the commitment and view of the nation that the nation-state requires of its citizens. When viewed in its multiplicity, the cohabitation under the same societal roof of a priori alien socio-cultural entities yields a configuration that is not uniform in every setting, but which still responds in its essentials to the new reality experienced by many a contemporary society.To illustrate this approach, this paper compares four well-known contemporary transnational diasporas—namely, the Muslim, African, Hispanic and Chinese. (shrink)

Plato scholars such as Matthias Baltes (1940-2003) and Luc Brisson have defended the thesis that Plato‘s Idea of the Good is on the one hand beyond being (epekeina tês ousias) in dignity and power, but is nevertheless not transcendent over being. The article gives first (I.), an introduction into the status questionis. Second (II.), it delivers the most important arguments for the thesis of Baltes and Brisson. Third (III.), it gives two counterarguments against the thesis. Fourth (IV), it deals with (...) the translation of L. Brisson "Apollon, quelle merveilleuse emphase" of 509c1-2. Fifth (V.), it concludes with some general questions concerning the deflationist interpetation of Plato‘s Republic, 509b9-10. (shrink)

In his Vermischte Bemerkungen 43, Wittgenstein notices that he was also influenced by Oswald Spengler. The paper deals with the question of in which way Spengler influenced Wittgenstein’s late works and if it really was influence or only a coincidence of ideas. It is put forward that Spengler’s rather unknown philosophy of language influenced Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, especially the concepts of family resemblance, antiessentialism, and language-game (Sprachspiel). A picture of the famous Neapolitan gesture of “negation” which motivated Wittgenstein to (...) give up the picture theory of language is also shown with an example taken from Andrea de Jorio, La mimica degli antichi investigala nel gestire napoletano, Napoli 1832. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta a diferenciação do conceito de poder no pensamento de Jürgen Habermas em duas obras. Na primeira, a Teoria da ação comunicativa, o autor introduz uma concepção de poder reduzida à ação racional com respeito a fins, enquanto, na segunda, Facticidade e Validade, Habermas introduz um conceito de poder comunicativo, em oposição ao poder administrativo.A apresentação dessa diferenciação indica uma abertura da própria ideia de ação comunicativa para a política e para os princípios do Estado de direito. Na (...) medida em que o procedimentalismo e o uso público da razão implicam constantes disputas que envolvem comunicação e poder, Habermas apresenta o poder comunicativo com potências radicalmente democráticas. O conceito fornece bases para a esfera pública influenciar politicamente o sistema político por meio de um modelo extraordinário de circulação do poder político nos processos deliberativos. (shrink)

Nuestro propósito en este artículo es analizar desde un punto de vista epistemológico el debate científico sobre el niño “salvaje” de Aveyron que se inicia en la Ilustración tardía, en el ámbito del método y prácticas médico-pedagógicas, y que se extiende a mediados del siglo XX en el campo de las ciencias sociales. Consideramos que la metodología de investigación científica y los tratamientos aplicados para educar y transformar al niño “salvaje”, a través del disciplinamiento de sus sentidos, la enseñanza del (...) lenguaje y la adopción de costumbres civilizadas lo convierten no solo en un “caso” u “objeto” de investigación científica, sino también en un ser “anormal”, expuesto al encierro, la experimentación y la degradación física. Cuestionamos, en esta ocasión, el dispositivo denominado “máquina antropológica” que articula la antinomia epistemológica naturaleza y cultura, que constituye ontológicamente el estatus inferior del niño “salvaje” como “criatura”. A través de la postulación de la teoría filosófica de la infancia de G. Agamben como alternativa crítica, desarrollamos los conceptos de “silencio”, “resistencia” e “irrupción epistemológica” para abordar las cuestiones ontológicas y epistémicas que conciernen a Víctor de Aveyron desde una nueva perspectiva filosófica. (shrink)

New research on affective computing aiming to develop computer systems that recognize and respond to affective states can also contribute to the issues raised by Coan. Research on how humans interact with computers, and computer models that automatically recognize affective states from features in our physiology, behaviour, and language, may provide insights on how emotions that are experienced and expressed come to be. For example, there is empirical evidence that affect recognition techniques using several modalities are more accurate than those (...) using a single modality, but it is not clear if these improvements are caused by superadditivity (i.e., emergence) or redundancy. (shrink)