For a robot to cohabit with people, it should be able to learn people’s nonverbal social behavior from experience. In this paper, we propose a novel machine learning method for recognizing gestures used in interaction and communication. Our method enables robots to learn gestures incrementally during human–robot interaction in an unsupervised manner. It allows the user to leave the number and types of gestures undefined prior to the learning. The proposed method (HB-SOINN) is based on a self-organizing incremental neural network (...) and the hidden Markov model. We have added an interactive learning mechanism to HB-SOINN to prevent a single cluster from running into a failure as a result of polysemy of being assigned more than one meaning. For example, a sentence: “Keep on going left slowly” has three meanings such as, “Keep on (1)”, “going left (2)”, “slowly (3)”. We experimentally tested the clustering performance of the proposed method against data obtained from measuring gestures using a motion capture device. The results show that the classification performance of HB-SOINN exceeds that of conventional clustering approaches. In addition, we have found that the interactive learning function improves the learning performance of HB-SOINN. (shrink)

In his writings Philosophical Remarks, the Austrian-British Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein draws an octahedron with the words of pure colours such as “white”, “red” and “blue” at the corners and argues: “The colour octahedron is grammar, since it says that you can speak of a reddish blue but not of a reddish green, etc”. He uses the word “grammar” in such a specific way that the grammar or grammatical rules describe the meanings of words/expressions, in other words, how we use them (...) in our language. Accordingly, the colour octahedron can also be taken to represent grammatical rules about how we apply words of colour, e.g., that we can call a certain colour “reddish-blue”, but not “reddish-green”. In a different context, the Japanese philosopher Shūzō Kuki explores in his work The Structure of Iki what the Japanese word “iki” means. This word is often translated as “chic” or “stylistic” in English, but Kuki holds that it is an aesthetic Japanese concept that cannot be translated one-to-one, instead encompassing three aspects: “coquetry”, “pride and honour” and “resignation”. To explain the meanings of the word “iki” and other related words all of which Kuki calls “tastes”, he introduces a rectangular prism as a geometrical representation similar to Wittgenstein’s colour octahedron. In this paper, I argue that the rectangular prism does not solely explain how the modes of Japanese tastes are related to each other, but also has a grammatical character. On this score, I suggest that one can regard this rectangular prism as a description of the grammatical rules of the Japanese language. By appeal to the arguments of both philosophers and in comparison with them, I will not only clarify what they claim by geometrical representations but also examine what role this kind of representation plays as an explanation of grammar in general. Keywords: grammar, colour octahedron, rectangular prism, Shūzō Kuki, Wittgenstein. (shrink)

Following on from Shaun Gallagher's influential 2005 book How the Body Shapes the Mind, this volume brings together leading experts from the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry in a productive dialogue, exploring key questions and debates about the relationship between body schema and body image.

Preliminary evidence suggests that daydreaming about other people has adaptive value in daily social lives. To address this possibility, we examined whether daydreaming plays a role in maintaining close, stable relationships using a 1-year prospective longitudinal study. We found that individuals’ propensity to daydream about their marital partner is separate to general daydreaming. In contrast to general daydreaming, which was associated with lower subsequent relationship investment size in the marital partner, partner-related social daydreaming led to a greater subsequent investment size. (...) Additionally, attachment styles moderated these effects. The effect of daydreaming regarding investment size was found only in securely attached individuals. This research advances the emerging field of social daydreaming and highlights self-generated thought as a critical tool that can help people navigate the complex social world. (shrink)

The coronavirus has brought unprecedented shifts to our world. Fracturing social arrangements, yet evincing also long-time weaknesses therein, the pandemic beckons from us now new forms of organizi...

Narrative views of the self argue that we constitute our self in self-narratives. Embodied views hold that our self is shaped through embodied experiences. In that case, what is the relation between embodiment and narrativity in the process of self-constitution? The question demands a clear definition of embodiment, but existing studies remains unclear on this point (section 2). We offer a correction to this situation by drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of the body that highlights its habituality. On this account, the (...) body has an inherent tendency to cultivate an organization of habits through its history of engagement with the world (section 3). Next, we explore its role in narrative self-constitution by distinguishing between two aspects of the narrative self, the narrated I and the narrating I (section 4). We argue on phenomenological grounds that self-narratives are informed by bodily perspectives in both respects. Furthermore, a focus on the habituality of the body allows for a better explanation of self-constitution than those based on implicit self-narratives (section 5). For these phenomenological and theoretical reasons, we conclude that narrative self-constitution is an embodied and embedded practice (section 6). (shrink)

Body image and body schema refer to two different yet closely related systems. Whereas BI can be defined as a system of perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs pertaining to one's own body, BS is a system of sensory-motor capacities that functions without awareness or the necessity of perceptual monitoring. Studies have demonstrated that applying the concepts of BI and BS enables us to conceptualize complex pathological phenomena such as anorexia, schizophrenia, and depersonalization. Likewise, it has further been argued that these concepts (...) play a crucial role in our ability to grasp our bodily experiences in the socio-cultural world according to various factors, such as gender, social class, and ethnicity. Referring to the insights of Frantz Fanon, the author of Black Skin, White Masks, this paper suggests that under certain conditions the BI can take over and reshape the BS. Based on an examination of Fanon’s writings, the paper suggests that not only the BI can truly remold the BS but that the gaze of the other can directly influence the BI. (shrink)

To become more broadly applicable, positions on AI ethics require perspectives from non-Western regions and cultures such as China and Japan. In this paper, we propose that the addition of the concept of harmony to the discussion on ethical AI would be highly beneficial due to its centrality in East Asian cultures and its applicability to the challenge of designing AI for social good. We first present a synopsis of different definitions of harmony in multiple contexts, such as music and (...) society, which reveals that the concept is, at its core, about well-balanced relationships and appropriate actions which give rise to order, balance, and aesthetically pleasing phenomena. The mediator for these well-balanced relationships isTaktwhich is an ability to act thoughtfully and sensibly according to the specific situation and to put things into proportion and order. We propose that the central challenge of building harmonizing AI is to make intelligent systems tactful and also to design and use them tactfully. For an AI system to become tactful, it needs to be able to have an advanced sensitivity to the specific contexts which it is in and their social and ethical implications and have the capability of approximately inferring the emotional and cognitive states of people with whom it is interacting. (shrink)

This paper presents what the authors call the ‘divergence problem’ regarding choosing between different future possibilities. As is discussed in the first half, the central issue of the problem is the difficulty of temporally locating the ‘active cause’ on the modal divergent diagram. In the second half of this paper, we discuss the ‘second-person freedom’ which is, strictly, neither compatibilist negative freedom nor incompatibilist positive freedom. The divergence problem leads us to two hypothetical views (i.e. the view of single-line determination (...) and that of one-off chance), and these views bring humans closer to the afree side – i.e. outside of the contrast between being free and being unfree. The afree side is greatly different from the ordinary human side. This paper tries to secure the second-person freedom as a substitute for the ordinary human freedom while preventing the divergence problem from arising. (shrink)

The coronavirus has brought unprecedented shifts to our world. Fracturing social arrangements, yet evincing also long-time weaknesses therein, the pandemic beckons from us now new forms of organizi...

_An Inquiry into the Good_ represented the foundation of Nishida’s philosophy—reflecting both his deep study of Zen Buddhism and his thorough analysis of Western philosophy—and established its author as the foremost Japanese philosopher of this century. In this important new translation, two scholars—one Japanese and one American—have worked together to present a lucid and accurate rendition of Nishida’s ideas. "The translators do an admirable job of adhering to the cadence of the original while avoiding unidiomatic, verbatim constructions."—John C. (...) Maraldo, _Philosophy East and West_ __ __ "More accurate and critical than the first translation into English of Nishida's earliest book.... An important addition to library collections of twentieth-century philosophy, Japanese intellectual history, and contemporary Buddhist thought."—_Choice_ "A welcome new translation of a work by probably the most original and influential of modern Japanese philosophers."—Hidé Ishiguro, _Times Literary Supplement_ "Undoubtedly the most important work for anyone in the West interested in understanding modern Japanese thought. This work premiered Japanese philosophy as modern but has also shown unusual staying power. In the late twentieth century Japanese thinkers, both religious and secular, insist on its importance and relevance."—William R. La Fleur, University of Pennsylvania. (shrink)

In the near future, our life will normally be surrounded with fairly complicated artifacts, enabled by the autonomous robot and brain–machine interface technologies. In this paper, we argue that what we call the responsibility flaw problem and the inappropriate use problem need to be overcome in order for us to benefit from complicated artifacts. In order to solve these problems, we propose an approach to endowing artifacts with an ability of socially communicating with other agents based on the artifact-as-a-half-mirror metaphor. (...) The idea is to have future artifacts behave according to the hybrid intention composed of the owner’s intention and the social rules. We outline the approach and discuss its feasibility together with preliminary work. (shrink)

This essay by Nishida Kitarō from 1927, translated into English here for the first time, is from the initial period of what has come to be called “Nishida philosophy” (Nishida tetsugaku), when Nishida was first developing his conception of “place” (basho). Nishida here inquires into the relationship between logic and consciousness in terms of place and implacement in order to overcome the shortcomings of previous philosophical attempts—from the ancient Greeks to the moderns—to dualistically conceive the (...) relationship between being and knowing in terms of subject-object or form-matter. During the course of articulating his novel approach to consciousness and cognition, Nishida discusses what he takes to be the weaknesses of Greek hylomorphism, Kantian (and neo-Kantian) dualism, and Husserlian phenomenology. Dissatisfied with the attribution of mere passivity to placiality, and turning away from consciousness objectified as a subject of statement, Nishida imparts to consciousness qua place a certain logical independence as an active yet un-objectifiable “predicate.” This investigation of consciousness as the unobjectifiable place for objectification leads Nishida to the notion of what precedes consciousness itself, a “place of nothing” (mu no basho) that envelops the dichotomized structures of subject-predicate, being-nothing, subject-object, universal-particular, et cetera. (shrink)

The following essay, “The Unsolved Issue of Consciousness” (Torinokosaretaru ishiki no mondai 取残されたる意識の問題), by Nishida Kitarō 西田幾多郎 from 1927 is significant in regard to the development of what has come to be called “Nishida philosophy” (Nishida tetsugaku 西田哲学). In what follows, in addition to providing some commentary on the important points of his essay, I would like to show its relevance or significance not only for those who would like to study Nishida’s thought but also for (...) philosophy in general, especially in the contemporary setting. It was first published in 1927 by Iwanami Publishers in a collection of essays by different authors, Philosophical Essays in Commemoration of the Sixtieth Birthday of Dr. .. (shrink)

dai 1-kan. Zen no kenkyū -- dai 2-kan. Jikaku ni okeru chokkan to hansei -- dai 3-kan. Ishiki no mondai ; Geijutsu to dōtoku -- dai 4-kan. Hataraku mono kara miru mono e -- dai 5-kan. Ippansha no jikakuteki taikei -- dai 6-kan. Mu no jikakuteki gentei -- dai 7-kan. Tetsugaku no konpon mondai ; Tetsugaku no konpon mondai zokuhen -- dai 8-11-kan. Tetsugaku ronbunshū -- dai 12-kan. Zoku Shisaku to taiken ; "Zoku Shisaku to taiken" igo ; Nihon bunka (...) no mondai ; Hoi -- dai 13-kan. Shōhen, nōto -- dai 14-kan. Kōen hikki -- dai 15-kan. Kōgi -- dai 16-kan. Shoki sōkō, nōto hoi -- dai 17-kan. Nikki -- dai 18-kan. Shokanshū -- dai 19-kan. Shokanshū, shin hoi, nenpu, sōmokuroku -- [20] Furoku. (shrink)

A new reprint of Nishida Kitarō's second monograph in his life as a philosopher, Speculation and Experience, in the original Japanese, comprising early essays written in Kyoto between 1912 and 1914. This volume is also cross-referenced to the pagination of the older (1946) and newer (2003) editions of the Complete Works of Nishida Kitarō, vol. 1.

A new reprint of Nishida Kitarō’s maiden philosophical classic, 善の研究 (An inquiry into the Good), cross-referenced to the pagination of the older (1946) and newer (2003) editions of the Complete Works of Nishida Kitarō, vol. 1, as well as to translations in English, Chinese, German, Italian, Korean, Romanian, and Spanish. This is the second volume of "Classics of Philosophy in Japan," a series of books dedicated to the dissemination of important philosophical texts at an affordable price.

In 1919, Nishida Kitarō delivered a speech at Ōtani University discussing the relationship between Nicolaus of Cusa’s coincidentia oppositorum (the coincidence of opposites) and love. The address, given within weeks of a disabling injury suffered by Nishida’s wife, Kotomi, gives evidence of how severe personal crisis would come to influence his philosophical work, and highlights several themes that would dominate the writings of the last twenty-five years of his life.

In 1919, Nishida Kitarō delivered a speech at Ōtani University discussing the relationship between Nicolaus of Cusa’s coincidentia oppositorum and love. The address, given within weeks of a disabling injury suffered by Nishida’s wife, Kotomi, gives evidence of how severe personal crisis would come to influence his philosophical work, and highlights several themes that would dominate the writings of the last twenty-five years of his life.

« L’autodétermination du maintenant éternel» est un essai central portant sur une question qui ne cessa de préoccuper Nishida tout au long de sa carrière, celle du temps et, corrélativement, celle du soi véritable. L’analyse de la temporalité à laquelle il procède constitue l’un des apports majeurs de sa philosophie sur la scène de la philosophie contemporaine. L’inspiration platonicienne et le rapport constant à Augustin sur ce sujet conduisirent Nishida à approfondir considérablement sa «logique du basho» ou du (...) lieu et à réinterpréter en retour de manière «englobante» la temporalité. Pour lui, tout ce qui est se situe dans le temps, forme fondamentale de la réalité. Or, le temps se situe dans le présent. À partir de cet acquis, Nishida élargit encore plus sa perspective en établissant que le présent lui-même se situe dans le soi. En réalité, le véritable soi n’est autre que le soi présent. Le stade suivant, le plus englobant de tous, est celui du maintenant éternel, dans lequel tourne le temps. Il résulte de la temporalité «englobante» de Nishida une conception du présent qui met l’accent sur le rapport à l’histoire, sur un soi plus fondamental et éthique, de même que sur le thème de l’altérité. (shrink)

In questa sua ultima opera Nishida Kitarō, padre indiscusso della moderna filosofia giapponese, si concentra sul sentimento religioso, analizzandolo attraverso una logica imperniata sul suo concetto di Nulla Assoluto, luogo ultimo in cui emergono realtà e ragione, mondo e uomo. Dialogando sulla soglia che unisce e separa la tradizione buddhista e quella cristiana, Nishida invita a pensare una religione della “trascendenza immanente”, del Dio che si svuota della sua divinità per donarla alle sue creature, del Buddha che sempre (...) è impresso nel cuore dell’uomo. Nella sua dettagliata introduzione, il traduttore, Tiziano Tosolini, ripercorre i concetti fondamentali che Nishida ha sviluppato lungo gli anni tentando di capire il retroscena filosofico che ha portato l’autore alla stesura de La logica del luogo e la visione religiosa del mondo. L’introduzione serve così da guida al lettore perché lo scritto di Nishida possa essere accolto come un testo su cui meditare, interrogarsi ed interagire. Solo così le parole di Nishida, il suo spirito indagatore e religioso, potranno risuonare in tutti coloro che si lasciano affascinare da un pensiero che ha avuto come suo unico e vero confine non tanto quello di una cultura e tradizione filosofica, ma quello più universale ed umano della ragione e della fede. (shrink)

_Ontology of Production_ presents three essays by the influential Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō, translated for the first time into English by William Haver. While previous translations of his writings have framed Nishida within Asian or Oriental philosophical traditions, Haver's introduction and approach to the texts rightly situate the work within Nishida's own commitment to Western philosophy. In particular, Haver focuses on Nishida's sustained and rigorous engagement with Marx's conception of production. Agreeing with Marx that ontology is (...) production and production is ontology, Nishida in these three essays—"Expressive Activity", "The Standpoint of Active Intuition", and "Human Being" —addresses sense and reason, language and thought, intuition and appropriation, ultimately arguing that in this concept of production, ideality and materiality are neither mutually exclusive nor oppositional but, rather, coimmanent. Nishida's forceful articulation of the radical nature of Marx's theory of production is, Haver contends, particularly timely in today's speculation-driven global economy. Nishida's reading of Marx, which points to the inseparability of immaterial intellectual labor and material manual labor, provokes a reconsideration of Marxism's utility for making sense of—and resisting—the logic of contemporary capitalism. (shrink)

This English translation of Intuition and Reflection in Self-Consciousness evokes the movement and flavor of the original, clarifies its obscurities, and eliminates the repetitions.

Expressive activity (1925) -- The standpoint of active intuition (1935) -- Human being (1938).

La notion d’intuition agissante désigne le mode d’être fondamental de l’humain dans le monde dont celui-ci est élément constitutif. Elle ouvre la dimension où s’éprouve l’immédiateté de notre expérience du monde, et cette immédiateté est la source de toute connaissance réelle. Dans cette couche primordiale de notre expérience du monde, les moments actif et intuitif sont les deux aspects constitutifs de la seule et même réalité fondamentale qui n’est autre que la vie. Notre action constitue une réception du monde en (...) son intérieur propre par son élément à la fois passif et actif, élément que nous sommes. (shrink)