Education is often understood as a process whereby children come to conform to the norms teachers believe should govern our practices. This picture problematically presumes that educators know in advance what it means for children to go on the way that is expected of them. In this essay Viktor Johansson suggests a revision of education, through the philosophy of Stanley Cavell, that can account for both the attunement in our practices and the possible dissonance that follows when the teacher and (...) child do not go on together. There is an anxiety generated by the threat of disharmony in our educational undertakings that may drive teachers toward philosophy in educational contexts. Here Johansson offers a philosophical treatment of this intellectual anxiety that teachers may experience when they, upon meeting dissonant children, search for epistemic justifications of their practices—a treatment whereby dissonant children can support teachers in dissolving their intellectual frustrations. (shrink)

This article argues that geographers should rededicate themselves to developing a positive theory of justice. In the past fifty years, research has made enormous strides in theorizing injustice, but mostly geographers rely on commonsense and unexamined notions of justice as "fairness." In this article, I trace this avoidance of justice theorizing to the way geographers originally engaged with Rawls's foundation work and argue that his A Theory of Justice should be reexamined to better understand one of the central concepts: the (...) "basic structure," especially as it has been reformulated by feminist political theorists. I argue that the landscape is a key component of the basic structure and understanding it as such offers a first step in a positive theory of justice that is deeper than the commonsense justice-as-fairness. Having established landscape as basic structure, I then argue that a second step toward a full theory of justice would be to understand justice as the "right to justification" (as theorized by the Frankfurt School's Forst). The end result-combining landscape as basic structure with justice as the right to justification-is a theory that allows for assessing both "minimally" and "maximally" just geographies. (shrink)

The pursuit of artificial consciousness requires conceptual clarity to navigate its theoretical and empirical challenges. This paper introduces a composite, multilevel, and multidimensional model of consciousness as a heuristic framework to guide research in this field. Consciousness is treated as a complex phenomenon, with distinct constituents and dimensions that can be operationalized for study and for evaluating their replication. We argue that this model provides a balanced approach to artificial consciousness research by avoiding binary thinking (e.g., conscious vs. non-conscious) and (...) offering a structured basis for testable hypotheses. To illustrate its utility, we focus on "awareness" as a case study, demonstrating how specific dimensions of consciousness can be pragmatically analyzed and targeted for potential artificial instantiation. By breaking down the conceptual intricacies of consciousness and aligning them with practical research goals, this paper lays the groundwork for a robust strategy to advance the scientific and technical understanding of artificial consciousness. (shrink)

This thesis examines how we should understand the concept of harm, and its moral and prudential importance. It discusses various analyses of harm and normative principles that appeal to harm. In broad terms, it offers a defense of the view that harm is normatively important and useful for philosophical theorizing. Further it proposes a novel analysis of harm, which aligns with that view. The first paper, "The Harm Principle and the Nature of Harm", defends John Stuart Mill’s Harm Principle against (...) the criticism that the principle has unacceptable implications regardless of which analysis of harm we plug into it. I argue that the criticism is built on mistaken assumptions – most importantly, the assumption that the Harm Principle is plausible only if there exists an unproblematic analysis of harm. The second paper, "Feit on the Normative Importance of Harm", criticizes Neil Feit’s suggested solution to the so-called Failing to Benefit Problem for the Counterfactual Comparative Account (CCA). Feit argues that CCA’s inability to align with some commonsense views about harm’s moral importance is no flaw since those views are false. I object to that argument, in part by showing that the cases that Feit appeals to are not genuine counterexamples. The third paper, "Doing Away with Skepticism about Harm", scrutinizes the elimination thesis, which states that we should do away with the concept of harm in philosophical theorizing. I examine various claims in support of that thesis – for instance that the concept is defective – but conclude that we lack good reasons to accept it. The fourth paper, "Misfortune and Missing Out", focuses on Kaila Draper’s famous challenge for deprivationism – the view that death harms a subject in so far as it deprives her of life’s goods. Since not winning the lottery is also a deprivation, the challenge is to explain why only death is a misfortune in the sense that it merits negative emotional responses. I argue that the challenge is serious, in part by criticizing some prominent suggested solutions, and identify a parallel challenge for CCA. The fifth paper, "A Fitting Attitudes Analysis of Harm", puts forward a novel analysis of harm. Roughly, this analysis says that an event harms me if, and only if, it is fitting for me to disfavor the event for my own sake. (shrink)

We take up the challenge of developing an international network with capacity to survey the world’s scientists on an ongoing basis, providing rich datasets regarding the opinions of scientists and scientific sub-communities, both at a time and also over time. The novel methodology employed sees local coordinators, at each institution in the network, sending survey invitation emails internally to scientists at their home institution. The emails link to a ‘10 second survey’, where the participant is presented with a single statement (...) to consider, and a standard five-point Likert scale. In June 2023, a group of 30 philosophers and social scientists invited 20,085 scientists across 30 institutions in 12 countries to participate, gathering 6,807 responses to the statement Science has put it beyond reasonable doubt that COVID-19 is caused by a virus. The study demonstrates that it is possible to establish a global network to quickly ascertain scientific opinion on a large international scale, with high response rate, low opt-out rate, and in a way that allows for significant (perhaps indefinite) repeatability. Measuring scientific opinion in this new way would be a valuable complement to currently available approaches, potentially informing policy decisions and public understanding across diverse fields. (shrink)

Modern computational natural philosophy conceptualizes the universe in terms of information and computation, establishing a framework for the study of cognition and intelligence. Despite some critiques, this computational perspective has significantly influenced our understanding of the natural world, leading to the development of AI systems like ChatGPT based on deep neural networks. Advancements in this domain have been facilitated by interdisciplinary research, integrating knowledge from multiple fields to simulate complex systems. Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, represent this approach's (...) capabilities, utilizing reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF). Current research initiatives aim to integrate neural networks with symbolic computing, introducing a new generation of hybrid computational models. (shrink)

This paper provides an ethical analysis of risk impositions from car driving in a low-income country context. To this end, a model of ethical risk analysis is used in which stakeholders and their corresponding roles in relation to a risk imposition is used to identify the nature and moral acceptability of risk impositions. I argue that car driving involves a risk imposition in which some stakeholders who decide on and benefit from the risk impositions impose an unfair risk of harm (...) on other stakeholders, who are neither beneficiaries from the risk imposition nor have a decision-making role related to the risks they are exposed to. Mainstream ethical theories lack feasible solutions to the moral dilemmas associated with the risk impositions. I argue that addressing the unfair and morally problematic risk impositions requires the promotion certain types of moral obligations associated with the nature and magnitude of the risk impositions. Accordingly, actors who decide on risk levels in the road system and those who benefit from the current risk impositions have the moral obligations to know more about the nature of the risk imposition, to communicate with the unfairly risk exposed, to compensate those who are harmed, and to bring about attitudinal change with regards to the causes and remedies of road safety problems, and to improve safety of those unfairly risk exposed. Most of all, enhancing the safety of children, and pedestrians requires a political and societal commitment to promote effective road safety measures that eliminate major risk factors affecting these groups of road users. (shrink)

Statelessness is one of the most severe conditions in which humans can find themselves in today. As a predicament that drastically impacts lives and identities, statelessness goes beyond the lack of citizenship to represent an inherent paradox of the dominant international state order. As a tool for nation-state projects and hegemonic identity constructions, statelessness has an extended history that is intertwined with persecution and exclusion in many parts of the world. This study explores the impact of statelessness on identity construction (...) and access to rights between the contexts of the home country and migration. Deploying qualitative research tools, the analysis draws on the life histories of stateless Kurds from Syria, who are currently residents in Germany and Sweden. In ten chapters, the study examines the historical grounds, lived realities and presumptive solutions pertaining to the statelessness of the Kurds of Syria in the shadow of the recent conflict and displacement from the country. Through a chronotopic investigation into individual narratives, I argue for an alternative framework of knowledge about statelessness, beyond citizenist interpretations. This alternative which I call stateless standpoint epistemology has both conceptual and analytical functions, enabling us to understand how individual and collective identities are perceived and negotiated in the chronotopic transitions between various legal statuses (such as the stateless, the refugee and the citizen), and how boundaries of belonging and citizenship are constructed across these transitions. Exploring the entanglements of citizenship and identity in relation to forced migration, the study demonstrates that statelessness is an enduring issue, both as a lived reality of exclusion, non-belonging and political otherness and as a legacy affecting individuals, families and communities. The study explains the intricate relation between statelessness, identity and forced migration in historical, social and critical terms, contributing with new research perspectives that recognize statelessness as an intersectional, structural and political phenomenon, beyond the mere lack of state citizenship. (shrink)

In "From Redistribution to Recognition?" Nancy Fraser formulates a theory aiming at defending only those versions of identity politics that can be coherently combined with socialist politics. Many commentators have criticized the analytical distinction between economic and cultural injustice underpinning this theory. I argue, however, that it is Fraser's inability to uphold this distinction that makes her argument problematic, and that a clearer analytical distinction between the categories class and identity makes possible both a more theoretically satisfying critique of the (...) "postsocialist" condition and the formulation of a radical politics that addresses economic as well as cultural injustices. (shrink)

The thesis argues for a commitment to a comprehensive conceptualization of dignity in educational philosophy and practice that is meant to deepen moral reflection and ethically enrich educational relationships, particularly between children and adults in formal educational settings. To this end, the thesis reconstructs and revitalizes dignity at three levels: the ideal; the processual; and the qualitative. That is, dignity is re-theorized as a normative regulative ideal, as a process of relational becoming, and as a quality of moral awareness. By (...) reconceptualizing different aspects of dignity, namely the intrinsic, the inflorescent and the attributed, towards more relationally attuned and dynamic conceptualizations, the thesis argues that the inherent ethical risks of objectification and instrumentalization of children due to formalized education’s fostering functions, can be, not overcome, but more gracefully lived with. The compilation thesis interprets and promotes the notion of dignity neither as yet another overarching aim of education, nor as an ideal cherished by just one philosophical persuasion or tradition. The dignity that the thesis reconstructs emerges from diverse philosophical sensibilities, mainly those of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum, Gert Biesta and Sharon Todd, in a critical dialogue that responds also to the challenges that the modern conception of dignity has encountered. This critical dialogue through diverse philosophies renders dignity something more than an intrinsically valuable ideal and process by proving that dignity is also a quality of moral awareness that has many aspects which frame the relations of adults and children. This quality of moral awareness is described as committed non-attachment, a theoretical stance, methodological approach as well as a relational attitude, that steers clear from both relativism and dogmatism by maintaining a faithfulness to an ethical vision, without rigid loyalty to a philosophical trend or tradition. From this lens, the reformulation of dignity does not come with a prioritization or exclusive attachment to one version of the term at the cost of excluding other versions, nor overlooking their synergy and tensions with one another. The non-rigidity of movement, relational attunement, and acceptance of the indeterminate nature of education that dignity as committed non-attachment requires of both philosophers and practitioners, is described through the metaphor of a dance. As the title suggests, there is an ambivalence in the movement. On the one hand, we are striving for dignity in our relationships with others, dancing with dignity as an ever present, yet also, rather elusive dance partner. On the other hand, we are not just moving in a linear fashion towards a predefined ideal of dignity, but also striving to make the movement itself intentional and ethically meaningful to ourselves, others and the world, moving, or dancing, with dignity. (shrink)

This study sets out to conceptually distinguish between ‘public’ and ‘greater good’ in respect to research impact claims. We argue that the former is a category reflective of genuine benefit for the wider public, while the latter merely represents a rhetorical category to pursue the ends of a select few. Methodologically, we showcase that only within the actual research conduct is it possible to distinguish between these two categories. Likewise, without acknowledging methodological limitations, researchers may contribute to post-truth predicaments in (...) the sense that the interaction ritual chains they are using constitute a mere rhetorical flourish rather than a rigorous argument for genuine benefit. We conclude with an appeal to future scrutiny for how researchers can retain their integrity in this new research impact discourse. We argue that an uncritical use of impact arguments may undermine the very social fabric that makes scientific pursuits possible. (shrink)

Non-ideal theory in the philosophy of religion : Exploring implications of non-ideal theorising for the problem of evil.

This paper has two main aims. The first is to examine our normative relations to artworks and cultural artefacts threatened by damage or destruction. The second aim is to develop an argument for the notion of aesthetic obligation, offering an alternative model of explanation of our normative relations to artworks and cultural artefacts which relies neither exclusively on the object of appreciation ('object-oriented approach') nor on the appreciating subject ('subject-oriented approach'). Instead, an aesthetic obligation is held to be directed primarily (...) towards the community which appreciates the object on the grounds of its aesthetic value. That which unites an aesthetic community is the practice of valuing an object for its aesthetic character. The notion of aesthetic obligation thus relies both on the community of subjects which holds an object in high aesthetic regard and that same object's aesthetic value. (shrink)

This paper introduces the symposium on Spinoza on perfectionism and education. It frames the key issue of Spinoza’s perfectionism in terms of a perennial educational problem and introduces the different contributions to this special issue, where Steven Nadler’s main paper is followed by a series of full paper responses by a group of Spinoza scholars and educational theorists. To round off the special issue, Nadler comments on the responses to his main paper.

This paper is prompted by the intuition that the common ethical theories do not fully comprehend the (internal) psychological structures of the asymmetrical coach-athlete relationship. Through a few examples I attempt to investigate the ethically vulnerable coach-athlete relationships that often emerge. With a philosophical view taken from Nel Noddings’ theory of an ethics of care, I argue that we may need a broader perspective on the ethical issues which also include a psychoanalytic or psychodynamic perspective towards the relationships in question. (...) Doing that would in itself be an ethical approach to take for a deeper understanding of the relationships between coaches and athletes. (shrink)

Concepts are the building blocks of higher-order cognition and consciousness. Building on Conceptual Spaces Theory (CST) and proceeding from the assumption that concepts are inherently dynamic, this paper provides historical context to and significantly elaborates the previously offered Iterative Subdivision Model (ISDM) with the goal of pushing it toward empirical testability. The paper describes how agents in continuous interaction with their environment adopt an intentional orientation, estimate the utility of the concept(s) applicable to action in the current context, engage in (...) practical action, and adopt any new concepts that emerge: a largely pre-intellectual cycle that repeats essentially without interruption over the conceptual agent’s lifetime. This paper elaborates utility optimization by establishing three constraints on concept formation/evaluation – non-redundancy, distinctiveness, and proportionality – embedding them in a quasi-mathematical model intended for development into a formal logic. The notion of a distinctor – a quality dimension of the conceptual space in focus at any given time, used for making what we call a difference distinction – is key. The primary contribution of the revised ISDM is the way it relates concepts to action via utility optimization/actualization and the way it describes the emergence of quality dimensions through trial-by-action (trial and error), something previous presentations of CST have failed to address. (shrink)

This thesis consists of four essays on aesthetic cognitivism. Aesthetic cognitivism says that artworks can have significant cognitive value and that the arts constitute a significant body of understanding. This thesis formulates and defends aesthetic cognitivist positions on central debates in philosophical aesthetics and works towards a comprehensive aesthetic cognitivist account of our aesthetic practices. In essay one, ‘Aesthetic Communication’, I defend the view that the purpose of a central form of aesthetic communication is sharing an aesthetic understanding of the (...) distinctive aesthetic character and value of artworks (and inculcating this aesthetic understanding in others). I argue for this view by setting out a novel account of the nature of aesthetic communication and of the criteria of communicative success in aesthetics. In essay two, ‘Aesthetic Cognitivism and Aesthetic Normativity’, I set out an aesthetic cognitivist answer to three normative questions. Why appreciate artworks? What does appreciation aim at? Which artworks is there weightiest reason to appreciate? Aesthetic cognitivism says that there is weightiest reason to appreciate artworks that are aesthetically valuable in virtue of the rich perspectives they bear to their subject matters. It says that the appreciation of these artworks aims at the sensitive exploration of their distinctive aesthetic value (i.e., of the rich perspectives they bear). It says there is reason to appreciate these artworks because they are aesthetically valuable. In essay three, ‘The End of Pleasure in Aesthetics: Aesthetic Cognitivism Revived’, I argue for an aesthetic cognitivist account of what it is to be responsive to aesthetic value. I argue that aesthetic responsiveness consists in a motivationally self-sustaining cognitive exploration of the distinctive aesthetic value of an artwork. I contrast my account with a pleasure theoretic account. In essay four, ‘Artistic Honesty’, I describe how honesty serves as a standard that guides and governs the creative process and provide an account of the property we attribute to artworks when we judge them to be honest. I argue that for an artwork to be honest is for it to confront a truth that it is epistemically and/or emotionally difficult for us to confront (individually and as a community). (shrink)

This dissertation investigates the role of design in contemporary data journalism. Over the past few decades, data journalism has gained popularity as a genre capable of responding to the progressive crisis in traditional media. Data journalists use quantitative data as the main source for their reporting activities. These data are collected, analyzed, and represented using a plethora of computational and design methods. These methods allow data journalists to unveil patterns and trends hidden in the data. This information is ultimately presented (...) to the reader. Data journalists employ techniques such as data visualizations to produce a graphical representation of abstract data. Whereas previous research has focused at length on the intersection between data journalism and computer science, design and data visualizations have been marginalized as purely functional techniques. This points to a gap in the research on data journalism. In order tounderstand the future direction of data journalism, it is important to recognize the epistemic role that design and data visualization play in the genre. Such an investigation is fundamental to understanding the key ideals and practices that are at play in defining data journalism epistemology. Moreover, identifying the role of data visualization in data journalism allows for a critical reflection on the normalization of design within newsroom practice. As journalism becomes increasingly digital and visual, design plays a fundamental role in how news is consumed and understood by audiences. Ultimately, this work aims to show the importance of design for digital journalism and contextualize the role of data journalism within the progressive crisis of credibility faced by traditional media. Throughout this dissertation the present status and future trajectory of datajournalism is discussed. Two contributions are brought forward. First, the contemporary epistemology of data journalism is discussed. This is done by examining how key journalistic values, like objectivity, are represented in data journalists’ work. Data visualizations will be analyzed as boundary objects between journalists and their audiences, as artefacts capable of communicating specific ideals and values. Then, the relationship between objectivity and power will be established in a discussion which will touch upon the normalization process of data journalism. Design is discussed again as a critical approach that could serve data journalists in becoming more aware and sensitive to data-related issues. The dissertation concludes that a theoretically-grounded understanding of design would benefit data journalism practices. An improved understanding of design values and epistemologies could shift data journalism towards more critical journalistic and data practices. (shrink)

"This is Not Collective Housing" investigates the potential of collective living, highlighting its benefits for both the environment and individual well-being. Despite these advantages, contemporary housing design predominantly caters to the nuclear family model. The project explores the historical and cultural reasons behind this norm and proposes an alternative focused on friendships. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s metaphor of the "comfortable chair" it addresses the impact of standardized housing on loneliness, particularly in Sweden where nearly 40% of the population lives alone.The (...) study reimagines a 1955 high-rise building in Högdalen, Stockholm, originally designed for traditional families but now predominantly occupied by single households. The proposed design reconfigures this building to support friend-based living arrangements, introducing shared and private spaces tailored for various configurations of friendships. The project’s goal is to balance private and communal living to foster closer relationships and combat loneliness. By allowing residents to choose their cohabitants, the design aims to create a supportive, flexible living environment that reflects contemporary social dynamics and offers an alternative to the nuclear family-centric housing model. (shrink)

When reasoning about causes of sustainability problems and possible solutions, sustainability scientists rely on disciplinary-based understanding of cause–effect relations. These disciplinary assumptions enable and constrain how causal knowledge is generated, yet they are rarely made explicit. In a multidisciplinary field like sustainability science, lack of understanding differences in causal reasoning impedes our ability to address complex sustainability problems. To support navigating the diversity of causal reasoning, we articulate when and how during a research process researchers engage in causal reasoning and (...) discuss four common ideas about causation that direct it. This articulation provides guidance for researchers to make their own assumptions and choices transparent and to interpret other researchers’ approaches. Understanding how causal claims are made and justified enables sustainability researchers to evaluate the diversity of causal claims, to build collaborations across disciplines, and to assess whether proposed solutions are suitable for a given problem. (shrink)

Jan Faye : The Biological and Social Dimensions of Knowledge. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature. 2023.

Insufficient attention has been paid to how concepts of resilience can be operationalised in wicked, contested situations. Within the environmental sciences, the contemporary social-ecological resilience narrative is not geared to examining social dilemmas in ill-defined problem contexts. These conditions require a different resilience narrative, one centred on epistemological and ontological considerations. This paper examines four resilience narratives (engineering, social-ecological, epistemic and intersubjective) in order to stimulate an improved awareness of the possibility of more deliberative choices for research and governance in (...) the resilience domain. We argue that the resilience research community needs to be more cognizant of the diversity of resilience narratives in order to empower and learn from the perspectives and local practices of stakeholders, who will often express narratives better aligned to the wicked situation at hand. Ultimately, the resilience narratives of the research community can be little more than toolkits to support greater understanding of the diversity of people, perspectives and ‘performances’ jointly narrating the ‘real’ stories of our wicked and contested realities. (shrink)

This article investigates data journalism epistemology through Michel Foucault’s definition of power. The growing demand for data-savvy reporters with computational skills has been proven to shift the newsrooms’ culture in media companies across the globe. Previous research has documented journalists’ shift towards a data-centred epistemology and the increasingly important role of computation and data-driven practices in newsrooms. By focusing on inexperienced journalists as they mobilise data journalism for the first time, this research openly discusses its epistemology as a form of (...) Foucauldian power: which epistemological tensions–individual or structural–emerge among newcomers when reporting extensively with data? The article presents the case of a newly formed data journalism team at taz, a German cooperative media company. It is based on qualitative data collected through action research, namely six in-depth interviews, auto-ethnographic notes and self-reflective inquiries. Data are framed through Foucault’s concepts of power and will to truth. Results show the discord between data journalism epistemology and its practical implementation. Despite prioritising democratic access to data, technologies and non-hierarchical forms of cooperation, data journalism remains largely dependent on traditional methods and culture. (shrink)

A profound puzzle lies in how the brain’s information processing gives rise to consciousness. This paper will discuss how and why there can be processes that give rise to subjective experience.Diverging from mainstream media, this paper will first demonstrate that there is no direct correlation between rising intelligence and the ability to gain subjective experience. In the core of the paper, a speculative idea is brought forward: the ability to filter noise is what gives a being the ability to develop (...) subjective experience. This could mean a system that can take all of the information and pick out the relevant parts. Every other sensory input that is seemingly unnecessary will be part of the experience, offering a unique point of view. It is like something to be conscious, and the argument is that all of this seemingly unnecessary information is part of that, giving the conclusion that this could be how subjective experience emerges. Further speculation suggests that a developing component answers why consciousness emerges from a system that is only filtering noise. This would mean a system constantly refining its ability to filter noise and interact with the world. This ongoing refinement, this journey of sorting order from chaos, is integral to the development of subjective experience. (shrink)

The capacity of generative AI (GAI) has improved markedly. Today, virtually anyone can use publicly available tools with powerful generative capabilities – such as ChatGPT – which has led to an explosion of AI-generated content, some of which purports to be “art.” As a result, debates have emerged over whether AI-generated works belong in the art world. This essay examines GAI-generated works through the lens of four kinds of theories on how to define art: 1) artistic expression, 2) aesthetic experience, (...) 3) historical or institutional context, and lastly, 4) artistic intention. The conclusion is that while GAI output can theoretically meet the criteria of the first three kinds of theories, the decisive factor appears to be the user’s degree of control over the creative process, and by extension, the end result. In other words, a sufficient degree of intention is required for GAI output to constitute art, which remains difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with currently available tools. (shrink)

In this thesis, I examine Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy, with a particular focus on individual moral agency and its relation to the broader social context. I evaluate criticism against Murdoch regarding her alleged overemphasis on the individual, which some argue neglects broader social and collective forces in moral life, thus presenting an unrealistic picture of moral formation and attributing too much individual responsibility. To address this critique, I first explore Murdoch’s metaphysical views, contrasting them with dominant philosophical schools of her (...) time, primarily existentialism and behaviorism. By elucidating the metaphysical underpinnings that inform her Platonic-influenced moral realism, I argue that understanding her moral philosophy necessitates an understanding of her metaphysics. I then delve into the central problem in Murdoch’s moral philosophy: transcending the ego that typically obscures our perception of reality with egocentric fantasies of all kinds. Murdoch contends that gaining insight into moral reality hinges largely on how we deploy our attention, positing that a 'just and loving gaze' is requisite for perceiving what is real. When this attention is properly directed, we can experience 'unselfing,' a state in which our egocentric perspectives recede, allowing reality to manifest itself. I argue that, when examined within Murdoch’s metaphysical framework, the criticism against Murdoch ultimately lacks validity, primarily because it relies on overly narrow conceptions of selfhood, and what can constitute egoistic fantasies. (shrink)

Conceptual Baroque and Caring for Flesh.

We know how it sounds when the voice of those who are absent animate their words as we read them, as if from the inside of the text. How long after a disappearance is a voice activated through a postcard, a note on a piece of paper or a book? I reach for Bernard Stiegler’s books soon after receiving the news of his death in early August. There are many in my shelf, but far from all of the more than (...) thirty that he wrote since the first volume of “La technique et le temps” in 1994. I read and I hear. (shrink)

In the light of contemporary theories, reframing identity, not only as socially embedded processes that emerge through interactions with others, but as fluid and morphing, the dynamics of recognition becomes hard to grasp. Identity as a fluid social construction in relation to struggles for recognition, raises the difficult and perhaps provocative question whether groups and individuals have a moral entitlement to be treated in accordance with socially constructed ever-changing identities. The purpose of this thesis is to show the tension between (...) a fluid concept of identity and existing theories of recognition. Are existing recognition theories able to address the full complexity and fluidity of social identities? Taking into account the idea of fluidity and contingency of identity construction, formed by Kwame Anthony Appiah, I will accentuate how complexity and interconnectedness inform our understanding of moral entitlements for recognition. Bouncing this idea of complexity to acknowledged recognition theories developed by Axel Honneth and Charles Taylor, I aim to show the tensions that arise. From those tensions I will form and propose more suitable reasonings on how to navigate around the question of recognition. A perspective I call ”mending mothering”. (shrink)

Editorial: Religious Diversity and the Future of Philsophy of Religion.

According to Gary Francione’s abolitionism, we have a moral duty to “phase out” domestic animals through the means of sterilization. The reason for this, he states, is 1) Domestic animals have been bred by us to be the way they are, and this existence is “unnatural” and 2) Domestic animals are so dependent on us that they cannot continue to exist without a deep and inherently problematic power imbalance between them and us. Using the empirical case of cats, this paper (...) attempts to challenge the validity of these two premises. The paper then moves to show that cats also philosophically undermine these implied premises: 3) Preventing domestic animals from breeding through universal sterilization is morally neutral 4) Sterilizing everyone is consistent with respect for autonomy, and 5) There’s a clear line between domestic animals and wild animals. The aim of this paper, ultimately, is to show that it is empirically false that our relationship with cats is marked by an “unnatural” dependency, and, furthermore, that cats challenge the internal consistency of abolitionism and its ability to capture key aspects of human-animal relationships. (shrink)

To understand human prosocial behaviour, one must consider not only the helpers and the requesters, but also the characteristics of the beneficiaries. To this aim, this articles reviews research on beneficiary effects in prosocial decision making, which implies that some human lives are valued higher than others. We focus on eight beneficiary attributes that increase willingness to help: (1) Temporal proximity, (2) Young age, (3) Female gender, (4) Misery, (5) Innocence, (6) Ingroup, (7) Identifiability (8) High proportion. We demonstrate that (...) different psychological mechanisms explain different beneficiary effects, that the size and direction of beneficiary effects varies as a function of response mode (separate evaluation, joint evaluation, or forced choice), and outcome measure (attitudes or helping behaviour). We propose that beneficiary attributes differ in their evaluability, justifiability, and prominence, and conclude by discussing theoretical, moral, and applied aspects of beneficiary effects. (shrink)

This article argues that the moral responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian non-combatants in the 2023–24 Gaza War rests with Hamas. Its argument is philosophical rather than legal, based on an analysis and discussion of the rules of just war theory and what these rules imply for the moral assessment of the use of human shields. One main conclusion will be that the moral responsibility for the killing of human shields in the context of morally legitimate attacks on military targets (...) should be assigned to the side that tried to benefit from the presence of the shields in the first place. Questions concerning proportionality are still relevant, but have to be understood and resolved in relation to what is at stake in a particular war. The more extreme the war aims of an unjust attacker are, the greater is the need to prevent it from winning the war. Hence, whether or not the number of non-combatant deaths in Gaza is proportionate should not be determined by the significance of individual military targets alone but also by the prospects of allowing a genocidal enemy such as Hamas to remain in control of Gaza. (shrink)

The increased climate change heightens the risks towards both ecosystems and human health. To tackle the rising risks, both mitigation and adaptation efforts are a necessity. The need for climate efforts raises the question of who ought to bear the financial responsibility to pay. Within the debate of climate justice three main principles have emerged, this essay focuses on one of them, the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP). The PPP asserts that those responsible for pollution should cover the associated costs. The (...) principle faces a challenge when attributing responsibility for historical emissions. Is there a “polluter” that can be held accountable for these emissions? This essay explores potential ways the PPP can be revised to be able to account for historic emissions. A distinction is made between two interpretations of the PPP, an individualistic and a collectivist version. I argue that neither version is adequate equipped to meet the criteria för a climate justice principle and handle historic emissions. (shrink)

With the artistic research project Lethe, musicians and researchers Andreas Hiroui Larsson [percussion], Johan Jutterström [saxophone], and Anna Lindal [violin], investigated forgetfulness as a method and guiding principle for an artistic process, by using the ancient Greek mythological river Lethe as their point of departure. The Lethe was considered to possess the property of forgetfulness, and the research group met—metaphorically—over the course of three years, at its riverbanks. The name Lethe means concealment, and is related to the Greek word for (...) truth: alētheia (that contains the word lēthē), which literally means un-concealment. As such, forgetfulness may both cause concealment and be part of constructing un-concealment. From their campsite at the riverbank of the Lethe, the research group intended to research forgetfulness in relation to their respective personal artistic practices, within the field of western art and improvised music. They also attempted at constructing coherent theoretical standpoints, to help them, and possibly others, navigate the river’s currents and—in the end—present an example of what their research could lead to artistically and discursively. The Roman poet Virgil wrote in his epic poem Aeneid that it is only after we have had our memory erased by the Lethe that we can become reborn. What are we willing to forget when we meet at the riverbanks of the Lethe, and gaze at the waters that can wash away our previous musical lives? (shrink)

This introduction to the Historical Encounters-special issue, "Revisiting history and its epistemology", elaborates upon five main themes that emerge across the various papers presented in the issue and speak to tensions within the field of epistemic cognition in history. Of interest, these themes tackle similar questions and pressures on teachers, student teachers, and learners when it comes to the construction and transmission of historical knowledge. Sometimes these themes problematize the whole history teaching project and its reliance on people’s penetrating understandings (...) of history as discipline and its criterialist manner for constructing knowledge. Sometimes these themes seek to better understand what is going on, to then find ways to improve how things are understood or done. Some of the authors in the special issue implicitly, or even explicitly, question the whole history teaching project, while others seek to build on what we have gained as collective knowledge, hoping to take these results further. (shrink)

This thesis navigates the intricate landscape of decolonizing yoga within the Western yoga community by synthesising decolonial feminist theories, ancient Indian wisdom, and contemporary activist perspectives. Starting with a critical examination of the power dynamics, exclusionary practices, and commodification within the global yoga community as results of cultural appropriation, the subsequent analysis explores strategies for transforming appropriation into appreciation. Therefore, a multi-dimensional methodology, including thematic content analysis, semi-structured interviews, and the application of ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ – a holistic approach bridging Indigenous (...) and Western viewpoints – is employed, and results are analysed through the lens of intersectionality and decolonial feminist theories. By combining fundamental principles of yoga with strategies of present-day activists, the findings highlight the need for self-reflection, compassionate communication, and collective action to dismantle oppressive structures, amplify marginalised voices, and cultivate more authenticity, inclusivity, and equity within the Western yoga community. (shrink)

This chapter introduces readers to the contents of the volume by identifying three categories through which to make sense of the diversity of justice theories. We suggest that thinking about justice through the ‘forms’, ‘aspects’ and ‘realms’ of justice enables readers to concentrate on how and why specific features of justice theories are better applied to problems within traditional social and political science research.

How does a Forstian theory of transnational justice help us understand regional governance structures of the Arctic, such as the Arctic Council, and how could it contribute to implementing procedural aspects of justice? The purpose of this chapter is to discuss transnational justice for the Arctic, taking into account the regional, indigenous and environmental aspects of this specific region. Based on literature reviews on normative traditions of justice, the account suggested here draws on Critical Theory, primarily the work of Rainer (...) Forst (2001, 2014 and 2020). The suggested framework proposes normative criteria required for a comprehensive theory of Arctic justice. In addition, it also recommends an analytical structure for assessing justice in the Arctic. The guiding principles suggested as the backbone for a theory of Arctic justice are reciprocity, generality, transparency and responsibility. Inherently important in the current structure are also the principle of sovereignty and the ‘all affected’ principle, which are discussed and assessed in this chapter. (shrink)

This dissertation proposes a reading into the transformative potential of woandering, anarchism and storytelling in the field of early childhood education. Through the lenses of autoethnography, the author intertwines personal experiences with theoretical reflections, unravelling the complexities related to contemporary educational landscapes. Drawing inspiration from diverse philosophical traditions, including anarchism and existentialism, the thesis embarks on a journey to reframe educational practices within a socio-political framework. Central to this exploration is the concept of w/o/a/ndering—a fluid interplay between wonder and wandering, (...) symbolizing an open-ended quest for knowledge and meaning. Rooted in the works of scholars such as Luigina Mortari and María Zambrano, w/o/a/ndering offers a pathway to reimagine educational encounters beyond traditional pedagogical paradigms. The thesis elucidates how storytelling emerges as a potent pedagogical tool within this framework, transcending its conventional role to become a space for encounter, play, and philosophical inquiry. By situating storytelling as a site for anarchic educational practices, the research illuminates its potential to foster genuine connections between educators and children. Further, the dissertation examines the historical trajectory and contemporary relevance of anarchism in the educational discourse. Using the writing of theorists like Colin Ward, it explores anarchism as a lived experience, challenging entrenched power dynamics and advocating for grassroots resistance within educational settings. In subsequent chapters, the thesis engages with the contributions of educators such as Paulo Freire, Simón Rodríguez, Walter Kohan and Janusz Korczak, emphasizing the importance of a critical pedagogy in shaping inclusive learning environments. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to provoke critical reflection on the role of educators in shaping the present of early childhood education. By intertwining theoretical insights with practical examples, it offers a nuanced understanding of educational praxis, inviting educators to reclaim agency and foster meaningful relationships in the pursuit of holistic pedagogical objectives. (shrink)

Between 1904 and 1908 the German Reich committed genocide in what is now Namibia. Over one hundred years later the German and Namibia governments entered negotiations to address the matter what followed remains controversial as the sincerity of the German’s approach to redress has been repeatedly questioned. This thesis aims to investigate the reasons for criticism regarding the declaration using modernity/ coloniality as well as grievability as a lens of analysis of the negotiations whereby the CARICOM Reparations Commission is also (...) drawn on. The analysis highlights the power hierarchy present in a post- colonial setting. The paper will thus provide theoretical considerations on ways forward in a system influenced by asymmetric power relations, mainly drawing on the concept of creolisation as well as considerations on a decolonial apology. (shrink)

The scientific relationship between neuroscience and artificial intelligence is generally acknowledged, and the role that their long history of collaboration has played in advancing both fields is often emphasized. Beyond the important scientific insights provided by their collaborative development, both neuroscience and AI raise a number of ethical issues that are generally explored by neuroethics and AI ethics. Neuroethics and AI ethics have been gaining prominence in the last few decades, and they are typically carried out by different research communities. (...) However, considering the evolving landscape of AI-assisted neurotechnologies and the various conceptual and practical intersections between AI and neuroscience—such as the increasing application of AI in neuroscientific research, the healthcare of neurological and mental diseases, and the use of neuroscientific knowledge as inspiration for AI—some scholars are now calling for a collaborative relationship between these two domains. This article seeks to explore how a collaborative relationship between neuroethics and AI ethics can stimulate theoretical and, ideally, governance efforts. First, we offer some reasons for calling for the collaboration of the ethical reflection on neuroscientific innovations and AI. Next, we explore some dimensions that we think could be enhanced by the cross-fertilization between these two subfields of ethics. We believe that considering the pace and increasing fusion of neuroscience and AI in the development of innovations, broad and underspecified calls for responsibility that do not consider insights from different ethics subfields will only be partially successful in promoting meaningful changes in both research and applications. (shrink)

This paper traces France's role in the Antarctic from 1840, when explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville discovered the slice of the white continent he named Terre Adelie, to the present day. Since World War II, Terre Adelie has been the site of a host of performances of sovereignty: the French have built bases, drawn maps, conducted scientific investigations and erected plaques. But France's commitment to Terre Adelie has been tested and has fallen into crisis several times. The history of France in (...) Antarctica is a tale of ambition, ambivalence, trade-offs and political strategy. This paper aims to elucidate this story, focusing on the concept of sovereignty and the nexus of scientific and political interests. I argue that France's relationship with the Antarctic has been characterised by continual tension, by peaks and troughs and by brinkmanship on the part of actors with their own stakes. While there is broad agreement that Terre Adelie serves a fundamental national interest, I show that France's ambitions on the white continent are far from decided. With its focus on France, which has largely been left out of the growing body of literature on the Antarctic, this paper contributes to building a robust historical understanding of Antarctic claims. (shrink)

Introduction. This thesis about the Hungarian German village of Kunbaja, Hungary integrates different source materials about the Hungarian German community into a new dataset representing the Kunbaja memoryscape for a critical investigation. Method. The primary source for this project is Simon Lutz’s hand-drawn map of Kunbaja, Hungary, from 1964. The map was digitized, and the data was enriched with the list of property owners and residents from Tafferner's (1967) list of house numbers and owners and cross-referenced with Ginal's (1994) family (...) book to create a digital GIS model of the Kunbaja memoryscape. Analysis. The critical analysis of the digital model employs critical and feminist theory, as well as insights on intersectionality and the situatedness of perspectives. This enables an examination of what has been included, omitted, or given less detail to gain insight into the power structures within the Kunbaja memoryscape. Results. The results of this digital investigation demonstrate how GIS can be employed as a digital tool for the critical examination of these types of historical memoryscapes. As a representation of a functional place of memory fusing space and history, the Kunbaja memoryscape reveals unequal power relations and subjective meanings about symbolically charged space for the Hungarian German community as former inhabitants of the village. Conclusion. This study concludes that the Kunbaja memoryscape plays an essential role in the construction of collective memory and cultural identity within the Hungarian German community. It shapes how the Hungarian German community remembers and interprets its past in the village and how these narratives contribute to the ongoing process of historical consciousness and identity formation in today’s increasingly digital environment. (shrink)

The status that Aristotle’s Poetics gives to Empedocles seems double: He is first and foremost physiologon, a natural scientist, but seemingly also a poet. Keeping in mind the Aristotelean distinction between theoretical and practical sciences, where natural science belongs to the former and the study of poetry to the latter, this double status requires explanation – how can the same work be the object of both theoretical and practical science? Commencing from Aristotle’s concept of metaphor, this article proposes three such (...) explanations: One rooted in Aristotle’s thoughts on style, one in epistemology, and one in his writings on language. (shrink)

Philosophers traditionally distinguish between excuses and exemptions. We can excuse someone and still see them as a participant in normal human relationships, but when we exempt someone, we see them as something to be managed and handled: we take an objective attitude to them. Madness is typically assumed to ground exemptions, not excuses. So far, the standard philosophical picture. Seeing other people as objects to be managed and handled rather than as persons with whom one can have relationships is, however, (...) ethically problematic. If I am mad myself, consistently seeing myself this way becomes downright unsustainable. A better option, I will argue, is to fully appreciate my own difficulties and learn to show myself compassion and understanding. I, then, can excuse myself on those grounds. Furthermore, a compassionate self-excusing attitude leaves room for both nuance and improvement in a way that total exemption does not. Finally, I will argue that many mad actions ought to be considered justifiable and justified rather than in need of exemption or excuse. (shrink)

"Speculative Realism in Environmental Education and the Philosophy of Education" was a joint research symposium for the networks on Environmental and Sustainability Education (NW 30) and Philosophy of Education (NW 13), held at the European Conference of Education Research (ECER), 25 August, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. The symposium aimed to open up discussion on renewed interest in realisms in the field of philosophy, and what that might mean for education research and the field of environmental education research in particular. As (...) backdrop, environmental education harbours strong democratic traditions as well as recognitions of relationships to a world that is composed by more than human positions and desires. The symposium then forms part of an ongoing discussion of how these positions are understood and intermingle in a rapidly changing world. The expectation of the event was to broaden discussion about the voices present in environmental education, human and otherwise, and sharpen engagement with established traditions within the field. In brief, three paper presentations and discussion by Graham Harman probed questions of: (a) the lightness and darkness of the objects of education, (b) who visibly desires which object in/as education, and (c) the risks of literalisms and correlationalisms in, for example, what is alluring to, and pursued by, educators. In other words, what we care about in and as environmental and sustainability education, what is perceived/treated as peculiar, and what is treated as normal and perverse to the realities of education in the Anthropocene, all matter to the work of speculative realism. (shrink)

Calls for reframing the subject matter of Religious Education in schools include the tricky question of how to select from a world of potentially interesting and relevant material. Pedagogues have long questioned the educational logic that takes so-called substantive knowledge as its starting point and imagines education to follow a linear path from simple to complex. Scholars of Religious Studies have addressed similar questions of how to bring the subject matter to life through taking a more disciplinary orientation, though this (...) approach is problematized by RE’s multi-disciplinary foundations This paper brings together pedagogical and disciplinary perspectives to the question of exemplification in the production of curricular subject matter. Taking as its context RE in schools, the paper assumes the didactic principle that there is considerable difference between putative disciplinary knowledge and school subject matter and that the production of school subject matter requires considered processes of pedagogical transformation and reduction. The paper explores the logic governing this transformation by drawing on the pedagogical analysis of exemplarity offered by Martin Wagenschein alongside the more disciplinary analyses of the place of examples from Jonathan Z. Smith. (shrink)

This introduction establishes the framework of the book. It introduces some basic concepts of epistemology in history and history teaching, a brief overview of the field, and the problems that are faced at the present, including the difficulties in establishing consistent views, the ‘wobbling’ of teachers on epistemic issues, and what this means for the field in general and for the idea of teachers’ epistemological views creating opportunities or obstacles in the teaching of history to students. The chapter is also (...) an outline of the entire book, describing the parts of the book, as well as each individual chapter. (shrink)

The aim is to draw attention to the connection between sport practice and the knowledge developed around the content of sport and the scientific or theoretical incentives that shape that knowledge at a theoretical level. The origin and impetus for the development of sport is inevitably the sporting individual, the athlete’s body and consciousness because, without those individuals who practise sport and their characteristics, sport science would not exist. This has also a clear pedagogical bearing, for teaching and learning in (...) various sports are viewed as frequently lacking scientific or theoretical incentives related to sport science, a science that should be the scientific foundation for taking a holistic approach to athletic development and performance. The purposes of this thesis are (1) to discuss the genes and essence of sport science from a perspective that relates knowledge to pedagogical practice and (2) to argue that scientific or theoretical incentives are the development-related task of sport science. (shrink)

As social media platforms continue to evolve, the rapid evolution has significantly transformed consumer behavior, particularly among generation Z. TikTok has emerged as a particularly dominant force and therefore this thesis investigates the influence of TikTok User-generated content on impulsive buying behavior towards beauty products among generation Z. Through a qualitative analysis the authors explore the intricate dynamics of TikToks UGC, aiming to uncover trends and patterns that trigger impulsive purchases. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Generation Z beauty consumers, the (...) study investigates how TikTok's unique features and content dynamics drive impulsive purchases. The analysis focuses on identifying key trends and patterns in UGC that contribute to spontaneous buying decisions, as well as understanding the role of authenticity, trust, and emotional engagement in this process. The findings reveal that individuals who spend more time on TikTok are more likely to exhibit impulsive buying behavior. Key factors influencing these behaviors include the perceived honesty and expertise of influencers, the relatability and aspirational qualities of content creators, and the repeated exposure to products. Limited editions and perceived exclusivity further amplify the urgency to purchase. TikToks video format, which provides immediate and relatable visual proof of products effectiveness, plays a crucial role in driving these impulsive buying decisions. This study underscores the importance for brands to strategically leverage TikToks platform to engage with Generation Z consumers effectively. By creating honest, relatable content and utilizing the power of repeated exposure, brands can enhance consumer engagement and drive sales, fostering long term trust and loyalty among Generation Z consumers. (shrink)

Radically Enactive Cognition (REC) claims that basic cognition is contentless and that non-basic cognition is contentful. This thesis argues that, as REC stands now, the position’s understanding of contentful cognition is unclear. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the unclearness of whether REC conceives of contentful cognition as dynamical or as computational as a way to evaluate whether or not REC provides a substantially different account of cognition. The thesis further argues that both options are problematic and that there are good (...) reasons to question whether REC has succeeded in providing a substantially different account of cognition. This is because if contentful cognition is understood as computational it implies giving up on enactivism, whereas, if it is understood as dynamical, REC’s account of content risks collapsing into either computationalism (or something close to computationalism, by understanding contentful cognition as the rule-based manipulation of representational content) or eliminativism. (shrink)

This essay critically examines the limitations of artificial intelligence (AI) in achieving human-like understanding and intelligence. Despite significant advancements in AI, such as the development of sophisticated machine learning algorithms and neural networks, current systems fall short in comprehending the cognitive depth and flexibility inherent in human intelligence. Through an exploration of historical and contemporary arguments, including Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment and Dennett's Frame Problem, this essay highlights the inherent differences between human cognition and AI. Central to this analysis (...) is the role of metaphorical thinking and embodied cognition, as articulated by Lakoff and Johnson, which are fundamental to human understanding but absent in AI. Proponents of AGI, like Kurzweil and Bostrom, argue for the potential of AI to surpass human intelligence through recursive self-improvement and technological integration. However, this essay contends that these approaches do not address the core issues of experiential knowledge and contextual awareness. By integrating insights from contemporary scholars like Bender, Koller, Buckner, Thorstad, and Hoffmann, the essay ultimately concludes that AI, while a powerful computational framework, is fundamentally incapaple of replicating the true intelligence and understanding unique to humans. (shrink)

Does consciousness differ between and within entities? What then makes one conscious experience differ from another? That has been discussed for millennia, yet the more we learn about consciousness the more it seems the differences come from other aspects of our experiences than consciousness itself. Knowing whether consciousness has categories, is degreed or is binary, affects the way we model and look for signs of consciousness and possibly find better treatments for unresponsive patients. This paper (1) examines the two most (...) common views on the variability of consciousness, the multidimensional view and the degreed view, in regards to how consciousness could vary, (2) identifies constricting aspects for both views indicating that the variability of consciousness itself isn’t really argued for in either view, and (3) argues that consciousness is binary by providing a schematic idea of what is needed for being conscious and consciousness. (shrink)

Asymmetric moral luck is the position of denying some types of moral luck, typically resultant moral luck, while accepting others. Robert Hartman’s Parallelism argument is meant to reject asymmetric moral luck and show that if circumstantial moral luck exists then we have good analogical evidence for the existence of resultant moral luck. Eduardo Rivera-López and Anna Nyman object against this argument. Rivera-López takes issue with the rejection of asymmetric moral luck in general while Nyman focuses on the parallelism argument in (...) particular. In this paper, i will argue that while Nyman manages to show that the paralellism argument fails to give analogical evidence for resultant moral luck, both asymmetric moral luck and its rejection are still viable options owing to the fact that both positions appeal to fundamental intuitions. As such, substantive progress is hard to make out. (shrink)

The research is exploring the liminal space of aporía within the experience of film. How can film be a poetic experience and inviting philosophical thinking? Motivated by the works of filmmaker Chantal Akerman, I have come to investigate the gap within the filmic narrative of character creation. With the obligation to create an ethical relationship to my audience, I take a closer look into the aesthetics of mimesis in storytelling. Proposing that there is a shared created gap of nothingness, which (...) works as a portal of reflection between audience and art where the aporía take place, I am influenced by the philosopher Merleau-Ponty´s phenomenological image of the chiasm. The research is accordingly discussing the actor as the embodied surface of this interplace. The liminal space is the journey of the pre-reflective mind working with the unknowable. My thesis tries to show how the image of the thinking actor can hold a space for one shared experience. Departing from a background of actor and writer, the use of writing art throughout the research is a description of different ways of expressing my artistic language; as in writing, filming, directing or acting. The research is situated within the artistic research and the material of focus is art film, ethical philosphical thinking and my own practice with an essay film of 12 minutes, [Her]barium. The locus of the discussion is my own embodied conciousness, as a spectator and in the position of filmmaker. (shrink)

A long-standing and fundamental question in the field of business ethics concerns the status of corporate moral agency. Is it possible for a corporation to constitute a moral agent in the same way as an individual can? Many collectivist theories have attempted to answer this question in the affirmative. An influential contribution to this discussion is made by Christian List and Phillip Pettit in Group Agency: The Possibility, Design and Status of Corporate Agents (2011). In this work, the authors argue (...) for the possibility of corporate moral agency by grounding it in certain rational capacities realizable both by individuals and corporations. Important for their project is the concept of incentive compatibility, taken from the literature on mechanism design. The authors introduce this concept as a desideratum for good organizational design, and as a component for the proper functioning of a corporate moral agent. In this paper, I give an account of and critically examine List and Pettit’s theory. Specifically, I problematize the two strategies presented by the authors in their program to demonstrate how this desideratum might be satisfied. The first strategy encounters problems when faced with impossibility results associated with judgment aggregation, familiar from the literature on social choice. The second strategy is complicated by inconsistencies that arise in connection to the underlying premises in regards to human psychology and rationality, established early on by the authors. This presents significant obstacles for the authors’ larger project. If both strategies fail, and a corporation is unable to reach a state of incentive compatibility, then it also fails to function properly as an agent according to List and Pettit’s own definitions. If an entity is unable to function properly as an agent, then, I argue, there seems to be no reason to attribute agency to it. (shrink)

Russellian panpsychism is often regarded as a theory of mind that bears promise of integrating conscious experience into the physical causal order. In a recent article by Howell, this is questioned. I will argue that failure to address Howell´s challenge properly has deeper consequences than it might initially appear; epiphenomenal micro-qualia means that we have lost a unique opportunity to gain insight into necessities in nature. In order to make use of this opportunity, however, some initial assumptions commonly made must (...) be dropped: most crucially, the assumption of mind-body distinctness. In what follows, I try to provide a sketch of how a slightly different version of Russellian panpsychism can be formulated that builds around identity instead of mind-body distinctness. This version of panpsychism can meet Howell's challenge, but what is more, it can be met in a way that fully makes use of the special place occupied by panpsychism regarding the mysterious nature of the “necessary connection” between cause and effect. (shrink)

This presentation concerns my three year postdoctoral research into soundwalking. In my study, I approach the practice in question from the perspective of media arts, environmental humanities and philosophy of technology, putting particular emphasis on its transversal and transformative dimension. It is transversal, because despite its immediacy and situatedness soundwalking always spans broader temporalities, agencies, and locations. It is transformative, because it leaves marks, affects perception and reveals one's positionality within the surrounding environment while shedding light on their privileges and (...) responsibilities. As part of the presentation, I introduce a written narrative from the "Lake that Glimmers like Fire", one of several soundwalk compositions I have developed as part of my practice-led postdoctoral research. (shrink)

In this essay I examine the ethics of offensive humor through the lens of the Benign Violation Theory, which posits that humor arises when something seems wrong (a violation) but also okay (benign). I argue that while offensive humor can cause harm by promoting stereotypes and disengaging compassion, ultimately the arguments for free speech justify allowing it, as restricting such speech could lead to a slippery slope of unjustified censorship. Instead of restriction, the better response is more speech and efforts (...) to address the root causes inspiring offensive humor. (shrink)

Imagine that in city “U” there is a one-hour drive from the west side to the east side. Ten sixth-grade students live around a certain park on the west side of “U”. The nearest public primary school “V” is across the street from the park. Admittance to the nearest public primary school “V” is not based on achievement. Students do not have to repeat a subject and they are not expelled from the school if they fail subjects. Several of the (...) sixth-grade students who live around the park are failing some of their subjects for some reason or other. Several will not qualify for admittance to high school. Among the students who are failing subjects, one is diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability. That student is reassigned on the basis of the diagnosis to special school “C” on the east of town. That student (and that student only) loses the right to attend their nearest public primary school “V”. In PART ONE of my paper, I introduce the notion of “demeaning institution” in relation to an argument made by the philosopher Sophia Isako Wong. Wong argues that aborting fetuses on the basis of a diagnosis of Down syndrome in an ableist society is analogous to aborting fetuses on the basis of a diagnosis of female in a very sexist society. Wong argues that in both cases (1) difference from a norm and (2) the effects of social barriers to participation are (mistakenly) presumed by medical doctors to indicate inferiority. I do not argue for or against Wong’s argument that it is impermissible to abort fetuses on the basis of a diagnosis of Down syndrome. I am interested in a related, but different, notion: that it is impermissible for institutions (like the medical profession and the public primary school) to demean. In PART TWO of my paper, I argue that denying students with mild intellectual disability the right to attend their nearest public primary school is analogous to racial school segregation in the U.S. South prior to the enforcement of Brown v,. Board of Education (1954). If attendance at the nearest public primary school is not based on achievement (i.e. there is no achievement test for admittance, and students that fail subjects do not lose their place in the class), it is demeaning when the school denies a place in the regular class to students because of mild intellectual disability. In that case, I argue, the school is a “demeaning institution”. (shrink)

My work explores aspects of the hierarchy between animal and human. I aim to find out how we as humans act, and how we treat animals in a not very humanised way. How would it look like if we would change place with the animals? To explain the different aspects of humanity, the work includes a symbolic language. I use different human coded objects, that works as an index that I’m creating during the master education. Among these objects are for (...) example a hotdog, pommes frites and a bowl with cereals. During the process, another aspect has been added to the specified objects; the children perspective. Since children are more open minded and haven’t learned the structure of society yet, they are a great inspiration for me to learn how to look beyond the hierarchies in society. How do we as humans think before we learn how we should be thinking? One of the symbols I use is the cow, that works as a symbol for the animal. I have chosen to work with the cow since it is an animal that we use as humans to get milk and meat from, yet the cow is assisting and accepting us no matter what we do to them. I feel sorry for the cow, being a calm animal with no intention to do harm, at the very same time as we as humans kill them with no mercy. As a symbol for the human, I use Leif GW Persson. He is a Swedish TV personality taking and getting a lot of space in everyday society, for example in Swedish television. This project has an ambition to find out more about the hierarchies between different species (including the human). In order to tell the story through children, I have had workshops with them and gotten influenced by their ideas in the making of the installation and embodiment. This is a way for me to get “dehumanised” since children has less time living as human beings and haven’t yet learned how they should behave. The workshops works as one method in my project, while another method that I’m using is the sloppy craft. Through this method I aim to both show a more childish and naive way of working with textiles, to make it be looking more as if a child would have made it. It’s also a way for me to question the traditions within textile craft, and to challenge the hierarchic system between fine art and the craft field. Furthermore, it’s of importance to me challenging traditions of personal reasons, since I have always been very law-abiding in general and a so called “good girl”, wanting to be accepted by everyone. Through my artwork I am breaking these rules and that is also a big reason why I’m doing what I’m doing. The most important message in my work is still to highlight the hierarchy between animal and human, and I aim to do it with the help of sloppy craft and children. (shrink)

In science all hypothesis-testing rely on a multitude of background assumptions.However, the Quine-Duhem thesis tells us that upon refutation, or disconfirma-tion, there is no principled way of determining which of these assumptions shouldbe abandoned in light of the evidence. Attempts have been made to provideBayesian models that can provide a logic to resolve this problem. In this paperI identify, describe, compare and evaluate two such models. The first is dueto John Dorling and the second to Michael Strevens. I argue that (...) Dorling’ssolution to the problem presented by the Quine-Duhem thesis is preferable tothat proposed by Strevens. (shrink)

This thesis is a qualitative research and design project based on the concept of glitch. Glitch, typically associated with technical malfunctions, is examined here from a philosophical perspective with emphasis on the phenomenological aspect. A glitch in this thesis is seen as beyond an error; instead it is a moment of disruption, a subjective experience that prompt re-examination of our perception. By exploring the notion of glitch, the aim is to discover glitch given form and to challenge conventional design practices. (...) The creative process involved theoretical exploration, qualitative interviews, and model making. Through research and interviews, a series of glitch volumes (X, Y, Z, W) were created based on personal glitch experiences. (shrink)

Impermanence concerns every aspect of our lives, yet it goes unseen often for that same reason. In my dissertation, I wish to explain what impermanence is and delve into the role of impermanence in art. I will first dive into an explanation of what impermanence is, starting from the teaching of the Buddha, then introducing impermanence as a primary quality, highlighting its distinction from the manifestation or secondary qualities, e.g. change, movement, ageing. I will then investigate three examples of how (...) impermanence can be utilised in art. The first case is the representation of impermanence in Jackson Pollock’s abstract paintings, for which I argue that what makes it possible is the inherently unstable appearance of the pieces combined with the artist’s intention and other variables. The second case is that of Anicka Yi’s exploitation of impermanence as a medium for her installations, borrowing Sherri Irvin’s comprehensive definition of medium. I will explain how Yi uses impermanence inside her art, and how she employs the quality in the piece in an effort to achieve her purpose, that of communication. The third and last case concerns the acceptance of the impermanent nature of the medium in street art, which will be pivotal in the achievement of the goal of subversiveness. (shrink)

In this essay, I endeavour to look into three aspects of dramaturgical work that have emerged as central to my practice during the two years of studying the master program in performing arts, and the subsequent year of finalizing the exam project. Before I go into these aspects, I briefly outline what I define to be the basics of dramaturgical practice, as well as an introduction to the literature on dramaturgy that I have used for my exploration. The first aspect (...) of dramaturgy that I examine is subjectivity, which relates to dramaturgy in the creative process, including ideas and definitions of who the dramaturg is and what the function of dramaturgy might be in contemporary performance, alongside my thoughts and inspiration regarding what animates and sustains artistic creation. In this section I connect existential philosophy to dramaturgy through my own dramatic writing and that of British playwright Sarah Kane. This is followed by an outline of my own artistic background and the ideas that have informed my creativity and method. The second aspect is listening, the term I have used to investigate dramaturgical analysis departing from Jean-Luc Nancy's writing about listening as philosopical practice and some of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's writing about perception and phenomenology. The theme of love has reoccuringly asserted itself in my investigations, which is why I use it as the third and final aspect, based on the writings of bell hooks. It connects to both of the other aspects, as well as to my artistic practice in general. (shrink)

In Andreas Stokke (ed.), Festschrift for Matti Eklund, 2024. -/- Replies to Katharina Felka and Nils Franzén, Eli Hirsch, Dan Korman, David Liebesman, Øystein Linnebo, Anna-Sofia Maurin and Debbie Roberts. Topics discussed concern metaethics, metaphysics and philosophy of language. More specifically, issues discussed are thick concepts (Felka and Franzén; Roberts), ontology (Hirsch, Linnebo), indifferentism and fictionalism (Korman), alien languages and alien metaphysics (Liebesman), and Bradley's regress (Maurin).

Primary care needs to find strategies to deal with today’s societal challenges and continue to deliver efficient and high-quality care. Employee-driven innovation is increasingly gaining ground as an accessible pathway to developing successful and sustainable organisations. This type of innovation is characterised by employees being engaged in the innovation process, based on a bottom-up approach. This qualitative study explores employees’ experiences of employee-driven innovation at a primary care centre in Sweden. Data are collected by focus group interviews and analysed by (...) inductive qualitative content analysis. The result is presented with the overarching theme “Standing together at the helm” followed by three categories: “Motivating factors for practising employee-driven innovation”, “Challenges in practising employee-driven innovation” and “Benefits of employee-driven innovation”, including nine subcategories. The study found that employee-driven innovation fosters organisational innovation, empowers employees, and enhances adaptability at personal and organisational levels. This enables individual and collective learning, and facilitates the shaping, development, and adaptation of working methods to meet internal and external requirements. However, new employees encountered difficulty grasping the concept of employee-driven innovation and recognising its long-term advantages. Additionally, the demanding and task-focused environment within primary care posed challenges in sustaining efforts in innovation work. The employees also experienced a lack of external support to drive and implement some innovative ideas. (shrink)

This article provides a critical assessment of the scholarly analysis of the persona of the early modern philosopher. In particular, it examines the ways in which historians have tended to analyse the formation of philosophical personhoods in terms of spiritual exercises while at the same time subordinating this aspect of self-formation to larger institutional and sociopolitical contexts and levels of explanation. By presenting spiritual exercises as a prerequisite for or even as a means of shaping a self motivated to pursue (...) and seize institutional and sociopolitical power, one risks trivializing the therapeutic function at the very core of those exercises' significance. The article examines the intellectual traditions and assumptions that have paved the way for this interpretation and argues for a more thorough analysis of the therapeutic context, an analysis that raises other research questions and ultimately paves the way for a rather different understanding of what it meant to be and live as a philosopher in the early modern period. Although the article focuses on the persona of the early modern philosopher, it also invites readers interested in persona, identity formation and spiritual exercise in other historical contexts. (shrink)

In situations where scientists disagree, which science should decision-makers listen to? This article argues that we should listen to “regenerative research”, that is, research (1) whose objective is to regenerate our relationship to the land and to each other (rather than dominating nature), (2) whose worldview acknowledges the interconnection between humans and non-humans (rather than assuming a separation between humanity and nature), and (3) whose processes are democratized (instead of including but a narrow circle of researchers). We should listen to (...) regenerative science not because it is suited to the interests of politicians or activists, but because it is most likely to be beneficent, rigorous, and objective. In addition to granting scientists new responsibilities, such as engaging in public action, the climate and ecological crises therefore also require us to critically reflect on the core of our work: the knowledge we generate. (shrink)

What are the matters of philosophy? How do they shape how philosophy is practiced, what kinds of knowledge it produces, and who counts as a philosopher? The dominant matters of Western philosophy, or its epistemic companions, are books and journal articles even when dialogic and oral traditions are acknowledged or referenced. In this paper, we argue that alternatives would be necessary if philosophy were to be a more capacious and welcoming discipline. We introduce Feminist Philosophical Toys as one such alternative (...) that challenges what counts as serious philosophy by being seriously playful. The toys foreground the oral and the dialogic while reflecting on and committing to engaging materiality, record-keeping, and record-making. In doing so, the toys challenge the dominant form of philosophy and its mechanics of knowledge-making as they offer an alternative way of doing philosophy that can be transformative for the next generation of feminist scholarship. The dialogic, embodied, and communal interaction with paper, with theory, and with others is meant as a practice of live theorization, opening philosophy to a new groundedness and accessibility, centered in the ethos of feminist epistemology, while at the same time pushing against fetishization of matter. (shrink)

This thesis engages Michel Foucault’s late work on ancient philosophy in relation to his earlier investigations of modern forms of government and events in his political present. Beginning with a reinterpretation of the function of style in Foucault’s oeuvre, it demonstrates that the ancient notion of the care of the self – the style of existence – unfolds as a critical project. The thesis considers Foucault’s last three lecture courses at the Collège de France: “The Hermeneutics of the Subject” (1982), (...) “The Government of Self and Others” (1983), and “The Courage of the Truth” (1984). It shows that what is at stake in the ancient notions of truth-telling and the technologies of the self is not reducible to an ethical, individual subject in Greco-Roman antiquity, but rather something that bears on Foucault’s previous critical work on modern forms of subjection, on his notion of critique, and on political, collective subjects in the present. No previous study has treated this relation between Foucault’s notion of the care of the self and his theory of critique. And while shorter attempts have noted their conceptual common basis in “virtue” and “government,” this thesis opens new perspectives. Through a formal analogy to Kant’s critical project, it proposes a model of three Foucauldian kinds of critique: the historical-philosophical practice of theoretical work, truth-telling in the political field, and the individual or collective “art of not being governed like that.” Moving between the theoretical work and lesser discussed materials – specifically Foucault’s engagement with the Polish trade union “Solidarność” and the French labor union CFDT – important continuities are identified. It is demonstrated that Foucault understands critique, the care of the self, and collective movements in his own time, not only by the same conceptual framework of government, virtue, and truth, but also as non-discursive forms or practices in which means and ends merge. This is significant in relation to Foucault’s definition of modern economic government in his lecture course on neoliberalism, “The Birth of Biopolitics” (1979): a government guided by an equally non-discursive “veridiction of the market.” Building on these continuities in Foucault’s oeuvre, it is concluded that the ancient notions of truth-telling and of the style of existence offer significant tools in the art of not being governed like that: as collective configurations of critique in the present. (shrink)

Artificial Earth: A Genealogy of Planetary Technicity offers an intellectual history of humanity as a geological force, focusing on a prevalent contradiction in the Anthropocene discourse on global environmental change: on the one hand, it has been argued that there are hardly any pristine environments anymore, to the degree that the concept of nature has lost its meaning; while on the other, that anthropogenic environmental change has become so prevailing that it ought to be conceived of as a force of (...) nature, in the literal sense of the expression. Artificial Earth argues that to fully grasp the stakes of this discourse, we need not only understand the contemporary scientific and technological transformations behind the Anthropocene, but also explore the history of an ontological concern tied up with it. In order to do so, Artificial Earth examines reflections on the ontological dualism between nature and artifice within the history of earth science from the late eighteenth century onwards. Paying particular attention to its consequences for how human subjectivity has been conceptualized in the Anthropocene, it then enrolls these resources in an effort to problematize attempts since the 1980s to formalize earth science in systems theoretical terminology. In sum, the aim is to investigate the historical conditions for the possibility of conceiving human artifice as an integral part of the earth’s terrestrial environment, with the conviction that such an investigation may assist in resolving the aforementioned contradiction or at least to understand it better by tracing its historical lineage. (shrink)

My doctoral artistic research project, Circus as Practices of Hope, responds to the growing complexities emerging from the convergence of the fourth industrial revolution, the sixth mass extinction, and the eco-socio-political turmoil of our time. What does it mean to be human today? What does it mean to be a circus artist today? How is circus relevant in today’s context? Core to this inquiry is the assertion that although circus arts hold the potential to foster significant knowledge, they simultaneously perpetuate (...) outdated worldviews that restrict their transgressive potential. With this research, I investigate alternatives to regressive models of thoughts and modes of composition, aiming to identify and articulate circus’ inherent epistemic, ontological, and ethical specificities and their relevance for navigating and steering the current planetary paradigm shift. I conducted my research through embodied practices as a circus artist, as a pedagogue, and from the perspective of a human on Earth. My inquiry occurred through Multiverse, an iterative series of compositional performative experiments and discursive activities. I engaged critical posthumanism and neo-materialist philosophies to challenge and evolve my relation to risk, mastery, and virtuosity. The project conceptualizes circus arts as nomadic and fabulatory practices, culminating in a series of artistic, choreographic, and conceptual tools and methods that articulate circus arts within and beyond their disciplinary boundaries. The project advances a philosophy of circus that highlights circus-specific kinetic, aesthetic, and embodied relevancies in today’s context, situating circus arts as hopeful practices for the future. (shrink)

Reviewer Frederik Appel Olsen takes issue with the approach we present in The Virtues of Green Marketing: A Constructive Take on Corporate Rhetoric (Palgrave Macmillan). In this response, we point out three aspects where Appel Olsen paints a misleading picture of our book. They concern a) the role of history in contemporary thinking, b) the role of Aristotle in our argumentation, and c) the legitimate place of rhetorical criticism. Thus, our response treats fundamental questions for the field of rhetoric.

Since the turn of the millennium, the humanities have been progressively forced to come to terms with the materiality of a warming world, in particular the entanglement of natural environments with technical infrastructures that lies at the heart of anthropgenic environmental change, and its implications for the hithertofore seemingly impentetrable ontological wall of separation between natural and human history. In an effort to address the concomitant insufficiency of remaning solely at the discursive level, some scholars have sought to reorient the (...) interpretative concerns of the humanities by submerging the modern subject into geological registers of deep time. This paper cautions that along with such a reorientation, however, any sense of a limit – such as a horizon of understanding belonging to human history – recedes into the modal void of deep time, with the unfortunate side-effect that questions of human agency and responsibility have a tendency to get lost in the more-than-human networks of the earth’s geophysical forces. This is ironic, given that the purported novelty of the so-called ‘Anthropocene’ condition is to highlight the anthropogenic dimension of global environmental change, and thus the deep time consequences of human action. (shrink)

In this paper Johan Dahlbeck sets out to propose a pedagogy of “as if,” seeking to address the educational paradox of how students can be influenced to approximate a life guided by reason without assuming that they are already sufficiently rational to adhere to dictates of practical reason. He does so by outlining a fictionalist account, drawing primarily on Hans Vaihinger's systematic treatment of heuristic fictions and on Spinoza's ideas about how passive affects can be made to strengthen reason. Dahlbeck (...) suggests that such an account can help us overcome the problem of assuming that reason needs to be enlisted as an instrument in the educational endeavor to live according to the guidance of reason. The reason this is so is that fictions can use passive affects that are prosocial and that thereby strengthen the sense of community necessary for laying a cooperative foundation for successful joint striving. Dahlbeck suggests further that exemplary teachers are crucial to this endeavor insofar as they can offer educational fictions as imaginative and temporary placeholders for the truth, allowing students to act “as if” they were already guided by reason. (shrink)

Public pressure on evaluation has influenced educational projects and national evaluation systems for many decades. This article extends the ongoing discussions in the field, offering a problematising exploration of evaluation as an educational policy phenomenon, thinking with the notion of rhythm in the analysis. Approaching educational evaluation with the notion of rhythm has, for us, implied a philosophical exploration of the dynamics between evaluation and education, drawing on the writings of Henri Lefebvre and Anna L. Tsing. Rolling of chairs between (...) computers, with the policy documents spread out on a table alongside the original philosophical texts, in a material sense, placed us, as researchers, in an embodied analytical process between human and non-human agency. The turns and returns, back and forth, between policy, philosophy, and previous research enabled unexpected frictions to emerge and prompted us to view issues central to evaluation in surprisingly new ways. ‘Striving towards goals and orientations’, ‘goal-in-between’, ‘striving-in-between’, and ‘results of and for results’ are with inspiration from Anna L. Tsing presented as a rush of troubled stories. (shrink)

In his well-known thought experiment regarding artificial intelligence (AI), John Searle sketched out the philosophic idea of “The Chinese room” – a room in which comprehensible rules (a program) allow a person to perfectly correlate one set of unknown linguistic symbols (a question) with another (an answer) of the same unfamiliar kind. In our creation of an AI-based micro-opera for humans and machines, we have come to reflect upon our concept as an artistic response to Searle’s arguments and a mirroring (...) complement to his debated figure. Our immersive and interactive opera was conceived as a modular series of musically paced meetings between individual visitors and a singing seeress in contact with the digital realm. As an analogy to the Delphic oracle, the seeress delivered AI-prompted answers to the visitors’ questions in real time, framed by poetical, musical, and theatrical structures. In Searle’s Chinese room, goal-oriented computational mechanisms remain detached from understanding during the linguistic operation. In our Delphic room, understanding is key for carrying out the aesthetic operations intended to artistically stimulate a coupling of intellectual and visceral information processing in open-ended and personal ways. (shrink)

Drawing on continental and decolonial feminist philosophy, Spectral Inheritance: Unlearning the Maturity-trope addresses the centrality of the notions of “maturity” and “development” in discussions of human subjectivity, temporality and ethics. Building on Sylvia Wynter’s framework, the dissertation proposes to read the Euromodern genres of Man in developmental terms. The notion of im/maturity organizes who is capable of sovereign self-governance and who must be governed. By analogy with a normative developmental model of a racialized figure of “the Child,” immaturity-status is assigned (...) to populations and demographics deemed incapable of self- governance. This invention of the civilizational figure of the Child is central to Developmental Man’s atomistic ontology, which is premised on hierarchy, the denial of vulnerability and the severance from a constitutive web of relationality. Such severance is embedded in histories of colonization and separation of children from their communities in Euromodernity and the transgenerational inheritances thereof. In dialogue with Sylvia Wynter, Alia Al-Saji, María Lugones, Judith Butler and others, this dissertation proposes spectral inheritance as an alternative reconfiguration of the nexus of subjectivity, ethics and temporality. Displacing chrononormative developmental tropes of maturation, spectral inheritance acknowledges the coexistence of the plural past in a structure of reinvention, reconfiguration and response to and through its haunting. It insists on unlearning the response-debilitating legacies of Developmental Man and relearning a response-enabling relation to the plural past. Employing feminist figurations, Fanonian sociogeny, genealogical theories of subjectivation, and engaging feminist theories of response-ability, this text is an exercise in such spectral inheritance, asking what it means to inherit the catastrophic worlds of Developmental Man response-ably as an ongoing work of unlearning and co-becoming through a responsive relation to the plural past. (shrink)

Perception is a vast subject to study. One way to approach and study it might therefore be to break down the concept into smaller pieces. Specific modes of sensation, mechanisms, phenomena, or contexts might be selected as the proxy or starting point for addressing perception as a whole. Another approach would be to widen the concept, and attempt to study perception through the larger context of which it is a part. I have, in this thesis, attempted the latter strategy, by (...) emphasising an existential perspective, and examine the role and nature of perception through that lens. The larger perspective of broadening the scope does not specifically allow for better answers, but rather different kinds of answers, providing complementary ways of exploring what it means to be an artificial or natural agent, and what consequences that can have for the access to, as well as representation, processing, and communication of information. A broader stance can also facilitate exploration of questions regarding larger perspectives, such as the relation between individual agents, as well as their place in larger structures such as societies and cyber-physical systems. In this thesis I use existential phenomenology to frame the concept of perception, while drawing from theories in biology and psychology. My work has a particular focus on human-robot interaction, a field of study at a fascinating intersection of humans designing, using, and communicating with something human-made, partially human-like, yet distinctly non-human. The work is also applied to some aspects of the traffic domain which, given the increasing interest in self-driving vehicles, is partially another instance of complex and naturalistic human-robot interaction. Ultimately, I argue for a pluralistic and pragmatic approach to the understanding of perception, and its related concepts. To understand a system of agents as they interact, it is not only necessary to acknowledge their respective circumstances, but take serious the idea that none of the agents’ constructed worlds are more or less real, they might only be more or less relevant in relation to specific contexts, perspectives, or needs. Such an approach is particularly relevant when addressing the complexities of the increasingly urgent sustainability challenges. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that given the possibility and prospect of ArtificialGeneral Intelligence (AGI), panentheism, as a form of theism with astronger emphasis on the immanence of God, parallels the anti-anthropocentrism implied by AGI. I discuss some general issues relatedto the categorization of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Next, bothanthropomorphism and anthropocentrism will be discussed as conceptsfor how humans may relate to AI. Subsequently, I argue and concludethat there is an analogy between the anti-anthropocentric implications ofAGI and the anti-anthropocentric element of (...) panentheism, but thatpanentheism points to a stronger form of anti-anthropocentrism. (shrink)

In this paper, I attempt to understand how Merleau-Ponty views the relation between nature and reflection, as well as the meaning behind the terms “human” and “animal” and the relations between them. I approach this by outlining the transition from Merleau-Ponty’s early philosophy (SB, PP) to his late philosophy (N, VI). Roughly understood as the shift from inquiries into the nature of experience to inquiries into the experience of nature. I show that this shift or turn can be understood in (...) terms of a reconsideration of the nature of experience, which opens toward non-human animal reflection; to the simultaneous kinship and estrangement in animal interspecificity. The paper is divided into three parts: In the first part, oriented around Phenomenology of Perception, I outline the grounding of reflection in the co-natural corporeity of perception. In the second part, I present the implications of Merleau-Ponty’s turn to nature through his reading of Schelling. What becomes visible here is his reversal of method following his turn to nature. Essentially, this reversal of method tempts a reconsideration of reflection: reflection is no longer separated from nature, but a fold within nature itself; a dehiscence of the flesh opening a “mirroring reflexive” within nature itself as nature’s self-reflection, exemplified through the sensing-sensible human body. In the third part, the same reversal of method is considered in relation to animality. I contrast Merleau-Ponty’s account of life and animality in his second course on nature against his views in The Structure of Behavior. Consequently, his account of the grounding of reflection in the corporeity of perception is deepened and his ontology of sensing-sensible is further clarified. In the last sections of the third part, I discuss Merleau-Ponty’s account of the human-animal relation, I then briefly discuss his account of painting as a privileged form of ontological expression, and I finally speculate openly about the alterity of other animals and the possibility of animal philosophies. (shrink)

In The Epistemology of Rhetoric: Plato, Doxa, and Post-Truth, Erik Bengtson sets out to formulate a contemporary epistemology of rhetoric considering the prevailing post-truth condition. In pursuit of this objective, Bengtson challenges dominant myths surrounding Plato's influence on rhetoric and examines the contemporary scholarly discourse on doxa, shedding light on its various facets. He also introduces the concepts of sedimentation and erosion as tools for comprehending the protracted nature of argumentation on foundational issues. This work not only advances our comprehension (...) of rhetoric in the context of the post-truth era. It also invites readers to reconsider established perspectives, offering fresh insights into the dynamics of argumentationover time. (shrink)

Purpose To shed light on and analyse the intersection between logical empiricism and qualitative nursing research, and to emphasize a post-structuralist critique to traditional methodological constraints. Methods In this study, a critical examination is conducted through a post-structuralist lens, evaluating entrenched methodologies within nursing research. This approach facilitates a nuanced exploration of the intersection between logical empiricism and qualitative nursing research, challenging traditional methodological paradigms. Results The article focusing on the “what abouts” of sample size, analytic framework, data source, data (...) analysis, and rigour and methodological considerations, challenging the predominance of semi-structured interviews and the reliance on spoken voice as primary data sources, and re-evaluating the conventional notion of “rigour”. Conclusions I advocate for a shift from qualitative positivism towards more interpretive and post-qualitative inquiries, this work proposes new trajectories through interpretive, critical, post-qualitative, and artistic turns in nursing research, aiming to transcend positivist limitations and foster a plurality of perspectives and research as praxis. Implications emphasize the need for nursing researchers to expand methodological horizons, incorporating visual and artistic methods to enrich understanding and representation of health experiences, moving beyond positivist norms towards a more inclusive and ethically sound research paradigm. (shrink)

Within the area of animal ethics, there has been ongoing discussion around whether people in developed countries are justified in consuming animal based products or not, some argue that we are, and some argue that we aren't. In this paper I present a kind of middle-way position in response to the ongoing discussion, in which I argue that a decent chunk of a population in developed countries are justified in consuming certain animal products, but only so far as the exclusion (...) of these animal based products would cause harm to the boycotter. Many of the arguments that are raised in order to defend the consumption of animal products, often rely on controversial assumptions or stances in order to make their claim. In this paper I attempt to distance myself from these types of arguments, by giving an argument that only relies on already commonly held moral beliefs that we all already take to be true, and the argument I make is therefore just an extension of a moral belief that we already have, which is that it is morally justifiable to consume animal products in order to avoid a personal harm. The claim very simply put is the following: We already believe that a person is morally justified to consume animal products from animals that yield relatively low amounts of food in order to survive, if we take this to be true, then we should also believe that a person is morally justified to consume animal products from animals that have a much greater yield of food, but where the food is used not to survive, but to avoid personal harms that stem from boycotting animal products. To give a more precise description on why the former (to survive) entails the latter (to avoid harms from boycotting) is because firstly, the amount of harm that's being done to the animal to avoid both cases is the same, and secondly, the level of harm that's being prevented by consuming the products that come from that animal are also the same. I conclude therefore, that if we want to remain morally consistent, we should accept the latter case to also be justified, which is that we are justified in consuming animal products in order to reduce a personal harm, but only so far as those harms would be prevalent if the person where to exclude animal based products from their diet. (shrink)

When juxtaposed with my own research the more recent writings of Serge Gutwirth are in their content and themes both familiar and radically surprising. I illustrate this with two legal questions from my own recent work. First, if granting legal personhood to non-humans, more specifically AI systems and natural entities (rivers, trees, etc.), makes any sense. Secondly, how to conceptually and legally analyze what is happening now that the EU is in the process of creating sectoral Common European Data Spaces (...) plus general infrastructures to facilitate data-sharing in the EU. With regard to both legal questions, juxtaposing them with Serge’s recent writings on legal personality and the commons has challenged me to think more profoundly. Before I dive into these legal questions of personhood (section 2) and European sectoral common data spaces (section 4), I first give some basic socio-philosophical pointers about how multiplicity can be brought together under a common denominator in a semiotic togetherness (section 1) and how sometimes a particular “physical” togetherness is required to avoid overuse of resources, that is, a self-organization called “commoning” (section 3). The legal and the socio-philosophical are then related: in section 2 I relate semiotic togetherness to legal personhood, in section 4 I explore the potential relations between commoning and the European data spaces. Finally, in section 5, all parts come together in the question if there are data commons that both build on a specific form of “physical” self-organized togetherness (that is, commoning), as well as on the semiotic togetherness of legal personhood. (shrink)

This thesis explores Friedrich Nietzsche's use of history for philosophical purposes, focusing on two central themes in Nietzsche's writings: the genealogical methodology, and perspectival epistemology. My aim is to demonstrate how Nietzsche's concept of "historical philosophizing" is intricately connected to his moral philosophy. Using a genealogical methodology, Nietzsche traces the historical development of moral concepts back to their foundations, unveiling the underlying power structures and complex mechanisms that underpin moral discourse. Additionally, perspectival epistemology challenges conventional notions of truth and objectivity, (...) serving as a critique of moral semantics. I argue that these elements are interconnected and should be studied as parts of a unified whole. By providing insights into an overlooked theme in Nietzschean methodology, this essay may enrich our understanding of his philosophy as well as contribute to broader debates within contemporary philosophy. (shrink)

The aim of this thesis is to elaborate the analysis of economic class within Burman’s ontological framework. To alleviate some shortcomings of Burman’s framework, I will make use of concepts presented by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Further, I will draw on Sally Haslanger’s notion of structural explanation to distinguish micro from macro-level explanations and situate the second kind of explanation within class analysis. I will, following some analytical Marxists, argue that there is a possible distinction to be made between metaphysical (...) reduction and explanatory reduction, and that class analysis requires macro-level explanations. I will provide an outline account of how Burman’s framework can be modified to accommodate macro-level explanations. (shrink)

Humeans say that laws depend on their instances. Another way of saying this is that the instances explain the laws. However, laws are often used in science to help explain these same instances. If this is true it appears as though the instances help explain themselves, which would be a serious problem for the Humeans (Miller, 2015, pp. 1314-1317). In this essay I expand on a solution proposed by Miller (2015, pp. 1328-1331) that the laws are not explained by their (...) instances but rather grounded by a set of global facts. I develop this into a new framework in which it would be expected for the laws to not be grounded by their instances. I call this framework conjunction monism since the core idea is a that conjunctions ground their conjuncts. I finish with a discussion about the compatibility of conjunction monism and Humeanism. (shrink)

An investigation into whether Plato was committed to separate Forms in the Phaedo. Two accounts of separation are distinguished: Gail Fine's modal account where separation is a capacity to exist independendently from sensible particulars, and Daniel D. Devereux' non-modal account where separation is equivalent with non-immanence. I analyse multiple key passages of the Phaedo using these accounts of separation, to see whether any passage commits Plato to separation understood in either modal or non-modal terms. I argue and conclude that there (...) is no evidence of Plato being committed to separation in the Phaedo, understanding separation in either modal or non-modal terms. (shrink)

Dirty Hands theorists disagree about how agents should resolve a high-cost moral dilemma, but their disagreement is partly because they tend to discuss widely different cases of a broad and heterogeneous phenomenon. Moralists are typically concerned with problems that often involve an agent who is under coercion and is asked to engage in an activity that will cause severe and certain harm to individuals. Realists, on the other hand, base their observations on cases where political parties negotiate to form coalitions (...) or policy platforms; these compromises may affect the political integrity and representative credibility of the agent, but less so their moral integrity as measured by universal moral standards. Yet, both types of Dirty Hand scenarios concern the same phenomenon: an urgency to make a morally costly compromise. As a result, we propose to evaluate Dirty Hands problems by placing them on a dual continuum based on two conditions: their projected outcomes, and their external circumstances. We propose that the position of a moral problem on this continuum affects the extent to which a compromise is or is not excusable. Finally, we consider the implications of our findings for the Dirty Hands debate and for the study of political ethics more broadly. (shrink)

‘Zoo-ethics’is a subset of bioethics,and zoology may be looked upon as a subset of ecology...that is how the review of Survival at Stake, by Poorva Joshipura, falls well and truly within the scope of this journal.There is also an interesting link between this one and another review of a book steeped in science, published recently by this author. Survival at Stake, on the other hand, primarily, has a moral, ethical, and practical force embedded within the scientific. This is understandable when (...) one notes that Joshipura is an animal welfare activist associated with the NGO, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and committed to the cause espoused by it. (shrink)