We define emergence algebraically in the context of discrete dynamical systems modeled as transformation semigroups. Emergence happens when a quotient structure (coarse-grained dynamics) is not a substructure of the original system. We survey small groups to show that algebraic emergence is neither ubiquitous nor rare. Then, we describe connections with hierarchical decompositions and explore some of the philosophical implications of the algebraic constraints.

This article offers an account of settler witnessing of residential school survivor testimony that avoids the politics of recognition and the pitfalls of colonial empathy. It knits together the concepts of bearing witness, Indigenous storytelling, and affective reckoning. Following the work of Kelly Oliver, it argues that witnessing involves a reaching beyond ourselves and responsiveness to the agency and self-determination of the other. Given the cultural genocide of residential schools, responsiveness to the other require openness to and nurturing of Indigenous (...) ways of knowing and being. In order to illustrate the complexities and challenges of settler witnessing, the author reflects on her experiences in attending six of the TRC’s national events and, in particular, what she has learned from Frederick “Fredda” Paul, Passamaquoddy Elder, healer, storyteller, and residential school survivor. The article analyzes (1) aesthetics and emotions in the staging of TRC events and (2) making meaning over time and the temporality of transitional justice. (shrink)

Reflecting the dangers of irresponsible science and technology, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein quickly became a mythic story that still feels fresh and relevant in the twenty-first century. The unique framework of the Frankenstein myth has permeated the public discourse about science and knowledge, creating various misconceptions around and negative expectations for scientists and for scientific enterprises more generally. Using the Frankenstein myth as an imaginative tool, we interviewed twelve scientists to explore how this science narrative shapes their views and perceptions of (...) science. Our results yielded two main conclusions. First, the Frankenstein myth may help scientists identify popular concerns about their work and offer a framework for constructing a more positive narrative. Second, finding optimistic science narratives may allow scientists to build a better relationship with the public. We argue that by showing the ethical principles and social dimensions of their work, scientists could replace a negative Frankenstein narrative with a more optimistic one. (shrink)

The current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine raises essential problems regarding ethics and laws of war. It also presents an opportunity to compose an ethics case study to analyze the idea of a just war. The present-day war of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine can hardly be analyzed ethically. We lean back to the seminal ideas of just war theorists to argue that war must be waged in a manner that is consistent with moral and ethical principles, such as proportionality, discrimination, (...) and respect for the rights of non-combatants. This article emphasizes the relationship between war and politics, and the belief that military forces should be used rationally and calculatedly. Wars have influenced the development of the modern world history. The fall of the Soviet Union led to 30 years of peace; however, the ideas of its creators returned to contemporary Russian thinking. We attempt to draw conclusions based on the past to enable conflict to end peacefully and a balance to be restored. (shrink)

The game of Go was the last great challenge for artificial intelligence in abstract board games. AlphaGo was the first system to reach supremacy, and subsequent implementations further improved the state of the art. As in chess, the fall of the human world champion did not lead to the end of the game. Now, we have renewed interest in the game due to new questions that emerged in this development. How far are we from perfect play? Can humans catch up? (...) How compressible is Go knowledge? What is the computational complexity of a perfect player? How much energy is really needed to play the game optimally? Here, we investigate these and related questions with respect to the special properties of Go (meaningful draws and extreme combinatorial complexity). Since traditional board games have an important role in human culture, our analysis is relevant in a broader context. What happens in the game world could forecast our relationship with AI entities, their explainability, and usefulness. (shrink)

Why did Kierkegaard prefer to write his masterpieces under different pseudonyms and what was the theatrical logic behind the constant playfulness of an author otherwise doomed to melancholy? What were the reasons of his ongoing philosophical, theological and aesthetic hide-and-seek that he did not want to finish until the very last, nearly tragic phase of his authorship? How much inspiration did Kierkegaard receive from theatrical performances, from playwrights and even from actors and actresses of 19th-century Copenhagen, which seemed to be (...) sometimes stronger than the influence exercised on him by his professors, masters and theologians of Denmark’s “Golden Age”? Can the difference between direct and indirect communication that basically characterized Kierkegaard’s oeuvre be described in theatrical terms or even to approach it as an ongoing dramatic dialogue? Should we rather call it a “polylogue” as different actors are present throughout the texts that were often polemic with each other, simultaneously reflecting certain issues from different angles and finally Kierkegaard denying that any of those were written by him? Could his own name be a pseudonym, as his brother suggested when giving the eulogy on the prodigal son, who learned to doubt from Socrates and from Descartes, yet could not give up his intention to question even the final axioms of human existence? The author tries to find answers to these questions by reconstructing the very special Kierkegaardian method, so familiar from the stage, in the spiritual, cultural and theatrical context of Kierkegaard’s Denmark. (shrink)

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is tasked with facing the hundred-year history of Indian Residential Schools. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is frequently invoked in relation to the Canadian TRC, perhaps because this is one of the few TRCs worldwide that Canadians know. Whilst the South African TRC is mainly applauded as an international success, I argue that loose analogizing is often more emotive than concise. Whilst much indeed can be drawn from the South African experience, it (...) is important to specify the Canada–South Africa analogy. In this article, I do so by focussing on the institutional approach to truth and how this relates to issues of settler/White denial. The South African experience teaches that narrow approaches to truth collude with superficial views of reconciliation that deny continuities of violence. Consequently, I argue that Indigenous–settler reconciliation requires a broad truth that locates residential schools on a continuum of violence, linking extraordinary abuses with structural injustices and historic colonization with lived relationships. (shrink)

Cet article entend examiner l’iconographie d’un bas-relief qui se trouve à Budapest et provient probablement de Naples. Il a été sculpté en lychnites de Paros vers la fin de l’époque hellénistique ou aux tout débuts de l’époque impériale. Il représente une scène unique : Éros se posant sur une roue en train de tourner. Cette scène n’est pas le cliché instantané d’un quelconque jeu d’équilibre, et il n’existe pas non plus de mythe auquel l’associer. Il faut donc l’interpréter de manière (...) métaphorique, pour lui-même. Cette image d’Éros peut évoquer différents types de champs sémantiques, dénués de véritables rapports les uns avec les autres, voire se contredisant. Si l’on passe en revue les multiples significations des motifs composant l’image dans la culture gréco-romaine à partir de sources iconographiques, archéologiques et textuelles, il existe cinq thématiques différentes qui peuvent être rapprochées de la scène du relief. De plus, cet Éros représenté dans une situation d’équilibre précaire est lié au Kairos, le « Moment opportun ». L’objet, œuvre unique d’un sculptor doctus anonyme, montre donc les traits essentiels du dieu. (shrink)

Computational implementations are special relations between what is computed and what computes it. Though the word “isomorphism” appears in philosophical discussions about the nature of implementations, it is used only metaphorically. Here we discuss computation in the precise language of abstract algebra. The capability of emulating computers is the defining property of computers. Such a chain of emulation is ultimately grounded in an algebraic object, a full transformation semigroup. Mathematically, emulation is defined by structure preserving maps (morphisms) between semigroups. These (...) are systematic, very special relationships, crucial for defining implementation. In contrast, interpretations are general functions with no morphic properties. They can be used to derive semantic content from computations. Hierarchical structure imposed on a computational structure plays a similar semantic role. Beyond bringing precision into the investigation, the algebraic approach also sheds light on the interplay between time and computation. (shrink)

There are several reasons to explore the role theater played in the life of Søren Kierkegaard and in the inspiration for his works. There are probably more reasons to analyze the role Kierkegaard played for theater, both as a source of inspiration and as a thinker reflecting on different facets of drama, performance, and acting. In the present study I focus on the diversity and complexity of Kierkegaard’s views on theater to elaborate on the possible connections and types of influence (...) he exercised on stage artists and theorists, shaping our contemporary theater theories. Approaches include literature, philosophy, theology, staging, acting, audience, and the history of theater, both in Kierkegaard’s times and later. (shrink)

The concept of the “End of History” was originally developed by G. W. F. Hegel in the Phenomenology of the spirit in 1806 (Hegel, 2018). The concept can be closely related to a utopia, the completion of the work of philosophers, and the creation of a perfect framework of the finished system of ideas. Hegel had a lot of influence on Western philosophy with the development of this idea and on Marx, who obviously thought of history in dialectic terms. However, (...) he developed the idea of “communism”, which would have been a state of humankind very similar to the concept of Hegel, with no class differences and no opiates of the people—and no place for further development (Marx & Engels, 2002). The “End of History” is based on this theoretical viewpoint that mankind has reached the final and most advanced form of societal development. However, the theorists and their intellectual followers both have to realize a painful way that the phenomenon can only be attained preliminarily. It proves to be a utopia. (shrink)

Příspěvek se zaměřuje na otázky týkající se statusu filozofie na počátku 21. století – její pozice v oblasti lidského poznání a vymezení jejího vztahu ke speciálněvědním oborům. Akcentuje a mapuje ten rozměr filozofie 20. století, který se obrátil k jazyku a inicioval a formuloval debaty o vědní metodologii a o úloze filozofie při stanovování základů vědeckého poznání (tj. jeho filozofického fundamentu). Modelovým příkladem uvedených otázek bude v příspěvku analýza vývoje vztahu mezi tzv. analytickou filozofií jazyka a lingvistikou: bude stručně vymezena (...) jejich (vzájemná) pozice v procesu poznávání lidského jazyka a řeči a zkoumány možnosti stanovení hranice mezi těmito dvěma přístupy. Zároveň bude charakterizována povaha jejich nepochybných kontaktů a budou diskutovány důvody těchto procesů. V souhlasu s Lakoffovou tezí, že „na filosofii záleží také v akademickém světě, protože pojmové rámce, na nichž jsou založeny celé akademické disciplíny, mají obvykle své kořeny ve filosofii a […] zcela jistě to platí i v [...] lingvistice,“ poukážeme na historicky danou (explicitní či implicitní) filozofickou fundaci lingvistických teorií a nastolíme otázku, co činí tuto fundaci fundací filozofickou, co ji činí předmětem filozofie a co tedy v posledku znamená věnovat se filozofii jazyka (ve vztahu k lingvistickému zkoumání téhož předmětu). Podrobíme analýze hypotetickou odpověď na výše uvedené otázky – do jaké míry představuje filozofii jazyka reflexe/tematizace základních předpokladů o předmětu a metodě zkoumání, kterou provádějí lingvisté, do jaké míry je možné filozofii jazyka redukovat na metodologii lingvistiky a co by se nabízelo jako alternativa k této redukci. Na uvedeném základě se pokusíme vymezit prostor pro filozofické zkoumání související s jazykem. Analýza podoby tohoto prostoru by pak měla přinést odpověď na otázku po významu slovního spojení „specificky filozofický přístup a přínos“. (shrink)

The 1924 Church reform, through which the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to adopt the Revised Julian Calendar, led to dissent movements, mostly comprised of peasants, especially in the villages of Moldavia and Bessarabia. Considering the calendar change a heresy, these groups soon developed into religious communities that came to be known as Old Calendarists, or “stylists,” followers of “the old-style calendar.” Led by defrocked priests and monks who rejected the reform, the groups very quickly became the target of the secret (...) police and the Gendarmerie. What also drew the attention of the authorities and the Orthodox Church was that women, especially the younger ones, seemed to play important roles within the communities, not only in terms of membership, but also in preserving and spreading the Old Calendarists’ beliefs and religious ideas. As many members of the communities were being arrested, and their churches were destroyed, these women also suffered imprisonment, monastic incarceration, or were forced to hide from the authorities in caves or huts that they built in the woods. Though subjected to various forms of persecution, which continued through the communist period, the majority of them held strong to their beliefs and contributed to the forging of a religious identity. Using archival documents, in the forms of letters, postcards, photos, and declarations as primary sources, and drawing on interviews conducted with contemporary nuns and members of the Old Calendarist communities, the present article explores the personal stories of young Old Calendarist women. Building upon the work of Anca Șincan, this article challenges the notion that transmission of religion was the exclusive prerogative of older women. (shrink)

(1996). The threat of mass culture in the postmodern era. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 836-841.