The aim of this paper is to examine the role of imagination in environmental ethics and introduce an imaginative dimension as an essential part of environmental ethics. Imagination constitutes a basic condition for ethical thinking and action. Matters of environmental ethics have revealed the indispensable role of imagination in ethics. I’ll advance an imagination-based environmental ethics by developing Hans Jonas’ ethical thought. From his viewpoint, various effects of our action on nature and future generations, generally out of our sight, have (...) become an ethical concern. This necessitates the exercise of imagination because we must “imagine” those distant effects to act in an environmentally responsible way. Jonas’ “heuristics of fear” is an imaginative approach necessary for responsible action. Further, I reinterpret the role of imagination as motivating our “will to know.” In conclusion, I suggest the importance of environmental education as cultivating ecological imagination from the standpoint of environmental ethics. (shrink)

In 2008, researchers created human three-dimensional neural tissue – known as the pioneering work of “brain organoids.” In recent years, some researchers have transplanted human brain organoids into animal brains for applicational purposes. With these experiments have come many ethical concerns. It is thus an urgent task to clarify what is ethically permissible and impermissible in brain organoid research. This paper seeks (1) to sort out the ethical issues related to brain organoid research and application and (2) to propose future (...) directions for additional ethical consideration and policy debates in the field. Toward (1), this paper first outlines the current state of brain organoid research, and then briefly responds to previously raised related ethical concerns. Looking next at anticipated scientific developments in brain organoid research, we will discuss (i) ethical issues related to in vitro brain organoids, (ii) ethical issues raised when brain organoids form complexes or have relationships with other entities, and (iii) ethical issues of research ethics and governance. Finally, in pursuit of (2), we propose research policies that are mindful of the ethics of brain organoid research and application and also suggest the need for an international framework for research and application of brain organoids. (shrink)

Hunting Down Social Darwinism addresses the manner in which free-market advocacy is often criticized as social Darwinism. It explores the term’s meaning and the reasons such criticisms prove to be misleading. Hayashi examines whether it is fair to describe nineteenth-century free-market advocates Spencer and Sumner as social Darwinists.

The Nature of Liberty trilogy presents an ethical case for individual liberty, arguing from the philosophy of Ayn Rand and citing the findings of evolutionary psychology to demonstrate the compatibility between human nature and laissez-faire liberty. The first installment, The Freedom of Peaceful Action, makes the philosophic case that an approach starting from observational reason will indicate the practicality and ethical desirability of a free-market system based on rights.

In a dynamic environment, even if an agent makes a plan to obtain a goal, the environment might change while the agent is executing the plan. In that case, the plan, which was initially valid when it was made, might later become invalid. Furthermore, in the process of replanning, it is necessary to take into account the side effects of actions already executed. Nowadays, HTN planning is becoming popular among agent researchers because its task decomposition algorithm is efficient and suitable (...) for joint planning in multi-agent systems. However, the dynamic replanning algorithm of HTN planning has not yet been established. In order to solve this problem, we have previously presented an agent life cycle that integrates HTN planning, action execution, knowledge updates, and plan modification. In that agent life cycle, the plans are always kept valid according to the most recent knowledge and situation. However, when one plan does not work and the agent starts using an alternative plan, it sometimes undoes some actions that do not have to be undone. The source of this problem lies in the need to have total-order plans. In other words, all the actions have to be sequentially ordered even when the order is not important in some parts of the plan. This paper extends our previous agent life cycle and presents new ways to avoid unnecessary action cancellation. This enables the agent to handle partial-order plans and to make use of two kinds of undoing actions: sequential undoing actions and concurrent undoing actions. (shrink)

In Western countries, the ideal professional and ethical attributes of healthcare providers and the ideal patient-doctor relationship have been analysed in detail. Other cultures, however, may have different norms, arising in response to diverse healthcare needs, cultural values and offering alternative perspectives. In this paper, drawing a case study, we introduce the concept of Shinmi, used in Japan to describe a desirable approach to medical care. Shinmi means kind or cordial in Japanese. In the medical context, it refers to doctors (...) treating patients with a degree of emotional closeness as if they were the doctors’ own family. We analyse the concept of Shinmi, drawing on virtue ethics. We distinguish two different elements to a Shinmi-na attitude. As illustrated in our example, excessive Shinmi can be problematic for patients and doctors. Furthermore, elements of Shinmi may conflict with existing Western values (for example, norms that encourage emotional detachment and discourage doctors’ treatment of family members). However, if pursued appropriately, we argue that a balanced Shinmi-na approach can be conducive to the goals of medicine. The concept of Shinmi may be valuable for medical students, in Japanese and potentially other health care systems, and help them to cultivate a virtuous approach to meeting the emotional needs of patients. (shrink)

In their target article, Peterson et al. discuss the intriguing prospect of using psychedelics as a treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) (Peterson et al....

We associate with any game G another game, which is a variant of it, and which we call . Winning strategies for have a lower recursive degree than winning strategies for G: if a player has a winning strategy of recursive degree 1 over G, then it has a recursive winning strategy over , and vice versa. Through we can express in algorithmic form, as a recursive winning strategy, many common proofs of non-constructive Mathematics, namely exactly the theorems of the (...) sub-classical logic Limit Computable Mathematics [6], Hayashi and Nakata [7]). (shrink)

This article proposes a methodological schema for engaging in a productive discussion of ethical issues regarding human brain organoids, which are three-dimensional cortical neural tissues created using human pluripotent stem cells. Although moral consideration of HBOs significantly involves the possibility that they have consciousness, there is no widely accepted procedure to determine whether HBOs are conscious. Given that this is the case, it has been argued that we should adopt a precautionary principle about consciousness according to which, if we are (...) not certain whether HBOs have consciousness—and where treating HBOs as not having consciousness may cause harm to them—we should proceed as if they do have consciousness. This article emphasizes a methodological advantage of adopting the precautionary principle: it enables us to sidestep the question of whether HBOs have consciousness and, instead, directly address the question of what kinds of conscious experiences HBOs can have, where the what-kind-question is more tractable than the whether-question. By addressing the what-kind-question, we will be able to examine how much moral consideration HBOs deserve. With this in mind, this article confronts the what-kind-question with the assistance of experimental studies of consciousness and suggests an ethical framework which supports restricting the creation and use of HBOs in bioscience. (shrink)

Persons infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus often experience intermittent life-threatening infections, a progressive decrease in cognitive abilities, and a loss of capacity to communicate their wishes to their family and medical care providers. Accordingly, AIDS patients are among those most likely to benefit from the increased availability of legally recognized forms of advance care planning. Although the three countries examined in this article differ greatly in the prevalence of HIV infection, the legal status of advance directives, and in the (...) attitudes toward their use, a collection of case studies is used to demonstrate that an ability to address the specific needs, values and goals of individual patients is promoted by the availability of a variety of options for implementing advance directives or health care proxies. The conclusion of the analysis is that the best option in a specific context will depend upon differences in individual values and medical objectives of the sort discussed in the case studies. Das mit der HIV-Infektion verbundene Krankheitsbild ist durch wechselnde lebensbedrohliche Infektionen und den fortschreitenden Verfall kognitiver Fähigkeiten gekennzeichnet. Es führt zudem häufig zum Verlust der Möglichkeit, Behandlungswünsche gegenüber Ärzten und Angehörigen zu äußern. Deshalb gehören besonders AIDS-Patienten zu denjenigen, die von rechtlich anerkannten vorsorglichen Patientenverfügungen profitieren werden.In diesem Artikel werden drei Länder betrachtet, die sich hinsichtlich der Häufigkeit des Auftretens der HIV-Infektion sowie des rechtlichen Status von und der Einstellung zu Patientenverfügungen erheblich unterscheiden. Fallstudien belegen allerdings, daß nicht allein die kulturellen und sozialen Bedingungen für die jeweils beste Form der Patientenverfügung ausschlaggebend sind. Voraussetzung für die Möglichkeit, den Bedingungen, Wert- und Zielvorstellungen des individuellen Patienten zu entsprechen, ist auf jeden Fall die Verfügbarkeit unterschiedlicher Formen von Patienten- und Betreuungsverfügungen. Auch innerhalb eines Kulturkreises müssen daher verschiedene Formen vorsorglicher Willensäußerungen des Patienten rechtlich anerkannt werden. Welche Art von Verfügung jeweils die beste Option darstellt, ist dabei abhängig von medizinischen Bedingungen und persönlichen Wertvorstellungen, wie sie in den Fallstudien diskutiert werden. (shrink)

Located in a settler-Australian tertiary education institution we develop a worldly or mundane approach to working in and between institutions enacting two distinct world philosophies. We engage with the epistemics embedded and expressed in the functioning of modern institutions committed to a naturalistic scientific world. And albeit to a more limited extent we engage with epistemics embedded in and expressed by institutions framed and ordered by collectively enacting intentions of Eternal World-Making Beings of Yolngu Aboriginal Australian lands and peoples.

As systems based on opaque Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to flourish in diverse real-world applications, understanding these black box models has become paramount. In response, Explainable AI (XAI) has emerged as a field of research with practical and ethical benefits across various domains. This paper not only highlights the advancements in XAI and its application in real-world scenarios but also addresses the ongoing challenges within XAI, emphasizing the need for broader perspectives and collaborative efforts. We bring together experts from diverse (...) fields to identify open problems, striving to synchronize research agendas and accelerate XAI in practical applications. By fostering collaborative discussion and interdisciplinary cooperation, we aim to propel XAI forward, contributing to its continued success. Our goal is to put forward a comprehensive proposal for advancing XAI. To achieve this goal, we present a manifesto of 27 open problems categorized into nine categories. These challenges encapsulate the complexities and nuances of XAI and offer a road map for future research. For each problem, we provide promising research directions in the hope of harnessing the collective intelligence of interested stakeholders. (shrink)

本巻は、「他者」とされた異教・女性・被差別民の問題と、「境界」に位置した北海道・沖縄という異文化に焦点をあて、宗教との関価を論じる。.

O artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa que investigou a apropriação do referencial teórico de Paulo Freire em teses e dissertações nas áreas de Ensino de Ciências e Educação CTS. Através de uma análise bibliométrica e epistemológica de quatro matrizes que agregam os niveis epistemológico, ontológico e gnosiológico foi identificada a presença do referencial teórico de Paulo Freire nesses trabalhos.

This paper focuses on a water management project in the remote Aboriginal community of Milingimbi, Northern Australia. Drawing on materials and experiences from two distinct stages of this project, we revisit a policy report and engage in ethnographic storytelling in order to highlight a series of sensing practices associated with water management. In the former, a working symmetry between Yolngu and Western water knowledges is actively sought through the practices of the project. However, in the latter, recurrent asymmetries in the (...) research work continue to appear: a bilingual diagram of water usage is displayed but produces confusion; measuring a water hole for salinity, a member of the scientific team throws in a water meter, while a Yolngu elder prefers the telling of an ancestral story; a collaborative 3-D mapping exercise invites participation from community members but struggles to develop an outcome that differs from existing maps used by scientists and government staff. Focusing on these moments as subtle points of rupture, we suggest that attending to “seeing,” “telling,” and “mapping” in both stages of this water management project offers a way to explore the political work of crafting climate futures and beginning to interrogate differing means for “doing difference” within them. (shrink)

In the target article, Zilio and Lavazza (2023) persuasively argue that an ontological analysis of human cerebral organoids (HCOs) is necessary to identify their moral status. Although they also pr...