This book highlights some of the most pressing safety, ethical, legal and societal issues related to the diverse contexts in which robotic technologies apply. Focusing on the essential concept of well-being, it addresses topics that are fundamental not only for research, but also for industry and end-users, discussing the challenges in a wide variety of applications, including domestic robots, autonomous manufacturing, personal care robots and drones.

Intuitively, collective nouns are pseudo-singular: a collection of things (a pair of people, a flock of birds, etc.) just is the things that make ‘it’ up. But certain facts about natural language seem to count against this view. In short, distributive predicates and numerals interact with collective nouns in ways that they seemingly shouldn’t if those nouns are pseudo-singular. We call this set of issues ‘the distribution problem’. To solve it, we propose a modification to cover-based semantics. On this semantics, (...) the interpretation of distributive predicates and numerals depends on a cover, where the choice of cover is strongly semantically constrained by the noun with which they interact. (shrink)

If panpsychism is true, it suggests that consciousness pervades not only our brains and bodies but also the entire universe, prompting a reevaluation of our existential attitudes. Hence, panpsychism potentially fulfills psychological needs typically addressed by religious beliefs, such as a sense of belonging and purpose but also transcendence. The discussion is organized into two main areas: the implications of panpsychism for basic human existential needs, such as feelings of kinship, ommunication, and loneliness; and for greater existential questions relating to (...) mystical experiences including transcendent unity and alleviation of the fear of death. In conclusion panpsychism may provide a deeper meaning in life for some people but its broader impact depends on individual dispositions and the cultural context in which it is embedded. (shrink)

How do plurals and mass nouns refer? What kind of logic should be used in order to account for the truth-conditions of the sentences they appear in? For linguists, first-order predicate logic is adequate, provided it is supplemented by a notion of mereological sum for plurals and for mass nouns. On the contrary, according to some philosophers, new logics must be used, plural logic for plurals and mass logic for mass nouns. We survey these debates in this entry.

Based on anthropological fieldwork on the revival of hallucinogen research as well as on the epistemic culture of neurophilosophy, this Common Knowledge guest column examines two very different philosophical engagements with psychedelic drugs. In Thomas Metzinger's evidence-based philosophy of mind, hallucinogens help to operationalize questions about the nature of consciousness. While this project contributes to the great divide between empirically enlightened moderns and tradition-oriented premoderns, Metzinger's neurophilosophical reanimation of the ancient conception of philosophy as cultura animi can build a bridge (...) to Aldous Huxley's perennial philosophy, which has informed the psychedelic intelligentsia like no other body of thought. In the sixteenth century, the philosophia perennis grew out of a decidedly nonmodern philosophy of religion that sought to suture the historical and cultural cracks that would come to define modernity. This essay argues that neurophilosophy and ethnographic studies of consciousness cultures could function as critical correctives in a contemporary rearticulation of perennial philosophy. (shrink)

L’auteur souhaite s’extraire du piège consistant à s’enferrer dans le débat sur le maintien de l’ordre pour se pencher sur les raisons profondes qui sous-tendent la répression brutale contre les Soulèvements de la Terre. Pour lui, il s’agit de réprimer la remise en cause du système sur le plan de la production (et non plus sur celui de la consommation) par la défense des territoires. Ceci traduit l’affrontement de deux mondes, la remise en cause du rapport entre humain·es et autres (...) qu’humain·es. (shrink)

Analyse: Le penseur chinois Wang Chong (27-97?) fut souvent considéré comme un auteur hétérodoxe, voire anti-confucianiste, tant en Chine ancienne qu'au XXe siècle.

Urban animals can benefit from living in cities, but this also makes them vulnerable as they increasingly depend on the advantages of urban life. This article has two aims. First, I provide a detailed analysis of the concept of captivity and explain why it matters to nonhuman animals—because and insofar as many of them have a (non-substitutable) interest in freedom. Second, I defend a surprising implication of the account—pushing the boundaries of the concept while the boundaries of cities and human (...) activities expand. I argue for the existence of the neglected problem of pervasive captivity, of which urban wildlife is an illustration. Many urban animals are confined, controlled and dependent, therefore often captive of expanding urban areas. While I argue that captivity per se is value-neutral, I draw the ethical and policy implications of harmful pervasive captivity. (shrink)

This article provides a philosophical response to the need for truth-telling about colonial history, focussing on the Australian context. The response consists in inviting philosophers and the public to engage in social-justice practices specified by a model called Distributed Truth-Telling (DTT), which integrates the historiography of injustices affecting Indigenous peoples with insights from social philosophy and cultural evolution theory. By contrast to official and large-scale truth commissions, distributed truth-telling is a set of non-elitist practices that weave three components: first, multisite, (...) multiformat, and multiscale inquiries into injustices; second, remedial imaginings and reasoning about moral repair and reconciliated futures; and finally, emotions suitable for motivating agents to cooperatively plan and implement moral revolutions. Distributed truth-telling can entrench virtuous feedback loops that contribute to moral revolutions. However, vicious feedback loops associated with collective denial and biases can impair distributed truth- telling and thwart moral revolutions. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar y examinar la teoría emotivista de los enunciados morales, según la versión de Alfred Ayer. En primer lugar, se estudian los antecedentes de esta teoría y se describe el ambiente positivista en el que surge. La teoría se expone prestando particular atención a los aspectos metaéticos y sus principales consecuencias. Finalmente, se propone que la teoría emotivista puede mantenerse con independencia y al margen del positivismo.

We are facing uncertainties regarding climate change and its impacts. To conceptualize and communicate these uncertainties to policy makers, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has introduced an uncertainty framework. In this paper, I assess the latest, most developed, version of this framework. First, I provide an interpretation of this framework, which draws from supporting documents and the practice of its users. Second, I argue that even a charitable interpretation exhibits three substantial conceptual problems. These problems point towards untenable (...) assumptions regarding evidence aggregation in the context of climate scientific findings. Third, I put forward a tentative roadmap for improving the uncertainty framework. (shrink)

Au cours d’une phase exploratoire, les rongeurs esquissent une forme qui oriente leur attention au contexte et assure un codage sensori-moteur des relations entre divers lieux caractéristiques selon un modèle qui s’apparente à la carte cognitive de Tolman. Selon nous, la perspective neuro-éthologique gagne en portée explicative par son articulation à la conception ruyérienne du comportement animal en soulignant le rôle de l’intégration de conduites guidées par des réponses instinctives dans l’élaboration de la cognition spatiale. Nous pouvons ainsi confronter les (...) descriptions de la neuro-éthologie à la conception ruyérienne de l’instinct « toujours thématique ». (shrink)

This article aims at understanding how "ethical public issues" are created, and dealt within a public arena. Here, we view ethical public issues as social constructs, which are the results of issue framing contests. Such an approach will enable us to understand how ethical public issues emerge and are shaped by strategizing actors (including firms, NGOs, the media, and governments), in an attempt to impose their own definition and preferred solution to the issue. We also propose key factors which explain (...) the success of a framing attempt, and evidence of such success. The empirical case of the labor conditions in West Africa's cocoa industry is used to illustrate this theoretical framework and methodological approach. (shrink)

Ce livre apporte un nouvel eclairage sur ce qu'il conviendrait d'appeler les commencements de la phenomenologie en France et donc, plus particulierement, sur la ...

Written seven years after publication of his Search after Truth, Malebranche's Treatise on Ethics develops a detailed, experimental science of ethics in two parts - the ethics of virtue and the ethics of duty.

The fundamental thesis consists in the assumption of the primary connexion between desire, time, and life. A phenomenological approach to our experience of time shows us the born disposition that allows us to grasp the sense of past, present and future as such. The key of these three dimensions lies in the future, because the past is a pure “becoming matter” of the tendency or radical desire of the reality, always distant of a perfect fulfilling, and not able either to (...) stop, and dwell in the present, or annihilate itself in the perfection. (shrink)

Henrich et al.’s article fleshes out in a very useful and timely manner comments often heard but rarely published about the extraordinary cultural imbalance in the recruitment of participants in psychology experiments and the doubt this casts on generalization of findings from these “weird” samples to humans in general. The authors mention that one of the concerns they have met in defending their views has been of a methodological nature: “the observed variation across populations may be due to various methodological (...) artifacts that arise from translating experiments across contexts” (sect. 7.2, para. 1). Here we want to express a less sweeping methodological concern. While accepting the general conclusions and recommendations of the article, we believe they should be complemented with a.. (shrink)

This book presents a new translation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius de Loyola, of his Spiritual Diary, of his Autobiography, and some of his letters.

This book is the first extensive treatment of Husserl's phenomenology of time-consciousness. Nicolas de Warren uses detailed analysis of texts by Husserl, some only recently published in German, to examine Husserl's treatment of time-consciousness and its significance for his conception of subjectivity. He traces the development of Husserl's thinking on the problem of time from Franz Brentano's descriptive psychology, and situates it in the framework of his transcendental project as a whole. Particular discussions include the significance of time-consciousness for (...) other phenomenological themes: perceptual experience, the imagination, remembrance, self-consciousness, embodiment, and the consciousness of others. The result is an illuminating exploration of how and why Husserl considered the question of time-consciousness to be the most difficult, yet also the most central, of all the challenges facing his unique philosophical enterprise"--Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo busca dizer da multiplicidade que povoa a escola: de corpos, de acontecimentos, de vida. Busca com base na leitura Deleuze-Guattariana de instrumentos conceituais de Spinoza, na afirmação da multiplicidade que habita a docência, dar-lhes novos sentidos, nas redes de conversações nas veredas de afetos que atravessam o cotidiano escolar. Utiliza, como metodologia, redes de conversações, modos de dizer das experiências vividas, estabelecidas com professoras em encontros quinzenais realizados em escolas públicas situadas em bairros periféricos. A noção spinozana (...) de afeto nos remete à noção de encontro. Assim, conclui que as conversações apontam para a necessária composição de um corpo múltiplo escolar, onde a criação se faça pela abertura à liberdade; pela superação do dogmatismo, normatização e hierarquização; pelos tempos livres para que os encontros sejam possíveis; enfim, pelo encontro nos entremeios de uma educação que una o inteligível ao sensível e o conhecimento se teça pelos afetos e afecções experimentados. Palavras-chave: Spinoza; Afetos; Docência; Corpos Múltiplos; Cotidiano Escolar. Spinoza and the paths of affection in teaching as multiple bodies in school daily life Abstract: This article seeks to talk about the multiplicity that populates the school: of bodies, of events, of life. Based on Deleuze-Guattarian's reading of Spinoza's conceptual instruments, in the affirmation of multiplicity that inhabits teaching, to give them new meanings, in the networks of conversations in the paths of affections that cross everyday school life. It uses, as a methodology, conversation networks, ways of talking about lived experiences, established with teachers in fortnightly meetings held in public schools located in peripheral neighborhoods. Spinoza’s notion of affection takes us to the notion of encounter. Thus, he concludes that the conversations point to the necessary composition of a multiple school body, where creation takes place through openness to freedom; by overcoming dogmatism, normalization and hierarchization; for free time so that meetings are possible; finally, through the encounter during an education that unites the intelligible with the sensitive and knowledge is woven through the affections and affections experienced. Keywords: Spinoza; Affections; Teaching; Multiple Bodies; School Daily Life. Spinoza y los caminos del afecto em la enseñanza como cuerpos múltiples em la vida escolar cotidiana Résumé: Este artículo busca hablar de la multiplicidad que puebla la escuela: de cuerpos, de acontecimientos, de vida. A partir de la lectura de Deleuze-Guattariana de los instrumentos conceptuales de Spinoza, en la afirmación de la multiplicidad que habita la enseñanza, darles nuevos significados, en las redes de conversaciones en los caminos de afectos que atraviesan la vida escolar cotidiana. Utiliza, como metodología, redes de conversación, formas de contar experiencias vividas, establecidas con docentes en reuniones quincenales realizadas en escuelas públicas ubicadas en barrios periféricos. La noción de afecto de Spinoz nos lleva a la noción de encuentro. Así, concluye que las conversaciones apuntan a la necesaria composición de un cuerpo escolar múltiple, donde la creación se dé a través de la apertura a la libertad; superando el dogmatismo, la normalización y la jerarquización; tiempo libre para que sean posibles los encuentros; finalmente, a través del encuentro en medio de una educación que une lo inteligible con lo sensible y el conocimiento se teje a través de los afectos y afectos vividos. Palabras-clave: Spinoza; Afectos; Enseñanza; Múltiples Cuerpos; Vida Diaria Escolar. Data de registro: 21/04/2024 Data de aceite: 30/10/2024. (shrink)

The term biosocial evolution refers to mutual relations between different organisms and specially to functional systems composed of individuals belonging to a species , or to two or more different species .The main features of the biosocial evolutioni.e. historical development of the functional systems of biosocial order are: 1. functional differentiation of the individual components of corresponding systems, 2. coordination of the differentiated functions and as a result, 3. the intergration of this systems as functional wholes.The tropical rain forest is (...) to be considered as one of the most advanced terrestrial ecosystems, caracterized by its extreme differentiation, high level of its integration and violent reactions to main forces.The functional differentiation of the components of ecosystems is considered as a manifestation of the development of their individual traits as members of this system.The mechanisms of both phylogenetical and biosocial evolution as well as some other questions related to the problem are briefly discussed in the text. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se propone una ética de la donación a partir de la idea de donación en la fenomenología de Jean Luc Marion, junto a la noción de la acción no recíproca en Kant y la noción de don y gratuidad en Santo Tomás de Aquino. La intención de Marion es liberar al fenómeno de cualquier condición subjetiva que se le imponga; es decir, intenta darle la prioridad a los fenómenos y comprenderlos como lo que se da. De (...) ahí es que teoriza sobre el don y la donación, cuya particularidad es que están libres del intercambio y la deuda. Similarmente, que Kant afirma que el bien debe hacerse sin esperar algo a cambio, mientras que Santo Tomás afirma que el don es hacer el bien gratuitamente. Por eso se puede proponer una ética de la donación cuyos pilares fundamentales son: gratuidad, desinterés, no reciprocidad, libertad, entrega generosa, compasión y responsabilidad afectiva. (shrink)

A natural way to think of epistemic virtue is by analogy with an archer. Just as a skilled archer is able to take aim and hit a target, a skilled epistemic agent will aim at truth and, if things go well, get things right. Here we highlight aspects of epistemic virtue that do not fit this model, particularly ways in which epistemic virtues can be non-voluntary and not goal-directed. In doing so, we draw on two important figures in the history (...) of philosophy: the 6th-century Indian Buddhist Buddhaghosa and the 20th-century French philosopher Simone Weil. Despite many differences, both thinkers emphasize the importance of attention in moral and epistemic virtue. Their work highlights ways in which attention that is neither voluntary nor goal-directed can nevertheless play an important role in moral and epistemic life. (shrink)

Drawing from the example of Asian elephant conservation in Laos, this article primarily intends to reveal the elephantocentric vision adopted by mainstream conservation project in direction to the species. In the second part, I will present some ethnographic notes collected among local population who daily live and work with pachyderms. These notes will help in opening up a broader and more ecocentric approach of elephant conservation by highlighting links between biological and cultural diversity. By revealing the cosmo-ecological view of elephants (...) as thought locally, I will then propose an enlarged vision of elephant conservation. (shrink)

La discussion bioéthique au sein d ’ institutions consiste-t-elle à peser rationnellement entre eux tous les arguments disponibles? Les institutions qui conduisent le débat bioéthique – comme le Parlement, le Comité consultatif national d ’ éthique (CCNE) ou le Conseil d ’ orientation de l ’ Agence de la biomédecine – ne semblent pas vouloir utiliser les arguments rationnels qui iraient à l ’ encontre de la volonté politique préalable qui leur a fixé le cadre de leur mission.

Il est convenu de considérer dans la littérature scientifique que Delphes a eu, comme Délos, « Apollon pour rempart ». De l’arrivée des Amphictions, au plus tard au moment de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la Première Guerre sacrée (début du vie s. av. J.‑C.), jusqu’à la fin du paganisme, le sanctuaire et la cité de Delphes ont en effet été protégés par l’interdit religieux que les membres de l’Association internationale étaient chargés de faire respecter. Cette configuration politico-religieuse a évité (...) à la petite cité des Delphiens d’avoir à assumer la charge de défendre le riche sanctuaire. De cet idéal antique a résulté un vide scientifique et bibliographique, alors même que les études sur les fortifications ou, plus largement, sur les systèmes défensifs, ont été nombreuses ces dernières décennies. Les fouilles menées en 2017 et 2018 ont cependant permis en quelques semaines de renouveler entièrement le questionnement sur les fortifications de Delphes dans l'Antiquité. (shrink)

While visiting her grandmother, Nora joins with the animated toys from an old chest to bring the stars down from the night sky, but their loss makes the sky black and sad.