I reconstruct Buber’s conception of personhood and identify in his work four criteria for personhood— uniqueness, wholeness, goodness, and a drive to relation—and an account of three basic degrees of personhood, stretching, as a kind of “chain of being,” from plants and animals, through humans, to God as the absolute person. I show that Buber’s “new” conception of personhood is rooted in older Neoplatonic notions, such the goodness of all being and the principle of plenitude. While other philosophers have used (...) reason and memory to distinguish persons, I find that Buber instead takes these to be specific to humanity, and I explore Buber’s account of a “fall” from a state of nature into a historical mode, such that our humanity threatens our personhood. (shrink)

Emotional labour has been widely recognized in a variety of industries, but not yet in publishing. By examining 126 survey responses from current or former publishing employees, this study identifies the primary forms of emotional labour present in the publishing industry, and how these vary between employees. Also examined is the extent to which industry leaders recognize the emotional labour performed by employees, and the impact that this emotional labour has on the latter. The survey responses demonstrate a high prevalence (...) of emotional labour in the publishing industry and that this work is largely unrecognized and sometimes entirely dismissed. Emotional labour also has a generally negative impact on employees, particularly working-class and black, Asian, and minority ethnic employees, which contributes to low diversity in the industry. I conclude with recommendations for further research and for industry change to reduce emotional labour, improve employee welfare, and facilitate increased retention of working-class and BAME employees. (shrink)

The Commentary on Sefer Yeṣira, with its pronounced Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic overtones, written by Saadya Gaon in 931, stands out among the other writings of this Jewish theologian, and raises the question of the purpose of its composition. It has been argued that in writing a commentary on this work of letter-speculation, Saadya responded to mythical and mystical trends in tenth-century Judaism, endeavoring to recast this foundational mystical text as a work of rational philosophy. The present article argues that Saadya (...) was also responding to the intellectual challenge of his broader environment, stretching beyond the Jewish community. In some circles in the Islamicate world, letterspeculations, often associated with the sciences of the occult, were presented in this period as the height of philosophy. In particular, al-Tawḥīdī’s account of the Pure Brethren and Ibn Masarra’s Book on the Properties of Letters demonstrate the relevance of these trends in Saadya’s immediate geographic and intellectual environment. (shrink)

Over the years, artificial neural networks have been applied successfully in many areas including IT security. Yet, neural networks can only process continuous input data. This is particularly challenging for security-related, non-continuous data like system calls of an operating system. This work focuses on five different options to preprocess sequences of system calls so that they can be processed by neural networks. These input options are based on one-hot encodings and learning word2vec, GloVe or fastText representations of system calls. As (...) an additional option, we analyse if mapping system calls to their respective kernel modules is an adequate generalization step for replacing system calls or enhancing system call data with additional information regarding their context. When performing such preprocessing steps it is important to ensure that no relevant information is lost during the process. The overall objective of system call analysis in the context of IT security is to categorize a sequence of them as benign or malicious behavior. Therefore, this scenario is used to evaluate different system call representations in a classification task. Results indicate that a broader range of attacks can be detected when enriching system call representations with corresponding kernel module information. Prior learning of embeddings does not achieve significant improvements. This work is an extension of the work by Wunderlich et al. [1] published in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. (shrink)

Star Trek is a successful popular cultural endeavor because it allows for exactly different kind of imaginative escapism, the possibility of joining in on an alternative narrative. In “The City on the Edge of Forever”, the Enterprise orbits a mysterious planet, where on its surface someone or something is causing temporal and spatial displacement. This chapter uses Romanticism as a philosophical gateway to the sublime experience that is the Guardian of Forever. The Guardian of Forever is the cause of the (...) spatial displacement and ripples in time that shake the Enterprise at the episode's beginning. Friedrich Nietzsche in his writings on Greek history, adopted the Romantic attitude toward the past by suggesting there are certain meaningful archetypes in the Greek past: in the context of “City on the Edge”, James T. Kirk represents the Tragic Hero, Spock the Apollonian figure, and McCoy the Dionysian figure. (shrink)

Der protestantische Theologe Karl Girgensohn (1875–1925) ist 1903 mit seinem frühen Werk über das Wesen der Religion an die Öffentlichkeit getreten, welches einen starken religionsphilosophischen Standpunkt zum Ausdruck bringt. Kernüberlegung ist hierbei eine kognitive Theorie des Religiösen, in der die Gottesidee zentral ist. Unter Berücksichtigung der Biographie Girgensohns geht der vorliegende Beitrag auf diese frühe Studie zum Wesen der Religion ein und skizziert den Übergang des Autors von einem philosophischen zu einem experimentell-introspektiven Ansatz der Religiositätsforschung, welcher dann zum Fundament für (...) die Dorpater religionspsychologische Schule wurde. Basierend auf Girgensohns frühem Werk werden abschließend Implikationen für die heutige empirische Theologie vorgeschlagen.The Protestant theologian Karl Girgensohn (1875–1925) came to the public in 1903 with his early work on the nature of religion, which expresses a strong religious-philosophical standpoint. The core consideration here is a cognitive theory of the religious, in which the idea of God is central. Taking into account Girgensohn’s biography, the present contribution addresses this early study on the nature of religion and outlines the author’s transition from a philosophical to an experimental-introspective approach to religious research, which then became the foundation for the Dorpat School of the psychology of religion. Based on Girgensohn’s early work, implications for contemporary empirical theology are finally proposed. (shrink)

Any evolved disposition for fairness and cooperation would not replace but merely compete with selfish and other antisocial impulses. Therefore, we propose that human cooperation and fairness depend on self-regulation. Evidence shows reductions in fairness and other prosocial tendencies when self-regulation fails.

Russo suggests that the personal narratives of those who have experienced mental and emotional distress now constitute a diverse and dispersed, nonetheless considerable, body of knowledge that is of interest to non–user/survivor researchers. The issues she raises about the potential use of that knowledge pose practical and ethical challenges to both user/survivor researchers and those from other research traditions. On reading this paper, I became conscious of my own work, where I have explored my personal experiences in the context of (...) clinical research and the history of psychiatry. In one such piece, I describe myself as “a voice crying out from the data”, and use my... (shrink)

Community-based learning is one way to bring discussions about diversity and inclusion into the philosophy classroom, but it can have unintended, negative consequences if it is not carefully planned. This article is divided into four sections that utilize courses and projects in which I have participated, as both co-architect and instructor, to discuss potential negative outcomes and how to avoid them. The first section introduces the projects and courses. The second section discusses practices that nurture positive relationships between institutions of (...) higher education and communities, and pedagogical strategies to prevent reinforcing negative student perceptions about vulnerable communities. The third section discusses how curricular and pedagogical choices can challenge privilege and power both in the classroom and community experience. The final section focuses on what to do when a student resists the learning experience. I conclude with a brief reflection about the community side of this partnership. (shrink)

With attractive and scantily clad female characters, Zeus as a philandering womanizer, the First Born as a hyper‐masculine war monger, and Hera as a jealous wife blaming other women for her husband's infidelities, Wonder Woman (the New 52 series) confirms some age old stereotypes about men and women. But, Wonder Woman (the New 52) also challenges some traditional gender stereotypes. The end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty‐first century have witnessed great strides in gender equality for, among others, (...) heterosexual women and members of the LGBTQ community. In one of the most important early books in twentieth‐century feminist philosophy, The Second Sex, philosopher and novelist Simone de Beauvoir explores women's inequality to men. The chapter considers the transformation of Hera throughout Wonder Woman (the New 52) as an existential movement from immanence to transcendence. (shrink)

Critics have argued that utilitarians, by the very nature of the system they endorse, cannot maintain their integrity; and that they cannot, in the end, be individuals of the sort human beings want to be. In my dissertation I explore this criticism and argue that utilitarianism need not endanger integrity, that it need not undercut autonomy, and that it need not deny individuality of any sort. ;Bernard Williams is the major proponent of this criticism. Williams argues that a utilitarian cannot (...) maintain the commitment to projects and principles which is necessary for a person to be an individual. He cannot have what Williams calls "ground projects," projects which are so central to him that they are what give point to his life. The reasons Williams gives for this are varied, and the connections between his various criticisms are not always clear. In the thesis I first analyze the arguments Williams uses against utilitarianism. I show that Williams' arguments that a utilitarian cannot have ground projects depends on a false assumption about the emotional attachment required for a person to be committed to his projects in a way that individuates. I argue that Williams demands an emotional attachment that blinds one to rational consideration, in a way that we will find unacceptable. ;Williams offers an account of individuality which claims that utilitarianism does not allow the proper sort of emotional attachment to projects because it is too necessarily rational a system. W. D. Falk, on the contrary, offers a theory which if correct will show utilitarianism to be an insufficiently rational system. Falk argues that any moral system which declares that there are universal moral rules by which all people's behavior should be regulated undercuts the autonomy of the agents to whom it dictates. If one is to be autonomous, one must do only what one has reason to do. An agent has reason to do something only if he would be motivated to do it upon reflection. If utilitarianism does not motivate some particular agent, that agent, in order to preserve rationality and autonomy, ought not to follow utilitarianism. ;In response to these criticisms I suggest a more plausible notion of individuality which requires neither irrational emotional attachment nor Falk's subjective standard of rational choice. I then advocate a modified form of utilitarianism which does not pose the dangers to individuality which traditional forms of utilitarianism may. In this version, we broaden the notion of utility so that our evaluative beliefs are of special importance in our determination of what things have utility. When utility-maximization is construed in this way it does not pose special dangers for individuality. (shrink)

Forty years ago in this journal, Herbert Spiegelberg examined Wittgenstein's direct references to Augustine in the works that were available to the public at that time. Although there are many allusions to Augustine in the portions of the Nachlass to which Spiegelberg did not have access, Wittgenstein read only the Confessions and his interest lay in a small set of topics for which certain sentences from Augustine served him as repeated proof texts. Given these facts and given how fundamentally Wittgenstein (...) disagreed with Augustine about the nature and purpose of philosophy, it is... (shrink)

À l'orée du xvme siècle, Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz et Friedrich Hoffmann critiquent la théorie médicale de Georg Ernst Stahl. Ils trient le vrai du faux. En l'occurrence, ils reprennent à leur compte la définition stahlienne de la respiration en l'extirpant de ses fondements animistes pour la placer dans une épistémologie soumise au principe de raison suffisante et au modèle mécanique. La découverte stahlienne consiste à penser la respiration comme ventilation calorifique à l'encontre de la conception antique ; les iatromécaniciens reconnaissent (...) la justesse de la notion stahlienne, ils essaient alors de la transposer dans un modèle mécanique de la ventilation. Cette reprise dans un contexte épistémologique différent implique une analyse critique de l'idée de découverte« vraie» dans son contenu, mais « fausse» dans ses hypothèses. Elle oblige en outre à interroger l'épistémologie de la connaissance médicale, en tant que science et thérapeutique, et ses liens avec les autres disciplines. En effet, si Leibniz philosophe et Hoffmann médecin prennent au sérieux la théorie animiste de Stahl, c'est que l'importance de ses découvertes met en cause les fondements de la médecine. (shrink)

Abstract:According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the conjoining of “teaching” and “about” suggests a modality of orientation never not regulated by an imposed telos. To teach about suggests a place of unknowability that can be resolved with the successful illustration of beginnings and possible ends, a way of getting from there to here.Beginnings and ends themselves are upset by accounts of racialized and sexualized subjection. As students consider Harriet Jacobs' nineteenth century slave narrative alongside contemporary accounts of anti-black violence, for (...) example, the silliness of a syllabus unravels in the violence of palimpsestic life, texts becoming other texts, scenes collapsing into each other. In that way, the temporality of a classroom must reorient itself in the face of the terrible reach and collapsings engendered by violence and to acknowledge the complex contingencies shaping our philosophical engagements. (shrink)

The legitimacy of embryo research, use, and destruction is among the most important issues facing contemporary bioethics. In the preceding paper, Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu took up an argument of John Harris and tried to find some new ways of avoiding its dramatic consequences. They noted that: “John Harris has argued that if … it is morally permissible to engage in reproduction … despite knowledge that a large number of embryos will fail to implant and quickly die, then … (...) it is morally permissible to produce embryos for other purposes that involve killing them, for instance, to harvest stem cells” and suggest that this argument fails. (shrink)

Obgleich Walter Benjamin unbestritten als „unerreichter Meister" (Adorno) des Essays gilt, hat die Forschung dieser scheinbar selbstevidenten Gattungszuschreibung bislang kaum Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Dabei kreist Benjamins Schreiben und Denken in allen Werkphasen performativ wie reflexiv um Fragen der Darstellung, in denen sich ästhetische, erkenntnistheoretische, sprach- und geschichtsphilosophische, medientheoretische und ethisch-politische Perspektiven kreuzen. In diesen sich zu einer impliziten Schreibästhetik verdichtenden Formexperimenten und -reflexionen besitzt der Begriff des Essays paradigmatischen Rang. Die vorliegende Studie entwickelt in der Verknüpfung von Literaturwissenschaft, (Medien-)Ästhetik und Gattungstheorie (...) anschlussfähige Kriterien, die Benjamins Essayismus als sich im Medium der Darstellung vollziehende ästhetische Reflexivität zu beschreiben erlauben. In exemplarischen Analysen autoreflexiver Verfahren der Kritik, Kommentierung und Medialisierung vom esoterischen Frühwerk bis zu den Thesen „Über den Begriff der Geschichte" werden die Paradigmen dieses textuellen Erkenntnismodells aufgezeigt, das seine Grenze in Benjamins spekulativem Begriff einer in Praxis umschlagenden „befreiten Prosa" findet. (shrink)

Keeping Heaven on Earth. By Michael B. Hundley. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe, vol. 50. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011. Pp. xvi + 250. €99.