Since their public launch, a little over a year ago, large language models (LLMs) have inspired a flurry of analysis about what their implications might be for medical ethics, and for society more broadly. 1 Much of the recent debate has moved beyond categorical evaluations of the permissibility or impermissibility of LLM use in different general contexts (eg, at work or school), to more fine-grained discussions of the criteria that should govern their appropriate use in specific domains or towards certain (...) ends. 2 With each passing week, it seems more and more inevitable that LLMs will be a pervasive feature of many, if not most, of our lives. It would not be possible—and would not be desirable—to prohibit them across the board. We need to learn how to live with LLMs; to identify and mitigate the risks they pose to us, to our fellow creatures, and the... (shrink)

The publication of Frege’s Begriffsschrift in 1879 forever altered the landscape for many Western philosophers. Here, Sebastian Rödl traces how the Fregean influence, written all over the development and present state of analytic philosophy, led into an unholy alliance of an empiricist conception of sensibility with an inferentialist conception of thought. -/- According to Rödl, Wittgenstein responded to the implosion of Frege’s principle that the nature of thought consists in its inferential order, but his Philosophical Investigations shied away from (...) offering an alternative. Rödl takes up the challenge by turning to Kant and Aristotle as ancestors of this tradition, and in doing so identifies its unacknowledged question: the relation of judgment and truth to time. Rödl finds in the thought of these two men the answer he urges us to consider: the temporal and the sensible, and the atemporal and the intelligible, are aspects of one reality and cannot be understood independently of one another. In demonstrating that an investigation into the categories of the temporal can be undertaken as a contribution to logic, Rödl seeks to transform simultaneously our philosophical understanding of both logic and time. (shrink)

In this reply to our commentators, we respond to ethical concerns raised about the potential use (or misuse) of personalized LLMs for academic idea and prose generation, including questions about c...

The 2018 eligibility regulation for female competitors with differences of sexual development (DSD) issued by World Athletics requires competitors with DSD with blood testosterone levels at or above 5 nmol/L and sufficient androgen sensitivity to be excluded from competition in certain events unless they reduce the level of testosterone in their blood. This paper formalises and then critically assesses the fairness-based argument offered in support of this regulation by the federation. It argues that it is unclear how the biological advantage (...) singled out by the regulation as an appropriate target for diminishment, is relevantly different from other biological advantages that athletes may enjoy, and specifically that Sigmund Loland’s recent attempt to drive a wedge between heightened levels of blood testosterone and other biological advantages fails. The paper also suggests that even if heightened blood testosterone levels do differ relevantly from other types of biological advantage, the regulation is further challenged by studies indicating that athletes with blood testosterone at the high end of the normal range have a competitive advantage over athletes with blood testosterone levels at the low end of it. Finally, the paper contends that the premises of the fairness-based argument do not unequivocally support the conclusion that DSD athletes with heightened levels of testosterone should diminish those levels, since, just as powerfully, they support allowing athletes with normal levels of testosterone to use performance-enhancing drugs in the name of fairness. (shrink)

In this paper, I discuss whether it is ever morally permissible to diminish the cognitive abilities or capacities of some cognitively gifted offenders whose ability to commit their crimes successfully relies on them possessing these abilities or capacities. I suggest that, given such cognitive diminishments may prevent such offenders from re-offending and causing others considerable harm, this provides us with at least one good moral reason in favour of employing them. After setting out more clearly what cognitive diminishment may consist (...) of, I then critically discuss variations of four plausible arguments against a proposal of using them on cognitive gifted offenders related to autonomy, harm, narrative identity, and a right to mental self-determination. I argue that none of these concerns should have us reject the use of cognitive diminishments. (shrink)

Infolge der tiefgreifenden Durchdringung unserer Lebenswelt mit digitalen Systemen hat sich die gesamtgesellschaftliche Anforderung formiert, diese Systeme gegen immer neue Formen von Angriffen absichern zu können. In diesem Beitrag zeigen wir, inwiefern der IT-Sicherheitsforschung hierbei eine zentrale Rolle zukommt, aber auch, dass im Rahmen dieser Rolle eine besondere forschungsethische Problematik entsteht. Weil IT-Sicherheitsrisiken strukturell neuartige Probleme für die gesellschaftliche Gewährleistung von Sicherheit aufwerfen, treten Forschende systematisch auch in die Rolle der Angreifenden. Dabei erhöhen Forschende durch den notwendigen Schritt der Veröffentlichung (...) gefundener Lücken die Gefährdungslage von IT-Systemen. Zugleich zielt die Entwicklung von Angriffstechniken normativ auf eine Stärkung gesamtgesellschaftlicher Sicherheit: die Sicherheitslücken sollen geschlossen und die Robustheit von IT-Systemen vergrößert werden. Hier wird ein Konflikt im Umgang mit IT-Sicherheitsrisiken deutlich, der einen Bedarf an ethischer Orientierung erzeugt. Im Beitrag zeigen wir, inwiefern sich in der Forschungspraxis auch bereits Anfänge einer systematischen ethischen Reflexion als Antwort auf diesen Bedarf herausgebildet und institutionalisiert haben. Da die Problematik im Umgang mit Sicherheitslücken aber noch nicht adäquat adressiert wird, vertreten wir die These, dass in der IT-Sicherheitsforschung der Schritt hin zu einer Bereichsethik für IT-Sicherheitsforschung erforderlich ist, um so adäquatere Orientierungsangebote für Forschende entwickeln und um die breitere gesellschaftspolitische Rolle der Sicherheitsforschung reflektieren zu können. (shrink)

These essays bring Neo-Kantianism back into contemporary philosophical discourse.

Geoffrey Hellman has argued that non-truth-functionality entails a change of meaning between classical and quantum logical connectives. This paper criticizes and significantly improves the argument.

Can we take the purpose of nurse education for granted, and, more importantly, should we? That is the issue at stake in this paper. The question of purpose is conspicuously absent in the nursing literature; our aim here is to urge that it not be overlooked by demonstrating its importance to the future of nursing. We approach the question of nurse education's purpose in concrete and speculative terms through two distinct yet interrelated questions: what is the purpose of nurse education? (...) and what should it be? Amidst the complexity and uncertainty of our time, we cast doubt on the adequacy of manualised and regulated approaches—ubiquitous in nurse education—to prepare nurses who can meet the challenges of contemporary practice. We also assert that transgressive approaches to education, as the antithesis of manualisation, reach the same impasse by (over)predetermining what the educational ‘output’ will be. To move beyond this impasse, we draw on the theory of Gert Biesta and Ron Barnett to contrast cultivation and existential‐type education. In so doing, we do not seek to provide ‘answers’ to nurse education's purpose but, rather, raise the profile of what we believe is a right and proper question for the discipline to grapple with. (shrink)

It is widely believed that informed consent must be obtained from a patient for it to be morally permissible to administer to him/her a medical intervention. The same has been argued for the use of neurointerventions administered to criminal offenders. Arguments in favour of a consent requirement for neurointerventions can take two forms. First, according to absolutist views, neurointerventions shouldneverbe administered without an offender’s informed consent. However, I argue that these views are ultimately unpersuasive. The second, and more plausible, form (...) defences of the consent requirement may take are more moderate in that they accept the use of neurointerventions in some cases, but not in others. Based on common rationales for consent in medical interventions, I discuss whether four moderate approaches in defence of the informed consent requirement for medical interventions succeed in establishing that informed consent must be obtained from offenders prior to administering neurointerventions to them. I offer novel critical perspectives on approaches that have already received some attention in the literature, and I critically discuss other approaches to defending informed consent in a medical context that have not yet received due attention. Ultimately, I argue that it is not obvious that any of these considerations support a requirement of offenders’ informed consent to neurointerventions. Lastly, however, I suggest that there is at least one overlooked fact as regards how courts currently employ mandatory neurointerventions, which may support such a requirement. (shrink)

In a recent paper in this journal, Derek Baker (Erkenntnis 83(4):829–852, 2018) raises an objection to expressivism as it has been developed by Mark Schroeder (Being for, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008). Baker argues that Schroeder’s expressivist (1) is committed to certain sentences expressing rationally incoherent states of mind, and he objects (2) that the expressivist cannot explain why these states would be rationally incoherent. The aim of this paper is to show that Baker’s argument for (1) is unsound, and (...) that (1) is unlikely to be true. This obviates the need to explain the alleged rational incoherence, and so Baker’s objection to Schroeder’s expressivism is undermined. (shrink)

One way to seek to reduce the risk of potential offenders engaging in certain types of crime in a public or semi-public area is to make it much more difficult, or even impossible, for them to gain access to the area in question and subject them to a sanction if they do enter the area. This paper considers whether preventive exclusion of this kind should be considered a pro tanto morally impermissible means of crime prevention because it violates the agency (...) of those excluded. Several variants of this agency objection to preventive exclusion are identified and critically assessed. It is argued that none persuasively show preventive exclusion to be pro tanto morally wrong. (shrink)

Los textos publicados sobre el poshumanismo han ido creciendo en los últimos años, asimismo, la recepción del fenómeno se ha hecho cada vez más matizada y los análisis diversos. Tampoco han faltado las metáforas usadas para acercar el fenómeno, un tanto nuevo y desconocido, a otros más familiares. Entre estas metáforas, una de las primeras y, a nuestro juicio, más interesantes es la de Frankenstein. No obstante, su amplio uso, consideramos que falta un análisis más detallado de los motivos antropológicos (...) y las estrategias narrativas que encierra el uso de esta metáfora como critica al poshumanismo. El artículo busca desarrollar dicho análisis. (shrink)

Timothy Williamson has maintained that the applicability of classical mathematics in science raises a problem for the endorsement, in non-mathematical domains, of a wide range of non-classical logics. We show that this is false.

Diese Aufsatzsammlung ist der erste ausführliche Versuch, eine Verbindung zwischen dem Denken der klassischen deutschen Philosophie und Husserls Phänomenologie herzustellen. Vorliegender Band versammelt eine Reihe neuer kritischer Artikel sowohl von etablierten Forschern wie jüngeren Philosophen aus beiden Traditionen, um diese Forschungslücke, als welche sie von beiderlei Forschungsrichtungen anerkannt ist, zu schließen. Dieser Band wirft neues Licht auf beide Traditionen und hebt ihre Bedeutung für die Philosophie der Gegenwart hervor, sowohl in historischer wie systematischer Hinsicht. Die in diesem Band behandelten Hauptthemen (...) sind Erkenntnistheorie, Moralphilosophie und die Geschichte der Philosophie, wobei diese Themen auf der Basis von mehreren Subthemen (Objekt, Idealismus/Realismus, Subjektivität/Intersubjektivität, Ethik, Geschichte, Kultur) diskutiert werden. Hierdurch wird das grundsätzliche Koordinatensystem für einen spekulativen Vergleich zwischen Husserl und der klassischen deutschen Philosophie präsentiert, indem die wichtigsten Deutungslinien verfolgt werden, um sowohl die Kontinuität wie auch die Diskontinuität beider Traditionen wertschätzen zu können. Eine Sektion des Bandes ist insbesondere der Rezeption der Husserl’schen Phänomenologie und der klassischen deutschen Philosophie gewidmet. Die Aufsätze dieses Bandes sind für eine generelle philosophische Leserschaft intendiert mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Forschern in den Gebieten der klassischen deutschen Philosophie (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel), des Neukantianismus und der phänomenologischen Tradition (insbesondere Husserl, aber ebenso andere wichtige Vertreter derselben).​. (shrink)

Depuis l'Antiquite, la philosophie occidentale tente de determiner si la morale peut et doit etre ancree dans une constellation theiste. Tenter de repondre a cette question constitue un defi d'autant plus grand dans un monde globalise, au sein duquel le theisme est non seulement remis en question par la tradition occidentale des Lumieres, mais aussi par des modeles de pensee qui promeuvent une maniere fondamentalement differente de se rapporter a la realite. Les reflexions proposees dans ce volume sur Dieu et (...) la morale invitent a examiner les difficultes suscitees par l'ancrage theiste de la morale et a interroger la contingence du cadre reflexif au sein duquel ces difficultes se deploient. (shrink)

Food standards, which are used to signal adherence to sustainability goals or a specific origin, have deep political implications. Standards crafted by retailers, processors, or third-party actors such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often disempower farmers. Moreover, due to the liberalization and globalization of many food value chains, producer organizations (POs) lost some of their legal privileges and market protections. This paper analyzes how POs in the Global North sought to regain their control over food markets by establishing their own standards. (...) These strategies and their consequences are considered across three dimensions: the internal life of the PO, the relevant market institutions, and the relationship between the PO and the state. Our case studies (N = 5) performed in France and in Québec, a French-speaking province of Canada, span across a variety of food sectors. Drawing on qualitative material, we designed our explanatory framework through an abductive, iterative method. Although standards crafted by POs have, in some cases, reshaped market institutions to their advantage and have repositioned them in the governance of food markets, they come at a cost. They may create tensions within POs and clash with the agrarian values of solidarity, democracy, and autonomy. Overall, this article challenges the assumption that food standards are mainly governed by private actors and sheds light on the new alliances and new identities of POs. (shrink)

Learning Analytics und Künstliche Intelligenz in der Hochschulbildung versprechen individualisierte und personalisierte Verbesserung des Lernens und Lehrens. Bildungstechnologien bieten aus ethischer Perspektive jedoch nicht nur Verbesserungspotentiale und -chancen, sondern sie bringen auch Risiken und potenzielle Gefahren mit sich, für das Individuum, aber auch für die Gesellschaft als Ganzes. Eine ethische Reflexion und Diskussion der Chancen und Risiken ist für eine ethisch vertretbare Gestaltung, Implementierung und Nutzung von solchen Technologien von fundamentaler Bedeutung, wie z. B. im Rahmen des Projekts KI:edu-nrw an (...) der Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Eine solche Reflexion und Diskussion bedarf allerdings gewisser ethischer Basiskompetenzen. Das Teilprojekt Ethik entwickelte ein Konzept tugendethischer Kompetenzbildung, um u. a. disziplinäre Barrieren abzubauen sowie um Praktizierenden Basiswerkzeuge der ethischen Reflexion und Entscheidungsfindung in ihren jeweiligen Anwendungskontexten bereitzustellen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir sowohl die theoretischen Fundamente unseres Ansatzes als auch den Prozess und die Ergebnisse unserer Arbeit dar. (shrink)

En la década de los años sesenta la Armada acometió un proceso de organización que fue en su momento un auténtico modelo e incluso referencia válida para otras instituciones. Desde entonces, los cambios experimentados en todos los ámbitos han sido tales y tan rápidos, que su reflejo en la Organización de la Armada revelaba que era necesario un proceso de revisión. Desde 1997, la Comisión de Estudios de la Armada (COMESAR) viene trabajando en este sentido y ya se han abordado (...) modificaciones y reestructuraciones para adaptarse a los cambios producidos. En este artículo se recogen los estudios realizados para la aplicación en todos los niveles de la Armada de los cinco enfoques orgánicos en que se basa la nueva organización -los procesos de trabajo, la estructura, las personas, la tecnología, y el entorno-, y su progresiva implantación en la estructura orgánica de la Armada. (shrink)

This paper examines the realist interpretation of Vedānta that Rasvihari Das explicated in two of his celebrated treatises, namely, “The Theory of Ignorance in Advaitism” and “The Falsity of the World.” Rasvihari Das, unlike many of his contemporary thinkers of India, took a contrary position against the uninformed generalization about Indian thought that the philosophical tradition of India was one of an unbroken idealism and spiritualism. Though Rasviahari Das was influenced by his senior peer-thinkers of India like Hiralal Haldar, B. (...) N. Seal, and K. C. Bhattacharyya, Rasvihari Das had his own independent view on and interpretation of Vedānta. The paper argues that in the Vedāntic realism of Rasvihari Das there is no rejection of the world or the individuals. In the first part of the paper, I suggests the possible influence of Indian realism on Rasvihari Das. In the second part, I make an attempt to unearth and examine the interpretation of Rasvihari Das that unravels his Vedāntic realism. The third part is the concluding appraisal of Rasvihari Das who could take Vedānta forward from its religious moorings and place it resolutely on a philosophical candour. (shrink)

Situational crime prevention (SCP) measures attempt to prevent crime by reducing the opportunities for crime to occur. One of the ways in which some SCP measures reduce such opportunities is by providing victims with advice about how to avoid being victimised, for instance through public awareness campaigns or safety apps. Some scholars claim that this approach to preventing crime often or always promotes victim-blaming and that it is therefore morally wrong to pursue such strategies. Others have made sweeping rejections of (...) this claim. However, in this paper, I suggest that neither view is correct. Specifically, I demonstrate that there are at least three distinct ways of interpreting what I term the victim-blaming argument against advice-giving SCP measures – i.e. as an argument based on a concern for direct victim-blaming, indirect victim-blaming, or self-blame – and that both SCP opponents and supporters have legitimate grounds for their position, depending on how the argument is spelled out. (shrink)

Gegenwärtig werden häufig politisch-moralische Ansprüche an die Kunst gerichtet. Dieser Aufsatz tritt ihnen unter Verweis auf ihren grundsätzlichen Konflikt mit ästhetischen Ansprüchen entgegen. Anhand von Oscar Wildes ästhetisch-theoretischen.

Background: Predatory publishing poses a fundamental threat to the development of nursing knowledge. Previous research has suggested that authors of papers published in predatory journals are mainly inexperienced researchers from low- and middle-income countries. Less attention has been paid to contributors from high-income countries. Aim: To describe the prevalence and characteristics of Swedish authors publishing in predatory nursing journals. Design: Quantitative descriptive case study. Participants and research context: Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the academic positions and academic affiliations of (...) the authors of 39 papers published in predatory nursing journals during 2018 and 2019. Predatory nursing journals with Swedish contributors were identified by searching public listings of papers and applying a set of criteria. Journal site archives were used to identify additional papers with Swedish authors. Ethical considerations: This study was conducted in accordance with national regulations and ethical principles of research. Results: Almost two-thirds of Swedish authors publishing in predatory nursing journals hold senior academic positions. A small group of higher education institutions account for a majority of academic affiliations. Findings suggest that higher education institutions and experienced nursing researchers from Sweden make substantial contributions to predatory nursing journals, but that predatory publication habits might be concentrated in a limited number of academics and research milieus. A year-to-year comparison indicates that the prevalence of publishing in predatory journals might be diminishing. Discussion: Swedish nurse researchers help legitimize predatory journals, thus jeopardizing the trustworthiness of academic nursing knowledge. Substandard papers in predatory journals may pass as legitimate and be used to further academic careers. Experienced researchers are misleading junior colleagues, as joint publications might become embarrassments and liabilities. Conclusion: While the academic nursing community needs to address the problem of predatory publishing, there is some hope that educational efforts might have an effect on combating predatory publishing in nursing. (shrink)

Resumen:Este artículo propone una reflexión sobre el impacto del pragmatismo en las ciencias sociales. Para ello, en esta primera parte del texto se exploran los cruces entre la filosofía pragmatista y la sociología reponiendo los distintos contextos intelectuales y los resultados de dichos cruces. De ese modo intentamos mostrar las diferencias que existen entre, por un lado, el vínculo estrecho entre pragmatismo y sociología en el contexto norteamericano y, por el otro lado, las dificultades y desencuentros de ese vínculo en (...) Europa continental. También prestamos particular atención al movimiento contemporáneo de recuperación del pragmatismo, atendiendo a las condiciones, oportunidades y desafíos que dicho movimiento importa para las ciencias sociales en América Latina. Finalmente, sostenemos que el modo más productivo para pensar la relación entre la tradición pragmatista y las ciencias sociales es en términos de la configuración de un imperativo para el desarrollo del oficio de investigación. En esos términos expresamos un tipo de relación entre filosofía y ciencias sociales que se aleja del esquema clásico formulado por la epistemología.Palabras clave: pragmatismo; sociología; investigación; teoría social. (shrink)

Since Sidney Winter published his paper on “Knowledge and competence as Strategic assets”, the number of publications on the role of knowledge in economics has immensely grown. l-Iere we shall analyze that role from an evolutionary point of view, and try to show that the discussion about concepts like “evolution” is not closed, and that the Darwinian framework of evolutionary economics is in debate.

As science studies scholars, one of our basic tasks is to draw the boundaries that will de?ne our units of inquiry and constrain the chronological and geographical limits of our studies. Without these boundaries, the categories of our analysis remain imprecise. Fortunately, we now have an extensive toolkit to help us with this task. With paradigms, research programs, epistemic cultures, or styles of reasoning, historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science now have a large set of resources for locating the ?ssures (...) and discontinuities in science. The papers from the focused discussion of this issue of Spontaneous Generations present us with an opportunity to take a step back and examine the ways that science studies scholars are currently drawing boundaries. In reviewing the articles for this discussion, our aim as editors was to re?ect on what boundaries scholars were paying attention to and what use we can make of these boundaries. (shrink)

Die Erfindungen von Athanasius Kircher und Johann Philipp Kirnberger markieren die zeitlichen Eckpunkte des Zeitraumes, in dem Komponierkastchen, musikalische Automaten, Wurfelspiele zur Erzeugung von Menuetten und Polonaisen, musikalische Farbenklaviere, Fantasiermaschinen u. a. Projekte entwickelt wurden. Sebastian Klotz analysiert diese Automaten, Tabellen, Kompositionshilfen und Wurfelspiele und verdichtet seine Ergebnisse zu einer Geschichte der Formalisierung des Musikalischen. Indem Klotz das Operativwerden musikalischer Zeichen und die Auslagerung des musikalischen Denkakts in technische Medien aufeinander bezieht und durch eine Vielzahl von Abbildungen dokumentiert, kann (...) er den vielfaltigen Experimentierraum fur die Musikgeschichte in grundlegender Weise erschliessen.". (shrink)

El presente artículo dialoga con la perspectiva del profesor de la Universidad de Stanford, John Searle en su perspectiva acerca de la conciencia, los actos de habla en lo que tiene que ver con la creación de hechos institucionales y su tesis emergentista. Esto con la idea de proponer la lectura del filósofo estadounidense en base a una pragmática de la expresión, que identifica al agente como centro de la creación y transformación social, y por tanto de movilización política, al (...) ser el reconocimiento colectivo quien mantiene el orden institucional. Por lo tanto, esa pragmática de la expresión identifica a los agentes como puntos esenciales de la creación del mundo social, desde el punto de vista del libre albedrio y la creación de mundos sociales posibles. (shrink)

Desde un futuro anterior el pensamiento de la deconstrucción _asedia_ a la filosofía del martillo nietzscheana, ya que nos permite re-escribirla a partir de la nueva perspectiva que inaugura. En este trabajo nos proponemos abordar principalmente los trabajos de Nietzsche _Sobre verdad y mentira en sentido extramoral_ y _Sobre la utilidad y el perjuicio de la historia para la vida_, para analizar el modo en que, en estos textos tempranos, la escritura derridiana reconfigura el entramado filosófico nietzscheano.

El presente trabajo intenta analizar la naturaleza de la derivatio per modum determinationis. La filosofía escolástica enseña que la determinatio es uno de los modos de derivarse la ley humana desde la ley natural, particularmente el modo en que se deriva el derecho positivo o civil. En este trabajo el autor se detiene a revisar su modalidad, así como algunos criterios para reconocer las determinaciones o normas positivas. O presente trabalho procura analisar a natureza da derivatio per modum determinationis. A (...) filosofia escolástica ensina que a determinatio é um dos modos por meio dos quais se deriva a lei humana a partir da lei natural, particularmente o modo no qual se deriva o direito positivo ou civil. Neste trabalho o autor se detém a revisar sua modalidade, bem como alguns critérios para reconhecer as determinações ou normas positivas. (shrink)

El presente trabajo intenta profundizar en la doctrina de los derechos fundamentales del jurista italiano Luigi Ferrajoli. Ferrajoli es uno de los principales teóricos del garantismo iusfilosófio. Su teoría sobre los derechos quiere ser una vía de superación de la antinomia positivismo-iusnaturalismo. This paper tries to review the doctrine of fundamental rights of italian jurist Luigi Ferrajoli. Ferrajoli is one of the main theorists of garantism juridical-philosophical. His theory of rights is, in his opinion, an alternative to iusnaturalism and legal (...) positivism. (shrink)

An important concern sometimes voiced in the neuroethical literature is that swift and radical changes to the parts of a person’s mental life essential for sustaining his/her numerical identity can result in the person ceasing to exist—in other words, that these changes may disrupt psychological continuity. Taking neurointerventions used for rehabilitative purposes as a point of departure, this short paper argues that the same radical alterations of criminal offenders’ psychological features which under certain conditions would result in a disruption of (...) numerical identity can be achieved without these having any effect on numerical identity. Thus, someone interested in making radical alterations to offenders’ psychology can avoid the charge that this would kill the offenders, while still achieving a radical transformation of them. The paper suggests that this possibility makes the question of what kinds of qualitive alterations to offenders’ identity are morally permissible pressing, but then briefly highlights some challenges for arguments against making radical qualitative identity alterations to offenders. No data are available. (shrink)

For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his (...) dead father, inviting Junger to join him. "It's okay," his father said. "There's nothing to be scared of. I'll take care of you." That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger--a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical--to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions? (shrink)

The ability to anticipate team members' actions enables joint action towards a common goal. Task knowledge and mental simulation allow for anticipating other agents' actions and for making inferences about their underlying mental representations. In human–AI teams, providing AI agents with anticipatory mechanisms can facilitate collaboration and successful execution of joint action. This paper presents a computational cognitive model demonstrating mental simulation of operators' mental models of a situation and anticipation of their behavior. The work proposes two successive steps: (1) (...) A hierarchical cluster algorithm is applied to recognize patterns of behavior among pilots. These behavioral clusters are used to derive commonalities in situation models from empirical data (N = 13 pilots). (2) An ACT-R (adaptive control of thought - rational) cognitive model is implemented to mentally simulate different possible outcomes of action decisions and timing of a pilot. model tracing of ACT-R allows following up on operators' individual actions. Two models are implemented using the symbolic representations of ACT-R: one simulating normative behavior and the other by simulating individual differences and using subsymbolic learning. Model performance is analyzed by a comparison of both models. Results indicate the improved performance of the individual differences over the normative model and are discussed regarding implications for cognitive assistance capable of anticipating operator behavior. (shrink)

Since narratives of legitimation have to adapt to shifting discursive environments, they cannot be regarded as static phenomena. To present a sound understanding of their embedment in a specific context, narratives have to be approached from a variety of perspectives – they necessitate, in other words, a “thick description”. This paper addresses the narrative of antifascism as a central element of public discourse throughout the history of the German Democratic Republic and contextualizes it specifically in East German television culture. In (...) addition to providing an understanding of antifascism as an ideological signifier exclusively for historical phenomena, such as National Socialism or Italian fascism, this paper proposes to conceptualize the narrative of antifascism – as it was officially defined in the GDR/SBZ – as a discursive formation that encompasses various political narratives such as militarism and imperialism, as well as past and present political events. Based on this assumption, the highly successful espionage series Das unsichtbare Visier, which was produced by the DEFA and broadcasted by the East German state television, will be discussed in relation to its exploitation of the narrative of antifascism. By approaching these issues, it is the objective of this paper to examine the practices of the appropriation of the narrative of antifascism in an era that was marked by the development of popular television culture and, moreover, to contribute to the discussion of the dialectic between stability and flexibility that is inherent to narratives. (shrink)

Die Frage, welche Bedeutung Herkunft und Zukunft in und für Europa haben, ist sowohl auf eine historische Rückschau als auch eine prospektive Sichtweise angewiesen. Insbesondere die Diskussionen über die Entwicklung Europas offenbaren immer wieder die Relevanz einer historischen Betrachtung der unterschiedlichsten Vorstellungen, Ideale und Konzepte, die im Laufe der Jahrhunderte mit Europa verbunden wurden. Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes analysieren aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive Schlüsselmomente kultureller Transformation in der europäischen Geistesgeschichte und befragen diese mitunter auf ihre Bedeutung für die Zukunft. Dabei werden (...) Fragen nach einer möglichen europäischen Identität, nach politischen Einigungsplänen oder Visionen einer (über-)europäischen Kulturgemeinschaft in der Literatur, Geschichtsschreibung, Philosophie und Kunst diskutiert. Klassiker europäischer Kultur- und Ideengeschichte kommen dabei ebenso zur Sprache wie weniger bekannte Gelehrte, Gemeinschaften und Denkfiguren. Der zeitliche Rahmen der Betrachtung reicht vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart. (shrink)