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Articles 1 - 30 of 43
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Xr Embodiment And The Changing Nature Of Sexual Harassment, Erick Ramirez, Shelby Jennett, Jocelyn Tan, Sydney Campbell
Xr Embodiment And The Changing Nature Of Sexual Harassment, Erick Ramirez, Shelby Jennett, Jocelyn Tan, Sydney Campbell
Philosophy
In this paper, we assess the impact of extended reality technologies as they relate to sexual forms of harassment. We begin with a brief history of the nature of sexual harassment itself. We then offer an account of extended reality technologies focusing specifically on psychological and hardware elements most likely to comprise what has been referred to as “the metaverse”. Although different forms of virtual spaces exist (i.e., private, semi-private, and public), we focus on public social metaverse spaces. We do this to better explain how the concept of sexual harassment must be adjusted to such spaces and how approaches …
Shame, Embarrassment, And The Subjectivity Requirement, Erick Ramirez
Shame, Embarrassment, And The Subjectivity Requirement, Erick Ramirez
Philosophy
Reactive theories of responsibility see moral accountability as grounded on the capacity for feeling reactive-attitudes. I respond to a recent argument gaining ground in this tradition that excludes psychopaths from accountability. The argument relies on what Paul Russell has called the 'subjectivity requirement'. On this view, the capacity to feel and direct reactive-attitudes at oneself is a necessary condition for responsibility. I argue that even if moral attitudes like guilt are impossible for psychopaths to deploy, that psychopaths, especially the "successful" and "secondary" subtypes of psychopathy, can satisfy the subjectivity requirement with regard to shame. I appeal to evidence that …
Artificial Intelligence And The Ethics Of Self-Learning Robots, Shannon Vallor, George A. Bekey
Artificial Intelligence And The Ethics Of Self-Learning Robots, Shannon Vallor, George A. Bekey
Philosophy
The convergence of robotics technology with the science of artificial intelligence ( or AI) is rapidly enabling the development of robots that emulate a wide range of intelligent human behaviors.1 Recent advances in machine learning techniques have produced significant gains in the ability of artificial agents to perform or even excel in activities formerly thought to be the exclusive province of human intelligence, including abstract problem-solving, perceptual recognition, social interaction, and natural language use. These developments raise a host of new ethical concerns about the responsible design, manufacture, and use of robots enabled with artificial intelligence-particularly those equipped with self-learning …
Artificial Intelligence And Public Trust, Shannon Vallor
Artificial Intelligence And Public Trust, Shannon Vallor
Philosophy
The future is here. With the exploding commercial market for high-powered, cloud-computing AI services provided by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, the reach of artificial intelligence technologies is virtually unlimited. What does this mean for humans? How will we adapt to a world in which we increasingly find ourselves in economic, creative, and cognitive competition with machines? Will we embrace these new technologies with the same fervor as we embraced televisions and smartphones? Will we trust them? Should we trust them?
A Conditional Defense Of Shame And Shame Punishment, Erick Ramirez
A Conditional Defense Of Shame And Shame Punishment, Erick Ramirez
Philosophy
In this paper I argue that, if we properly understand the nature of shame, it is sometimes justifiable to shame others in the context of a pluralistic multicultural society. I begin by assessing the accounts of shame provided by Cheshire Calhoun (2004) and Julien Deonna, Raffaele Rodogno and Fabrice Teroni (2012). I argue that both views have problems. I defend a theory of shame and embarrassment that connects both emotions to ‘whole-self’ properties. Shame and embarrassment, I claim, are products of the same underlying emotion. I distinguish between moralized and non-moralized shame in order to show when, and how, moral …
Introduction: Envisioning The Good Life In The 21st Century And Beyond, Shannon Vallor
Introduction: Envisioning The Good Life In The 21st Century And Beyond, Shannon Vallor
Philosophy
In May 2014 cosmologist Stephen Hawking, computer scientist Stuart Russell, and physicists Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek published an open letter in the UK news outlet The Independent, sounding the alarm about the grave risks to humanity posed by emerging technologies of artificial intelligence. They invited readers to imagine these technologies "outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand." The authors note that while the successful creation of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to bring "huge benefits" to our world, and would undoubtedly be "the biggest event in human history ... …
Hegel, History, And Evil, Philip J. Kain
Hegel, History, And Evil, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
In the Philosophy of Right, Hegel tells us that what he means by "right" includes not merely morality (Moralität) and ethics (Sittlichkeit) but world history. He even tells us that the right of world history "is the highest right" (PR [White] §33, §33A).2 He tells us that, through interaction with other nations, the spirit of a people realizes itself in world history (PR §33). This can involve a collision of rights, and such collision will mean that one right gets subordinated to another: "Only the right of world spirit is absolute without restriction" (PR [White] §30R).3 It is quite clear, …
Hegel On Sovereignty And Monarchy, Philip J. Kain
Hegel On Sovereignty And Monarchy, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
Hegel is not a democrat. He is a monarchist. But he wants monarchy because he does not want strong government. He wants to deemphasize power. He develops an idealist conception of sovereignty that allows for a monarch less powerful than a president—one whose task is to expresses the unity of the state and realize the rationality inherent in it. A monarch needs to be a conduit through which reason is expressed and actualized, not a power that might obstruct this process.
Hegel, Recognition, And Same-Sex Marriage, Philip J. Kain
Hegel, Recognition, And Same-Sex Marriage, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
To understand Hegel's concepts of love, marriage, and Sittlichkeit, which are closely related, we must begin to understand his very important theory of recognition. This will be the task of Section II of this article. In pursuing this task, we must be careful to avoid the mistake, made by some commentators, of thinking that mutual recognition between equals is sufficient either for marriage or for Sittlichkeit. For Hegel, I hope to show, the more significant and powerful the recognizer, the more real the recognized—such that, ultimately, recognition must come from spirit (Geist). Then, to better understand Hegel's theory of recognition, …
Super Soldiers: The Ethical, Legal And Operational Implications (Part 2), Patrick Lin, Max Mehlman, Keith Abney, Shannon French, Shannon Vallor, Jai Galliott, Michael Burnam-Fink, Alexander R. Lacroix, Seth Schuknecht
Super Soldiers: The Ethical, Legal And Operational Implications (Part 2), Patrick Lin, Max Mehlman, Keith Abney, Shannon French, Shannon Vallor, Jai Galliott, Michael Burnam-Fink, Alexander R. Lacroix, Seth Schuknecht
Philosophy
This is the second chapter of two on military human enhancement. In the first chapter, the authors outlined past and present efforts aimed at enhancing the minds and bodies of our warfighters with the broader goal of creating the “super soldiers” of tomorrow, all before exploring a number of distinctions—natural vs. artificial, external vs. internal, enhancement vs. therapy, enhancement vs. disenhancement, and enhancement vs. engineering—that are critical to the definition of military human enhancement and understanding the problems it poses. The chapter then advanced a working definition of enhancement as efforts that aim to “improve performance, appearance, or capability besides …
Hegel And The Failure Of Civil Society, Philip J. Kain
Hegel And The Failure Of Civil Society, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
On what might be called a Marxist reading, Hegel’s analysis of civil society accurately recognizes a necessary tendency toward a polarization of classes and the pauperization of the proletariat, a problem for which Hegel, however, has no solution. Indeed, Marxists think there can be no solution short of eliminating civil society. It is not at all clear that this standard reading is correct. The present paper tries to show how it is plausible to understand Hegel as proposing a solution, one that is similar to that of social democrats, and one that could actually work.
The Future Of Military Virtue: Autonomous Systems And The Moral Deskilling Of The Military, Shannon Vallor
The Future Of Military Virtue: Autonomous Systems And The Moral Deskilling Of The Military, Shannon Vallor
Philosophy
Autonomous systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), anti-munitions systems, armed robots, cyber attack and cyber defense systems, are projected to become the centerpiece of 21st century military and counter-terrorism operations. This trend has challenged legal experts, policymakers and military ethicists to make sense of these developments within existing normative frameworks of international law and just war theory. This paper highlights a different yet equally profound ethical challenge: understanding how this trend may lead to a moral deskilling of the military profession, potentially destabilizing traditional norms of military virtue and their power to motivate ethical restraint in the conduct of war. …
Socratic Metaphysics, William J. Prior
Socratic Metaphysics, William J. Prior
Philosophy
Did Socrates have a metaphysics? The question is complex. We might begin by asking, what is a metaphysics? We might also ask, who we mean by Socrates? Let me deal with these questions in order. Metaphysics is concerned with what lies at the foundation of things, the principles underlying reality. ln this essay, that will mean primarily an ontology, a theory of 'what there is'. Now one point on which the authors discussed in this article agree, a 'point of departure' that anchors their various views about Socratic metaphysics, is that Plato had a metaphysics: as Gregory Vlastos puts it, …
Developmentalism, William J. Prior
Developmentalism, William J. Prior
Philosophy
Developmentalism is a theory concerning the order of composition and the interpretation of Plato's dialogues. It is a modern phenomenon; ancient interpreters of Plato were ' unitarians' (Annas 1999:3-5; unitarians believe that there is a systematic unity of Platonic doctrine or belief among all the dialogues). There are several varieties of developmentalism; what is common to them all is the idea that the philosophical views contained in the dialogues, which are taken to reflect Plato's own views, changed significantly over time.
Intellectualism, William J. Prior
Intellectualism, William J. Prior
Philosophy
Intellectualism is a view attributed to Socrates in several of Plato's Socratic dialogues that treats certain mental states, in particular virtue and vice, as states of the intellect alone, and which, as a result, denies the existence of moral weakness (akrasia; q.v.). Intellectualism is especially prominent in the Laches, Gorgias, Euthydemus, Protagoras and Meno.
Socrates (Historical), William J. Prior
Socrates (Historical), William J. Prior
Philosophy
Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of the ancient Greek world and for several ancient schools an exemplar of what the philosophical life should be, was an Athenian citizen born in 469 BCE. He was the son of Sophroniscus, a stonecutter, and Phaenarete, a midwife; and he was married to Xanthippe, with whom he had three children ( Phaedo 60a, 116a-b). His adult years coincided with the 'Golden Age' of Athens, and he was present during Athens' decline and fall during the Peloponnesian War (431-404). Socrates was a public figure during at least part of this period: the comic playwright …
Horror, Philip J. Kain
Horror, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
Nietzsche's stature as a philosopher has risen dramatically since his death. His writings increasingly captivate philosophical readers. There are many reasons for this. One reason is the depth of his thought. Philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, or Hegel impress us with the scope and breadth of their thinking. Philosophers like Plato, Descartes, or Berkeley impress us with an original insight that they unfold and elaborate. Nietzsche is different. He thinks deeply. He digs beneath other philosophies. He forces us to look at traditional philosophical assumptions from a different angle. He undermines and subverts them. He opens up the possibility of thinking …
Nietzsche, Virtue, And The Horror Of Existence, Philip J. Kain
Nietzsche, Virtue, And The Horror Of Existence, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
Robert Solomon argues that Nietzsche is committed to a virtue ethic like Aristotle's. Solomon’s approach seems unaware of Nietzsche’s belief in the horror of existence. A life that contains as much suffering as Nietzsche expects a life to contain, could not be considered a good life by Aristotle. To go further, as Nietzsche does in his doctrines of eternal recurrence and amor fati, to advocate loving such a fate, to refuse to change the slightest detail, Aristotle would find debased. Nietzsche is committed to a virtue ethic, but not an Aristotelian one.
Nietzsche, Eternal Recurrence, And The Horror Of Existence, Philip J. Kain
Nietzsche, Eternal Recurrence, And The Horror Of Existence, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
Nietzsche believed in the horror of existence—in a world filled with meaningless suffering. He also believed in eternal recurrence—that our lives will repeat infinitely and that in each life every detail will be exactly the same. Furthermore, it was not enough that eternal recurrence simply be accepted—Nietzsche demanded that it be loved. Thus the philosopher who introduces eternal recurrence is the very same philosopher who also believes in the horror of existence—a paradox that is completely overlooked by commentators (who thus fail to adequately understand Nietzsche). All of this demands careful explanation.
Eternal Recurrence And The Categorical Imperative, Philip J. Kain
Eternal Recurrence And The Categorical Imperative, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
The question has been raised whether Nietzsche intends eternal recurrence to be like a categorical imperative. The obvious objection to understanding eternal recurrence as like a categorical imperative is that for a categorical imperative to make any sense, for moral obligation to make any sense, it must be possible for individuals to change themselves. And Nietzsche denies that individuals can change themselves. Magnus thinks the determinism “implicit in the doctine of the eternal recurrence of the same renders any imperative impotent…. How can one will what must happen in any case?” At the other end of the spectrum, those who …
Moral Philosophy And Moral Cultivation, William J. Prior
Moral Philosophy And Moral Cultivation, William J. Prior
Philosophy
Moral cultivation is a practice, any practice, by which one attempts to direct the course of moral development either of oneself or others. The aim of this practice is the attainment of moral wisdom, or the closest approximation to that ideal that human beings can attain. In the ancient Greek tradition of philosophy, as well as in the Chinese tradition, the name often given to one who has attained moral wisdom is "the sage." Writers in the ancient Greek tradition, with which I shall be concerned here, attempt to show that the life of the sage is one that we …
Nietzsche, Truth, And The Horror Of Existence, Philip J. Kain
Nietzsche, Truth, And The Horror Of Existence, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
This article1 will argue that at the center of Nietzsche's vision lies his concept of the "terror and horror of existence."2 As he puts it in The Birth of Tragedy: King Midas hunted in the forest a long time for the wise Silenus .... When Silenus at last fell into his hands, the king asked what was the best and most desirable of all things for man. Fixed and immovable, the demigod said not a word, till at last, urged by the king, he gave a shrill laugh and broke out into these words: "Oh, wretched ephemeral race, …
The Portrait Of Socrates In Plato’S Symposium, William J. Prior
The Portrait Of Socrates In Plato’S Symposium, William J. Prior
Philosophy
Plato’s dialogues offer us numerous portraits of Socrates. Some of these are dramatic depictions that show us Socrates in conversation with various interlocutors. Others are descriptions of Socrates, sometimes presented by others, sometimes by Socrates himself. One of these descriptive portraits occurs in Plato’s Symposium. The portrait is complex, being made up of several contributions from several different characters. The relation among these various portraits is complicated. I believe that, taken together, they constitute a coherent description, when certain perspectival differences and other internal features of the individual portraits are taken into account. Thus, I shall speak in this paper …
Nietzsche, The Kantian Self, And Eternal Recurrence, Philip J. Kain
Nietzsche, The Kantian Self, And Eternal Recurrence, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
Nietzsche’s concept of the self grows out of Kant—and then attempts to subvert Kant. Nietzsche agrees that a unified subject is a necessary presupposition for ordered experience to be possible. But instead of a Kantian unified self, Nietzsche develops a conception of the self of the sort that we have come to call postmodern. He posits a composite bundle of drives that become unified only through organization. This subject is unified, it is just that its unity is forged, constructed, brought about by domination. But if the self is a bundle of struggling and shifting drives, how could it remain …
Socrates Metaphysician, William J. Prior
Socrates Metaphysician, William J. Prior
Philosophy
Following R. E. Allen I argue, against the view of Gregory Vlastos that the Socrates of Plato's early dialogues was exclusively a moral philosopher, that there is a metaphysics, an early version of the theory of Forms, in the Euthyphro and other early dialogues. I respond to several of Vlastos's objections to this view.
Hegel, Antigone, And Women, Philip J. Kain
Hegel, Antigone, And Women, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
When Hegel turns to a treatment of culture in Chapter VI of the Phenomenology—as anyone who has read his early writings would expect1—he begins with the ancient Greek polis. There the human spirit first fully emancipated itself from nature as it had not, in Hegel’s opinion, in Egypt; yet it was still in perfect harmony and balance with the natural. In Hegel’s view, this was an age of beaut y that produced a social community and an ethical life where citizens were free and at home. What is a bit surprising, though, is that in the Phenomenology Hegel does not …
Hegel's Critique Of Kantian Practical Reason, Philip J. Kain
Hegel's Critique Of Kantian Practical Reason, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
While many philosophers have found Hegel's critique of Kantian ethics to be interesting in certain respects, overall most tend to find it rather shallow and to think that Hegel either misunderstands Kant's thought or has a rather crude understanding of it. For example, in examining the last two sections of Chapter V of the Phenomenology - 'Reason as Lawgiver' and 'Reason as Testing Laws' (where we get an extended critique of the categorical imperative)- Lauer finds Hegel's treatment to be truncated and inadequate.1 The only trouble, though, is that like most other readers of the Phenomenology, Lauer does not recognize …
The Structure And Method Of Hegel's Phenomenology, Philip J. Kain
The Structure And Method Of Hegel's Phenomenology, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
H. S. Harris is one of the great Hegel scholars of our era. I want to present a view different from his of how Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit is organized, what it is trying to do, and where it is trying to go. I hope my disagreements with Professor Harris will succeed in being dialectical; that is, that they will give rise to contradiction that allows for the generation of further insight. The proclaimed task of the Phenomenology is to educate, train, or culture ordinary consciousness, to raise it to the level of what Hegel calls "science" -or true knowledge.1 …
Hegel, Reason, And Idealism, Philip J. Kain
Hegel, Reason, And Idealism, Philip J. Kain
Philosophy
In this article I want to focus on the central role that scientific reason plays, for Hegel, in leading us toward idealism, yet its complete failure to adequately establish idealism, and, oddly enough, the way in which this failure turns into a most interesting success by anchoring idealism and thus preserving us from solipsism. To bring all of this into relief, I must attend to Hegel’s differences with Kant.
Why Did Plato Write Socratic Dialogues?, William J. Prior
Why Did Plato Write Socratic Dialogues?, William J. Prior
Philosophy
The reader will discern in the title of this paper a reference to a classic article by Charles Kahn.1 In this article and in a number that have followed,2 Kahn has criticized the dominant contemporary interpretation of Plato's early dialogues and suggested an alternative of his own. I do not think Kahn's positive views are correct;3 however, I think he succeeds completely in showing what is wrong with the standard interpretation of the early dialogues. He does not show, in other words, what Plato's motives were for writing his early dialogues; but he certainly shows what were …