Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Prometheus' Gift Of Fire And Technics: Contemplating The Meaning Of Fire, Affect, And Californian Pyrophytes In The Pyrocene, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This chapter offers a philosophical response to the devastating and deadly wildfires that have been ravaging in California in the past few years; it turns to the myth of Prometheus (as interpreted through Bernard Stiegler’s Technics and Time) for theoretical guidance. The chapter’s central argument is that the Promethean duplicitous gift—of fire and technical skills (technē)—to humanity has both led to the current tragedy of the anthropocene and may offer impetus to imagine a future beyond the anthropocene, but only if fire and technical skills come to be seen in a different light, and solicit different affects. To reimagine our …

Residential Segregation And Rethinking The Imperative Of Integration, Ronald R. Sundstrom

Philosophy

In this chapter I consider the place of the topic of racial and ethnic urban residential segregation factors into political philosophy. I begin with a short history of residential segregation and the ghetto, and their role in systems of racial domination and oppression, and remarks on the general neglect of this topic in contemporary political philosophy, including in nonideal political philosophy, which proports to take on examples of real-world injustices and inequalities. I then examine, from the standpoint of liberal-egalitarian political theory, what segregation, as a con- cept, entails, and its harms to individuals, communities, and societies. Segregation in all …

Mimesis And Clinical Pictures: Thinking With Plato And Broekman Through The Production And Meaning Of Images Of Disease, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This paper contends, following Plato and Broekman, that (1) seeing images as images is crucial to theorizing medicine and that (2) considering clinical pictures as images of images is a much-needed epistemic complement to the domineering view that sees clinical pictures as mirrors of disease. This does not only offer epistemic, but also ethical benefits to individual patients, especially in those cases where patients suffer from chronic, debilitating, and terminal illnesses and where medicine provides no, or limited, answers in terms of treatment, intervention, and meaning. By creating room for a theory of clinical pictures that rightfully emphasizes its pictorial …

E-Co-Affectivity Beyond The Anthropocene: Rethinking The Role Of Soil To Imagine A New 'Us', Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

Following Isabelle Stengers’ call that the anthropocene should make us feel and think differently, this paper focuses on the human task to shift its affective response. Since Stengers calls for a new “us” that seeks to participate in an entanglement, I propose to explore the material and ontogenetic functions of soil, and specifically soil pores, in reimagining a new form of e-co-affectivity. A new e-co-affective response would emphasize the usually hidden fluidity and diachronic time of pores, and, in doing so, cultivate an epistemic and aesthetic sensitivity, deceleration, and percolation.

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 …

Openness And Protection: A Philosophical Analysis Of The Placenta's Mediatory Role In Co-­‐Constituting Emergent Intertwined Identities, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This paper analyzes the placenta's biological and ontological underpinnings in human affectivity as it is generated. The placenta as medial boundary constitutes a place for the encounter and becoming of mother and child, not only as sapient beings, but also in their very nature. Before and beyond the difference between self and other, the placenta offers a model of affective symbiogenesis where selves come into existence in and through the very materiality of one another, contradicting the presumed "immunitary logic of selfpreservation."

The section on placental (re)presentation crafts a placentology that accounts for the possibility of ontogenetic becoming in the …

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?

Examining Assumptions About Student Engagement In The Classroom: A Faculty Learning Community’S Yearlong Journey, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

Over the past twenty years, the term “student engagement” has become a primary means for orienting faculty and administrators around pedagogic improvements and curriculum development. The increasing prevalence of technology in educational settings and the ways it alters more traditional classroom formats, student-teacher interactions, and research methods suggest that engagement may now look and function differently than in the past. This article describes the reflective journey of a yearlong Faculty Learning Community (FLC) at a private, urban Jesuit university on the topic of student engagement. It investigates and debates current thinking on the topic, assesses methods of measurement, and shares …

Folding Nature Back Upon Itself: Aristotle And The Rebirth Of "Physis", Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

“Folding Nature Back Upon Itself: Aristotle and the Rebirth of Physis,” confronts us with nature’s receding presence and proposes to think through a rebirth of physis. Following Aristotle’s concept of physis, this paper locates two axes along which such a rethinking of physis can take place. The first axis is vertical, and turns around the fundamental tension that each natural being faces in seeking to overcome its own matter in order to reach transcendence. The second axis is horizontal, and follows Aristotle’s ideas that physis cannot unfold unless aided, stimulated, nurtured and enforced by external factors such as one’s environment, …

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

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, …

Althusser ’S Scientism And Aleatory Materialism, William S. Lewis

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Anscombe, Thomson, And Double Effect, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

In “Modern Moral Philosophy” Anscombe argues that the distinction between intention of an end or means and foresight of a consequentially comparable outcome proves crucial in act-evaluation. The deontologist J. J. Thomson disagrees. She asserts that Anscombe mistakes the distinction’s moral import; it bears on agent-evaluation, not act-evaluation. I map out the contours of this dispute. I show that it implicates other disagreements, some to be expected and others not to be expected. Amongst the expected, one finds the ethicists’ accounts of action and understanding of how agent-assessment relates to act-assessment. Amongst the unexpected, one finds the moralists’ views about …

Dignity, Pet-Euthanasia And Person Euthanasia, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

Challenging the standard argument for euthanasia, G. E. M. Anscombe holds that euthanasia does not comport with human dignity interpreted in terms of self-determination. For, were self-determination to ground any killing it would justify self-killing, not being killed by another. I articulate reasons for thinking that she correctly identifies the dissonance of self-determination with euthanasia. Additionally, I argue that the same holds, less obviously, for physician-assisted suicide (PAS, which she does not explicitly consider).

Moreover, Anscombe suggests that what actually occurs in euthanasia in effect equates a person to a humanely euthanized dog and, thereby, trivializes and degrades human lives …

Is There Less Bullshit In For Marx Than In Reading Capital?, William S. Lewis

Philosophy

This paper explores G. A. Cohen’s claim that Althusser’s Marxist philosophy is bullshit. This exploration is important because, if we are persuaded by Cohen’s assertion that there are only three types of Marxism: analytic, pre-analytic, and bullshit and, further, that only analytic Marxism is concerned with truth and therefore “uniquely legitimate” then, as political philosophers interested in Marxism’s potential philosophical resources, we may wish to privilege its analytic form. However, if Cohen’s attribution is misplaced, then we may wish to explore why Cohen was so insistent in this ascription and what this insistence reveals about his own political philosophy. The …

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

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, …

Der And Policy: The Recommendation Of A Topic, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

If viable, DER justifies certain individual acts that–by definition–have two effects. Presumably, it would in some fashion (at the very least, redundantly) justify policies concerning the very same acts. By contrast, acts that sometimes have a good effect and sometimes have a bad effect do not have the requisite two effects such that DER can justify them immediately. Yet, a policy concerning numerous such acts would have the requisite good and bad effects. For while any one such act would lack the relevant two effects, a series of such acts and a policy governing such a series would have them. …

Abuses Of Double Effect, Anscombe’S Principle Of Side Effects, And A (Sound) Account Of Duplex Effectus, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

The Ethical Relevance Of The Intended/Foreseen Distinction According To Anscombe, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Aristotle’S Voluntary/Deliberate Distinction, Double-Effect Reasoning, And Ethical Relevance, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

I articulate Aristotle’s account of the voluntary with a view to weighing in on a contemporary ethical debate concerning the moral relevance of the intended/foreseen (i/f) distinction. Natural lawyers employ the i/f distinction to contrast consequentially comparable acts with different intentional structures. They propose that consequentially comparable acts of, for example, terror and tactical bombing morally differ based on their diverse structures of intention. Opponents of DER hold that one best captures the widely acknowledged intuitive appeal of the distinction by contrasting agents, not acts. These thinkers hold that the terror bomber differs from the tactical bomber while terror and …

Double-Effect Reasoning Defended: A Response To Scanlon, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

Common morality endorses some form of an exceptionless prohibition against killing innocents. Natural lawyers employ double-effect reasoning (DER) to address hard cases involving deaths of the innocent. Current deontologists (Scanlon and Thomson) criticize DER-proponents as conflating act-with agent-evaluations. Scanlon develops this critique extensively. I respond to his criticism. He maintains that the DER-advocate tells a badly-motivated agent to refrain from an obligatory act. Thus, he asserts, the natural lawyer who employs DER errs. Instead, Scanlon proposes, one ought to assess the act as permissible while blaming the agent. I argue that DER does not succumb to this critique. Moreover, Scanlon’s …

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 …

Swinburne On The Conditions For Free Will And Moral Responsibility, David P. Hunt

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

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

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. …

Sheltering Xenophobia, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

What is xenophobia? Why is xenophobia immoral? How is xenophobia’s conceptual and moral meaning diminished? Investigations of these questions would invigorate xenophobia as a topic in public morality and discourage the public’s acquiesc- ing to xenophobia’s new prominence. This paper focuses on the third question, the diminishment of xenophobia. In the first sec- tion, I outline a general conception of xenophobia. In the second, I explain how theories of membership in liberal democratic soci- eties relegate xenophobia to a minor moral concern. And, in the third, that the conflation of xenophobia with racism disadvantages the former. How liberal Democratic nations …

Comment On Elizabeth Anderson's The Imperative Of Integration, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

Elizabeth Anderson draws the attention of moral, social, and political philosophy to the idea of integration, an idea that is most often associated with the struggles to desegregate schools and neighborhoods in the years before and after the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board. Her book, The Imperative of Integration, is a remarkable contribution because integration is not frequently mentioned outside of debates in the fields of urban affairs and education policy, and residential integration and segregation are rarely mentioned in academic philosophy. There are, however, some concerns with her defense of her defense of integration that …

God's Extended Mind, David P. Hunt

Philosophy

God the fully exercised power to know all truths. but why is God’s excellence with respect to knowing not treated on a par with his excellence with respect to doing, where the latter requires only that God have the (exercised or unexercised) power to do all things? The prima facie problem with divine ‘omni-knowledgeability’ – roughly, being able to know whatever one wants to know whenever one wants to know it – is that knowledge (whether occurrent or dispositional) requires an internal representation, whereas mere ‘knowledgeability’ does not. I argue to the contrary that knowledge does not require an internal …

Perils Of The Open Road, David P. Hunt

Philosophy

Open theists deny that God knows future contingents. Most open theists justify this denial by adopting the position that there are no future contingent truths to be known. In this paper we examine some of the arguments put forward for this position in two recent articles in this journal, one by Dale Tuggy and one by Alan Rhoda, Gregory Boyd, and Thomas Belt. The arguments concern time, modality, and the semantics of ‘will’ statements. We explain why we find none of these arguments persuasive. This wide road leads only to destruction.