Philosophy Commons^™

Persons Or Human-Mimicking Robots? Implications Of Ai For Moral Status, Kate Burckle, Catherine Peters

Honors Thesis

Rapid progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in which AI technologies can now perform human tasks, e.g. hold advanced conversations, cook, clean, and navigate harsh terrain, blurs the line between humans and robots. The emergence of advanced AI technologies suggests that AI programs may develop consciousness in the near future, prompting important questions: if AIs attain abilities to perform the same tasks and exercise capacities traditionally limited to humans, do they deserve similar moral status? If so, what treatment would we owe to them? Through examination of competing accounts of personhood and moral status, this paper seeks to …

Is Sexyy Red Minstrelsy, Or Are We Overreacting?, Malik Brizan-Reed

Capstones

This criticism piece explores the controversial female rapper Sexyy Red. It challenges negative perspectives about her persona, primarily based on respectability politics. It highlights Sexyy Red's ability to capitalize on a moment and business savviness. The article has themes of racial double standards and classism. Sexyy Red is more than the "ghetto Black girl," aesthetic. She's a mother and entrepreneur who is authentic to herself.

On The Readership Of Spinoza’S Writing & A Poetics For Thought, Tam Pham

Honors Thesis

This paper invites attention to textual facts and other intricacies in the readership of Spinoza’s writing, which bring to the fore his thinking qua thinking under language, a consideration that seems at least underappreciated, if not misappreciated, by the very readership in question. In so doing, the paper reflects on the possibility—and perhaps necessity—of a poetological purview into a philosophical corpus, in terms of its being written under a sense of Latin as well as of other tongues, generated by and for a thinker to be the linguisticity within which he thinks. To put in differently: if Spinoza were to …

Design(Ing) Disruptions: Towards Intimacies Between Feminist Situated Knowledge, Gossip And Design, Senjuti Sangia

Masters Theses

This project highlights and problematizes the knowledge traditions and politics foundational to problem-solving paradigms in design education and practice. By emphasising the ontological nature and turn in design (Willis, 2006, Fry, 2012) , this thesis critically appraises the aforesaid formulations by extending intersectional feminist theories to dominant design epistemology. Drawing on the sociological framing of the matrix of domination, I investigate the dichotomy of the designer and user- as designers, users, and communities find themselves at different junctions in the matrix of domination. Further, I critique design frameworks from the analytical lenses of feminist situated knowledge, In so doing, I …

Atmosphere In The Images Of Contemporary Chinese Illustrators In Exchange With Western Styles Of Depiction, Volkmar Mühleis, Yingda Dong

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In our contribution, we would like to discuss the depiction of atmosphere in the drawings of contemporary Chinese illustrators, regarding their exchanges with comparable Western styles. Therefore, we first address general structural questions of how to conceptualize the atmosphere in Eastern and Western cultures and then focus on concrete examples of images and contextualize them.

Aesthetic Evaluation Of The Atmosphere In Everyday Environments-A Case Study In Ashiyahama Seaside Town, Japan, Mao Matsuyama, Jaeyoung Heo

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Since the emergence of environmental aesthetics, this field has been expanding its focus into various objects and environments including human-made objects. But still, it seems that we prefer aesthetically good environments and experiences because the word ‘aesthetic’ often automatically implicates some kind of positive value. However, as Timothy Morton suggests with the concept of dark ecology, we have to find a way to love “the disgusting, inert, and meaningless” that we have created and rely on as well, instead of dreaming a romantic and idealized world.

n this interdisciplinary research with aesthetics and environmental science, we will investigate the aesthetic …

The Construction Of Intercultural Temporal And Spatial Atmospheres In Sino-Italian Art Exchange Exhibitions: The Exhibition “Forms Of Time” As An Example, Rui Ji

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Since the 1990s, Sino-Italian art exchange exhibitions have achieved fruitful results. They juxtapose and integrate different heterogeneous cultures of the two countries, forming an intercultural spatial and temporal atmosphere. This paper analyzes one of these exhibitions, “Forms of Time,” and explores how to build the atmosphere. A joint exhibition between the Chinese artist Tong Yan Runan and Italian artist Giorgio Morandi was held at the Bologna City History Center in 2017. Combining the intercultural origins of Michel Foucault’s heterotopia and the principle of “heterotopias/heterochronies,” this paper discusses two significant aspects. First, it analyzes the “heterogeneity” constructed by the two artists …

Vitality Semiotics: The Ever Beautiful And Its Potential For An Intercultural Approach, Martina Sauer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Two landscapes from different cultures, Europe and China, that are both considered masterpieces are the focus of this study. To what extent are they each perceived as beautiful? Can the differences in aesthetic understanding tell us something about the respective cultures? Do the results have the potential to contribute to intercultural rapprochement between Europe and China? The possibility that these ideas can be fruitful for intercultural connections and understanding, and for a reevaluation of the interaction between humans and nature, will be considered and analyzed using the tools and theory of vitality semiotics (VS). To this end, its premises in …

Co-Creating Atmospheres: The Use Of Design For Vā/Wā, Community, And Common Sense, A.-Chr. Engels-Schwarzpaul, Emily Parr

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Design is usually understood as a professional activity by which objects and processes are given form through the deliberate and innovative deployment of aesthetic means. While design disciplines are branching out beyond their traditional concerns, and co-design increasingly involves nonprofessionals, designers’ conceptual engagement with the perceptual processes set in train by design remains limited, even though they know them to be important from experience. Aristotle’s common sense, for instance, is not commonly discussed in the design literature—yet its communal aspects could enrich not only co-design. Another expansion of perception beyond the individual occurs in atmospheres, which we register when …

Moderate Physical Perspectivalism, Emily Adlam

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Recent developments in the foundations of physics have given rise to a class of views suggesting that physically meaningful descriptions must always be relativized to a physical perspective. In this article, I distinguish between strong physical perspectivalism, which maintains that all facts must be relativized to a perspective, and moderate physical perspectivalism, which maintains that all empirically meaningful descriptions must be relativized to a perspective. I argue that scientific evidence and philosophical considerations support moderate physical perspectivalism over strong physical perspectivalism. In particular, motivations connected to epistemic humility and the social nature of science are more compatible with the moderate …

Designing Atmospheres: An Aesthetic Practice Across The Pluriverse?, Burkhard Meltzer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Experiences of sensing of and finding oneself in a place largely depend on the design of atmospheres. Against the background of an increasing interest in ecological perspectives across various disciplines and regions, this text revisits Gernot Böhme’s respective aesthetic concept from the early 1990s. Arturo Escobar’s recent publication, “Designs for the Pluriverse,” which aims at restructuring relations between local design practices and global connections, will serve as a contemporary space of resonance for this exploration. How far might the aesthetic concept of atmosphere help to bridge gaps within today’s pluriversal thinking?

Creating Atmospheres As A Pedagogical Task, Kora Butz

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article focuses on the question: how do children experience atmospheres? A literary excerpt shows that children have no distance to their surroundings and therefore can be influenced and shaped by atmospheres to a much higher degree than adults. This view is supported by some recent neuroscientific studies. Atmospheres could turn out to be a forming influence in the child´s development, even slightly modifying the bodily constitution of later life. This puts a deep responsibility on parents and pedagogical staff. As a pedagogical task we must investigate what kind of atmospheres can contribute to a healthy way of bringing up …

Beauty As Care. Designing Atmospheres For Healthcare Places, Elisabetta Di Stefano

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

According to German philosopher Gernot Böhme, the “aesthetics of atmospheres” is highly important in architectural design. This holds particularly true in the design of hospitals and sanatoriums, where users require special care and attention. Moreover, in these marginal places of everyday life, not only the production of appropriate atmospheres but also the aesthetics of care can transform into a tool capable of influencing patients’ health. This essay aims to establish a connection between the aesthetics of atmosphere and the aesthetics of care, which stem from different philosophical backgrounds, namely phenomenology and everyday aesthetics. By examining their interrelations through the lens …

How Atmospheres Communicate: Aesthetics Of Burial Grounds And Car-Showrooms, Jürgen Hasse

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

On the one hand, atmospheres constitute themselves from situations. On the other hand, they are also produced for a specific purpose, in order to communicate feelings and the meanings associated with them. This article elaborates theoretical foundations of a recent philosophy of atmospheres. It turns out that aesthetic form not only follows function but that function also follows form. In the emission of atmospheres, there is a dialectic between surface aesthetics and depth aesthetics. Two examples illustrate the affective power of atmospheres. In the example of cemeteries, plants act in a special way as an immersive media of communication. In …

Designing A Smart Atmosphere In São Paulo: Public Spaces And The Green Image, Christiane Wagner

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

It has been suggested that urbanization does not create ways of life but rather offers models that satisfy the expectations of public life. These models can result from the ways that architects, designers, artists, and social actors shape the urban atmosphere setting. In this context, this paper focuses on how São Paulo has worked toward designing a smart city with elements that advance complex issues and promote climate change solutions. This paper explores the processes of aestheticizing and expanding public spaces through an empirical qualitative analysis in which the visual value of a space is evaluated based on cognitive and …

Ettingerian Matrixial Theory Glossary For This Artizein Issue, R. Michael Fisher, Barbara Bickel

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

A glossary to assist the navigation and learning of Matrixial Theory especially for those new to it. It is based on the Ettingerian Matrixial terms found in this special issue. Definitions are in process and are a combination of different Artizein authors understandings of the terms as referred to in this issue as compiled by co-editors R. Michael Fisher and Barbara Bickel.

Teaching Ettingerian Matrixial Theory, R. Michael Fisher

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Utilizing an adapted scoping review of the literature on Bracha L. Ettinger and Education (2008-2024), the author reveals the specific ways that Ettingerian Matrixial Theory (EMT) and its pedagogies are taught and can be taught in the future. EMT is argued to be a new branch of Critical Theory. The current literature shows there is mostly engagement with EMT in academic settings. As well, the literature reviewed shows EMT is used readily in arts and with artists as teachers and teachings for adults. However, the author unveils diverse other possibilities of teaching EMT. A few major themes from the literature …

Gestating And Co-Becoming With Ettingerian Maxtrixial Pedagogy, Barbara Bickel

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This article seeks to infuse and enrich the spheres of Arts and Education through a nascent introduction of Ettingerian Matrixial Pedagogy. To articulate this, I weave together the practices of Gestare Art Collective, which we describe as “matrixial infused education,” the “placental thinking” of Nané Jordan with my own thinking, art making and teaching. This article unfolds through interlacing theory and reflections on teachings found within art practices of Ma Poses, Womb Walking, Nap-Ins, and Spontaneous Creation-Making, along with examples of pedagogical artworkings: Metramorphosis and Muted Colours of Grief. The article closes with a poetic métissage inquiry that became—a Matrixial …

A Matrixial Museum: Education In Almost-Impossible Spaces, Valerie Oved Giovanini

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This paper is meant to scaffold an imaginary space for what is currently an almost impossible museum. It would reside on a border between Gaza and Israel. Artists and participants would be able to enter from both sides of the border into a circular and cavernous space to make, share and experience art together. In artwork that values its relational capacity to affect another, the move from aesthetics to ethics recalls our mutual place of origin understood in Bracha L. Ettinger’s Matrixial Theory (EMT) as “the matrixial womb.” Griselda Pollock’s Virtual Feminist Museum, Gur-Ze’ev’s counter-education, feminist pedagogy, and Art-care activism …

She-Hero: A Memoir Of The Divine Feminine Within A Creation-Centred Paradigm, Darlene St.Georges

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

She-Hero: A Memoir of the Divine Feminine within a Creation-Centred Paradigm explores Ettinger’s matrixial borderspaces through an inter-woven theoretical | artistic | poetic métissage. An example of creation-centred research, this memoir is likened to Ettinger’s concept of metramorphosis—an active restoration of matrixial knowledge(s) and knowing. Embodying a creation-centred curriculum and pedagogy, She-Hero privileges non-dominant epistemologies to attend to the disruption of historical patterns of the hero—inviting readers to submerge and emerge in co-poesis within an intimate and aesthetic kaleidoscopic space of feminine affect and agency.