Philosophy Commons^™

Can An Ai System Be Creative? A Critical Perspective From Art And Engineering, Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau

Presidential Fellows Articles and Research

This paper examines the question of whether artificial intelligence (AI) systems can be creative, approached from the dual perspective of a researcher trained in electrical engineering, pattern recognition, machine learning, and neural networks, who has also spent most of his life engaged in the arts as actor, stage and film director, writer, composer, and visual artist, and in philosophy. Drawing on Margaret Boden’s foundational framework — both her three properties of creativity (novelty, surprise, and value) and her three types of creative processes (combinatorial, exploratory, and transformational) — the paper argues that AI systems are structurally incapable of creativity in …

Ai Is Not The Kind Of Thing That Can Ever Be Sentient, Lori Marino

Animal Sentience

Sentience evolved to allow organisms to move through their environment avoiding harms and achieving benefits. Sentience did not evolve from computation. It evolved from valenced feelings. AI (even robots) are not embodied and are not the kind of thing that needs to be sentient. There is no way to get from computations to feelings. They are qualitatively different things. We should avoid being lulled into thinking that an inanimate object designed to engage our propensity for anthropomorphism, like AI, is actually a mind.

A Brief Summary Of Albert Camus’S “The Myth Of Sisyphus”, Irma Mosqueda Perez

Philosophy - All Scholarship

In the first pages of The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus chooses to discuss beliefs and values, before diving deep into his theory on absurdism. His purpose is to set the groundwork for his future ideas on the meaning or rather, the lack of meaning of life. So he begins, piece by piece assembling the big puzzle that ends in his theory of philosophical absurdism and continues with an evaluation of the central question of this book: is suicide a justified approach when facing life? In this essay I plan on doing an exposition of the main points of Camus’s …

Not Two Selves But A Relational Field: A Relational Frame Theory Reading Of Gollum, Emilio R. López-Navarro

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article examines Gollum’s divided selfhood in The Lord of the Rings as a phenomenon constructed and enacted through language rather than as a simple moral or psychological split. Building on recent linguistic work on Gollum’s idiolect, it draws on Relational Frame Theory (RFT) as a descriptive framework for analyzing how speech organizes perspective, value, and action. The argument is literary rather than clinical: RFT is used not to diagnose Gollum, but to specify the verbal structures through which Tolkien renders inner conflict audible. Four relational processes are central to the analysis: deictic instability in shifts among “Sméagol,” “Gollum,” “we,” …

Interculturalidad: Enfoques Críticos Desde La Educación, El Arte Y Los Estudios Culturales., Edgar Ávila González Phd, Romano Ponce-Díaz Phd, Cristo León Phd, Emilce Beatriz Sánchez Castellón Phd, Ligia María Sánchez Castellón, Edgar Meritano Phd, Juan Carlos González-Vidal Phd, Diana Estefanía Martínez-Dagnino, Ivan Avila Gonzalez Phd, Rodrigo Pardo Fernández Phd, Arturo Morales Campos Phd, Ximena Diaz Santillan, Maribel Ramos Rodríguez, José Antonio Fraga Villicaña Phd, José Ricardo Chavez Mendoza Phd

STEM for Success Resources

• Cultura y producción de semiosis: Edgar Ávila González, Romano Ponce Díaz.
• LA ESCUELA ETNOEDUCATIVA Y LA ARMONIZACIÓN INTERCULTURAL : Emilce Beatriz Sánchez Castellón, Ligia María Sánchez Castellón
• El Mentor del Juego: Mediador Intercultural en las Mesas de Juegos de Rol: Cristo Leon, Edgar Meritano
• CONVERGENCIA DE CAMPOS SUPRARREGULADOS DE PRODUCCIÓN SEMIÓSICA EN LA CONSTRUCCIÓN Y PERMANENCIA DE MODELOS COGNITIVOS TRANSHISTÓRICOS: Juan Carlos González Vidal
• Escritura creativa y proyecto de existencia. La didáctica como una herramienta de generación de sentido para las personas privadas de su libertad: Diana Estefanía Martínez Dagnino, Iván Ávila González,Rodrigo Pardo Fernández.
• Metáfora, signo y modelo cognitivo. …

Judaism And Catholicism: Possibilities Of An Inter-Spiritual Dialogue, David Neuhaus

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines the possibilities of an inter-spiritual dialogue between Catholics and Jews. Describing the transformation of the Catholic attitude to Jews andJudaism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, moving from a teaching of contempt to one of respect, it analyses the far-reaching reformulations of Catholic theology that promote an interreligious dialogue. After centuries of traumatic history, Jewish reactions have been hesitant. However, the past decades have led to a burgeoning relationship that can indeed flower into a mutual inter-spiritual dialogue that deepens the faith of both Catholics and Jews.

Jainism And Catholicism – Dialoguing Spiritually, Bryan Lobo

Journal of Global Catholicism

The inter-spiritual dialogue between Jainism and Catholicism lends itself towards discovering similarities and dissimilarities between the two spiritualities. Recognizing this discovery, this paper, without claiming to be exhaustive as regards the spiritual themes, discusses the chosen themes to facilitate greater reflection and potential to re-discover elements that can help the growth of understanding and practicing the preferred spirituality.

Islam And Catholicism: Theology And Practice Of Inter-Spiritual Dialogue, Felix Koerner

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article explores foundations, preconditions, aims, persons, groups, practices, methods, texts, and criteria of Muslim–Christian inter-spiritual dialogue. In-ter-spiritual dialogue thrives within the network of other dialogical forms: dialogue of life and collaboration, of theological and practical understanding. This article argues that the spiritual dimension of dialogical encounter may itself constitute a critical site of moral reflection, enabling participants to perceive injustice more clearly and to respond to it more responsibly. Nevertheless, the integrity of in-ter-spiritual dialogue depends upon the cultivation of trust, candor, and a shared orientation toward mutual enrichment and spiritual purification. Where dialogue is subordinated to extrinsic strategic …

The Dialogue Of Spiritual Experience In Buddhist-Christian Encounter, S Mark Heim

Journal of Global Catholicism

Can one learn more about one’s own religion through the practices of another? My positive answer to this question is illustrated in this paper by reflection on aspects of the Buddhist practice of emptiness, in specific connection with Christian under-standing of our lives as creatures. The Buddhist meditative practices I have in mind have several things in common. They are introspective (activated in one person’s inner consciousness) and premised on the Buddhist understanding of emptiness (specifically “no self ” teachings). Buddhist introspective practice takes at least three broad forms. One of these is a meditative analytical awareness of the contents …

Hindu Poetry And The Project Of An Inter-Spiritual Catholic Theology, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article engages the work of the Indian south Indian Tamil-language Vaiṣṇava poet saints known as the Alvārs. The article specifically focuses the First HundredHoly Linked verses of Poykai Ālvār to argue for inter-spiritual learning between Catholics and Hindus. The article concludes with personal reflections on this encounter within the context of the global Catholic Church

Overview And Acknowledgments, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

An overview and introduction to the present issue on Inter-Spiritual Dialogue.

Nietzsche’S Greek Soul: Traces Of Aristotle’S Psuchē In The Early Nietzsche, Laura G. Campos

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

This dissertation proposes an examination of the concept of the soul (Seele) as it appears in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, in conversation with the concept of the soul in Aristotle. I propose bringing these two historically and theoretically disparate thinkers into dialogue insofar as they each represent a pivotal moment in the history of Western subjectivity, drawing on Martin Heidegger’s positioning of Aristotle and Nietzsche as the inaugural and final thinkers of Western metaphysics, respectively. Yet, following recent Continental interpretations of both thinkers, I read both Aristotle and Nietzsche as proto-phenomenologists concerned with the problem of how to thematize …

Replies To Gasdaglis, Tarver, Conway, And Fullarton, Mariana Alessandri

Philosophy Faculty Publications

I am grateful to the four commentators for taking time to read Night Vision with care, and for providing their insights in the form of thoughts, questions, and challenges. Themes in this response include shame, emotional work, compassion, scarcity, sharing pain as gift vs. burden, our nonideal world, ableism, love, and justification. There are countless other topics that merited a thorough response, such as distinguishing between types of light, eros, verticality vs. horizontality, the lessons of suffering, teaching and humility, and a deeper analysis of the cost of compassion.

Précis: Night Vision, Mariana Alessandri

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Night Vision is a book about pain in five chapters. It’s about T-shirts that say “No Bad Days” or “Be Like a Proton: Always Positive.” It's about how the attempt to shed light on our dark moods often backfires, and it suggests that learning to see in the dark would help us feel more human and less broken. Night Vision describes the metaphors we use to convey our faith in the light: “love and light,” “lighten up,” “look on the bright side,” have a “lightbulb moment,” strive to “see the light at the end of the tunnel,” and try to …

In The Shadow Of The Steeple: A Theory Of Religious Hypocrisy, Justin Arthur Rice

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore how Christian doctrine and practice respond to the pressures placed upon them by the troubling reality of religious hypocrisy (RH). Assuming a teleological notion of social institutions, I argue that RH is best understood in relation to the Church as an institution, and that RH occurs when religious agents undermine or subvert their appointed role within the Church. RH consists in the conscious or unconscious charade of spiritual or moral virtue undertaken in one’s capacity as a member of a religious institution, grounded in a fundamental disparity between one’s thoughts, words, desires, motivations, or deeds, …

A Dual Analysis Of Generic Stereotypes, Shaoneng Xu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my thesis, I provide a dual-analysis on generic stereotypes, including a semantic analysis that focuses on the truth conditions of generic sentences as well as a pragmatic analysis that focuses on the normative force of generic stereotypes. The thesis contains two parts: In the first chapter, I make a semantic analysis of generic stereotypes based on Lemeire’s (2020) paper. I unpack the general concept of generic sentences and their truth-conditions. I also discuss Lemeire’s rebuttal strategies to offensive generic stereotypes, and add to it by indicating that generics can also carry normative forces. In the second chapter, I make …

Walking The Tightrope: The Precautionary Dilemma Of Neutrality And Guidance, Farhan Lakhany

Animal Sentience

Jonathan Birch’s The Edge of Sentience promises a precautionary framework that guides ethical action without taking sides in the disputed metaphysics of consciousness. I argue that it cannot do both. Birch admits “biopsychism” (that all living organisms are conscious) into his "zone of reasonable disagreement," yet his operational criteria exclude plants and unicellular organisms by requiring evidence that biopsychism holds to be irrelevant. This leaves a dilemma. Keeping the “broad” standard preserves neutrality but extends candidacy to all life, guiding nothing; restricting to scientific evidence guides action but is itself the theoretical commitment the framework was meant to avoid.

Dimensional Welfare Beyond Pain: Extending The Precautionary Principle In Birch’S “The Edge Of Sentience”, Willa M. Lane, Nicola S. Clayton

Animal Sentience

Birch's (2024) The Edge of Sentience identifies sentience candidates primarily through the pain-focused LSE Criteria. Yet, as Birch himself notes in Proposal 17, sentience is not pain. We argue that statutory welfare protections must therefore reach beyond pain, and that the right tool for doing so is Birch et al.’s (2020) dimensionality framework, which characterises conscious experience across five domains. Used together, the LSE Criteria establish that welfare is at stake, while the dimensionality framework maps what is at stake beyond pain to provide a taxon-specific profile of where captivity impoverishes experience. We apply this approach to invertebrate welfare and …

Impure Evidentialism: Essays On The Sources & Structure Of Doxastic Normativity, Felipe Oliveira

Dissertations - ALL

The four papers of my dissertation provide a new defense of Impure Evidentialism. The combination of evidentialism about normative reasons for belief with pragmatic encroachment (i.e. impurism) about epistemic justification is a familiar and intuitive view. However, many of the combo view’s finer points, unique advantages, and objections have not been addressed. My dissertation fills this gap by offering a new defense and in-depth look of what I take to be the most plausible version of the combo view. My version of Impure Evidentialism offers an improved and comprehensive account of the norms that govern our beliefs, explains why these …

Animal Ethics And The Lowest Common Denominator, John O. Adenitire

Animal Sentience

This commentary assesses the pragmatic framework proposed in Jonathan Birch’s The Edge of Sentience (2024). Celebrating the book's exceptional clarity, scientific rigor, and profound real-world impact on UK legislation, I nevertheless have some questions about the method by which Birch arrives at his policy recommendations for animal protection. In seeking an overlapping consensus between deeply divergent ethical and credal viewpoints, the framework risks defaulting to a minimalist, lowest-common-denominator standard of protection for animals. Birch also risks drawing the standard even lower by including serious academic positions in animal ethics that deny moral status for animals altogether. A rights-based approach offers …