Digital Commons Network^™

Human-Machine Relations And Relational Autonomy, Hendrik Kempt, Camilla Colombo, Saskia K. Nagel

Human-Machine Communication

The ever-growing use of interactive technologies and digitization processes in decisionmaking contexts raises key challenges to the conceptualization of autonomy. Starting from the shortcomings of individualistic models, we argue that relational accounts of autonomy provide a more adequate characterization of human beings as socially embedded and integrated. By introducing a decision-theoretic framework, and further theoretical elaboration, we suggest a substantial account of relational autonomy incorporating machines and technologies within the significant relations entertained by agents. Besides optimizing decision-making performances, human-machine interactions could genuinely support and enhance individual autonomy, by fostering human connections, expanding the individual’s social context with additional perspectives, …

Four Notions Of Autonomy. Pitfalls Of Conceptual Pluralism In Contemporary Debates, Roman Wagner, Bert Heinrichs

Human-Machine Communication

The concept of autonomy is indispensable in the history of Western thought. At least that’s how it seems to us nowadays. However, the notion has not always had the outstanding significance that we ascribe to it today and its exact meaning has also changed considerably over time. In this paper, we want to shed light on different understandings of autonomy and clearly distinguish them from each other. Our main aim is to contribute to conceptual clarity in (interdisciplinary) discourses and to point out possible pitfalls of conceptual pluralism.

Objective Bat Phenomenology, Thomas Nagel

Animal Sentience

Our discussions prompted Donald Griffin to campaign for the recognition of animal consciousness as a subject for scientific investigation. Ristau shows how much has since been discovered about the experiences of bats and other creatures, by Griffin and others, in spite of the limits to full knowledge imposed by our biological differences. But Ristau seriously misrepresents me as holding that we can know nothing about what it is like to be a bat, whereas these results are precisely of the kind I envisioned in proposing an “objective phenomenology.”

Sex, Tech, And Faith: Ethics For A Digital Age, Kate Ott

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Review of Sex, Tech, and Faith: Ethics for a Digital Age by Kate Ott. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation), Vol. 76, No. 3 (December 2024), pp. 230-231.

Birth Privilege As White Privilege, Jennifer Scuro Phd

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

In The Pregnancy ≠ Childbearing Project: A Phenomenology of Miscarriage (2017), I argued the need to ‘disentangle the plot’ of pregnancy as it has a naturalised and uncritical access to heteronormative gender privilege. In this paper, with the premise that, ‘whiteness is property,’ as argued by Cheryl Harris in 1993, I extend this work to how birthing is only a story for the white entitled few, and as an entitlement, is tied to the making and preserving of the ‘nuclear family’ and ‘family values.’ As this history of birth privilege as white privilege is also a trauma history, I include …

Coping With And Surviving Domestic Violence Among African American Women In A Rural Community, Kimberly Evonne Wimbush

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Domestic violence (DV) or intimate partner violence is a widespread public health problem in the United States that knows no boundaries. Previous researchers have found that in the United States, African American women experience more severe effects from DV than women in other ethnic groups. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to identify the coping strategies used by African American women who have survived DV living in rural areas where there are limited professional resources. Premises from the superwoman schema and adult resilience theory guided this research. Semistructured audio-recorded interviews, conducted via Zoom and face-to-face, were used to …

Monsters, Multiplicities, And Liminal Experiences In Doctoral Education: Fabulation As Research Methodology, Anna V. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to experiment with qualitative research methodologies while exploring the complexities of doctoral education, research practices, philosophies of inquiry, and other topics intersecting with(in) educational scholarship. My vision for this work was fueled by postmodernist critiques of humanist education, frustrations with the methodological status quo pervasive in educational research, and deep concerns about the unsustainability of performance-focused teaching and learning.

The logic I follow in this project is simple: if we—researchers and academics—are to contribute solutions for challenges and ongoing crises in our world, then we must start thinking relationally and in ways more complex …

The Power Of The Written Word: An Exploration Of Writing As Craft And Pedagogy, Kristen Charlesworth

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio is an exploration of writing, both as a crafted process and a subject of pedagogy. It includes three pieces of vastly different genres, which have one overlapping theoretical notion: autonomy is a key ingredient to successful writing at any level. Student success, creative writing, and scholarly research are all enhanced when the writer is given opportunities to guide their own process. The selected works of this portfolio serve as examples of how student autonomy is not only possible in the classroom, but of the overwhelmingly positive effect it has on the writing process, student engagement, and ultimately, academic …

To Be Conscious Or Not To Be, Bjørn Grinde

Animal Sentience

Carolyn Ristau has done a fine job summarizing the work and life of the zoologist Donald Griffin. Most scientists now accept the existence of animal sentience, but identifying which species possess consciousness remains controversial. Griffin defined consciousness as "the subjective state of feeling or thinking about objects and events.” Nonconscious processes are faster and more energy-efficient, however, and often drive behavior. Consciousness probably evolved for complex decision-making, shaped by evolutionary continuity, with feelings as a common currency for evaluating outcomes. Its survival advantage may be limited, and its presence across species varies depending on evolutionary trajectories.

Topic Development In Talks Among Women, Srisna Lahay

Mabini Review

It has been found that language use differs according to age, gender, socioeconomic class, background, region, and ethnicity. Linguists should look at this reality further and more thoroughly. In the context of mainstream, English-speaking, white settings in the US, UK, and Australia, their studies have examined how language usage varies by gender. This qualitative research is conducted to discover the topics and how they develop in the talks among single, middle-class, white women in their 30s, working, and living in New York City, United States of America (USA). The data are taken from 16 conversations considered talks among these women …

Beyond Labels: Uncovering The Complexities Of Nanay-Students’ Identity And Experiences In A National High School, Mark – Jhon Prestoza, Kathleen Joy Esteban

Mabini Review

This study was conducted to uncover the hindrances and challenges by exploring the life experiences of Nanay-Students at a National High School by understanding their perspective, experiences, and challenges in learning. This study utilized a phenomenological research design, which explored the complexities based on the lived experience of Nanay-Students. Phenomenology was an appropriate approach used for this study which sought to understand the subjective experience of Nanay-Students. Analysis of the data collected was from interviews. The researchers utilized thematic analysis, considered a qualitative data analysis method, that involved identifying patterns or themes in the given data. The findings suggested various …

Empowered Mother, Healthy Child: The Role Of Women Economic Empowerment In The Achievement Of Better Child Health Outcomes In The Philippines, Cheenie Rose Bermas, Melcah Pascua Monsura

Mabini Review

This study contributes to the emerging literature that supports the link between women’s economic empowerment and better child health outcomes. Utilizing secondary data from the 2017 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey, the status of women empowerment as represented by women’s education, employment, and intrahousehold bargaining power and the status of child health outcomes in terms of antenatal care, childhood immunization, and under-5 mortality were analyzed in this research. The findings can be connected with the current health crisis being experienced in the Philippines. The recent Pertussis outbreak showed that there is a need for urgent action to improve the …

Reflections On Misogyny And Women Doing Philosophy In The Philippines, Jeniel Dasig

Mabini Review

In this paper, I argue that despite the prominent and progressive structure of the discipline of philosophy, it is not exempt from the perpetuation of the gender-based form of oppression. The fortunate ratio of women doing philosophy today obscures the extent to which misogyny is seen and felt. Even in what seems to be a gender-egalitarian setting like academia, the subtle, indirect, and sometimes unintentional verbal and behavioral offenses against women function as a mechanism of systemic oppression. It is a manifestation of the restrained form of misogyny that enforces the hierarchical, patriarchal order in academia. In this light, I …

Hetairas: The Pre-Feminist Empowered Women Of The Western Antiquity, Ronel De Loyola, Werllie Bueno

Mabini Review

Women being equal to men is a rare episode in antiquity. However, the existence of hetairas proves that the oppression of women throughout history cannot be steadily maintained as the sole relationship between the sexes, where men always dictate the dynamics of power. The strategic utilization of their sexuality enabled hetairas to participate in the intellectual, political, and artistic fields; such experience of a select group of women should be seen as a nuanced exposition of women’s history before the advent of the feminist movement. The hetaira, whose identity was associated with the elite sympotic culture, was antithetical to both …

My Fifty Shades Of Grey: The Ambivalenceof Sexism In E.L. James Erotica, Agnes Sunga

Mabini Review

This paper focuses on the manifestation of two forms of sexism in the popular novel of E.L. James. By making use of content analysis, a method used to obtain the objective, systematic, and content manifest of communication, this research seeks to find a weave of similar patterns present in the literary work. The representation of patriarchy, sexism, and gender stereotypes through the characters, plot, setting, theme, and literary symbols employed in the story were used as coding categories in the novel. The author made use of Glick and Fiske’s concept of hostile and benevolent sexism to create a distinction between …

Communication In Noise Is The Window On Cognition, R. Haven Wiley

Animal Sentience

As Griffin surmised, communication is the window on cognition, but as shown here, only if it is noisy. This commentary is an invitation to consider the full implications of the evolution of noisy communication. A combination of Information Theory, Signal Detection Theory, and Natural Selection, in a unified theory of the evolution of communication, reveals that noise is inevitable. All organisms are thus decision makers. Perception, thought, freedom of decision, self-awareness, metabolism, and natural selection all share the consequences of signals in noise. A full understanding of each requires attention to the errors of receivers. Griffin’s hunch is correct with …

Grounded Aesthetics: Pedagogy For A Post-Truth Era, Becca Cragin

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

With the rise of cultural studies, positivism and formalism fell out of favor. But in recent years, altered versions of these methodologies have been suggested as solutions to the deficiencies of the ideological approach dominating the field. Where the ideological approach looks at the content of texts to determine their meaning, the aesthetic approach adopted by media scholars in recent years returns to the close textual readings of formalism (while abandoning its assertion that meaning resides in the text alone). Similarly, where the ideological approach tends to use textual analysis devoid of sociological empiricism, the use of “big data” in …

Attempting To Answer The Question Of Animal Awareness, Alexandra Horowitz

Animal Sentience

It was as a graduate student that I first encountered the work of both Donald Griffin and Carolyn Ristau. Griffin's The Question of Animal Awareness (1976) and Animal Minds (2001) helped a budding animal-minds researcher appreciate both the possibilities of studying non-human animal consciousness and the struggle that such an undertaking would face. Now Ristau's (2024a,b) timely biography helps explain how Griffin became the figure in animal cognition that he is.

Donald Griffin, Sentience, And Animal Research Ethics, John Gluck

Animal Sentience

Recollection of early encounters with Donald Griffin’s pioneering work on animal awareness, provoking intense, often hostile academic responses, later forgotten.

Can We Use Judgement Bias To Assess The Welfare Of Fish In Aquariums And Zoos?, Culum Brown

Animal Sentience

This commentary examines the potential of tests of judgment bias to assess fish welfare in aquariums and zoos. Judgment bias offers a non-invasive approach to interpreting affective states in animals, using cognitive responses to ambiguous stimuli as indicators of mental wellbeing. Despite the constraints of captive environments—such as limited handling and species diversity in exhibits—recent adaptations of judgment-bias protocols make them suitable across taxa, including fishes. Collaborations with progressive zoos and aquariums could facilitate this research, based on the shared goal of enhancing animal welfare and promoting public education.

Don’T Be Cruel: Cruelty, Complicity, Self-Knowledge, And Growth, Sherman J. Clark

Articles

The papers in this symposium, and the larger body of scholarship to which this symposium is a contribution, ask us to attend to the often brutal and inhumane conditions in American jails and prisons. But why should we do that? Why should we confront the suffering of the incarcerated? Why should we ask ourselves whether that suffering is unjust, unnecessary, or even unconstitutional? The main reason, of course, is that we want to remedy those injustices. We care about the suffering of our fellow human beings, and people do not cease to be our fellow human beings merely because they …

Kontroversi Écriture Inclusive Di Prancis, Veronica Veronica, Airin Miranda, Myrna Laksman-Huntley

Multikultura

Bahasa Prancis memiliki unsur maskulin dan feminin yang kuat dalam tatanan bahasanya. Dominasi bentuk atau aspek maskulinitas pun sangat terasa. Hal inilah yang menjadi kekosongan dan masalah bagi komunitas LGBTQ+ dan kaum perempuan di Prancis. Mereka berpendapat Bahasa Prancis bersifat seksis sehingga diperlukan bahasa yang dapat mempresentasikan identitas gender mereka secara setara dengan kelompok gender lainnya. Atas inisiasi Haut Conseil à l’Égalité entre les femmes et les hommes (HCE), diterbitkan sebuah buku panduan écriture inclusive dengan tujuan untuk mendorong dan mengedukasi pengaplikasian écriture inclusive pada berbagai komunikasi publik. Hal ini menimbulkan perdebatan panjang di antara masyarakat Prancis. Dalam perdebatan mengenai …

Revisiting Marcuse On Repressive Tolerance: A Twenty-First Century Retrospective, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Herbert Marcuse’s essay Repressive Tolerance (RP) has been praised by the Left and vilified by the Right for its alleged promotion of censorship targeting reactionary opinions and actions. I argue that this interpretation of the text is mistaken. According to my alternative reading of the text, RP should be understood as an exercise in provocation and irony aimed at defending civil disobedience and dissent. Marcuse’s defense of dissent, however, appeals to a critique of pure tolerance that exposes the unavoidably partisan practice of tolerance, which invariably favors the reigning undemocratic status quo. The choice whether to tolerate in a manner …

Volume 35

Episteme

No abstract provided.

Bad Romance: A View Of Stoic Love In Response To Inwood’S “Why Do Fools Fall In Love”, Sophia Gottfried

Episteme

No abstract provided.

It’S Worse If Superman Does It: Perceptions Of Moral Transgressions Committed By Superheroes And Supervillains, Justin F. Martin, Hansika Kapoor

Heroism Science

Superheroes are distinguished from supervillains due to their morally relevant behavior. However, what happens when they both engage in immoral behavior? This study examined how individuals perceive moral transgressions by their favorite superhero/villain in a quasi-experimental design. In line with Social Cognitive Domain Theory and Moral Foundations Theory, transgressions related to harm and justice were assessed. Specifically, participants (N = 363, predominantly White/Caucasian and South Asian) assessed characters’ likability, character traits, and moral evaluations. In line with hypotheses, results suggested that (a) superheroes were liked more than supervillains; (b) transgressions by superheroes were more morally impermissible than those by supervillains, …

The Lived Experience Of African American Female Veterans With Mental Health Service Utilization Following Active Duty Discharge, Martha Woodley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although extensive research has explored mental health, transitional barriers, and trauma-related experiences of women veterans, little research has focused on the utilization of mental health services by African American female veterans following active duty discharge. Minority female veterans tend to face gender treatment differences and racial biases, encounter trauma-related stressors, and experience the societal absence of military cultural competency when transitioning from active duty. The overall purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of African American female veterans with mental health service utilization following active duty discharge. A phenomenological research design was used to explore the experiences …

Stirred By Your Presence, Jeremy D. Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

Traces of you reach me through my senses. But without wondering in your presence, I cannot see you. For beings of sense and meaning such as ourselves, being stirred by another’s presence opens wondering. The implications of such claims are striking for what perception involves, for being in touch with another, and for good relationships. The paper proceeds as a series of “strobes,” from an ancient Greek word for whirling. Turning quickly about, words enact being stirred into won-dering, interspersed with visual glimpses, a photographic series. Building on recent work by the author, the paper draws on Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology; …

Introduction: Giving Room To Embodied Relationships, Jeremy D. Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

The special issue Z(a)dziwienie ciałem—to Wonder (to Wander) in Corporeal Relationships aims to contribute modestly and imaginatively to the recent wave of work around wonder. In some respects, too, it continues the short seminar “Discussing Wonder” published in Studia Philosophica Wratislaviensia vol. XV, no. 2 (2020). In the ancient Greek philosophical tradition, wonder helped philosophers make sense of the nature of their own inquiries and their striving for knowledge. This is the context in which Plato and Aristotle first discussed wonder (thaumadzein). The concept was reprised in a similar framework when Descartes and Spinoza laid foundations for modern philosophy, and …

A Feedback Loop Of Exclusion: The Treatment Of Bilingualism In The Courtroom, Simone Stover

Northwestern University Law Review

In the 1991 case Hernandez v. New York, the United States Supreme Court characterized bilingualism as a race-neutral trait that can be used to exclude individuals from jury service. This Note proceeds by demonstrating how the current state of the law undermines the interests of bilingual individuals and then proposes a solution. Focusing specifically on Hispanic bilingual Spanish speakers, this Note first employs Professor Jennifer Lackey’s multi-directional credibility model to show that bilingual Spanish speakers suffer injustice in the courtroom due to both credibility deficits and excesses. Following this analysis, it proposes a possible solution to this issue: an …