Philosophy Commons^™

Collaborative Ai: Oer Materials For Exploring Ai As A Partner Rather Than A Tool, David Smith

Open Educational Resources

The Collaborative AI Open Educational Resource (OER) explores how artificial intelligence can act as a creative and analytical collaborator rather than a tool. Centered on the Balanced Blended Space (BBS) framework and the philosophy of the Center for Holistic Integration (CHI), the OER includes curriculum materials, theoretical models, and live research environments. It offers an interesting approach to blending physical, virtual, and conceptual spaces through shared human–AI agency and invites ongoing participation in interdisciplinary meta-projects.

Soul Surfers Forced Into A Fragmented Exteriority, Siti Balkish Roslan, Nor Atiah Ismail, Sumarni Ismail

Interiority

This study explores the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on soul surfers, individuals for whom surfing transcends mere sport to embody a spiritual, psychological, and physical communion with the sea and ocean. The pandemic’s restrictions, which limited access to the sea, challenged the core of soul surfing practices, prompting surfers to seek alternative means to sustain their connection with the sea and ocean. Through qualitative research, employing phenomenological analysis, theories of affordance, symbolic interactionism, and interpretive interviews, the study examines the transition from a natural exterior to a built interior, adapting their living spaces to maintain their surfing identity, …

Ahp's Tribute To Dr. Stan Charnofsky, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

The Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP) mourns the “transition” of a very dear soul, Dr. Stan Charnofsky. And, while his transition is a tremendous loss to his family, friends, and colleagues, we also want to honor and celebrate a life well-lived. As a former AHP president, Stan provided outstanding leadership. Upon his passing, he also held the distinction of being the longest-serving AHP board member. He was very much cherished and highly respected by all board members throughout his long, dedicated and remarkable service to AHP and its members.

Is Buddhist View Of Mental States In Consonance With The Foundational Tenets Of Their System?: Investigating Nyāya And Buddhist Debate On Perception In Jayanta Bhatta’S Nyāyamanjari, Ajay K. Verma

Comparative Philosophy

The first noble truth in Buddhism points toward a purely phenomenal experience. Though purely qualitative in nature, the experience of suffering has an existential aspect. As stated in the second noble truth, suffering has a cause that relates to our situatedness in the world. Notwithstanding, the cause of suffering has to be something external to the mental state of suffering itself. Some of the more recent studies on mental states suggest two different positions on the nature of mental states. One may view mental states as self-referential, reflexive and purely qualitative in nature; alternatively, one could view them as transitive …

Walking Through The Aristotelian Lane: Amartya Sen On Rational Choice, Barada Laxmi Panda

Comparative Philosophy

The term ‘rational choice’ has great impact on the life of a rational agent. Rational choice helps the agent to understand her capability of making choice and the intentional involvement for working on a particular aspect considering certain circumstances. At the same time, this creates a lot of dilemmas in terms of understanding the freewill of the agent while being committed for a work. Following this, Amartya Sen’s discussion on this subject seems relevant where Sen very prominently reflects on the point that rational choice involves freedom, rationality, and normativity. These three features are coherent with each other and with …

Seeing Through Solid Words: Using Gebser’S Concept Of Transparency To Understand A Gnostic Poem Expressing Integral Consciousness, Lisa Maroski

Journal of Conscious Evolution

It is difficult to express integral consciousness using ordinary language because of the inherent tendency of language to separate and distinguish. Jean Gebser, in The Ever-Present Origin, suggested concepts such as transparency and diaphaneity as ways to access integral consciousness, and the Gnostic text The Thunder, Perfect Mind (TPM) is written from the perspective of a being with integral consciousness. I use Jean Gebser’s concepts of transparency and diaphaneity to explicate TPM, an enigmatic, paradoxical poem in the Nag Hammadi Library. Because TPM is written from the perspective of an integral being, one who is All-of-It (i.e., paradoxical completeness rather …

Autoethnographic Action Research As A Contemplative Practice: Awareness And Transformation Of Inner And Outer Selves, Jiju Varghese, Bal Chandra Luitel, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

Contemplation as a spiritual practice has taken various forms across different religious traditions and regions worldwide. Over the years, various contemplative practices have evolved and become popular even outside religious traditions to promote the well-being of all for inner and outer selves’ transformation. In education, many scholars worldwide have expounded on the benefits of contemplative practices in the classroom for students and teachers. Contemplative practices have penetrated research practices in the form of contemplative inquiry considering performative, philosophical, and artistic transformations, where researchers enter into a deep, thoughtful, and reflective introspective journey to see the connection between what is seen …

Internalism, Externalism, And The Phenomenology Of Epistemic Justification, Steven Winterfeldt

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This dissertation applies a phenomenological method of analysis to the dispute between analytic internalists and externalists regarding epistemic justification. Traditionally, the justification condition on knowledge has been interpreted as an internal condition, but the growing popularity of the externalist antithesis has placed internalism on the defensive. Ultimately, however, the dispute appears to have fallen into an impasse. I identify a set of four arguments or cases that, when taken together, prompt us to adopt a set of contradictory conclusions about the necessary and sufficient conditions for justified belief. Moreover, none of the analytic views of justification surveyed seem to be …

The Forms Of Representation: How To Be A Kantian Realist, Willem A. Devries

Faculty Publications

Sellars argued that Kant did not make certain distinctions concerning space and time, and because of this adopted his transcendental idealism. Once these distinctions are made, the path to realism remains open. Sellars' argument is not entirely clear. This essay attempts to clarify the argument, showing why Sellars believed he could remain a scientific realist while also adopting a Kantian style epistemology.

Confronting Indecision, Lane Allison Murray

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

This course aims to increase students' understanding of indecision and how to confront it. The class provides insight into how the fear of the unknown holds people back from making decisions and about understanding one's values as a means to combat indecision. Students and teachers alike explore instances of indecision and evaluate their own impulses & thought processes by reflecting on the deeper reasons for their choices. Students will increase their comfort level of asking themselves and their peers questions about the values that guide them and, in doing so, strengthen their relationships with themselves and others.

Donald Griffin, Cognitive Ethology, And Animal Life Histories, Walter Veit

Animal Sentience

Carolyn Ristau offers a stellar investigative biography of Donald Redfield Griffin and his influence on the science and philosophy of animal minds. This commentary focuses on his aim to study animal minds through an ethological lens—that is, by examining the evolved, adaptive functions of mental capacities and consciousness in natural environments, rather than confining research to controlled laboratory settings. I argue that, far from being romantic, this approach can be firmly grounded in modern life history theory.

Précis Of The Edge Of Sentience: Risk And Precaution In Humans, Other Animals, And Ai, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

We often face grave practical decisions that seem to hinge on whether a system is sentient. This family of cases includes invertebrate animals, people who are unresponsive after brain injury, fetuses, neural organoids, and now AI technologies. We must decide what to do despite ongoing disagreement about the nature of sentience. In our state of uncertainty, we should pragmatically transform the question from “Is it sentient?” to “Is it a sentience candidate, an investigation priority, or neither?”. When a system is a sentience candidate, it is negligent to fail to consider precautions. We should instead evaluate precautions for their proportionality …

Griffin's Slow Burn Revolution In Philosophy And Comparative Cognition, Kristin Andrews

Animal Sentience

Ristau presents Griffin as launching a scientific revolution supported by philosophical insights. This commentary focuses on two points: Griffin as a scientific revolutionary, although the cognitive ethology revolution is not yet complete; and on the immense influence Griffin had, and continues to have, on philosophy.

What Is It Like To Be A Diplomat? Reflections On Donald Griffin And Emotion, Oliver H. Turnbull

Animal Sentience

This commentary addresses three aspects of Donald Griffin’s work: (1) his thoughts beyond cognition, on emotion; (2) his views on the earliest origins of mind, including primitive forms of consciousness; and (3) his diplomatic use of memorable phrases to facilitate change.

Can Animal Consciousness Be Resolved Scientifically?, Yoram Gutfreund

Animal Sentience

Carolyn Ristau's biography of Donald Griffin is a comprehensive work that sheds light on a seminal chapter in the history of ethology—the ambitious attempt to establish a research field dedicated to animal consciousness. Although Donald Griffin's endeavor ultimately fell short of its revolutionary goals, it catalyzed significant progress in understanding evolution and mechanisms of animal cognition.

Beyond Human Perception: The Remarkable Science Of Donald R. Griffin, Gareth Jones

Animal Sentience

Carolyn Ristau shows how Donald Griffin’s revolutionary science sometimes progressed from ridicule, to opposition, to being self-evident. Griffin’s work involved phenomena beyond human perception, making it sometimes difficult for others to fathom. His work on ultrasonic echolocation, navigation and animal cognition has shifted established paradigms. His ‘zoomorphic’ approach provides a realistic framework for understanding how other animals perceive the world.

Functionalism, Algorithms And The Pursuit Of A Theory Of Mind For Artificial Intelligence, Victor Mureithi

Critical Humanities

Abstract.

The advancement of computing technology has given rise to an interesting thesis: the human brain can be studied and understood as operating on the principles of a digital computer. The claim later became a more substantial thesis: the Mind is a computer since the Mind is actualized in the brain. The recent success of large language models (LLMs) such as Bard (produced by Google), GPT3, ChatGPT (also known as GPT3.5, produced by OpenAI-Microsoft), and LLaMA (produced byMeta) has brought greater attention and focus to the discussion of human versus machine intelligence. The result has been a pursuit of a …

The Chinese Room And Creating Consciousness: How Recent Strides In Ai Technology Revitalize A Classic Debate, Thomas Held

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Since 1950, when Alan Turing first posed the question of whether a machine could think, the possibility of artificial consciousness has sparked intense and ongoing debate, and strong positions have been staked out on each side of the argument. On the one hand, the historically popular functionalist school of thought claims that any system capable of producing suitably “conscious” behavior in a given environment should be considered conscious. On the other hand, John Searle’s famous “Chinese Room” argument insists that this cannot be the case, and that consciousness is in all likelihood not artificially reproducible. However, both positions have issues—the …

And You Don't Seem To Understand: Disanalogies Between Artificial And Biological Consciousness, Derek Freeman

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

This paper posits a new way of attempting to formulate theories of machine consciousness. At present, inquiry revolves around formulating criteria that could be applied to machines to determine if they possess human-like consciousness. The paper demonstrates that efforts so far have not been fruitful, instead finding that present methods of inquiry are destined to result in an impasse between those who support the notion of machine consciousness and those who oppose it. Consequently, the paper questions the assumption that human and machine consciousness must resemble each other. It explores a different approach, one that rejects the idea that the …

Donald Griffin: A Visionary In Science And Consciousness, Brock Fenton

Animal Sentience

I share some reflections on a sabbatical with Donald Griffin a half-century ago, with fieldwork on bats and echolocating swiftlets in Australia and our discussions of animal behavior and consciousness. Griffin's influence has been vast, from recent advances in bat research, including learning, navigation, and longevity, to his enduring legacy as a pioneer in animal cognition.

Japanese-English Translation: Critical Consciousness In Crisis, By Miki Kiyoshi, December 1928 (Excerpt Of §1); Published In Kaizō, January 1929; Translated By Christopher Southward, November 2024: 「危機における理論的意識」、三木清著；1928年12月著作；『改造』1929年1月号発行； 2024年11月南方クリストファー訳, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Critical Consciousness in Crisis, by Miki Kiyoshi, December 1928 (Excerpt of §1) Published in Kaizō, January 1929; Translated by Christopher Southward, November 2024

「危機における理論的意識」、三木清著；1928年12月著作；『改造』1929年1月号発行；2024年11月南方クリストファー訳

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.”

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.

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 …

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.

What Barfield Thought: An Introduction To The Work Of Owen Barfield, By Landon Loftin And Max Leyf, Katherine Sas

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Landon Loftin and Max Leyf's What Barfield Thought serves as an introduction to the key themes and concepts running through the work of Owen Barfield, the so-called "first and last Inkling." This digestible yet rigorous volume includes chapters on Barfield's primary areas of interest: Language, Poetry, The Evolution of Consciousness, Final Participation, and Science, Technology, and the Crisis of Meaning. With each chapter building on the last, this study makes an excellent primer to Barfield's often difficult and esoteric ideas.

Précis Of: "Birds, Bats And Minds: Tales Of A Revolutionary Scientist, Donald R. Griffin", Carolyn A. Ristau

Animal Sentience

Donald Griffin co-discovered bat sonar and founded the field of echolocation. He studied bird migration and founded Cognitive Ethology, the study of animal awareness and mental experiences. In all these endeavors, he faced hostile opposition. The biography (Ristau 2024) examines Griffin's life and the scientific explorations by him and others in these fields. This Précis emphasizes his arguments and supporting evidence for animal consciousness as well as his later research. Griffin considered the inhibiting assumptions made by scientists, including Cartesian views, the misunderstanding of innate behaviors, prejudice against lower animals, concern with violations of parsimony, and the assertions of the …

Psychological And Social Well-Being Of Bony Fishes In Zoos And Aquariums, Ronald G. Oldfield, Patrick Bonano

Animal Sentience

Research on the behaviour of animals in zoos has been conducted for decades, and observations have provided information that has improved the psychological and social well-being of animals. However, research on fishes in zoos and aquariums seems to be lacking. Here, we assess the current state of research on fishes in zoos and aquariums by surveying the peer-reviewed literature. Our assessment differs from previous surveys in that we examine the taxonomic classes Chondrichthyes (sharks and rays) and Osteichthyes (bony fishes) separately. Our survey finds that bony fishes have been drastically underrepresented in zoo journals, more drastically than chondrichthyans, revealing an …

Fallen Kingdoms And Ancient Monoliths: The Influence Of Atlantis And Egypt In Tolkien’S Númenor, Charlotte J. Brockway

Journal of Tolkien Research

In light of the recent publication of The Fall of Númenor, my essay aims to focus on Tolkien’s, somewhat underappreciated, influences on Gondor; particularly Ancient Egypt. This essay looks at Plato's Timaeus and Critias, Ignatius Donnelly's theories, and examines the Atlantean and Egyptian motifs in Tolkien’s version of Westernesse, in particular, the remnants of Atlantean civilization survived by Egyptian colonists which mirror the Realms of Exile (Gondor and Arnor).

Perceptual Expectation, Rebecca Keller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

You are currently seeing many things, and, hopefully, you are currently about to see many other things. Many of the things that you are about to see will not be surprising, because you expect to see them. Sometimes, though, when you expect to see one thing and are faced with another, that thing will look like the thing you expected it to be, and not like the thing it actually is. This dissertation is an attempt to get a handle on what is happening in the visual system in these instances. In particular, I am trying to figure out what …