In this paper I argue for the following conclusions. First, quotas are not normative goals in themselves but only a means to reach non-discriminatory selection procedures. Second, in a democracy quotas are most plausibly used as a means to fill offices in those bodies which have a major impact on how well interests or discourses are translated into policy. Third, quotas for the young can be justified since, due to demographic development, their discourses tend to be marginalized. Fourth, youth quotas (...) cannot be a means to ensure long-term policy-making, but they can enhance legitimacy of long-term impacts from policy decisions taken today. (shrink)

Possibility semantics offers an elegant framework for a semantic analysis of modal logic that does not recruit fully determinate entities such as possible worlds. The present papers considers the application of possibility semantics to the modeling of the indeterminacy of the future. Interesting theoretical problems arise in connection to the addition of object-language determinacy operator. We argue that adding a two-dimensional layer to possibility semantics can help solve these problems. The resulting system assigns to the two-dimensional determinacy operator a (...) well-known logic (coinciding with the logic of universal modalities under global consequence). The paper concludes with some preliminary inroads into the question of how to distinguish two-dimensional possibility semantics from the more established branching framework. (shrink)

Are you fascinated by some basic questions about science, technology, and our future? Questions like: Is cryonics technically feasible? When will nano‐assemblers be feasible and how quickly will resulting changes come? Does a larger population help or hinder the world environment and economy? Will uploading be possible, and if so when? When can I live in space? Where will I be able to live free from tyranny? When will AIs be bucking for my job? Is there intelligent life beyond (...) earth? If you are like most Extropy readers, such questions matter to you. (shrink)

How might epistemology build upon its past and present, so as to be better in the future? Epistemology Futures takes bold steps towards answering that question. What methods will best serve epistemology? Which phenomena and concepts deserve more attention from it? Are there approaches and assumptions that have impeded its progress until now? This volume contains provocative essays by prominent epistemologists, presenting many new ideas for possible improvements in how to do epistemology. Contributors: Paul M. Churchland, Catherine Z. (...) Elgin, Richard Feldman, A. C. Grayling, Stephen Hetherington, Christopher Hookway, Hilary Kornblith, Mark Kaplan, William G. Lycan, Adam Morton, Jonathan M. Weinberg, Linda Zagzebski. (shrink)

On analyse les déterminations de la notion d’« usage » chez le premier Heidegger du début des années 1920 et chez le Wittgenstein des Recherches philosophiques. On distingue ainsi la notion d’usage de celle de « pratique de vie », plus précisément de celles d’« accomplissement » et de « forme » de vie pour montrer que, tout en étant très différents, usages heideggériens et usages wittgensteiniens sont des usages spécifiques, déterminés par les contextes qui leur résistent. On (...) s’intéresse ainsi tout particulièrement à la notion d’« indication formelle » heideggérienne et au caractère thérapeutique, délibérément non herméneutique, du « contexte » des Recherches.This paper focuses on the determinations of the notion of « use » in the early Heidegger – from the 1920’s – and in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. It aims to distinguish the notion of « use » from the one of « life’s practice », and more precisely, from the two notions of « life’s achievement » and « form of life ». The objective is to point out that, although they are indeed very different, Wittgenstein’s and Heidegger’s notions of « use » both are specific and determined by their resistance to a context. This paper will therefore dwell more specifically on the analysis of the Heideggerian notion of « formal indication » and of a therapeutic and non hermeneutic notion of context in the Investigations. (shrink)

This brief article intended for undergraduates argues for Experiential Foundationalism, the view that there are basic beliefs and they can be justified by experience.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes progressively more engaged with society, its shift from technical tool to participating in society raises questions about AI personhood. Drawing upon developmental psychology and systems theory, a mediating structure for AI proto-personhood is defined analogous to an early stage of human development. The proposed AI bridges technical, psychological, and theological perspectives on near-future AI and is structured by its hardware, software, computational, and sociotechnical systems through which it experiences its world as embodied (even for (...) putatively disembodied AI). Further social and moral construction can occur building upon a simple “self” for AI synthesized from symbolic and statistical approaches to AI. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider the question of why future generations need protecting, and how we might go about providing such protection. I begin by claiming that our basic position with respect to the further future can be characterized by what I call the problem of intergenerational buck-passing. This problem implies that our temporal position allows us to visit costs on future people that they ought not to bear, and to deprive them of benefits that they ought (...) to have. Next, I claim that it is plausible to think that this problem is manifest in the case of two serious intergenerational issues: climate change and nuclear protection. Third, I suggest that the problem is exacerbated by a problem of theoretical inadequacy: at present, we lack the basic conceptual tools with which to deal with problems involving the further future. I illustrate this problem through a discussion of the dominant theoretical approach in public policy, cost benefit analysis. Finally, I consider what is to be done. Here I make two basic proposals. The first is that we should investigate a promising form of the precautionary approach, which I call ‘the Global Core Precautionary Principle’. The second is that we should not lose sight of the fact that the problems of intergenerational buck passing and theoretical inadequacy create an atmosphere in which we are extremely vulnerable to moral corruption. (shrink)

Rather than use Habermas’s writings as a paradigm for critiquing The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, I intend to evaluate and to analyze the dynamic tension that develops between the ideas of pluralism and individualism. I will consider how Franklin defines rationalization and reason and how he continually adapts the definitions to recontextualize individual needs, interests, and values within the emergent general will. I will also suggest the ways in which Habermas’s theoretical language accommodates Franklin’s concept of self-determinism within his (...) own conception of noncoercive consensus. (shrink)

Anti-realist evolutionary debunking arguments purport to show that if there were objective moral truths, then evolutionary evidence would suggest that our moral judgements are unjustified (which excludes or makes it unlikely that these truths exist). Recent controversies about these arguments can often be traced back to confusion about how its premises are to be supported or undermined. My aim in this paper is accordingly a clarificatory one. I will attempt to identify which kinds of philosophical or scientific evidence would have (...) to be obtained in order to be able to properly assess evolutionary debunking arguments. It will emerge that philosophical inquiry can make a greater contribution than has often been acknowledged. Moreover, part of what makes these arguments so difficult to evaluate is that their philosophical and scientific aspects are very closely intertwined. (shrink)

We present experimental data on a simple market game. Several solution concepts from cooperative game theory are applied to predict the observed payoff distributions. Notably, a recently introduced solution concept meant to capture the influence of outside options on the payoff distribution within groups fares better than most other solution concepts under consideration. Our results shed some light on the effects of scarcity relations on markets on bargaining outcomes within negotiating dyads.

My aim in this paper is to offer some critical remarks about the possibility of honestly confronting finitude through the experience of tbe value of the other. I suggest that there is reason to think that an honest confrontation with finitude cannot be so accomplished, and that, moreover, there can be no ‘compensation’ for the fact of finitude. Finally, I suggest that the rhetoric of ‘authenticity’ might not be the most fruitful way of talking about confronting our death.

Il est […] illusoire de vouloir affronter seul des problèmes qui appellent le dépassement des limites liées aux spécialisations disciplinaires et aux enjeux institutionnels. Après avoir lu l’ensemble des contributions au présent volume de Corela et m’être plongé dans un certain nombre de travaux cités dans ces articles, profitant du fait qu’Ingrid Mayeur et Marie-Anne Paveau ont eu l’élégance de me convier à un dialogue critique, je répondrai brièvement à cert...

In her book, Vibrant Matter, Jane Bennett thinks through what ontological, political, and ecological questions would look like if humans could admit that matter and nonhuman things are living, creative agents; the contributors to this issue of Evental Aesthetics begin to think through what aesthetic questions would look like.