Different people have different perceptions about artificial intelligence (AI). It is extremely important to bring together all the alternative frames of thinking—from the various communities of developers, researchers, business leaders, policymakers, and citizens—to properly start acknowledging AI. This article highlights the ‘fruitful collaboration’ that sociology and AI could develop in both social and technical terms. We discuss how biases and unfairness are among the major challenges to be addressed in such a sociotechnical perspective. First, as intelligent machines reveal their nature (...) of ‘magnifying glasses’ in the automation of existing inequalities, we show how the AI technical community is calling for transparency and explainability, accountability and contestability. Not to be considered as panaceas, they all contribute to ensuring human control in novel practices that include requirement, design and development methodologies for a fairer AI. Second, we elaborate on the mounting attention for technological narratives as technology is recognized as a social practice within a specific institutional context. Not only do narratives reflect organizing visions for society, but they also are a tangible sign of the traditional lines of social, economic, and political inequalities. We conclude with a call for a diverse approach within the AI community and a richer knowledge about narratives as they help in better addressing future technical developments, public debate, and policy. AI practice is interdisciplinary by nature and it will benefit from a socio-technical perspective. (shrink)

Dieses Lehrbuch behandelt zentrale naturphilosophische Probleme, die durch Theorien der modernen Naturwissenschaften aufgeworfen werden. Es fragt, welches Bild von Raum, Zeit, Materie, Leben und Bewusstsein sich aus ihnen ergibt, aber auch nach den Konsequenzen der aktuellen Umweltkrise für unser praktisches Verhältnis zur Natur. Der Autor Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Bartels hat Mathematik, Physik und Philosophie studiert und ist emeritierter Professor für Natur- und Wissenschaftsphilosophie an der Universität Bonn.

According to David Lewis, the argument from temporary intrinsics is ‘the principal and decisive objection against endurance’. I focus on eternalist endurantism, discussing three different ways the eternalist endurantist can try to avoid treating temporary intrinsics as relational. Two of them, generally known as ‘adverbialism’ and ‘SOFism’, are familiar and controversial. I scrutinize them and argue that Lewis’ scepticism about them is well founded. Then, I sketch a further, to some extent new, version of eternalist endurantism, where the key idea (...) is that intrinsic monadic properties had simpliciter by objects are eternal, time-transcendent properties in Fine’s sense, i.e., properties had by objects regardless of time. Eternal properties of an object are ipso facto sempiternal. When something is P at one time and not P at another, it is radically indeterminate whether it is Psimpliciter or not. I argue that an account along these lines is better placed to treat intrinsic monadic properties of changing objects than any other known alternatives insofar as it recognizes that something is Psimpliciter ; it is able to account for x’s being P at a time in terms of something’s being P simpliciter; it has an answer to the question ‘is \simpliciter?’ when x is P at one time and not P at another. I conclude that endurantism is no less at ease with intrinsics than perdurantism is. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung: Zur Funktion der Vita Zusammenfassend läßt sich also festhalten, daß Daniel mit seiner Vita weder eine historische Abhandlung im Sinne der biographischen bruta facta, noch eine ausschließlich hagiographisch orientierte Darstellung bieten will, die die Verehrung eines Heiligen begründen helfen soll. Natürlich bemüht sich Daniel um die Darstellung eines Weges zur Gottesschau des Johannes, der ihn dahin geführt hat, auch noch in der Gegenwart seines Biographen Heil zu wirken. Aber es geht noch um mehr. Die Vita selbst übernimmt die Funktion (...) eines Paradigmas. Hier wird ein Mönchsleben vorgestellt, wie es im Idealfall sein soll. Dabei werden auch die Früchte genannt, die ein solches Mönchsleben hervorbringt. Geprägt ist ein solches Mönchsleben einerseits durch die (monastische) Tradition. Durch den indirekten Rückbezug des Lebens des Sinaiten auf diese Tradition wird dessen Bedeutung und Heiligkeit besonders hervorgehoben. Andererseits ist die Vita durch das monastische Ideal der Klimax bestimmt, die sie zu veranschaulichen bemüht ist. Die beiden Texte befinden sich also in enger Interdependenz. Diese Interdependenz dürfte zweierlei Absicht dienen: Zum einen der Zusammenfassung und dem Überblick, wie Daniel im letzten Satz der Vita selber hervorhebt. Zum anderen aber auch als Erweis von der Umsetzbarkeit. Stark elementarisierend macht die Vita deutlich, daß alles folgende wirklich umsetzbar ist, daß der Autor der Klimax das, was er in seiner Programmschrift fordert, auch selbst gelebt hat. Darüberhinaus hat die Vita noch eine letzte, zentrale Funktion: Sie autorisiert die Klimax gleichermaßen. Der Autor der folgenden Schrift ist eben nicht irgendein beliebiger Mönchsschriftsteller. Er wird vielmehr als zweiter, den ersten noch überbietender Moses dargestellt. Dieser Moses, der sich mühsam auf seine Gottesschau vorbereitet hat, der hat den folgenden Text gegeben. Durch die Schilderung des Lebens und der Taten seines Autors gewinnt der nun folgende Text der Klimax somit noch einmal eine besondere Bedeutung. (shrink)

In this paper Modern Essentialism is used to solve a problem of individuation of spacetime points in General Relativity that has been raised by a New Leibnizian Argument against spacetime substantivalism, elaborated by Earman and Norton. An earlier essentialistic solution, proposed by Maudlin, is criticized as being against both the spirit of metrical essentialism and the fundamental principles of General Relativity. I argue for a modified essentialistic account of spacetime points that avoids those obstacles.

: We discuss the role that transnational corporations should play in developing global governance, creating a framework of rules and regulations for the global economy. The central issue is whether TNCs should provide global rules and guarantee individual citizenship rights, or instead focus on maximizing profits. First, we describe the problems arising from the globalization process that affect the relationship between public rules and private firms. Next we consider the position of economic and management theories in relation to the social (...) responsibility of the firm. We argue that instrumental stakeholder theory and business and society research can only partially solve the global governance issue, and that more recent concepts of corporate citizenship and republican business ethics deliver theoretically and practically helpful, fresh insights. However, even these need further development, especially with regard to the legitimacy of corporate political activity. (shrink)

The question of who should be included in democratic decision-making is known as the boundary problem in democratic theory. I identify two requirements that a satisfactory solution to the boundary problem must satisfy, i.e. the Considered Judgment Requirement and the Value Requirement. I argue that the two most prominent solutions to the boundary problem—the all-affected principle and the all-subjected principle—fail to satisfy these requirements. Instead, I propose an equal relations principle and show that it satisfies the requirements. It turns out (...) that relatedness, and not affectedness or subjectedness, is what fundamentally explains who should be included. (shrink)

A curious feature of Belnap’s “useful four-valued logic”, also known as first-degree entailment (FDE), is that the overdetermined value B (both true and false) is treated as a designated value. Although there are good theoretical reasons for this, it seems prima facie more plausible to have only one of the four values designated, namely T (exactly true). This paper follows this route and investigates the resulting logic, which we call Exactly True Logic.

Past research has established that people can strategically enhance or override impulsive emotional behaviour with implementation intentions (Eder, Rothermund, & Proctor, 2010). However, it is unclear whether emotional action tendencies change by intentional processes or by habit formation processes due to repeated enactment of the intention (or both). The present study shows that forming implementation intentions is sufficient to modulate emotional action tendencies. Participants received instructions about how to respond to positive and negative stimuli on evaluation trials but no such (...) trials were actually presented. Results showed that merely intending to approach and avoid affective stimuli influenced emotional action tendencies in a modified affective Simon task in which affective valence was irrelevant. An affective Simon effect (i.e., faster reactions when the valence of the stimulus corresponded with the valence of the movement) was observed when participants intended evaluations with affectively congruent responses (i.e., positive–approach, negative–avoid); in contrast, the effect was reversed in direction when participants planned evaluations with incongruent responses (i.e., positive–avoid, negative–approach). Thus, implementation intentions can regulate implicit emotional responses even in the absence of possible habit formation processes. Implications for dual-system accounts of emotion regulation are discussed. (shrink)

Quantum set theory (QST) and topos quantum theory (TQT) are two long running projects in the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics (QM) that share a great deal of conceptual and technical affinity. Most pertinently, both approaches attempt to resolve some of the conceptual difficulties surrounding QM by reformulating parts of the theory inside of nonclassical mathematical universes, albeit with very different internal logics. We call such mathematical universes, together with those mathematical and logical structures within them that are pertinent to (...) the physical interpretation, ‘Q-worlds’. Here, we provide a unifying framework that allows us to (i) better understand the relationship between different Q-worlds, and (ii) define a general method for transferring concepts and results between TQT and QST, thereby significantly increasing the expressive power of both approaches. Along the way, we develop a novel connection to paraconsistent logic and introduce a new class of structures that have significant implications for recent work on paraconsistent set theory. (shrink)

This study explores the underlying drivers of US public pension funds’ tendency to tilt their portfolios towards companies with stronger corporate social responsibility. Studying the equity holdings of large, internally managed US state pension funds, we find evidence that the political leaning of their beneficiaries and political pressures by state politicians affect funds’ investment decisions. State pension funds from states with Democratic-leaning beneficiaries tilt their portfolios more strongly towards companies that perform well on CSR issues, and this tendency is intensified (...) when the state government is dominated by Democratic state politicians. Moreover, we find that funds which tilt their portfolios towards companies with superior CSR scores generate a slightly higher return compared with their counterparts. Overall, our findings indicate that funds align their investment choices with the financial and non-financial interests of their beneficiaries when deciding whether to incorporate CSR into their equity allocations. (shrink)

Als Philosoph steht Schleiermacher noch immer im Schatten seiner Zeitgenossen und auch seiner theologischen Werke. Das Buch will seinen eigenständigen Beitrag zur Klassischen Deutschen Philosophie sichtbar machen. Gefragt wird, worin das philosophische Gravitationszentrum der einschlägigen Texte, Entwürfe und Vorlesungen Schleiermachers besteht, mit welchen theoretischen Mitteln er dabei operiert und welche Stellung er in der philosophischen Bewegung seiner Zeit einnimmt. Als zentral erweist sich der Individualitätsgedanke, der aus einer eigenständigen, kritischen Aneignung Kants und Spinozas resultiert. Mit dieser Konzeption begegnet Schleiermacher Friedrich (...) Schlegel auf Augenhöhe und leistet einen eigenständigen Beitrag zur frühromantischen Philosophie, deren grundlegende Positionen er in seinen philosophischen Vorlesungen in Halle (1804-1806) und Berlin (seit 1808) kritisch durcharbeitet und systematisiert. Dies bringt Schleiermacher, wie schon den frühen Friedrich Schlegel, trotz aller gravierenden Unterschiede vielfach in die Nähe Hegels, so dass sich sein Verhältnis zu den philosophischen Zeitgenossen höchst komplex gestaltet. Schleiermacher erweist sich als eigenständiger Denker auf dem gemeinsamen Boden der Klassischen Deutschen Philosophie. (shrink)

The crucial stake of the present paper lies in the dereification of the human being, in the abrogation of the psychological, ethical homogeneity, and the objectified sociocultural representations of the imaginary. The imaginary can be conceived not only as a term able to confirm the mental structures of the subject that constitute the identity and bounds of human thought, but also as the way in which ethical norms become manifest. Norms, which through their internalisation dictate the perception of both the (...) self and the social. Countering the neoliberal representation of the world presupposes an erogenous discourse. The originality of Bataille is to invert the meaning of desire as lack. Far from being conceived as a sign of our finitude, it is indicative of our excess of being. The ‘secret of desire’ thus appears in the intrinsic relationship that weaves the archaic sacred between eroticism and death. Excess and anguish in front of the emptiness, allow us to escape the subject, to liberate the self from the commercialisation of our imagination. Bataille shows us how erotic desire could be fundamentally creative of social relations, as it eliminates the self-other dualism. (shrink)

The concept of necessity plays a central role in Kant's philosophy, but seems to lead to severe paradoxes. On the one hand he states: ‘Notwendigkeit und strenge Allgemeinheit sind sichere Kennzeichen einer Erkenntnis a priori’. On the other hand he talks also about ‘notwendig (d. i. nach einer Regel)’, which means ‘necessary according to the empirical natural laws’. However, he never states explicitly the distinction between these two different concepts of necessity. Either Kant's philosophy is inconsistent or we have to (...) assume that he indeed interchanges two different concepts, even if he does not tell us that there is a difference between synthetic apriori necessity and natural necessity. This paper defends the hypothesis of two different necessities and then shows how this strategy makes possible a rational reconstruction of Kant's epistemology. (shrink)

Definition of the problem In medicine, as well as in other disciplines, computer science expertise is becoming increasingly important. This requires a culture of interdisciplinary assessment, for which medical ethics committees are not well prepared. The use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) methods (whether developed in-house or in the form of “tools”) pose further challenges for research ethics reviews. Arguments This paper describes the problems and suggests solving them through procedural changes. Conclusion An assessment that is interdisciplinary from (...) the outset appears to be more suitable than having two commissions with different expertise. However, this would require that the composition of medical ethics committees be altered. In addition, the article recommends initial measures to be taken during research ethics reviews of big data and AI projects in order to consolidate the review process and ensure standardization of the criteria. (shrink)

The present work critically examines two assumptions frequently stated by supporters of cognitive neuroenhancement. The first, explicitly methodological, assumption is the supposition of effective and side effect-free neuroenhancers. However, there is an evidence-based concern that the most promising drugs currently used for cognitive enhancement can be addictive. Furthermore, this work describes why the neuronal correlates of key cognitive concepts, such as learning and memory, are so deeply connected with mechanisms implicated in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviour so that (...) modification of these systems may inevitably run the risk of addiction to the enhancing drugs. Such a potential risk of addiction could only be falsified by in-depth empirical research. The second, implicit, assumption is that research on neuroenhancement does not pose a serious moral problem. However, the potential for addiction, along with arguments related to research ethics and the potential social impact of neuroenhancement, could invalidate this assumption. It is suggested that ethical evaluation needs to consider the empirical data as well as the question of whether and how such empirical knowledge can be obtained. (shrink)

The objective of explainable artificial intelligence systems designed for clinical decision support (XAI-CDSS) is to enhance physicians’ diagnostic performance, confidence and trust through the implementation of interpretable methods, thus providing for a superior epistemic positioning, a robust foundation for critical reflection and trustworthiness in times of heightened technological dependence. However, recent studies have revealed shortcomings in achieving these goals, questioning the widespread endorsement of XAI by medical professionals, ethicists and policy-makers alike. Based on a surgical use case, this article challenges (...) generalising calls for XAI-CDSS and emphasises the significance of time-sensitive clinical environments which frequently preclude adequate consideration of system explanations. Therefore, XAI-CDSS may not be able to meet expectations of augmenting clinical decision-making in specific circumstances where time is of the essence. This article, by employing a principled ethical balancing methodology, highlights several fallacies associated with XAI deployment in time-sensitive clinical situations and recommends XAI endorsement only where scientific evidence or stakeholder assessments do not contradict such deployment in specific target settings. (shrink)

What has the dispositional analysis of properties and laws (e.g. Molnar, Powers, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003; Mumford, Laws in nature, Routledge London, 2004; Bird, Nature’s metaphysics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2007) to offer to the scientific understanding of physical properties?—The article provides an answer to this question for the case of spacetime points and their metrical properties in General Relativity. The analysis shows that metrical properties are not ‘powers’, i.e. they cannot be understood as producing the effects of spacetime on (...) matter with metaphysical necessity. Instead they possess categorical characteristics which, in connection with specific laws, explain those effects. Thus, the properties of spacetime do not favor the metaphysics of powers with respect to properties and laws. (shrink)

We give a self-contained and streamlined version of the classification of the provably computable functions of PA. The emphasis is put on illuminating as well as seems possible the intrinsic computational character of the standard cut elimination process. The article is intended to be suitable for teaching purposes and just requires basic familiarity with PA and the ordinals below ε0. (Familiarity with a cut elimination theorem for a Gentzen or Tait calculus is helpful but not presupposed).

Dass die ökonomisch reichen Gesellschaften im materiellen Überfluss leben, ist ebenso unbestritten wie das Urteil, dass ein solcher Überfluss sowohl unter Gerechtigkeitsgesichtspunkten nicht zu rechtfertigen ist als auch unter energetischen Gesichtspunkten nicht auf Dauer zu stellen ist. Im Unterschied zu diesen gleichsam banalen Einsichten geht der vorliegende Essay der Frage nach, welchen Einfluss der Überfluss auf die Menschen, die im Überfluss leben, hat. Bereits Edmund Burke hat dazu wichtige Erkenntnisse vorgelegt, die in der Gegenwart von Roger Scruton zu einer Geschmackstheorie (...) ausgearbeitet wurden, mit welcher der Überfluss in seiner ganzen Dramatik gefasst werden kann. (shrink)

We study the Hardy field associated with an o-minimal expansion of the real numbers. If the set of analytic germs is dense in the Hardy field, then we can definably analytically separate sets in , and we can definably analytically approximate definable continuous unary functions. A similar statement holds for definable smooth functions.

Die Emanzipation der modernen Menschen von übermächtigen Bedingungen traut Benjamin nicht den Individuen selbst zu, sondern nur einer übersubjektiv-messianischen Instanz.

This paper defends a version of the realist view that fictional characters exist. It argues for an instance of abstract realist views, according to which fictional characters are roles, constituted by sets of properties. It is argued that fictional names denote individual concepts, functions from worlds to individuals. It is shown that a dynamic framework for understanding the evolution of discourse information can be used to understand how roles are created and develop along with story content. Taking fictional names to (...) denote individual concepts provides accounts of a number of uses of fictional names. These include non-fictional uses, fictional uses, metafictional uses, interfictional uses, counterfictional uses, and negative existentials. It is argued that this account is not open to objections that have been raised in the literature. (shrink)

People usually regard algorithms as more abstract than the programs that implement them. The natural way to formalize this idea is that algorithms are equivalence classes of programs with respect to a suitable equivalence relation. We argue that no such equivalence relation exists.

Die ärztliche Schweigepflicht ist für die Vertrauensbeziehung zwischen Arzt und Patient von grundlegender Bedeutung. Von besonderer Brisanz sind Fälle, bei denen das Schweigegebot eine Gefährdung Dritter bewirkt. Ein aktuelles Urteil des Oberlandesgerichtes Frankfurt hat eine erhebliche medizinrechtliche und ethische Debatte ausgelöst: Eine Frau als Klägerin verlangte vom Hausarzt der Familie die Feststellung der Schadensersatzpflicht und ein hohes Schmerzensgeld aufgrund einer Pflichtverletzung, da der Arzt von der Aids-Erkrankung ihres uneinsichtigen Lebensgefährten wusste, die Patientin aber mit Verweis auf seine Schweigepflicht nicht über (...) die Gefahr informiert hatte. Problematisch ist die von den Richtern neben dem Offenbarungsrecht vertretene Rechtspflicht des Arztes zur Mitteilung des Sachverhaltes. Der Beitrag erörtert die ethischen und rechtlichen Implikationen dieses Urteils sowie die grundlegenden Regelungen des neuen Schuld- und Schadenersatzrechts in Bezug auf die ärztliche Schweigepflicht. Aus medizinethischer Perspektive ist bei der Güterabwägung für die höher rangigen Werte zu entscheiden (Prinzipien des Nichtschadens und der Benefizienz, "Tarasoff-Pflicht" zur Warnung), gleichwohl zeigen der genannte und andere Fälle Defizite in der Patient-Arzt-Beziehung in Bezug auf einen reflektierten Dialog und die Notwendigkeit von klaren Empfehlungen für den Alltag. Ein interdisziplinärer Ansatz kann medizinrechtliche und ethische Aspekte sinnvoll integrieren. (shrink)

In his discussion of simple esteem—one of the moral entities meant to regulate human actions—Pufendorf invokes a juridical commonplace: the rule that, before evidence to the contrary, we should presume others to be good. This argumentative strategy is an illuminating example for understanding his method of commonplaces. The present paper has three goals: (1) to analyze how Pufendorf adopted from legal humanism the view that presumptions should be based on considerations of what comes about most easily in nature; (2) to (...) show that Pufendorf’s inclusion of ethical aspects in the juridical presumption of goodness is an application of this view of forming presumptions; (3) to argue that Pufendorf did not regard juridical and philosophical commonplaces as expressions of a particular stage of intellectual history but rather as the result of reflection about human needs and abilities. (shrink)

We prove several theorems about the cardinal $\mathfrak{g}$ associated with groupwise density. With respect to a natural ordering of families of nond-ecreasing maps fromω toω, all families of size $< \mathfrak{g}$ are below all unbounded families. With respect to a natural ordering of filters onω, all filters generated by $< \mathfrak{g}$ sets are below all non-feeble filters. If $\mathfrak{u}< \mathfrak{g}$ then $\mathfrak{b}< \mathfrak{u}$ and $\mathfrak{g} = \mathfrak{d} = \mathfrak{c}$ . (The definitions of these cardinals are recalled in the introduction.) Finally, (...) some consequences deduced from $\mathfrak{u}< \mathfrak{g}$ by Laflamme are shown to be equivalent to $\mathfrak{u}< \mathfrak{g}$. (shrink)