The proposed article focuses on the possible consequences for the human in the context of the biotechnology development. Major findings in this field are presented, which are problematized first of all from the point of view of the erosion of morality through the instrumentalization of man and his body, through the undermining of the principles of egalitarianism and reciprocity in modern Western societies and through the hypothesis that the enhancement of human corporeality will lead to unpredictable answers to the question (...) of the meaning of human existence and of the relation to the other. The existing national and supranational legal restrictions on genetic engineering and their corrosion under the pressure of the scientific communities and in general as a result of the progress in the field of biotechnology are examined. As a main methodological tool, the article uses the analyzes of Jürgen Habermas and Francis Fukuyama, developed in their classic works: “The Future of Human Nature” and “Our Posthuman Future”, but goes beyond their framework, problematizing the failure of both humanitarian discourses and of legal regulations to place limits on biotechnological research that affects not just the treatment of the human body but the future of human moral communities. (shrink)

This book brings together classic and recent papers in the philosophical and linguistic analysis of fuzzy grammar, gradience in meaning, word classes, and syntax. Issues such as how many grains make a heap, when a puddle becomes a pond, and so forth, have occupied thinkers since Aristotle and over the last two decades been the subject of increasing interest among linguists as well as in fields such as artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. The work is designed to be of use (...) to students in all these fields. It has a substantial introduction, is divided into thematic parts, contains annotated sections of further reading, and is fully indexed. (shrink)

The present study traces and analyzes the ideas of linear time as depicted in some of the texts of the Ṛgveda, the Atharvaveda, the Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa and the Mahābhārata, and as presented in the texts of early Buddhism. From the thread of fate, which is the path of man, narrative, identity, through the web woven by day and night or by the two goddesses of fate, through the web of sacrifice, to dependent origination in early Buddhism, all these images and ideas (...) are closely related with the notion of linear time. To go beyond this linear time, beyond the notion of LIFE IS A JOURNEY, is a penetration into the unspeakable, “into” the world beyond, “into” freedom. (shrink)

In response to the impending spread of COVID-19, universities worldwide abruptly stopped face-to-face teaching and switched to technology-mediated teaching. As a result, the use of technology in the learning processes of students of different disciplines became essential and the only way to teach, communicate and collaborate for months. In this crisis context, we conducted a longitudinal study in four German universities, in which we collected a total of 875 responses from students of information systems and music and arts at four (...) points in time during the spring–summer 2020 semester. Our study focused on (1) the students’ acceptance of technology-mediated learning, (2) any change in this acceptance during the semester and (3) the differences in acceptance between the two disciplines. We applied the Technology Acceptance Model and were able to validate it for the extreme situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. We extended the model with three new variables (time flexibility, learning flexibility and social isolation) that influenced the construct of perceived usefulness. Furthermore, we detected differences between the disciplines and over time. In this paper, we present and discuss our study’s results and derive short- and long-term implications for science and practice. (shrink)

This paper considers some foundational concepts in ecological psychology and in enactivism, and traces their developments from their historical roots to current preoccupations. Important differences stem, we claim, from dissimilarities in how embodied experience has been understood by the ancestors, founders and followers of ecological psychology and enactivism, respectively. Rather than pointing to differences in domains of interest for the respective approaches, and restating possible divisions of labor between them in research in the cognitive and psychological sciences, we call for (...) a deeper analysis of the role of embodiment in agency that we also undertake. Awareness of the differences that exist in the respective frameworks and their consequences, we argue, may lead to overcoming some current divisions of responsibility, and contribute to a more comprehensive and complementary way of dealing with a broader range of theoretical and practical concerns. While providing some examples of domains, such as social cognition and art reception, in which we can observe the relative usefulness and potential integration of the theoretical and methodological resources from the two approaches, we demonstrate that such deeper synergy is not only possible but also beginning to emerge. Such complementarity, as we envisage, conceives of ecological psychology that allows felt experience as a crucial dynamical element in the explanations and models that it produces, and of an enactive approach that takes into consideration the ubiquitous presence of rich directly perceived relations among variables arising from enactments in the social and physical world. (shrink)

This paper proposes an understanding of literary narrative as a form of social cognition and situates the study of such narratives in relation to the new comprehensive approach to human cognition, enaction. The particular form of enactive cognition that narrative understanding is proposed to depend on is that of participatory sense-making, as developed in the work of Di Paolo and De Jaegher. Currently there is no consensus as to what makes a good literary narrative, how it is understood, and why (...) it plays such an irreplaceable role in human experience. The proposal thus identifies a gap in the existing research on narrative by describing narrative as a form of intersubjective process of sense-making between two agents, a teller and a reader. It argues that making sense of narrative literature is an interactional process of co-constructing a story-world with a narrator. Such an understanding of narrative makes a decisive break with both text-centered approaches that have dominated both structuralist and early cognitivist study of narrative, as well as pragmatic communicative ones that view narrative as a form of linguistic implicature. The interactive experience that narrative affords and necessitates at the same time, I argue, serves to highlight the active yet cooperative and communal nature of human sociality, expressed in the many forms than human beings interact in, including literary ones. (shrink)

The article presents a study of gift-giving practices in the context of the development of modern biomedicine and shows their relationship to the realization of epistemic virtues. In biomedicine, the gain and production of knowledge (the gift of knowledge) is often grounded in bodily gift (sacrifice) and donor practices. The latter are associated with a number of mishaps in the history of biomedicine, reflecting the violation of moral norms in the process of obtaining scientific data and demonstrating the need for (...) a clear differentiation of intellectual and moral virtues. An important factor in the formation of the epistemic norms of modern biomedicine has been the transformation of the values of scientific knowledge from practices of coercion to giving. As a result, the involuntary sacrifice of biomaterials to science was replaced by voluntary practices of somatic giving and informational exchange that determine the process of mutual recognition in science. It is shown that gift-giving in science is closely associated with intellectual virtues, with intellectual generosity characterizing the idea of openness in science and scientists’ intention for production and constant growth of knowledge, and can also be related to the idea of altruistic service to science, involving the exchange of received scientific data and access to free information in the network space. A number of examples of the modern digital gift ethos and the implementation of the principles of openness of knowledge and knowledge exchange in the context of the creation of biomedical expert digital platforms, the formation of social scientific networks – platforms with open access to scientific information, the development of the phenomenon of “garage” science and other “zones of exchange” experience are considered. (shrink)

Recent investigations in neurogenomics have opened up new lines of research into a crucial genetic problem—the pathway from genes to behavior. This paper concentrates on the involvement of protein elements in the brain neurotransmitter serotonin (5‐HT) system in the genetic control of aggressive behavior. Specifically, it describes: (1) the effect of the knockout of MAO A, the principal enzyme in 5‐HT degradation, (2) the association of intermale aggression with the polymorphism in the Tph2 gene encoding the key enzyme in 5‐HT (...) synthesis in the brain, tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH), and (3) the effect of selective breeding for nonaggressive behavior on 5‐HT metabolism, TPH activity and 5‐HT1A receptors in the brain. The review provides converging lines of evidence that: (1) brain 5‐HT contributes to a critical mechanism underlying genetically defined individual differences in aggressiveness, and (2) genes encoding pivotal enzymes in 5‐HT metabolism (TPH and MAO A), 5‐HT‐transporter, 5‐HT1A and 5‐HT1B receptors belong to a group of genes that modulate aggressive behavior. BioEssays 28: 495–503, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This essay presents an analysis of different processes of machine learning: supervised, unsupervised, and semisupervised, through the prism of the epistemologies of several prominent Islamic philosophical schools. I discuss the way each school conceptualizes the ontological absolute (immortality, death, afterlife) and the way this shapes their respective epistemologies. I present an analysis of the different machine learning processes through the prism of the epistemological constructs of each of these philosophic traditions. I conclude with the argument that more scholars from the (...) Islamic philosophical tradition should engage in the debates about the development of artificial intelligence and its implications, given that many Muslim countries are among the leaders in this development and its application in everyday life. (shrink)

Low levels of media literacy in Bulgaria have provided fertile soil for anti-vaxxers and spawned disinformation campaigns as a major means of influencing the public opinion. Bulgaria has gained a reputation as the poorest and most corrupt country in the European Union (EU) and the fastest-shrinking nation in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated some of the well-known, long-standing problems in the healthcare system in Bulgaria – rising morbidity, an insufficient number of hospital beds, a low rate of COVID-19 vaccination, (...) and, above all, a high mortality rate. (shrink)

Ще донедавна суспільний розвиток і регенерація навколишнього природного середовища перебували у динамічній рівновазі. Проте останніми роками, незважаючи на колосальні екологічні резерви біосфери та її самоочисну спроможність, інтенсивне зростання чисельності населення планети, бурхливе піднесення промисловості, сільського й комунального господарства та інші антропогенні чинники призвели до різкого негативного впливу на природу. Насамперед це стосується забруднення біосфери хімічними речовинами-ксенобіотиками, порушення природних геохімічних циклів, а також інтенсивного, нераціонального використання природних ресурсів. Тому сьогодні надзвичайно актуальним є формування нової екологічної свідомості громадян. А запровадження спеціалізованої екологічної (...) освіти має сприяти генеруванню їх екологічного світогляду, прищеплювати їм любов до рідного краю, виробляти навички бережливого й раціонального споживання природних ресурсів і спрямовувати на створення ефективної системи екологічної безпеки. (shrink)

У статті розглядаються процеси самоактуалізації особистості у сфері фізичного виховання і спорту, формування принципів етики відповідальності у спортивному процесі, виокремлюються первинні та вторинні соціальні цінності у сфері фізичної культури і спорту. Відзначається, що у життєвому світі спортсмена, насамперед під час спортивних змагань, відбувається розвиток цінностей і принципів олімпізму та справедливої гри та процес формотворення етики нових сучасних норм комунікації. Наголошується, що у спорті, як ніде інше, особистісний фактор постає на першому плані, саме у спортивному процесі відбувається особливе сприйняття індивідом моральних (...) установ, творення самовідповідальності окремо взятої спортивної особистості, яка, втілюючись у соціопростір, створює основу для можливості самоактуалізації інших особистостей. Стверджується, що етика комунікативного дискурсу у сфері спорту твориться шляхом поєднання індивідуальних етичних властивостей окремих спортсменів, зливаючи їх у єдиний потік особистих самоактуалізацій на засадах етики відповідальності. Спорт як надінституція створює нові форми та феномени спортивного життєсвіту, що впливають і поширюються на все суспільство, збагачуючи його глобальний Життєсвіт та формуючи новий горизонт цілей. Аксіологія майбутнього стає гарантією збереження та вдосконалення системи, її структурної цілісності. Спортивний життєсвіт взаємодіє з життєсвітом універсальним, створюючи в єднанні органічні способи комунікаційного розвитку, нову цілісність, яка прямує до відкритих форм соціальної комунікації, сприяючи створенню нових можливостей саморозвитку соціальної системи. (shrink)

The purpose of the article is to study the influence of Nazi experiments on the formation of ideas about the ethos of science in the field of biomedicine. It is shown that the idea of discrediting a value-neutral science was often confronted with the resistance of the scientists themselves, who, in different contexts of condemning Nazi crimes, appealed to the fact that they acted for the good of science, and even of all mankind. The article discusses the strategy of American (...) lawyers adopted at the Nuremberg Trials aimed at demonstrating the perversity of Nazi crimes in the field of biomedicine both ethically and scientifically. In addition, an analysis of individual materials of the Nuremberg process was carried out, which made it possible to give an idea of the scientific and linguistic design of the human body (name correction strategy) as a “correct” scientific object with desired properties. The article considers the influence of the data obtained on Nazi crimes on the formation of the content of the Nuremberg Code and the design of the principle of informed consent in biomedicine. Ethical aspects related to the further use of Nazi scientific data are also considered. In conclusion, the problem of the formation of scientific knowledge in non-violence mode is articulated. (shrink)

The article deals with the philosophical problem field of modern neuroethics. The general idea of the state of modern neuroethics is given and it is shown that research in this area encompasses both fundamental problems that classically belonged to the field of philosophy research (for example, such as the problem of psychophysical dualism, the physical bases of consciousness, freedom of will and its interrelation with brain activity) and problems with applied orientation, explicating the ethical-social and legal dimension of innovation development (...) in the field of neuroscience and actualizing the analysis of their social risks. It is shown that the development of neuro-ethics in the modern world became possible thanks to a special way of functioning of modern science, which was called the technology of science and to the development of the phenomenon of technological development ethification, which in practical terms was expressed in the study of the problem of the correspondence of the results of innovative scientific and technical projects to the interests of various social groups, their expectations and values, and also helped to determine the status of new technologies in relation to social reality. The article gives an idea of the existing normative field necessary for the development of neuro-ethics. On the basis of using the resource of discourse analysis of R. Harre, who singled out personal grammar (P-grammar), organism grammar (O-grammars) and molecular grammar (M-grammar), a philosophical analysis of such a problem of modern neuroethics as brain death was carried out. Also was given a structural description of new biotechnogenic identities of human being. The conclusion is drawn that the concept of brain death is an example of the conventional nature of scientific truth, the formation of which is influenced by various socio-cultural and economic factors. In the context of the development of neuroscience and the emergence of new methods of brain regeneration, it can be rethought. (shrink)

Author analyzes the phenomenon of commoditization of human body in the context of the scientific development. It is argued that since the start of the development of biotechnologies human body has become a very attractive object for economic «investments» in the majority of developed countries. Author considers some anthropological foundations of the body commodification problem and some classifications of the relationships between individuals, science and society. The following dimensions of these relationships are examined in the paper: 1) an opposition of (...) the individual and science; 2) an altruistic dimension; 3) a compensatory dimension. The “oppositional" dimension describes science as an institute that is not focused on the benefits of a certain person through the in- strumentalization and commoditization of corporality but is aimed to find the solution to some common social problems. Within the second (altruistic) dimension the individual seeks to make a contribution to the development of science and has no objection against the use of his biomaterials. A shady side of the altruistic dimension is the so-called “false altruism": a person is encouraged to donate biomaterials without any information about some possible risks and dangers for his health as well as about commercial interest of the researchers. The compensatory dimension comes from the material or moral damage compensation to the individual or his relatives for the use of his/her body (cells, substances, body parts) for biotechnological purposes. (shrink)

This paper presents the results from a study of the attitudes of TV workers in entertainment shows in two main category oppositions: “visible”/“invisible” and “interesting”/“insignificant”. The conducted interviews show that despite the stress of the workroom, nobody quits their workplace. Loggers and copilots keep their jobs, despite the pressure, because they want to “overcome the challenge” and to “leave their comfort zone”. These lines strongly resemble the lines used by producers to describe contestants in the shows. The lowest hierarchal level (...) job in reality TV shows (such as Big Brother or The Farm) is for workers to compete among themselves in describing the most “interesting” scenes which should not be overlooked. Our research shows, that these reality TV workrooms overflow with competition between ready-made stereotypical expectations of “interesting” interactions between contestants and unexpected “more interesting” occurrences. I attempt to answer the question: What messages in TV entertainment come from the relationships between video surveillance workers? One of the research results points, that people’s desire to have symbolic power over others, to establish the ideas of what is “interesting”, is the reason why this descriptive job has not yet been delegated to software solutions but instead people’s senses are used as mechanical appliances. (shrink)

The Bulgarian Constitution declares that children are under protection of the state and society. There is a special Child Protection Act and also some articles are included in other acts, such as t...

In Bulgaria, we are sharing a transition to a civic society and a market economy, which means transferring to new parameters of our culture. Many old customs based on coer cion, obedience and unacceptable interference are gradually dying out, and new princi ples tend to shape the way we live our collective lives. These include the ethics of partnership, which tend to create an assertion of individual rights and an affirmation of free will and autonomy, and within which the individual (...) is protected in the pursuit of personal judgements. It is remarkable, however, that we have so much difficulty in talk ing about and identifying the most beneficial approaches for the achievement of the new design of our society. In this paper, I propose to illustrate the current crisis in nursing ethics with informa tion mainly from Bulgaria. However, I think that the problems and trends in the other Eastern European countries are similar. (shrink)

для научных работников, преподавателей, аспирантов, студентов юридических вузов и факультетов.

The article addresses the production of reproducibility as a topic that has become acutely relevant in the recent discussions on the replication crisis in science. It brings the ethnomethodological stance on reproducibility into the discussions, claiming that reproducibility is necessarily produced locally, on the shop floor, with methodological guidelines serving as references to already established practices rather than their origins. The article refers to this argument empirically, analyzing how a group of novice neuroscientists performs a series of measurements in a (...) transcranial magnetic stimulation experiment. Based on ethnography and video analysis, the article traces a history of the local measurement procedure invented by the researchers in order to overcome the experimental uncertainty. The article aims to demonstrate how reproducibility of the local procedure is achieved in the shop floor work of the practitioners and how the procedure becomes normalized and questioned as incorrect in the course of experimental practice. It concludes that the difference between guidelines and practical actions is not problematic per se; what may be problematic is that researchers can be engaged in different working projects described by the same instruction. (shrink)

Издание адресовано научным работникам, преподавателям, студентам и аспирантам, а также практикам, интересующимся вопросами философии.

The article considers the history of bioethics formation as a human rights movement aimed at establishing patient autonomy and limiting the practice of uncontrolled medical manipulation of human body, biomedical experimentation on people in the name of science, “public good” and other values. It is shown that the forms of expression and content of the statements of the protesting bioethical expert and the content turned out to be extremely diverse and based on conflicting ethical principles, actually demonstrating total rejection and (...) confrontation of various conceptual arguments and often not contributing to the development of a universal, acceptable to all stakeholders ethical position. The article considers the peculiarities of bioethical protest and philosophical reasoning in connection with the emergence in the field of modern medicine of the diagnosis of brain death and gives a general idea of the intense public perception of this diagnosis. (shrink)