In this paper, using definability of types over indiscernible sequences as a template, we study a property of formulas and theories called "uniform definability of types over finite sets" (UDTFS). We explore UDTFS and show how it relates to well-known properties in model theory. We recall that stable theories and weakly o-minimal theories have UDTFS and UDTFS implies dependence. We then show that all dp-minimal theories have UDTFS.

Foundation models such as GPT-4 are fine-tuned to avoid unsafe or otherwise problematic behavior, such as helping to commit crimes or producing racist text. One approach to fine-tuning, called reinforcement learning from human feedback, learns from humans' expressed preferences over multiple outputs. Another approach is constitutional AI, in which the input from humans is a list of high-level principles. But how do we deal with potentially diverging input from humans? How can we aggregate the input into consistent data about "collective" (...) preferences or otherwise use it to make collective choices about model behavior? In this paper, we argue that the field of social choice is well positioned to address these questions, and we discuss ways forward for this agenda, drawing on discussions in a recent workshop on Social Choice for AI Ethics and Safety held in Berkeley, CA, USA in December 2023. (shrink)

Le voyageur marocain Ibn Battuta, né en 1304, a consigné dans sa relation de voyage, connue sous le nom de Rihla, de nombreux éléments sur Constantinople. Le caractère tardif de l’auteur, vivant à une époque où Byzance est censée décliner, a longtemps conduit à négliger son apport. En outre, des invraisemblances chronologiques et les préjugés d’un musulman face à une ville chrétienne ont parfois laissé penser que cette description ne reposait pas sur un séjour réel. Or la confrontation du texte (...) avec les sources byzantines permet d’accréditer plusieurs détails fournis par le voyageur sur la topographie et la vie quotidienne. Bien plus, l’insertion de certaines notations concrètes dans des passages crédibles fait d’Ibn Battuta une source nouvelle précieuse sur certains points. Il apparaît donc que le voyageur s’est effectivement rendu à Constantinople. Il n’en reste pas moins que son regard est marqué par la culture d’un savant musulman. Il importe donc de déceler ce que sa vision doit au jugement porté sur une religion du Livre et à la tradition de la géographie arabe, prolixe sur le monde byzantin. On aboutit finalement à l’idée que la description de Constantinople par Ibn Battuta relève d’un genre double, de deux veines davantage juxtaposées que mêlées: d’une part, un témoignage rapportant des éléments objectifs, et, d’autre part, un regard subjectif imposant une grille de lecture de ces éléments. (shrink)

Technoscience is often perceived as an expression of the primacy of utilitarian values that would take over the field of pure and disinterested science. A number of scientists deplore that the age of science for its own sake is coming to an end, that technologyhas overtaken science. This common view expressed by active scientists is shared by cultural historians. In a paper describing technoscience as a cultural phenomenon, Paul Forman comes to a similar conclusion. He argues that technoscience is a (...) reversal of the values attached to science. Whereas modernity was characterized by the high cultural rank of science and scientists, postmodernity is characterized the loss of confidence and tustworthiness of scientists. Modernity, accroding to Forman rested on the primacy of science to and for technology, post-modernity is characterized by the the primacy of technology over science. The modern assumption that scientfic research would bring about not only knowledge but technological applications in addition, has been superseded in the 1980s according to Formann, and basic research is no longer considered as a key source of technologial innovation. Forman also points to this technological turn is the science studies which more and more identified science and technology. I would like to discuss this interpretation from the case study of converging technologies. By converging technologies I first refer to the current research programs launched in various countries. More precisely I refer to the US program entitled Converging technologies for improving human performances launched in 2002 and the European program CTEKS (Converging technologies for the European Society) launched in 2004. They are especially relevant because science is not even mentioned as they seem to focus exclusively on technology. Should we consider these programmes as the confirmation of Forman's claim about the primacy of technology over science? In a preliminary conceptual analysis I will try to disentangle the notion of technoscience from the vague connotation of utilitarianism. Then I will consider to what extent the views and values attached to converging technologies express a prinacy of technology over science. For this purpose it is useful to distinguish between converging technologies as national research programs and the daily practices of research in which technologies converge. I will argue that the views and values that active scientists attach to their research can deeply differ from that of policy makers. However in no case can technosccience be described as a primacy of technology over science. (shrink)

Lors d’un cours du semestre d’hiver 1929/30, Heidegger affirme de « l’instant », tel que le pense Kierkegaard, et tout en en assumant à son tour le concept, qu’il ouvre « la possibilité d’une époque complètement nouvelle de la philosophie ». Quelques années plus tard, les Contributions à la philosophie accomplissent toutefois elles-mêmes l’entrée de la pensée heideggérienne dans une dimension impensée de toute l’histoire de l’ontologie, celle de l’ Ereignis, de l’événement d’appropriation depuis lequel l’unité de l’être et du (...) temps se laisse atteindre. Or, ce manuscrit fait justement de l’instant, der Augenblick, un trait libérant un regard pour et dans l’ Ereignis. Faut-il en conclure que la nouveauté de l’instant kierkegaardien mène jusqu’à cette extrémité? Et s’il est vrai que Kierkegaard est un auteur chrétien, quel rapport la pensée de l’ Ereignis entretient-elle alors avec le christianisme? Pour répondre à ces questions, les pages qui suivent prennent le concept d’instant pour fil directeur d’une lecture croisée des œuvres de Heidegger et de Kierkegaard. (shrink)

This book reflects on the nature of business management to contribute to the development of a philosophy and ethics of management. It engages in conceptual engineering of management to delineate the phenomenon of management and, as a result, to open a new perspective on management beyond its self-evident conceptualization. -/- After questioning the self-evident concept of management, the author develops a philosophy of management with six dimensions of the nature of management: management as participation; management as resistance and responsive action; (...) management as constitution of meaning; management as politico-economic governance; management as non-reductive stakeholder engagement; and management as epistemic insufficient entrepreneurship. These six dimensions of management are taken as points of departure to develop an integrated concept of business ethics, an individual competence for ethical business management, and a concept of ethical codes for corporate social responsible behavior. This new conception of philosophy of management and business ethics can guide future philosophical and empirical work on the nature of management. -/- The Critique of Management is an excellent resource for researchers, students, and professionals interested in philosophy of management, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility. (shrink)

In this paper, I engage with the original criticism of utilitarianism that Philippa Foot offers in her work on moral philosophy. I show that her discussion of this normative ethical theory was one of the reasons that the British philosopher again took up the notion of practical rationality in the last part of her work, especially in her discussion of utilitarianism and the obligation of promises in her 2001 book,Natural Goodness.

A materialidade, ou o que alguns teóricos preferem identificar como materiais, vem sendo cada vez mais assunto de discussão e investigação. Embora esses autores sejam muito cuidadosos em especificar o que querem dizer com tais termos, o assunto exige maior esclarecimento do que recebera até agora. Isso faz com que seja um candidato ideal para o tríplice-escalonado esclarecimento proposto por C. S. Peirce em “Como tornar nossas ideias claras” e que daí em diante foi utilizado por ele para, diante do (...) propósito em questão, tornar adequadamente claras suas próprias ideias. Assim como considerava inatingível a certeza absoluta, ele julgava também a clareza absoluta estar fora de alcance. Mesmo assim, ele ofereceu sua máxima pragmática como o nível mais alto de esclarecimento conceitual. Para inúmeros fins, aderir a essa máxima nos permite esclarecer nossas ideias de forma adequada. Embora ele seja enfático em sublinhar as limitações de definições abstratas, ele aprecia o valor de tais definições, das quais são na maior parte do tempo definições verbais. Se tomarmos as práticas bem-sucedidas do investigador experimental, porém, subitamente vemos a necessidade de traduzir nossas palavras não em outras palavras, mas sim, em hábitos de ação. Além do mais, o primeiro nível de clareza é muitas vezes menosprezado ou ignorado. Este grau de clareza é, no entanto, de uma importância muito maior do que lhe é atribuído pelos comentadores, e por vezes, pelo próprio Peirce. Este artigo, portanto, é uma busca de esclarecer o significado de materialidade e termos cognatos, usando as sugestões de Peirce para cumprir esta tarefa. Destaca-se a necessidade de esclarecimento pragmático, sem denegrir, porém, o valor de familiaridade tácita ou definições abstratas. Espero mostrar, de uma só vez, a força das sugestões metodológicas de Peirce e o significado de alguns termos elusivos. (shrink)

The Conditional Probability Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics replaces the abstract notion of time used in standard Quantum Mechanics by the time that can be read off from a physical clock. The use of physical clocks leads to apparent non-unitary and decoherence. Here we show that a close approximation to standard Quantum Mechanics can be recovered from conditional Quantum Mechanics for semi-classical clocks, and we use these clocks to compute the minimum decoherence predicted by the Conditional Probability Interpretation.

Revolutionary Thought after the Paris Commune, 1871–1885 by Julia Nicholls is an ambitious book about the thought of the revolutionary Left in France during the fifteen years after the defeat of th...

Selon une représentation pratique et commode que l’on se fait généralement de la phénoménologie husserlienne, cette dernière se caractériserait par la thèse selon laquelle le langage n’épuise pas le régime du sens. En effet, bien qu’il protestait à l’époque des Recherches logiques contre le caractère « artificiel » de la distinction frégéenne du Sinn et de la Bedeutung, Husserl n’hésitera pas dès le premier tome des Idées directrices à employer la notion de Sinn pour désigner le « sens » pré-...

In their 1978 paper, psychologists David Premack and Guy Woodruff posed the question, “Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?” They treated this question as interchangeable with the inquiry, “Does a chimpanzee make inferences about another individual, in any degree or kind?” Here, we offer an alternative way of thinking about this issue, positing that while chimpanzees may not possess a theory of mind in the strict sense, we ought to think of them as enactive perceivers of practical and (...) social affordances. As such, we reframe the question: “Are chimpanzees socially enactive?”. (shrink)

Introduction Le temps, abordé au point de vue social, a fait l’objet de travaux – chez Norbert Elias notamment – qui permettent de dégager une compréhension de ce dernier comme régulateur social, voire comme outil de gouvernement. Le temps est en effet conçu comme un instrument souple, à l’usage du pouvoir, pour permettre l’intériorisation de normes facilitant la coordination des activités à l’intérieur d’une société, sans user de contraintes apparentes ou physiques comme la violence. En ce s...

A Moral Justification for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Legislation.