King, C. R. Touching the earth. --Tracol, H. Thus spake Beelzebub. --Nicoll, M. On the formation of a psychological body. --Fullerson, M. C. Discovery of intimate order. --Halevi, Z. ben S. Order. --Dürckheim, K. G. von. On the double origin of man. --Guenther, H. V. Towards spiritual order. --Eracle, J. The Buddhist way to deliverance. --Blofeld, J. Return to the source. --Werner, K. Spiritual personality and its formation according to Indian tradition.

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)

Drawing on a detailed analysis of their correspondence, this books offers a new intepretation of the relation between Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill, which focuses on their controvery over sexual equality.

A proper understanding of some of John Stuart Mill's most distinctive ideas cannot eschew the consideration of his relations to France: besides his affective attachment to France and the French, Mill was indeed driven by an intense intellectual curiosity towards French society, its political, social, philosophical, moral and artistic life. This continued engagement with French thought must be viewed as a key element in his emancipation from the narrow‐minded utilitarianism inherited from his father and Bentham, and a crucial step (...) in the shaping of a philosophy of his own, and most notably an original social and historical philosophy of liberty. (shrink)

Infatigable promoteur d’une psychologie « nouvelle », Théodule Ribot a trouvé dans le projet éthologique de John Stuart Mill des arguments confortant sa propre conception de l’architectonique des sciences de l’esprit ; mais cette reprise du programme millien d’une « science des lois de formation du caractère»s’est aussi opérée dans le cadre d’un débat plus général sur les parts respectives de la « nature » et de la « culture » dans la détermination et la manifestation des aptitudes mentales (...) humaines. Comme on le voit de manière exemplaire chez Ribot, cette réception française de l’éthologie s’est distinguée par une focalisation résolue sur les déterminants biologiques du caractère, qui tranche radicalement avec l’« artificialisme » psychologique de Mill et son insistance sur la « pliabilité de la nature humaine ». (shrink)

Review of: "Computation, Information, Cognition: The Nexus and the Liminal", Ed. Susan Stuart & Gordana Dodig Crnkovic, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, September 2007, xxiv+340pp, ISBN: 9781847180902, Hardback: £39.99, $79.99 ---- Are you a computer? Is your cat a computer? A single biological cell in your stomach, perhaps? And your desk? You do not think so? Well, the authors of this book suggest that you think again. They propose a computational turn, a turn towards computational explanation and towards the explanation (...) of computation itself. The explanation of computation is the core of the present volume, but the computational turn to regard a wide variety of systems as computational is a potentially very wide-ranging project. (shrink)

Special Issue “Risks of artificial general intelligence”, Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 26/3 (2014), ed. Vincent C. Müller. http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/teta20/26/3# - Risks of general artificial intelligence, Vincent C. Müller, pages 297-301 - Autonomous technology and the greater human good - Steve Omohundro - pages 303-315 - - - The errors, insights and lessons of famous AI predictions – and what they mean for the future - Stuart Armstrong, Kaj Sotala & Seán S. Ó hÉigeartaigh - pages (...) 317-342 - - - The path to more general artificial intelligence - Ted Goertzel - pages 343-354 - - - Limitations and risks of machine ethics - Miles Brundage - pages 355-372 - - - Utility function security in artificially intelligent agents - Roman V. Yampolskiy - pages 373-389 - - - GOLEM: towards an AGI meta-architecture enabling both goal preservation and radical self-improvement - Ben Goertzel - pages 391-403 - - - Universal empathy and ethical bias for artificial general intelligence - Alexey Potapov & Sergey Rodionov - pages 405-416 - - - Bounding the impact of AGI - András Kornai - pages 417-438 - - - Ethics of brain emulations - Anders Sandberg - pages 439-457. (shrink)

Dans le cadre de son analyse de la biopolitique, Michel Foucault avance que le développement de ce mode de contrôle sur la vie est contemporain de celui de l’utilitarisme et du libéralisme et qu’il a trouvé dans ces nouveaux cadres de la rationalité politique une caution théorique. Pour mettre en évidence la nature exacte des rapports entre biopolitique, utilitarisme et libéralisme, il est utile de s’intéresser à un épisode de l’histoire de la santé publique anglaise, à savoir la campagne pour (...) l’abrogation des Contagious Diseases Acts à la fin des années 1860. On essaiera de montrer comment, dans les objections qu’il adresse à ces dispositions, l’utilitariste libéral John Stuart Mill a articulé motifs utilitaires et motifs libéraux quand s’est posée la question du rapport entre libertés individuelles et bien-être social.In the course of his analysis of biopolitics, Michel Foucault maintains that the development of this new mode of control over life is contemporaneous with the rise of utilitarianism and liberalism and that biopolitics found in these new frameworks of political rationality a theoretical rationale. In order to show the exact nature of the relations between biopolitics, utilitarianism and liberalism, it is useful to consider one episode in the history of English public health, namely the campaign for the abrogation of the Contagious Diseases Acts at the end of the 1860s. I will try to show how, in the objections he addressed to these provisions, John Stuart Mill has articulated utilitarian and liberal tenets when the issue of the relations between the freedom of individuals and social well being was raised. (shrink)

Papers from the conference on AI Risk (published in JETAI), supplemented by additional work. --- If the intelligence of artificial systems were to surpass that of humans, humanity would face significant risks. The time has come to consider these issues, and this consideration must include progress in artificial intelligence (AI) as much as insights from AI theory. -- Featuring contributions from leading experts and thinkers in artificial intelligence, Risks of Artificial Intelligence is the first volume of collected chapters dedicated to (...) examining the risks of AI. The book evaluates predictions of the future of AI, proposes ways to ensure that AI systems will be beneficial to humans, and then critically evaluates such proposals. 1 Vincent C. Müller, Editorial: Risks of Artificial Intelligence - 2 Steve Omohundro, Autonomous Technology and the Greater Human Good - 3 Stuart Armstrong, Kaj Sotala and Sean O’Heigeartaigh, The Errors, Insights and Lessons of Famous AI Predictions - and What they Mean for the Future - 4 Ted Goertzel, The Path to More General Artificial Intelligence - 5 Miles Brundage, Limitations and Risks of Machine Ethics - 6 Roman Yampolskiy, Utility Function Security in Artificially Intelligent Agents - 7 Ben Goertzel, GOLEM: Toward an AGI Meta-Architecture Enabling Both Goal Preservation and Radical Self-Improvement - 8 Alexey Potapov and Sergey Rodionov, Universal Empathy and Ethical Bias for Artificial General Intelligence - 9 András Kornai, Bounding the Impact of AGI - 10 Anders Sandberg, Ethics and Impact of Brain Emulations 11 Daniel Dewey, Long-Term Strategies for Ending Existential Risk from Fast Takeoff - 12 Mark Bishop, The Singularity, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI -. (shrink)

Henri J. Renard, S. J.: a sketch, by J. P. Jelinek.--The good as undefinable, by M. Childress.--Gottlieb Söhngen's sacramental doctrine on the mass, by J. F. Clarkson.--Christ's eucharistic action and history, by B. J. Cooke.--Objective reality of human ideas: Descartes and Suarez, by T. J. Cronin.--A medieval commentator on some Aristotelian educational themes, by J. W. Donohue.--God as sole cause of existence, by M. Holloway.--Knowledge, commitment, and the real, by R. O. Johann.--John Locke and sense realism, by H. R. Klocker.--The (...) being of nonbeing in Plato's Sophist, by Q. Lauer.--Ethics and verification, by R. McInerny.--Analogy and the fourth way, by J. J. O'Brien.--Love and being, by W. L. Rossner.--Complexity in human knowledge: its basis in form/matter composition, by E. L. Rousseau.--Toward a more dynamic understanding of substance and relation, by J. M. Somerville.--The origin of participant and of participated perfections in Proclus' Elements of theology, by L. Sweeney. (shrink)

Each is for the other the middle term, through which each mediates itself with itself and unites with itself; and each is for itself, and for the other, an immediate being on its own account, which at the same time is such only through this mediation. They recognize themselves as mutually recognizing one another. Scholars seeking an account of recognition will be familiar with the seminal section on lordship and bondage in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. In these passages we learn (...) that the dialectic of mutual recognition is the key to actualized self-consciousness, that moment in which the “I” transcends its immanence in the life process to become a self-reflective subject, actively superseding the.. (shrink)

Philip Pettit’s conception of freedom as nondomination is modally robust in that it requires not simply reducing the probability of uncontrolled interference by others but entirely eliminating that possibility. In this article, I consider whether freedom as nondomination provides an attractive analysis of official discretion, particularly in the context of the criminal law, an area of recurring interest for Pettit. I argue that not only does the modally robust character of freedom as nondomination have some rather unattractive implications in the (...) criminal law, but that it sits poorly with Pettit’s more general ambitions to provide a consequentialist framework for the evaluation of social institutions. Drawing on recent work by Niko Kolodny, I develop an ‘anti-deference’ interpretation of nondomination and contrast it to Pettit’s modally robust conception. (shrink)

Investigadores científicos no sentido moderno, aqueles pensadores com os quais C.S. Peirce identificava-se mais profundamente, “têm sido bem-sucedidos pois eles passaram suas vidas não em suas bibliotecas ou museus, mas em seus laboratórios e no campo”. De fato, Peirce gastou incontáveis horas envolvido em uma atividade na qual ele parece menosprezar nesta e em outras passagens. Aliás, ele parece ter interpretado incorretamente sua vida como leitor. O autor oferece um retrato de Peirce como leitor, mesmo quando de maior importância ele (...) se vale de Georges Poulet para delinear uma fenomenologia de leitura e sobre Elaine Scarry para oferecer um relato de leitura como uma forma de devaneio. Além, disso, ele mostra como o pensamento de Peirce garante ambos esforços, acompanhando de perto a consideração peirciana sinequista da mente, consciência e subjetividade, mas também, a consideração às categorias semióticas de diagrama, símbolo e para ícones de graus menores.Investigadores científicos no sentido moderno, aqueles pensadores com os quais C.S. Peirce identificava-se mais profundamente, “têm sido bem-sucedidos pois eles passaram suas vidas não em suas bibliotecas ou museus, mas em seus laboratórios e no campo”. De fato, Peirce gastou incontáveis horas envolvido em uma atividade na qual ele parece menosprezar nesta e em outras passagens. Aliás, ele parece ter interpretado incorretamente sua vida como leitor. O autor oferece um retrato de Peirce como leitor, mesmo quando de maior importância ele se vale de Georges Poulet para delinear uma fenomenologia de leitura e sobre Elaine Scarry para oferecer um relato de leitura como uma forma de devaneio. Além, disso, ele mostra como o pensamento de Peirce garante ambos esforços, acompanhando de perto a consideração peirciana sinequista da mente, consciência e subjetividade, mas também, a consideração às categorias semióticas de diagrama, símbolo e para ícones de graus menores. (shrink)

This article addresses the question of engagement in French philosophy from the Munich Agreement to the Korean War. It focuses on establishing a little-known fact about the history of the concept of engagement: the role played by the individual and social ethics developed by Husserl in the early 1920s, through its personalist reception, in the genesis of the philosophies of engagement during our reference period. Paul-Louis Landsberg was, with his Reflections on Personal Engagement (1937), the main architect of the renewal (...) through which French personalism, breaking away from the strategy of purity, became a personalism of engagement. In the early 1920s, he had attended Husserl’s lectures in Freiburg, as he explained in the posthumous tribute “Husserl and the Idea of Philosophy” (1939). What did he take from Husserl? What did he choose to abandon? With the failure of transcendental rationalism, had rationalism reached the exhaustion of its meaning and the depletion of its possibilities? The philosophies of engagement that developed in post-war France stemmed largely from a critique of Husserlian rationalism, either by seeking to go beyond rationalism—the strategy of personalism—or by seeking to rebuild it on different grounds, not as transcendental rationalism, but as engaged rationalism. (shrink)

Questo articolo si sofferma su una curiosa lacuna nella tradizione pragmatista. Negli scritti dei pragmatisti americani classici (Peirce, James, Dewey, Mead e Lewis) pochissima attenzione è dedicata all'articolazione di una concezione delle pratiche e, più in generale, dei _pragmata_. L'autore offre uno schizzo di quella che egli ritiene essere una descrizione pragmatista delle pratiche umane. Sottolinea come per i pragmatisti stessi la teoria sia una pratica o, più precisamente, una famiglia allargata di pratiche in evoluzione, che intrattengono relazioni complesse con (...) altre pratiche. Inoltre, ritiene che una tale prospettiva sulle pratiche sia fondamentalmente in opposizione ai vari tentativi di fornire una giustificazione trascendentale per qualsiasi pratica umana. L'autore prende spunto da una breve ma suggestiva discussione sul linguaggio, la legge e la verità contenuta nel _Pragmatismo_ di William James e sviluppa le implicazioni della trattazione jamesiana di questi temi. Nel corso di questo lavoro, l'autore propone di comprendere un'opera _classica_ (come un testo filosofico o una composizione musicale) in una prospettiva strettamente storicista. L'articolo si conclude con una riflessione su quanto l'intelligenza creativa sia stata 'coscritta' dall'agenda bellicosa dei regimi nazionali o imperialistici, pur nutrendo la speranza che l'intelligenza creativa possa liberarsi in qualche misura dalla macchina bellica degli stati nazionali. (shrink)

On examine dans cet article trois voies de l’élaboration de la question du monde : la voie historiographique empruntée par Heidegger dans la dissertation de 1929 Vom Wesen des Grundes, que l’on compare avec celle suivie par Watsuji dans le dernier chapitre de Fûdo pour le concept de « milieu humain » ; la voie historiographique suivie par Watsuji dans l’Introduction de l’ Éthique pour le concept de monde ( seken ) ; la voie comparative suivie par Heidegger dans le (...) cours de 1929-1930 Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik, dont on indique qu’elle déploie un problème philosophique – celui de la transposition ( Ersetzung ) – qui permet d’éclairer certaines difficultés du texte de Watsuji. (shrink)

Le plan canonique rigoureusement normé de la domus étrusco-romaine, attesté dans la plus grande partie de l’Italie, pour l’essentiel, du vie au ier siècle av. J.‑C., a connu un succès très limité en dehors de la péninsule, où de fortes traditions autochtones, grecques ou puniques, semblent en avoir entravé le développement. Le cas de Délos présente un intérêt particulier à cet égard, compte tenu de l’importance de la composante italique de sa population. L’étude des maisons d’habitation du site, ici envisagée (...) en fonction d’une approche strictement planimétrique, montre cependant, en dépit de quelques convergences, que le plan canonique n’y a jamais été véritablement adopté par les élites locales ; les édifices qui s’en rapprochent le plus sont actuellement interprétés comme des bâtiments commerciaux. En revanche, la « Maison de Fourni » présente une très grande similitude avec les villae construites à la même époque en Italie, en particulier la Villa de Diomède à Pompéi. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to suggest a new direction in our thinking about substantive due process that recognizes human rights in the lived experience of our fellow human beings. The applicability of the approach, at least for equal protection purposes, was hinted at by the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Romer v. Evans, but it has never been given full consideration.1 There, Justice Kennedy noted the very real impact of a state group of people. What he did not (...) say is how such an amendment might also impact the self-impression gays and lesbians have of themselves, although this would certainly be part of such an amendment’s impact. Moreover, legal and philosophical research in this area suggests that there may be more here than previously thought. While I do not hope to resolve every philosophical question at the heart of my legal analysis, I do intend to bring forth enough substance to answer the indeterminacy charge levied by certain Supreme Court justices and others concerning which rights should count as “fundamental” under substantive due process in part by looking at the impact such rights have on individual self-esteem. I. (shrink)

Terrorist attacks throughout the world and particularly within the United States have given rise to a new chapter in the ongoing debate over liberty versus security. The most recent manifestation of this dispute focuses on whether Muslim refugees can be denied entry as a class into the United States, based on their religion alone, for fear they might be harboring potential terrorists. This Essay shows that such a policy cannot be justified under the First Amendment Establishment Clause, as well the (...) United States’ expressed international commitments to preserving international human rights. What can be done is to engage a broader set of investigative approaches that are more likely to provide greater security than any policy focused on religion alone. (shrink)

The Puzzle of Imaginative Failure asks why, when readers are invited to do so, they so often fall short of imagining worlds where the moral facts are different. This is puzzling because we have no difficulty imagining worlds where the descriptive facts are different. Much of the philosophical controversy revolves around the question of whether the reader's lack of imagination in such cases is a result of psychological barriers (an inability or a difficulty on the reader's part to imagine what (...) she is asked to imagine) or whether it is instead a result of wilful resistance (a desire not to imagine what she's asked to imagine). I argue for a different kind of solution. I maintain the primary reason for such systematic failures on the reader's part is due to an inability on the author's part to make clear that she is inviting the reader to engage in such imaginings. (shrink)

Focusing on Descartes’ striking phrase “real things” in Discours de la methode, and on the one of “reality of things” written by Pascal in his Pensées, this paper aims to shed light on Cartesian co...

This paper focuses on the role of contract as a governance mechanism in contemporary economic and social relations, exploring this theme in the context of recent writing on contract and contracting within law and other disciplines. The trends towards both outsourcing by private firms and privatization of public services have increased the importance of contract as an instrument of market and quasi-market exchange. Such organizational developments have been accompanied by institutional changes in the way in which business relationships are regulated (...) through legal and extralegal norms and other constraints in the contractual environment. Contract is also being deployed increasingly as an instrument of regulation of social relations between the state and citizens in the fields of welfare, education and criminal justice. Following Macneil, the paper develops a methodology for assessing the quality of different types of relationship—between buyers and sellers, purchasers and providers, providers and consumers, regulators and regulatees, government and governed, and state agencies and citizens—according to the relationality of «contract» norms. Drawing on theories of responsive regulation, the paper explores the institutional and organizational conditions of responsive contractual governance in selected areas of market, quasi-market, and social relations. The underlying argument is that the core values of democracy, participation, and citizenship have a central part to play in the determination of responsive regulatory policy. We should aim to increase the level of public participation in decisions concerning organizational and institutional frameworks, so that citizen and consumer interests may adequately be represented in the determination of optimal forms of governance. (shrink)

Is there an independent legal method separate from the political process for handling a constitutional amendment that may be inconsistent with, or contrary to, the basic structure and rights the Federal Constitution currently inaugurates, or are courts stuck with having to accept the amendment on its face? This problem is not unique to the United States. Nor is it the same problem as whether a state constitutional amendment may violate the Federal Constitution. While I initially focus on the U.S. Constitution, (...) I plan, before the end of this piece, to broaden out to other national constitutions as well, and certainly some of the arguments might also apply to state constitutional amendments, as we see with the controversy over the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8. In this vein, it will make sense to consider cases from other nations, like Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala, in which the Supreme Court of India held that the judiciary could strike down amendments to the constitution passed by Parliament that conflict with the constitution’s “basic structure.” The U.S. Supreme Court has never addressed what constitutes the basic structure of the U.S. Constitution. This is the question addressed in this article. (shrink)

Li Zhen priest has repeatedly tried to clarify there are two basic problems of philosophy, there is one problem with the nothingness, there is one root of the problem. For the first problem, he believes there is the meaning of life is based on earnings instead of the full emptiness. For the second question, he thinks there is a God of the root. Li Zhen priest in one deeply experienced man's limited nature, on the other hand they found that the (...) driving force towards infinity. Although the constitution were limited, however, its intention to infinity. The meaning of human life are the cornerstone upon which to build, is built up from within, however, can not be limited to their own self-sealing inner nature, on the contrary, the primordial human tendency is inherent and can go beyond that, that is limited and can be infinite . Li Zhen is that there exists a final basis the full surplus. This will be for the Christian religion in the "no" to explore the concept of active surface, as well as Buddhist talks about "empty" comparisons, as Li Zhen of the basic study with and without supplement. "Beyond" and "there" are supported by ethics, the ethics of generosity and love. Go beyond him in person, he is certainly not only those, but also those who are not asking for anything good for his efforts. Li Zhen advocate and practice is an ethics of love and generosity. (shrink)

Si l’existence du « modèle suédois » est avérée dans la littérature scientifique et les représentations, l’étude montre toutefois que les différentes périodes d’affirmation de cette spécificité correspondent à l’investissement d’acteurs différents qui ne poursuivent pas les mêmes intérêts, ne passent pas les mêmes alliances et ne favorisent pas les mêmes politiques. Il faut retracer la genèse et le développement du « modèle suédois » lui-même, ou plutôt de ce qu’on pourrait qualifier d’exception suédoise, pour éviter certaines difficultés dues aux (...) intérêts que porte en lui ce terme. Mais il faut aussi restituer l’histoire de l’intérêt qu’on lui a porté et des lectures qu’on en a données aux différentes périodes qu’on peut distinguer. C’est ainsi qu’on peut mieux comprendre les raisons de l’attention internationale qui a été portée à ce modèle et celles pour lesquelles sa fin a été si souvent proclamée.The existence of the « Swedish model » is a recognized fact in scientific literature and representations. A historic survey shows however that its apparent everpresence is due to the continuous but changing action of diverse social actors who pursue different interests, conclude specific alliances and do not sustain the same policies. We thus try to outline the « Swedish model » birth and development, although it might be better to talk about a « Swedish exception » in order to avoid some difficulties linked to the interests vested in this label. But it is also necessary to analyze the attention which has been turned on this model and the lectures that the researchers have proposed to explain it at various stages of its history. This attempt is useful to understand the motives of the international interest that this model has continually aroused and the reasons why its end has regularly been proclaimed. (shrink)

As Nietzsche famously declared, only that which has no history can be defined. Robert Sparling's superb book shows that corruption is a concept with a history. Although Political Corruption is ordered chronologically, it is expressly not a linear account of how one modern definition of corruption evolved. History instead discloses how the concept has been deployed in a variety of modes in occidental political philosophy, seven of which are recovered here: from Erasmus's focus on the moral integrity of the prince (...) to Weber's ethics of bureaucratic office, via Machiavelli, Étienne de la Boétie, Bolingbroke, Robespierre, and Kant. Pursuant to the book's nonlinearity, these philosophers are not placed in conversation... (shrink)

Legal philosophers often ask whether a person has a reason to obey the law simply because it is the law. We ask the contrary question: does a person have a reason to disobey the law simply because it is the law? Many philosophers who have considered the question of disobedience have focused on injustice; others have defended disobedience on libertarian or anarchist grounds. In contrast, we argue that there is a content-independent reason to disobey the law even when it is (...) not unjust, illegitimate, or otherwise undesirable. Legal philosophers generally agree that law claims peremptory authority, but they also generally agree that any duty to obey the law is substantially more limited. We argue that insofar as the law makes inflated claims to authority, it generates a content-independent reason to disobey. This anti-authoritarian principle is grounded in the virtue of clearly communicating one’s political commitments to others within a democratic society. By disobeying, one communicates one’s conviction that the law makes inflated claims to authority. We show how our account of disobedience as such is distinct from more familiar theories of anarchism and civil disobedience and argue that it is applicable whether one lives under conditions of justice or injustice. (shrink)