This paper interprets Ortega y Gasset’s Meditations on Hunting (1972) through the concept of cognitive scaffolding in order to analyse the relationship between hunter and hunting dog as a form of inter-species distributed cognitive system. In recreational hunting, the hunter and the dog engage in a reciprocal process of mutual cognitive scaffolding that transforms both their capacities. It is further argued that this scaffolding also serves as a means of affective regulation, and that it is the affective rather than the (...) cognitive features of the system that point to the function of the scaffolding. Namely, the production of an affective state in the hunter. We detail the ways in which the cognitive and affective features of the scaffold operate and interrelate. We then explore the role of the game-animal in the affective functioning of the scaffold and consider that the hunter-dog system might represent a harmful form of scaffolding. (shrink)

Part I of this chapter deals with conceptualizing emotion. By splitting up ‘emotion’ into an evaluative, expressive, behavioural, physiological, mental and phenomenological component, giving examples of emotion research theories and state-of-the-art technical systems, I will bring together an analytical and conceptual with empirical approaches to human-machine interaction to evaluate to what extent it may be logically appropriate to speak of ‘emotional machines’. I will give an overview of the mentioned components and their potential to be implemented into technical systems through (...) functional equivalents. This concerns the technical recognition of emotion components in humans as well as the technical simulation/emulation of emotion components. Part II deals with human-machine relations and argues that human understanding of technical systems is crucial to a well-functioning society. I emphasise the importance of an in-depth human understanding of technical systems and plead for the integration of the voices and work of so-called mechanologists into cultural practices and discourse, from which the entire societal setup in which human-machine interaction takes place will benefit. Throughout the chapter I refer to some aspects of classical debates in psychology and philosophy on the relations of emotion, cognition, and consciousness. Additionally, I draw from psychologist and philosopher Gilbert Simondon’s, as well as from gestalt theorist Kurt Lewin’s writings. (shrink)

Digital networking technologies facilitated connection between lecturers and students during the physical isolation (global lockdowns) of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023). However, we argue that the sudden pivot to online modes of education brought significant questions regarding online intersubjectivity and resultant alienation to the forefront. This form of intersubjectivity involves the virtual as an integral feature. We argue that Merleau-Ponty’s account of intersubjectivity (as a founding corporeity) and its related concept of ‘the flesh’ provides an essential theoretical framework for the conceptual (...) analysis of these issues since the body-subject and digital technology artefact are co-implicit in the generation of the virtual. Furthermore, the tendency to treat the virtual as concrete from the basis of our embodiment results in virtual reification, and this in turn results in an alienated form of networked subjectivity. The current chapter investigates how reification constitutes the virtual, pointing us back to the nature of alienation (which, following Marx, we view as an intersubjective social relation). The virtual on this account involves not isolation and individual atomization, but rather a deficient mode of intersubjectivity in which the individual functions in a deficient and distorted intersubjective network (particularly in terms of teaching and learning). (shrink)

The notions of immigration and social integration have increasingly become central themes in public discourse,particularly in the European Union. Besides opportunities, this phenomenon also poses challenges to the host nations of promoting social integration of immigrants. Continuing an earlier Design Science Research project that developed an open learning platform for Civic Orientation in Sweden, this paper attempts to extend this platform using Jürgen Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action as an inspiration. We aim at designing a more inclusive open learning platform (...) for social integration that supports instrumental, strategic, normatively-regulated, dramaturgical, and communicative action. We expect to further the relevance of philosophy in IS research by not only making sense of phenomena through philosophical lens, butalso attaining inspirations from philosophy in designing sociotechnical information systems. (shrink)