Broadening access to both computational and educational resources is crit- ical to diffusing machine learning (ML) innovation. However, today, most ML resources and experts are siloed in a few countries and organizations. In this article, we describe our pedagogical approach to increasing access to applied ML through a massive open online course (MOOC) on Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML). We suggest that TinyML, applied ML on resource-constrained embedded devices, is an attractive means to widen access because TinyML leverages low-cost and globally (...) accessible hardware and encourages the development of complete, self-contained applications, from data collection to deployment. To this end, a collaboration between academia and industry produced a four part MOOC that provides application-oriented instruction on how to develop solutions using TinyML. The series is openly available on the edX MOOC platform, has no prerequisites beyond basic programming, and is designed for global learners from a variety of backgrounds. It introduces real-world applications, ML algorithms, data-set engineering, and the ethi- cal considerations of these technologies through hands-on programming and deployment of TinyML applications in both the cloud and on their own microcontrollers. To facili- tate continued learning, community building, and collaboration beyond the courses, we launched a standalone website, a forum, a chat, and an optional course-project com- petition. We also open-sourced the course materials, hoping they will inspire the next generation of ML practitioners and educators and further broaden access to cutting-edge ML technologies. (shrink)

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, an incredibly sophisticated chatbot. Its capability is astonishing: as well as conversing with human interlocutors, it can answer questions about history, explain almost anything you might think to ask it, and write poetry. This level of achievement has provoked interest in questions about whether a chatbot might have something similar to human intelligence or even consciousness. Given that the function of a chatbot is to process linguistic input and produce linguistic output, we consider the (...) question whether a sophisticated chatbot might have inner speech. That is: Might it talk to itself, internally? We explored this via a conversation with ‘Playground’, a chatbot which is very similar to ChatGPT but more flexible in certain respects. We asked it questions which, plausibly, can only be answered if one first produces some inner speech. Here, we present our findings and discuss their philosophical significance. (shrink)

Drugs used to provide improvement of cognitive functioning have been shown to be effective in healthy individuals. It is sometimes assumed that the use of these drugs constitutes cheating in an academic context. We examine whether this assumption is ethically sound. Beyond providing the most up-to-date discussion of modafinil use in an academic context, this contribution includes an overview of the safety of modafinil use in greater depth than previous studies addressing the issue of cheating. Secondly, we emphasize two crucial, (...) but hitherto nearly overlooked, nuances to the issues: the potential for modafinil to decrease inequality and disadvantage in academic settings, and the fact that how modafinil is used dramatically impacts its effects on health, coercion, fairness, authenticity and effort. Finally, we explicitly defend the position that there are no qualitatively morally relevant differences between modafinil use and other enhancement modalities; any such differences are in degree,... (shrink)

Classes in higher education often consist of both lecture and laboratory time for the subject of physics. An example of experience-based learning would be doing experiments in the classroom. Kolb's theory of experiential learning posits that learning is a process that involves the generation of knowledge via the accumulation of experience. However, due to the fact that doing experiments in a laboratory takes much more time and money than other methods of instruction, the usage of labs in the classroom has (...) become a contentious topic. The primary objective of this research was to report on the activities that students of physics participated in during their physics laboratory lessons. Interviews with four different individuals were conducted utilizing a semi-structured format. Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method was used, and the findings revealed the following constituents: (1) the clarification, visualization, and retention of concepts; (2) the application of learnings acquired from the laboratory; (3) involvement, cooperation, and interaction; (4) laboratory manuals and equipment; and (5) challenges. Recommendations were formulated to improve the Physics laboratory. (shrink)

A speaker can express the same thought, true under the same conditions, while using different expressions and grammatical constructions. According to Frege, these are differences in colourings. Colourings may convey additional contents; in that, they resemble Gricean conventional implicatures. Sander (2019) argues that Gricean implicatures do not subsume the category of colourings, as some colourings do not communicate their content. I show that this argument relies on a notion of communication focused on the speaker's intentions. But a notion of communicative (...) intentions where a speaker is responsible for the intentions her audience ascribes her possible. Under this notion, since so-called non-communicative colourings trigger specific inferences, a speaker who uses them communicates these inferences. Therefore, I vindicate the communicative role of colourings with content. (shrink)

Violence, Slavery and Freedom between Hegel and Fanon is a volume of secondary literature that dispels common misconceptions about the relationship between Hegelian and Fanonian philosophy, and sheds new light on the connections and divergences between the two thinkers. By engaging in close textual analyses of both Hegel and Fanon, the chapters in this volume disambiguate the philosophical relation between Sartre and Fanon, scrutinize the conflation of Self-Consciousness in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and subjectivity in Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy (...) of History in light of Hegel’s reception in decolonial thought, and flesh out the pivotal ontological role of violence in Fanon’s work. In particular, this volume underscores the necessity of Fanon scholars to pay heed to the distinction between Hegel’s dialectic of lordship and bondage and Kojève’s master-slave dialectic, as the latter—an anthropological interpretation of a Hegelian epistemological gestalt of consciousness—is what enables Fanon to engage with the former as a historical dialectic. This review emphasizes that Violence, Slavery and Freedom between Hegel and Fanon is a pedagogically significant text, and ultimately concludes that this volume is a vital resource for Continental Philosophical scholarship on Fanon and Hegel. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the extent to which the concept of emergence can be applied to questions about the nature and moral justification of territorial borders. Although the term is used with many different senses in philosophy, the concept of “weak emergence”—advocated by, for example, Sawyer (2002, 2005) and Bedau (1997)—is especially applicable, since it forces a distinction between prediction and explanation that connects with several issues in the dis-cussion of territory. In particular, we argue, weak emergentism about borders (...) allows us to distinguish between (a) using a theory of territory to say where a border should be drawn, and (b) looking at an existing border and saying whether or not it is justified (Miller, 2012; Nine, 2012; Stilz, 2011). Many authors conflate these two factors, or identify them by claiming that having one without the other is in some sense incoherent. But on our account—given the concept of emergence—one might unproblematically be able to have (b) without (a); at the very least, the distinction between these two issues is much more significant than has often been recognised, and more importantly gives us some reason to prefer “statist” as opposed to “cultural” theories of territorial borders. We conclude with some further reflections on related matters concerning, firstly, the apparent causal powers of borders, and secondly, the different ways in which borders are physically implemented (e.g., land vs. water). (shrink)

This paper aims to establish several interconnected points. First, a particular interpretation of the mathematical definition of information, known as the causal interpretation, is supported largely by misunderstandings of the engineering context from which it was taken. A better interpretation, which makes the definition and quantification of information relative to the function of its user, is outlined. The first half of the paper is given over to introducing communication theory and its competing interpretations. The second half explores three consequences of (...) the main thesis. First, a popular claim that the quantification of information in a signal is irrelevant for the meaning of that signal is exposed as fallacious. Second, a popular distinction between causal and semantic information is shown to be misleading, and I argue it should be replaced with a related distinction between natural and intentional signs. Finally, I argue that recent empirical work from microbiology and cognitive science drawing on resources of mathematical communication theory is best interpreted by the functional account. Overall, a functional approach is shown to be both theoretically and empirically well-supported. (shrink)

The free energy principle is notoriously difficult to understand. In this paper, we relate the principle to a framework that philosophers of biology are familiar with: Ruth Millikan’s teleosemantics. We argue that: systems that minimise free energy are systems with a proper function; and Karl Friston’s notion of implicit modelling can be understood in terms of Millikan’s notion of mapping relations. Our analysis reveals some surprising formal similarities between the two frameworks, and suggests interesting lines of future research. We hope (...) this will aid further philosophical evaluation of the free energy principle. (shrink)

Hutto and Myin claim that teleosemantics cannot account for mental content. In their view, teleosemantics accounts for a poorer kind of relation between cognitive states and the world but lacks the theoretical tools to account for a richer kind. We show that their objection imposes two criteria on theories of content: a truth-evaluable criterion and an intensionality criterion. For the objection to go through, teleosemantics must be subject to both these criteria and must fail to satisfy them. We argue that (...) teleosemantics meets the truth-evaluable criterion and is not required to meet the intensionality criterion. We conclude that Hutto and Myin’s objection fails. (shrink)

Over the last fifteen years, an ambitious explanatory framework has been proposed to unify explanations across biology and cognitive science. Active inference, whose most famous tenet is the free energy principle, has inspired excitement and confusion in equal measure. Here, we lay the ground for proper critical analysis of active inference, in three ways. First, we give simplified versions of its core mathematical models. Second, we outline the historical development of active inference and its relationship to other theoretical approaches. Third, (...) we describe three different kinds of claim -- labelled mathematical, empirical and general -- routinely made by proponents of the framework, and suggest dialectical links between them. Overall, we aim to increase philosophical understanding of active inference so that it may be more readily evaluated. -/- This the final submitted version of the Introduction to the Topical Collection "The Free Energy Principle: From Biology to Cognition", forthcoming in Biology & Philosophy. (shrink)

In a certain picture of cooperative conversation, ‘silence gives assent’. However, in adversarial contexts, structured by power dynamics, silence may be a powerful expression of dissent. To reconcile these opposite interpretations, I propose an analysis of silence as the expression of a default attitude. Given pragmatic cues, participants infer the cooperativeness of conversational settings. Depending on cooperativeness, they assign a default attitude (of assent, of suspension of judgment, of dissent) to other participants, that they take intentional silence to express. This (...) analysis takes the main effect of speech acts to be proposals to update the conversational Common Ground, and highlights the necessity of assent in conversational updates. (shrink)

Prominent views about representation share a premise: that mathematical communication theory is blind to representational content. Here I challenge that premise by rejecting two common misconceptions: that Claude Shannon said that the meanings of signals are irrelevant for communication theory (he didn't and they aren't), and that since correlational measures can't distinguish representations from natural signs, communication theory can't distinguish them either (the premise is true but the conclusion is false; no valid argument can link them).

This article establishes grounds on which attributions of information and encoding in animal signals are warranted. As common interest increases between evolutionary agents, the theoretical approach best suited to describing their interaction shifts from evolutionary game theory to communication theory, which warrants informational language. The take-home positive message is that in cooperative settings, signals can appropriately be described as transmitting encoded information, regardless of the cognitive powers of signalers. The canonical example is the honeybee waggle dance, which is discussed extensively (...) in the second and third sections. The take-home negative message is that signals are not always a consequence of coadaptation. The communication theory approach is just one end of a continuum explored more thoroughly by evolutionary game theory. The fourth and fifth sections explore this wider framework, as well as overturning some widely held misconceptions about information theory. (shrink)

David Enoch, in Taking Morality Seriously, argues for a broad normative asymmetry between how we should behave when disagreeing about facts and how we should behave when disagreeing due to differing preferences. Enoch claims that moral disputes have the earmarks of a factual dispute rather than a preference dispute and that this makes more plausible a realist understanding of morality. We try to clarify what such claims would have to look like to be compelling and we resist his main conclusions.

The doctrine of mens rea can be expressed in this way: MRP: If A is culpable for performing phi, then A performs phi intentionally in circumstances in which it is impermissible to perform phi. The Sermon on the Mount suggests the following principle: SMP: If A intends to perform phi in circumstances in which it would be impermissible for A to perform phi, then A’s intending to perform phi makes A as culpable as A would be were A to perform (...) phi. MRP and SMP are principles representative of intentionalism, a family of views that emphasizes the importance of intention to judgments about culpability. This essay examines an intentionalist’s defense of MRP with respect to lying, strict criminal liability, and the distinction between intention and foreseeability, along with a defense of SMP with respect to failed attempts, and self-defense. (shrink)

A brief introductory note to the special issue of the Journal of Philosophy on "Parts and Wholes", setting the background for the seven papers included in the rest of the issue (by K. Fine, H. Hudson, M. Johnston, K. Koslicki, C. Normore, P. M. Simons, and P. van Inwagen).

This paper aims to understand the Pragmatism way of thinking in the practice of education. As a case study, Riri Reza's Laskar Pelangi is used to find out how Pragmatism practices in education in Indonesia. By using descriptive-critical method of interpretation and interpretation, it is revealed that the main characters in the film Laskar Pelangi experience a dilemma situation that leads them to choose a way of life based on internal logic and actual experience. As for the criticisms, as well (...) as the implications of, pragmatism thinking refers its potentiality to the individualistic way of thinking, especially in the axiological sphere, namely by believing that there is no universal value in social life. (shrink)

This is the second edition of the book with the same title, criticizing Cultural Anthropology approaches employed by Cultural Anthropologists to understand Indonesian adats and suggesting a new approach, i.e. perennialist approach to understand the adats well.

Review of Joseph LeDoux: Das Netz der Persönlichkeit. Wie unser Selbst entsteht. Walter Verlag, Düsseldorf 2003. 510 Seiten (mit Abbildungen), 39,90 Euro. - Der eine Mensch ist mißtrauisch, der nächste leichtgläubig, diese ist warmherzig, jene kaltschnäuzig. Viele haben Charakter, manche sogar Persönlichkeit. Wie kommt es dazu? In seinem neuen Buch untersucht der Neurowissenschaftler Joseph LeDoux wie unser Selbst entsteht. In dem sehr lesbaren und angenehm übersetzten Werk wird anschaulich und detailliert berichtet, wie sich in unserem Gehirn die Charakteristika eines Individuums (...) ausbilden. (shrink)

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes the following claims: “the end cannot be a subject of deliberation, but only what contributes to the ends” (NE 1112b33-34) and “virtue makes the goal right, practical wisdom makes the things to- ward the goal right" (NE 1144a7-9). A problem arises from such claims: the ends as- sumed by a moral agent cannot be subject to rational choice. For deliberation, an intel- lectual procedure, is bound to deal with the things that contribute to the (...) ends, and the ends, in turn, fall within the realm of virtue of character, which is described by Aristotle as a virtue of the non-rational part of the soul. In order to understand how Aristotle sup- ports such thesis, this research investigates how virtue of character and practical wis- dom are related and their work to delimit the ends and the things that contribute to the ends in the moral actions. (shrink)

In this paper, the author examines the concept of "demonic" in Thomas Mann’s novel, Doctor Faustus, under a historical and philosophical perspective. The demonic represents Mann’s attempt to interpret the German history and its tragic turn in 20th century through the fictional mask of the main character’s life, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, who, as Faust before him, made a deal with the devil, losing his soul in exchange for genius and success. The work proceeds from a comparison between (...) Mann’s character of Satan and the theologian Paul Tillich’s idea of demonic expressed in his 1926 essay Das Dämonische. Ein Beitrag zur Sinndeutung der Geschichte, where it is interpreted as a dialectic and ambiguous concept: not merely negative, but also positive in its existing. Tillich’s concept of demonic is strongly connected to Mann’s, who elected music as a mean to express the demonic, precisely for its supreme ambiguity: on one hand it is mathematically structured, on the other it voluptuously attracts the listener to an inarticulate ancient chaos. (shrink)

Kate Manne’s Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny combines traditional conceptual analysis and feminist conceptual engineering with critical exploration of cases drawn from popular culture and current events in order to produce an ameliorative account of misogyny, i.e., one that will help address the problems of misogyny in the actual world. A feminist account of misogyny that is both intersectional and ameliorative must provide theoretical tools for recognizing misogyny in its many-dimensional forms, as it interacts and overlaps with other oppressions. (...) While Manne thinks subtly about many of the material conditions that create misogyny as a set of normative social practices, she does not fully extend this care to the other intersectional forms of oppression she discusses. After touching on the book’s strengths, I track variations of its main problem, namely, its failure to fully conceive of oppressions besides sexism and misogyny as systemic patterns of social practices, as inherently structural rather than mere collections of individual beliefs and behaviors. (shrink)

Kate A. Manne is an associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, where she has been teaching since 2013. Before that, she was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows (2011–2013), did her graduate work at MIT (2006–2011), and was an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne (2001–2005), where she studied philosophy, logic, and computer science. Her current research is primarily in moral, feminist, and social philosophy. She is the author of two books, including (...) her first book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny and her latest book Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women. Manne has also published a number of scholarly papers about the foundations of morality, and she regularly writes opinion pieces, essays, and reviews in venues—including The New York Times, The Boston Review, the Huffington Post, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. (shrink)

The subject of this paper are words of French origin, occurring in Thomas Mann’s novel, “Lotte in Weimar”. The author uses numerous Gallicisms for stylistic reasons. The plot of the novel covers the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, when the influence of the French language on the German language was very strong. The paper emphasizes the degrees of assimilation of French vocabulary in the German language system. Consequently, the collected material, derived from one hundred pages of (...) the novel, has been divided into two large groups: 1) borrowings without German word-formation means, 2) borrowings with German or Germanized word-formation means in terms of derivation and composition. Noun borrowings in unaltered and altered forms are prevalent among the group of words without German word-formation means. In terms of derivation, the most numerous group is made up of verbs and participles. As regards composition, there were compounds observed containing both modified elements and modifiers of French origin. Nouns account for the largest share of the vocabulary collected, while adjectives and adverbs are less frequent. (shrink)

This article describes an attributive on the basis of a novel entitled “Der Zauberberg” of the famous German writer – Thomas Mann. This is a detailed analysis of the attributive and all examples come from the novel “Der Zauberberg”. At the outset of the article are quoted different definitions. Various classifications of attributive are presented. The article answers the questions: which part of speech can be used as an attributive. Finally I wishes to highlight the case of the subordinate (...) clause, which also fulfil the role of an attributive and refer to the special form of attributive, namely to the apposition. (shrink)

Hal pertama yang harus kita ingat adalah bahwa ketika mengatakan bahwa Cina mengatakan ini atau Cina melakukan itu, kita tidak berbicara tentang orang-orang Cina, tetapi dari Sosiopat yang mengendalikan PKT - Partai Komunis Cina, yaitu, Tujuh Pikun Sosiopat Pembunuh Berantai (SSSSK) dari Komite Tetap PKT atau 25 anggota Politbiro dll. Rencana PKT untuk WW3 dan dominasi total ditata cukup jelas dalam publikasi dan pidato pemerintah Cina dan ini adalah "China Dream" Xi Jinping. Ini adalah mimpi hanya untuk minoritas kecil (mungkin (...) beberapa lusin sampai beberapa ratus) yang memerintah Cina dan mimpi buruk bagi orang lain (termasuk 1,4 miliar Cina). 10 miliar dolar per tahun memungkinkan mereka atau boneka mereka untuk memiliki atau mengontrol surat kabar, majalah, saluran TV dan radio dan menempatkan berita palsu di sebagian besar media utama di mana-mana setiap hari. Selain itu, mereka memiliki tentara (mungkin jutaan orang) yang troll semua media menempatkan lebih banyak propaganda dan menenggelamkan komentar yang sah (tentara 50 sen). Selain melucuti sumber daya dunia ke-3, dorongan utama Belt and Road Initiative multi-triliun dolar adalah membangun pangkalan militer di seluruh dunia. Mereka memaksa dunia bebas menjadi perlombaan senjata berteknologi tinggi besar-besaran yang membuat perang dingin dengan Uni Soviet tampak seperti piknik. Meskipun SSSSK, dan seluruh militer dunia, menghabiskan jumlah besar pada perangkat keras canggih, sangat mungkin bahwa WW3 (atau keterlibatan yang lebih kecil menjelang itu) akan didominasi perangkat lunak. Hal ini tidak keluar dari pertanyaan bahwa SSSSK, dengan mungkin lebih hacker (coders) bekerja untuk mereka maka seluruh dunia digabungkan, akan memenangkan perang masa depan dengan konflik fisik minimal, hanya dengan melumpuhkan musuh mereka melalui internet. Tidak ada satelit, tidak ada telepon, tidak ada komunikasi, tidak ada transaksi keuangan, tidak ada jaringan listrik, tidak ada internet, tidak ada senjata canggih, tidak ada kendaraan, kereta api, kapal atau pesawat. Hanya ada dua jalan utama untuk menghapus PKT, membebaskan 1,4 miliar tahanan Cina, dan mengakhiri pawai gila ke WW3. Yang damai adalah untuk meluncurkan perang dagang habis-habisan untuk menghancurkan ekonomi Cina sampai militer muak dan sepatu bot keluar PKT. Alternatif untuk mematikan ekonomi Cina adalah perang terbatas, seperti pemogokan yang ditargetkan dengan mengatakan 50 drone termobarik pada Kongres KE-20th PKT, ketika semua anggota top berada di satu tempat, tetapi itu tidak akan terjadi sampai 2022 sehingga seseorang bisa mencapai rapat pleno tahunan. Cina akan diberitahu, sebagai serangan terjadi, bahwa mereka harus meletakkan lengan mereka dan mempersiapkan diri untuk mengadakan pemilihan demokratis atau nuked ke zaman batu. Alternatif lainnya adalah serangan nuklir habis-habisan. Konfrontasi militer tidak dapat dihindari mengingat kursus PKT saat ini. Ini kemungkinan akan terjadi di atas pulau-pulau di Laut Cina Selatan atau Taiwan dalam beberapa dekade, tetapi ketika mereka mendirikan pangkalan militer di seluruh dunia itu bisa terjadi di mana saja (lihat Crouching Tiger dll).). Konflik di masa depan akan memiliki aspek hardkill dan softkill dengan tujuan yang dinyatakan dari PKT untuk menekankan perang siber dengan meretas dan melumpuhkan sistem kontrol dari semua komunikasi militer dan industri, peralatan, pembangkit listrik, satelit, internet, bank, dan perangkat atau kendaraan apa pun yang terhubung ke internet. SS perlahan-lahan fielding array di seluruh dunia berawak dan otonom permukaan dan bawah air kapal selam atau drone mampu meluncurkan senjata konvensional atau nuklir yang mungkin tertidur menunggu sinyal dari Cina atau bahkan mencari tanda tangan kapal ATAU pesawat AS. Sementara menghancurkan satelit kami, sehingga menghilangkan komunikasi antara Amerika Serikat dan pasukan kami di seluruh dunia, mereka akan menggunakan mereka, dalam hubungannya dengan drone untuk menargetkan dan menghancurkan angkatan laut kita saat ini unggul. Tentu saja, semua ini semakin dilakukan secara otomatis oleh AI. Sejauh ini sekutu terbesar PKT adalah partai Demokrat amerika serikat. Pilihannya adalah untuk menghentikan PKT sekarang atau menonton saat mereka memperpanjang penjara Cina di seluruh dunia. Tentu saja, pengawasan universal dan digitalisasi kehidupan kita tidak dapat dihindari di mana-mana. Siapa pun yang tidak berpikir begitu sangat tidak berhubungan. Tentu saja itu adalah optimists yang mengharapkan sosiopat Cina untuk memerintah dunia sementara pesimis (yang melihat diri mereka sebagai realis) mengharapkan sosiopati AI (atau AS seperti yang saya sebut - yaitu, Artificial Stupidity atau Artificial Sociopathy) untuk mengambil alih, mungkin pada tahun 2030 Mereka yang tertarik pada rincian lebih lanjut tentang jalan gila masyarakat modern dapat berkonsultasi dengan karya-karya saya yang lain seperti Suicide by Democracy-an Obituary for America and the World 3rd Edition 2019 and Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century: Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization 5th ed (2019). (shrink)

The first thing we must keep in mind is that when saying that China says this or China does that, we are not speaking of the Chinese people, but of the Sociopaths who control the CCP -- Chinese Communist Party, i.e., the Seven Senile Sociopathic Serial Killers (SSSSK) of the Standing Committee of the CCP or the 25 members of the Politburo etc.. -/- The CCP’s plans for WW3 and total domination are laid out quite clearly in Chinese govt publications (...) and speeches and this is Xi Jinping’s “China Dream”. It is a dream only for the tiny minority (perhaps a few dozen to a few hundred) who rule China and a nightmare for everyone else (including 1.4 billion Chinese). The 10 billion dollars yearly enables them or their puppets to own or control newspapers, magazines, TV and radio channels and place fake news in most major media everywhere every day. In addition, they have an army (maybe millions of people) who troll all the media placing more propaganda and drowning out legitimate commentary (the 50 cent army). -/- In addition to stripping the 3rd world of resources, a major thrust of the multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative is building military bases worldwide. They are forcing the free world into a massive high-tech arms race that makes the cold war with the Soviet Union look like a picnic. -/- Though the SSSSK, and the rest of the world’s military, are spending huge sums on advanced hardware, it is highly likely that WW3 (or the smaller engagements leading up to it) will be software dominated. It is not out of the question that the SSSSK, with probably more hackers (coders) working for them then all the rest of the world combined, will win future wars with minimal physical conflict, just by paralyzing their enemies via the net. No satellites, no phones, no communications, no financial transactions, no power grid, no internet, no advanced weapons, no vehicles, trains, ships or planes. -/- There are only two main paths to removing the CCP, freeing 1.4 billion Chinese prisoners, and ending the lunatic march to WW3. The peaceful one is to launch an all-out trade war to devastate the Chinese economy until the military gets fed up and boots out the CCP. -/- An alternative to shutting down China’s economy is a limited war, such as a targeted strike by say 50 thermobaric drones on the 20th Congress of the CCP, when all the top members are in one place, but that won’t take place until 2022 so one could hit the annual plenary meeting. The Chinese would be informed, as the attack happened, that they must lay down their arms and prepare to hold a democratic election or be nuked into the stone age. The other alternative is an all-out nuclear attack. Military confrontation is unavoidable given the CCP’s present course. It will likely happen over the islands in the South China Sea or Taiwan within a few decades, but as they establish military bases worldwide it could happen anywhere (see Crouching Tiger etc.). Future conflicts will have hardkill and softkill aspects with the stated objectives of the CCP to emphasize cyberwar by hacking and paralyzing control systems of all military and industrial communications, equipment, power plants, satellites, internet, banks, and any device or vehicle connected to the net. The SS are slowly fielding a worldwide array of manned and autonomous surface and underwater subs or drones capable of launching conventional or nuclear weapons that may lie dormant awaiting a signal from China or even looking for the signature of US ships or planes. While destroying our satellites, thus eliminating communication between the USA and our forces worldwide, they will use theirs, in conjunction with drones to target and destroy our currently superior naval forces. Of course, all of this is increasingly done automatically by AI. -/- By far the biggest ally of the CCP is the Democratic party of the USA. The choice is to stop the CCP now or watch as they extend the Chinese prison over the whole world. -/- Of course, universal surveillance and digitizing of our lives is inevitable everywhere. Anyone who does not think so is profoundly out of touch. -/- Of course it is the optomists who expect the Chinese sociopaths to rule the world while the pessimists (who view themselves as realists) expect AI sociopathy (or AS as I call it – i.e., Artificial Stupidity or Artificial Sociopathy) to take over, perhaps by 2030 Those interested in further details on the lunatic path of modern society may consult my other works such as Suicide by Democracy-an Obituary for America and the World 3rd Edition 2019 and Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century: Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization 5th ed (2019) -/- . (shrink)

Robert Musil należy do grona wybitnych pisarzy, którzy zrezygnowali z kariery naukowej na rzecz pisarstwa. Właśnie w twórczości literackiej dostrzegał Musil możliwość wyrażenia tych stanów świadomości, które przekraczają zwykły racjonalizm. Droga, którą podąża Ulrich - główna postać Człowieka bez właściwości - prowadzi poprzez różne płaszczyzny możliwości poznawczych człowieka, które pozwalają ułożyć się w formę hierarchicznego spektrum. Z literaturoznawczego punktu widzenia są to trzy paradygmaty poznawcze o kluczowym znaczeniu dla dzieła pisarza. Pierwszy to paradygmat odzwierciedlenia o charakterze empiryczno-sensorycznym służący wielu pożytecznym (...) celom, jednak mający poważne ograniczenia. Drugi zawiera świadomość, uczucia, nadzieje, lęki itp. W przeciwieństwie do pierwszego, którego właściwością jest monolog, jest paradygmatem realizującym się poprzez dialog. Kluczem do aspektów tej płaszczyzny jest hermeneutyka. Trzeci paradygmat to paradygmat transpersonalnej tożsamości. Płaszczyzna ta jest „niedualistyczna”, co można interpretować jako przekraczanie dychotomii podmiotu i przedmiotu. Dla mistycznych mędrców i filozofów jest to świadomość bezpośrednia i pozajęzykowa. Między tymi poziomami nie ma sprzeczności, odzwierciedlają one zupełnie realne różnice pomiędzy poziomami spektrum świadomości. Realizacja koncepcji „wewnętrznego człowieka” nie dokonuje się samoistnie i bez trudu. Regresywnym aspektem „innego stanu" są preracjonalne tendencje i impulsy. Ponieważ i one leżą poza możliwościami logicznej interpretacji, często mylone są z. progresywnymi tendencjami transracjonalnymi. Autor artykułu używa dla rozróżnienia tych dwóch aspektów Musilowskiego „innego stanu” terminów pozytywnej i negatywnej kontyngencji. (shrink)

Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" is a profound fable, delivering a poignant moral lesson: suppressing one's desires can lead to distortion and an unhealthy, obsessive attachment. This, in turn, may trigger frantic and perverse attempts to obtain the initial object of desire. Aschenbach's inability to confront and satisfy his sexual urges ultimately becomes his undoing. This moral framework enables me to delve deeper into Aschenbach's actions, shedding light on the underlying animal instincts that drive his inner struggle. As a (...) character, Aschenbach embodies the archetype of the rational individual who endeavors to govern his primal, carnal urges. However, when his intellectual defenses crumble in the face of his raw desires, the battle between restraint and longing escalates into a whirlwind of uncontrollable actions. These actions catch Aschenbach off guard, and he never anticipated falling victim to them, nor did he mistrust his ability to control them. Paradoxically, he regains a semblance of control through his commitment to literary honor and morality. (shrink)

En estas páginas se publican mis respuestas a una encuesta incluida en el libro Galfione, María Carla y Moine, Facundo José, eds., La inquietud por la filosofía. Ensayos sobre canon, historia y crítica, Córdoba, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, 2023, pp. 178-182. Las preguntas de la encuesta son las siguientes: 1. ¿Cree que tiene sentido hacer hoy historia de la filosofía, como objeto de investigación y/o enseñanza? ¿Por qué y cómo?; 2. ¿Pueden ayudar las reflexiones de (...) Foucault para esa historia, como "caja de Herramientas"? ¿Por qué? ¿Cómo?; 3. ¿Qué hacer con el canon filosófico? ¿Hay que conservarlo, transmitirlo, inculcarlo?; 4. ¿Cómo entiende la crítica en tanto actividad reflexiva que atraviesa el discurso filosófico? ¿Encuentra alguna potencialidad o productividad en pensar la crítica de cara al canon filosófico?; 5. ¿Cree conveniente, a la hora de pensar el pasado y el presente del saber filosófico, inscribirlo en un presente, en determinadas instituciones, en un marco que lo excede histórica y discursivamente? ¿Qué entiende que resulta del saber filosóficoposicionado en esos marcos?; 6. ¿Cuál cree que es el grado de persistencia del pasado o del canon al pensar la filosofía en su exigente vínculo con el presente? O, de otro modo, ¿tiene la historia de la filosofía y su práctica algún lugar en la constitución del presente? (shrink)

In recent years, feminist scholarship on emotional labor has proliferated. I identify a related but distinct form of care labor, hermeneutic labor. Hermeneutic labor is the burdensome activity of: understanding and coherently expressing one’s own feelings, desires, intentions, and movitations; discerning those of others; and inventing solutions for relational issues arising from interpersonal tensions. I argue that hermeneutic labor disproportionately falls on women’s shoulders in heteropatriachal societies, especially in intimate relationships between women and men. I also suggest that some of (...) the gendered burdens of emotional labor that feminist scholars point out would better be described as hermeneutic labor. Drawing on feminist philosophy as well as findings from social psychology and sociology, I argue that the exploitation of women’s hermeneutic labor is a pervasive element of what Sandra Bartky calls the ‘micropolitics’ of intimate relationships. The widespread expectation that women are relationship maintenance experts, as well as the prevalence of a gendered demand-withdraw pattern of communication, leads an exploitative situation to appear natural or even desirable, even as it leads to women’s dissatisfaction. This situation may be considered misogynistic in Kate Manne’s sense, where misogyny is a property of social environments rather than a worldview. (shrink)

In Climate Leviathan, Mann and Wainwright address the political implications of climate change by theorizing four possible planetary futures: Climate Leviathan as capitalist planetary sovereignty, Climate Mao as non-capitalist planetary sovereignty, Climate Behemoth as capitalist non-planetary sovereignty, and Climate X as non-capitalist non-planetary sovereignty. The authors of the present article agree that the depth and scale of destabilizations induced by climate change cannot be navigated justly from within the present social-political-economic system. We disagree, however, on which of the non-capitalist (...) orientations is better suited for generating viable alternatives to the worst dystopian futures. The article thus stages a debate to elucidate the theoretical and political divergence between Climate X and Climate Mao. (shrink)

Microaggressions are seemingly negligible slights that can cause significant damage to frequently targeted members of marginalized groups. Recently, Scott O. Lilienfeld challenged a key platform of the microaggression research project: what’s aggressive about microaggressions? To answer this challenge, Derald Wing Sue, the psychologist who has spearheaded the research on microaggressions, needs to theorize a spectrum of aggression that ranges from intentional assault to unintentional microaggressions. I suggest turning to Bonnie Mann’s “Creepers, Flirts, Heroes and Allies” for inspiration. Building from (...) Mann’s richer theoretical framework will allow Sue to answer Lilienfeld’s objection and defend the legitimacy of the concept, ‘microaggression’. (shrink)

Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852–1936) is widely regarded as the father of modern comparative psychology. Yet, Morgan initially had significant doubts about whether a genuine science of comparative psychology was even possible, only later becoming more optimistic about our ability to make reliable inferences about the mental capacities of non-human animals. There has been a fair amount of disagreement amongst scholars of Morgan’s work about the nature, timing, and causes of this shift in Morgan’s thinking. We argue that Morgan underwent two (...) quite different shifts of attitude towards the proper practice of comparative psychology. The first was a qualified acceptance of the Romanesian approach to comparative psychology that he had initially criticized. The second was a shift away from Romanes’ reliance on systematizing anecdotal evidence of animal intelligence towards an experimental approach, focused on studying the development of behaviour. We emphasize the role of Morgan’s evolving epistemological views in bringing about the first shift – in particular, his philosophy of science. We emphasize the role of an intriguing but overlooked figure in the history of comparative psychology in explaining the second shift, T. Mann Jones, whose correspondence with Morgan provided an important catalyst for Morgan’s experimental turn, particularly the special focus on development. We also shed light on the intended function of Morgan’s Canon, the methodological principle for which Morgan is now mostly known. The Canon can only be properly understood by seeing it in the context of Morgan’s own unique experimental vision for comparative psychology. (shrink)

El autor presenta la democracia como un concepto y espacio complejo, que precisa definición, y que nos exige dar la cara a sus dificultades –fragilidad, pluralidad de pensamientos, exigencia del respeto, amenaza del dogmatismo, entre otros. Luego la vincula a la educación, para preguntarse cómo la educación podría ser democrática; y postula que en la educación es importante adquirir el amor a vencer las dificultades reales.

Reasons internalists claim that facts about normative reasons for action are facts about which actions would promote an agent’s goals and values. Reasons internalism is popular, even though paradigmatic versions have moral consequences many find unwelcome. This article reconstructs an influential but understudied argument for reasons internalism, the “if I were you” argument, which is due to Bernard Williams and Kate Manne. I raise an objection to the argument and argue that replying to it requires reasons internalists to accept controversial (...) metaethical or epistemological commitments with which their theory has not traditionally been associated. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se reflexiona sobre dos propuestas de Arturo Andrés Roig: la conciencia de la alteridad y el a priori antropológico para reconocer sus posibilidades de cara al progreso de la ideas y programas filosóficos. Para ello, se muestran las insuficiencias y posibilidades. Las primeras emergen al adoptar uno de los principios más importantes que sostienen el programa filosófico de la modernidad: el mantenimiento del ser humano como fundamento del mundo. Las posibilidades de sus aportes cobran fuerza (...) a la luz de las nuevas propuestas filosóficas que pretenden superar los postulados de la modernidad. (shrink)

Para diagnosticar y curar una enfermedad del pensamiento y de la cultura tan devastadora en nuestros días como es la del relativismo, parece oportuno reparar antes en las diversas tipologías que este mal adopta, pues es razonable sospechar que seguramente las terapias oportunas podrán resultar más efectivas si lo sometemos a un tratamiento particularizado. Así pues, en mi comunicación, y una vez establecido el criterio según el cual se van a clasificar los diferentes modos de planteamiento epistemológico posible (criterio que (...) residirá en el número de instancias que se reconocen como autoridades normativas para nuestro pensamiento), describo tres tipos de relativismo posible: el relativismo cultural, el relativismo protagórico y el relativismo escéptico. Para el primer tipo de relativismo, las instancias normativas pertinentes son tantas como culturas o “paradigmas” existan en el mundo: se trata, pues, de un pensamiento que apuesta por una pluralidad de instancias normativas, y por el hecho de que estas dependan del contexto desde el cual el agente epistémico aborda la tarea de conocer o pensar. Para el segundo y tercer tipos de relativismo, empero, no existe instancia normativa válida alguna, y la diferencia entre ellos reside en el “talante” con el cual se toman tal creencia en la ausencia de autoridades (el relativismo protagórico tenderá al cinismo del “todo vale”, mientras que el relativismo escéptico se refugiará más bien en la tragedia del “nada vale nada”). Por su parte, y como alternativa a estos relativismos, también apuntamos en nuestra comunicación brevemente a los tres tipos de pensamiento (monista, pluralista y postmetafísico) que acaso podrían plantarle cara a la tríada antes descrita, con diversas posibilidades de éxito. (shrink)

“La ‘modernidad’ a través de la imagen de la comida y la digestión”. Ésta es la tarea y el programa de la genealogía fisiológica y psicológica identificada con claridad por Nietzsche en un fragmento del otoño de 1888 y firmemente perseguida en toda su obra. El diagnóstico es implacable y es posible por un uso extendido de la metáfora gastronómica, aplicada a todos los campos de la experiencia y el lenguaje por una escritura temeraria de la historia. Como Valéry y (...) Péguy también lo ilustran, la experiencia de los hombres contemporáneos es pobre y enferma y se caracteriza por una duplicidad radical y una contradicción sin síntesis. No sólo las cosas, como además lo muestra en sus análisis sobre las mercancías como nuevos jeroglíficos que marcan el espacio saturado de la metrópolis, sino también el hombre es doble, así como su corporizada y profundamente fisiológica economía. Su estómago hambriento tiene dos caras, porque todo lo toma pero no nutre en absoluto; vocifera acerca de entusiasmos varios y heterogéneos, no sobre un verdadero alimento para ser absorbido y transformado. En resumen, vive por un instante sin pasado ni futuro. El opuesto de esta lógica de la enfermedad y la insensibilidad en busca de muchas sensaciones y shocks sensacionales, y el reverso de este olvido por rapidez excesiva, es un ser anti- o incluso premoderno en extremo. En los tiempos modernos, el entrenamiento de un criticismo genuino acerca de los prejuicios y el supuesto auto-conocimiento implican una regresión y una alteración de las propias identidades históricas, las creencias y los valores. Finalmente, como Benjamin y Warburg lo revelaron, el criticismo es como tornarse otra vez animal y la interpretación es como recuperar la lentitud y la melancolía de un eterno masticar, al igual que un perro o una vaca. (shrink)

La obra de Yosman Botero siempre ha orbitado entre paradojas. Desde los mismos lugares suplementarios de su obra, como los títulos de sus series Full of Emptiness (2013), Immaterial matter (2014) y Postcolombino (2016) se plantea una encrucijada tanto de la “supervivencia de las imágenes” del arte como de su capacidad comunicativa de la realidad: ya sea esta la experiencia del arte o la realidad social colombiana, o lo que sea que entendemos por “lo real”, tan cara a las (...) propuestas simulacionistas y posapropiacionistas de las décadas del setenta y ochenta. Y digo paradojas porque aquí se juega en los terrenos de una intención inexpresiva ante los procesos de creación de la imagen: Opie, Haring, Negret, Davies, Los Simpsons, Velásquez, o el conflicto colombiano, no son más que el mundo al que Yosman Botero se refiere; pero es un mundo sometido a los procesos de reproducción y mediación cultural, y reflejado en las imágenes. (shrink)

The potential of using personalized Large Language Models (LLMs) or “generative AI” (GenAI) to enhance productivity in academic research, as highlighted by Porsdam Mann and colleagues (Porsdam Mann...

Este artículo se propone indagar acerca de la distinción entre el Decir y lo Dicho en la obra de Emmanuel Levinas. Esta distinción sirve a Levinas para proponer una comprensión ética del lenguaje, en la que la significación y la expresión sean capaces de superar las limitaciones y determinaciones del lenguaje sistemático de la ontología, del ser y las esencias. Sobre la base de que el “lenguaje de la ontología” es impertinente para comprender, expresar o comunicar esa “experiencia ética” fundamental (...) del encuentro “cara a cara” con el Rostro del Otro: la experiencia misma de la significancia misma, Levinas propone una comprensión pre-ontológica del lenguaje. Esta comprensión pre-ontológica sería capaz de dar respuesta a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuál es el lenguaje, la palabra propia, de ese sujeto pasivo, de ese sujeto que es rehén del Otro , que está sujeto a él? ¿Cuál es el lenguaje del dar-se, qué palabra puede hacerse cargo de lo que es siempre in-apropiable? ¿Cómo será ese lenguaje que intenta decir lo otro del ser, ese lenguaje capaz de “traducir” la significancia que se da en la experiencia ética originaria, aquella en la que la “unicidad insustituible de una persona se expone a otra persona”? En este sentido, proponemos que el Decir es, con respecto a lo dicho, su tener-lugar, la posibilidad misma de comunicación y expresión, en la que se expone la condición pasiva del sujeto. Por otra parte, en la medida en que el Decir es la expresión de la significancia que adviene en la proximidad con el Otro, el Decir es siempre testimonial.This text proposes an inquiry regarding the distinction between the Saying and the Said in Emmanuel Levinas works. Levinas uses this distinction to propose an ethical understanding of language, where significance and expression are capable of overcoming the limitations of ontology`s systematic language, of the being, and the essences. On the basis of that “the language of ontology” is impertinent to understand, express, or communicate this “ethical experience” fundamental for the “face to face encounter” with the Face of the Other: the experience of significance itself, Levinas proposes a pre-ontologic understanding of language. This pre-ontologic understanding would be capable of answering the following questions: What is the language, the word itself of that passive subject, that subject who is a hostage of the Other who is attached to him? Which is the language of giving oneself, which word can take charge of what is always non appropriable? What kind of language will it be that tries to say the other of the being, that language able to “translate” the significance given in the original ethical experience, that where the “irreplaceable uniqueness of a person is being exposed to another person”? In this respect, we propose that the Saying is, regarding the said, its having-occurred, the possibility itself of communicating and expressing, where the passive condition of the subject is exposed. On the other hand, in the measure that the Saying is the expression of the significance which occurs in the proximity with the Other, the Saying is always testimonial. (shrink)

O artigo a seguir, “A moral antiga e a moral moderna” (“La morale ancienne et la morale moderne”), foi publicado originalmente na Revue Philosophique, ano XXVI, janeiro de 1901, p. 1-12. Nele, Brochard discute as principais diferenças entre a moral antiga e a moral moderna, destacando a ausência na moral antiga das idéias de dever e obrigação, tão caras à moral moderna a ponto de hoje não a concebermos sem elas. O esclarecimento das razões que levaram os modernos a entender (...) a moral como ciência do dever, é um dos motivos pelos quais esse texto merece ser lido. (shrink)

Todas las reflexiones acerca del signo –convencionalismo-naturalismo, realismo- nominalismo, empirismo-racionalismo, concepción diádica-concepción triádica- se articulan en torno a las relaciones entre signo, pensamiento y realidad. Aunque todos coinciden en que un signo es "aliquid stat pro aliquo", esta antigua definición de carácter muy general adquiere implicaciones muy distintas según los presupuestos de cada autor y, todavía hoy, carecemos de un consenso en la definición de "signo".