Discussion of partial grounds that aren't parts of full grounds; definition of full grounding in terms of partial grounding.

The purpose of this paper is to give the main lines of a theological accounting for the fullness of knowledge in Christ from the time of his conception. We follow the doctrine of St. Thomas and take into account some objections which are relatively modern. The paper is intended as a systematic articulation that is faithful to the Tradition and the doctrine of the Church and also concerned with faithfully interpreting the whole biblical narrative in our preaching. In particular, (...) we have in mind Gilles Mongeau’s question: “If from the beginning [Jesus] has all knowledge, how could he learn, which is such a fundamental part of a genuinely human existence?” We try to connect the issue of the knowledge of Christ with the reasons for the Incarnation. First, we show that our theological accounting finds support in the Magisterium and in the Bible. Secondly, we try to articulate systematically the reasons for affirming the fullness of human knowledge in Christ and the progression in his acquired knowledge. (shrink)

Gene clustering is a useful exploratory technique to group together genes with similar expression levels under distinct cell cycle phases or distinct conditions. It helps the biologist to identify potentially meaningful relationships between genes. In this study, we propose a clustering method based on multivariate normal mixture models, where the number of clusters is predicted via sequential hypothesis tests: at each step, the method considers a mixture model of m components (m = 2 in the first step) and tests if (...) in fact it should be m - 1. If the hypothesis is rejected, m is increased and a new test is carried out. The method continues (increasing m) until the hypothesis is accepted. The theoretical core of the method is the full Bayesian significance test, an intuitive Bayesian approach, which needs no model complexity penalization nor positive probabilities for sharp hypotheses. Numerical experiments were based on a cDNA microarray dataset consisting of expression levels of 205 genes belonging to four functional categories, for 10 distinct strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To analyze the method’s sensitivity to data dimension, we performed principal components analysis on the original dataset and predicted the number of classes using 2 to 10 principal components. Compared to Mclust (model-based clustering), our method shows more consistent results. (shrink)

An Artificially Intelligent system (an AI) has debatable moral personhood if it is epistemically possible either that the AI is a moral person or that it falls far short of personhood. Debatable moral personhood is a likely outcome of AI development and might arise soon. Debatable AI personhood throws us into a catastrophic moral dilemma: Either treat the systems as moral persons and risk sacrificing real human interests for the sake of entities without interests worth the sacrifice, or do not (...) treat the systems as moral persons and risk perpetrating grievous moral wrongs against them. The moral issues become even more perplexing if we consider cases of possibly conscious AI that are subhuman, superhuman, or highly divergent from us in their morally relevant properties. (shrink)

In this paper, I try to offer a full-fledged defense of principle-based ethics against moral particularism. My discussions not only refute particularists’ allegations against moral generalism but also provide a positive rationale for a principle-based approach in ethics. By borrowing insights from Brandom’s and Peregrin’s normative pragmatism, I describe the fundamental roles of moral principles. In my view, moral principles constitute morality, and they can function as default reasons in our moral deliberations. Moreover, I argue that my principle-based conception of (...) ethics has advantages over particularism since it explains the phenomenological experience and covers basic intuitions in the moral domain that particularists have difficulty explaining. (shrink)

Abstract: The Pull Bayesian Significance Test (FBST) for precise hy- potheses is applied to a Multivariate Normal Structure (MNS) model. In the FBST we compute the evidence against the precise hypothesis. This evi- dence is the probability of the Highest Relative Surprise Set (HRSS) tangent to the sub-manifold (of the parameter space) that defines the null hypothesis. The MNS model we present appears when testing equivalence conditions for genetic expression measurements, using micro-array technology.

The full compliance assumption has been the focus of much recent criticism of ideal theory. Making this assumption, critics argue, is to ignore the important issue of how to actually make individuals compliant. In this article, I show why this criticism is misguided by identifying the key role full compliance plays in modelling fairness. But I then redirect the criticism by showing how it becomes appropriate when Rawls and other ideal theorists expect their model of fairness to guide real-world political (...) practice. Attempts to establish institutions conforming to this ideal could have undesirable consequences and might even undermine fairness itself. (shrink)

This paper examines Harold Garfinkel's notion of the natural attitude about sex and his claim that it is fundamentally moral in nature. The author looks beneath the natural attitude in order to explain its peculiar resilience and oppressive force. There she reveals a moral order grounded in the dichotomously sexed bodies so constituted through boundaries governing privacy and decency. In particular, naked bodies are sex-differentiated within a system of genital representation through gender presentation—a system that helps constitute the very boundaries (...) between the public and private. (shrink)

The Full Bayesian Significance Test (FBST) for precise hypotheses is presented, with some applications relevant to reliability theory. The FBST is an alternative to significance tests or, equivalently, to p-ualue.s. In the FBST we compute the evidence of the precise hypothesis. This evidence is the probability of the complement of a credible set "tangent" to the sub-manifold (of the para,rreter space) that defines the null hypothesis. We use the FBST in an application requiring a quality control of used components, based (...) on remaining life statistics. (shrink)

Entitlement is defined as a sort of epistemic justification that one can possess by default – a sort of epistemic justification that does not need to be earned or acquired. Epistemologists who accept the existence of entitlement generally have a certain anti-sceptical role in mind for it – entitlement is intended to help us resist what would otherwise be compelling radical sceptical arguments. But this role leaves various details unspecified and, thus, leaves scope for a number of different potential conceptions (...) of entitlement. At one extreme there are conceptions that portray entitlement as a weak, attenuated epistemic status and, at the other, we have conceptions that portray entitlement as something potent and strong. Certain intermediate conceptions are also possible. In this paper, I shall argue that the weak and intermediate conceptions of entitlement do not survive careful scrutiny, and the stronger conceptions – while they do, in a way, strain credulity – are the only conceptions that are ultimately viable. (shrink)

Several recent results on the aggregation of judgments over logically connected propositions show that, under certain conditions, dictatorships are the only propositionwise aggregation functions generating fully rational (i.e., complete and consistent) collective judgments. A frequently mentioned route to avoid dictatorships is to allow incomplete collective judgments. We show that this route does not lead very far: we obtain oligarchies rather than dictatorships if instead of full rationality we merely require that collective judgments be deductively closed, arguably a minimal condition of (...) rationality, compatible even with empty judgment sets. We derive several characterizations of oligarchies and provide illustrative applications to Arrowian preference aggregation and Kasher and Rubinsteinís group identification problem. (shrink)

As engineers propose constructing humanlike automata, the question arises as to whether such machines merit human rights. The issue warrants serious and rigorous examination, although it has not yet cohered into a conversation. To put it into a sure direction, this paper proposes phrasing it in terms of whether humans are morally obligated to extend to maximally humanlike automata full human rights, or those set forth in common international rights documents. This paper’s approach is to consider the ontology of humans (...) and of automata and whether ontological difference between them, that pertains to the very bases of human rights, affects the latter’s claims to full human rights. Considering common bases of human rights, can these bases tell us whether a certain ontological distinction of humans from automata—or a de facto distinction about humans tacitly acknowledged by full-rights-recognizing societies—makes a difference in whether humans are morally obligated to assign these entities full rights? Human rights to security also arise. The conclusion is that humans need not be under any moral obligation to confer full human rights on automata. The paper’s ultimate point is not to close the discussion with this ontological cap but to set a solid moral and legal groundwork for opening it up tout court. (shrink)

Can AI developers be held epistemically responsible for the processing of their AI systems when these systems are epistemically opaque? And can explainable AI (XAI) provide public justificatory reasons for opaque AI systems’ outputs? Koskinen (2024) gives negative answers to both questions. Here, I respond to her and argue for affirmative answers. More generally, I suggest that when considering people’s uncertainty about the factors causally determining an opaque AI’s output, it might be worth keeping in mind that a degree of (...) uncertainty about conclusions is inevitable even in entirely human-based empirical science because in induction there’s always a risk of getting it wrong. Keeping this in mind may help appreciate that requiring full transparency from AI systems before epistemically trusting their outputs might be unusually (and potentially overly) demanding. (shrink)

this article makes the case that the rationale of open science and responsible innovation will help to build public planetary goods: the necessity of this rationale is illustrated on the COViD-19 case.

In this paper, I discuss full-blooded Platonism (the claim that all possible mathematical objects exist) as a response to the skeptical problem in the philosophy of mathematics as to how empirical beings can cognize non-empirical mathematical objects. I then attempt to develop an analogous position regarding the applicability of concepts to reality in response to the skeptical problem regarding how we can cognize an objective reality through human-constructed concepts. If all concepts meeting certain minimal conditions structure reality under some aspect, (...) then objective knowledge is possible, regardless of how these concepts arose historically. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to show that if one adopts conditional probabilities as the primitive concept of probability, one must deal with the fact that even in very ordinary circumstances at least some probability values may be imprecise, and that some probability questions may fail to have numerically precise answers.

Policy-makers must sometimes choose between an alternative which has somewhat lower expected value for each person, but which will substantially improve the outcomes of the worst off, or an alternative which has somewhat higher expected value for each person, but which will leave those who end up worst off substantially less well off. The popular ex ante Pareto principle requires the choice of the alternative with higher expected utility for each. We argue that ex ante Pareto ought to be rejected (...) because it conflicts with the requirement that, when possible, one ought to decide as one would with full information. We apply our argument in an analysis of US policy on screening for breast cancer. -/- . (shrink)

Consider the following patient: a 40-year-old man who has had back pain that radiates down his left leg, on and off for 2 months. He performs his normal activities and does not have any “red flag”...

Full aptness is the most important concept in performance-based virtue epistemology. The structure of full aptness, in epistemology and elsewhere, is bi-levelled. At the first level, we evaluate beliefs, like performances, on the basis of whether they are successful, competent, and apt – viz., successful because competent. But the fact that aptness itself can be fragile – as it is when an apt performance could easily have been inapt – points to a higher zone of quality beyond mere aptness. To (...) break in to this zone, one must not merely perform aptly but also in doing so safeguard in skilled ways against certain risks to inaptness. But how must this be done, exactly? This paper has two central aims. First, I challenge the credentials of mainstream thinking about full-aptness by raising some new and serious problems for the view. I then propose a novel account of full aptness – what I call de minimis normativism – which keeps all the advantages of the canonical view, avoids its problems entirely, and offers some additional payoffs. (shrink)

In the contemporary debate on moral status, it is not uncommon to find philosophers who embrace the the Principle of Full Moral Status, according to which the degree to which an entity E possesses moral status is proportional to the degree to which E possesses morally relevant properties until a threshold degree of morally relevant properties possession is reached, whereupon the degree to which E possesses morally relevant properties may continue to increase, but the degree to which E possesses moral (...) status remains the same. One philosopher who has contributed significantly to the contemporary debate on moral status and embraces the Principle of Full Moral Status is Mary Anne Warren. Warren holds not only that it is possible for some entities to possess full moral status, but that some entities actually do, e.g., normal adult human beings. I argue that two of Warren’s primary arguments for the Principle of Full Moral Status—the Argument from Pragmatism and the Argument from Explanatory Power—are significantly flawed. (shrink)

In this essay, I will offer a general account of self-esteem which makes room for a number of psychologically possible varieties of self-esteem. Since both philosophers and social scientists are interested in the connection between self-esteem and human well-being, I will present criteria for assessing the adequacy of different kinds of self-esteem. After showing in Part I that other prominent varieties, induding the one Rawls identified as a primary human good, fail to meet these criteria, I will--in Part II--present an (...) account of the nature and development of a particular variety of self-esteem which succeeds in measuring up to them. Throughout and in summary, I will show how the analysis of self.esteem I offer promises to explain the phenomena covered by other analyses, while overcoming the limitations facing those analyses. (shrink)

This phenomenological study explored teachers’ experiences during the full implementation of in-person classes at Ibajay Central School in the Academic Year 2022-2023. Seven teachers shared their challenges and coping strategies through face-to-face interviews. Key findings revealed that physical and psychological readiness were essential for overcoming challenges and maintaining teaching effectiveness. Teachers were eager to return but also felt anxious about the virus, highlighting the need for robust psychological support. The study emphasized the importance of infrastructural preparedness and identified strict health (...) protocols and increased workloads as significant obstacles. To address these issues, differentiated learning and regular parent-teacher conferences were recommended to better support student progress and teacher well-being. (shrink)

Abstract: The present paper seeks to explore the emotional structures that make human beings afraid of death in solitude, the feelings that necessitate the imagining of a peopled death, a death accompanied by fellow humans, gods, or God. In order to do this I take up the works of two great thinkers of the East and the West, and place them on a comparativist spectrum. The discussion covers many areas, including the polytheistic imaginations of ancient Greece and eighth century India, (...) in the context of the complex interface of beauty and death in the thought of Shankaracharya, the great proponent of Advaita Vedanta in India, and Socrates, who, in the Platonic dialogues, presents a monism Shankara could have recognized well. I try to investigate the tension between decay and beauty which leads these philosophers towards a strict ascetic impulse. At the same time, I also argue that neither of them could exclude the beauty of this world altogether from their thought. Finally, I explore the ways in which we can imagine a beauty greater than death that does not let us logocentrically negate death but rather encompasses it. Rather than taking death as the closure of all possible beauty, as ultimate nothingness, can we envisage a beauty that drowns death in the sea of kalon envisioned by Diotima in the Symposium, or in the saundaryalahari, the flood of majestic beauty radiated by Shankaracharya’s Goddess? To explore these areas and to understand the interconnected issues of plurality, impermanence, beauty and truth, I draw on the twentieth century philosophers like Iris Murdoch and Sri Aurobindo as well as Socrates and Shankara. This paper finally embarks on an imaginative journey towards a peopled or crowded death, where gods or divinized humans accompany the dying person in the process of death as his/her “necessary others”(a la Adriana Cavarero). Author’s bio-note: Anway Mukhopadhyay is a doctoral research scholar at the Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He is the author of Do You Love Me, Master?, The Place of Eros in the Master Slave Dialectic(Saarbrucken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010),and Bloom Again in Autumn, The Move towards an Empathetic Temporality in Yuri Medvedev’s “The Bride’s Room” (Munich: Grin Verlag, 2012) and has been published in reputed international journals in India, the USA and Australia. His areas of interest include Indian and Western philosophy, gender and literary and cultural theory. His current research centres round the polyvalent nuances of ‘planetary’ feminisms in our time. Email id: [email protected], [email protected] . (shrink)

In this article, I examine the discourse around evil from the perspective of philosophical anthropology. Through an analysis of the religious symbolism of evil and an associated quest for a complete study of being, I intend in this article to explore fresh ways of establishing the relation between our rhetorical practices of evil and moral responsibility. I draw on Ricoeur’s work on the primary symbols of evil, which can be seen as a means for clarifying and extending our understanding of (...) evil and moral responsibility. I employ the concept of “the double intentionality of symbol” to advance an expressive-performative model of speaking about the full shape of moral responsibility. At stake in my paper is the possibility of recognizing the need to valorise subordinate resources of knowledge that might prevent us from studying and responding to the elusive reality of evil in intellectual abstraction. (shrink)

In this paper, the stability control of the inverted pendulum on a cart with a disturbance forces has been done using observer based and full state feedback H2 controllers. The Lagrangian equation has been used to model the system equation of motions and linearized the system to the unstable upward position. Comparison of the system stability has been simulated by comparing the proposed controllers using Matlab/Scripts and a promising results has been analyzed successfully.

Cantor’s proof that the powerset of the set of all natural numbers is uncountable yields a version of Richard’s paradox when restricted to the full definable universe, that is, to the universe containing all objects that can be defined not just in one formal language but by means of the full expressive power of natural language: this universe seems to be countable on one account and uncountable on another. We argue that the claim that definitional contexts impose restrictions on the (...) scope of quantifiers reveals a natural way out. (shrink)

A Bayesian measure of evidence for precise hypotheses is presented. The intention is to give a Bayesian alternative to significance tests or, equivalently, to p-values. In fact, a set is defined in the parameter space and the posterior probability, its credibility, is evaluated. This set is the “Highest Posterior Density Region” that is “tangent” to the set that defines the null hypothesis. Our measure of evidence is the complement of the credibility of the “tangent” region.

A commentary on “Models of Consent to Return of Incidental Findings in Genomic Research,” by Paul S. Appelbaum, Erik Parens, Cameron R. Waldman, Robert Klitzman, Abby Fyer, Josue Martinez, W. Nicholson Price II, and Wendy K. Chung, in the July‐August 2014 issue.

A review of Ernest Sosa's *Knowing Full Well* focusing on the safety/reliability contrast and the relation between knowledge and action. There are also remarks on the issue of what value knowledge adds to true belief.

I examine Zarathustra's increasing ambivalence about his role as philosopher-prophet-legislator, connecting the speech "On Passing By" (Z III.7) with his doctrine of amor fati (GS 276) as a pivotal moment in his gradual ascent up the ladder of love/affirmation and consequent overcoming of great politics. Forthcoming 2022.

This report highlights and explores five questions that arose from the workshop on sensory substitution and augmentation at the British Academy, March 26th through 28th, 2013.

This report highlights and explores four questions that arose from the workshop on temporal experience at the University of Toronto, May 20th and 21st, 2013.

In this paper, a metal cutting machine position control have been designed and simulated using Matlab/Simulink Toolbox successfully. The open loop response of the system analysis shows that the system needs performance improvement. Static output feedback and full state feedback H 2 controllers have been used to increase the performance of the system. Comparison of the metal cutting machine position using static output feedback and full state feedback H 2 controllers have been done to track a set point position using (...) step and sine wave input signals and a promising results have been analyzed. (shrink)

Corporate disclosure and reporting of information has become synonymous with transparency which in discourses idealising its value is part of the rhetoric of good governance. This notion is overtly conveyed in principles and codes of corporate governance practice which have proliferated globally over the last three decades. The possibility for transparency to conceal more than is revealed is considered with regard to corporate communication of information, with the consequence that power and real knowledge of the corporate behavioural agenda remains in (...) corporate hands. Philosophically, the paradoxical and unintended outcome is that corporations are constrained by the norm of transparency in developing authentic moral behaviour, while also exercising power and control since in the information society transparency does not, and indeed cannot, lead to revealing all. Transparency places greater emphasis on judging, or evaluating existing organisational processes than on assessment of (self-)learning processes based on what actually takes place when corporations make decisions. (shrink)

A collection of articles on the the principles of social justice from an Australian Catholic perspective. Contents: Forward (Archbishop Philip Wilson), Introduction (James Franklin), The right to life (James Franklin), The right to serve and worship God in public and private (John Sharpe), The right to religious formation (Richard Rymarz), The right to personal liberty under just law (Michael Casey), The right to equal protection of just law regardless of sex, nationality, colour or creed (Sam Gregg), The right to freedom (...) of expression (Damian Grace), The right to choose and freely maintain a state of life, married or single, lay or religious (Marita Winters), The right to education (Anthony Cleary), The right to petition government for the redress of grievances (Paul Russell), The right to a nationality (Andrew Hamilton), The right to have access to the means of livelihood, by migration when necessary (Brenda Hubber), The right of association and peaceful assembly (Michael Hogan), The right to work and choose one's occupation (Ian Blandthorn), The right to personal ownership, use and disposal of property subject to the right of others (Brian Coman), The right to a living wage (Garrick Small), The right to collective bargaining (Keith Harvey), The right to associate by industries and professions to obtain economic justice (Henrik Jurisevic), The right to assistance from society, if necessary from the State, in distress of persons and family (Catherine Althaus), Afterword (James Franklin). (shrink)

I employ William Carlos Williams' poem, "The Red Wheelbarrow" to provide a non-technical introduction to Heidegger's Being and Time. (Note: This Philpapers entry provides access to the full article.).

Part of a book symposium on Ernest Sosa's Knowing Full Well. An important feature of Sosa's epistemology is his distinction between animal knowledge and reflective knowledge. What exactly is reflective knowledge, and how is it superior to animal knowledge? Here I try to get clearer on what Sosa might mean by reflective knowledge and what epistemic role it is supposed to play.

Charlie Croker, a self-made real estate tycoon, ex-Georgia Tech football star, horseback rider, quail-hunter, snakecatcher, and good old boy from Baker county Georgia, is the protagonist in Tom Wolfe’s latest novel, the deliciously provocative A Man in Full (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998).  In this article I examine the evolving conception of manhood in Wolfe’s novel.  Two different models of manliness will be delineated and compared. The first model—represented by Charlie Croker—gradually weakens and is replaced by the (...) second model—represented by Conrad Hensley. My aim is to show how Stoicism serves to critique the first model and articulate the second.  Stoicism, I argue, provides the deliverance of both Hensley and his convert Croker, while at the same time transforming the conception of manliness explored in A Man in Full. (shrink)

The study focused on exploring and understanding the challenges junior high school teachers in the Division of Rizal faced during the full implementation of in-person classes and identifying the coping mechanisms they employed to adapt to this new educational landscape. Forty participants were purposefully selected from various public secondary school clusters in the division of Rizal. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed, and the information collected through Google Forms was imported into Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. After importing the data, (...) it was coded through and looked for patterns in the meaning of the data to find themes. It was analyzed using QDA Miner Lite to make a user-friendly, accessible, and simple-to-use software for qualitative data analysis. QDA Miner Lite allowed for a quicker and more accurate breakdown of documents, enabling organization, coding, annotation, retrieval, and analysis of document and image collections. The study revealed these categories and themes: Experiences in Teaching in In-Person Classes. Teachers' experiences during the full implementation of in-person classes were categorized into five themes: Comparison to distance learning modalities, Student- centered Focus, Positive emotional experiences, Challenging Emotional experiences, and Adaptations. Comparison of Teaching Experiences. The comparison and contrast of teaching experiences between distance learning and in-person learning revealed six themes: Assessment and Progress Monitoring, Stress and Fulfillment, Effectiveness and Limitations, Technology and Connectivity, preparation and Communication, and Learning Environment and Engagement. Identified Challenges in In- Person Classes. The study identified nine challenges faced by teachers and schools during the full implementation of in-person classes. These challenges encompassed issues related to Classroom Infrastructure and Facilities, Learning Gaps and Academic Challenges, Behavioral Issues and Student Discipline, Safety, and Security, Teacher Workload and Teaching Loads, Student Engagement and Parent Involvement, Gender-Responsive Policy and Early Pregnancy, Professional Development, and Learning Materials. Coping Mechanisms for Challenges. The coping mechanisms employed by teachers in response to the identified challenges included Collaborative Support and Professional Development, Resilience, and Positivity, Student-Centered Strategies Interventions, Adaptability, and Flexibility, Emphasizing Physical and Mental Health, Effective Communication Involvement of Stakeholders, Innovative Teaching Approaches, and Reminding Purpose and Passion. The study provides valuable insights into teachers' experiences and challenges in fully implementing in-person classes. The identified coping mechanisms offer potential strategies to support educators in navigating the complexities of teaching in this environment. Educational institutions and policymakers can use these insights to develop supportive and enriching learning environments for teachers and students. By implementing targeted interventions and policies, stakeholders can optimize the teaching and learning experiences in the in-person learning setting and foster a positive and conducive educational environment. (shrink)

The Future of Humanity with the Full Implementation of the Universal Formula -/- Humanity has long grappled with fundamental questions about free will, decision-making, and the nature of societal progress. Over centuries, countless philosophical, scientific, and religious perspectives have sought to explain the forces driving human behavior and the challenges we face as a global society. The development of a universal formula that solves the problem of free will, grounded in natural laws like the law of balance and the law (...) of karma, presents a transformative opportunity for human civilization. If fully implemented, this universal formula has the potential to reshape humanity’s future, fostering a world marked by balance, sustainability, and reduced suffering. -/- 1. A Holistic Educational System for Critical Thinking -/- The first and most immediate change from the universal formula’s implementation would be seen in education. Current educational systems often prioritize rote memorization and narrow specializations, neglecting the foundational principles of natural law that govern human behavior. By introducing the universal law of balance and the principles of cause and effect (karma) into basic education, students would learn to view decision-making through the lens of natural, universal laws. -/- A holistic educational system, as envisioned by the formula, would emphasize critical thinking, systemic thinking, and the understanding of interdependence among individuals, societies, and the environment. This educational approach would equip future generations to make decisions that prioritize societal well-being, environmental sustainability, and global cooperation. As a result, the widespread ignorance and misinformation that often fuel societal conflict and poor decision-making would diminish. -/- 2. Ethical Leadership and Governance Based on Natural Laws -/- Leaders who understand and apply the universal formula’s principles would adopt a more balanced and ethical approach to governance. The formula asserts that decision-making processes, whether individual or collective, must align with natural laws to avoid imbalance and societal dysfunction. If implemented, policies across nations would shift from short-term gains toward long-term stability, fairness, and sustainability. -/- The law of karma, whichh highlights the necessity for defect-free systems, would guide governance structures to prioritize integrity, transparency, and accountability. Corruption, misinformation, and ideologically driven policies would decline as societies embrace natural laws as their guiding principles. With this shift, government policies on resource management, social welfare, and economic growth would aim for balance rather than unchecked expansion, minimizing societal inequalities and systemic failures. -/- 3. Global Cooperation and Environmental Sustainability -/- The universal law of balance stresses that human systems, like natural ecosystems, must remain in equilibrium to function properly. In an era of climate change, resource depletion, and geopolitical tensions, applying this law globally could unify countries in their efforts to address shared challenges. -/- Nations would move beyond competition and exploitation, understanding that the Earth’s resources are finite and that environmental degradation affects all societies. Policies on population control, economic growth, and environmental conservation would be guided by scientific data and natural principles, ensuring that human activity does not disrupt the delicate balance necessary for life’s continuity. The concept of continuous economic growth, currently dominant in global economics, would be replaced by a sustainable, balanced model that prioritizes ecological and societal well-being over profit. -/- 4. Technological Advancement Aligned with Human Well-Being -/- The development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) presents both opportunities and risks for humanity. If programmed with the universal formula, AGI could become a powerful tool for societal improvement. The law of balance would serve as a guiding framework for AGI, ensuring that its decisions promote human welfare, ethical practices, and environmental harmony. -/- For AGI to function effectively, as suggested by the formula, it must integrate a complete sensor system capable of perceiving and responding to the complexities of human and environmental feedback mechanisms. By doing so, AGI could assist in real-time governance, economic planning, and social development while minimizing the risks associated with unregulated AI development. -/- 5. Reduction of Human Suffering and Societal Conflicts -/- Human suffering, in many cases, stems from ignorance, misinformation, and decisions that disrupt natural balance. The universal formula posits that decisions violating natural laws—whether influenced by false beliefs, propaganda, or systemic defects—create internal and external imbalances that manifest as societal problems. -/- By embedding the principles of natural balance into education, governance, and societal structures, the formula offers a pathway to reduce suffering. Conflicts arising from ideological, religious, or political differences could diminish as people collectively recognize the universal principles governing human behavior. Religious beliefs, rather than being sources of division, would coexist harmoniously with scientific understanding, fostering mutual respect and shared values centered around balance and well-being. -/- 6. Balanced Population Growth and Resource Management -/- One of the most critical challenges facing humanity is the unchecked growth of populations and the overconsumption of resources. The universal formula emphasizes the need for societies to understand and respect the natural carrying capacities of their environments. -/- Policies promoting balanced population growth, informed by scientific research and natural laws, would help ensure resource availability for future generations. Societies would transition from pursuing limitless economic expansion to developing sustainable, self-regulating systems that maintain equilibrium with the natural world. -/- Conclusion: A New Era of Balanced, Sustainable Humanity -/- The full implementation of the universal formula to solve the problem of free will could herald a transformative era for humanity. Through a holistic educational system, ethical governance, environmental sustainability, responsible technological development, and a shared commitment to natural laws, societies could achieve unprecedented levels of harmony, stability, and well-being. -/- While the formula’s success would depend on global cooperation and genuine societal commitment, its principles—rooted in the natural laws governing decision-making—offer a clear, practical pathway to a more balanced and prosperous future. If embraced and applied worldwide, humanity could finally overcome many of its longstanding challenges and move toward a future defined by wisdom, balance, and sustainable progress. -/- . (shrink)

For feminists, working in/with the ‘posts’ is, always has been, and must be, a collective and collaborative endeavour. Increasingly, post-inquiry involves taking seriously multiplicities of humans, nonhumans, more-than-and-other-than-humans, multispecies and natureculture entities, including viral, microbial, elemental and atmospheric relationalities. The individual papers in this Special Issue, this editorial, and the Special Issue as a whole attest to this imperative pull to the collective-collaborative in seeking to explore the entangled relations of/between feminisms and the ‘posts’. As a collaborative-collective multiplicity, the Special (...) Issue interrogates what these entangled relations offer for reconfiguring gender and education research, theory, pedagogic practice, activism and praxis. (shrink)

Amazon Book Review Series of “Wild Wise Weird”.

In this paper, I discuss the effects of using thought experiments for the purpose of conceptual clarification on students’ hermeneutical abilities. On the one hand, by providing opportunities to explore the scope of normatively loaded concepts, thought experiments can effectively help students to interpret their social and moral reality more adequately, which in some cases might even help to reduce existing hermeneutical injustices. On the other hand, given their notorious susceptibility to distorting factors that are philosophically irrelevant, they can also (...) push students into accepting idiosyncratic intuitions that they don’t really share and thereby further impair their hermeneutical abilities. After setting out this dilemma in more detail, I will propose various strategies for facilitating the safe use of thought experiments that instructors can use to effectively exploit the empowering potential of thought experiments. (shrink)

The as-structure provided by language, even in the sciences, is always constitutive of experience and never merely designative. “From Saying…it comes to pass that the World is made to appear” (Heidegger 1971 [1957]: 101).

The ‘seeds’ Thoughts proposed by YU Youngmo and HAM Sukhun may each be summed up by propositions expressed in “People are a May-fly seed” and “Seeds embody the eternal sense”. They used “seed” to refer to humans or people on the one hand and placed the notion of seed in the holistic context of the Eastern Asian tradition on the other. Then, I seek to connect the anthropological notion and the holistic notion via cheng(誠) or integration. Zhungyong-The Doctrine of the (...) Mean, one of 4 Confucian texts, says that the ultimate integration(至誠) is to reflect the total nature of objects involved (盡性) so that it will show that self realization and all other realizations are one and not two(成己成物) and it will ultimately reach the stage of holiness(聖). Important elements of cheng intentionality can be read out of the two thinker’s various conceptual aspects. YU’s interpretation of history to be internalistic, his view of Hangul(Korean written language) as a revelational medium, his hermeneutics of Christian God as the emptiness cannot be understood on the dichotomous model of human-nature. HAM’s seed holism, his beliefs that humans’s minds are the heavenly mind and that all things under the heaven should come to be unified are best to be understood on the model of cheng intentionality of integration. (shrink)

The main argument in this book is the undeniable openness of every system to the unknown. And the fundamental question goes: What does this openness produce? We are a part of the infinite universe and an incorporation of its wholeness. Both for us means an individualized reality, through which the universe expresses itself and on the other hand through which it is built up with. It also means our necessity, importance and indestructibility for the sum of its incorporations. Most connections (...) among ourselves are hardly conscious for us. Meanwhile the infinitesimality structure of all consciousness guarantees not only the logical lack of inconsistency of these connections but also the freedom of choice of every individual. Our goal by no means can be to decide completely consciously. Responsibility contains spontaneity or rather trust in a meaningful working together of the forces. We increasingly become aware of our role in the entire relationship and we learn to contribute optimally to the value fulfillment of all individuals, ourselves included. Beyond the supposed differences between objective and subjective reality, we at some point of awareness comprehend that we create our reality out of our innermost depths. (shrink)

Amazon Book Review Series of “Meandering Sobriety”.