Philosophies

11 pages, 924 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Artifact as a Node of Heterogeneous Relationships: A Study with Traditional Natural Packaging in Cooking and Food Preparation Practices in Antioquia, Colombia

by Carlos Mario Gutiérrez-Aguilar, Maria Isabel Giraldo Vásquez, Juan Pablo Parra Arcila, Javier Ernesto Castrillón Forero, Mariana Ruiz Restrepo and Alvaro David Monterroza-Rios

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050119 - 21 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1699

Abstract

This article studies natural food packaging as enabling artifacts of the traditional material culture of Antioquia in Colombia. For this purpose, we consider artifacts as objective nodes that combine design and use intentions, functions, materials, histories, artifactual lineages, and cooperative relationships that stabilize [...] Read more.

This article studies natural food packaging as enabling artifacts of the traditional material culture of Antioquia in Colombia. For this purpose, we consider artifacts as objective nodes that combine design and use intentions, functions, materials, histories, artifactual lineages, and cooperative relationships that stabilize ritualized practices of a human group. We take the example of natural packaging as artifacts that enablers and stabilizers of traditional cooking and food preparation practices. Natural packaging materials are here assumed to be leaves having some favorable property to contain a food product. After providing a theoretical reflection, we analyze the data collected from fieldwork we conducted in two towns in Antioquia, Colombia (Santa Fe de Antioquia and Amagá), as well as from an interview with an expert in the field. Finally, we show that it is possible to postulate an analysis under a relational ontological description of a traditional practice with conceptual categories of the philosophy of technology. Full article

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16 pages, 2230 KiB

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The Garden in the Laboratory: Arthur C. Pillsbury’s Time-Lapse Films and the American Conservation Movement

by Colin Williamson

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050118 - 18 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1912

Abstract

From the 1910s through the 1930s, the American naturalist and photographer Arthur C. Pillsbury made time-lapse and microscopic films documenting what he, in common parlance, called the “miracles of plant life”. While these films are now mostly lost, they were part of Pillsbury’s [...] Read more.

From the 1910s through the 1930s, the American naturalist and photographer Arthur C. Pillsbury made time-lapse and microscopic films documenting what he, in common parlance, called the “miracles of plant life”. While these films are now mostly lost, they were part of Pillsbury’s prolific work as a conservationist and traveling film lecturer who used his cameras everywhere from Yosemite National Park to Samoa to promote both public understanding of plants and a desire to protect the natural world. Guiding this work was Pillsbury’s belief that the nonhuman optics of the film camera, which revealed the animacy of plants, could also incite viewers to sympathize with them. In the context of the early American conservation movement, that sympathy stemmed in complicated ways from longstanding transcendental and pastoral ideas of nature that were entangled with imperialist visions of controlling nature. With an eye to that context, I show that Pillsbury’s filmmaking was not simply about using motion picture technologies to shape attitudes toward plants and nature more broadly; it was also about using nature to think through the techno-scientific possibilities of the cinema in the early part of the twentieth century. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thinking Cinema—With Plants)

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16 pages, 288 KiB

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Black (W)hole Foods: Okra, Soil and Blackness in The Underground Railroad (Barry Jenkins, USA, 2021)

by William Brown

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050117 - 14 Oct 2022

Viewed by 2089

Abstract

This essay analyses the role played by okra in The Underground Railroad, together with how it functions in relation to the soil that sustains it and which allows it to grow. I argue that okra represents an otherwise lost African past for [...] Read more.

This essay analyses the role played by okra in The Underground Railroad, together with how it functions in relation to the soil that sustains it and which allows it to grow. I argue that okra represents an otherwise lost African past for both protagonist Cora and for the show in general and that this transplanted plant, similar to the transplanted Africans who endured the Middle Passage on the way to ‘New World’ slave plantations, survives by going through ‘black holes’, something that is not only linked poetically to the established trope of the otherwise absent Black mother but which also finds support from physics, where wormholes (similar to the holes created by worms in the soil) take us through black holes and into new worlds, realities or dimensions. This is reflected in Jenkins’s series (as well as Whitehead’s novel) by the titular Underground Railroad itself, which sees Cora and others disappear underground only to reappear in new states (the show travels from Georgia to South Carolina to North Carolina to Tennessee to Indiana and so on), as well as specifically in the show through the formal properties of the audio-visual (cinematic/televisual) medium, which, with its cuts and movements, similarly keeps shifting through space and time in a nonlinear but generative fashion. Finally, I suggest that we cannot philosophise the plant or the medium of film (or television or streaming media) without philosophising race, with The Underground Railroad serving as a means for bringing together plants and plantations, soil and wormholes and Blackness and black holes, which, collectively and playfully, I group under the umbrella term ‘black (w)hole foods’. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thinking Cinema—With Plants)

15 pages, 590 KiB

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A “Galilean Philosopher”? Thomas Hobbes between Aristotelianism and Galilean Science

by Gregorio Baldin

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050116 - 14 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1737

Abstract

The conventional portrait of Thomas Hobbes that emerged in twentieth century histories of philosophy is that of the quintessential mechanical philosopher, who openly broke with philosophical tradition (together with René Descartes). Hobbes’s scholars depicted a more correct and detailed panorama, by analyzing Hobbes’s [...] Read more.

The conventional portrait of Thomas Hobbes that emerged in twentieth century histories of philosophy is that of the quintessential mechanical philosopher, who openly broke with philosophical tradition (together with René Descartes). Hobbes’s scholars depicted a more correct and detailed panorama, by analyzing Hobbes’s debt towards Aristotelian and Renaissance traditions, as well as the problematic nature of the epistemological status that Hobbes attributes to natural philosophy. However, Hobbes’s connection to modern Galilean science remains problematic. How and in what way did Hobbes take inspiration from Galileo? In this article, I analyze Hobbes’s natural philosophy by addressing three topics: (1) his connection with some aspects of seventeenth-century Aristotelianism; (2) differences and analogies between Hobbes’s and Galileo’s epistemological approaches; and (3) the Galilean foundation of Hobbes’s philosophy. Through this analysis I want to show in which sense Hobbes can be properly defined a “Galilean philosopher”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hobbes’s Philosophy of Science)

21 pages, 338 KiB

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Relevance as the Moving Ground of Semiosis

by Jan Strassheim

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050115 - 13 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1460

Abstract

All levels of semiosis, from the materiality of signs to their contents and the contexts of their application, are structured by a selectivity in human experience and action that foregrounds only a fraction of the situation here and now. Before Sperber and Wilson, [...] Read more.

All levels of semiosis, from the materiality of signs to their contents and the contexts of their application, are structured by a selectivity in human experience and action that foregrounds only a fraction of the situation here and now. Before Sperber and Wilson, concepts of “relevance” were proposed in both semiotics and phenomenology to analyze this selectivity. Building critically on Alfred Schutz’s phenomenology, I suggest that a productive way to capture the fundamental role of relevance in processes of meaning-making is to see relevance as the outcome of an interplay between two antagonistic tendencies. On the one hand, socially stabilized and individually sedimented “types” guide our experience and action along established patterns. On the other hand, we are actively open to new and unexpected aspects; we are ready to deviate from types and to change typical patterns. Only both tendencies taken together account for our semiotic behavior in context. Spatial metaphors such as “ground” illuminate only a part of this interplay. Due to the double movement in what becomes relevant to us, the typical ground on which we produce and interpret signs is constantly being shifted and re-grounded, which keeps driving on an endless process of semiosis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Semiotics and Phenomenology: New Perspectives)

27 pages, 1541 KiB

Open AccessEssay

The Phenomenology of Semiosis: Approaches to the Gap between the Encyclopaedia and the Porphyrian Tree Spanned by Sedimentation

by Göran H. Sonesson

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050114 - 11 Oct 2022

Viewed by 2043

Abstract

When putting semiotics and phenomenology in juxtaposition, the first task necessarily is to find out what a study of meaning, conceiving of itself as an empirical science, has to do with a philosophical school, the business of which it is to secure the [...] Read more.

When putting semiotics and phenomenology in juxtaposition, the first task necessarily is to find out what a study of meaning, conceiving of itself as an empirical science, has to do with a philosophical school, the business of which it is to secure the epistemological foundations of all the sciences (broadly understood). Our answer, in short (but we will go at some length to show it), is that since all results of phenomenology also count as contributions to phenomenological psychology, the phenomenological method constitutes a part of the panoply of methods offered to semiotics. Our second task will be to review the fragmentary semiotics proposed, originally employing that term, by Edmund Husserl, to gauge its value for contemporary semiotics. Since our investigation of Husserl’s semiotics will demonstrate that it sometimes concerns the sign in a narrow sense, and sometimes broadens up to a study of meaning in general, our third and final task, in this paper, will be to consider a proposal made by a close follower of Husserl, Alfred Schütz, whose idea of a system of relevancies, wedded to Husserl’s notion of sedimentation, might be amended when considered in connection with Umberto Eco’s idea of the encyclopaedia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Semiotics and Phenomenology: New Perspectives)

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21 pages, 362 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Not All Computational Methods Are Effective Methods

by Mark Sprevak

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050113 - 10 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1786

Abstract

An effective method is a computational method that might, in principle, be executed by a human. In this paper, I argue that there are methods for computing that are not effective methods. The examples I consider are taken primarily from quantum computing, but [...] Read more.

An effective method is a computational method that might, in principle, be executed by a human. In this paper, I argue that there are methods for computing that are not effective methods. The examples I consider are taken primarily from quantum computing, but these are only meant to be illustrative of a much wider class. Quantum inference and quantum parallelism involve steps that might be implemented in multiple physical systems, but cannot be implemented, or at least not at will, by an idealised human. Recognising that not all computational methods are effective methods is important for at least two reasons. First, it is needed to correctly state the results of Turing and other founders of computation theory. Turing is sometimes said to have offered a replacement for the informal notion of an effective method with the formal notion of a Turing machine. I argue that such a view only holds under limited circumstances. Second, not distinguishing between computational methods and effective methods can lead to mistakes when quantifying over the class of all possible computational methods. Such quantification is common in philosophy of mind in the context of thought experiments that explore the limits of computational functionalism. I argue that these ‘homuncular’ thought experiments should not be treated as valid. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Turing the Philosopher: Established Debates and New Developments)

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12 pages, 257 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Lack, Escape, and Hypervirtuality: On the Existential and Phenomenological Conditions for Addiction

by Daniel O’Shiel

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050112 - 09 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1413

Abstract

This article provides the existential and phenomenological conditions for addiction by applying the concepts of lack, escape and ‘hypervirtuality’ in new ways to the subject matter. There are five sections. The first is a brief review of some of the most relevant literature. [...] Read more.

This article provides the existential and phenomenological conditions for addiction by applying the concepts of lack, escape and ‘hypervirtuality’ in new ways to the subject matter. There are five sections. The first is a brief review of some of the most relevant literature. The second lists the main general characteristics of addiction, gleaned from the literature, as well as discussing a possible general definition, namely wants that have become (damaging) needs. The third provides the existential conditions required for addiction to be understood as a human phenomenon to which we are all susceptible, albeit to greatly differing degrees and objects. Here I stress the ideas of transcendence, desire, lack and escape one finds in the early writings of Sartre and Levinas. The fourth fills this idea out with a key phenomenological notion of hypervirtuality, inspired by Husserl. This latter, fifthly and finally, explains the rising power of new technologies and how many are increasing and providing new opportunities for addictive behaviour. Full article

20 pages, 331 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Vitalist Shoal in the Mechanist Tide: Art, Nature, and 17th-Century Science

by Jonathan L. Shaheen

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050111 - 08 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2014

Abstract

This paper reconstructs Margaret Cavendish’s theory of the metaphysics of artifacts. It situates her anti-mechanist account of artifactual production and the art-nature distinction against a background of Aristotelian, Scholastic, and mechanist theories. Within this broad context, it considers what Cavendish thinks artisans can [...] Read more.

This paper reconstructs Margaret Cavendish’s theory of the metaphysics of artifacts. It situates her anti-mechanist account of artifactual production and the art-nature distinction against a background of Aristotelian, Scholastic, and mechanist theories. Within this broad context, it considers what Cavendish thinks artisans can actually do, grounding her terminological stipulation that there is no genuine generation in nature in a commitment to natural and artistic production as the mere rearrangement of bodies. Bodies themselves are identified, in a conceptually Ockhamist manner, with their figures, so that the resulting theory of mere rearrangement is Scholastically respectable. The paper also offers literal interpretations, focused narrowly on the philosophical content of her theories of art and artifacts, of her claims that art concerns only “nature’s sporting or playing actions”, that its products are “deformed and defective”, and that they are “at best …mixt or hermaphroditical." Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art vs Nature: The Ontology of Artifacts in the Long Middle Ages)

8 pages, 272 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Concepts of Budo Internalised as a Philosophy of Life

by Wojciech J. Cynarski

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050110 - 30 Sep 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1907

Abstract

Traditional martial arts continue to be interesting and inspiring to many people around the globe. Some of their contemporary adaptations attract enthusiasts for whom they are especially important. In this article, the author bases his observations on his own long-term participation. The analysis [...] Read more.

Traditional martial arts continue to be interesting and inspiring to many people around the globe. Some of their contemporary adaptations attract enthusiasts for whom they are especially important. In this article, the author bases his observations on his own long-term participation. The analysis takes into account the influence of the perspectives of Jigoro Kano and several other creators of modern varieties of Japanese budo. It can be concluded that regular, even daily, practice—cultivating martial arts and internalizing its values—co-creates the lifestyle of instructors and advanced students. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Philosophy and Science of Martial Arts)

23 pages, 356 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Paradoxes of Emotional Life: Second-Order Emotions

by Antonio de Castro Caeiro

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050109 - 30 Sep 2022

Viewed by 3862

Abstract

Heidegger tries to explain our emotional life applying three schemes: causal explanation, mental internalisation of emotions and metaphorical expression. None of the three schemes explains emotion though. Either because the causal nexus does not always occur or because objects and people in the [...] Read more.

Heidegger tries to explain our emotional life applying three schemes: causal explanation, mental internalisation of emotions and metaphorical expression. None of the three schemes explains emotion though. Either because the causal nexus does not always occur or because objects and people in the external world are carriers of emotional agents or because language is already on a metaphorical level. Moreover, how is it possible that there are presently emotions constituting our life without our being aware of their existence? From the analysis of boredom in its three varieties (“bored by X”, “get oneself bored”, and “it is boring”) we will get to the depth where emotions lie, trying to rouse them and to keep them awake. Although it surfaces with the force and energy of the present, every emotion has its past and future constitution. How can we understand the future of a present emotion along with its past? Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Philosophical Aspect of Emotions)

16 pages, 268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Difficulties in Symbol Grounding Problem and the Direction for Solving It

by Jianhui Li and Haohao Mao

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050108 - 27 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4570

Abstract

The symbol grounding problem (SGP) proposed by Stevan Harnad in 1990, originates from Searle’s “Chinese Room Argument” and refers to the problem of how a pure symbolic system acquires its meaning. While many solutions to this problem have been proposed, all of them [...] Read more.

The symbol grounding problem (SGP) proposed by Stevan Harnad in 1990, originates from Searle’s “Chinese Room Argument” and refers to the problem of how a pure symbolic system acquires its meaning. While many solutions to this problem have been proposed, all of them have encountered inconsistencies to different extents. A recent approach for resolving the problem is to divide the SGP into hard and easy problems echoing the distinction between hard and easy problems for resolving the enigma of consciousness. This however turns out not to be an ideal strategy: Everything related to consciousness that cannot be well-explained by present theories can be categorized as a hard problem which as a consequence would doom the SGP to irresolvability. We therefore argue that the SGP can be regarded as a general problem of how an AI system can have intentionality, and develop a theoretical direction for its solution. Full article

13 pages, 2967 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Beyond the Altruistic Donor: Embedding Solidarity in Organ Procurement Policies

by María Victoria Martínez-López, Gonzalo Díaz-Cobacho, Belén Liedo, Jon Rueda and Alberto Molina-Pérez

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050107 - 26 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3992

Abstract

Altruism and solidarity are concepts that are closely related to organ donation for transplantation. On the one hand, they are typically used for encouraging people to donate. On the other hand, they also underpin the regulations in force in each country to different [...] Read more.

Altruism and solidarity are concepts that are closely related to organ donation for transplantation. On the one hand, they are typically used for encouraging people to donate. On the other hand, they also underpin the regulations in force in each country to different extents. They are often used indistinctly and equivocally, despite the different ethical implications of each concept. This paper aims to clarify to what extent we can speak of altruism and solidarity in the predominant models of organ donation. It also raises the ethical question of whether these categories are adequate as a basis for such models, bearing in mind that organs are a scarce resource and that a shortage of them may mean that fewer lives are saved or improved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solidarity in Bioethics)

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9 pages, 273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Global Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccine: Mine First

by Joaquín Hortal-Carmona and Gonzalo Díaz-Cobacho

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050106 - 23 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2032

Abstract

The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic dealt a severe blow to society as a whole and required countries to confront a situation that exceeded the limits of their borders. In this paper, we analyze how these countries as well as supranational organizations responded to this [...] Read more.

The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic dealt a severe blow to society as a whole and required countries to confront a situation that exceeded the limits of their borders. In this paper, we analyze how these countries as well as supranational organizations responded to this unprepared global emergency. We also explore what alternative models have been proposed in the wake of this crisis and propose some changes—other ways of acting—so that in future pandemics or global emergencies, we can deal with the situation more effectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Rationing of Health Resources in Emergency Conditions and Decision Making under Scarcity)

17 pages, 304 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Self-Pity as Resilience against Injustice

by Dina Mendonça

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050105 - 17 Sep 2022

Viewed by 2960

Abstract

This paper proposes that being able to feel self-pity is important to be resilient against injustices because it enables self-transformation. The suggestion for this reassessment of self-pity as a crucial self-conscious emotion for a more humanistic world aims to be an example of [...] Read more.

This paper proposes that being able to feel self-pity is important to be resilient against injustices because it enables self-transformation. The suggestion for this reassessment of self-pity as a crucial self-conscious emotion for a more humanistic world aims to be an example of how philosophical reflection can be insightful for emotion research. The first part of the paper outlines a general introduction of philosophy of emotions and a description of how Hume’s analysis of pride changed its meaning and pertinently linked it to human agency. The second part of the paper is devoted to self-pity and aims to offer a modified interpretation of its experience, ultimately suggesting that it is a way to cultivate resistance and endure injustices in the world. It begins by putting forward the generally accepted take on self-pity and then suggests that dismissing self-pity may increase its duration, and ultimately work as a type of denial of the world’s injustices. After describing how self-pity can be seen as a tour de force where the self is in a relationship of pity with itself, it further elaborates how self-pity may be taken as a type of calibration similar to how sleep works for the functioning organism. This makes it possible to interpret self-pity as a way to resiliently resist injustices while not dismissing them and keeping up the struggle to make the world a better place. Finally, the concluding remarks point out some consequences for the education of emotions and possible future research directions to be explored. Analogously to the undeniable way by which Hume changed the meaning of the emotion of pride, the conclusion hopes that a new way to understand self-pity is available. The overall goal is to amplify the already existing psychological descriptions showing the complementary role of philosophical research for the development of emotion research in general. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Philosophical Aspect of Emotions)

15 pages, 278 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Epistemic Emotions Justified

by Laura Silva

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050104 - 16 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1594

Abstract

The view that emotions can provide defeasible justification for evaluative beliefs is widespread in the emotion literature. Despite this, the question of whether epistemic emotions can provide defeasible justification for theoretical beliefs has been almost entirely ignored. There seems to be an implicit [...] Read more.

The view that emotions can provide defeasible justification for evaluative beliefs is widespread in the emotion literature. Despite this, the question of whether epistemic emotions can provide defeasible justification for theoretical beliefs has been almost entirely ignored. There seems to be an implicit consensus that while emotions may have justificatory roles to play in the former case, they have no such roles to play in the latter case. Here, I argue against this consensus by sketching a proposal for securing epistemic emotions justificatory roles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Philosophical Aspect of Emotions)

7 pages, 220 KiB

Open AccessArticle

COVID-19 Pandemic and the Plight of the Elderly: Nordic Experiences

by Tuija Takala

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050103 - 16 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1405

Abstract

Part of the rationale behind public health measures is protecting the vulnerable. One of the groups most vulnerable to COVID-19 are the elderly and, consequently, many countries adopted public health measures that aimed to keep the elderly safe. The effectiveness and the consequences [...] Read more.

Part of the rationale behind public health measures is protecting the vulnerable. One of the groups most vulnerable to COVID-19 are the elderly and, consequently, many countries adopted public health measures that aimed to keep the elderly safe. The effectiveness and the consequences of those measures, however, leaves a lot to be desired. In my article, I will look at the steps that the Nordic countries took to protect their elderly and assess their success. I will further analyze those in the light of standard ethical theories. Public health crises often call for choices between two evils. Selecting patients for intensive care is one such choice, and again, it seems that for the elderly, the outcome was less than favorable. Overall, from the point of view of ethics, many countries failed miserably when it came to the treatment of the elderly. I will end my paper by discussing the lessons we can learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and suggests measures we need to take to offer genuine respect for the rights of the elderly. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Rationing of Health Resources in Emergency Conditions and Decision Making under Scarcity)

22 pages, 4173 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Categories with Complements

by Juan Uriagereka

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050102 - 15 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1582

Abstract

Verbs and nouns gear θ-dependencies, Case, agreement, or construal relations. Building on Chomsky’s 1974 decomposition of such categories into ±N, ±V features, by translating said features into ±1, ±i scalars that allow for the construction of a vector space, this paper studies [...] Read more.

Verbs and nouns gear θ-dependencies, Case, agreement, or construal relations. Building on Chomsky’s 1974 decomposition of such categories into ±N, ±V features, by translating said features into ±1, ±i scalars that allow for the construction of a vector space, this paper studies the possibility of organizing said features into 2 × 2 square matrices. In the system proposed to explore “head-complement” relations, operating on nouns yields a measurable/observable (Hermitian matrix), which in turn limits other potential combinations with abstract lexical categories. Functional/grammatical categories in the system deploy the same features, albeit organized differently in the matrix diagonal and off-diagonal. The algebraic result is a group with well-defined mathematical properties, which properly includes the Pauli group of standard use in quantum computation. In the system, the presumed difference between categories and interactions—here, in a context of the head-complement sort—reduces to whether the magnitude of the matrix eigenvalue is 1 or not, in the latter instance inducing asymmetric interactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives of Generative Grammar and Minimalism)

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18 pages, 307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Medieval Problem of the Productivity of Art

by Kamil Majcherek

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050101 - 09 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3166

Abstract

This paper is focused on one of the key questions constituting the medieval debate about the ontological status of artefacts, which has to do with the productivity of art. We ordinarily speak about artefacts, such as statues or chairs, as produced by their [...] Read more.

This paper is focused on one of the key questions constituting the medieval debate about the ontological status of artefacts, which has to do with the productivity of art. We ordinarily speak about artefacts, such as statues or chairs, as produced by their artificers, and Aristotle describes art in general as a productive habit. In the first part of the paper, I look at how the proponents of the realist view of artefacts argue that the productivity of art can only be explained if we endorse their view, on which by producing an artefact an artificer brings about a new thing in the world, which is distinct from the natural things used in its production. I then turn to the reductionist account of artefacts and examine how its proponents want to show that the productivity of art can be preserved without positing that an artefact must be a new thing in the world, distinct from its natural components. In the final part of the paper, I look at one of the further corollaries of this debate, which has to do with the connection between the productivity of art and natural change. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art vs Nature: The Ontology of Artifacts in the Long Middle Ages)

3 pages, 159 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction to Special Issue Time Travel

by Alasdair Richmond

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050100 - 07 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1587

Abstract

The philosophy of time travel has an illustrious pedigree, having seen ground-breaking physical and philosophical treatments in the late 1940s and early 1950s from Kurt Gödel [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Time Travel)

11 pages, 269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Triage of “Blameworthy” Patients

by Fabrizio Turoldo

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050099 - 05 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1910

Abstract

One question that has sometimes cropped up in the debate on triage and the management of scarce healthcare resources concerns patients’ merits, demerits, and responsibility with regard to their own medical condition. During the current pandemic, some have wondered, when it comes to [...] Read more.

One question that has sometimes cropped up in the debate on triage and the management of scarce healthcare resources concerns patients’ merits, demerits, and responsibility with regard to their own medical condition. During the current pandemic, some have wondered, when it comes to accessing healthcare, whether patients who have refused vaccination—despite the availability of vaccines and pressure to get vaccinated from the health authorities—should be given the same priority as patients who have diligently undergone vaccination in accordance with the authorities’ recommendations. The issue of patients’ merits and demerits is not new, and it did not emerge with the pandemic for the first time. In the past, the question was often posed whether terrorists have the right to receive the same treatment as their victims, with the same degree of priority, all clinical conditions being equal. Another issue that has been raised concerns patients suffering from diseases caused by unhealthy lifestyles that they have freely adopted: drinking, smoking, eating fatty foods, practising extreme sports, etc. The conclusion reached in the present article is that it is indeed possible to identify certain general rules for cases of this sort, as is shown by the literature on the topic. However, slavishly following these rules, even in exceptional cases for which it is impossible to make detailed provisions, can lead to disastrous consequences. Therefore, following Aristotle, the article seeks to take account both of the rule of justice and of equity, which is a form of “situational justice” capable of filling the gaps of general norms in the light of concrete cases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Rationing of Health Resources in Emergency Conditions and Decision Making under Scarcity)

16 pages, 251 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Building a Way: Becoming Active in One’s Own Subjectivation through Deleuze and Xunzi

by Michael J. Ardoline

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050098 - 01 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1642

Abstract

While Continental thought has no shortage of criticism and diagnosis of social, political, and ethical issues, it tends to avoid offering guidance on what to do about such issues. In Reconsidering the Life of Power, Garrison argues for a radical new alternative [...] Read more.

While Continental thought has no shortage of criticism and diagnosis of social, political, and ethical issues, it tends to avoid offering guidance on what to do about such issues. In Reconsidering the Life of Power, Garrison argues for a radical new alternative for the Continental tradition: it ought to stage an encounter with the Confucian tradition. This is because, he argues, both traditions have at the center of their political thought a focus on the social formation of subjects, that is, the process of subjectivation. While Continental thought often takes this process to empty the subject of all but nominal forms of autonomy, the Confucian tradition sees subjectivation as the very source of real human autonomy. This paper explores one such possible encounter by synthesizing Deleuze’s account of individuation with the constructivist reading of Xunzi’s view that artifice is the source of human autonomy and virtue. Ultimately, I argue that coupling Deleuze’s defense of the possibility of the New with Xunzi’s transformational account of human nature provides an understanding of subjectivation that is optimistic about the shaping of human autonomy as well as practical guidance for how to do so. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current French Philosophy in Difficult Times)

16 pages, 262 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Situated Affectivity, Enactivism, and the Weapons Effect

by Michelle Maiese

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050097 - 31 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1994

Abstract

Existing research on the “weapons effect” indicates that simply seeing a weapon can prime aggressive thoughts and appraisals and increase aggressive behavior. But how and why does this happen? I begin by discussing prevailing explanations of the weapons effect and propose that these [...] Read more.

Existing research on the “weapons effect” indicates that simply seeing a weapon can prime aggressive thoughts and appraisals and increase aggressive behavior. But how and why does this happen? I begin by discussing prevailing explanations of the weapons effect and propose that these accounts tend to be over-intellectualistic insofar as they downplay or overlook the important role played by affectivity. In my view, insights from the fields of situated affectivity and enactivism help us to understand how cognitive and affective processes jointly contribute to the weapons effect. Insofar as the presence of weapons alters subject’s bodily-affective orientation and thereby brings about embodied mindshaping, it changes the way they engage with and understand their surroundings. To understand the weapons effect, we will need to examine the constitutive interdependency of appraisal and affectivity and the way in which they jointly motivate action. My proposed account emphasizes the role of affectivity in affordance perception and the way in which subjects gauge the meaning of an object according to its action-possibilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Philosophical Aspect of Emotions)

15 pages, 271 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Aesthetic Criteria in Fundamental Physics—The Viewpoint of Plato

by Ivan Melo

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050096 - 31 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2535

Abstract

I discuss the role of beauty in physics. Physicists are sometimes described as platonists for their conviction that the fundamental laws are elegant and aesthetic arguments represent an important epistemic tool. After a review of the ideas of Plato and some of the [...] Read more.

I discuss the role of beauty in physics. Physicists are sometimes described as platonists for their conviction that the fundamental laws are elegant and aesthetic arguments represent an important epistemic tool. After a review of the ideas of Plato and some of the leading figures of modern physics, which suggest that this is indeed the case, I present a list of current aesthetic criteria. I focus on symmetry and unity and demonstrate their increasing relevance in an array of experimentally verified theories. I also deal with an open issue of naturalness as the third criterion. The laws of nature appear increasingly beautiful as we uncover them, and it is important to see if the trend continues in the future. Full article

36 pages, 472 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Could a Computer Learn to Be an Appeals Court Judge? The Place of the Unspeakable and Unwriteable in All-Purpose Intelligent Systems

by John Woods

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 95; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050095 - 26 Aug 2022

Viewed by 1493

Abstract

I will take it that general intelligence is intelligence of the kind that a typical human being—Fred, say—manifests in his role as a cognitive agent, that is, as an acquirer, receiver and circulator of knowledge in his cognitive economy. Framed in these terms, [...] Read more.

I will take it that general intelligence is intelligence of the kind that a typical human being—Fred, say—manifests in his role as a cognitive agent, that is, as an acquirer, receiver and circulator of knowledge in his cognitive economy. Framed in these terms, the word “general” underserves our ends. Hereafter our questions will bear upon the all-purpose intelligence of beings like Fred. Frederika appears as Fred’s AI-counterpart, not as a fully programmed and engineered being, but as a presently unrealized theoretical construct. Our basic question is whether it is in principle possible to equip Frederika to do what Fred does as an all-purpose participant in his own cognitive economy. Can she achieve a sufficiency of relevant similarity to him to allow us to say that she herself can do what Fred can do, perhaps even better? One of the things that Fred can do—or at least could learn from experience to do—is discharge the duties of an Appeals Court judge. As set down in the ancient doctrine of lex non scripta, Fred must be able to detect, understand and correctly apply certain tacit and implicit rules of law which defy express propositional formulation and linguistic articulation. Fred has an even more widespread capacity for the epistemically tacit and implicit, clearly one of his most cost-saving kinds of intelligence. Indeed, most by far of what Fred will ever know he will know tacitly and implicitly. So we must ask: how tightly bound to the peculiarities of Fred’s cognitive enablement conditions is the character of the intelligence that he manifests? And how far down Fred’s causal make-up does intelligence actually go? Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Abductive Cognition and Machine Learning: Philosophical Implications)

12 pages, 243 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Conceptualizing Machines in an Eco-Cognitive Perspective

by Lorenzo Magnani

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050094 - 25 Aug 2022

Viewed by 1485

Abstract

Eco-cognitive computationalism explores computing in context, adhering to some of the key ideas presented by modern cognitive science perspectives on embodied, situated, and distributed cognition. First of all, when physical computation is seen from the perspective of the ecology of cognition it is [...] Read more.

Eco-cognitive computationalism explores computing in context, adhering to some of the key ideas presented by modern cognitive science perspectives on embodied, situated, and distributed cognition. First of all, when physical computation is seen from the perspective of the ecology of cognition it is possible to clearly understand the role Turing assigned to the process of “education” of the machine, paralleling it to the education of human brains, in the invention of the Logical Universal Machine. It is this Turing’s emphasis on education that furnishes the justification of the conceptualization of machines as “domesticated ignorant entities”, that is proposed in this article. I will show that conceptualizing machines as dynamically active in distributed physical entities of various kinds suitably transformed so that data can be encoded and decoded to obtain appropriate results sheds further light on my eco-cognitive perspective. Furthermore, it is within this intellectual framework that I will usefully analyze the recent attention in computer science devoted to the importance of the simplification of cognitive and motor tasks caused in organic entities thanks to morphological features: ignorant bodies can be computationally domesticated to make an intertwined computation simpler, relying on the “simplexity” of animal embodied cognition, which represents one of the main qualities of organic agents. Finally, eco-cognitive computationalism allows us to clearly acknowledge that the concept of computation evolves over time as a result of historical and contextual factors, and we can construct an epistemological view that depicts the “emergence” of new types of computations that exploit new substrates. This new viewpoint demonstrates how the computational domestication of ignorant entities might result in the emergence of novel unconventional cognitive embodiments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue How Humans Conceptualize Machines)

20 pages, 332 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modest Propositional Contents in Non-Human Animals

by Laura Danón

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050093 - 24 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1508

Abstract

Philosophers have understood propositional contents in many different ways, some of them imposing stricter demands on cognition than others. In this paper, I want to characterize a specific sub-type of propositional content that shares many core features with full-blown propositional contents while lacking [...] Read more.

Philosophers have understood propositional contents in many different ways, some of them imposing stricter demands on cognition than others. In this paper, I want to characterize a specific sub-type of propositional content that shares many core features with full-blown propositional contents while lacking others. I will call them modest propositional contents, and I will be especially interested in examining which behavioral patterns would justify their attribution to non-human animals. To accomplish these tasks, I will begin by contrasting modest propositional contents with primitive feature-placing contents: a kind of content that, according to some philosophers, can explain the behavior of non-human animals. I will examine which cognitive abilities are involved in having mental states with each of these contents and which sorts of behavioral patterns would provide evidence that an animal has one of them or another. Finally, I will present some empirical evidence which strongly suggests that some non-human animals have mental states with modest propositional contents. Full article

9 pages, 240 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Deciding the Criteria Is Not Enough: Moral Issues to Consider for a Fair Allocation of Scarce ICU Resources

by Davide Battisti and Mario Picozzi

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050092 - 24 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1605

Abstract

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, practitioners had to make tragic decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources in the ICU. The Italian debate has paid a lot of attention to identifying the specific regulatory criteria for the allocation [...] Read more.

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, practitioners had to make tragic decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources in the ICU. The Italian debate has paid a lot of attention to identifying the specific regulatory criteria for the allocation of resources in the ICU; in this paper, however, we argue that deciding such criteria is not enough for the implementation of fair and transparent allocative decisions. In this respect, we discuss three ethical issues: (a) in the Italian context, the treating physician, rather than a separate committee, was generally the one responsible for the allocation decision; (b) although many allocative guidelines have supported moral equivalence between withholding and withdrawing treatments, some health professionals have continued to consider it a morally problematic aspect; and (c) the health workers who have had to make the aforementioned decisions or even only worked in ICU during the pandemic often experienced moral distress. We conclude by arguing that, even if these problems are not directly related to the above-mentioned issues of distributive justice, they can nevertheless directly affect the quality and ethics of the implementation of allocative criteria, regardless of those chosen. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Rationing of Health Resources in Emergency Conditions and Decision Making under Scarcity)

5 pages, 218 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Feminist Care Ethics Confronts Mainstream Philosophy

by Maurice Hamington and Maggie FitzGerald

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050091 - 23 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1868

Abstract

The central role of care in human history is beyond questioning [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feminist Care Ethics Confronts Mainstream Philosophy)

16 pages, 293 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Getting Real: Ockham on the Human Contribution to the Nature and Production of Artifacts

by Jenny Pelletier

Philosophies 2022, 7(5), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7050090 - 23 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1909

Abstract

Given his known predilection for ontological parsimony, Ockham’s ontology of artifacts is unsurprisingly reductionist: artifacts are nothing over and above their existing and appropriately ordered parts. However, the case of artifacts is notable in that they are real objects that human artisans produce [...] Read more.

Given his known predilection for ontological parsimony, Ockham’s ontology of artifacts is unsurprisingly reductionist: artifacts are nothing over and above their existing and appropriately ordered parts. However, the case of artifacts is notable in that they are real objects that human artisans produce by bringing about a real change: they spatially rearrange existing natural thing(s) or their parts for the sake of some end. This article argues that the human contribution to the nature and production of artifacts is two-fold: (1) the artisan’s cognitive grasp of her expertise and her decision to deploy that expertise are the two efficient causes necessary to explain the existence of an artifact, and (2) the purpose that the artisan had in mind when she decided to make an artifact fixes the function(s) of the artifact such that an artisan’s purpose is the final cause necessary to explain what an artifact is. Artifacts indeed exist, owing what they are and that they are to intelligent and volitional human activity, which Ockham never denies. The article submits that a myopic focus on Ockham’s indisputable reductionism does not exhaust what is metaphysically interesting and relevant about artifacts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art vs Nature: The Ontology of Artifacts in the Long Middle Ages)

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Philosophies, Volume 7, Issue 5 (October 2022) – 30 articles

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