...0. What two assumptions constitute the "Enlightenment Vision"? The universe was completely intelligible and that the universe and that we were capable of a systematic understanding of its nature. 1. What six theoretical developments starting in the early 20th century challenged the Enlightenment vision? The relativity theory, which challenged assumptions about space, time, matter, and energy. Second, discovery of the set theoretical paradoxes seemed to challenge the rationality of that very citadel of rationality, mathematics. Third, Freudian psychology was taken not as a gateway to an improved rationality but as a proof of the impossibility of rationality. Fourth, Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness proof seemed to deliver another blow to math. Fifth, on certain interpretations, quantum mechanics seemed simply unassimilable to our traditional conceptions of the determinacy and independent existence of the physical universe. Sixth, in late 20th century the rationality of science itself came under attack from authors such as Kuhn and Feyerabend, who argued that science itself was infected with arbitrariness and irrationality. 2. Does Searle accept the enlightenment vision? Yes 3. What are Searle's three objectives in his book? First, advance a series of theoretical claims, both about nature of mind, language, and society and about interrelations among them. Second, exemplify a certain style of philosophical analysis. Third, pass a series of observations about...
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...THIS article I want to discuss three questions: (1) What is a cosmopolitan sociology? (2) What is a cosmopolitan society? (3) Who are the enemies of cosmopolitan societies? What is a Cosmopolitan Sociology? Let me start by attempting to nail a pudding to the wall, that is, defining the key terms ‘globalization’ and ‘cosmopolitanization’. At the beginning of the 21st century the conditio humana cannot be understood nationally or locally but only globally. ‘Globalization’ is a non-linear, dialectic process in which the global and the local do not exist as cultural polarities but as combined and mutually implicating principles. These processes involve not only interconnections across boundaries, but transform the quality of the social and the political inside nation-state societies. This is what I define as ‘cosmopolitanization’: cosmopolitanization means internal globalization, globalization from within the national societies. This transforms everyday consciousness and identities significantly. Issues of global concern are becoming part of the everyday local experiences and the ‘moral life-worlds’ of the people. They introduce significant conflicts all over the world. To treat these profound ontological changes simply as myth relies on a superficial and unhistorical understanding of ‘globalization’, the misunderstandings of neoliberal globalism. The study of globalization and globality, cosmopolitanization and cosmopolitanism constitutes a revolution in the social sciences (Beck, 2000a...
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...research differs both from empirical research, which is basically concerned with describing existing patterns of beliefs, values, and behavior through the use of statistical data, interviews, case studies, and the like, and from theoretical studies, which attempt to make generalizations about cultural differences and how people respond to them by abstracting from such data. The methodology of ethics is neither empirical nor theoretical, but rather normative, which means that it basically concerns itself with a consideration of what beliefs, values, and forms of behavior might be plausibly adopted. Metaethics concerns itself with broader issues of how such decisions can be reasoned about, justified, and, indeed, debated across cultures. Intercultural Ethics 2 The normative stance frequently encountered in the field of intercultural communication is that we should “understand and respect” other cultures. While this is certainly a laudable maxim, simply trying to understand and respect people from other cultures does not really tell us much about how we can actually work together on problems of mutual concern. The purpose of...
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...individual will." Constraints, whether in the form of laws or customs, come into play whenever social demands are being violated. These sanctions are imposed on individuals and channel and direct their desires and propensities. A social fact can hence be defined as "every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint." Although in his early work Durkheim defined social facts by their exteriority and constraint, focusing his main concern on the operation of the legal system, he was later moved to change his views significantly. The mature Durkheim stressed that social facts, and more particularly moral rules, become effective guides and controls of conduct only to the extent that they become internalized in the consciousness of individuals, while continuing to exist independently of individuals. According to this formulation, constraint is no longer a...
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...In this paper I propose a test to determine when we have reached that point. Inspired by Alan Turing’s (1950) original ‘Turing test’, which argued that we would be justified in conceding that machines could think if they could fill the role of a person in a conversation, I propose a test for when computers have achieved moral standing by asking when a computer might take the place of a human being in a moral dilemma, such as a ‘triage’ situation in which a choice must be made as to which of two human lives to save. We will know that machines have achieved moral standing comparable to a human when the replacement of one of these people with an artificial intelligence leaves the character of the dilemma intact. That is, when we might sometimes judge that it is reasonable to preserve the continuing existence of a machine over the life of a human being. This is the ‘Turing Triage Test’. I argue that if personhood is understood as a matter of possessing a set of important cognitive capacities then it seems likely that future AIs will be able to pass this test. However this conclusion serves as a reductio of this account of the nature of persons. I set out an alternative account of the nature of persons, which places the concept of a person at the centre of an interdependent network of moral and affective responses, such as remorse,...
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...Professor, Santa Clara University. The television series The Examined Life was designed and produced by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, Netherlands Educational Broadcasting Corporation (TELEAC/NOT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2002, 1999 by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 150 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, California 91105-1937. ISBN: 0-495-10302-0 Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Lesson One — What is Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lesson Two — What is Human Nature?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Lesson Three — Is Mind Distinct From Body?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Lesson Four — Is There an...
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...Alternatively put, is there a concept of justice of which these rival accounts can be interpreted as offering different conceptions? (Rawls 1971/1999: 5-6). If not, the dispiriting conclusion looms that these disputes are „verbal‟ rather than genuine, like a debate about the nature of „banks‟ in which one party has in mind financial institutions and the other party the sloping bits of land at the sides of rivers. One answer is that the concept of justice marks out the entire domain of moral evaluation, or at least the whole of inter-personal morality, excluding only moral concerns relating purely to oneself or to non-persons, such as animals. This expansive reading of justice – as (inter-personal) moral rightness or virtue – has a venerable pedigree. The Greek word for justice, dikaiosyne, can mean acting rightly or as one ought (although there is a real question about the extent to a specific category of the „moral‟ comes into focus within ancient Greek ethical thought). This is a meaning „justice‟ bears when Plato and Aristotle claim that all of virtue is contained in justice. 2 The wide sense is also found in modern writers such as Hugo...
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...Defining Religion Defining & measuring religion is very hard. Religion can be so personal that it's impossible to express and to quantifiably measure There tends to be 2 ways: Substance - trying to get what the essence of religion is Function - what religion does in society Inclusivist & exclusivist o Inclusivist definitions take a broad view of what constitutes 'religion'. They could include [political movements, social movements and organisation etc. as long as they seem to carry out the functions of religion. o This could be a tautological way to define religion - a religion is something that appears to carry out the function of a religion. But what are the functions of religion? Who decides and on what criteria? o Exclusivist definitions take a narrower view of what constitutes a religion. They try and narrow down to the specifically religious and would exclude political movements for eg. o The problem here is in defining what constitutes 'religious'. Getting to the core of 'the religious' is v difficult. Glock & Stark Measuring religion They suggest 5 dimensions of religion that could be applied in order to measure the degree of religiosity in a society o Belief - the essential beliefs of a religion - core theology o Practice - acts of public and private worship and ritual o Experience - subjunctive feelings of being associated with some higher power or being o Knowledge - depth of understanding...
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...University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The thief of time: philosophical essays on procrastination / edited by Chrisoula Andreou and Mark D. White. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-537668-5 (hardback: alk. paper) 1. Procrastination. I. Andreou, Chrisoula. II. White, Mark D., 1971– BF637.P76T45 2010 128'.4—dc22 2009021750 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Mike and Kaemon and Paul and Ree Acknowledgments We owe special thanks to the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature for funding a workshop in New York City in the summer of 2008...
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...Fundamental Notions THE "PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE" is that branch of philosophy which tries to determine in a general way what the nature and scope of man's capacity to know are. Precisely what this determi-nation will turn out to be cannot be foreseen at the beginning of our investigation since the very reason for undertaking such a project is to find that out in a methodical and systematic way. Nonetheless, even at this point, we do have a vague sense of what we are after, and, presumably, we have had enough experi-ence of our ignorance and capacity for error to motivate us to take up this arduous task. Our common-sense notion of nature tells us that an investigation into the "nature" of anything means at least that we are ask-ing "what sort of thing is it?" To be sure, this question is none too precise, but it will do for a beginning. Again, our common-sense notion of "scope" tells us that an inquiry into the "scope" of any-thing means at least that we are asking "how far does it extend?" Again, this imprecise query will do for the moment. Notice that we are not asking whether we know anything at all. The reason is, as we shall see in detail later that this question cannot be asked at all, because to have asked it is to have answered it affirmatively. The real issue in any philosophical discussion of human knowing is to determine what is meant by 'knowing" and what general conditions must be fulfilled before one can legitimately make a claim "to know." Plato tried to answer these...
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...ought to live. Ethics involves making moral judgments about what is right or wrong, good or bad. Right and wrong are qualities or moral judgments we assign to actions and conduct. Within the study of ethics, there are three branches: metaethics , concerned with methods, language, logical structure, and the reasoning used in the interpretation of ethical terms, for example, what exactly the term “good” means; normative ethics , concerned with ways of behaving and standards of conduct; and applied ethics , concerned with solving practical moral problems as they arise, particularly in the professions, such as medicine and law. Ethics provides us with a way to make moral choices when we are uncertain about what to do in a situation involving moral issues. In the process of everyday life, moral rules are desirable, not because they express absolute truth but because they are generally reliable guides for normal circumstances. Normative Ethics Normative ethics is fundamental to ethical decision making in the criminal justice system. A central notion in normative ethics is that one’s conduct must take into account moral issues; that is, one should act morally, using reason to decide the proper way of conducting oneself. Essentially, ethics, in prescribing certain standards of conduct, gives us a way of making choices in situations where we are unsure how to act. What are these standards of conduct and how do we decide what is right and wrong? Some argue that because standards of...
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...AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPERATIVES OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES by MARTIN ODEI AJEI submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the subject PHILOSOPHY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROFESSOR M. B. RAMOSE AUGUST 2007 Contents Declaration Acknowledgement List of Acronyms Key terms Summary vi vii viii x xi INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT AND PHILOSOPHY i. Statement of the Problem ii. Against Economism iii. Critique of Competition iv. Poverty is Unnatural v. Thesis Statement vi. Methodology vii. Structure of Dissertation 1 1 1 5 6 9 10 15 CHAPTER ONE: DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON AFRICA 1.1. What is Development 1.2. Development and Economic Growth 1.3. Schools of Development Thought and their Influence in Africa 1.3.1. The Modernization School and its Essential Claims 1.3.1.1. Growth Theory under Economic Liberalism 1.3.1.2. Evolutionary Theory 1.3.1.3. Functionalist Theory 1.3.1.4. Common Assumptions and Methodology 1.3.1.5 The Influence of Modernization on Development Practice in Africa 1.3.1.6. Critique of Modernization 1.3.2 Dependency Theory and its Essential Claims 21 21 25 27 27 28 29 30 32 34 36 39 i 1.3.3. The Theoretical Heritage of Dependency Theory 1.3.3.1. Structuralist Economics and the ‘Prebisch Thesis’ 1.3.3.2. Marxism 1.3.4. Common Assumptions of Dependency Theory 1.3.5. Criticisms of Dependency Theory 1.3.6. The Influence of Dependency Theory on African Development Practice...
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...Copyright © 1967 Adi K. Irani, Ahmednagar, India Copyright © 1987 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India. Seventh revised edition 1987. Third Printing, 1995. Cover photograph of Meher Baba, Meherabad, 1927. Copyright © Lawrence Reiter. Photograph retouching by Chris Riger. Frontispiece photograph of Meher Baba, Ahmednagar, 1945. Copyright © Lawrence Reiter. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. by Sheriar Press, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write: Sheriar Foundation, 3005 Highway 17 North ByPass, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 29577, U.S.A. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data: Meher Baba, 1894-1969. Discourses / Meher Baba. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-880619-08-3 : $25.00. - ISBN 1-880619-09-1 (pbk.): $15.00. 1. Spiritual life. I. Title. BP610.M43127 1995 299'.93-dc20 94-36972 CIP ISBN 1^880619-08-3 (previously ISBN 0-913078-573) ISBN 1-880619-09-1 (pbk.) (previously ISBN 0913078-584) ________________________________________________ v Contents FOREWORD ……………………………………………………. INTRODUCTION TO THE SEVENTH EDITION ………………......... THE...
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...14 Why start at ‘Dasein’? • “Zunächst und zumeist”: The quest to start without assumptions makes Heidegger examine how we live ‘first and foremost’ and ‘most of the time’. • Where else should we start? 15 Being-in-the-world ‘Always already in the world’ -> ‘Being-in-the-world’ And by ‘world’ we don’t mean a physical space that we can move around in. We rather mean something like ‘context’ NB. In “What We Talk About When We Talk About Context”, Paul Dourish makes the distinction between context as a representational (positivistic) and as an interactional (phenomenological) problem 16 The iconic example of a hammer What makes a hammer a hammer? Ein Ding / Thing? No, Zeug / ‘Equipment’ ”Equipment is a solicitation to act” 17 The door handle 18 An experiment! Vorhandenheit -> Zuhandenheit Present-at-hand -> Ready-to-hand 19 The origin of science Heidegger: Firstly and most of the time we are not scientists. Science only starts when the equipment breaks down. Consequence: Technology precedes science. Both historically and logically. Don Ihde: ”All science is technoscience” ”No instruments, no science” 20 Heidegger: Die Frage nach der Technik Another iconic contribution to the philosophy of technology. Most often as a punching bag. Many criticize Heidegger’s attempt to talk about the ”Technik” in singular. But when connected to Sein und Zeit, one can see that Heidegger is talking about a way to...
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... Potter ethics with the biosphere Now ethics having to do with the medical fields and professions A branch of applied ethics Introduction to ethics. I. II. To what extent is reasoning possible in ethics? One assumption: ethics is subjective A. If subjective then no disagree: Paul I like my coffee sweetened, Helen unsweetened: no disagreement B. If Paul “drs should sometimes assist their patient’s death, Helen: No (then real disagreement) C. There is a point here about disagreement A characteristic of ethics and ethical argumentation consistency: A. It is always wrong to kill a human being B. Abortion is not always wrong C. I am committed to holding that abortion isn’t always the killing of a human being a. This sets a limit on the subjectivity of ethics b. Another such limit: factual accuracy c. One can enjoy a taste without knowing what it is d. In ethics we have to understand the facts of the matter: patient’s prognosis, wishes etc in regards to resuscitation (2) Ethical relativism A. Similarity...
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