(Christian) Bioethical Dilemmas in Using Synthetic Biology and Nanotechnologies

Author(s): Antonio Sandu,Ana Caras (Frunza) / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2013

Ethical dilemmas raised by the use of nanotechnology in medical practice can be viewed from several perspectives: religious spiritualist perspective, the perspective of human dignity (nanotechnologies can be thought of as an affront to human dignity), the issue of controversial choice. The article aims to expose some bioethical dilemmas in using synthetic biology and nanotechnologies. Nowadays is often brought into discussion the fact it is possible to appear in the future new human species resulted not via natural selection and evolution, but through the demiurgic effect of technology development in areas such as: synthetic biology, genetics, neurobiology and neurosciences, prosthesis technology and not least of artificial intelligence research. We will also refer into this paper at the possible raised challenges to ethicists who are oriented towards an ethics of species. Those challenges are raised right from the dawn of a consciousness of species, a social construction generated by changes of the meaning of belonging to humanity. During our article we argue that medical technology, especially genetics, medical assisted human reproduction and not least synthetic biology, require a rethinking ethical meanings of applying those technologies in everyday practices.

(Nie)obiektywna podmiotowość

Author(s): Piotr Piotrowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 36/2016

In this article, I analyze the issue of subjectivity in the form in which it appears in Charles Taylor’s and Richard Rorty’s writings. Positions of these philosophers are generally regarded as contradictory. I will, however, argued that the position on subjectivity represented by Rorty finds its complementation in Taylor’s concept. To do this, I will show firstly that both Rorty and Taylor use the category of contingency, presenting some common thesis about subjectivity. This way I will show that the location of the category of subjectivity and the scope of its use in each of them concept is closely related to the understanding of objectivity accepted by each of them. This will allow then to reconstruct the concept of subjectivity presented by Taylor and Rorty. Next, in the conclusion, I will present such a summary of those two standpoints, which will include justification of the thesis of their complementarity.

A philosophical investigation in machine understanding. The case of implicit meaning

Author(s): Maria Wilkowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/2013

The question of machine thinking and understanding, once initiated by Alan Turing, has puzzled scholars from various disciplines. This paper aims at investigating some of the facets involved in the topic of machine language understanding with particular interest devoted to indirect meaning comprehension (more specifically, the implicature). So far as the subject under examination – the chatbot – manages to understand directly conveyed information, still much is to be done with respect to implicit data in which everyday messages (formulated in ordinary language) abound. This situation generates a number of not only hard-science questions but also, more importantly, given the viewpoint of this paper, it gives rise to a considerable amount of philosophically- oriented and frequently neglected issues and dilemmas too. This study is a brief investigation of exactly those phenomena.

A PLEA FOR THE PLURALITY OF FUNCTION

Author(s): Tony Cheng / Language(s): English / Issue: 15/2016

In this paper I defend a pluralistic approach in understanding function, both in biological and other contexts. Talks about function are ubiquitous and crucial in biology, and it might be the key to bridge the “manifest image” and the “scientific image” identified by Sellars (1962). However, analysis of function has proven to be extremely difficult. The major puzzle is to make sense of “time-reversed causality”: how can property P be the cause of its realizer R? For example, “pumping blood” is a property of hearts, but a property of hearts cannot be the cause of the presence of hearts, since properties cannot predate their realizers and be causes of them. In section 2 I discuss Wright’s etiological analysis, Cummins’ causal-role analysis, and their critics. In section 3 I defend a version of the “consensus without unity” strategy proposed by Godfrey-Smith from Christopher Boorse’s recent critique (2002). In Section 4 I conclude by reflecting on the relation between functional discourses and physicalism.

A Process Identity: The Aesthetics of the Technoself. Governing Networking Societies

Author(s): Oana ?erban / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

The main aim of this article is to analyse the relationship between two innovative concepts—the technoself and process identity—from a perspective inspired by process ontology. The working hypothesis is that industrialized and mass societies entered into a post-industrial or informational sphere of capitalism, becoming networking societies—also known as knowledge-based societies—which closely followed their role in approaching the plural identity of the digital Subject and the surveillance practices exercised in its governance as correspondent models for the changes of the current reality. The first section of the article is devoted to research on the technoself, a concept recently introduced by Luppicini in 2013. Criticizing the technoself in terms of process ontology and as a result of digitalization, subjectivity, and technical rationality, I will argue that the constitution of digital subjects, as well as their interactions, should be defined in terms of processes. Therefore, I introduce the concept of process identity—which includes the technoself—and explain how this approach contributes to the development of different research fields (such as speculative realism and object-oriented ontology) and how it affects Floridi’s distinction between digital ontology and informational ontology. The second section focuses on the effects of the digital environment on self-constitution practices and techniques, virtual worlds experiencing what Foucault recognizes as the aesthetics of existence. In the final part, I confront Bentham’s and Foucault’s panopticism, arguing that based on what is accomplished by process identities, networking societies represent societies of control, not disciplinary ones, and consequently this distinction should be applied in governing virtual communities. In the end, I will explain why notions such as digital personae or databased selves are insufficient, and should be replaced by the concepts of process identity and technoself, respectively, in order to improve the models of governing networking societies.

A Short Note on the Scientific Attitude, the Religious Attitude and the Surrational

Author(s): Bruno Marchal / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

We explain that the scientific attitude, with a “good understanding” of what is science, might be the most genuinely religious attitude, and that in fact, religion and science are much closer than what we are usually told. Nevertheless they cannot be identified effectively in any terrestrial applications without leading to inconsistency, but are truly, and thus non effectively, identical in the ever guessed true realm.

A transformation in islamic thought: the house of wisdom (bayt al-hikmah) in the context of occidentalism versus orientalism

Author(s): Ismail Tas / Language(s): English / Issue: XXIII/2011

The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) was built first as a library where the books on the sciences of the Ancients were kept. Under the sponsorship of the Caliph Al-Ma’m¯un (813–833), it developed into a scientific institute where the books on Ancient Greek philosophy were translated into Arabic. The Caliph acquired many Greek manuscripts and generously supported the translation activities in the House. By the end of the century, Arabic translation of the major works of the Greek philosophy and science had been completed. Thus, the Caliph and his House paved the way for the rise and flourish of Islamic philosophy and science.

ABOUT PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING

Author(s): Arto Mutanen / Language(s): English / Issue: 89/2016

Knowledge is, by definition, reliable and, hence, it can be applied to a variety of different problems. Nevertheless, in practical problem solving, we do not rely on mere truthful knowledge, but also on information which frames the practical acceptability. We are not looking for truthful solution but an optimal solution. Optimal solution is found out by optimizing some given (practical) parameters. The optimization is both theory based and practice based process. That is, practical problem solving is a human deliberation that interconnects theoretical and practical knowledge. So, the philosophical foundation of practical problem solving interconnects theoretical and practical philosophy. Especially ethical deliberation plays – or should play – central role in practical problem solving. The complexity of the advanced scientific knowledge needed in solving present day practical problems separates the people who know, from the people who do (decide). The situation makes immediate that we need some deeper pedagogical conviction: we need ecological education.

ABSOLIUTIZMO IR RELIACIONIZMO KONTROVERSIJA: NEWTONAS VS. LEIBNIZAS

Author(s): Jonas Ciurlionis / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 90/2016

The article deals with a controversy between absolutist and relationist conceptions of space and time. Comparison between Newton’s and Leibniz’s theories is drawn. Points of view of other philosophers who took part in the discussion are also analysed. Strong and weak parts of both theories are revealed. The article is not aimed at taking sides in the debate rather it provides the reader with a possibility to construct his own assessment. The publication states that premises of both conceptions of space and time are metaphysical rather than physical. However, this classical debate is still relevant in today’s modern scientific context.

Accepting our best scientific theories

Author(s): Seungbae Park / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2015

Dawes (2013) claims that we ought not to believe but to accept our best scientific theories. To accept them means to employ them as premises in our reasoning with the goal of attaining knowledge about unobservables. I reply that if we do not believe our best scientific theories, we cannot gain knowledge about unobservables, our opponents might dismiss the predictions derived from them, and we cannot use them to explain phenomena. We commit an unethical speech act when we explain a phenomenon in terms of a theory we do not believe.

Agon-kompleks

Author(s): Luka Perušic / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 03/139/2015

Considering the three orders in the cosmic assembly (macrocosm, microcosm and mesocosm), using an integrative analysis of cosmological understandings of variously-oriented metaphysicists and scientists, I firstly reach to a conclusion on entanglement of two developed cosmic principles that define the relational totality of objects and meanings. The first I term gathering- one-allness, which I describe with arhe-complex. The second I term itself-against-striving, which I describe with eris-complex. On the basis of a shift from enclosed systems (non-living being) to open systems (living being), I elaborate how arhe- and eris-complex create logoscomplex and agon-complex and in what way this new entanglement passes through corporeality (microcosm) to society (mesocosm), in the broadest sense appearing as a strife between realpolitics and utopian striving. In further development, I suggest an articulation of the current world state with the term biopolitical agon in which the power flows through infosphere relays. It is based on dismembering the living into convertible information that contains power in the ability to regulate and be regulated, i.e. the ability of the biopolitical to subdue logos with agon through logos itself, which I attempt to explain by matching this issue with previously mentioned phenomena. With corporeality as an instrument of transformative bitisation, I further discuss societal leaning towards cancelling the original purpose of logos-complex and depowering it regarding the control of bodily articulation of its own purpose-defining. This I shortly outline and then route back to the research’s starting point.

Albert’s Optical Treatise on the Mirror Image in the Fourteenth-Century Hebrew Translation by Judah Romano

Author(s): Carsten Wilke / Language(s): English,Hebrew / Issue: XXI/2015

The Italian Jewish philosopher Judah Romano, who flourished in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, was in his time among the most prolific translators of Latin scholastic texts into Hebrew. His mostly unedited writings include selections from the physical works of Albert the Great, which are of interest for the development of Hebrew scientifi c terminology as well as for the circulation of scholastic thought among Jewish audiences. The present article presents a critical edition of Judah’s translation of Albert’s short treatise "De forma resultante in speculo" (“On the image reproduced in the mirror”), which is conserved in three Hebrew manuscripts, respectively kept in Florence, Parma, and Oxford, under the title Ha-tsurah ha-neḥqeqet be-mar’ah. Th anks to Henryk Anzulewicz, who published in 1999 a critical edition and a thorough study of the Latin original, it is possible to detect the peculiar textual features of the Hebrew translation and to place the latter’s lost Latin model inside the complex transmission of De forma. From its peculiar angle, the Hebrew reception of "De forma" sheds light on the conditions and motivations of the wider circulation of Albertian science during the Late Middle Ages

Alice Returns From Wonderland

Ontological Frameworks for Explanation from Contemporary Quantum Theories

Author(s): Mladen Domazet,Mladen Domazet / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2012

Alice returns from Wonderland discusses scientific explanation and its importance for scientific knowledge. The classical ideal of coherence and completeness of physics was shaken in the early 20th century with the appearance of quantum mechanics, and this opened the floodgates of skepticism about the explanatory potential of science. Through extensive examination of principle and constructive approaches to methodology and explanation in quantum theory, Domazet discusses realist and antirealist approaches to scientific enterprise as a whole. The need for modification of the everyday conceptual framework through modification of some foundational units of the realist material ontology arises. The book argues for the reintroduction of the metaphysical component of science; to base explanations of empirical phenomena on ontological commitments. Despite the unfamiliar phenomena like quantum teleportation, imaginary Alice finds a way to hold on to familiar macroscopic objects, as one of many instances of durable generalized objects subjected not only to spatio-temporal constrictions but also to ontologically primitive fundamental laws of temporal evolution.

Alice’s Adventures in Scienceland

Author(s): Tina Bilban / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2015

Lewis Carroll based much of his nonsense humour and curious themes in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass on his expertise in logic and mathematics. Years after the books were written, Alice, under the guidance of new authors, is experiencing new adventures in different regions of Scienceland, from Quantumland to Computerland. Situations, characters and concepts from Carroll’s books on Alice are often reused in different scientific fields to illustrate scientific phenomena. Alice has become an archetype placeholder name for experimentalists in physics and cryptology. Carroll’s books on Alice have been adopted by the scientific community and it seems that, although it is characteristic for science to keep changing, Alice’s adventures in Scienceland are here to stay.

An Aristotelian Account of Evolution and the Contemporary Philosophy of Biology

Author(s): Mariusz Tabaczek / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2014

The anti-reductionist character of the recent philosophy of biology and the dynamic development of the science of emergent properties prove that the time is ripe to reintroduce the thought of Aristotle, the first advocate of a “top-down” approach in life-sciences, back into the science/philosophy debate. His philosophy of nature provides profound insights particularly in the context of the contemporary science of evolution, which is still struggling with the questions of form (species), teleology, and the role of chance in evolutionary processes. However, although Aristotle is referenced in the evolutionary debate, a thorough analysis of his theory of hylomorphism and the classical principle of causality which he proposes is still needed in this exchange. Such is the main concern of the first part of the present article which shows Aristotle’s metaphysics of substance as an open system, ready to incorporate new hypothesis of modern and contemporary science. The second part begins with the historical exploration of the trajectory from Darwin to Darwinism regarded as a metaphysical position. This exploration leads to an inquiry into the central topics of the present debate in the philosophy of evolutionary biology. It shows that Aristotle’s understanding of species, teleology, and chance – in the context of his fourfold notion of causality – has a considerable explanatory power which may enhance our understanding of the nature of evolutionary processes. This fact may inspire, in turn, a retrieval of the classical theology of divine action, based on Aristotelian metaphysics, in the science/theology dialogue. The aim of the present article is to prepare a philosophical ground for such project.

AN AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHY OF VEGAN PRAXIS AND ENCOUNTERS WITH THE MEAT-EATING CYBORG

Author(s): Lynley Tulloch / Language(s): English / Issue: 15/2016

This paper is an experimental auto-ethnography based on an explication of my personal journey and vegan praxis as an academic, poet and writer. Through narrative, poetry and short stories it explores the cultural phenomena of institutionalized forms of animal use in late-stage capitalism. Donna Haraway’s notion of the cyborg – a cybernetic organism that is both a human and a machine – is used to argue that in fusing the human body with the cultural inscriptions of science, capitalism and modernity, meat-eating fails to become a simply “natural” process (i.e. personal body and the body politic are one). Our bodies become culturally inscribed with the technological codes that become our very flesh. When meat-eating is considered in terms of the meat-eating “cyborg” it can be regarded as central to the Western plot of ever escalating domination of animals/nature. It is argued that through processes of bio-power, the categorization of certain animals constitutes a form of “framing” as “animals-becoming-meat” which renders them legitimately “killable” (Giraud, 2013; Rowe, 2011). In addition, through vivisection animals become the mere material fodder for experiential analysis without due attention being paid to their subjectivity.

Analiza krytyczna Bernarda Williamsa koncepcji filozofii

Author(s): Pawel Pijas / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2012

The aim of this text is to reconstruct metaphilosophical standpoint of Bernard Williams. According to presented interpretation his stanpoint consists of following theses: (1) Science has privileged cognitive access to the reality. Two arguments are given to support the claim: (1a) the argument from convergence, and (1b) the 'error theory' argument. (2) From (1) follows that Williams' basic standpoint in metaphysics is naturalism. (3) From (1) and (2) together follows that Williams' concept of philosophy is non-autonomous one. (4) The aim of the philosophy according to that concept is to make sense out of human intellectual and practical activities. (5) Williams accepts and uses three philosophical methods in his programme: the method of a conceptual analysis, the method of genealogy, so-called quasi-phenomenological method. At the end of text there are critical remarks on Williams' naturalism and on arguments that are supporting this standpoint.

ANALOŠKI KORIJENI OBJAŠNJENJA U IBN AL-HAYTHAMOVIM NAUČNIM METODAMA ISTRAŽIVANJA

Author(s): Maksuda Muratovic / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 63/2015

This article elaborates upon Ibn Al-Haythams use of “Qiyas” (conclusion and induction with analogy) as a method of experimental research in natural sciences. The article analyses the tools of analogical method of research, domain of its applicability in study of natural phenomenon discussing the example from the history of natural sciences which applies analogical qiyas methodology: Ibn Al-Haytham’s method of research in optics. Qiyas was familiar to the Islamic culture as a research method in studies of religious jurisprudence. The movement itself can be considered as an important turning point in the history of science offering a new method of research. The use of this methodology in natural sciences at that time made a significant contribution to the development of natural sciences.

Antiteologija novoga događaja

Alain Badiou i kontingencija politike

Author(s): Žarko Paic / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 10-12/2015

Jezici u kojima je riječ »novo« sinonimom bezuvjetnoga raskida s tradicijom u metafizičkim su temeljima dovoljno »stari« da bi imali mogućnosti istinskoga kazivanja tog imperativa vremena. Kao da umjesto njih o našem vremenu bolje govori ono neljudsko iz sklopa kibernetičke tehnologije. Programski jezici računalstva zasnovani na binarnome kôdu postali su nadmoćni simboličkoj snazi »prirodnih« jezika. Štoviše, čini se da su u svojoj zastarjelosti osuđeni na ono isto što je suvremeni francuski filozof Alain Badiou namijenio filozofiji. Da je, naime, njezina sudbina postati izložbenim »predmetom« u muzeju ukoliko ne uspije otvoriti mogućnosti nadilaženja ove epohe. A ta epoha od 19. Stoljeća za svoje presudne pojmove ima znanost, politiku i umjetnost.

Apibrėžimas Kaip Medija Scholastinėje Mokslo Teorijoje

Author(s): Vytis Valatka / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 81/2014

The article investigates the second cognitive media of the scholastic theory of science, i. e., definition. The author of the article compares the scholastic and contemporary conceptions of definition, scrutinizes the distinction between the definition and the unmediated simple intellective apprehension of the universal nature, and also reveals the relation between definition and demonstration. The article concludes that within the framework of the scholastic theory of science, the definition was considered a more perfect scientific tool than demonstration. On the other hand, the scholastics emphasized that perfect scientific cognition requires both cognitive media. According to them, one can reach, retain and communicate the full-scale of scientific knowledge only by combining and connecting definition and demonstration.