Realism, irrationality, and spinor spaces

Author(s): Adrian Heathcote / Language(s): English Issue: 75/2023

Mathematics, as Eugene Wigner noted, is unreasonably effective in physics. The argument of this paper is that the disproportionate attention that philosophers have paid to discrete structures such as the natural numbers, for which a nominalist construction may be possible, has deprived us of the best argument for Platonism, which lies in continuous structures—in fields and their derived algebras, such as Clifford algebras. The argument that Wigner was making is best made with respect to such structures—in a loose sense, with respect to geometry rather than arithmetic. The purpose of the present paper is to make this connection between mathematical realism and geometrical entities. It thus constitutes an argument against formalism, for which mathematics is merely a game with humanly set rules; and nominalism, in which whatever mathematics is used is eliminable in the final analysis, by often insufficiently specified means. The hope is that light may be cast on the stubborn mysteries of the nature of quantum mechanics and its mathematical formulation, with particular reference to spinor representations—as they have been developed by Andrej Trautman. Thus, according to our argument, quantum mechanics (QM) may appear more natural, as we have better reasons to take spinor structures as irreducibly real, a view consonant with the work of Trautman and Penrose in particular.

Conferinţa internaţională On the Objectivity of Scientific Knowledge. Models and Theoretical Representations of Structure and Progress in Science. Thomas Kuhn’s Legacy, Institutul de Filosofie și Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei R

Author(s): Oana Vasilescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 6/2023

Congresul (modest intitulat „conferinţă”) internaţional On the Objectivity of Scientific Knowledge. Models and Theoretical Representations of Structure and Progress in Science. Thomas Kuhn’s Legacy, organizat (online) la București de Institutul de Filosofie și Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române (Ilie Pârvu, Mircea Dumitru, Marius Augustin Drăghici), între 29 septembrie și 3 octombrie 2022, a constituit un eveniment de anvergură, cu precădere graţie participării unor personalităţi care nu mai au nevoie de nicio prezentare, precum Graham Priest, Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Sandu Popescu, David Rosenthal, Michael Potter, Timothy Williamson, și a unor specialiști recunoscuţi în domeniu, precum Vasso Kindi, Alejandro Cassini, Ilie Pârvu, Hernán Pringe, Mircea Flonta, David J. Stump, Lydia Patton, Bogdan Suceavă, Iulian D. Toader etc. Evenimentul în sine ar merita o dezbatere extinsă, dar, din motive de spaţiu, ne vom limita aici la o foarte succintă aducere în atenţia cititorilor a unor aspecte semnificative din câteva dintre conferinţele susţinute în cadrul congresului.

Introduction to topo-philosophy

Author(s): Roman Krzanowski / Language(s): English Issue: 75/2023

In philosophy, it is always refreshing to introduce unconventional ideas. It requires a certain audacity from the author; he or she may face the wall of silence or be shunned by academia, both treatments being undesirable. However, these are more rewarding than gathering laurels for beating the dead philosophical cats like Humes, Leibnitzs, Wittgensteins, Whiteheads, and others, a practice that for many philosophers is their life's opus. Bartłomiej Skowron’s book Part and Whole: Towards Topo-Ontology, published by Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Warszawskiej in 2021, certainly does not fall into this category. Skowron undertakes a discovery trip into an unknown land in his book, exploring new philosophical territories.

Conceivably Urgent Actions Could Provide Extreme Benefit

Author(s): Richard Woesler / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

AIs and vaccines can be of great benefit for humanity, e.g. vaccines vs COVID-19 and vs conceivable future pandemics. The author is sure that there are urgencies; firstly, it should be tried to allow protection alternatives – which are sufficiently save according to authorities – in healthcare, for which results are computed here using official data from 1990 till Jan 26, 2024; secondly, it could be considered to treat an AI – chatbot, robot, etc. – not badly, also if an AI is neither conscious nor sentient. The author sketches how it could be beneficial also for whole society, science, vaccine and AI developers. Due to a new reason using a previous study based on math ideas, e.g., the author inevitably tries to treat all entities (e.g. humans and AIs, also if AIs are neither conscious nor sentient) ethically and at least cheaply altruistically; in future it could conceivably yield that all entities – e.g. persons and AIs, including AIs which are neither conscious nor sentient – could increase probability for such behavior, with benefit for all.

Iššūkiai politinės reprezentacijos raiškai didžiųjų duomenų laikais

Author(s): Kristina Eidikytė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 2 (114)/2024

This article deals with the problem of the change in the theoretical conception and practical realisation of political representation in the era of big data, i.e. in the 20th and 21st century, when IT data processes have become an almost integral part of the political life of citizens. Based on the concepts of the philosophers F. Ankersmit and J. Baudrillard, the article analyses why, despite the arguments of critical data studies, the forms of political representation affected by big data are still considered objective. After presenting research on the characteristics of political representation in the information technology-dominated public sphere and smart cities, the article identifies signs of the decline of contemporary political representation: the compression of public space and the legitimation processes of datafication facilitated by big data in the smart city. The continuation of the article’s theme and the analysis of the problems are recommended to be pursued in the field of post-political discussions.

В поисках «Третьего Рима» на родине Филофея

Author(s): Natalia Dmitrievna Nikolaeva,Ilia Viktorovich Nikolaev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2 (34)/2023

Information about the Summer Humanitarian School «In search of the Third Rome: Five Centuries of Russian Metaphysics of Power», which took place on July 31 – August 06, 2023 in the Pskov Spaso-Eleazar Monastery.

Gwarancja dla odrobiny umysłu

Author(s): Dorota Chabrajska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2023

W eseju podjęte zostało zagadnienie zmiany kulturowej zachodzącej w rezultacie coraz silniejszej obecności sztucznej inteligencji w świecie wartości ludzkich. W analizie odniesiono się do problemów, na które wskazują filozof nauki i matematyk John C. Lennox oraz inicjator badań nad sztuczną inteligencją Elon Musk. W szczególności podjęto zagadnienia zmiany statusu humanistyki w kulturze oraz formalizacji aktywności kulturowej i powszechnie przyjmowanego w związku z nią prymatu rozwiązań algorytmicznych nad doświadczeniem jednostkowym. W tym kontekście przedstawiono zagadnienie świadomości w odniesieniu do sztucznej inteligencji i „myślących” maszyn, a także wskazano, że praca tych maszyn jest zasadniczo różna od pracy umysłu ludzkiego, który nie podlega algorytmizacji i skutecznie funkcjonuje, dysponując nawet niewielką liczbą danych. Przywołano tezę Lennoxa o tendencji do stosowania w dyskursie na temat sztucznej inteligencji języka antropomorfizującego, który sprawia, że zatracamy pojęciowy dystans między rozumieniem umysłu a rozumieniem matematycznego konstruktu, którym są „myślące” maszyny. Wskazano również na – podkreślane przez Noama Chomsky’ego – różnice między nabywaniem języka przez człowieka, a uczeniem się go przez ChatGPT i zarysowano kulturowe oraz społeczne zagrożenia związane z zastosowaniem sztucznej inteligencji w celu prowadzenia inżynierii społecznej.

Evoluția miturilor Modernității în Transumanism, din perspectivă teologică ortodoxă

Author(s): Dorin Gabriel Pandele / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2021

Faithful to the divine Revelation, the Orthodox Church fully values the deified human being by the uncreated grace of the Holy Spirit and ennobled through the transforming ascetic efforts. From this perspective, as a strictly personal opinion, we have to reject the utopia of the enhanced man. This fatal utopia is the fruit of an entire evolution of the main myths of the Modernity. Thus, the myth of efficient reason becomes in Transhumanism the myth of the Artificial super-intelligence, the myth of the technological progress becomes the myth of the endless progress, an ideology of the progress, and the myth of the Superman becomes the myth of the improved man.

Reţelele memetice ascendente şi descendente ca produse evoluţioniste, rolul lor în dinamica polarizării şi a conflictului cultural şi potenţialul lor pentru creşterea toleranţei democratice

Author(s): Doru Valentin Căstăian / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2021

The main goal if this article is to define memetic networks as evolutionary structures that act in cultural and social space like genoms act in natural enviroments. So, memetic networks are assemblies of memes that are saved in cultural memory through various devices and that can become active in peoples` minds dependent on their natural, cultural and social enviroments. These networks are complex, emergent and adaptive, therefore they act like REAC networks, following particular dynamics and having complex interactions with various enviroments. They also have vectorial characteristics, being either ascendent or descedant. Our suggestion is that their vectorial structure is directly linked to old biological evolutionary mechanisms as endostasis and exostasis. We also imply that this understanding of memetic networks as complex tools for adaptation has the potential to lead to increased democratic tolerance and to a different approach to polarization and cultural conflict.

The Appropriation of Skanderbeg by Balkan Historiographies - The {Mis}Use of Historical Sources -

Author(s): Boban Petrovski / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2018

George Kastriot Skanderbeg is well-known World figure. In the Middle Ages he was the undisputed leader in the struggle against Ottomans not only in the territories of present-day Albania and northwestern parts of Macedonia but throughout the Balkans and even wider at least in Italy and Vatican.

Co mohu poznat, a co jen uznat? Výchozí epistemologické problémy ve filosofii Roberta Spaemanna

Author(s): Vojtěch Šimek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 66-67/2024

The paper analyses two preliminary epistemological problems in Robert Spaemann’s philosophy that have not yet been addressed as mutually linked. The common root of both problems lies in the way Spaemann specifically applies Kant’s statement “being is not a real predicate”. The first problem concerns the criteria for distinguishing between waking and dream cognition, the second the criteria for distinguishing a living being from a simulation. The analysis shows, among other things, the broader context of Spaemann’s epistemological position, its three main characteristics, and Spaemann’s specific use of the term Anerkennung (“acknowledgement”), which he adopted from German idealism.

To the Origins of the True Existence of Western Thinking: Martin Heidegger and the Ghosts of the European Mind

Author(s): Viktor Okorokov / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2024

Objective. To show that despite the enormous efforts of M. Heidegger, he failed to find a new way of thinking. Scientific novelty. It is shown that the meeting of two different streams of historical thinking – the destructive thinking of Heidegger, who never stood on the ground of the Pre-Socratics (although he strived for this all his life), and the Pre-Socratic, which gradually lost its vitality in subsequent European culture, never took place. The different streams of thinking – the ancient Greeks and Heidegger – never crossed. The early Greeks sought to understand the nature of essence, that is, they were looking, according to Heidegger, for the first beginning of thinking (and for this they tried to use the tools of openness of thinking, but did not understand its reasons), while Heidegger, who consistently went through a long path of liberation from all the European ones known to him methods of understanding nature, on the contrary, sought to find ways to understand the true nature of human existence, that is, he looked for the second principle of thinking (but also failed to reveal its origins). It was found that European culture throughout its history has stopped between these two extreme streams of thinking – aimed, on the one hand, at the world of things (essence) and, on the other, at the inner world of man (existence), but in both of these streams there are genuine the beginnings of thinking remained unheard. The analysis shows that throughout his life, Heidegger was looking, in fact, not even for being, but for the being of thinking; more precisely, he was looking for thinking that could exist synchronously with the thought of the ancient Greeks, which allowed him, on the one hand, – to reveal the fall of European culture, and on the other hand, to try to find the motives for future thinking. In our opinion, Heidegger heard the main problem of European culture: logos does not illuminate thinking, does not carry either natural or divine light, it is only similar to a given (often artificial) logical scheme. All ancient religions spoke about this. The ancient Greeks knew this; Plato and Aristotle replaced the true divine light with a system of ideas, concepts, categories and logic. It seems that the concealment of the true light (nature and gods) is the path of the fall of European culture, about which Nietzsche, Wagner and Heidegger wrote. Thinking exists only where consciousness disintegrates in the spatio-temporal topos of its existence. And logos, as this study shows, can only exist in a split consciousness. Based on this, it is increasingly clear that we have not learned to think like the Greeks and, moreover, in our selfishness we may finally lose this opportunity. On my own behalf, I would like to add: what Heidegger failed to achieve can be clarified along the paths of contact between Western and Eastern thought.

Večitá Božia prítomnosť v relativisticky chápanom vesmíre

Author(s): Ľuboš Rojka / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2024

The traditional concept of a temporarily present God in Open Theism more closely aligns with religious and biblical understandings of God than does the classical timeless concept. Divine temporal knowledge and causality require, however, a dynamic theory of time and absolute time, concepts that most theorists of relativity challenge. The standard version of presentism, as proposed by W. L. Craig, has not been well received in the scientific community. A more effective solution to conceptualizing God’s temporal presence in a relativistic universe involves reinterpreting the Theory of Relativity as pertaining to measurements of local times, which do not interfere with the unique cosmic “now”. In this view, Minkowski’s space-time does not need to be interpreted solely as a geometric representation of the effects of natural forces, as Craig suggests, but it can be argued that even if realistic, it does not exclude a unique present.

National Conference with International Participation “Philosophy of Medicine: Approaches and Perspectives”

Author(s): Vera Lyubenova / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

ITEMS OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTEXT

Author(s): Violeta Bercaru Oneață / Language(s): English Issue: 38/2024

The essence of this study is the acquaintance of an array of knowledge, the Analytical Psychology, with an encompassing of certain assets of modern Physics, to undertake a cultural construction surveyed at the same time, possibly, by glimpses of metaphysical insights.

Artificial Intelligence in Academic Media Environment: Challenges, Trends, Innovations

Author(s): Alina Mysechko,Anastasia Lytvynenko,Arsen Goian / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (hereinafter AI) opens up a variety of opportunities for creativity, innovation, and productivity improvement, particularly for students and academics in media specializations. However, it also causes a fundamental transformation in the studying approach. Additionally, there are several challenges in the implementation, adaptation, and use of AI as a learning method in the academic environment. Both possibilities and challenges are identified and analysed in this study. The empirical results of the research show which AI tools are most popular in the academic media community and reveal how they are used by academics and future media professionals based on the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The survey results also provide insights into opinions about ChatGPT as one of the main digital study aids in the academic environment. The study also suggests the review of universities worldwide from the perspective of allowing or prohibiting artificial intelligence in the studying process. Content analysis concerning the establishment of policies on AI usage helps determine whether the academic world is adapting to the new reality or rejecting it. Overall, the media environment already uses AI daily, so the academic community should also be prepared for this new reality. However, it is crucial to play by the rules. Finally, this research concludes that the ideal solution for integrating AI into innovative education is the creation of specific rules and ensuring their observance. This approach could be the right way to prevent risks, overcome challenges, and maximize the benefits of AI usage. Finally, the authors have developed basic recommendations for writing AI guidelines by higher education institutions (hereinafter – HEIs) and offered them in the article.

Press Start to Work: Gamification and Precarisation of Gig Work in Contemporary Media Art

Author(s): Olympia Contopidis / Language(s): English Issue: 38/2024

Platformy cyfrowe takie jak Lyft, Uber, Wolt i Flink, podjęły intensywne wysiłki, aby uczynić pracę dla nich bardziej „zabawną”, w celu zmotywowania swoich pracowników i zwiększenia ich wydajności. Niniejszy artykuł analizuje, w jaki sposób kapitalizm platformowy przeplata grywalizację i prekaryzację pracy, prowadząc do coraz większego rozmycia pracy i wypoczynku. Wykorzystując utwory wideo Delivery Dancer’s Sphere (2022) Ayoung Kim i Platform (2022) Johannesa Büttnera jako studia przypadków, tekst analizuje, w jaki sposób tamatyka grywalizacji i prekaryzacji pracy za pośrednictwem platform dostawczych jest podejmowana i krytykowana we współczesnej sztuce mediów oraz w jaki sposób zarówno Kim, jak i Büttner wykorzystują estetykę i mechanizm gier.

Immersion. Between simulation and re-entanglement

Author(s): Felix Stalder / Language(s): English Issue: 38/2024

Immersja w sztuce jest często kojarzona ze złożoną, najnowocześniejszą technologią. Jednak ten skoncentrowany na technologii pogląd ogranicza nasze rozumienie immersji. Powinna być ona postrzegana jako normalny stan percepcji, podczas gdy brak immersji jest historycznie i kulturowo specyficznym stanem stworzonym przez „stare media”. Estetyka współczesnej immersji jest kształtowana przez cyfryzację i katastrofę klimatyczną, i prowadzi w dwie różne strony: w kierunku tworzenia pełnej symulacji lub w stronę doświadczeń budujących ponownie połączenia z szerszym światem. Pomysł, że świat jest przed nami, jest sprzeczny z ludzkim doświadczeniem, ale został stworzony przez narzędzia kultury technicznej, z centralną perspektywą i prasą drukarską na czele. Cyfryzacja i zmiana klimatu podważają tę koncepcję i przekonanie, że świat jest zapełniony przez bierne obiekty. Kryzys klasycznej zachodniej estetyki nie jest niczym nowym, ale jego świadomość miała niewielki oddźwięk społeczny poza polem sztuki. Kwestia estetyki immersji jest pilna, ponieważ różne jej rodzaje inaczej kształtują społeczną percepcję zmiany klimatu i wpływu cyfryzacji, a także wpływają na sposób, w jaki doświadczamy świata i naszego miejsca w nim.

BOSKIE AI. SZTUCZNA INTELIGENCJA I EDUKACJA. POSZUKIWANIE NOWYCH HORYZONTÓW W KONTEKŚCIE EDUKACYJNYM, TEOLOGICZNYM I TECHNOLOGICZNYM – SZANSE I ZAGROŻENIA

Author(s): Michał M. Bukowski,Iwona Klonowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2024

This article is a presentation of a short, barely two hundred-year history of the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is a prologue to considerations on the subject of the AI Deity. The authors omit the Greek myths of Hephaestus and Pygmalion, which already in ancient times presented the idea of intelligent automata, such as Talos or artificial beings Galatea and Pandora. The thoughts of Yan Shi or Aristotle, who before our era presented mechanical solutions to today’s achievements, have also been omitted. Eighteen centuries of our era are a period of development of mechanical solutions, which led in the early 19th century to the creation of the first programmable machines. Therefore, the focus is on the years 1800-2024 and a review of the development of this field of science, focusing of course on significant milestones. The entire period from before our era to today is the development of various types of religions and Deities. Therefore, the last part presents the development of religion and a discussion on whether AI will become the next Deity in the near future. The ongoing evolution has an impact on education as well as on the relational aspect between people.

The Reception of Neptune’s Discovery in British and American Protestant Theology

Author(s): Zenon E. Roskal,Jacek Rodzeń / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2024

The discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, first theoretically and then observationally, was a 19th-century event that went beyond the interests of the narrow group of astronomers of the time. Indeed, the significance of this event is still a subject of interest among historians and philosophers of science. During the period discussed, natural theology played a special cognitive and social role, forming the basis for arguments based on the new knowledge of nature. This article discusses how the discovery of Neptune was received among the community of 19th-century British and American Protestant theologians, who were always open to scientific research and discoveries.