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We live the exciting times of transformative technologies. They are not mere instruments or neutral tools, simply operative; in fact, they reshape human practices in radical ways. Our aim with this special issue is to tackle the advent of new and emerging technologies using innovative ethical compasses. The diversity of approaches and problems to be found in this issue comes naturally from the plurality of these technologies as well as from the numerous ethical views competing to substantiate their moral assessment. The question is not only what moral impact these technologies could have upon humans (and not only humans), but also how our moral intuitions and dispositions are dictating responses to phenomena elicited by new technologies. In the call for papers we made the educated guess that philosophical analysis, even when it has some of its sources in intuitions and other grounding beliefs and cognitive attitudes, will produce a displacement from what is commonly shared in morality towards less ambiguous theoretical constructions which could not only explain but even anticipate the moral effects of technologies.
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Technological doping, like using gears in cycling, aerohelmets, or computers, shows us that doping can assist the human striving to be better. It can express and bring out talent. Our rules to limit enhancement needs to be based on the balance of reasons. Sport, and life, ought to preserve 4 values: •safety; •preservation of: o a test of human contribution or human element (spirit of sport), o costly commitment - effort, time, mixing one’s labour with the activity (work), other mind and authentic persona of the athlete: strategy, dispositions, personality. Technological doping shows that we need to think carefully about the values which really matter when we choose to interfere in autonomy and liberty, and restrict the development of human performance.
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Some skeptics question the very possibility of moral bioenhancement by arguing that if we lack a widely acceptable notion of morality, we will not be able to accept the use of a biotechnological technique as a tool for moral bioenhancement. I will examine this skepticism and argue that the assessment of moral bioenhancement does not require such a notion of morality. In particular, I will demonstrate that this skepticism can be neutralized in the case of recent neurofeedback techniques. This goal will be accomplished in four steps. First, I will draw an outline of the skepticism against the possibility of moral bioenhancement and point out that a long-lasting dispute among moral philosophers nourishes this skepticism. Second, I will survey recent neurofeedback techniques and outline their three features: the variety of the target human faculties, such as emotion, cognition, and behavior; the flexibility or personalizability of the target brain state; and the nonclinical application of neurofeedback techniques. Third, I will argue that, by virtue of these three unique features, neurofeedback techniques can be a tool for moral bioenhancement without adopting any specific notion of morality. Fourth, I will examine the advantages and threats that neurofeedback-based moral enhancement may have. Finally, I will conclude that neurofeedback-based moral enhancement can become a new and promising tool for moral bioenhancement and requires further ethical investigations on its unique features.
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Members of the general public may think that terms like ‘Big Data’ are only of relevance to technology geeks and Silicon Valley executives. The reality is that so-called “datafication” marks the beginning of a new human epoch that will have huge implications for all of us – especially generations being born right now. Understanding the ethics of tech has never been more critical than it is today, and any comprehensive analysis should have one of the most apparent challenges right at its core: what Big Data means for our personal autonomy. Some commentators have already expressed nervousness. They are concerned that data-driven technology could lead to the erosion some of our human capacities as we relinquish more and more of our decision-making to computers. This paper attempts to frame this emerging concern, before articulating three ways in which an increasing emphasis on Big Data seems to threaten our basic liberty. I identify these as: i) data overload and automation, ii) feedback loops and manipulation, and iii) types and prejudice. I will then argue that, although these factors undoubtedly present a challenge to aspects of our decision-making (and so ethical concerns aren’t entirely misplaced), human autonomy itself is not in danger of being significantly destabilized. Rather, the rapid shift in perspective that characterizes this new era of data, intelligence and mass connectivity simply demands that we reimagine the objects, but not the conditions, of agent autonomy. I will suggest ways in which we might mitigate some of the more pernicious aspects of these developments, before ultimately concluding that new attitudes and new opportunities for decision-making are actually counteractively extending the domain of the autonomous human agent in positive ways.
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This paper is concerned with evaluating the arguments given to support the prohibition of autonomous weapon systems (AWS). I begin by offering a definition of autonomous weapons systems, focusing on the kind of autonomy involved by this type of combat robots. I continue by exploring Ronald Arkin’s main arguments for ethical advantages in warfare that could be gained by the development and use of AWS (larger change of real world conflicts to actually comply with the international laws of war). The main part of the paper is dedicated to appraising what kinds of prohibition the international community can impose on such advanced weaponized robots and the kinds of arguments given by the proponents of such a ban. I propose a threefold classification of the arguments: epistemic, consequentialist and deontological. Of these three types of arguments, I argue that deontological arguments are the weakest, given the fact that their requirements are not satisfied by most weapons employed in war and that consequentialist arguments are more convincing if we are to ban the development of AWS. Regarding epistemic arguments and the legal arguments based upon them, they can be used to prohibit the use of AWS, but they seem to be neutral regarding the elaboration of these Artificial Intelligence based warfare technologies.
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Machine ethics is the branch of ethics concerned with the behavior of artificially intelligent systems. Cyborg ethics is the related field of investigation concerned with the ethics of human-machine hybrid systems. While these areas of ethical investigation are experiencing rapid growth urged by disruptive advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and human-machine interaction, yet their theoretical foundations continue to elude consensus among researchers. In fact, most attention in machine and cyborg ethics has been devoted to normative and applied ethical questions concerning the moral status of artificially intelligent systems, the moral permissibility of their application in specific contexts, and the normative principles governing the interaction between artificially intelligent systems and humans. While cyborg ethicists have discussed the ethical implications of integrating man and machines, machine ethicists have long debated on whether artificially intelligent systems have the cognitive capacities necessary for the attribution of moral status. It remains unexplored, however, what theory of cognition is best placed to explain and assess these cognitive capacities or competent actions, especially in relation to human-machine interaction. This contribution aims at harmonizing the theoretical foundations of, respectively, machine and cyborg ethics and argues that an externalist account of cognition based on the notion of extended mind might offer a valid substrate for such harmonization.
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The paper presents some specific elements of counseling, taken or derived from philosophy, which become the main working tools of new professions that are now emerging in Romania as well, namely philosophical counseling and ethics counseling, with their application in various areas of business, from individuals and groups, to organizations and companies, and even to institutions. Starting from the levels previously identified within organizations where these philosophical practices can take place, from managers to management teams, to workers of the organization or members of community, we highlight new concepts such as philosophical consultancy, philosophical leadership and applied ethics, for both the manager and the management team within a community, company or institution. We conclude that there is a need to develop training programs for specialists trained in ethics counseling and philosophical counseling so that they can work within any organization or institution, by acquiring new skills and abilities that can be generated by the specialization program thus outlined and these can be applied within the institutions or the contemporary business environment.
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Philosophical counseling is a growing and maturing field and it covers more and more areas of our everyday life. But how can we investigate, in a counseling setting, more intricate problems such as those associated with personal identity? How can we discuss with a non-philosopher about metaphysical issues, specifically about metaphysical perspectives on self and personhood? The present paper is trying to offer an answer to those questions, arguing that crucial philosophical questions could become relevant for our day-to-day life only if treated in a more practical manner than that usually encountered in an academic or pure theoretical setting. If philosophical counseling could offer such a practical perspective, it could truly contribute to transforming those philosophical questions and their answers into deeper guidelines for a better life.
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RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this paper is to consider the topicality of the Socratic ethical project in the context of the current debate on the problems and threats of globalisation processes. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The idea that there is any kind of compatibility between Socrates’ thought and the challenges brought on by globalisation, which seem to go far beyond the scope of his considerations, may be regarded as problematic. To give plausibility to this idea, a comprehensive research method will be used, which will combine the following aspects: a historical and philosophical analysis of accounts of Socrates’ life and teaching; a contextual analysis to reveal the historical and cultural background of Socratic ethics. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: An outline of Socrates’ dialecti cal method in its negative aspect as well as the historical and cultural context of his philosophy are given. The aporetic and elenctic elements of his method can be regarded as offering a third path for an ethics that wants to avoid the two extreme positions present not only in his own epoch but also today: 1) an uncritical trust in tradition, leading to the conviction about the power of one’s own values and the right to impose them on others; and 2) relativism, denying the possibility of any universal approach to morality. RESEARCH RESULTS: The critical project of Socrates philosophy was sup posed to be a remedy to ethical problems regardless of historically changing conditions in which those problems were formulated. However, the negative dimension of the Socratic method is a considerable obstacle if we want to apply this form of philosophical discussion in a world like ours, where fundamental cultural differences play a significant role. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Further research on the applicability of Socratic ethics in the context of globalisation is required. Future considerations should focus on anthropological and, above all, pedagogical dimensions of Socrates’ philosophy.
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The article investigates the ethical basis of education by making reference to Aristotle’s distinction between poiesis and praxis, indicating the serious difficulties that arise when this distinction is challenged, and analyzing the cultural, ethical, and educational context of emerging concepts that question the relevance of the distinction between production and improvement.The starting point of the analysis was the classical concept of natural law and the related question of “first things.” The author relates the distinction between praxis and poiesis to the two types of objectives and then analyzes selected relevant concepts.First, the notion of progress is invoked. Following Robert Spaemann, the article proposes a classification of types of progress. Then, it shows the relationship between type A progress – understood as production – to ideologies and totalitarianism. Following Eric Voegelin, it indicates the Gnostic origins of 20th-century intellectual and mass movements. The interpretations of modernism proposed by these authors are complemented by Chantal Delsol’s considerations. The article uses her metaphorical distinction between two types of attitudes toward the world. The figures of “the gardener” and “the demiurge” are evoked.The article invokes transhumanism as an example of the demiurgic attitude and a presents a polemic against the transhumanists’ accusations in the area of pedagogy. It points out that education must take freedom into account, and therefore cannot be understood as poiesis.
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The subject of this article is the actual – not only formal, but also factual – location of ethics as a school subject in the supervisory, managerial and organisational structure of the Polish education system. The research aim of the text is to argue – based on the domestic and foreign scientific literature, opinion-forming publications, and the author’s own work – that ethics is for some reason the only subject in the Polish education system whose rachitic and nebulous status can be described as institutional dispersion, or in other words, as dispersive (in)presence. The methodological instrumentarium of my paper consists of complementary methods of analysis and synthesis of sources and data, the method of comparative analysis, the method of contextual interpretation, the constructivist method and the method of exemplification. The line of argumentation of the article leads from demonstrating and analysing the location of ethics in the legal and education systems in force in Poland, with its consequences for the “ordopractic” functioning of ethics in the realities of Polish schools. In the next step, I discuss the issue of asynchronously differentiating the ethical domain in the education system, which causes it to be parcelled out and disintegrated between three uncoordinated domains: the subject matter, occasional ethical content, moral education and ethics lessons proper. The main line of argumentation of the article is the pivotal nature of ethics in Polish education. Its most serious consequence is its merely ersatz status, involving not only law and school usus, but also public perception.
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The article addresses the pedagogical achievements of Jacek Woroniecki. Reference is made to his works, in which he made ethics and the moral aspect the basic manifestation of educational activity. Guided by a concern for the proper moral level of people in all manifestations of their lives, Woroniecki created a body of work and thinking from which we can draw, regardless of the current conditions. The reflections resulting from them, prompting the reader to build morally good relationships between educators and pupil, make the subjectivity of a human being the basic paradigm of education, which is so important and inalienable in today’s reality as well.The subject of this article is therefore the topicality of Woroniecki’s views in relation to the contemporary space of educational influence. It points to the very important aspect of the integrity of ethics and pedagogy, which the thinker raises to constitute a pillar of his pedagogy, or more precisely, of aretology, a synthesis of the humanism of Greek paideia and Christian pedagogy. A separate section is devoted to epistemological references to the idea of paedagogia perennis, pointing to the cognitive inseparability of philosophy and pedagogy and – in relation to pedagogical practice – of upbringing and education. Taking into consideration the need for contemporary educators to constantly search for new educational paths, to take sometimes difficult directions in their professional practice, Woroniecki’s classic thought in the world of relativized values may turn out to be “the path leading man to moral maturity.” Woroniecki’s achievements in this respect definitely have a great, timeless pedagogical value.
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The aim of this paper is to reflect on how the many ethical problems concerning education relate to narrative structures that can be found in the process of education. This considerations, rooted in the works of Michael Oakeshott, Erik H. Erikson, Richard Pring and Arthur C. Danto, among others, refer in the first place to three kinds of narratives: instrumental ones, objective ones and subjective ones. Instrumental narratives, which are the ones that are used by the teachers in didactic processes (e.g. fables, anecdotes), are here discussed in the context of the problem of representation of marginalized groups in the schooling system. Objective narratives, the ones that are about the outside world and its social institutions, are here related to the moral rule of Erikson, which is that one should do to another what will advance the other’s growth even as it advances one’s own. Subjective narrations, the ones that the teachers as well as learners tell to themselves, are here shown in combination with the need for moral education of the youth. In all of these examples we see the perspective of narrative structures as good formal point of reference for the discussion of the moral problems of education.
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The importance of words has been emphasized by many ethicians and philosophers. Within interpersonal relationships, a significant di- mension of the analysis of the word is its value. Ethics is dependent on the value of words, since without honest words we cannot have a real dialogue or then build a trustworthy community. In this paper, the author tries to show that within such a philosophical framework, the most fundamental element is a question–answer relationship, which is a basic structure for a dialogue. Asking is given special consider- ation by the Polish philosopher and priest Józef Tischner, who sees a question as a kind of request in the world of poverty which de- mands an ethical response. In this article, the author also presents Tischner’s original philosophy of drama—especially in respect to his view on a dialogic relationship between people—and then relation- ships within various groups, from large societies and nations to small communities. The ethical, axiological, anthropological, and even agath- ological and ontological significance of dialogue as asking–responding are also presented as a basis for a deeper communication.
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In this paper, I argue that Spinoza’s theory of emotions as developed in his Ethics provides a theory of becoming. In particular, I argue that adequate knowledge of the emotions attained through reason provides human beings with a twofold insight; on the one hand, adequate knowledge of affectus provides metaphysical insight while, on the other hand, it provides ethical insight. The metaphysical insight stems from an adequate understanding of the directionality of individual desires which knowledge of the emotions provides in terms of self-knowledge. At the same time, the ethical insight consists in the adequate understanding of what counts with certainty as increasing an individual’s power of acting as deriving from the metaphysical understanding of the affection of one’s conatus. Overall, I argue that the adequate knowledge of emotions provided by reason lies at the core of Spinoza’s project of formulating guidelines for the attainment of human flourishing, that is, freedom.
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