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The text is an introduction to the discussion, presenting briefly the book that is its subject Etyka chrześcijańska dla postchrześcijańkiej epoki [Christian Ethics for the Post-Christian Age] by Sebastian Gałecki. The book tries to find an answer to the question of whether it is possible to re-merge the three traditions of Christian ethics (natural law, virtues, conscience) to create an ethical system expressed in a language understandable to contemporary culture, which consciously breaks up with his Christian heritage, although in fact he is still thoroughly penetrated by it.
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The subject of the article is an assessment of conceptualizations of the theoretical deficits in the doctrine of Christian ethics, both genuine and presumed ones, variously diagnosed by contemporary Christian moral philosophers. The article is a polemic with the theoretical approach to these deficits, as well as an attempt to overcome them, formulated by Sebastian Gałecki in his book Etyka chrześcijańska dla postchrześcijańskiej epoki [Christian Ethics for the Post-Christian Age] (2020). While appreciating the boldness of the theoretical task undertaken in his book, and the theoretical significance of the project of integrating various ethical trends now emerging within Christianity, I point out several serious shortcomings in implementing this commendable venture. I stress, among others, the excessively occidental point of view adopted by the author, questionable operationalization of the category post-Christianity in his diagnosis of contemporary social transformations, his neglect to analyze the causes, endemic to Church institutions, for the people to depart from the Christian ethical canon and the internal inconsistency of the attempt to integrate various theoretical perspectives of the contemporary Christian moral theology.
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The title issue is analyzed in the article in the space of co-thinking with Sebastian Gałecki, the author of the book Etyka chrześcijańska dla postchrześcijańskiej epoki [Christian Ethics for a Post-Christian Age]. The question of a model of ethics for contemporary times, which is rightly referred to as post-Christian, is one of the most important issues of contemporary ethical research. The author of the above-mentioned monograph wants to build this model by integrating three, in his opinion remaining in isolation, traditions of ethics: the theory of natural law, the theory of virtues and the theory of conscience, in their contemporary interpretation by J. Finnis, A. MacIntyre and J.H. Newman. Is such a path optimal for the question posed in the title of this article? The doubts and questions raised as a result of reading Gałecki’s dissertation sketch the framework of an answer to this question, drawing at the same time positive paths of reflection on the shape of ethics in the times of late modernity.
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The article refers to Sebastian Gałecki’s book Etyka chrześcijańska dla postchrześcijańskiej epoki [Christian Ethics for the Post-Christian Age], in which the author proposes the concept of such an ethics, based on a Christian foundation. At its core, it is a metaethical work, for which the prototype and inspiration were the taking of ethics by John Henry Newman, Alasdair MacIntyre and John Finnis. Broadening the research horizon of Gałecki’s book, it should be noted that all ethical systems are a challenge for contemporaries, because not only ethics, but every science conceived classically as theoria has only motivational power for practical life, and in social life it has an impact if it is translated into reliable popularization and effective dissemination of it. The “Christian” adjective merely specifies a particular ethic, determines it in a certain way, but does not modify it. Thus, Christian ethics is a proposal not only for concrete individual and social life, but also for theoretical ethical discussion. Nowadays, in the post-Christian era, argumentative pluralism is of great importance in this discussion. It has its foundation in the fact that the phenomenon of morality is always apprehended in the richness of its aspects, although often some of them are unjustly absolutized.
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The article is an invitation to rethink a new and not necessarily original question — the role of metaphor in scientific writing. The immediate pretext is the metaphor of the compass, map, and training, and, in another plan, “old wineskins into which new wine is poured.” These figures are used by Sebastian Gałecki as the culmination of his dissertation Etyka chrześcijańska dla postchrześcijańskiej epoki [Christian Ethics for the Post-Christian Age], confronting the three concepts: ethics of character efficiency (virtue) (Alasdair MacIntyre), conscience (John Henry Newman), and the new theory of natural law (John Finnis). Leaving aside the essence of the content of the dissertation, I try to identify several issues and threats related to the use of metaphors by the authors. In the Umberto Eco terminology, they are regarded as “hot” and methodologically problematic elements of reflection and the way of writing in science. Despite the doubts and reservations about the metaphor as an “unscientific” figure, I would like to defend the right to its correct use in philosophy, especially in ethics. As an example of such use, I consider their use in Sebatian Gałecki’s book.
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In my article, I would like to answer the most important remarks and critiques to my book Christian Ethics for the Post-Christian Age], made in discussion by Adam Chmielewski, Jan Krokos, Krzysztof Stachewicz, and Marcin Zdrenka. I have divided my answers into five groups. First I deal with formal comments. Then I will move to more factual remarks, concerning the relationship between Christianity and post-Christianity, the postulate of making the three traditions of moral inquiry more consistent and the role of metaphors in philosophical writing. Finally, I dealt with the remaining significant critiques that did not relate to any of the above topics.
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The article presents the interdisciplinary approach of Edwin Hutchins, analyzing his conception of distributed cognition as probably the most important and lasting contribution of anthropology to the repertoire of theoretical tools in cognitive science. At the same time, this conception resulted in one of the most interesting relationships between cognitive science and social sciences. These relationships are made possible by the assumptions of Hutchins’ conception, which directly contribute to interdisciplinary collaboration. His account of distributed cognition has enormous potential, allowing the integration of research into cognitive and social processes. This is also because it breaks with methodological individualism.
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The whole of this article is to present the theoretical research related to the origin of spiritual networks (in particular inner vision) and its purpose, from the point of view of biblical interpretations, referring to some specific theologians such as St. Augustine and Origen. In the historical aspect of Christianity, spiritual networks are considered in several aspects, corresponding to different philosophical sources. Spiritual networks are not just a metaphor, but are soon seen as the result of the activation of the subtle body, which in turn mediates between the soul and the sensitive former body.
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This text is an attempt to apply the theory of the polycode text to the thinking of the later Heidegger with a focus on his reflection on the phenomena of building and dwelling. The main point of departure will be his text "Building Dwelling Thinking", which has had a great impact on both architectural theory and practice, as well as on contemporary art and design theory. This will be considered in the context of Heidegger's reflection on the phenomenon of language.
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The 34th chapter of François Reynaert’s book “Our Ancestors the Gauls and Other Drivels. French History without the clichés” describes the main stages of colonisation and the French part in the race between European forces. The French colonial obsession started right after the Great Geographical Discoveries and took up with renewed vigour and pandemic enthusiasm in the beginning of the 19th c. before reaching its apogee in the 30s of the 20th c. The author denounces the myth of the Glorious French Empire of the late 19th and the early 20th c. – a myth fed up by nationalistic inducements. Reynaert does not spare the truth about exploitation, crimes, racism and inhumane politics, which went along with the tremendous expansion of the French colonial possessions at the time.
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Dimitar Vatsov’s new book, The Forces of Speech. A Radical Pragmatics (Sofia: Iztok-Zapad, 2021; in Bulgarian), could well be described as a conceptual encyclopedia of contemporary philosophy of language. It is encyclopedic as the amount of literature, traditions, and branches within larger trends that it covers, analyses, and critically evaluates, is enormous. Never before has there been such an effort, or a work of such scope, in Bulgaria; this is certainly the first and only one of its kind to date. However, it is also conceptual in the strict sense of the word. For the author has travelled the long path through the most authoritative writers and texts in the field from his own original perspective. This holds for his concept of language and linguisticality as well. Vatsov calls it radical pragmatics. His radical pragmatics represents an attempt to apply a new methodology to the entire variety of traditions in modern philosophy of language, as well as to throw bridges between the analytic, Anglo-American trends and the continental styles of doing philosophy.
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Learning from contemporary natural, formal, and social sciences, especially from biology, as well as from humanities, particularly contemporary philosophy of nature, requires updates of our old definitions of cognition and intelligence. The result of current insights into basal cognition of single cells and evolution of multicellular cognitive systems within the framework of extended evolutionary synthesis (EES) helps us better to understand mechanisms of cognition and intelligence as they appear in nature. New understanding of information and processes of physical (morphological) computation contribute to novel possibilities that can be used to inspire the development of abiotic cognitive systems (cognitive robotics), cognitive computing and artificial intelligence.
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Describing an algorithm can provide a formalization of a specific process. However, different ways of conceptualizing algorithms foreground certain issues while obscuring others. This article attempts to define an algorithm in a broad sense as a cultural activity of key importance to make sense of socio-cognitive structures. It also attempts to develop a sharper account on the interaction between humans and tools, symbols and technologies. Rather than human or machine-centered analyses, I draw upon sociological and anthropological theories that underline social practices to propose expanding our understanding of an algorithm through the notion of ‘collective intentionalities.’ To make this term clear, a brief historical review is presented, followed by an argumentation on how to incorporate it in an integral perspective. The article responds to recent debates in critical algorithm studies about the significance of the term. It develops a discussion along the lines of cognitive anthropology and the cognitive sciences, therefore advancing a definition that is grounded in observed practices as well as in modeled descriptions. The benefit of this approach is that it encourages scholars to explore cognitive structures via archaeologies of technological assemblages, where intentionalities play a defining role in understanding socio-structured practices and cognitive ecologies.
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In this paper, we examine the meta-ontology of AI systems with human-level intelligence, with us denoting such AI systems as AIE. Meta-ontology in philosophy is a discourse centered on ontology, ontological commitment, and the truth condition of ontological theories. We therefore discuss how meta-ontology is conceptualized for AIE systems. We posit that the meta-ontology of AIE systems is not concerned with computational representations of reality in the form of structures, data constructs, or computational concepts, while the ontological commitment of AIE systems is directed toward what exists in the outside world. Furthermore, the truth condition of the ontology (which is meta-ontological assumption) of AIE systems does not require consistency with closed conceptual schema or ontological theories but rather with reality, or in other words, “what is the world” (Smith, 2019, p.57). In addition, the truth condition of AIE systems is verified through operational success rather than by coherence with theories. This work builds on ontological postulates about AI systems that were formulated by Brian Cantwell Smith (2019).
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In this paper, we focus on the analysis of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s concept of “coherent extrapolated volition” (CEV) as a response to the need for a post-conventional, persuasive morality that meets the criteria of active trust in the sense of Anthony Giddens, which could be used in the case of autonomous machines. Based on the analysis of the results of the Moral Machine project, we formulate some guidelines for transformation of the idea of a coherent extrapolated volition into the concept of a coherent, extrapolated and clustered volition. The argumentation used in the paper is intended to show that the idea of CEV transformed into its clustered version can be used to build a technically and socially efficient decision-making pattern database for autonomous machines.
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The title question of the paper has its empirical origin in the form of an individual’s existential experience arising from the personal use of a computer, which we attempt to describe in the first section. The rest of the entire paper can be understood as a philosophical essay answering the question posed. First the connection between the main problem of the article and its “premonition” by mankind, which was expressed in the form of ancient myths and legends, is briefly suggested. After shortly discussing the problems that early considerations of AI focused on, i.e. whether machines can think at all, we move on to reformulate our title question, about the possibility of outsmarting AI. This outsmarting will be understood by us in a rather limited way as to prevent a machine from completing its implemented task. To achieve this objective, after softly clarifying the basic terms, an analogy is built between the “outsmarting” of a machine by a human (the target domain) and the playing of a mathematical game between two players (the base domain), where this outsmarting is assigned a “winning strategy” in the certain game. This mathematical model is formed by games similar to Banach-Mazur games. The strict theorems of such games are then proved and applied to the target of the analogy. We then draw conclusions and look for counter-examples to our findings. The answer to the title question posed is negative, and it is not clear how far it should be taken seriously.
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Scientific knowledge is acquired according to some paradigm. Galileo wrote that the “book of nature” was written in mathematical language and could not be understood unless one first understood the language and recognized the characters with which it was written. It is argued that Turing planted the seeds of a new paradigm. According to the Turing Paradigm, the “book of nature” is written in algorithmic language, and science aims to learn how the algorithms change the physical, social, and human universe. Some sources of the Turing Paradigm are pointed out, and a few examples of the application of the Turing Paradigm are discussed.
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