Ex-Machina and Morgan, two recent science-fiction films that deal with the creation of humanoids, also explored the relationship between artificial intelligence, spatiality and the lingering question mark regarding artificial consciousness. In both narratives, the creators of the humanoids have tried to mimic human consciousness as closely as possible, which has resulted in the imprisonment of the humanoids due to proprietary concerns in Ex-Machina and due to the violent behavior of the humanoid in Morgan. This article addresses the dilemma of whether (...) or not the humanoids in both films possess high levels of artificial consciousness and its possible consequences regarding focalization, a narrative term that presupposes subjectivity, as well as offer two new categories of posthuman focalization—X-focalization and A-focalization. The issue of captivity also has far-reaching ethical implications when considering the underlying assumption of artificial consciousness—if humanoids are indeed endowed with a subjective inner life, then they are entitled to be treated as moral agents, equivalent to humans rather than animals. (shrink)

Two studies demonstrate that a dispositional proneness to disgust (“disgust sensitivity”) is associated with intuitive disapproval of gay people. Study 1 was based on previous research showing that people are more likely to describe a behavior as intentional when they see it as morally wrong (see Knobe, 2006, for a review). As predicted, the more disgust sensitive participants were, the more likely they were to describe an agent whose behavior had the side effect of causing gay men to kiss in (...) public as having intentionally encouraged gay men to kiss publicly— even though most participants did not explicitly think it wrong to encourage gay men to kiss in public. No such effect occurred when subjects were asked about heterosexual kissing. Study 2 used the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Nosek, Banaji, & Greenwald, 2006) as a dependent measure. The more disgust sensitive participants were, the more they showed.. (shrink)

A strange fusion of history and autobiography, this study ranges across the themes of sound and silence, solitude and desert, community and home, combining the past and the present, the historical and the personal, in a unique way. Driven by the conviction that “our sounding world deeply shapes our sense of place and of who we are,” Haines-Eitzen, a scholar of early Christianity, seeks to understand how early monasticism was shaped by the soundscape of the Middle Eastern deserts, but also (...) what it means to orient ourselves to a place through listening. Drawing on her field recordings of desert sounds (recorded in the deserts of Israel and North America and made available in the book through barcodes that can be scanned), Haines-Eitzen argues that hearing the nuances of desert sounds requires a “deep listening” founded on inner quietness, and she evokes this state through tales of the Desert Fathers, who spent decades in the deserts of the Middle East trying to cultivate this inner disposition. Their spiritual quest, according to Haines-Eitzen, was shaped by the “acoustic ecology” of the desert—the ever-present sounds of wind, thunder, water, animals, and even humans; their stories, preserved in early monastic sources, “reveal how monks became part of the natural history of the desert, [and] how they were shaped by their experience of desert sounds.”As an academic study of early monasticism (though I am not sure if the book was intended as such), Sonorous Desert is lacking in critical ways, and the monastic sources do not receive the attention and rigorous treatment they deserve. The monastic test cases examined serve as stepping stones in the author's own quest for inner quietness. But the reader who overcomes initial bewilderment over the book's methodology and style does gain something important: a new sensitivity to “the acoustics of solitude”—to the “striking acoustical paradox of the noisy and silent desert.” The Near and Middle Eastern deserts, far from being empty and silent, were (and still are) richly resonant and sonorous. Not only their landscapes but also their soundscapes helped to shape the religious quest of Christian monks, in late antiquity and beyond. By making us aware of and sensitive to the sonority of early monastic texts, Sonorous Desert contributes to a richer and more holistic view of early monastic spirituality. (shrink)

The acceptance of the concept of necessary linguistic cate­gories has given renewed prominence to the subject of ontology in contemporary discussions of language and logic. Jack Kaminsky, Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Binghamton, here contributes an important expo­sition of this school of thought. He examines the views of many philosophers who either admit or deny that ontological com­mitments are necessary, and he raises broad questions and shows why there is a compelling interest in (...) the relation of a formal language to the issue of ontological inquiry. (shrink)

It is shown that both classical and intuitionistic propositional logics of an associative binary modality are undecidable. The proof is based on the deduction theorem for these logics.

Lucette's suicide left me indifferent. This time I knew it was coming, but years ago, when I first read Ada, or Ardor, I also felt relatively indifferent (apart from the element of surprise) to learn about her sudden death. I was aware of my indifference at the time and was surprised at my (non)reaction. It surprised me yet again in my recent rereading of the novel. Manipulating and withholding the reader's engagement with the text and empathy toward a character may (...) have been part of the author's intention, of course. But for me, this lack of emotional engagement with Lucette's fate is emblematic of what I find problematic in Nabokov's admittedly brilliant novel: though intellectually challenging and aesthetically pleasing, Ada (unlike Lolita, for example) is not emotionally engaging. Of course, not all readers find such engagement an important feature of the reading experience, but I do. For this reader, its absence makes Ada (both with and without the italics) a gorgeous but empty shell.Ada's reader, activated by an urge to dig out buried clues, finds that deciphering a clue—aside from the joy to which it may give rise—contributes little to the characters’ reality, to the breadth and depth of their fictional humanity. Instead, Van and Ada remain, throughout the novel, more superhuman than human, endowed with almost supernatural excellences and perfections (their intellect, their looks, their way of life, their unique capacities and skills). Nabokov's heroes indeed bring to mind Nietzsche's Übermensch and the philosopher's critique of traditional ethics. It seems to me that his view of what constitutes human greatness is echoed in the charismatic figures of Van and Ada, whose outlook—an outlook privileging virtues such as aestheticism, intelligence, individuality, and human “greatness”—appears to embody a Nietzschean revaluation of values, privileging an aesthetic outlook on morality. As an amateur of Nabokov, therefore, I was surprised to see that very little has been written about this Nietzschean presence in Ada. An aesthetic revaluation of values is, however, what Ada delivers. As Michael Wood observes, “Nabokov would have hated the association [of his own name with Nietzsche's], but... the connection is not arbitrary.”While this association—whether it was intentional or not—surely contributes to the novel's intellectual breadth and complexity, it adds nothing to the psychology of its main characters. Instead, Van and Ada's übermenschliche qualities—their human “greatness”—seem to be inborn, part of their aristocratic nature, rather than acquired through transformative struggle. I suspect that it is this lack of transformation in the characters that undermines the reader's engagement with their fate. This lack makes Nabokov's family chronicle much less memorable than Tolstoy's.In the first sentence of Ada (“All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike”), Nabokov parodies by reversing the famous first sentence of Anna Karenina and thereby, as Robert Alter argues, reverses “the major thematic movement of the novel as a genre”: whereas Tolstoy's novel concerns lost illusions, Ada “is an attempt to return to paradise.” Nabokov's swing away from Tolstoy is startling and impressive but fails to convince me that the paradise inhabited by the happy Veens is superior to the lost illusions of the Karenins. Even in death, Anna is more alive than Ada. (shrink)

The uniquely human emotion of disgust is intimately connected to morality in many, perhaps all, cultures. We report two studies suggesting that a predisposition to feel disgust is associated with more conservative political attitudes, especially for issues related to the moral dimension of purity. In the first study, we document a positive correlation between disgust sensitivity and self-reported conservatism in a broad sample of US adults. In Study 2 we show that while disgust sensitivity is associated with more conservative attitudes (...) on a range of political issues, this relationship is strongest for purity-related issues—specifically, abortion and gay marriage. (shrink)

The realm of bioethics has long been underpinned by the foundational concept of "personhood," which delineates entities meriting moral and legal consideration on the basis of attributes such as con...

Despite the wealth of recent work implicating disgust as an emotion central to human morality, the nature of the causal relationship between disgust and moral judgment remains unclear. We distinguish between three related claims regarding this relationship, and argue that the most interesting claim (that disgust is a moralizing emotion) is the one with the least empirical support.

It is shown that the expressive power of second-order propositional modal logic whose modalities are S4.2 or weaker is the same as that of second-order predicate logic.

A popular view in philosophy of science contends that scientific reasoning is objective to the extent that the appraisal of scientific hypotheses is not influenced by moral, political, economic, or social values, but only by the available evidence. A large body of results in the psychology of motivated-reasoning has put pressure on the empirical adequacy of this view. The present study extends this body of results by providing direct evidence that the moral offensiveness of a scientific hypothesis biases explanatory judgment (...) along several dimensions, even when prior credence in the hypothesis is controlled for. Furthermore, it is shown that this bias is insensitive to an economic incentive to be accurate in the evaluation of the evidence. These results contribute to call into question the attainability of the ideal of a value-free science. (shrink)

Background Moral distress is a well-recognized term for emotional, cognitive, and physical reactions of professionals, when facing conflicts between perceived obligations and institutional constraints. Though studied across medical roles, limited research exists among physiotherapists. Research Question What factors contribute to Moral distress among physiotherapists and how do they cope? Objectives To develop and test a multifaceted model of Moral distress and gain an in-depth understanding of the phenomena. Research Design A 2017–2022 mixed-methods study: (1) Survey of 407 physiotherapists quantitatively testing (...) a literature-based model analyzing relationships between Moral distress, Moral sensitivity, Locus of control, Self-efficacy, Ethical climate perceptions and demographics, analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics, multiple comparisons and structural equation modelling (SPSS26, SAS, AMOS); (2) Semi-structured interviews with 21 physiotherapists examining Moral distress experiences using meticulous phenomenological analysis. Participants and Context Israeli physiotherapists from various occupational settings recruited via professional networks. Ethical Considerations The Haifa University Ethics Committee authorized the study. Informed consent was obtained for the anonymous survey and before interviews regarding recording, and quote use. Findings Quantitative results showed moderately high average Moral distress, significantly higher among women and paediatric physiotherapists, positively correlating with Moral sensitivity. Qualitative findings revealed intense emotions around Moral distress experiences, inner conflicts between care ideals and constraints, and coping strategies like reflective skills. Senior therapists, despite higher self-efficacy and moral sensitivity, still reported persistent high distress. Discussion Moral distress has complex links with moral sensitivity, self-efficacy, perceived professional autonomy and organizational support. A renewed framework emerged explaining relations between moral distress and personal, professional and organizational factors. Conclusions Multidimensional insights help identify Moral distress causes and coping strategies among physiotherapists, advancing theory. Conclusions can shape ethics training programs and competencies. (shrink)

We motivate and formalize the idea of sameness by default: two objects are considered the same if they cannot be proved to be different. This idea turns out to be useful for a number of widely different applications, including natural language processing, reasoning with incomplete information, and even philosophical paradoxes. We consider two formalizations of this notion, both of which are based on Reiter’s Default Logic. The first formalization is a new relation of indistinguishability that is introduced by default. We (...) prove that the corresponding default theory has a unique extension, in which every two objects are indistinguishable if and only if their non-equality cannot be proved from the known facts. We show that the indistinguishability relation has some desirable properties: it is reflexive, symmetric, and, while not transitive, it has a transitive “flavor.” The second formalization is an extension (modification) of the ordinary language equality by a similar default: two objects are equal if and only if their non-equality cannot be proved from the known facts. It appears to be less elegant from a formal point of view. In particular, it gives rise to multiple extensions. However, this extended equality is better suited for most of the applications discussed in this paper. (shrink)

We address two questions regarding the relationship between political ideology and responses to threatening or aversive stimuli. The first concerns the reason for the connection between disgust and specific political and moral attitudes; the second concerns the observation that some responses to threat (i.e., neuroticism/anxiety) are associated with a moreleft-wingpolitical orientation.

Entscheidungen verweisen in einem begrifflichen Sinne auf Gründe. Entscheidungssysteme bieten eine probabilistische Verlässlichkeit als Rechtfertigung von Empfehlungen an. Doch nicht für alle Situationen mögen Verlässlichkeitsgründe auch angemessene Gründe sein. Damit eröffnet sich die Idee, die Güte von Gründen von ihrer Angemessenheit zu unterscheiden. Der Aufsatz betrachtet an einem Beispiel, einem KI-Lügendetektor, die Frage, ob eine (zumindest aktuell nicht gegebene) hohe Verlässlichkeit den Einsatz rechtfertigen kann. Gleicht er nicht einem Richter, der anhand einer Statistik Urteile fällen würde?

The paper outlines a conceptual framework for the critical assessment of argumentation which differs in some of its core characteristics from conventional approaches: it is resolutely semantic rather than formal in its method; it centers on obligations rather than beliefs; and its analytical focus is on the contingent necessity of conclusions, rather than on their persuasiveness or formal validity. The paper briefly illustrates the applications of this conceptual framework by reanalyzing a couple of examples taken from the argumentation analysis literature.

Persons infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus often experience intermittent life-threatening infections, a progressive decrease in cognitive abilities, and a loss of capacity to communicate their wishes to their family and medical care providers. Accordingly, AIDS patients are among those most likely to benefit from the increased availability of legally recognized forms of advance care planning. Although the three countries examined in this article differ greatly in the prevalence of HIV infection, the legal status of advance directives, and in the (...) attitudes toward their use, a collection of case studies is used to demonstrate that an ability to address the specific needs, values and goals of individual patients is promoted by the availability of a variety of options for implementing advance directives or health care proxies. The conclusion of the analysis is that the best option in a specific context will depend upon differences in individual values and medical objectives of the sort discussed in the case studies. Das mit der HIV-Infektion verbundene Krankheitsbild ist durch wechselnde lebensbedrohliche Infektionen und den fortschreitenden Verfall kognitiver Fähigkeiten gekennzeichnet. Es führt zudem häufig zum Verlust der Möglichkeit, Behandlungswünsche gegenüber Ärzten und Angehörigen zu äußern. Deshalb gehören besonders AIDS-Patienten zu denjenigen, die von rechtlich anerkannten vorsorglichen Patientenverfügungen profitieren werden.In diesem Artikel werden drei Länder betrachtet, die sich hinsichtlich der Häufigkeit des Auftretens der HIV-Infektion sowie des rechtlichen Status von und der Einstellung zu Patientenverfügungen erheblich unterscheiden. Fallstudien belegen allerdings, daß nicht allein die kulturellen und sozialen Bedingungen für die jeweils beste Form der Patientenverfügung ausschlaggebend sind. Voraussetzung für die Möglichkeit, den Bedingungen, Wert- und Zielvorstellungen des individuellen Patienten zu entsprechen, ist auf jeden Fall die Verfügbarkeit unterschiedlicher Formen von Patienten- und Betreuungsverfügungen. Auch innerhalb eines Kulturkreises müssen daher verschiedene Formen vorsorglicher Willensäußerungen des Patienten rechtlich anerkannt werden. Welche Art von Verfügung jeweils die beste Option darstellt, ist dabei abhängig von medizinischen Bedingungen und persönlichen Wertvorstellungen, wie sie in den Fallstudien diskutiert werden. (shrink)