There has been a surge of recent interest in sociocultural diversity in machine learning research. Currently, however, there is a gap between discussions of measures and benefits of diversity in machine learning, on the one hand, and the broader research on the underlying concepts of diversity and the precise mechanisms of its functional benefits, on the other. This gap is problematic because diversity is not a monolithic concept. Rather, different concepts of diversity are based on distinct rationales that should inform (...) how we measure diversity in a given context. Similarly, the lack of specificity about the precise mechanisms underpinning diversity’s potential benefits can result in uninformative generalities, invalid experimental designs, and illicit interpretations of findings. In this work, we draw on research in philosophy, psychology, and social and organizational sciences to make three contributions: First, we introduce a taxonomy of different diversity concepts from philosophy of science, and explicate the distinct epistemic and political rationales underlying these concepts. Second, we provide an overview of mechanisms by which diversity can benefit group performance. Third, we situate these taxonomies of concepts and mechanisms in the lifecycle of sociotechnical machine learning systems and make a case for their usefulness in fair and accountable machine learning. We do so by illustrating how they clarify the discourse around diversity in the context of machine learning systems, promote the formulation of more precise research questions about diversity’s impact, and provide conceptual tools to further advance research and practice. (shrink)

El artículo propone una resolución a una aporía presente en el pensamiento de Hannah Arendt a propósito de la banalidad del mal y el perdón. La banalidad del mal implica una renuncia del agente a pensar, una despersonalización, de tal modo que no se puede sostener, en rigor, que haya persona: no hay un quién en la acción. El problema es que, para Arendt, el sentido mismo del perdón estriba en que se dirige a la redención de la persona de (...) su pasado. Por tanto, la aporía de la banalidad y del perdón es que no hay a quién perdonar. La condición estructural-fenomenológica que permite el aparecer de la persona es el pedir perdón, en la medida en que solo el pedido da cuenta de la reconstitución de la persona en el pensar y la devuelve al espacio del aparecer que posibilita el emerger del perdón. (shrink)

Este texto reflete sobre o constructo teórico de massas e a concepção de homem massa como fundantes e estruturais na compreensão dos totalitarismos nazista e stalinista, presentes na obra Origens do Totalitarismo (ARENDT, 1989) de Hannah Arendt. Conclui-se que o totalitarismo é uma organização de massa, que possui características específicas e que as massas são manipuláveis a partir de determinados aspectos específicos dos movimentos totalitários. Analisa-se o que é homem de massa e como tal concepção é fundamental para compreender outros (...) conceitos importantes da pensadora política. Assim, a partir das reflexões aqui desenvolvidas, torna-se possível incrementar novas perspectivas nas análises de conceitos como totalitarismo, banalidade do mal, política, poder, violência, amplamente estudados e debatidos não só na filosofia, como nas ciências sociais, ciências políticas, psicologia, estudos organizacionais e administração. As reflexões aqui propostas permitem também fazer paralelos com a realidade atual, levando em consideração, obviamente, o cuidado de evitar anacronismos analíticos. (shrink)

For the epic journey of autumn migration, long-distance migratory birds use innate and learned information and follow strict schedules imposed by genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, the details of which remain largely unknown. In addition, bird migration requires integrated action of different multisensory systems for learning and memory, and the hippocampus appears to be the integration center for this task. In previous studies we found that contrasting long-distance migratory flights differentially affected the morphological complexity of two types of hippocampus astrocytes. Recently, (...) a significant association was found between the latitude of the reproductive site and the size of the ADCYAP1 allele in long distance migratory birds. We tested for correlations between astrocyte morphological complexity, migratory distances, and size of the ADCYAP1 allele in three long-distance migrant species of shorebird and one non-migrant. Significant differences among species were found in the number and morphological complexity of the astrocytes, as well as in the size of the microsatellites of the ADCYAP1 gene. We found significant associations between the size of the ADCYAP1 microsatellites, the migratory distances, and the degree of morphological complexity of the astrocytes. We suggest that associations between astrocyte number and morphological complexity, ADCYAP1 microsatellite size, and migratory behavior may be part of the adaptive response to the migratory process of shorebirds. (shrink)

Advances in genetic and genomic research have introduced challenges in obtaining informed consent for research in low and middle-income settings. However, there are only few studies that have explored challenges in obtaining informed consent in genetic and genomic research in Africa and none in South Africa. To start filling this gap, we conducted an empirical study to investigate the efficacy of informed consent procedures for an H3Africa genomic study on Rheumatic Heart Disease at the University of Cape Town in South (...) Africa. The main aim of the study was to understand ethical challenges in obtaining informed consent in the RHDGen study. We used a qualitative study methodology involving in-depth interviews and participant observations. Our study participants were RHDGen cases, healthy controls and research staff involved in the recruitment of RHDGen cases and controls. In total, we conducted 32 in-depth interviews with RHDGen cases and controls, 2 in-depth interviews with research staff and 57 direct observations of the consent procedures of RHDGen cases and controls. The interviews were conducted in English, audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The study was conducted in 3 sites within Cape Town, South Africa. Most healthy controls joined the RHDGen study in order to be screened for rheumatic heart disease. A majority of RHDGen cases decided to join the RHDGen study because of therapeutic misconception. The ethical challenges that impacted on obtaining informed consent in the RHDGen study were complex. In this study, the main challenges were diagnostic misconception among RHDGen controls and therapeutic misconception among RHDGen cases. (shrink)

Este estudo objetiva relacionar a felicidade epicurista, particularmente a partir da análise da Carta a Meneceu, de Epicuro (341 a.C.-260 a. C.) ao sofrimento psíquico de pós-graduandos stricto sensu, pertencentes ao atual sistema social capitalista. A pesquisa de campo e de método mistos, utilizou como instrumento para a coleta de dados um survey interseccional, respondido por 76 discentes de um Programa de Pós-Graduação stricto sensu em Educação (PPGE), localizado no estado do Paraná-PR. A análise dos resultados ocorreu a partir do (...) conceito de felicidade expresso por Epicuro de Samos, além de pesquisadores contemporâneos que dissertam sobre o conceito de felicidade na contemporaneidade. Os resultados indicam que há uma ascendência nos casos de sofrimento psíquico dentro do ambiente acadêmico da pós-graduação, o que gera descontentamento, ansiedade e, consequentemente, infelicidade. Observou-se também que o sistema social capitalista, nos distancia da temperança, da ética e da moralidade, não obstante, também da felicidade enquanto conceito epicuriano. (shrink)

In this paper we present two compatible hypotheses to explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary studies, we tested our predictions. In a survey with 838 respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 (...) individuals, we investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several dimensions of the participants’ social lives. In support of the Learning Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities. (shrink)

A dicussion between Frans de Waal and Evan Thompson with Jim Proctor as interviewer.

We show that TTOM has a lot to offer for the study of the evolution of cultures, but that this also brings to the fore the dark implications of TTOM, unexposed in Veissière et al. Those implications lead us to move beyond meme-centered or an organism-centered concept of fitness based on free-energy minimization, toward a social system-centered view.

Background The rise in genomic and biobanking research worldwide has led to the development of different informed consent models for use in such research. This study analyses consent documents used by investigators in the H3Africa (Human Heredity and Health in Africa) Consortium. Methods A qualitative method for text analysis was used to analyse consent documents used in the collection of samples and data in H3Africa projects. Thematic domains included type of consent model, explanations of genetics/genomics, data sharing and feedback of (...) test results. Results Informed consent documents for 13 of the 19 H3Africa projects were analysed. Seven projects used broad consent, five projects used tiered consent and one used specific consent. Genetics was mostly explained in terms of inherited characteristics, heredity and health, genes and disease causation, or disease susceptibility. Only one project made provisions for the feedback of individual genetic results. Conclusion H3Africa research makes use of three consent models—specific, tiered and broad consent. We outlined different strategies used by H3Africa investigators to explain concepts in genomics to potential research participants. To further ensure that the decision to participate in genomic research is informed and meaningful, we recommend that innovative approaches to the informed consent process be developed, preferably in consultation with research participants, research ethics committees and researchers in Africa. (shrink)

RESUMOO presente artigo analisa processos de alterização na biologia humana e na biomedicina. A alterização é entendida aqui como o processo cultural de produção de alteridades por meio da delimitação, rotulação e categorização das formas possíveis de ser outro, desde um determinado marco de referência sócio-histórico. Ainda que a alterização faça parte de qualquer processo de delimitação de categorias de identidade no seio de uma cultura - e, nesse sentido, possa apresentar visões do outro tanto positivas quanto negativas -, aqui (...) nos interessamos especificamente na alterização como fator de marginalização e exclusão social de diferentes grupos humanos. São analisados diversos processos de alterização operantes nos discursos e nas práticas das ciências biomédicas ao longo de sua história recente, os quais têm conduzido à exclusão social de diferentes categorias de outros, ou a tratá-los como inferiores, em pretendidas bases científicas, ou em função de determinadas práticas institucionalizadas dentro da comunidade científica. Exemplos típicos de grupos marginalizados pelas ciências ocidentais ao longo de sua história incluem as raças não europeias, as mulheres, os homossexuais e os "pobres". O principal objetivo do presente artigo é analisar, na história recente das ciências biomédicas, esses processos de alterização que têm conduzido à marginalização de tais grupos e a considerá-los como inferiores. ABSTRACTThis article analyzes processes of "othering" in human biology and biomedicine. Othering is understood here as the cultural process of production of otherness by means of the delimitation, tagging, and categorization of the possible ways of being "other" within a given socio-historical context. Although othering can be considered as a constitutive aspect of any process of delimitation of identities within a given culture - and in this sense it can present both positive and negative views of the "other" -, in the present article we are specifically interested in processes of othering that lead to the marginalization and social exclusion of different human groups. We will analyze processes of othering, which have operated in the discourses and practices of biomedical sciences throughout their recent history, that have led to the social exclusion of different categories of "others", or to treating them as inferior, and that have supposedly scientific bases or as a consequence of the institutionalization of certain practices within the scientific community. Typical examples of these "others", marginalized by the Western sciences throughout their history, are the non-European "races", women, gay and lesbian people, and the "poor". The main objective of this article is to analyze, in the recent history of the biomedical technosciences, these different processes of othering that have led to the marginalization of such "others" and to treating them as inferior. (shrink)

A través de un repaso a las teorías científicas más ortodoxas (a fines del siglo XIX) acerca de la diversidad biológica en nuestra especie —tal y como aparecen en la obra de autores como Darwin, Broca, Huxley, Haeckel, Vogt, etc.— el presente artículo propone la existencia de una conexión ideológica entre las teorías evolutivas sobre las así llamadas "razas humanas" (especialmente los modelos darwinistas sobre evolución humana), y las jerarquías raciales que, a su vez, establecía la lógica económica del imperialismo (...) occidental. (shrink)

Heidegger no advirtió la función del fenómeno narrativo en su proyecto de la «hermenéutica de la facticidad» (1923). Una investigación sobre este fenómeno profundiza en el significado de la comprensión del sí, pero plantea problemas metodológicos en la orientación ontológica del proyecto, lo que repercutirá en la lógica de Ser y tiempo.

This volume belongs to the first new critical edition of the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) to have been produced since the nineteenth century. The edition presents the works in broadly chronological order and according to the best principles of modern textual scholarship. The seven works in the present volume belong to the final completed stages (Parts III-V) of Bacon's hugely ambitious six-part sequence of philosophical works, collectively entitled Instauratio magna (1620-6). All are presented in the original Latin with (...) new facing-page translations. Three of the seven texts (substantial works in two cases, and all sharing a startlingly improbable textual history) are published and translated here for the first time: these are an early version of the Historia densi, the 'lost' Abecedarium, and the Historia de animato & inanimato. Another--the Prodromi sive anticipationes philosphiae secundae--has likewise never been translated before. Together with their commentaries and the introduction they open the way to important new understandings of Bacon's mature philosophical thought. (shrink)

Briceño-Iragorry’s story-telling is found throughout the Trujillan and Meridanian press during the first decades of the XX Century. Between 1915 and 1920 we find Ariel and the Rehabilitador de Trujillo, and Albores, Veinte años, Tic-Tac, Alquimia and Ecos Andinos de Merida. They were proba..

This article addresses some useful coordinates for the analysis of the relationship between philosophy and taxation. My argument aims to show the relevance of a philosophy of taxation and thus draw attention to civic education required to shape a democratic public reason, truthful, critical and attentive. I emphasize the character of “donation” that is the rule of law within a democratic constitutional regime, which depends on tax payments for the purposes proposed, and particularly those of a social distributive justice. I (...) distinguish between charity and justice and political obligation to maintain that by implementing an effective "rule of law" citizens “donate” ourselves mechanisms and procedures for advancing a system of justice as fairness. This grant does not pertain to the field of natural duties, charity or sacrifice of supererogatory acts, but is expressed in institutional programs whose implementation and maintenance required from us pay taxes, but always based on personal commitment. Thus, close to John Rawls I emphasize the value of freedom. (shrink)

SUÁREZ MOLANO, José Olimpo. Syllabus sobre filosofía política. Medellín: Colección Pensamiento Político Contemporáneo, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana-Concejo de Medellín, No 3, 2003, 179 p.

Ce livre retrace le cheminement du chercheur: le journal de ses intuitions, ses espoirs, ses doutes, ses certitudes, - jusqu'au silence d'avril 1908. Il replace la quete dans l'activite d'ensemble du savant: monographies, cours de linguistique generale, travaux de mythographie. Il la situe dans un paysage intellectuel scrupuleusement balise. Par dela des considerations d'une technicite souvent rebutante, et non exemptes de contradictions (parfois flagrantes), il s'attache a suivre le fil d'une quete autant mystique que linguistique. Par surcroit il donne a (...) lire le texte de Lucrece (accompagne de sa traduction), et la facon dont le transfigurent les Cahiers (dont une part importante est reproduite en fac simile). Il en soumet la lecture a certaines epreuves (dont un test informatique), qui demontrent que le phenomene echappe a la prison binaire qu'evoquait R. Barthes (son/graphie, demontre/indemontrable...), et reste d'une implacable actualite: qu'il pose dans toute son acuite la problematique d'une ecriture. Reste largement meconnu, Saussure le sera-t-il moins apres ce livre? Une chose est sure: on ne pourra, une fois ces pages refermees, conserver le meme regard sur celui qui fut en linguistique, selon le mot de Benveniste, une 'autre facon de commencer'. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo revisar el concepto de emancipación en la obra de J. Rancière, particularmente como aparece desarrollado en El maestro ignorante y El espectador emancipado. De esta forma, se muestra que la emancipación no es el fin de un proyecto histórico sino un punto de partida a través de la igualdad de las inteligencias, y por lo tanto, cualquiera puede tener acceso a esta experiencia sin un proceso de concientización o un maestro explicador. Por último, reflexionamos sobre (...) los posibles retos y posibilidades del método de la igualdad. (shrink)