Recent developments in Continental philosophy have included the emergence of a school of “speculative realism,” which rejects the human-centered orientation that has long dominated Continental thought. Proponents of speculative realism differ on several issues, but many agree on the need for an object-oriented ontology. Some speculative realists identify realism with materialism, while others accord equal reality to objects that are non-material, even fictional. Several thinkers retain a focus on difference, a well-established theme in Continental thought. This paper looks at speculative (...) realism from the perspective of systems theory. Many of the tenets of speculative realism have long been features of systems metaphysics and are expressed clearly in a systems framework. However, some views of some speculative realists differ substantially from systems theoretic ideas. (shrink)

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human sociocultural realm. This article sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that span these two realms and are grounded in an ever-expanding sense of “self.” Discussion of this framework notes difficulties associated with altruism at different levels. It links scientific ideas about the evolution of cooperation and about hierarchical order to perennial philosophical and religious concerns. It offers a conceptual background for inquiry (...) into societal challenges that call for altruistic behavior, especially the challenge of environmental and social sustainability. (shrink)

In this lively collection ten philosophers tackle the notoriously elusive issues raised by religious discourse in a series of linked debates. The debates focus on reason and faith; the logic of mysticism; the meaning of the word 'God'; language, biblical interpretation and worship; and religion and ethics. Through contemporary philosophical analysis it is possible to shed new light on teh status and language of religion, and in many ways the contributors to Religion and Philosophy break new ground in this perennially (...) controversial field. The collection is addressed to philosophers, theologians and anyone with a general intellectual interest in religion. Certainly it will be a valuable addition to the reading list of all teachers or students of the philosophy of religion. (shrink)

Martin Wrights original ground-breaking and influential analysis of the defects of the adversarial system of justice, plus the arguments in favour of a more ...

Heidegger in America explores the surprising legacy of his life and thought in the United States of America. As a critic of modern life, Heidegger often lamented the growing global influence of all things American. However, it was precisely in America where his thought inspired the work of generations of thinkers – not only philosophers but also theologians, architects, novelists, and even pundits. As a result, the reception and dissemination of Heidegger's philosophical writings transformed the intellectual and cultural history of (...) the United States at a time when American influence was itself transforming the world. A case study in the complex and sometimes contradictory process of transnational exchange, Heidegger in America recasts the scope and methods of contemporary intellectual and cultural history in the age of globalization, challenging what we think we know about Heidegger and American ideas simultaneously. (shrink)

The discussion of collective agency involves the reduction problem of the concept of a collective. Individualism and Cartesian internalism have long restricted orthodox theories and made them face the tension between an irreducible concept of a collective and ontological reductionism. Heterodox theories as functionalism and interpretationism reinterpret the concept of agency and accept it as realized on the level of a collective. In order to adequately explain social phenomena that have relations as their essence, in this paper we propose a (...) relational, holistic account of collective agency and argue that functionalism and interpretationism can be integrated into such an account. (shrink)

Pedkldan studie se pokou zmapovat rozhodujc meznky antickho pojet djin. Koeny tohoto nachzme ji v eck mytologii, u Hesioda, jen pichz jako prvn s tzv. koncepc postupn upadajcch vk lidstva. Tato koncepce je lokalisovateln poslze u Platona, zejmna pak v jeho koncepci stav. Najdeme jej u vrcholnho pedstavitele druh etapy stoicismu, Poseidonia z Apameie, kter nsledn ovlivn mskou spiritualitu s jejm vnmnm djin coby padku. Vedle tto linie pak studie sleduje jet linii tzv. cyklickho pojet djin, kter m zejm koeny (...) v mytologick tradici a je nsledn zpracovvna presokratovskou filosofi (Herakleitos z Efesu), najdeme ji u Platona, ale zejmna pak u "pile" stoy Chrysippa ze Soloi, Poseidonia a nsledn se pak stane soust mskho mylen. Do jakhosi kontrapunktu pak studie, alespo v nznaku, stav tzv. linern pojet djin vlastn idovsko-kesansk tradici a vrcholn zpracovan Augustinem Aureliem. (shrink)

Záměrem předkládané studie bylo zmapování vývoje jednoho z klíčových témat Platónovy filosofie, problematiky duše, resp. její nesmrtelnosti, která hraje v rámci Platónova vyvíjejícího se konceptu zásadní roli v oblasti ontologické a noetické. Součástí studie není jen reflexe Platónova, ale rovněž názory jeho předchůdců, z nichž tak či onak čerpá. Pozornost je věnována tradiční homérské představě, zejména pak orfismu a jeho filosofickému uchopení v předsokratovské filosofii. Studie je první částí studie obsáhlejší, která se chce věnovat genesi Platónovy noetiky, kterou jsme uchopili (...) jako cestu od konceptů, jejichž společným jmenovatelem je teorie rozpomínání, k racionálněji založené koncepci vrcholné. Právě předkládanou studií je sledováno základní východisko jeho noetiky, zejména jejích prvních podob. (shrink)

The article focuses on process management in public administration using the specific case study of the statutory city of Ostrava. Based on the selected part of the PAPRIS methodology, the process management is verified, and conclusions from the application of information system e-SMO are generalized. Ostrava is third the biggest city in Czech Republic with approximately 320 thousand citizen. Article describes experiences with SW implements, which are used for model of process in public administration. Particulary at local authority of Ostrava (...) town. Model of process is a basis for reengineering of process in state administration and preparation for implementation of big information systems. Mapping of process is providing implement and confirmation methodology to identify existing processes. Problem with its using consist in that, senior manager don’t informs, what organization is determination by processes. If are not described in given to organization current processes, or how would have had look new optimum processes, will not endeavour about reengineering successful. Procedural analysis namely offer tool and check methodology to identification current suit and it is possible him use either as instruction for reengineering function handling administrative and self-rule activities. Purpose of the article: The PAPRIS methodology was used when defining the objectives for implementation of the information system for public administration. This methodology has been elaborated by one of the authors and published in a very general scheme when solving many case studies,,. We assume that the PAPRIS is primarily a methodology with incorporated elements of procedural approach for project management in public administration information systems. The specific supporting process of communication between the client and the e-SMO system has been chosen for verification. The model of supporting communication process, created by ARIS tools, is crucial, and the structure of scripts is subsequently made. The aim of this article is to verify that the methodology is sufficient and appropriate to manage such a large project such, undoubtedly, is the e-SMO. Methodology/methods: Defined productive and non-productive processes with their defined process cuts represent a crucial category for the process structure of IS projects. This is fully accepted by the PAPRIS methodology. Process cuts are understood, in the logic modelling according to the PAPRIS methodology, as clearly defined logic directional cuts in three-dimensional space of all project processes. The process set is systemically categorized, in a given logic directional cut, into mutually disjoint process subsets, which are characterized by this particular directional operator. The directional operator always has a clear logical allocation that is based on the construction of a process view. Theoretically, an infinite number of process views can be used. One of the important issues in a methodology for the case studies includes the size of the research sample. It is usually assumed that there is no ideal number of cases and that the number between four and ten usually provides good results. Other authors defining against any quantitative standards for any determination of the sample size of the case studies, since such an approach denies the internal logic of this methodology and the richness of the information obtained from participants in the research. Research which is carried out using case studies does not aspire on compliance with the requirement the representativeness of the sample.. Methodology of case studies is among the established guidelines of qualitative research. Research on using case studies in the last 30 years has seen an extraordinary increase in social-scientific research, including research on business and management. Scientific aim: The essential aim of this study is to describe the way the process cut defines a productive process and non-productive process, in accordance with the PAPRIS methodology using the specific example. While the triggering mechanism of the project production process is an event causing its own production - i.e. the specific output with added value for the customer, the project of non-productive process is caused by the project management event. Therefore, it is caused by the need to control, monitor, track, inspect, evaluate outputs, decide and regulate the project implementation. Findings: Within the support of the communication process, two examples were used to verify the methodology. The global perspective on the process was created in ARIS tools and the communication between the call centre and the client was made in Visio tools. The PAPRIS methodology is based on the concept of process variability, which has been clearly formulated. The fundamental direction of the process development, anticipated changes and the opportunity to react to them in accordance with defined objectives of the PAIS project are guaranteed. (shrink)

Moral luck is a puzzling aspect of our psychology: Why do we punish outcomes that were not intended (i.e. accidents)? Prevailing psychological accounts of moral luck characterize it as an accident or error, stemming either from a re‐evaluation of the agent's mental state or from negative affect aroused by the bad outcome itself. While these models have strong evidence in their favor, neither can account for the unique influence of accidental outcomes on punishment judgments, compared with other categories of moral (...) judgment. Why might punishment be particularly sensitive to moral luck? We suggest that such sensitivity is easily understood from the broader perspective of punishment's ultimate adaptive goal: Changing others’ behavior by exploiting their capacity to learn. This pedagogical perspective accounts for the exceptional influence of outcomes on punitive sentiments and makes predictions for additional moderators of punishment. We review evidence supporting the pedagogical hypothesis of punishment and discuss fruitful directions for future research. (shrink)

This paper first offers a standard modal extension of dialetheic logics that respect the normal semantics for negation and conjunction, in an attempt to adequately model absolutism, the thesis that there are true contradictions at metaphysically possible worlds. It is shown, however, that the modal extension has unsavoury consequences for both absolutism and dialetheism. While the logic commits the absolutist to dialetheism, it commits the dialetheist to the impossibility of the actual world. A new modal logic AV is then proposed (...) which avoids these unsavoury consequences by invalidating the interdefinability rules for the modal operators with the use of two valuation relations. However, while using AV carries no significant cost for the absolutist, the same isn't true for the dialetheist. Although using AV allows her to avoid the consequence that the actual world is an impossible world, it does so only on the condition that the dialetheist admits that she cannot give a dialetheic solution to all self-refe.. (shrink)

In these essays, written between 1909 and 1954 and first published as a collection in 1957, the eminent philosopher relates the "I-Thou" dialogue to such varied fields as religion, social thought, philosophy, myth, drama, literature, and art. Buber thus responds to the crises and challenges of the 20th century and enables the reader to follow his lifelong struggles toward "authentic existence.".

How do people excluded from political life achieve political agency? Through a series of historical events that have been mostly overlooked by political theorists, Martin Breaugh identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs's first secession in 494 BCE, the _plebeian experience_ consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom. The people reject domination through political praxis and concerted (...) action, therefore establishing an alternative form of power. Breaugh's study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, his work undertakes exercises in political theory to show how concepts provide a different understanding of the meaning of historical events and our political present. _The Plebeian Experience_ describes a recurring phenomenon that clarifies struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and shedding light on the richness of radical democratic struggles from ancient Rome to Occupy Wall Street and beyond. (shrink)

In recent years consciousness has become a significant area of study in the cognitive sciences. The Frontiers of Consciousness is a major interdisciplinary exploration of consciousness. The book stems from the Chichele lectures held at All Souls College in Oxford, and features contributions from a 'who's who' of authorities from both philosophy and psychology. The result is a truly interdisciplinary volume, which tackles some of the biggest and most impenetrable problems in consciousness. The book includes chapters considering the apparent explanatory (...) gap between science and consciousness, our conscious experience of emotions such as fear, and of willed actions by ourselves and others. It looks at subjective differences between two ways in which visual information guides behaviour, and scientific investigation of consciousness in non-human animals. It looks at the challenges that the mind-brain relation presents for clinical practice as well as for theories of consciousness. The book draws on leading research from philosophy, experimental psychology, functional imaging of the brain, neuropsychology, neuroscience, and clinical neurology. Distinctive in its accessibility, authority, and its depth of coverage, Frontiers of Consciousness will be a groundbreaking and influential addition to the consciousness literature. (shrink)

The philosophical papers comprising this volume range from process metaphysics and theology, through the phenomenological study of intentionality, to the foundations of geometry and of the system of real numbers. New light, it is thought, is shed on all these topics, some of them being of the highest interest and under intensive investigation in contemporary philosophical discussion. Metaphysi cians, process theologians, semanticists, theorists of knowledge, phenomenologists, and philosophers of mathematics will thus find in this book, it is hoped, helpful materials (...) and methods. The categoreal scheme of Whitehead's Process and Reality is discussed rather fully from a logical point of view in the first paper [I] in the light of the author's previous work on the logico-metaphysical theory of events. The clarification that results is thought to provide a new depth and precision to the problem of interpreting one of the most difficult books in the recent history of metaphysics and cosmol ogy. A detailed examination of some aspects of Hartshorne's recent Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method is given in II. This book is perhaps the most significant work on process philosophy since Process and Reality itself, and its logical underpinnings thus merit a full critical discussion. (shrink)

As founder of modern political economics and prominent theorist of the commercial society, Adam Smith’s importance is universally recognized. Little, however, has been done so far to develop Adam Smith’s virtue ethics in the context of modern business, characterized by digitalization. This article aims to rediscover Adam Smith’s virtue of prudence and its relevance for the “e-commercial society”: It presents a framework that considers the central place of prudence in the relationship between a prosperous e-commercial system and societal flourishing. In (...) Smith’s view of the commercial society, prudence enables people to develop habits of character related to industriousness, genuineness, spirit of sacrifice, and self-command, which help in the conduct of a prosperous business activity. This article translates Smith’s virtue of prudence into a language typical of consumers in the current e-commerce scenario, considering their development as persons and the contribution of their activities to the good of society. (shrink)

Dans la philosophie de Michel Henry, la pensée grecque semble cantonnée au rôle de repoussoir, certes nécessaire pour élaborer en opposition une phénoménologie, d’inspiration chrétienne, de la chair, mais en elle-même sans valeur. On se propose de montrer que Michel Henry forge dans la patience, et en s’appuyant sur des sources précises que nous identifions, une pensée de la theôria grecque dont la puissance synthétique lui permet d’y reconduire non seulement Hegel et Heidegger, mais encore l’essentiel de la phénoménologie du (...) xx e siècle. C’est finalement dans cette capture de l’être par la theôria (manifeste dès Parménide) que la modernité, dans sa « barbarie », plonge par paradoxe ses racines. Si toutefois il faut contrer la réduction hellénique de l’être à l’extériorité sans vie du monde en élaborant une pensée des Écritures, il apparaît que la Grèce henryenne est en définitive double : ce qu’elle écarte et oublie d’une part, la chair vivante, elle l’éprouve d’autre part et s’y rapporte sur le mode de l’énigme. (shrink)

An increasing number of cities around the globe aim to become Smart Cities through the implementation of a range of Information and Communication technologies (ICT), AI applications and cloud-based IoT solutions. While the underlying motivations vary, all such transitions require large amounts of data. In this paper, we articulate and defend two claims about privacy in a Smart City. Our first claim is that some level of systematic data collection and processing is ethically permissible. However, there is an upper limit (...) for what is permissible: We suggest that it is never permissible to collect and process data that significantly undermine people’s autonomy. Our second claim specifies when such minor privacy infringements that do not significantly undermine people’s autonomy are permissible: We suggest that the only policies legitimized by the first claim are those that promote the collective good. Keywords: smart city, privacy, autonomy, natural right, collective good. (shrink)

These are the basis of lectures to philosophy students in universities, colleges and seminaries. The text has been revised repeatedly in use with students in different years of philosophical studies.

An unrecognised copy (1665) in Kant’s private library of Michael Piccart’s Isagoge (1605), an introduction to the system of Aristotelian philosophy together with Kant’s own remarks on this author (Refl 4160, AA 17, p. 439) can be established as an original source for the Kantian ‘ideosphere’. First, I point out contexts and consequences of Piccart’s Altdorfian Aristotelianism, in contrast to the Königsbergian Aristotelianism (emphasised by Tonelli’s research). To further check the quality of Piccart as a source of Kant’s, a conceptual (...) case-study is elaborated with Kant’s critical distinction between analytics as a “logic of truth” (KrV, B 85) and dialectics as a “logic of illusion” (KrV, B 86). Hereby, dialectics is understood as part of an Aristotelian division of logic in analytics, dialectics and sophistics (Königsberg/Rabe versus Altdorf/Piccart). As will be shown by the paradigmatic case of the famous Königsbergian proponent of Aristotelianism, Paul Rabe, Kant cannot have received the suggestion for his own critical distinction from Rabe’s Cursus Philosophicus. Instead, Piccart refers to a passage of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which suggests the very distinction between an analytic philosopher who searches for scientific truth and dialecticians and sophists. For different reasons, they do not claim any scientific seriousness. (shrink)

Heidegger hielt die unter dem Titel Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs angekundigte Vorlesung im Sommer-Semester 1925 in der Marburger Universitat. Er gelangte jedoch nicht mehr zur Ausfuhrung der zentralen Thematik. Der Themenkreis der Vorlesung ist mit der Nennung des Untertitels abgesteckt: Prolegomena zu einer Phanomenologie von Geschichte und Natur. Heideggers thematische Uberlegungen beginnen mit einer Kennzeichnung der Situation von Philosophie und Wissenschaft in der zweiten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts und stellen das seiner Deutung nach entscheidende Ereignis dieser Zeit heraus: den Durchbruch der (...) Phanomenologie als philosophische Forschung. Er untersucht ihre wesentlichen Entdeckungen, verteidigt sie gegen Missverstandnisse, um dann seinerseits Kritik vorzubringen, wo die Phanomenologie ihrer Forderung zu den Sachen selbst nicht gerecht wird. (shrink)

Argument and imagination are often interdependent. The Aesthetics of Argument is concerned with how this relationship may bear on argument's concern with truth, not just persuasion, and with the enhancement of understanding such interdependence may bring. The rationality of argument, conceived as the advancement of reasons for or against a claim, is not simply a matter of deductive validity. Whether arguments are relevant, have force, or look foolish cannot always be assessed in these terms. Martin Warner presents a series (...) of case studies which explore how analogy, metaphor, narrative, image, and symbol can be used in different ways to frame one domain in terms of another, and how criteria drawn from the study of imaginative literature may have a bearing on their truth-aptness. (shrink)

A landmark discussion between two great thinkers, vital to an understanding of twentieth-century philosophy and intellectual history.

Time and being.--Summary of a seminar on the lecture "Time and being."--The end of philosophy and the task of thinking.--My way to phenomenology.