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An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence: Thinking with Machines from Descartes to the Digital Age
by David W. BatesA new history of human intelligence that argues that humans know themselves by knowing their machines. We imagine that we are both in control of and controlled by our bodies—autonomous and yet automatic. This entanglement, according to David W. Bates, emerged in the seventeenth century when humans first built and compared themselves with machines. Reading varied thinkers from Descartes to Kant to Turing, Bates reveals how time and time again technological developments offered new ways to imagine how the body’s automaticity worked alongside the mind’s autonomy. Tracing these evolving lines of thought, An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence offers a new theorization of the human as a being that is dependent on technology and produces itself as an artificial automaton without a natural, outside origin.
Artificial Intelligence and the Law
by Tshilidzi Marwala Letlhokwa George MpediThis textbook offers a starting point for the education of attorneys and other legal professionals about the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the law, as well as a forum for discussing artificial intelligence's legal and ethical concerns. Intended for classroom use, this book will help students, legal professionals and policymakers alike. AI is swiftly transforming the world, including the legal system. Legal applications to areas such as ethics, human rights, climate change, labor law, health, social protection, inequality, lethal autonomous weapons, the criminal justice system and autonomous vehicles, contract drafting, legal investigation, criminal analysis and evidence investigation, utilize AI. As AI becomes more sophisticated, its impact on the law will likely increase.
Artificial Intelligence Governance and the Blockchain Revolution (Artificial Intelligence and the Rule of Law)
by Qiqi Gao Jiteng ZhangThis is the first professional academic work in China to discuss artificial intelligence and blockchain together. Artificial intelligence is a productivity revolution, and its development has a significant and profound impact on global changes. However, at the same time, its development also brings a series of challenges to human society, such as privacy, security, and fairness issues. Therefore, the significance of blockchain is even more prominent. Blockchain is a revolution in production relations, which will propose important solutions to the challenges of privacy, security, and fairness that arise after the development of artificial intelligence. The book not only discusses the problems currently faced by the development of artificial intelligence, as well as the new opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence brings to future global governance, but also explains the further development direction of the intelligent revolution from the perspective of blockchain.
As If Human: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
by Nigel Shadbolt Roger HampsonA new approach to the challenges surrounding artificial intelligence that argues for assessing AI actions as if they came from a human being Intelligent machines present us every day with urgent ethical challenges. Is the facial recognition software used by an agency fair? When algorithms determine questions of justice, finance, health, and defense, are the decisions proportionate, equitable, transparent, and accountable? How do we harness this extraordinary technology to empower rather than oppress? Despite increasingly sophisticated programming, artificial intelligences share none of our essential human characteristics—sentience, physical sensation, emotional responsiveness, versatile general intelligence. However, Nigel Shadbolt and Roger Hampson argue, if we assess AI decisions, products, and calls for action as if they came from a human being, we can avert a disastrous and amoral future. The authors go beyond the headlines about rampant robots to apply established moral principles in shaping our AI future. Their new framework constitutes a how-to for building a more ethical machine intelligence.
Associated Labor and Production in the Age of Barbarism: Education Beyond Capital
by Henrique Tahan NovaesThe book focuses on different practices of associated labor in Brazil and Argentina, in the case of the workers’ recuperated factories, over the past 40 years. Novaes analyses labor practices from a critical Marxist perspective as a reaction to the misery of neoliberalism. Deindustrialization, austerity programs, increasing commodification and international competitiveness have severely deteriorated the living and working conditions of the majority of Latin Americans. However, alternative labor, production and educational practices have developed in this increasingly ruthless neoliberal capitalism. Although they are still small, they indicate a potential way out of the capitalist mode of production. Novaes directs his special attention to the “education beyond capital,” which has accompanied these alternative labor and production practices (from alternative job training in recuperated companies and the movement of landless rural workers MST).
The Attitude of Agnosticism
by null Avery ArcherWe often describe ourselves as agnostic on a wide range of topics, such as does God exist, is String Theory true, or will the President win re-election? But what, precisely, does it mean to be agnostic? This monograph employs the tools and techniques of analytic philosophy to offer a broad account of what it means to be agnostic in both theological and non-theological contexts, and offers a critical discussion of the major descriptive accounts of agnosticism in the contemporary analytic philosophical literature. Unlike most other volumes on the subject, which approach the question from a theological point of view, this is the first book-length discussion of agnosticism from a purely philosophical, as opposed to theological, point of view. It serves as a natural starting-point for students and specialists in philosophy and anyone who is interested in the topic of agnosticism through the lens of analytic philosophy.
The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought: Contemplating Allah (Routledge Studies in Islamic Philosophy)
by Mansooreh KhalilizandThe debate over Allah’s attribute—the “nature” and the inner articulation of Allah—is one of the focal debates in the intellectual history of Islam. This edited collection aims to highlight and examine some aspects of this debate in their original context, based on the relevant primary literature.By showing that even an apparently self-evident concept such as Allah, which lies at the heart of every reading of Islam, is highly ambiguous and polysemous, the chapters also emphasise the plurality that has always existed in Islamic thought. Through highlighting the philosophical and theological reflections on the concept of Allah, the results of this study challenge the juristic reading of Islam, in which Allah’s function consists mainly in providing a detailed plan for the human life and also rewarding or punishing the ones who deviates from it. The book also attempts to demonstrate the relevance and the actuality of the tradition and to stress its contemporaneity.This volume makes a significant part of the intellectual tradition of Islam accessible for students and scholars of Islamic theology, Islamic philosophy, Islamic studies and the like, as well as providing a secondary source for teaching on the debate in question.
The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought: Contemplating Allah (Routledge Studies in Islamic Philosophy)
The debate over Allah’s attribute—the “nature” and the inner articulation of Allah—is one of the focal debates in the intellectual history of Islam. This edited collection aims to highlight and examine some aspects of this debate in their original context, based on the relevant primary literature.By showing that even an apparently self-evident concept such as Allah, which lies at the heart of every reading of Islam, is highly ambiguous and polysemous, the chapters also emphasise the plurality that has always existed in Islamic thought. Through highlighting the philosophical and theological reflections on the concept of Allah, the results of this study challenge the juristic reading of Islam, in which Allah’s function consists mainly in providing a detailed plan for the human life and also rewarding or punishing the ones who deviates from it. The book also attempts to demonstrate the relevance and the actuality of the tradition and to stress its contemporaneity.This volume makes a significant part of the intellectual tradition of Islam accessible for students and scholars of Islamic theology, Islamic philosophy, Islamic studies and the like, as well as providing a secondary source for teaching on the debate in question.
Aufarbeitung des an Sinti und Roma begangenen Unrechts in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Grundlagenkonzept für eine Wahrheitskommission
by Marc Buggeln Sebastian Lotto-KuscheMarc Buggeln und Sebastian Lotto-Kusche legen mit dieser Publikation ein Grundlagenkonzept zur Wahrheit über das begangene Unrecht an den Sinti_ze und Rom_nja in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der DDR vor. Zunächst fassen die Autoren den Erkenntnis- und Forschungsstand zur Geschichte von Sinti_ze und Rom_nja nach 1945 in beiden deutschen Staaten zusammen. Daraus abgeleitet wird der Forschungsbedarf und mögliche Fragestellungen der einzurichtenden Wahrheitskommission zur Aufarbeitung des an Sinti_ze und Rom_nja begangenen Unrechts (WASRU). Da Wahrheits- und Versöhnungskommissionen in Deutschland bislang keine Tradition haben und meist im unmittelbaren Übergangsbereich von Diktaturen und Apartheidsregimen hin zu Demokratien gegründet wurden, werten die Autoren die Erfahrungen dieser Kommissionen in unterschiedlichen Staaten weltweit aus.
Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin
by null Katherine ChambersAugustine of Hippo is a key figure in the history of Christianity and has had a profound impact on the course of western moral and political thought. Katherine Chambers here explores a neglected topic in Augustinian studies by offering a systematic account of the meaning that Augustine gave to the notions of virtue, vice and sin. Countering the view that he broke with classical eudaimonism, she demonstrates that Augustine's moral thought builds on the dominant approach to ethics in classical 'pagan' antiquity. A critical appraisal of this tradition reveals that Augustine remained faithful to the eudaimonist approach to ethics. Chambers also refutes the view that Augustine was a political pessimist or realist, showing that it is based upon a misunderstanding of Augustine's ideas about the virtue of justice. Providing a coherent account of key features in Augustine's ethics, her study invites a new and fresh evaluation of his influence on western moral and political thought.
Aurobindo: An Ideologue of New Nationalism
by Bidyut ChakrabartyThis book elaborates the politico-ideological viewpoints of Aurobindo, as displayed when he reigned as one of the major nationalist leaders defining Indian nationalism. Bidyut Chakrabarty examines Aurobindo's politico-ideological ideas during the period (1893-1910) when he was an active participant in the 'New Nationalist' or 'Democratic Nationalist' campaign, which started with the bifurcation of the Indian National Congress between the Moderates and Extremists (also known as the Revolutionary Nationalists) in its 1907 annual session, held at Surat.Chapters cover Aurobindo's distinctive ideas of nationalism, which he evolved in collaboration with his colleagues, especially Lal-Bal-Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal), and how he redefined the practice of nationalism. The book also demonstrates that unlike his predecessors, the Moderates, Aurobindo set out many strategies - including boycott and passive resistance - to execute the distinctive plan he designed to attain his politico-ideological goal. Other topics include the relatively less discussed aspect of Aurobindo's socio-political ideas, namely his unique model of education as an antidote to many of the crippling socio-cultural prejudices, and the importance of Bhagavad Gita in shaping Aurobindo's politico-ideological priorities.
Autocratization in Contemporary Uganda: Clientelism, Coercion and Social Control
by Moses KhisaAutocratization in Contemporary Uganda analyses two interrelated outcomes: autocratisation, manifest in the deepening of personalist rule or Musevenism, and the regime resilience that has made Museveni one of Africa's current-longest surviving rulers. How has this feat been possible, and what has been the trajectory of Museveni's increasingly autocratic rule?Surveying that trajectory since 1986, the book takes as its primary focus the years since 2005; bringing to the fore the 'autocratic turn', placing it within a broader comparative lens, and enriching it with comparative references to cases outside of Uganda. While positing the notion of 'autocratic adaptability' as a defining hallmark of Museveni's rule, the book examines the factors and forces that have made that adaptability possible, analysing the dynamics around three keys themes: institutions, resources, and coalitions. Through empirical research, each chapter seeks to demonstrate how either one or two of these three variables have functioned in propelling autocratization and assuring regime resilience - producing theoretical and and comparative implications that reach beyond Uganda.
Ayurvedic Inheritance: A Reader's Companion
by M S ValiathanThis book is a companion to Āyurvedic studies. It discusses the history and evolution of Ayurveda, its philosophy, and its practical uses in everyday life—from medicine to mental wellbeing. It harks back to the traditional Indian concept of four aspects of lifelong learning. These were instruction by the teacher, individual effort, learning from companions and lastly, wisdom gathered over a lifetime. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)
Ayurvedic Inheritance: A Reader's Companion
by M S ValiathanThis book is a companion to Āyurvedic studies. It discusses the history and evolution of Ayurveda, its philosophy, and its practical uses in everyday life—from medicine to mental wellbeing. It harks back to the traditional Indian concept of four aspects of lifelong learning. These were instruction by the teacher, individual effort, learning from companions and lastly, wisdom gathered over a lifetime. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)
Barcode (Object Lessons)
by Dr. Jordan FrithObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Barcodes are about as ordinary as an object can be. Billions of them are scanned each day and they impact everything from how we shop to how we travel to how the global economy is managed. But few people likely give them more than a second thought. In a way, the barcode's ordinariness is the ultimate symbol of its success.However, behind the mundanity of the barcode lies an important history. Barcodes bridged the gap between physical objects and digital databases and paved the way for the contemporary Internet of Things, the idea to connect all devices to the web. They were highly controversial at points, protested by consumer groups and labor unions, and used as a symbol of dystopian capitalism and surveillance in science fiction and art installations. This book tells the story of the barcode's complicated history and examines how an object so crucial to so many parts of our lives became more ignored and more ordinary as it spread throughout the world.Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Bardic Destinies: A Comparative Study of European Poetic and Indian Kavya-Itihasa Tradition (Critical Humanities Across Cultures)
by Krishna R. KanchithThis volume critically explores the cultural significance and fate of the “literary” in the European and the Indian traditions as it traces the history of the reception of works that have had a deep hold on the lives and sensibilities of people across time and cultures. The book grapples with three major concepts in the humanities—the literary, the philosophical/theological and the historical. It looks at Homer’s reception by Plato; Virgil’s reception by Christianity; the many responses that The Mahabharata has received over centuries and across cultures in India; and the reception of Kumaravyasa’s Kumaravyasabharata, among other works, and analyses the understanding of truth, time and history that influence the reading of these works in different times and cultural contexts. Part of the Critical Humanities across Cultures series, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of philosophy, literature, history, comparative literature, cultural studies and post-colonial studies.
Bardic Destinies: A Comparative Study of European Poetic and Indian Kavya-Itihasa Tradition (Critical Humanities Across Cultures)
by Krishna R. KanchithThis volume critically explores the cultural significance and fate of the “literary” in the European and the Indian traditions as it traces the history of the reception of works that have had a deep hold on the lives and sensibilities of people across time and cultures. The book grapples with three major concepts in the humanities—the literary, the philosophical/theological and the historical. It looks at Homer’s reception by Plato; Virgil’s reception by Christianity; the many responses that The Mahabharata has received over centuries and across cultures in India; and the reception of Kumaravyasa’s Kumaravyasabharata, among other works, and analyses the understanding of truth, time and history that influence the reading of these works in different times and cultural contexts. Part of the Critical Humanities across Cultures series, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of philosophy, literature, history, comparative literature, cultural studies and post-colonial studies.
Basic Equality
by Paul SagarAn innovative argument that vindicates our normative commitment to basic equality, synthesising philosophy, history, and psychologyWhat makes human beings one another&’s equals? That we are "basic equals" has become a bedrock assumption in Western moral and political philosophy. And yet establishing why we ought to believe this claim has proved fiendishly difficult, floundering in the face of the many inequalities that characterise the human condition. In this provocative work, Paul Sagar offers a novel approach to explaining and justifying basic equality. Rather than attempting to find an independent foundation for basic equality, he argues, we should instead come to see our commitment to this idea as the result of the practice of treating others as equals. Moreover, he continues, it is not enough to grapple with the problem through philosophy alone—by just thinking very hard, in our armchairs; we must draw insights from history and psychology as well.Sagar writes that, as things stand, there appear to be no good arguments for believing in the truth of basic equality. Indeed, for much of Western intellectual history and social practice, basic inequality has been the default position. How is it then, Sagar asks, that in Western societies, in a period of less than a century, basic equality emerged as the dominant view? Sagar approaches this not as a mere philosophical puzzle, but as a dramatic historical development. In so doing, he shows us what is at stake when human beings treat one another as equals just because they are human beings.
Basil Bernstein: Code Theory and Beyond (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Brian BarrettThis book provides an accessible way into the ideas of Basil Bernstein. It introduces, explains and exemplifies key conceptual landmarks in the development of his theory, from his sociolinguistics in the 1960s through analyses of classrooms and the construction of curriculum in the 1970s and 1980s, to studies of intellectual fields of research through the 1990s. The book introduces how these ideas can and have been used in empirical research over the past fifty years, and how they are being built on by scholars in the twenty-first century to create a cumulative approach to understanding education, knowledge and society that is alive and growing today.
Baumgarten’s Philosophical Ethics: A Critical Translation (Kant’s Sources in Translation)
by Alexander Gottlieb BaumgartenAlexander Baumgarten's Ethica Philosophica (1740) served as a chief textbook of philosophical instruction in German universities for several decades, and was used by Immanuel Kant for his lectures on moral philosophy between 1759 and 1794. Now translated into English for the first time, John Hymers explores the extent of Baumgarten's influence on the development of German philosophy. Accompanied by an introduction to Baumgarten and his work, this translation features an explanation of the main themes of the Ethica Philosophica, touching upon its relation to Christian Wolff and G.F. Meier's practical philosophy, but focusing especially on its role in Kant's lectures. First-time translations of elucidatory passages from the writings of Meier, Wolff, and Heinrich Köhler appear together with the relevant transcriptions of Kant's lectures on ethics. Based on a thorough knowledge of the original text, Hymers' clear translation and supporting material makes it possible to distinguish Kant's own remarks and insights from his attempts to expound and summarize Baumgarten's ideas. This is a much-needed contribution for anyone working in the history of modern philosophy.
The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity
by Claudia de RhamA world-renowned physicist seeks gravity&’s true nature and finds wisdom in embracing its force in her lifeClaudia de Rham has been playing with gravity her entire life. As a diver, experimenting with her body&’s buoyancy in the Indian Ocean. As a pilot, soaring over Canadian waterfalls on dark mornings before beginning her daily scientific research. As an astronaut candidate, dreaming of the experience of flying free from Earth&’s pull. And as a physicist, discovering new sides to gravity&’s irresistible personality by exploring the limits of Einstein&’s general theory of relativity. In The Beauty of Falling, de Rham shares captivating stories about her quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. Her life&’s pursuit led her from a twist of fate that snatched away her dream of becoming an astronaut to an exhilarating breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational physics.While many of us presume to know gravity quite well, the brightest scientists in history have yet to fully answer the simple question: what exactly is gravity? De Rham reveals how great minds—from Newton and Einstein to Stephen Hawking, Andrea Ghez, and Roger Penrose—led her to the edge of knowledge about this fundamental force. She found hints of a hidden side to gravity at the particle level where Einstein&’s theory breaks down, leading her to develop a new theory of &“massive gravity.&” De Rham shares how her life&’s path turned from a precipitous fall to an exquisite flight toward the discovery of something entirely new about our surprising, gravity-driven universe.
The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity
by Claudia de RhamA world-renowned physicist seeks gravity&’s true nature and finds wisdom in embracing its force in her lifeClaudia de Rham has been playing with gravity her entire life. As a diver, experimenting with her body&’s buoyancy in the Indian Ocean. As a pilot, soaring over Canadian waterfalls on dark mornings before beginning her daily scientific research. As an astronaut candidate, dreaming of the experience of flying free from Earth&’s pull. And as a physicist, discovering new sides to gravity&’s irresistible personality by exploring the limits of Einstein&’s general theory of relativity. In The Beauty of Falling, de Rham shares captivating stories about her quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. Her life&’s pursuit led her from a twist of fate that snatched away her dream of becoming an astronaut to an exhilarating breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational physics.While many of us presume to know gravity quite well, the brightest scientists in history have yet to fully answer the simple question: what exactly is gravity? De Rham reveals how great minds—from Newton and Einstein to Stephen Hawking, Andrea Ghez, and Roger Penrose—led her to the edge of knowledge about this fundamental force. She found hints of a hidden side to gravity at the particle level where Einstein&’s theory breaks down, leading her to develop a new theory of &“massive gravity.&” De Rham shares how her life&’s path turned from a precipitous fall to an exquisite flight toward the discovery of something entirely new about our surprising, gravity-driven universe.
Beauvoir and Belle: A Black Feminist Critique of The Second Sex (Philosophy of Race)
by Kathryn Sophia BelleKathryn Sophia Belle centers feminist frameworks, discourses, and vocabularies of Black women and other Women of Color that existed prior to and have continued to exist after The Second Sex. She centers and amplifies the voices of Black women and other Women of Color, such as Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Chikwenye Ogunyemi, Deborah King, Oy?r?nk? Oyw?m?, Mariana Ortega, Kathy Glass, bell hooks, Kyoo Lee, Stephanie Rivera Berruz, Patricia Hill Collins, and Alia Al-Saji. Special attention is also given to Claudia Jones and Audre Lorde, both of whom implicitly and indirectly engage with The Second Sex. Beauvoir and Belle demonstrates the myriad ways in which these frameworks both expose and surpass the limits of The Second Sex. Belle argues against the frameworks of oppression used by Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, a foundational text of white feminist philosophy. She frames Beauvoir's analogies as limitations, and shows how Beauvoir either does not engage with Black women and other Women of Color-or engages with them in problematic ways. Belle explores how Black and other Women of Color have critically written and talked about The Second Sex, and in so doing exposes the ways in which the existing Beauvoir scholarship has mostly ignored these engagements, thereby replicating Beauvoir's exclusions.
Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit
Approaching Simone de Beauvoir’s feminism and social commentary as a resource to understand our current crises, Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit brings together established and emerging scholars to apply her insights to gender studies, political philosophy, decolonisation, intellectual history, age theory, and critical phenomenology. The essays in this collection start from key concepts in Beauvoir’s oeuvre and relate them to contemporary debates, asking how her notion of ambiguity speaks to lived experiences that have been highly politicized in recent years, such as pregnancy, old age, sexual violence, and the exposure of black and brown bodies to police violence; how myths inform our notions of collective, national identities, as well as notions of masculinity and femininity; and how she provides conceptual tools that help to theorize the various political strategies that are used to challenge gendered and racialized systems of oppression. These and other issues are central to this critical appraisal of Beauvoir’s legacy, demonstrating the contemporary relevance of her thought as it diagnoses the present and looks toward change for a better future. This book will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students looking to engage with the political content of Simone de Beauvoir’s work and the timely application of her ideas.
Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit
by Liesbeth Schoonheim Karen VintgesApproaching Simone de Beauvoir’s feminism and social commentary as a resource to understand our current crises, Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit brings together established and emerging scholars to apply her insights to gender studies, political philosophy, decolonisation, intellectual history, age theory, and critical phenomenology. The essays in this collection start from key concepts in Beauvoir’s oeuvre and relate them to contemporary debates, asking how her notion of ambiguity speaks to lived experiences that have been highly politicized in recent years, such as pregnancy, old age, sexual violence, and the exposure of black and brown bodies to police violence; how myths inform our notions of collective, national identities, as well as notions of masculinity and femininity; and how she provides conceptual tools that help to theorize the various political strategies that are used to challenge gendered and racialized systems of oppression. These and other issues are central to this critical appraisal of Beauvoir’s legacy, demonstrating the contemporary relevance of her thought as it diagnoses the present and looks toward change for a better future. This book will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students looking to engage with the political content of Simone de Beauvoir’s work and the timely application of her ideas.