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Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences
Abstract
Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences / Rene Descartes Note: The University of Adelaide Library eBooks @ Adelaide.
... The pedagogical structure of Cogito ergo sum, "I think; therefore, I am, "is predicated on the Latin cosmology, which essentializes the autonomy and agency of individuals (Descartes, 1637). Managers should practice bottom-up management strategies. ...
... This policy allows for equal and equitable access to decision-making and policy development. According to Rene Descartes, the construct of personhood, ability, and identity lie in the subjective notion of individuality (Descartes, 1637). Conversely, Ubuntu (humanity) Pedagogy can delegitimize the presupposition of Cogito as a holistic academic ethos. ...
African diasporic millennial leaders are uniquely situated to embark on critical leadership roles at the end of a millennia, in the middle of dual pandemics (race and COVID 19), an at the beginning of a technological/geopolitical revolution. This chapter examines the ways that African diasporic millennial leaders navigate multiple enterprises the impact of panther parenting. Managers engage the components of Ubuntu paradigm and the relationship with: Ubuntu-based axiological evaluation mechanism. Ubuntu-grounded ontological management tool. Ubuntu-constructed epistemological training instrument. Ubuntu-founded methodological device. It examines the narratives and insights of several prominent millennial leaders in popular culture. It analyzes the unique blend of leadership qualities specific to African diasporic millennial leaders. African diasporic governance standards are founded on Ubuntu principles like panther parenting. It explores the ways contemporary managers engage emerging millennial leaders during the evolution of organizational life cycles.
... Of these the first is that they could never use words or other signs arranged in such a manner as is competent to us in order to declare our thoughts to others: for we may easily conceive a machine to be so constructed that it emits vocables, and even that it emits some correspondent to the action upon it of external objects which cause a change in its organs…but not that it should arrange them variously so as appositely to reply to what is said in its presence, as men of the lowest grade of intellect can do (Descartes, 1910(Descartes, /1637 60, emphases added). ...
Descartes famously constructed a language test to determine the existence of other minds. The test made critical observations about how humans use language that purportedly distinguishes them from animals and machines. These observations were carried into the generative (and later biolinguistic) enterprise under what Chomsky in his Cartesian Linguistics, terms the “creative aspect of language use” (CALU). CALU refers to the stimulus-free, unbounded, yet appropriate use of language—a tripartite depiction whose function in biolinguistics is to highlight a species-specific form of intellectual freedom. This paper argues that CALU provides a set of facts that have significant downstream effects on explanatory theory-construction. These include the internalist orientation of linguistics, the invocation of a competence-performance distinction, and the postulation of a generative language faculty that makes possible—but does not explain—CALU. It contrasts the biolinguistic approach to CALU with the recent wave of enthusiasm for the use of Transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs) as tools, models, or theories of human language, arguing that such uses neglect these fundamental insights to their detriment. It argues that, in the absence of replication, identification, or accounting of CALU, LLMs do not match the explanatory depth of the biolinguistic framework, thereby limiting their theoretical usefulness.
... Bion -até o ponto que foi minha investigação -foi a segunda pessoa, na história das ideias na civilização ocidental, a fazer a hipótese, útil na prática psicanalítica, da existência de "pensamentos sem pensador": aguardam um pensador que as pense; e ao pensá-los, o pensador extingue o pensar e o próprio pensamento. A primeira foi Descartes (1637Descartes ( /1952, mas advogou o contrário: que seria racionalmente absurdo haver um pensamento sem um pensador. Bion fez uma análise crítica dessa advocacia racionalizante: pensamentos seriam "epistemologicamente anteriores" ao pensador . ...
The present study tries to isolate and describe two of the methods that all of us, human beings, have at our disposal to elaborate approximations toward material and psychic reality; and follows on focusing, specifically, W.R.Bion’s contributions to psychoanalysis. The two methods are: science and art. They were developed in the last two thousand years. Both were elaborated under different vertices, originating from the same human need, qualified by Aristotle - a physician, member of a respected Greek family of physicians - as an “urgency to know”. Both methods were equally valued by Freud, with no superiority given to none, but is is clear that he qualified psychoanalysis as a scientific activity. He reserved to art at least three auxiliary functions: inspirational; communicative and illustrative, in the form of metaphorical and metonymic analogies. A fundamental difference between science and art, as far they concern to psychoanalysis, is that the two former have a basic and primarily group function; in obverse, psychoanalysis, a heir to medicine, has a basic and primarily individual function. Namely: attention and care for the sufferings and vicissitudes that typify human nature.Science and Art also provided at least two basic tools to the psychoanalytic practice: (i) self-criticism; (ii) verbal formulations. The article describes the literary and poetic sources that inspired, illustrated and helped Bion to communicate his work, in written form, through verbal formulations.
... Their winged expressions became a vivid expression of the new attitude: R. Bacon and R. Descartes. Descartes [15] -"Cogito ergo sum" and F. Bacon [16] -"Scientia potentia est". In German classical philosophy, a departure from anthropocentrism began to take hold. ...
Relevance. The scientific and technological development of society made modern people believe in the possibility of conquering nature by the power of reason. Modern society feels the unattainability of this goal: anthropocentrism cannot cope with climate change and natural disasters. The comprehension of the harmony between nature and man becomes topical.Purpose. The study aims to determine the specifics of philosophical comprehension of the harmony of nature and man in modern society.Methodology. To achieve the goal, the historical-philosophical method is used (with its help the development of the discourse on the harmony of nature from Antiquity to modernity is traced), the historical-comparative method (to find the differences between pantheism and environmentalism) and others.Results. The doctrine of philosophers devoted to the theme of harmony between man and nature is considered in the article, and their distinctive features are highlighted. It is determined that in modern societies the search for harmony between nature and man plays the role of basic ideology, which displaces anthropocentrism. Eco-philosophy emerges from pantheism but has unique features: political projectivity, preventiveness, ethical turn of ontology, and reactionism. Modern sustainable development societies feel the connection of three phenomena: human, nature, and security. It is existential challenges that motivate them to �green reforms�. Ancient societies, on the other hand, felt either indifference to nature (the Middle Ages) or non-committal admiration (Antiquity). Early modernity proceeded from an anthropocentric basic attitude, which predetermined the acuteness of environmental challenges of modernity.Conclusions. The study can be used for historical and philosophical research on the topic of eco-philosophy, as well as for comprehension of modern trends in Western philosophical thought. The results of the study can also be used as a philosophical basis for the implementation of environmental, enlightenment and educational projects.
... But now let`s take a look at Rene Descartes (1969a) [Thirdness: Reciprocal Transformation as "Ability to Conclude" and from the equality or inequalityallow me for the time being these expressions, until I get time to explain themconcluded from the equality or inequality of the former with the latter, the certainty or uncertainty of the latter.] If they were equal to a certain proposition, he could safely assume that they were also certain; if they were opposite to it, he would now know that they were false, and he would be secured from prolonged deception by them. ...
The paper applies a novel developmental theory called Transcendental Pluralism in a critical fashion towards writings to assess the validity of their claims.
... Therefore, data, information, knowledge, and intelligence are elements of the digital age. All sciences in the digital age are like a tree of which four elements, namely, data, information, knowledge, and intelligence are the roots, mathematics and computing the trunk, and all the other sciences the branches that grow out of this trunk, inspired by the work of Descartes [38] , Sun and Stranieri [8] . ...
Big data has had significant impacts on our lives, economies, academia and industries over the past decade. The current questions are: What is the future of big data? What era do we live in? This article addresses these questions by looking at meta as an operation and argues that we are living in the era of big intelligence through analyzing from meta (big data) to big intelligence. More specifically, this article will analyze big data from an evolutionary perspective. The article overviews data, information, knowledge, and intelligence (DIKI) and reveals their relationships. After analyzing meta as an operation, this article explores Meta (DIKE) and its relationship. It reveals 5 Bigs consisting of big data, big information, big knowledge, big intelligence and big analytics. Applying meta on 5 Bigs, this article infers that Big Data 4.0 = meta4 (big data) = big intelligence. This article analyzes how intelligent big analytics support big intelligence. The proposed approach in this research might facilitate the research and development of big data, big data analytics, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, and data science.
... In 1637, René Descartes [3] concluded that "the diversity of our opinions does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from the fact, that we conduct our thoughts in different ways and do not fix our attention on the same objects". The Cartesian Méthode sought to streamline the thought process. ...
Engineering and economics seek equilibria in the disparate dimensions of money and energy. In Part I of the present development [1] the mechanical instability of conservative systems in the domain of energy was compared to the five typical stages of events considered crises in any field, including those dimensioned in money. In that view, the economic, and engineered stability of the built infrastructure can be qualified, and to an extent quantified in terms of robustness, resilience, and sustainability. It is expanded herein with details and examples.
... In 1637, René Descartes [3] concluded that "the diversity of our opinions does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from the fact, that we conduct our thoughts in different ways and do not fix our attention on the same objects". The Cartesian Méthode sought to streamline the thought process. ...
Engineering and economics seek equilibria in the disparate dimensions of money and energy. In Part I of the present development [1] the mechanical instability of conservative systems in the domain of energy was compared to the five typical stages of events considered crises in any field, including those dimensioned in money. In that view, the economic, and engineered stability of the built infrastructure can be qualified, and to an extent quantified in terms of robustness, resilience, and sustainability. It is expanded herein with details and examples.
... René Descartes' 1637 published his philosophical work "Discourse on the Method, " which laid the foundation for modern philosophy and serves as a methodological as well as philosophical framework for Descartes' other works, including his famous statement, "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). The "Discourse on the Method" is divided into four stages and presents Descartes' thoughts on topics, including knowledge, skepticism, reason, and the nature of the self (Descartes, 2004 ...
The migration patterns of farmers, rural women, and youth within agricultural households have a significant impact on rural communities and the agricultural sector. To gain a deeper understanding of research trends in migration behavior, a study was conducted using comprehensive bibliometric analysis and text mining. René Descartes’ Discourse framework was employed to analyze 504 research articles retrieved from the Dimension.ai database followed by further analysis with Microsoft Excel, R software and VOS viewer. The study revealed a growing interest of various stakeholders in this field, with an increasing number of publications focusing on various aspects from 1934 to 2023. In terms of the publication’s performance analysis, the study identified human society and the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) as the most significant research areas. These areas aim to address hunger and improve food security for migrants. Regarding migration studies, three influential journals—Sustainability, World Development, and Journal of Rural Studies—were identified, with the most influential author being J. Vernon Henderson from the United Kingdom. Citation analysis was conducted to determine the highest number of citations for the influential author (J. V. Hernderon), journal (World Development), organization (World Bank), and country (United States) based on scientific attribution. Additionally, a co-word analysis was performed to research article’s abstracts to map into key thematic clusters that include climate change, food insecurity, and the COVID-19 crisis. The study visualized the social network of authors, organizations, and countries involved in co-authorship analysis within the research field. Furthermore, a journal co-citation analysis was undertaken to reveal the intellectual structure of migration studies in the agricultural context. Text mining of the research documents uncovered both anticipated and unanticipated effects of migration on households. Consequently, these findings provide valuable insights into future research directions and evidence-based policy framing which will contribute to shielding agricultural households from unforeseen consequences of migration, benefiting researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in this arena.
... Along the way ecological science lost its yin and now yearns for the harmony of earth's holistic primordial truth. The PHILES model is developed for this commentary to help open the primordial channels for eco-biophilia sensibility to be awakened in ecology research [34][35][36][37][38][39]. The background of eco-biophilia as an impetus for ecological research passion and purpose should be embraced by ecology scholars precisely because it asserts valid feelings with measurable merit. ...
This scholarly commentary introduces a constructive ecology research view, described as an eco-biophilia context – love of life. Drawing on emerging Eco phenomenology philosophy and methods, subjective experiential approaches are proposed as viable complements to conventional objective empirical analysis of ecology research subjects. After defining the eco-biophilia context and explaining its rationale using ECOA journal topics, guidelines for applying eco-biophilia principles are delineated using the proposed Philosophical, Historical, Indigenous, Life, and Earth Science (PHILES) model.
In this paper, I demonstrate that, beyond the notion of prejudice, it is the whole Cartesian framework that Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics seems to reject in Truth and Method. I buttress this argument by addressing a gamut of central concepts, namely doubt, evidence, history, life, subjectivity, language, and, most importantly, method itself. In the course of the discussion, I emphasize many fine details of Gadamer’s approach to Cartesianism. I further ask whether Gadamer really succeeds in disentangling himself from a methodical demand that is fundamental for Descartes but that he also underscores in the works of other philosophers, such as Hegel and Heidegger. I suggest that Cartesianism thus appears enlightening to point out the complexities of Gadamer’s hermeneutics.
This chapter provides an analysis of a singularity from stem cell research. The topics covered include stem cell research, regenerative medicine, animal cloning, genetically modified organisms, and gene therapies. A singularity from stem cell research can be defined from a human cloning possibility or correlated risks with stem cell-generated organs. It may be indefensible to rely on stem cells obtained from embryos, but scientists may be able to obtain pluripotent stem cells from gene reprogramming. The economic value of stem cell research as well as gene therapies may be exceptionally high. From the Buddhist standpoint, there is little reason to pursue a human cloning while it is likely irrational to pursue to replace all of your internal organs to extend your life a little bit. This analysis is applicable to a range of gene alteration sciences.
In spite of the detrimental effects of climate change and decreasing resource efficiency, maize farming is essential to the world’s food and nutritional security. With regard to sustainable maize farming in this environment, conservation agriculture (CA) offers a framework that holds promise in terms of low soil disturbance, perennial soil cover, and sustainable crop rotation. In order to acquire more profound information on the research advancements and publication patterns related to maize under CA scenarios, a bibliometric analysis was conducted. This involved utilizing René Descartes’s Discourse Framework to extract and screen 2587 documents spanning the years 2001 to 2023 from the Dimensions.ai database. The mapping showed that different stakeholders were becoming more interested in maize research under various CA pathways, with a greater emphasis on reaching the second sustainable development target, or “zero hunger”. The most influential journals were “Soil and Tillage Research” and “Field Crops Research”, with 131 and 85 papers with 6861 and 6186 citations, respectively. The performance analysis found “Christian L. Thierfelder” and “Mangi Lal Jat” as the eminent researchers in the areas of maize research under CA. Thus, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) were identified as the important institutions in conducting research pertaining to maize under CA systems, while the United States, India, and Mexico emerged as prominent countries with notable collaboration efforts for imparting research under the given scenarios. Three thematic clusters delineating keywords from three distinct sections—key drivers, objectives, and methodology—were identified through co-word analysis using word clouds, tree maps, and thematic networking of the keywords from the abstract and titles of screened publications. These thematic clusters highlighted the growing emphasis on region-specific studies under CA, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indo-Gangetic plain, to enhance the resilience of the agri-food system. Therefore, mapping maize’s potentialities within the CA framework has revealed the field’s dynamic nature and offers insightful information to researchers and policymakers that could help them plan future studies and cooperative initiatives aimed at boosting the productivity and sustainability of maize-based systems under the CA framework.
The article is devoted to the consideration of historical and cultural prerequisites of modern ideas about the “improvement” of human beings. Analyzing the worldview and theoretical aspects of the transhumanist discourse, the authors note that the origins of the ideological platform of the project of improving human nature are contained in the depths of modern philosophy. The aspirations to remake nature by subjugating it gave rise to ideas about the fundamental possibility of extending rational creative activity to the human being himself, about turning him into an object of scientific design and transformation. The authors focus on the philosophical heritage of F. Bacon and R. Descartes. It is noted that, being expressors of advanced views of their epoch, the thinkers in many respects prepared a platform for the formation and development of ideas about the omnipotence of scientific and technological progress and to a certain extent anticipated the subject of scientific research and high-tech inventions of 20th – 21st centuries. The ideas of Bacon and Descartes about the progress of medical science, the possibility of improving human nature (increasing life expectancy, increasing mental abilities, treatment of diseases previously considered incurable), the problems of euthanasia, the creation of anthropomorphic mechanisms, etc. are considered. It is shown that the brilliant minds of that era, having the ability to look into the distant future of science and technology, were able to a certain extent to foresee some directions of their development related to the creation of the techno sphere and the potential for “technical” human improvement. F. Bacon and R. Descartes are spokesmen for the ideas that, several centuries later, influenced the formation of transhumanist concepts linking the prospects of man with the technogenic change of his natural-biological basis. Their projects of “realizing everything possible” (meaning the use of science to achieve human domination over nature) still serve as a source of inspiration for men of science and technocrats. In recent decades, these ideas have acquired a new sound, a new impetus of development due to the opportunities offered by technoscience.
A lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, diversas voces se han alzado en aras de invocar la necesidad de reconocer y proteger la dignidad y libertad de los animales no humanos frente al ejercicio del poder humano. Dentro de ellas, el abolicionismo animal pareciera erigirse como la postura más radical y libertaria elucubrada hasta nuestros días, en cuanto aboga por la supresión de toda forma de explotación animal e incluso por la inserción de estos -o de algunos de estos-, en la comunidad moral antrópica. Pese a que estas visiones han tenido la virtud de hacer avanzar las fronteras de consideración moral respecto de estos individuos y han contribuido al enriquecimiento del debate filosófico y jurídico acerca de nuestra relación con ellos, es posible apreciar que también han incurrido en ciertas desprolijidades que deben ser examinadas, deconstruidas y reinterpretadas con el objeto de abrir paso a un estadio dogmático animal post-abolicionista que algún día pueda cristalizarse en un Derecho Animal Libertario. Así, bajo este nuevo paradigma, y mediante el diseño de tecnologías de libertad animal idóneas para alcanzar su cometido, podremos generar las condiciones jurídicas necesarias que permitan la emancipación más radical y absoluta de los animales no humanos de toda estructura discursiva antrópica, incluyendo en ellas a aquella sofisticada tecnología de colonialismo interespecie eufemísticamente denominada “derechos morales”.
In his study How Modern Science Came into the World: Four Civilizations, One 17th-century Breakthrough the historian of science Floris Cohen develops a comparative history of nature-knowledge in Europe, China, the Islamic world, and to some extent India, which argues for the European origins of three modes of nature-knowledge—kinetic corpuscular, realist mathematical, and fact-finding experimental—that emerged and combined in Europe to produce modern science. Arun Bala argues in this chapter that these three ‘modes of nature-knowledge’ are more illuminatingly seen as inspired by outside influences on Renaissance Europe—the computational techniques associated with the Indian number system, the Arabic optics of Ibn al-Haytham, and the flow of technologies from China. He shows that a dialogical approach emphasizing Afro-Eurasian circulations of knowledge, which goes beyond Cohen’s civilizational comparative perspective, better explains the rise of modern science by linking it into the global context of Renaissance Europe.
The philosophical tension between reductionism and holism has shaped our pursuit of knowledge for centuries. From Aristotle's assertion that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" to the mechanistic precision of Enlightenment science, these opposing views have guided our understanding of complex systems. Reductionism, which seeks to explain the world by dissecting it into its smallest components, has driven monumental scientific advances, from Newtonian physics to molecular biology. In contrast, holism emphasizes the interconnections between parts, revealing that emergent properties arise from the relationships within a system. This paper traces the historical evolution of these philosophies, leading to their reconciliation in the modern era through systems theory and the development of artificial intelligence (AI). By exploring how AI exhibits emergent phenomena, we see the reemergence of holistic thinking, where intelligence and complex behaviors arise from the interaction of simple components. This synthesis of reductionism and holism provides a new framework for understanding both the natural and artificial worlds.
Keywords: reductionism, holism, Aristotle, emergent phenomena, AI, artificial intelligence, systems theory, complexity, neural networks, deep learning, philosophy of science, cybernetics, history of science, emergent behavior, complexity science.
Research, practice, knowledge: introducing the creative knowledges enabling framework
Authors: Craig Batty and Arezou Zalipour
Amongst a myriad of articles, chapters and books that argue for
different ways to understand and conduct creative practice
research – or as it is otherwise known, artistic research, arts-based
research, practice-led research, practitioner-based research, and
so on – this article goes to the heart of the affordances of
creative practice research and offers what the authors believe is
more generative model for this work, with more productive
terminology. By focusing on a process of research enabling, as
opposed to research being led by, based on or taken through
practice (and vice versa), the article seeks clarity on the
relationship between research questions, research design and
methods; where a contribution to knowledge resides; how,
accordingly, a research project might be written up; and who,
indeed, creative practice researchers are. From our experience of
undertaking, supervising and evaluatingcreative practice research,
we have come to realise that some of the fundamental challenges of this work reside in a basic understanding of what, why, how and by whom. We believe that some of the definitions and models of creative practice research are a contributor to
these challenges, hence a new model with alternative terminology to help untangle some of the intellectual complexities we have seen. The discussion uses screen practice as its disciplinary site, encompassing media/screen production and
screenwriting.
Open Access:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25741136.2024.2384686?src=exp-la
A system is an idea, in the marketplace of ideas, for a democracy here. It is a way to think about complexity and of building or designing relationships between components that make up the democratic system.
This article investigates the analogy of the “laws of nature” through Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and Gilbert Simondon’s ontogenetic naturalism (ON). Both thinkers challenge the literalist interpretation of scientific knowledge by emphasizing the indirect nature of relation and the primacy of the autonomy of discrete beings over pre-established physical laws. Harman’s OOO defends this autonomy as the irreducible independence of objects from their relations, while Simondon focuses on the modulation of information in shaping the laws of nature through individuation. The article argues that while science remains the best recursive triangulation between logic and empirical evidence, its grasp of an ultimate, literal Truth is constricted by an epistemological relation to autonomous realities, grounded in analogy. Consequently, the laws of nature are considered as legislated by discrete autonomies, with space and time emerging from the things themselves. The article concludes by discussing the consequences of this reframing in light of the ancient conception of díkēkosmos (cosmic justice).
Human evolutionary demography is an emerging field blending natural science with social science. This edited volume provides a much-needed, interdisciplinary introduction to the field and highlights cutting-edge research for interested readers and researchers in demography, the evolutionary behavioural sciences, biology, and related disciplines.
By bridging the boundaries between social and biological sciences, the volume stresses the importance of a unified understanding of both in order to grasp past and current demographic patterns. Demographic traits, and traits related to demographic outcomes, including fertility and mortality rates, marriage, parental care, menopause, and cooperative behavior are subject to evolutionary processes. Bringing an understanding of evolution into demography therefore incorporates valuable insights into this field; just as knowledge of demography is key to understanding evolutionary processes. By asking questions about old patterns from a new perspective, the volume—composed of contributions from established and early-career academics—demonstrates that a combination of social science research and evolutionary theory offers holistic understandings and approaches that benefit both fields.
Human Evolutionary Demography introduces an emerging field in an accessible style. It is suitable for graduate courses in demography, as well as upper-level undergraduates. Its range of research is sure to be of interest to academics working on demographic topics (anthropologists, sociologists, demographers), natural scientists working on evolutionary processes, and disciplines which cross-cut natural and social science, such as evolutionary psychology, human behavioral ecology, cultural evolution, and evolutionary medicine. As an accessible introduction, it should interest readers whether or not they are currently familiar with human evolutionary demography.
Bernard Mandeville built his two-volume masterwork, The Fable of the Bees, around a largely ignored poem originally published in 1705, his “Grumbling Hive.” This piece attempts to provide the literary context for Mandeville’s choice of apian metaphor. We examine ancient and early modern examples of social and political theory informed and articulated by reference to the organization and structure of apiaries and their denizens. Considering this context, we argue, demonstrates in a new way the subversive character of “The Grumbling Hive” and its subsequent iterations as The Fable of the Bees. Mandeville turns inside out the time-worn assumptions about the natural harmony of hives, their relation to human society, and the role of speech and reason in their flourishing.
This paper explores the emerging field of prompt engineering within generative AI, emphasizing its role as a critical intersection between art and science. Prompt engineering is identified as the key to unlocking the full potential of generative AI technologies by optimizing human-AI communication. Through a comprehensive analysis of the related literature, this study illustrates how prompt engineering transcends mere technical manipulation, requiring a blend of creativity, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of generative AI capabilities. This paper provides various strategies for crafting effective prompts, from simple to sophisticated techniques, highlighting the importance of ethical considerations and the potential risks associated with prompt manipulation. By establishing a set of principles and guidelines, this paper aims to advance prompt engineering as a discipline essential for enhancing AI's functionality and reliability and, with this justification, introduces the 'Prompt Engineering for Gen[i]erative AI Framework'. After all, this paper calls for a multidisciplinary approach to prompt engineering, advocating for its recognition and development as a pivotal component of AI literacy and application. Through this exploration, this paper intends to contribute to the evolving dialogue on the integration of human creativity with generative AI capabilities, offering insights into the future of effective and ethical AI interaction.
Aim/Purpose
This paper seeks to explain why personality assessment instruments fail to explain the disjunct of their results with how a person lives life and proposes and alternative identity location approach.
Background
People wanting to know who they are and whether or why their life’s activities do not match what they feel look to “personality tests”. However, a test, with its “correct” or “incorrect” responses fail to reveal one’s core values, or ethos, let alone identity. Over the millennia, four valued virtue ethics systems have emerged, and one or more, a combination of them, or a synthesis of them all may be the one that accomplish the goal of the “personality “test”. This article, by settling on a paradigm case, places Authentic Systems under the microscope to see if it fulfills the central goal of identifying one’s value system that is the source of their life theme, or pattern of behavior. Some research directions are provided to elaborate and support life theme discovery.
Methodology
Several cases of individuals seeking assistance in personality assessment are used to define the context and commonalities of issues in matching assessment results with how their life themes are actually displayed. Life theme archetypes are surveyed, their common denominators distributed among four groups. Each of these four are further analyzed to find their abstract philosophical renderings of core values and their outgrowths, as well as why these are critical in shaping personality. Some major existing assessment methods and programmes are examined to see if they account for these values. A selected programme, Authentic Systems, is described in detail, because it has a record of success, that is, clients reporting it does what the others fail to do in explaining how and why core values generate their life themes. A theory is advanced, further research designed to assess its validity. All this occurs against the background of the Informing Science framework of critique.
Contribution
Numerous disciplines are called upon to explain the mismatches between personality assessment instruments, life themes, and core values. The two main study areas of psychology (applied) and philosophy, are supplemented by archaeology, biology, mathematics, and even physics (among others) to yield the field of discourse necessary for problem resolution,. It is hoped that this article will encourage not only interdisciplinary exploration, dialogue, and research, but a combined discipline, itself, perhaps nominated as “identity studies”.
Findings
A brief examination of the case studies revealed: A) the interdisciplinary nature of locating one’s identity; B) current assessment instruments insufficient to reveal that which generates one’s life theme; C) context (environmental conditions, culture, personal background, mental state, etc.) often ignored in such assessments; D) philosophical probing ignored, that is, one’s core values – what is important in that person’s life; E) a failure to explain how or why a personality emerges; F) personality assessment failing in identity assessment; G) only a personalized deep probing the right step in locating one’s identity. An Internet search found no programme with a philosophical underpinning, save one, Authentic Systems. All the others reflected applied psychology, where examiners observed behavior without asking the underlying thinking generating it. That is, a discrepancy between the philosophical substrate and behavior correspondingly led to explaining why persons often felt uncomfortable in social situations, as well as why they were attracted to objects and events. An extended observation revealed that not only are personality and life themes stable but there is reason to think they are genetically-based. Such is predicated upon the view that mentation has organic correlates, such as the right-half of the brain being associated with one’s capacity to contribute to order the world. The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (2023) project is predicated upon this with both neuroimaging and genetics. An alternate finding is that applying research on the nature of information, points to the character of one’s identity – the greater the entropy, the less order, and conversely. To have maximum identity, there must be maximum order, hence, the least entropy, i.e., the greatest capacity to inform.
Recommendations for Practitioners
To provide an accurate inventory of one’s personality, psychological practitioners need to take two crucial steps. First they need to discover what is most important in one’s life. What do they value? Second, they need not simply one probe but a series of snapshots over time and in different situations/contexts (dynamic evaluation).
Future Research
Many more cases both in the usual domain and that of Authentic Systems need to be assembled, collated, and analyzed for both effectiveness in assessing one’s personality, and in terms of the philosophical component, i.e., locating one’s identity and nature associated with meaning. Given the initial findings about the genetic basis of personality, long-term research of the type conducted by the NIMH on neurocorrelates and the genetic basis of behavior, there is reason to explore the same for postulating the physical basis of core values. Such raises the even more controversial physiological foundation of all mentation, including emotions. Sidebar discussions emerge about biocomputing, artificial intelligence, and contrived life, itself.
The article explores the transformative impact on human and social sciences in response to anticipated societal shifts driven by the forthcoming proliferation of artificial systems, whose intelligence will match human capabilities. Initially, it was posited that artificial intelligence (AI) would excel beyond human abilities in computational tasks and algorithmic operations, leaving creativity and humanities as uniquely human domains. However, recent advancements in large language models have significantly challenged these conventional beliefs about AI’s limitations and strengths. It is projected that, in the near future, generative AI models will adeptly replicate individual qualities, desires, beliefs, opinions, and the essence of human identity and consciousness to a degree that is nearly indistinguishable from that of humans. This lends support to the connectionist approach to understanding consciousness, suggesting an inherent similarity between biological and artificial neural networks. The discussion posits two innovative areas of scientific inquiry: “mathematical anthropology” and “multi-dimensional calculus of value.” The former suggests that viewing human nature through a mathematical and calculative lens not only preserves but enriches our understanding of the complexity of anthropological experience and its perceived contradictions. The latter hypothesis explores how mathematical models could facilitate various social interactions. The advanced simulation capabilities of neural networks suggest that traditional social and political frameworks face a growing vulnerability to AI-driven manipulations. This trend underscores the urgency of developing social interaction models that incorporate explicitly defined calculative rules. In conclusion, the paper advocates for a paradigm shift in how mathematics is perceived – not merely as a tool for computation but as a foundational science for crafting sophisticated models. In conclusion, the article advocates for transitioning from perceiving mathematics solely as a science of computation to viewing it as a discipline dedicated to constructing various formalized models, thereby deepening our insight into the complexities of human and social phenomena.
Contemporary European cinema insistently depicts female teenagers in association with non-human animals. This article focuses on a group of films in which the teenage protagonists approach animality while closely surrounded by systems of exploitation of animals. The films Axolotl Overkill (Helene Hegemann, 2017), Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016), and Eastern (Piotr Adamski, 2019) feature female teenagers that experience oppression over their bodies. Animality appears both as part of their oppression and as a subversive alternative to negotiate their appointed social role as girls. The analyzed films explore narrative and aesthetic modes of disruption of the division between human/animal, as they articulate constructive encounters and even identification with the human and the non-human. Additionally, these films confront normative constructions of femininity through abject animality. Instead of ‘becoming women’, the protagonists embrace a more fluid transformation. These films propose ways of representing animals without participating in the traditional, spectacularizing gaze that reinforces the hierarchy of dominance of the human over the non-human. In this sense, this article contributes to the aim of animal (film) studies to rethink how visual culture represents the non-human. Lastly, these films appear more broadly as part of a larger tendency in contemporary European cinema inscribing animals in a critique of conventional femininity.
Modernity and technology are closely related to one an?other. When modernization began in the middle of the 18th century, it was fol?lowed almost immediately and in the closest way by the rapid technical develop?ment. The movement of modernity profoundly transformed all segments of experiential reality. It transformed politics, religion and philosophy, among other things. It also changed many of the basic conditions of society. However, nowhere, in any field of human activities, did it result in such profound changes as in the general way of human life, which had previously existed in people?s specific and close dependence on nature, regardless of worldview, religion or ideology. The drive for self-mastery has had immense and often unintended consequences. In this paper, the intention is to demonstrate some of the ?inevi?table consequences? of modernity?s technical hubris and the shortcomings of techno-utopianist?s ?pervasive technology? from a decidedly conservative point of view. Furthermore, there is an arguing that the ?Luddite? or machine-destroy?ing attitude towards technology is not the primary objective of the conservative, that is, maintenance of a purely instrumental relationship with technology, re?ducing it back to technique, while preserving one?s inner spiritual and mental integrity.
This chapter examines the role of generative AI (GenAI) and robotics in special education, particularly for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It highlights the revolutionary impact of GenAI and AI-powered educational technologies (AIEd) in early diagnosis, personalized learning, and fostering independence in individuals with ASD. Additionally, robotics is presented as a vital tool for enhancing social and communication skills. The integration of these technologies in education requires addressing ethical, privacy, and security concerns. The chapter emphasizes technological literacy, including prompt engineering, to optimize the use of GenAI and robotics. It also explores the unique relationship between individuals with ASD and robots, suggesting a promising future for these technologies in special education. The conclusion calls for ongoing research and development to create more equitable and accessible educational systems, harnessing the power of GenAI and robotics for individuals with ASD.
(Chapter in forthcoming volume, Artificial Knowledge of Language: A Linguist’s Perspective on its Nature, Origins and Use, Edited by José-Luis Mendívil-Giró.)
Ordinary human language use is stimulus-free, unbounded, yet appropriate and coherent to the circumstances of its use, a characterization typically associated with Noam Chomsky and generative linguistics. This tripartite depiction of linguistic behavior is central to any scientific account of human language. The successes of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Natural Language Processing—chiefly in their ability to produce text that appears human-like—altogether fail to shed any light on this “creative aspect of language use” (CALU). Such models fail to reproduce this ability without exception. Moreover, they fail to identify CALU as part of an adequate descriptive account of human language and to tease out its implications for a science of language. Against this background, I argue that Steven Piantadosi’s (2023) critique of Chomsky’s approach to linguistics—namely, in the conception of LLMs as theories of human language—is misguided. More specifically, I argue that Chomsky’s approach to linguistics, properly understood, proceeds from two, complementary bases of inquiry: the “Galilean” method and CALU. Together, these bases vindicate the importance of theoretical maneuvers including the competence-performance distinction and the abstraction of the human language faculty.
Australian science-fiction author Greg Egan’s short story, “The Extra” (1990) envisions a transhumanist future in which the use of human clones as organ donors and the transplantation of human brains’ into clones’ bodies with the aim of extending the human lifespan are made possible. This study aims to present a critical transhumanist analysis of Egan’s “The Extra” in order to provide insight into how the transhumanist technologies of cloning and transplantation hold the potential to engender detrimental outcomes for human life both at the individual and social level. This study will demonstrate that the radical interventions in the interdependence of the body and the mind via transhumanist technologies could disrupt the integrity of human identity by alienating the individual from a unified sense of self. In addition to this, it will also be concluded that a transhumanist society may pose the risk of not only deepening the hierarchical gap between those who have access to enhancement technologies and those who do not but also exploiting the clones as a new victimized and marginalized group.
Modern economics is linear, hence the term “Rational economics” is quite appropriate. For more complex explanations, see Gorga (2002: 59-66, esp. pp. 64-65). Concordian economics, on the other hand, is fully Relational economics. How did this evolution from Rational to Relational economics take place? The full answer resides in the development of the Relational Method of Analysis (RMA). Once in the distant summer of 1965 I found myself confronted with two mathematical models of the economic system, both logically consistent, mathematics lost its usefulness. Gradually, mostly unawares, I discovered that I was in the process of building a new method of analysis. Only in most recent years have I found the need and the clarity of mind to describe this method. RMA serves to identify not only how Relational economics was born, but how it can be applied to most mental disciplines. Hence, the entire train of thought of Rationalism is transformed into Relationalism. From the cultural disunity of the modern world we come to discover how are most things, intellectual and practical things, harmoniously and systematically related to each other. From discord we pass to concord.
Let us start at the beginning.
¿Afronta actualmente el capitalismo el “fin de la naturaleza barata”? Si así es, ¿qué podría significar esto y cuáles con las implicaciones para el futuro? Estamos, de hecho, siendo testigos del fin de la naturaleza barata en un sentido específico histórico. En vez de contemplar el fin de la naturaleza barata como la reafirmación de “límites de crecimiento” externos, sostengo que, a día de hoy, el capitalismo ha agotado la relación histórica que la produce. El fin de la naturaleza barata se comprende mejor como el agotamiento de las relaciones de valor que han restaurado periódicamente los “Four Cheaps”: trabajo, alimentos, energía y materias primas. Fundamentalmente, estas relaciones de valor son coproducidas por, y a través de, humanos con el resto de la naturaleza. La cuestión decisiva, por lo tanto, enciende las relaciones que envuelven y despliegan las sucesivas configuraciones de la naturaleza humana y extra-humana, simbólicamente capacitadas y materialmente realizadas, a través de la larga duración del sistema-mundo moderno. Significativamente, la apropiación de trabajo no remunerado —incluyendo los “regalos gratuitos” de la naturaleza— y la explotación del trabajo asalariado, forman una unidad dialéctica. Los límites del crecimiento enfrentados actualmente por el capital son suficientemente reales, y son “límites” coproducidos a través del capitalismo como ecología-mundo, uniendo la acumulación de capital, la búsqueda de poder y la coproducción de naturaleza como un todo orgánico. El límite de la ecología-mundo del capital es el capital en sí mismo.
In this paper, I argue that contemporary theories of language do not adequately account for the relationship between human language and cognition, and there are three reasons why: generative linguistic theory, as a general theory for language, maintains an unfeasible conception of mind; it initiated, and perpetuates, a gross misinterpretation of Saussure’s views on language; and its methods of analysis take too much for granted. The paper begins with an overview of generative linguistic theory and its connection to modern cognitive science, focusing on the role and status of linguistic description and its relationship to the mind(-brain). This connection is then refined by outlining the major goals of theories of language, specifically, theories that purport to account for the human language faculty. I claim that theories meeting such goals account for nothing of substance, since their object of study is ultimately a Cartesian ghost. If our goal is to understand human language in general, we must change how we look at the relation between language and thought. This entails a change in how we view the data comprising language-particular theories, and how language-particular theories (individual grammars) provide the basis for general linguistic theory.
James Braid (1795-1860), the natural philosopher, gentleman
scientist, structured thinker, and well-respected Manchester surgeon,
who, having defended himself, his theories, techniques, and
practices from separate personal and professional attacks made by a
cleric, a group of professional rivals, and a local surgeon in the first
half of 1842, was forced to defend himself against yet another
unwarranted, personal and professional attack from an erstwhile
surgical colleague. This article deals with Dunn’s attack, its
consequences, Braid’s successful defence, and Braid’s continuation of
his ‘boundary-work’ through the July 1843 publication of his major
work, Neurypnology. The context, history, nature, form, and content
of Neurypnology is examined in some detail.
We paraphrase Descartes' famous dictum in the area of AI ethics where the "I doubt and therefore I am" is suggested as a necessary aspect of morality. Therefore AI, which cannot doubt itself, cannot possess moral agency. Of course, this is not the end of the story. We explore various aspects of the human mind that substantially differ from AI, which includes the sensory grounding of our knowing, the act of understanding, and the significance of being able to doubt ourselves. The foundation of our argument is the discipline of ethics, one of the oldest and largest knowledge projects of human history, yet, we seem only to be beginning to get a grasp of it. After a couple of thousand years of studying the ethics of humans, we (humans) arrived at a point where moral psychology suggests that our moral decisions are intuitive, and all the models from ethics become relevant only when we explain ourselves. This recognition has a major impact on what and how we can do regarding AI ethics. We do not offer a solution, we explore some ideas and leave the problem open, but we hope somewhat better understood than before our study.
In this speculative essay I propose a new paradigm that I call, at least for the time being, Critical Interpretivism (CI). It is, a multilayered moderate philosophical position which in some sense mirrors Critical Realism-and as it can be expected from a mirror picture, it is the opposite in one dimension: at its core is a subjective rather than an objective standpoint. The purpose of this paper is to provoke debate, improve the articulation of Critical Interpretivism in the process, and finally to offer a philosophical home for many researchers who could not conveniently fit within the existing tribes of Positivism, Interpretivism, and Critical Realism. In addition to the less extreme variants of Interpretivism, for instance, I believe that the variants of Phenomenology and Pragmatism that were not compatible with Critical Realism will find a convenient fit within Critical Interpretivism.
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