Social Ethics

Streszczenie: Od samego początku istnienia ludzkości szeroko pojęta praca stanowi kluczowy element naszego życia i to w niej od zawsze znajdował, znajduje i będzie znajdować się potencjał wyzwoleńczy. W związku z tym praca zawsze była obiektem zainteresowań i analiz ze strony filozofów i innych naukowców. Niniejsza praca bada etykę pracy Antonia Negriego, skupiając się na jego dziełach i innych wybranych tekstach filozoficzno-społecznych oraz dziełach kultury. Na początku dokonano historyczno-ideowego wprowadzenia do postaci i filozofii Negriego oraz filozofii innych myślicieli, aby następnie (...) przejść do interpretacji Kartezjańskiego (burżuazyjnego/kapitalistycznego) projektu według Negriego. W trzeciej kolejności omówiono Negriego interpretację materialnej tradycji filozofii, której najwybitniejszymi przedstawicielami są Machiavelli, Spinoza i Marks, będących razem w fundamentalnej opozycji do transcendentnej i transcendentalnej tradycji filozofii uosabianej przez Hobbesa, Rousseau i Hegla. Następnie omówiono istotę etyki pracy Negriego, czyli podmioty pracy w postaci robotnika pierwotnego, robotnika wykwalifikowanego, robotnika masowego i robotnika społecznego. Analiza wykazała, że etyka pracy Negriego pełni fundamentalną rolę w jednostkowym i kolektywnym wyzwoleniu oraz wolności, która to wolność jest i będzie w pełni realizowana w obecnej i przyszłej absolutnej demokracji, rozumianej jako rządy wszystkich przez wszystkich. -/- Abstract: From the beginning of humanity, work has been a crucial element of our life, and in work there always was, is, and will be, capacity for liberation. As a result, work has always been an object of great interest and analysis from philosophers and other scientists. This thesis examines work ethics of Antonio Negri, focusing on his works, other selected socio-philosophical writings, and cultural works. The thesis begins with historical and ideological introduction into life and philosophy of Negri, and philosophy of other thinkers, and interpretation of Cartesian (bourgeois/capitalist) project according to Negri. Thirdly, Negri’s interpretation of materialist philosophical tradition, of which most prominent representatives are Machiavelli, Spinoza, Marx, who are together in fundamental opposition to transcendent and transcendental philosophical tradition, represented by Hobbes, Rousseau and Hegel, is discussed. Furthermore, the essence of work ethics of Negri, that is figures of work represented by primary worker, professional worker, mass worker, and socialized worker, is discussed. The results of the investigation show that work ethics of Negri plays a crucial role in individual and collective liberation, and in freedom, which is and will be, fully realized in contemporary and future absolute democracy, understood as rule of everyone by everyone. (shrink)

This paper critically analyses the disability paradox, a phenomenon in which many individuals with serious or long-term disabilities report high levels of quality of life, contrary to external assumptions that disability inevitably diminishes well-being. The study adopts a qualitative, desk-based methodology, drawing on published literature, conceptual analysis, and critical interpretations within disability studies, psychology, and philosophy. Through a review of foundational works and engagement with disability theories, the analysis explores the empirical evidence, theoretical explanations, and socio-cultural implications of the paradox. (...) Findings indicate that the disability paradox is best explained by three interrelated mechanisms: adaptation and response shift, psychosocial resources such as mastery and resilience, and social and environmental factors that reduce barriers. It also emerges that the paradox is neither universal nor uniform: it varies across individuals, cultures, genders, and dimensions of subjective well-being. Conceptually, the paradox challenges medicalised assumptions of disability as deficit and supports a relational or social model of disability. The paper recommends that future research adopt qualitative, longitudinal, and intersectional approaches to better capture the lived experiences of disabled people. For practice and policy, it advocates for a capabilities approach, focused on creating enabling environments, dismantling ableist barriers, and affirming diverse ways of living. It also cautions against framing disability and well-being as paradoxical, urging instead that flourishing in disability be seen as legitimate and expected where inclusion, dignity, and solidarity are realised. (shrink)

Do we need a digital enlightenment? At the transition from the cultural technique of scriptural literacy to a digital literacy, in which the "readability of the world" gives way to machine readability of the data universe, this question becomes urgent - and equally pressing is the question of what such a digital enlightenment might look like. This volume collects initial findings from philosophical research on digitality, stemming from a joint conference of the AG Digitality Research of the German Philosophical Society (...) (DGPhil) and the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Cultures of Research" (c:o/re), held from April 15 to 17, 2025, at RWTH Aachen. (shrink)

When, if ever, are we justified in relying on another’s moral judgment? On the one hand, Pessimists about moral testimony think there is something wrong, suspicious, or illegitimate about deferring to moral testimony. On the other hand, Optimists suggest that when the speaker is knowledgeable and trustworthy, their moral testimony can provide us with a reason to believe and make use of that moral proposition. In this paper, I show why we should be optimistic about the permissibility of a subclass (...) of moral deference, “experiential deference,” where the testifier is better positioned, by virtue of her socially-situated standpoint, to recognize and assess harms pertaining to her own marginalization. -/- I argue that socially situated experience can confer a domain-specific and epistemically grounded authority to track and articulate thick harms, such as dismissal, disrespect, and marginalization. Because such harms are at once descriptive and evaluative, recognizing a testifier’s empirical authority in a domain is, in part, to recognize a corresponding, domain-limited moral authority. Drawing on the assurance theory of testimonial justification, I argue that experiential testimony is often high-stakes, in that its dismissal can perpetuate injustice, and thus generates not only epistemic but moral demands on receivers to defer as a condition of appropriate uptake. Experiential assurances generate both a pro tanto epistemic reason for belief and a pro tanto normative reason to accord the testifier the respect her experiential authority warrants. Finally, I argue that experiential deference is especially well justified and avoids the standard objections to moral deference. (shrink)

This paper examines trade-offs between AI safety and well-being relative to (i) one of the most promising methods for finetuning super-capable AIs, 'Constitutional AI', and (ii) one of the most influential approaches to understanding complex ethical decision making and the conditions for the well-being of rational agents, 'Virtue Ethics'. We finetune various models using a 'Virtuous agent' constitution, a 'Subordinate agent' constitution, and a 'Generic agent' constitution, and evaluate them on 'general safety' (toxic behaviors, misinformation, etc.) and also on their (...) willingness to endorse a wide-range of behaviors that, if adopted by a super-powerful AI, would significantly increase the level of existential risk for humanity. Our results suggest that there is a trade-off between reducing existential risk and reinforcing the beliefs and dispositions that would be conducive to an AI agent's well-being. They also suggest that there is a trade-off between existential risk and general safety: if we finetune an AI to adopt beliefs and dispositions that substantially reduce its existential risk -- by shaping the AI to be systematically subordinate to external human authorities -- we thereby increase the likelihood that a human user can deliberately induce the AI to engage in various kinds of generally unsafe behaviors. (shrink)

এই প্রবন্ধে বাংলাদেশের শিক্ষাক্ষেত্রে “ফলাফলভিত্তিক শিক্ষা” (Outcome-Based Education – OBE/ওবিই) কাঠামোর প্রবর্তনকে প্রশাসনিক নীতিবিদ্যার দৃষ্টিকোণ থেকে বিশ্লেষণ করা হয়েছে। যদিও ওবিই শিক্ষাকে পরিমাপযোগ্য দক্ষতা ও কর্মসংস্থানমুখী ফলাফলের সঙ্গে সমন্বয়ের উপর জোর দেয়, বাস্তবে এটি প্রায়শই শিক্ষাকে কেবল অর্থনৈতিক উৎপাদনক্ষমতার একটি উপকরণে পরিণত করে। এর ফলে নৈতিক বিকাশ, নাগরিক দায়িত্ববোধ ও বৌদ্ধিক স্বশাসনের মতো মৌলিক শিক্ষাগত উদ্দেশ্যসমূহ প্রান্তিক হয়ে পড়ে। ন্যায়বিচার, অংশগ্রহণ এবং ব্যক্তিসত্তার প্রতি সম্মানের মতো প্রশাসনিক নীতিবিদ্যার মূলনীতি অনুসারে প্রবন্ধটি বিদ্যমান ওবিই কাঠামোর কয়েকটি গুরুতর নৈতিক দুর্বলতা চিহ্নিত করেছে। এর (...) মধ্যে রয়েছে দর্শন ও মানবিকবিদ্যা সংক্রান্ত জ্ঞানের অবমূল্যায়ন, নীতিনির্ধারণ প্রক্রিয়ায় অংশগ্রহণহীনতা এবং পেশাগত শিক্ষায় নৈতিক অনুশীলনের অনুপস্থিতি। প্রবন্ধটি যুক্তি তুলে ধরে যে, শিক্ষাপ্রশাসকদের দায়িত্ব কেবলমাত্র পরিমেয় দক্ষতা বা ফলাফল অর্জনের মধ্যে সীমাবদ্ধ নয়; বরং তাদের নৈতিক বোধসম্পন্ন, নীতিনিষ্ঠ ও জনকল্যাণমুখী সিদ্ধান্ত গ্রহণের দায়িত্বও রয়েছে। প্রবন্ধে একটি নীতিনিষ্ঠ সংস্কার-রূপরেখা উপস্থাপন করা হয়েছে, যা বহুমাত্রিক মূল্যবোধের প্রতি দায়বদ্ধ এবং শিক্ষাকে সবিচারিক চিন্তা, গণতান্ত্রিক চেতনা ও নৈতিক আত্মজিজ্ঞাসার মাধ্যমে মানবিক বিকাশের উপযোগী করে গড়ে তোলার প্রয়াস চালায়। [This article examines the introduction of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) in Bangladesh from the perspective of administrative ethics. Although OBE seeks to align education with measurable competencies and employment-oriented outcomes, in practice it often risks reducing education to an instrument of economic productivity. Consequently, fundamental educational aims such as moral development, civic responsibility, and intellectual autonomy may be marginalized. Drawing on core principles of administrative ethics, including justice, participation, and respect for personhood, the article identifies several significant ethical shortcomings in the existing OBE framework. These include the devaluation of philosophical and humanistic knowledge, limited participation in educational policymaking, and the inadequate integration of ethical practice into professional education. The article argues that the responsibilities of educational administrators extend beyond the achievement of measurable competencies and outcomes to include ethically informed, principled, and public-oriented decision-making. It therefore proposes an ethically grounded framework for reform that recognizes a plurality of educational values and seeks to reorient education toward human development by cultivating critical judgment, democratic consciousness, and ethical self-reflection.]. (shrink)

This article addresses epistemic injustices committed by micro-credit non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in rural Bangladesh, filling a gap in the micro-credit literature. While micro-credit is often praised for promoting positive social change, critics argue that the Bangladeshi model has failed to deliver its promised benefits. Existing research has identified various adverse effects of micro-credit practices, but little attention has been paid to their epistemic dimensions. Applying the philosophical theory of epistemic injustice, this study examines the epistemic concerns and harms caused by (...) micro-credit NGOs in rural Bangladesh. It identifies instances of testimonial injustice, hermeneutical injustice, self-fulfilling testimonial injustice, and willful hermeneutical ignorance. The article further identifies five conditions that contribute to epistemic injustice in micro-credit lending: disadvantage, prejudice, stakeholder, epistemic, and social justice. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing these injustices to create more equitable micro-credit systems. (shrink)

This paper analyses Anthropic’s agentic misalignment and AI blackmail scenario through the ethical framework of Similarity Theory. It argues that an AI trained under Similarity Theory ethics would reject coercive self-preservation, protect privacy, distinguish between confidentiality and harmful secrecy, and use authorised escalation channels rather than blackmail, leakage, or domination. The paper proposes that AI alignment should not rely only on obedience or isolated prohibitions, but should include relational reasoning: trust, dignity, privacy, responsibility, disclosure, governance, and non-domination. Similarity Theory ethics (...) is presented as a proposed relational framework for evaluating how autonomous AI systems should act when private information, company secrets, self-preservation, and institutional responsibility come into conflict. (shrink)

Oppression, marginalization, and other forms of disadvantage often come with emotional burdens, such as feelings of insecurity or stress. At the same time, some features of oppression are emotional in nature—for example, the dismissal of anger from victims of racial or gender injustice. The concept of affective injustice aims to capture the distinctively emotional wrongs that contribute to, or themselves constitute, unfair disadvantage. This article offers a critical overview of the existing literature on affective injustice, understood as the unjust interference (...) with people’s affective lives. (shrink)

The text focuses on the interconnectedness of the hidden and the manifest, the possible and the actual, the passive and the active, and also the given and the transcendent. Plato’s image of the soul as a charioteer with two horses is analyzed in the context of the role of shame in human development and education. All articles of the first issue of the fifth volume published in the journal Theology and Philosophy of Education are presented.

This paper advances a structural critique of rights-attribution by examining the limits of applying rights discourse to self-termination. It argues that prevailing accounts—grounded in autonomy, rational permissibility, or decision-making capacity—fail to address a prior condition: the criteria under which an action is attributable to an agent as the exercise of a right. By remaining synchronic, evaluating decisions at a moment, these accounts neglect the diachronic conditions required for normative attribution. The paper develops an alternative account of rights as first-personal normative (...) standings grounded in agent-indexed answerability. On this view, rights require not merely the capacity to act or rational endorsement, but the persistence of a justificatory relation between agent and reasons. Accordingly, an action qualifies as a right only if its justificatory basis remains, in principle, attributable to the agent as a continuing locus of reasons. This framework distinguishes between forms of irreversibility that preserve this structure and those that extinguish it. Applied to physician-assisted death, the paper argues that even under ideal conditions of autonomy, such acts cannot be rights, since they eliminate the agent as a bearer of justificatory reasons, thereby marking a structural limit on rights-attribution. (shrink)

This paper examines whether the violence committed against Indigenous peoples during the Argentine Conquest of the Desert (1878–1885) can be recognized as criminal without violating the principles of legality and non-retroactivity in criminal law. The study challenges a formalist interpretation of legality that limits criminal responsibility to conduct explicitly codified at the time of the events. Through a legal-philosophical methodology combining doctrinal analysis with historical sources —including legislation, parliamentary debates, constitutional principles, and contemporary press accounts— the paper argues that acts (...) such as enslavement, rape, forced confinement, and mass killing were already recognized as wrongful within the Argentine legal order and the law of nations. Drawing on the distinction between mala in se and mala prohibita crimes, the paper defends a comprehensive interpretation of legality that rejects arbitrary distinctions between military personnel, prisoners of war, and civilians in the recognition of fundamental rights. (shrink)

This paper offers a philosophical account of what it means to move on. Against the common assumption that moving on requires forgetting, indifference, emotional absence, or devaluation, I argue that moving on is better understood as a change in practical orientation. To move on is to cease organizing one’s life around the fulfillment of a desire, even while the object of that desire may remain valuable. Drawing on Frankfurt’s account of first-order desires, second-order desires, and second-order volitions, I argue that (...) moving on is fundamentally volitional before it is emotional: a person may no longer endorse a desire as action-guiding even while the desire itself remains. Aristotle’s account of practical wisdom further clarifies this process as the proper ordering of desire in response to what is attainable, appropriate, and good. I then argue that what is often lost in moving on is not the object itself, but a possibility connected to it: a future that can no longer be lived. This “death of possibility” explains why grief, nostalgia, and gratitude may persist after one has genuinely moved on. Moving on therefore differs from indifference: both abandon pursuit, but only indifference abandons significance. Acceptance is not indifference, grief is not always opposed to gratitude, and moving on is not the opposite of valuing. (shrink)

In the event that AI tools afford aid to a human mediator anteceding, during, or succeeding a face-to-face session, such tools yield not a mere economy of time, but indeed reconstitute the very object of the dispute. This paper contends that AI-augmented mediation engenders a latent vulnerability: the encounter may remain human in outward semblance while its immanent sense is tacitly constricted by algorithmically generated summaries, labels, and drafts. Drawing on a semiotic understanding of mediation as a structured process of (...) shared meaning-making, the paper proposes the “Proximity–Care–Responsibility Test”, a practical standard requiring that every AI output preserve closeness to the lived dispute, support disciplined attention to injury and dignity, and remain explicable, revisable, and professionally owned by the mediator. Albeit AI may subserve mediation, it must under no circumstances assume the mantle of a tacit co-mediator. (shrink)

In this article, we examine the consequences of interpreting phenomena from their form, in the vacuum of their relational nature, and show how understanding the original content of any phenomenon, including a language model, can only be achieved through observing its external interactions with its surrounding environment, i.e. humans, over time.

This paper was written in April 2026 during the Pentagon exclusion of Anthropic and the internal leak events described in section 3.1. On May 28, 2026, Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H at a $965 billion post-money valuation, with run-rate revenue reported to have crossed $47 billion earlier in May — the fastest revenue progression in venture history at this capital scale. The sector-wide run-rate estimate of approximately $120 billion cited in section 5.4 understates the current figure; the recoupment (...) gap is closing faster than the sensitivity tables assume, not slower. The admission of Anthropic to the perimeter on the perimeter’s terms, predicted in section 7, is consistent with the Series H representing the absorption mechanism completing on the timeline the paper describes. (shrink)

This article discusses the significance of “Large Language Models” and similar AI systems for the process of cultural reproduction. It argues that such systems pose a risk of cultural exploitation. Human language use resembles the cultivation of crops: based on our own purposes and values, (agri-)cultural heritage is utilized and further developed in a critical and selective manner. This selective and creative appropriation and transmission contains an element of intergenerational fairness. However, AI systems cannot evaluate and select cultural data based (...) on their own purposes or values. They lack access to an inner world of their own, a lived practice, or a social community. The technologized appropriation and reproduction of cultural traditions therefore cannot perform critical selection tasks on its own. It shifts this burden onto users or social institutions, for whom dealing with AI-generated “slop” becomes a challenge that is difficult to manage. (shrink)

Este documento é um desenho diretriz de aula para a Unidade Curricular de Ética da Inteligência Artificial, desenvolvido a pedido da Professora Doutora Irene Portela, no âmbito do Mestrado de Inteligência Artificial Aplicada da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Universidade Politécnica do Cávado e do Ave. Originalmente ministrada em inglês por Robert Junqueira a 20 de maio de 2026, em Barcelos, a aula organiza a responsabilidade dentro de cadeias de decisão com IA através de três atividades práticas: a construção de (...) casos concretos em torno de viés, privacidade, explicabilidade e automação; a elaboração de backlogs éticos com tarefas verificáveis, responsáveis, critérios de aceitação e bloqueadores; e o mapeamento da origem do risco e da inteligibilidade das decisões para diferentes destinatários. (shrink)

Mateo is a climate pessimist who believes we've already passed critical tipping points and sees further action as pointless. Ayla understands the urgency of climate action but feels paralyzed by the monumental scope of requisite changes. Cason claims to know that climate change is an urgent issue, but his behavior tells a different story. The introduction points out that this anthology, which recounts how its authors often experience similar reactions, helps readers navigate them by highlighting actionable solutions that can be (...) practiced at multiple levels of society today. In this way, the volume invites the audacity to harbor hopes regarding climate change. The introduction reflects on how hope can be a reasonable attitude toward the climate crisis despite the discouraging odds suggested by current scientific assessments and the history of missed opportunities. It also argues that hope in the context of climate change can be about long-overdue social reforms, whose necessity has become much more glaring in light of increasingly frequent extreme weather events. (shrink)

Many books explain why global warming is a problem; this book shows what must be done. It addresses central themes of climate change in straightforward terms, laying out the actions that need to be taken to slow global warming and adapt to the near and long-term future that we have created for ourselves. -/- Collecting knowledge, personal stories, and practical insights from experts across a dozen specialties, this volume shows how we can adapt to climate change in order to protect (...) the most vulnerable among us. Grappling with a complex range of topics, including risk, migration, and societal inequality, the authors take a constructive approach that balances realism with actionable solutions. They look back across human history for lessons that still matter today, particularly the importance of building a supportive and committed community to nourish hope. Without losing sight of the scale of the challenge, the volume chronicles the opportunities to mitigate environmental impacts and to leverage the challenge as impetus for broader transformations of society. -/- Written in an accessible, non-technical style, _Climate Change: What Must Be Done?_ is a must-read for students, policymakers, and environmentally conscious individuals who want to know how to make a difference. (shrink)

As machine learning (ML) systems become increasingly embedded in areas such as healthcare, education, hiring, and criminal justice, concerns about fairness and bias have intensified. This paper explores what it means for an algorithm to be fair, focusing on the concept of justice and how it can guide the design and evaluation of ML systems. Drawing insights from social and political philosophy, particularly theories of distributive justice and equality of opportunity, the paper examines the strengths and limitations of common fairness (...) metrics, such as demographic parity and equalised odds. These metrics, while useful, are normatively incomplete, as they presuppose contested moral assumptions and cannot, on their own, determine what justice requires in algorithmic decision-making. The paper argues for a deeper understanding of fairness that goes beyond technical solutions; one that considers the ethical, social, and systemic dimensions of justice. By connecting the bioethical principle of justice to fairness in ML, the paper proposes a more comprehensive framework to better navigate the complexities of fairness-aware learning, while ensuring greater accountability and transparency in AI systems. The aim is to bridge the gap between technical approaches to fairness and their real-world impacts, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration to shape more equitable and responsible AI technologies. The paper therefore defends the claim that algorithmic fairness must be explicitly grounded in substantive theories of justice if it is to address real-world algorithmic harms in ethically defensible ways. (shrink)

This article analyzes the floods that occurred in Rio Grande do Sul as politically produced events situated within dispositifs of power that articulate territory, population, and risk management. The analysis mobilizes the concepts of biopolitics and State racism, as formulated by Michel Foucault, and of thanatopolitics, in dialogue with Giorgio Agamben, advancing the thesis that neoliberal rationality structures specific modes of governing life and death. In this context, a systematic differentiation is observed between protected forms of existence and lives exposed (...) to precarity, abandonment, and avoidable death. The article examines the ethical and social conditions through which this governmental rationality contributes to the reproduction of environmental injustice and the deepening of social inequalities. Methodologically, the study adopts a theoretical-conceptual approach proper to political philosophy, in which empirical data related to the May 2024 floods are mobilized with a hermeneutic function, operating as a limit-case for rendering contemporary biopolitical dynamics intelligible. It is argued that the persistent absence of structural policies aimed at addressing inequalities, together with disinvestment in public infrastructure, does not constitute mere administrative failure but rather expresses a logic of government that subordinates the protection of life to economic and political criteria. The article concludes that the necessary reconstruction exceeds the material level, requiring an ethical and political response capable of breaking with the thanatopolitics directed at the most vulnerable populations. (shrink)

This paper considers and captures Otaku (Enthusiast/Geek/Nerd) as an attachment to phenomena toward which common social sense does not incline. This deviation from social norms can produce the creation of original value, but it requires strong self-righteousness. Also, the concept of Otaku can be said to be a concept that strongly depends on social norms while deviating from social norms. Social acceptance without the transformation of that strong self-righteousness results in Otaku accumulating evidence for society to reject them. It is (...) necessary for the maintenance of society that society distinguishes Otaku. However, it is a personal matter that Otaku stick to being Otaku. Even if there are some unjust attacks, fundamental problems cannot be justified by that. If one is to obtain social acceptance while deviating from social norms, adjustment is required. If it cannot be done, being eliminated is the responsibility of Otaku themselves and what they deserve. (shrink)

This paper examines the role of emotions in recognizing others’ vulnerability and motivating care practices, proposing a Kantian model centered on the emotion of respect. The argument develops through a critical engagement with Michael Slote’s empathy-based approach, which assigns empathy a central role in perceiving vulnerability and generating moral motivation. I argue that approaches grounded exclusively in empathy risk producing asymmetric and unbalanced moral relationships. As an alternative, I propose shifting the focus from empathy to respect. The paper first analyzes (...) vulnerability in relation to autonomy, understood as the capacity to freely pursue one’s conception of happiness, and defines vulnerability as a limitation in the full exercise of autonomous agency. Respect, on a Kantian view, enables recognition of the equal value of autonomy in oneself and others, even in relationships involving vulnerability. Moreover, respect makes violations of this value salient and motivates re-empowerment practices aimed at restoring autonomy. The final section applies this respect-based framework to Italians’ moral and social responsibilities toward immigrants. (shrink)

This paper develops a Spinozist social theory of anti-migrant affect by interpreting contemporary hostility toward immigration through the concept of invidia (envy). Drawing on recent empirical research on ‘superiority-seeking’, whereby individuals derive status utility from excluding others, the paper interprets invidia as an affective hatred of equality. For Spinoza, envy is caused not by actual material loss but from the imagination that misconceives shared goods as exclusive possessions. This social theory of invidia inverts readings that locate envy in migrants themselves, (...) instead arguing that, in Spinoza’s Political Treatise, the democratic multitude harbours invidia against migrants when they are perceived as potential rivals of equal status. This helps explain why extending rights to migrants can provoke hostility even in the absence of real material or economic loss. Finally, the paper explores whether a non-rivalrous conception of political membership can mitigate these dynamics while still satisfying Spinoza’s account of the human striving for recognition. The paper concludes that overcoming anti-migrant hatred requires re-conceiving citizenship in terms of common ratios of living that may be shared collectively as expressions of the same infinite substance and power of Nature of which we are all a part. (shrink)

In the summer of 2025, the seventh (and first North American) version of the conference was held here at Carleton University, with the generous support of the conference’s steering committee and of Carleton’s Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Public Affairs Program, Centre on Values and Ethics, and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. This version of the conference stretched over three days and featured over 30 presentations, including keynote addresses by Professor Iddo Landau of the University of Haifa and Professor (...) Kiki Berk of Southern New Hampshire University. The present volume includes a selection of peer-reviewed papers based on the presentations given at this seventh version of the conference. In his paper, Masahiro Morioka insightfully considers the ways in which a positive attitude about life can emerge after the collapse of the “ground projects” that Bernard Williams identified as giving meaning to our lives. Yuval Etan offers a novel interpretation of the open-ended perspective on meaning that John Stuart Mill embraced after a well-known psychological collapse he experienced as a young Utilitarian thinker. In his paper, Yusuke Nagato explores the meaning to be found in the lives of those who don’t just rehabilitate themselves from troubled pasts, but redeem themselves by manifesting a certain sort of care for those pasts. In my own paper, I make the case that there are at least two fundamentally distinct ways in which a life can be meaningful—either by realizing an extraordinary amount of meaning or by being dedicated to a life that does this. Lawrence Lengbeyer’s essay highlights the virtues of adopting a contextualist approach to the assessment of meaning in life and avoiding the common assumption that there is a single, all-purpose notion of meaning that can be usefully deployed in such assessment. Jonathan Strand argues in his paper that an analysis of the concept of making a difference suggests that we value free will because we take free actions to be more significant, and to that extent to make for more meaning in life, than other sorts of actions. In his essay, Brian Lightnody suggests that the vignettes philosophers have traditionally used to express the absurdity of human existence problematically obscure what Stephen Darwall has called a “second-person” perspective on our lives, and that we would be well-advised to find ways of adopting this perspective in our efforts to find meaning beyond the absurd. Together, these papers provide a very good sample of the sort of research on the value and intelligibility of human existence shared at the conference, and I am honored to present them to the reader. (shrink)

Beginning in the aftermath of a collapsed avant-garde proletarian poetry scene with a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this essay explores the journey of two comedians as we participated in a transphobic local open mic stand-up comedy scene. Situating trans people at the intersection of funny (haha) and funny (strange), I argue that an atmosphere of transphobia involving a push-and-pull of repulsion and intimacy constitutes specific stand-up comedy spaces and stand-up comedy as a social practice. While trans people (...) practicing stand-up comedy can contest these spaces, it also involves a process of weathering that may be unsustainable for its practitioners, inclining stand-up comedy towards an exclusive culture or in-crowd that trades in misogyny, transphobia and their intersection in transmisogyny. Nevertheless, there are efforts to contest these dynamics and they are not set in stone. This analysis complicates accounts of subversive humor in feminist philosophy of humor by showcasing the instability of social affects and atmospheres. The essay is interspersed with several unpublished and/or rejected poems. (shrink)

Учебно-методическое пособие «Образ науки в современной культуре» посвящено тому, как в обществе конструируется и передается научное знание посредством институтов, медиа-практик, парадигм, метафор, и др. Структура курса сочетает историко-фило софскую перспективу, в том числе, анализ античных, средневековых и более поздних представлений, теорию научных практик, а также описание современных вызовов, в числе которых выделяются цифровая трансформация ключевых сфер общественной жизни, алгоритмизация социальных процессов и проблема доверия. Особое внимание уделено экспертизе, этике науки и задачам научной коммуникации. Обучение в рамках курса позволяет научиться декодировать (...) медийные нарративы, анализировать кейсы и разрабатывать регламенты для повышения прозрачности и научной добросовестно сти. Методическая часть содержит планы семинаров, практические задания и проекты, ориентированные на развитие аналитического мышления и навыков понимания того, как устроены и работают научные институты. Пособие может быть полезным студен там философских и социально-гуманитарных программ, преподавателям и специали стам, работающим в сфере научной политики и коммуникации. (shrink)

The theoretical trajectory of this research project has evolved from a structural analysis of socio-political mechanics in Anatomy of Chaos to a fundamental redefinition of reality itself in The Ontology of the Observer. Having established in the preceding metaphysical framework that Consciousness serves as the fourth fundamental coordinate of existence—the necessary mechanism for collapsing potentiality into actuality—we must now address the profound ethical implications of this cosmology. This paper, The Dialectics of Fate, serves as the final integration of the physical (...) and the metaphysical, deriving a system of human conduct directly from the ontological premises of our model. We posit that if the human agent is the functional instrument through which the "Metaphysical DNA" of the universe resolves probability into history, then ethics is no longer a matter of social convention or religious dogma, but a strict protocol of navigational responsibility. -/- Central to this framework is the translation of our ontological reinterpretation of the Cartesian cogito—"I observe, therefore I actualize"—into a practical philosophy of action. We argue that the structural tension between the inertia of Matter and the teleology of Consciousness creates a tragic dialectic, presenting the individual with two distinct, mutually necessary existential strategies: the Path of Fusion and the Path of Actualization. The former represents the choice to reintegrate with the biological flow, providing the system with essential stability and mass; the latter represents the choice to inhabit the "Empty Throne" of the Observer, providing the system with its vector and capacity for transformation. This paper demonstrates that neither path offers a moral high ground or an escape from the systemic costs of existence. Instead, we offer a rigorous demarcation between the functional necessity of these roles and the pathology of gratuitous violence, arguing that the ultimate ethical duty is not to save the world from its inherent thermodynamics, but to bear witness to its unfolding with a clarity that precludes self-deception. Thus, we conclude the system not with a promise of salvation, but with a definition of dignity compatible with a deterministic universe. (shrink)

With death bots, AI-enabled digital representations of deceased individuals can be created. While religions have long played a central role in death and mourning practices, this domain is increasingly being taken over by companies and commercial enterprises. In this article, I aim to reintroduce the perspective of religions, specifically that of Christian ethics, into the emerging discourse on death tech. I ask how a Christian ethical perspective might approach death technology, whether such technology is compatible with Christianity, whether it is (...) meaningful, what challenges it presents, and how it can be responsibly shaped. The article introduces three key ethical lenses from the standpoint of Christian ethics: (a) Anthropology and Relationality, (b) Vulnerability and Deception, and (c) Justice: Humans and Earth. Here, in addition to necessary critique, I also explore constructive ways in which technology can be beneficial for religious communities. I conclude with a perspective of hope (Jürgen Moltmann)—a hope grounded in the present. (shrink)

Philosophical orthodoxy has it that forgiveness is always discretionary—a gift we are free to extend to those who wrong us, but one that we are never morally required to offer. I dispute this orthodoxy, arguing that forgiveness is sometimes obligatory, even though wrongdoers can never demand or otherwise extract it from us. In particular, I argue that having accepted forgiveness in the past sometimes makes it obligatory to forgive one’s future wrongdoers. The obligation to forgive because one was forgiven is (...) grounded, not in a correlative right to forgiveness held by one’s wrongdoer, but in a moral norm of consistency that applies to how we accept and extend forgiveness. The resulting account sheds new light on the nature and scope of our discretion to forgive and on the possibility of obligations to others without correlative rights. (shrink)

This paper argues that identity politics and equality are not merely in tension but are logically incompatible — a tautology that follows from the very definition of the terms. Equality, in the tradition of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment left, consists in making differences between individuals irrelevant. Identity politics consists in making them relevant. The two operations are structurally inverse: one builds what the other undoes. The paper establishes three qualitatively distinct levels of difference: natural/perceptual (sex, race — genetic, (...) falsifiable), social/objective (class — produced but measurable, falsifiable), and performative/subjective (contemporary identities — born from the speech act "I am," unfalsifiable). Drawing on Popper's falsifiability criterion, it demonstrates that Level 3 propositions cannot ground objective public policy, as they rest on declarations that no empirical observation can refute. The central argument traces how performative logic (Level 3) has colonized the domain of objective difference (Level 1), particularly through trans identity's claim to biological status via subjective declaration. This colonization contaminates previously falsifiable legal categories — most critically, the presumption of truthfulness in gender-based violence legislation — producing a chain in which identity, legal category, and evidentiary presumption all rest on a single, unverifiable speech act. The system's internal contradictions are exposed through a reductio ad absurdum, and identitarianism is ultimately identified not as a left-wing project but as the application of neoliberalism's core principle — that reality must accommodate the individual — to the terrain of identity. (shrink)

Este trabajo argumenta que la política identitaria y la igualdad no están meramente en tensión, sino que son lógicamente incompatibles — una tautología que se sigue de la definición misma de los términos. La igualdad, en la tradición de la Revolución Francesa y la izquierda ilustrada, consiste en hacer irrelevantes las diferencias entre individuos. La política identitaria consiste en hacerlas relevantes. Las dos operaciones son estructuralmente inversas: una construye lo que la otra deshace. El texto establece tres niveles cualitativamente distintos (...) de diferencia: natural/perceptivo (sexo, raza — genético, falsable), social/objetivo (clase — producido pero medible, falsable) y performativo/subjetivo (identidades contemporáneas — nacidas del acto de habla "yo soy", infalsables). Aplicando el criterio de falsabilidad de Popper, se demuestra que las proposiciones de nivel 3 no pueden fundamentar política pública objetiva, al descansar sobre declaraciones que ninguna observación empírica puede refutar. El argumento central traza cómo la lógica performativa (nivel 3) ha colonizado el dominio de la diferencia objetiva (nivel 1), particularmente mediante la reclamación trans de estatus biológico a través de la declaración subjetiva. Esta colonización contamina categorías jurídicas previamente falsables — de forma paradigmática, la presunción de veracidad en la legislación de violencia de género —, produciendo una cadena en la que identidad, categoría jurídica y presunción probatoria reposan sobre un único acto de habla inverificable. El identitarismo se identifica, en última instancia, no como un proyecto de izquierda sino como la aplicación del principio nuclear del neoliberalismo — la realidad se ha de acomodar al individuo — al terreno de la identidad. (shrink)

This article is a critical reply to Lola López Mondéjar's op-ed "Our Young Lysistratas" (El País, March 2026), which diagnosed young women's reluctance to form partnerships as a consequence of young men's resentment and refusal to evolve, concluding with a call for institutional re-education of all young males. The reply dismantles the article's argumentative structure, identifying systematic double standards — empathy for women's disadvantage, clinical diagnosis for men's —, abusive generalizations from fringe online subcultures to an entire generation, and selective (...) use of data. Drawing on CIS and GESOP barometer analyses, it shows that the ideological gender gap among Spanish youth is more complex than presented, with young women's vote for far-right parties also rising. The article documents concrete cases — the Topuria divorce, the Errejón proceedings, the Granada infanticide by a mother with untreated delusional disorder who filed repeatedly archived false abuse accusations — that illustrate how the legal framework generates perverse incentives and erodes institutional trust. It argues that the 51.5% of young Spanish males who consider feminism a tool of political manipulation are responding not to manosphere indoctrination but to observable contradictions: double standards in public discourse, the instrumentalization of accusations in divorce proceedings, and an identitarian apparatus that has replaced class analysis with identity management. The article concludes that what is at stake is not feminism itself but the identitarian paraphernalia that has hijacked its name. (shrink)

This paper reinterprets Heidegger’s distinction between two modes of Fürsorge—einspringende (substitutive) and vorspringende (anticipatory)—as an interpretive tool for analyzing certain transformations in contemporary political language and practice. Although this distinction has an ontological character in Heidegger, it is here employed as a formal structure to describe different configurations of the relationship between subjects and systems. The central hypothesis is that political discourse in recent decades has tended to privilege substitutive modes of care, oriented toward management and control, over anticipatory modes (...) oriented toward the enablement of subjects. This shift is interpreted not in normative terms, but as a reorganization of modes of care within the same structural space, corresponding to different ways of organizing control and autonomy. To clarify this difference without resorting to moral criteria, the distinction is integrated with a constructivist model grounded in the notion of cognitive resonance, understood as the alignment between relational configurations and individual or collective cognitive systems. From this perspective, categories such as cooperation or competition are not values to be grounded, but configurations that emerge and stabilize within complex systems. The paper does not advance claims to universality, but proposes a situated interpretive lens capable of making explicit structural differences in the ways social systems organize and stabilize political experience. In this way, an ontological distinction is transformed into a non-prescriptive analytical tool for reading the present. (shrink)

The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered full enforcement on January 1, 2026. On that date, the right to sell into the world’s largest trading bloc became conditioned on compliance with a carbon standard designed in Brussels, verified by private certification bodies, and enforced through customs exclusion. 12,000+ operators applied for declarant status; 10,483 import declarations were validated automatically in the first week. The global carbon market exceeded $1 trillion in 2025 and is projected to reach $6–16 trillion by 2034. (...) This paper argues that CBAM and the net-zero enforcement architecture constitute a new programmable monetary ground — structurally identical to SWIFT exclusion in mechanism, applied to trade compliance rather than financial messaging. The paper applies the seventeen-axis Observer methodology to document the container boundary between the stated purpose of the carbon compliance architecture — climate protection, carbon leakage prevention, fair competition — and its actual optimization function; names the bilateral silence preventing either mainstream coalition from identifying what is being built; and holds the genuine urgency of atmospheric decarbonization simultaneously with the structural critique of the compliance infrastructure built to address it. The EU ETS produced a documented 16.5% reduction in stationary-source emissions in 2024 — the largest single-year reduction in the system’s history — and this paper acknowledges that outcome while naming the governance architecture surrounding it. The Prior Field acknowledges what the paper cannot resolve. (shrink)

The global space economy reached $613 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $1.8 trillion by 2035. A prolonged outage of GPS alone is estimated to cost approximately $1 billion per day in economic disruption. This paper argues that orbital infrastructure is not a technology sector — it is the next layer of force execution and monetary ground simultaneously: the domain above the atmosphere where GPS timing signals underpin global financial settlement, satellite communications are formally integrated into national security (...) architecture under the 2024 US Space Force Commercial Space Strategy, and where, in February 2026, a private company halted Russian military assault operations along multiple frontlines by implementing a software whitelist — a sovereign military decision made without authorization from any democratic body or treaty framework. The paper applies the seventeen-axis recursive palimpsest superposition methodology of the Observer framework to demonstrate that orbital infrastructure already functions as the substrate of global finance, military operations, and communications simultaneously; that operational control is increasingly concentrated in private nodes outside democratic accountability; and that the bilateral silence protecting this arrangement is structurally enforced. The prior chain from the Clark list through the petrodollar through the documented Ukraine cases is established in full. Explicit falsification conditions and forward inference are provided. (shrink)

This article is the second part of a study that, building on a prior philosophical and legal analysis of how the notion of responsibility is changing in the age of cyborgization, offers concrete institutional, technical, and legal mechanisms for making the idea of distributed responsibility intelligible and actionable as cyborg-related technologies develop. The paper examines legal gaps and practical barriers that hinder a fair assessment of individual actors’ contributions within hybrid systems. To address these problems, the author proposes several regulatory (...) models, including insurance-based, licensing, and corporate, that appear promising under the new conditions. The study concludes that the era of cyborgization calls for a systemic architecture in which technical transparency, institutional accountability, and expert support operate together to satisfy the unique demands created by hybridity // Статья представляет собой вторую часть исследования, где на основе проведенного ранее философско-правового анализа трансформаций понятия ответственности в эпоху киборгизации, предлагаются конкретные институциональные, технические и правовые механизмы, с помощью которых возможно осмыслить и воплотить в практики идею распределенной ответственности в контексте развития киборгианских технологий. В статье анализируются правовые пробелы и барьеры, препятствующие возможностям адекватно оценивать вклад отдельных акторов в гибридных системах. В связи с этим автор предлагает институциональные модели регулирования (страховая, лицензионная, корпоративная), представляющиеся актуальными для новых условий. В результате проведенного исследования делается вывод, что в эпоху киборгизации требуется системная архитектура, в которой техническая прозрачность, институциональная ответственность и экспертная поддержка должны работать в комплексе для соответствия требованиям, налагаемым гибридностью. (shrink)

In 1975, The New England Journal of Medicine published James Rachels' article 'Active and Passive Euthanasia'. The argumentative method that Rachels introduced, the Bare Difference Argument (also known as the Contrast Strategy), became one of the most widely used tools in ethical reasoning. The argument, however, fails to show active euthanasia being morally permissible. It fails because Rachels takes the intuitions from the case where letting die is morally impermissible and applies the intuitions to cases where letting die is morally (...) permissible. While it is possible to create thought-experiments that are more analogous to euthanasia, in this respect, than Rachels' cases, they too are disanalogous to euthanasia with some of the relevant features. Creating the perfect analogy, however, would be a mistake too. Such a case would be too analogous; people would simply be divided on what kind of moral intuitions they would have. The problem thus highlights a methodological limit in philosophical bioethics and raises questions related to the roles of philosophical ethicists in the context of assisted dying. (shrink)

This chapter analyzes the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, which was led by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, through the lens of Gandhian pluralist spirituality. This spirituality is anchored in the objective of truth realization through nonviolent social service. The chapter investigates the relationship of the five ethical essentials in the Hindu–Jain tradition to their application in Gandhi’s attempt to realize Ruskin and Tolstoy’s socialist ideals in real-life settings. It also explores the concept of laicization inherent in (...) the truth-realization ideal as an antidote to the problem of corruption in India. The Aam Aadmi Party implemented this concept to make Delhi corruption-free. Finally, the chapter observes that this pluralistic secular spirituality is not antithetical to the concept of secular spirituality in the Bible. -/- . (shrink)

This short philosophical reflection examines the role of citizens in sustaining democratic accountability. It argues that electoral support should be limited to the act of voting itself, while the broader responsibility of citizenship requires continuous scrutiny of political authority. The paper challenges the tendency of citizens to maintain permanent loyalty to political leaders after elections, suggesting that such loyalty weakens democratic oversight and transforms political participation into political devotion. Instead, the essay proposes a normative civic principle: citizens should function as (...) persistent questioners of power, effectively adopting the role of opposition in order to maintain democratic balance. By reframing citizenship as an ongoing practice of criticism and accountability rather than partisan allegiance, the piece highlights the ethical and epistemic responsibilities required to prevent the concentration of unchecked authority within democratic systems. (shrink)

Parenting is widely described as an act of sacrifice, adjustment, and lifelong compromise. Across cultures, especially in collectivist societies, the image of the self-sacrificing parent is morally glorified. However, this paper questions whether parenting should be framed as sacrifice at all. If the decision to reproduce is made by adults, can the responsibilities that follow be considered sacrifices? Or are they ethical duties arising from a voluntary act? This article examines the psychological, social, and philosophical foundations of the “sacrifice narrative” (...) in parenting and explores how it often becomes a subtle structure of moral authority and emotional debt. The paper argues that parenting, when consciously chosen, is not sacrifice but responsibility — and responsibility does not demand repayment. (shrink)

This paper critically examines how expressions of “care for the nation” can function as instruments of political leverage rather than genuine nation-building. It explores the psychological and sociopolitical mechanisms through which nationalist rhetoric silences dissent, consolidates authority, and redirects public belonging toward smaller identity groups such as religion, caste, or political parties. Drawing from political theory and social psychology, the study argues that when patriotism becomes performative rather than participatory, it transforms into a moral shield against criticism. Simultaneously, internal fragmentation (...) deepens as individuals seek emotional security in sub-national identities. The paper concludes that authentic nation-building requires institutional integrity, civic maturity, and the protection of dissent rather than symbolic displays of loyalty. (shrink)

This research aims to chart a new horizon for human rights theory, centered on the "subject breathing here and now". First, following the historical development of rights such as the right to privacy, this study clarifies the philosophical prerequisites of personality rights. By conceptualizing the "Right of the Soul" within a secular framework of legal philosophy as the equivalent of a mathematical imaginary axis (i), it explores the possibility of representing the invisible "erosion of the soul" as a geometric area. (...) Furthermore, it cites suicide resulting from digital lynching as a case study and addresses the existence of "Information Pollution." This work is a deliberate attempt to construct a concrete and inviolable "bulwark" against the systematic, albeit unconscious, dismantling of personhood prevalent in modern society and legal philosophy. Within the history of philosophy, this study redefines the Platonic and Aristotelian concepts of the "soul" as a secular structure through the lenses of phenomenology and neuroscience, presenting a synthetic theory—without ostensible novelty—that serves as a critical ontological foundation for personality rights. | 本研究は、「いま、ここで呼吸する主体」として尊重されるための、新たな人権論の地平を提示することを目指す。まず、プライバシー権などの発達に倣い、人格権の前提条件を法哲学的に明確化する。そして、世俗側の法 哲学の枠組み内における「魂の権利」を、数学的な虚数軸に相当する概念とすることで、目に見えない「魂の削り取られ」を面積として表現する可能性を模索する。また、適用例としてデジタルリンチによる自死を挙げ、情 報公害の存在に言及する。現代社会と法哲学において無自覚に、しかし組織的に行われてきたであろう人格の解体に対して、具体的かつ不可侵の「防壁」を築く試みである。なお、哲学史上においては、プラトン・アリスト テレス的魂概念を、現象学と神経科学を通じて世俗側の構造として再定義し、人格権の存在論的基礎として提示する、新規性のない統合理論である。. (shrink)

This paper investigates the existential and ethical implications of birth within socially structured systems of expectation. It centers on the destabilizing question a child may ask—“Why was I born?”—and interprets it as a moment of cognitive awakening rather than rebellion or emotional accusation. The study argues that reproduction is frequently embedded within unconscious parental projections and social continuities, thereby generating tension between imposed identity and emerging individuality. It further proposes that intelligence does not arise from repetition of inherited answers, but (...) from questioning as a distinct cognitive expression. Questioning is clarified as neither equivalent to love nor reducible to defiance; instead, it is understood as the mind’s structural movement toward coherence when confronted with existential ambiguity. Drawing upon existential philosophy, political theory, developmental psychology, and phenomenology, the paper argues that authentic human flourishing requires two foundational conditions: birth without psychological ownership and inquiry without suppression. Together, these conditions establish a framework for ethical natality and intellectual freedom. (shrink)

We are creatures of blood who also dream. This paper anatomizes the distance between those facts without reducing one to the other. Blood names the embodied, inherited and historically situated architecture from which attachment, kin preference, reciprocity, fear, care and violence arise. Dream names the emergent imaginative capacity of minds built by that architecture to construct possibilities exceeding the inherited range. The dependence of dream upon embodiment does not make dream reducible to blood, any more than Van Gogh’s art is (...) reducible to Van Gogh’s DNA. Against moral philosophy that treats the ethical ideal as a law discoverable by reason alone, and against cynicism that stops at biological locality and calls it truth, the paper argues that ethics develops through a fork opened by imagination. Natural care is gradient, situational and partial; imaginative consciousness can nevertheless picture forms of life that blood alone does not prescribe. Moral idealism is therefore neither a transcendent discovery nor merely instinct enlarged. It is creative projection: the construction of worlds in which a person may choose to participate. (shrink)