Filosofija. Sociologija

Title

2024-02-24T18:23:58+02:00

2024-02-24T18:26:20+02:00

Cultural and Value Differences in the Conditions of Technological Globalisation

2024-02-24T21:53:14+02:00

The text is the editor’s introduction to the articles of this scientific journal Philosophy. Sociology, thematically divided into four sections: Philosophy of Technology and Ethics of Technology, Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Communication, Philosophy of Art and Art Communication, Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. This article also aims to problematise the concepts of culture and technology and present one of the conceptual approaches when considering cultural and value differences in the conditions of technological globalisation. From the author’s perspective, although technology provides tools for effective human activity and technological progress influences different societies and their interactions, technological solutions alone cannot eliminate or neutralise the cultural, mentality, moral, or simply value differences of different societies.

Black Boxes that Curtail Human Flourishing are no Longer Available for Use in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Design

2024-02-24T21:53:00+02:00

AI is considered to be very abstract to a range of critics. In this regard, algorithms are referred to regularly as black boxes and divorced from human intervention. A particular philosophical maneuver supports this outcome. The aim of this article is to (1) bring the philosophy to the surface that has contributed to this distance between AI and people and (2) offer an alternative philosophical position that can bring this technology closer to individuals and communities. The overall goal of the analysis in this paper is the humanising of AI by addressing the shortcomings of conceptualising algorithms as black boxes.

Can’t Bottom-up Artificial Moral Agents Make Moral Judgements?

2024-02-24T21:52:46+02:00

This article examines if bottom-up artificial moral agents are capable of making genuine moral judgements, specifically in light of David Hume’s is-ought problem. The latter underscores the notion that evaluative assertions could never be derived from purely factual propositions. Bottom-up technologies, on the other hand, are those designed via evolutionary, developmental, or learning techniques. In this paper, the nature of these systems is looked into with the aim of preliminarily assessing if there are good reasons to suspect that, on the foundational level, their moral reasoning capabilities are prone to the no-ought-from-is thesis. The main hypothesis of the present work is that, by conceptually analysing the notion of bottom-up artificial moral agents, it would be revealed that their seeming moral judgements do not have proper philosophical basis. For one, the said kinds of artifacts arrive at the understanding of ethically-relevant ideas by means of culling data or facts from the environment. Thus, in relation to the is-ought problem, it may be argued that, even if bottom-up systems seem prima facie capable of generating apparent moral judgments, such are actually absent of good moral grounding, if not empty of any ethical value.

Post-Human and Trans-Human in the Future Perspective of the Humanity

2024-02-24T21:52:32+02:00

The article considers the issue of chnging the main anthropic characteristics of a human under the influence of the rapid development of the latest technologies. Such changes cause the need to revise the usual interpretation of the concept of ‘human’, which is gradually being substituted by the currently popular concepts of ‘trans-’ and ‘post-human’. These concepts are favourably perceived by the techno-optimists, who believe that the latest technologies will allow us to create people who will be physically, intellectually and spiritually superior to the people of today, although they admit that this may lead to greater social inequality.

The article states that the post-human potential is too ambiguous to clearly outline it. On the one hand, it opens up unprecedented possibilities, which can be considered the highest manifestation of human freedom, i.e. the ability to model a person according to one’s vision. On the other – there is a real threat to human existence itself, namely, the danger of technological capture of the potential for human improvement. Therefore, the task of the article is to outline the possible prospects for the formation and improvement of modern human identity under the conditions of its combination with the other, non-human species and the latest technologies. This is possible under the condition of acceptance of new possibilities for the post-human as the liberating force that overcomes the negativity and limitations of human nature.

The comparative method and the method of analysis were used in the article.

The Philosophical Aspect of Contemporary Technology: Ellulian Technique and Infinite Scroll within Social Media

2024-02-24T21:52:17+02:00

Infinite scroll as a digital technology feature was introduced in 2006 and instantly gained momentum in a variety of platforms. The efficient and engaging technology experience brought by infinite scroll aligns well with the French sociologist Jacques Ellul’s concept of technique. Ellul does not perceive technique as technology, instead, he views it as a phenomenon of efficiency, permeating the societal, political and economic fields of human activity. By applying the characteristics of Ellul’s technique to the infinite scroll feature within social media, this paper uncovers insights into how it aligns with Ellul’s concept. In such a way, the Ellulian perspective allows an understanding of infinite scroll as part of a broader sociotechnical phenomenon. The article does not aim to spread a negative approach towards technology but rather to provide another perspective upon which digital technology might be analysed.

Dynamic Construction of Intersubjectivity in Discourse by Integrating Philosophical and Cognitive Perspectives

2024-02-24T21:56:10+02:00

Intersubjectivity, the existing way of humans in discourse, is the speakers’ concern over the hearers. A framework for the dynamic construction of discourse intersubjectivity by integrating philosophical and cognitive perspectives was proposed to reveal the essential philosophical and cognitive attributes of discourse intersubjectivity. Qualitative analysis and speculative methods were employed. Intersubjectivity in discourse and its dynamic construction process were investigated from speaker orientation, hearer orientation and social interaction orientation. The results show the following: (1) the proposed framework clarifies the dynamic construction of discourse meaning from objectivity to subjectivity and intersubjectivity; (2) speaker orientation focuses on the dynamic construction of discourse meaning from objectivity to subjectivity; (3) hearer orientation emphasises the dynamic construction of discourse meaning from subjectivity to intersubjectivity; (4) social interaction orientation concerns the interaction between speakers and hearers in social discursive practices. The study broadens the research perspective of intersubjectivity, provides a feasible analysis framework to deeply explore intersubjectivity, helps dig up the role of humans as communicative subjects in discourse and communication, and explores the implicit interaction between speakers and hearers.

Anthropocene and the Values in the Contemporary Lithuanian Philosophy

2024-02-24T21:55:55+02:00

In modern times, philosophy finds itself in a contradictory position. On the one hand, it has long been a theoretical abstract knowledge of the phenomena of reality and the ideas that express it. On the other hand, it is, at its core, a science that reflects on changes in fundamental human values. Values are embedded in the structure of each society, in the variety of issues that it has to deal with. Therefore, to be in touch with changing reality, philosophy naturally responds to societal issues that have a lasting impact on human beings and their environment. Being aware of the multi-layered nature of the Anthropocene, the author of the article explores the values that emerge in Lithuanian philosophy in the context of research on the Anthropocene. For this purpose, the insights of Lithuanian philosophers Naglis Kardelis, Gintautas Mažeikis, Arvydas Šliogeris, Mintautas Gutauskas and Danutė Bacevičiūtė into the most significant changes in nature caused by the Anthropocene are discussed.

Philosophical and Social Foundations of European Political Identity in Crisis Against the Background of the New Stage of European Integration

2024-02-24T21:55:41+02:00

The article is dedicated to the problems of European political identity and European identity as a whole conception and as a foundation for European integration. Before 24 February 2022, European political identity had been in crisis. The contradictions between the EU member states seemed to be hardly resolvable. The Russian aggression against Ukraine gave a strong impetus to the formation of European identity. However, it is still a negative incentive for unity and solidarity rather than cohesion around positive values, as well as from the outset the European integration was caused by devastating World War II as a negative experience, which should never be repeated. The text makes use of methods peculiar to the philosophical sciences, i.e. critical textual analysis, historical-analytical and comparative methods.

New (Digital) Media in Creative Society: Ethical Issues of Content Moderation

2024-02-24T21:55:26+02:00

Digitalisation and platformisation are continuously impacting and reshaping the societies we live in. In this context, we are witnessing the rise of phenomena such as fake news, hate speech, and the sharing of any other illegal content through social media. In this paper, I propose some ethical reflections on content moderation in the context of digital (social) media, as this topic seems – to me – to already incorporate other relevant digital issues in it, such as algorithms bias, the spread of fake news, and the potential misuses of artificial intelligence. In the first section, I will provide a few hermeneutic reflections over a speech given by the Italian scholar Umberto Eco, which appears to underline the necessity of a content moderation in an era of digital (social) media. In the second section, I will analyse, through a consequentialist perspective, critical and ethical issues posed by content moderation. In particular, I suggest the idea of a ‘moderate’ (reasonable and limited) content moderation that can only be assured by humans, as they are able to contextualise the content, to take emotions and subjective elements into account, to apply critical thinking and adaptability in complex circumstances.

Significant Absences: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Silence and Joyce’s Poetics of the Unspoken

2024-02-24T21:55:13+02:00

This paper discusses an important phase in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s analytic philosophy through a comparative examination of the profound correspondences that exist between his concept of silence and the poetics of another crucial authorial figure of the 20th century: James Joyce. Based on the hypothesis that there are striking resemblances between their early works, that is, between Joyce’s realistic short-story collection Dubliners and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the article employs mostly close-reading, analytical-interpretative and comparative methods. It argues that silence was an intentional intellectual, aesthetic and ethical choice of both these authors, their way to preserve the autonomy of metaphysics and to honour the beauty of the unspoken.

Starting from their common critical treatment of the habitual and largely alienated speech, the discussion connects Wittgenstein’s philosophical attitudes regarding the imprecision and inadequacy of every-day language and Joyce’s notion of ‘spiritual paralysis’ of the city-life, which he saw as the main motive for writing his collection about fin-desiècle Dublin. On the grounds of their shared views about the limits of words, behind which there are worlds that cannot be properly uttered, the idea of silence – or the highly significant narrative absence – grows to permeate the work of both. In the case of Wittgenstein, it is a call for a new philosophy, or anti-philosophy, which in negating metaphysics in effect preserves its independence from a discursive speech which cannot express it, whereas in the case of Joyce, correspondingly (and almost simultaneously), it is a quest for a new literary mode that will foreground a particular Modernist allusiveness, rhetoric of omission and deliberately incomplete, gnomonical narrative structures.

Philosophical Perspective on Hyperreality as a Phenomenon of Fashion Language – do we Really Want to be Deceived?

2024-02-24T21:57:35+02:00

This article focuses on hyperreality as a phenomenon used in fashion communication. The paper elaborates on the philosophical approach of Jean Baudrillard towards hyperreality, and Georg Simmel’s ideas about fashion’s role in society. The continuity of these authors’ ideas in later works highlights their cultural longevity. From a philosophical perspective, both fashion and hyperreality derive from dualism. Jean Baudrillard defines hyperreality as a condition in which what is real and what is simulated are seamlessly blended together. Hence, it becomes complicated to distinguish them. Fashion, according to Georg Simmel, is also firmly based upon dualism – one power pushes us to bind ourselves to others while another pushes us to distinction. In fashion communication, hyperreality is often used to create a sense of desire and excitement around the brands and products. The effect of passion and the edge of reality combine and evoke many philosophical approaches. We discuss hyperreality as a new reality dialectically – looking for the opposing ideas that would contribute to answering the main question – do we unconsciously want to be deluded? This paper reveals the link between hyperreality as a philosophical approach and fashion communication uncovering the delusion as a human desire.

On the Evidence and Description in Husserl’s Phenomenology

2024-02-24T21:57:21+02:00

The aim of this article is to highlight the nature of the fundamental moments of phenomenological research, such as evidence and description, and the ambivalence of their relationship to each other. On the one hand, both evidence and description are related to Husserl’s attempt to ‘return to the things themselves’. Evidence is understood by the founder of phenomenology as a relation to an object in which the meaning of that object is given to us immediately in the object itself. Description, on the other hand, avoids what is characteristic of any interpretation-oriented methodology: the ‘substitution’ of an explanatory reconstruction for the object under study. A certain discrepancy between phenomenological evidence and phenomenological description becomes apparent when we take into account the reception of the text in which the experience of the evidence is described. What is usually overlooked is that an experience whose content is the text being read is not an experience whose content is the phenomenon described in the text. This confusion leads to a turning away from ‘the things themselves’ and a restriction of phenomenology to the realm of texts. The way to avoid this deformation is through a phenomenological reduction, which must be carried out not only by the phenomenologist-researcher but also by the reader of the texts that provide a description of phenomenological experience.

Embodied Cognition and Empathic Experiences in War Communication

2024-02-24T21:57:08+02:00

Using the perspective of phenomenological-enactive embodied cognition, this paper examines the role of the body in constituting specific social interactions via specific media ecologies (war imagery) during the times of (refugee) crisis. Such media ecologies give affordances that can amplify social beliefs and turn subjective judgments into an intersubjective action. We consider the human body in relation to war media as playing an important role in sustaining social experiences and relations. To that end, the article explores the fundamental experience of empathy, combining the theoretical perspectives of phenomenology and enactivism with the examples from war imagery and refugee embodiment. It is shown that the classical phenomenological tradition offers different yet useful conceptualisations of empathy. We also argue that war images and/or messages should be viewed as means/tools for, rather than representations of, the enaction of certain important experiences. Hence, the article connects the analysis of the affection by war imagery with the subsequent social interactions in the context of refugee crisis.

Contours of Thinking in Heidegger: A Dionysian Science

2024-02-24T21:56:55+02:00

Heidegger’s thinking should not be labelled rationalist or irrationalist. Because the definitions of rationality and irrationality, which can be seen as derived from Descartes’ or Cartesian philosophy, are deconstructed by Heidegger. The movement of this deconstruction is twofold: at the same time it is a thinking retrieval of the ontologico-historical origin of (Western) thought. The retrieval results in Heidegger’s notion of temporalising Being. This ‘notion’ can also be seen as informed by Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’ and, in turn, to inform its understanding or interpretation itself.

The Silent Communication

2024-02-24T21:56:40+02:00

The essay discloses dimensions of communicative awareness, which are both local and general in the sense that they are recognised in all civilisations and pervade the researches of anthropologists, archeologists and historians. These dimensions are bodily activities composed of six practical orientations: up-down, left-right and forward-backward. Our social architecture, our systems of practical implements, our spaces and times of orientations are inscribed by both, the specific bodily situations and their silent background in all communicative awareness. Even languages are variations on these silent dimensions of activities: we face the future – a forward orientation; we leave the past behind – pertaining to our backward dimension; there are upper and lower social classes, left and right political movements. These silent dimensions are both universal and contingent.

Conspiracy Theories from a Philosophical, Sociological and Communicative Point of View

2024-02-24T21:58:01+02:00

The article reviews the scientific conference ‘Conspiracy Theories from a Philosophical, Sociological and Communicative Point of View’ held at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. At the conference, the following topics were examined from the perspective of various social sciences and humanities: conditions and reasons for the emergence of conspiracy theories, artistic-aesthetic aspects of conspiracy theories, Athenian ostracism as a conspiracy against an individual, parallels between quantum physics and conspiracy theories, conspiracy theories and the esoteric lifestyle, conspiracy theory as a tool of social and political censorship, conspiracy theories as a response to imposed propaganda, conspiracy theories in the educational system, socio-political origins of conspiracy theories, psychological factors of belief in conspiracy theories and trust in science, conspiracy theories as language games, the symbolic religious world as a source of conspiracy theory, etc. The article reflects the course of the conference, discussing the main thoughts of the conference participants – with some of these thoughts being debated.