scholarly journals Explaining multistability: postphenomenology and affordances of technologies

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas de Boer
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Material Design ◽  
Material Structure ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Affordance Theory ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
The Stability

AbstractA central issue in postphenomenology is how to explain the multistability of technologies: how can it be that specific technologies can be used for a wide variety of purposes (the “multi”), while not for all purposes (the “stability”)? For example, a table can be used for the purpose of sleeping, having dinner at, or even for staging a fencing match, but not for baking a cake. One explanation offered in the literature is that the (material) design of a technology puts constraints on the purposes for which technologies can be used. In this paper, I argue that such an explanation—while partly correct—fails to address the role of the environment in which human beings operate in putting constraints on technology use. I suggest that James Gibson’s affordance theory helps highlighting how stabilities in technology use arise in the interaction between human being and environment. Building on more recent approaches in affordance theory, I suggest that the environment can be conceptualized as a “rich landscape of affordances” that solicits certain actions, which are not just cued by the environment’s material structure, but also by the normativity present in the form of life in which a human being participates. I briefly contrast the approach to affordances developed in this paper with how Klenk (2020) and Tollon (2021) have conceptualized the “affordance character” of technological artifacts, and highlight how a focus on the situated nature of affordances augments these earlier conceptualizations.

scholarly journals The Role of Metamorphosis in Anglo- Saxon Ballads, Albanian Ballads and Frontier Warrior Songs

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Danela Bala Kraja
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Ending Process

This article aims to point out the role of metamorphosis in Anglo- Saxon ballads, Albanian ballads and frontier warrior songs. The Anglo- Saxon ballads and Albanian frontier warrior songs and ballads came into existence a long time ago and they had a certain number of influences which as a result had their great impact on their creation, development and circumstances when and where they were composed. They were created as a consequence of some special historical, cultural and social development. It has to be emphasized that those influences were of different character and size such as human, non-human or divine ones and the compositions of songs or ballads were inspired and conditioned by a lot of circumstances. Metamorphosis is used to express that never- ending process and of course it is transforming. The changes are either positive or negative and consequently people may perceive different good or bad feelings. It is related to the magic world and the unrealistic one and sometimes it is a beautiful feeling when a human being transforms into a rose and showing a form of life continuation after death but in many cases it transforms into a non-desirable object or animal. It is a quick transformation from one thing to another and it may have either positive or negative effects on the audience.

scholarly journals Transdisciplinarni pristup u razmatranju odnosa znanost — teologija

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-412
Author(s):  
Krešimir Cerovac
Keyword(s):  
Round Table ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Transdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Material World ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Modes Of Thought

There are many reasons why a partnership dialogue between theology (religion) and the natural sciences is needed. However, first and foremost this must be a conversation between one human being and another regarding the most important of human interests. The most effective way to approach complex issues and problems in the dialogue between theology and science is the transdisciplinary approach. Transdisciplinarity can solve prob lems which cannot be resolved by separate attempts. This approach can connect different modes of thought, that is, thought beginning with different points of view on the material world or religion. The transdisciplinary approach takes on the role of mediator, which demands at the “round table” that which unites human beings on a universal human level. This is a new, challenging and demanding approach which requires researchers to leave their own field of interest and strive to learn about other fields. The transdisciplinary approach, as “critical rationality” and a new way of thinking, opposed to classical and reductive rationalism, emphasizing objectivity, is based on controlled conflict–induced paradoxes. Transdisciplinarity creates a new quality — which is not an arithmetic sum of individual disciplines — and enables articulation, i.e. a link between two, at first glance, controversial disciplinary modes of thought.

Pragmatic Humanism and the Posthumanist Challenge: Between Biocentrism and the New Human Being

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
Ana Honnacker
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
William James ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Human Potentials

Humanism is charged with fostering a harmful anthropocentrism that has led to the exploitation of non-human beings and the environment. Posthumanist and transhumanist ideas prominently aim at rethinking our self-understanding and human-nature relations. Yet these approaches turn out to be flawed when it comes to addressing the challenges of the “age of the humanity”, the Anthropocene. Whereas posthumanism fails in acknowledging the exceptional role of human beings with regard to political agency and responsibility, transhumanism overemphasizes human capabilities of controlling nature and only deepens the human-nature dualism. Therefore, a critical and humble version of humanism is suggested as a viable alternative. Drawing on pragmatist thinkers William James and F.C.S. Schiller, a resource for de-centering the human being is provided that critically reflects our role in the larger ecosystem and underlines human potentials as well as human responsibilities.

Material Cultures and Moral Mediators in Human Hybridization

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Information And Communication

We already are hybrid humans, fruit of a kind of co-evolution of both our brains and the common, scientific, social, and moral knowledge we have produced by ourselves starting from the birth of material culture with our ancestors until the recent effects generated by the whole field of technological artifacts and of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We all are “constitutively” natural-born cyborgs, that is biotechnological hybrid minds. Our minds should not be considered to be located only in the head: human beings have solved their problems of survival and reproduction, “distributing” cognitive and ethical functions to external non-biological sources, props, and aids, which originate cultures. The paper also illustrates the interplay between cultures and distributed cognition and stresses the role of some technological artifacts as moral mediators. The second part of the paper is related to the analysis of the interplay between cultures, morality, and cognition and of some consequences concerning the problem of intercultural communication in the light of the role of moral mediators, docility, and cyberprivacy. Finally, I discuss some suggestions concerning the problem of what I call the moral principle of isolation of cultures, with respect to the effects of ICTs.

Material Cultures and Moral Mediators in Human Hybridization

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Information And Communication

We already are hybrid humans, fruit of a kind of co-evolution of both our brains and the common, scientific, social, and moral knowledge we have produced by ourselves starting from the birth of material culture with our ancestors until the recent effects generated by the whole field of technological artifacts and of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We all are “constitutively” natural-born cyborgs, that is biotechnological hybrid minds. Our minds should not be considered to be located only in the head: human beings have solved their problems of survival and reproduction, “distributing” cognitive and ethical functions to external nonbiological sources, props, and aids, which originate cultures. The paper also illustrates the interplay between cultures and distributed cognition and stresses the role of some technological artifacts as moral mediators. The second part of the paper is related to the analysis of the interplay between cultures, morality, and cognition and of some consequences concerning the problem of intercultural communication in the light of the role of moral mediators, docility, and cyberprivacy. Finally, I discuss some suggestions concerning the problem of what I call the moral principle of isolation of cultures, with respect to the effects of ICTs.

ROLE OF WAR IN SOCIAL LIFE. PART I - WAR IN PRE-MODERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT

2012 ◽  
Vol 164 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-205
Author(s):  
Janusz ŚWINIARSKI ◽  
Marian MARCINKOWSKI
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Historical Thought

At the beginning the authors present two opposing trends related to the understanding of the nature and the role of war in society: first, that these phenomena are embedded in the nature of human beings and humanity (which means that without war there is no human being, culture and civilization, its life, society or state, so war is natural and necessary for life); second, war is not embedded in human nature, is a distortion in community life and relations between people; this means that if wars occur, they show the degradation of human beings and society. These trends are observed in the eternal debate on war and the authors show numerous examples in which war is perceived in this way.

scholarly journals Is religious fundamentalism our default spirituality?: Implications for teacher education

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinand J. Potgieter ◽  
Johannes L. Van der Walt
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Religious Fundamentalist ◽  
The Moment

Using experiential interpretivism as underpinning methodology, this article investigates whether religious fundamentalism is the default spirituality of human beings. Our research is based on a hermeneutic reconstructive interpretation of religion, fundamentalism, radicalism, extremism, spirituality, life- and worldview, and the role of education in bringing about peaceful coexistence amongst people. We concluded that the natural religious-fundamentalist inclination of the human being tends to be (and needs to be) counterbalanced by the education – that is, socialisation – that he or she receives from the moment of birth, the important first six or seven years of life, and throughout his or her life. Based on this conclusion, the article ends with the articulation of ten implications for teacher education.

scholarly journals LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: LANGUAGE-GAME AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Peter O. O. Ottuh ◽  
Onos Godwin Idjakpo
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Language Game ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spiritual Nature ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Characteristic Features

Abstract. Wittgenstein’s new understanding of meaning as use has far reaching implications in religion and religious belief. The meaningfulness of language does not depend on the referent but on the actual use of it in the human context. The variety of language uses makes religious language legitimate, and the social character of language makes clear the role of training in religious belief. The characteristic features of religious belief can be summarized as follows: It is an unshakable commitment devoid of evidences and arguments, and it is reasonable only within its framework and grounded on the religious form of life. The rituals that are part of religious beliefs are symbolic and expressive. The existential concerns of human beings reveal a common spiritual nature enabling us to understand other religions and cultures as mirrored in our own humanity.

scholarly journals The Evolutionary Concept of Human Death

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-126
Author(s):  
Adam Świeżyński
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Material Structure ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Cosmic Evolution ◽  
The World ◽  
Evolutionary Point ◽  
Human Death

The natural sciences reveal the existence of a constant process of cosmic evolution, in which new forms of matter emerge. The continuity of the nonorganic and biological evolutionary processes, their assignment to the laws of nature, as well as the fact that the appearance of a human being constitutes their culmination, all this shows that a human being is an element of the material structure of the world. From the evolutionary point of view, it could be argued that a human being is “the ultimate form of life,” a very interesting but, in many respects, still very mysterious idea.

scholarly journals PERWUJUDAN NILAI MORALITAS DALAM PEMILIHAN PRESIDEN 2019 YANG DEMOKRATIS DAN BERKEADILAN

Ijlil ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Dimas Bima Setiyawan
Keyword(s):  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Election System ◽  
Role Of Religion

Moral is an ethic inherent ain a human being. Formed trough verous diverse events that have been passed, one of wich is  trough  the  role  of  religion.  The  importance  of  the  role  is broken  down  in  the  form  of  behavior  of  each  individual  in response  to  everything  that  is  present  in  his  life.  Religion  was reveald  for  justice,  morality,  mutual  respect,  and  called  for creating  a  peaceful  order  of  live  among  fellow  human  beings. The  importance  of  promoting  morality  based  on  religion  will greatly  affect  the  pattern  of  life  carried  out  by  every  human being.   one   of   them   is   responding   to   the   upcoming   2019 preidential  election.  The  values  contained  in  it  will  certainly influence  the  realization  of  the  five-year  event  to  realize  a democratic and justice election system.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document