scholarly journals Joint Action without Mutual Beliefs

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Figà Talamanca

Abstract Joint action among human beings is characterized by using elaborate cognitive feats, such as representing the mental states of others about a certain state of affairs. It is still debated how these capacities evolved in the hominid lineage. I suggest that the consolidation of a shared practice over time can foster the predictability of other’s behavior. This might facilitate the evolutionary passage from inferring what others might know by simply seeing them and what they are viewing towards a mutual awareness of each other’s beliefs. I will examine the case for cooperative hunting in one chimpanzee community and argue that it is evidence that they have the potential to achieve common ground, suggesting that the consolidation of a practice might have supported the evolution of higher social cognition in the hominid lineage.

Author(s):  
Deborah Tollefsen ◽  
Christina Friedlaender

Intentionality refers to the capacity of mental states to be about or directed toward some object or state of affairs. Collective intentionality refers to a growing area of intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary research that studies the ways in which individuals share mental states such as belief, knowledge, and intention, and the possibility that groups themselves are the bearers of mental states. In addition, those working within this area have developed accounts of joint action, group mind/cognition, collective responsibility, and the construction of social reality. Theories of shared intention attempt to characterize the intentional structure that underlies joint action. Individual action is guided and informed by intentions. When we act together, intentions seem to play a role as well. The question is whether individual intentions to do one’s part are sufficient to explain joint action. Some theorists argue that they are not and that what is needed is either a special type of individual intention (a we-intention) or a complex set of interconnected individual attitudes that are common knowledge among participants. In addition to acting together, members of a group make judgments together. A search committee might make a judgment about a candidate that diverges from the beliefs that individuals have about a candidate. Theories of group belief aim to capture the ways in which beliefs might be appropriately attributed to a group. Some theorists argue that attributions of belief to a group are appropriate on the basis of the fact that members have accepted the proposition as being the group’s belief or have jointly committed to believing the proposition as a group (i.e., as single person would). Debates surrounding the idea of group belief focus on the question of whether group belief is really a form of belief. Finally, the formation of group attitudes is often done in the context of joint deliberation or joint problem-solving and collective remembering. Group cognition is the idea that in these contexts cognition is distributed across members of a group and can be appropriately attributed to the group itself rather than to the individuals within the group. Accounts of group cognition have been influenced by functionalism in the philosophy of mind, by the field of distributed cognition, and by the extended-mind hypothesis.


Author(s):  
T.J. Kasperbauer

This chapter applies the psychological account from chapter 3 on how we rank human beings above other animals, to the particular case of using mental states to assign animals moral status. Experiments on the psychology of mental state attribution are discussed, focusing on their implications for human moral psychology. The chapter argues that attributions of phenomenal states, like emotions, drive our assignments of moral status. It also describes how this is significantly impacted by the process of dehumanization. Psychological research on anthropocentrism and using animals as food and as companions is discussed in order to illuminate the relationship between dehumanization and mental state attribution.


Author(s):  
Rainer Forst

This chapter addresses the classical question of the relationship between enlightenment and religion. In doing so, the chapter compares Jürgen Habermas's thought to that of Pierre Bayle and Immanuel Kant. For, although Habermas undoubtedly stands in a tradition founded by Bayle and Kant, he develops a number of important orientations within this tradition and has changed his position in his recent work. The chapter studies this change to understand Habermas's position better. It also draws attention to a fundamental question raised by the modern world: what common ground can human reason establish in the practical and theoretical domain between human beings who are divided by profoundly different religious (including antireligious) views?


Author(s):  
Corrado Roversi

Are legal institutions artifacts? If artifacts are conceived as entities whose existence depends on human beings, then yes, legal institutions are, of course, artifacts. But an artifact theory of law makes a stronger claim, namely, that there is actually an explanatory gain to be had by investigating legal institutions as artifacts, or through the features of ordinary artifacts. This is the proposition explored in this chapter: that while this understanding of legal institutions makes it possible to find common ground between legal positivism and legal realism, it does not capture all of the insights offered by these two traditions. An artifact theory of law can therefore be necessary in explaining the law, but it will not suffice to that end. This chapter also posits that legal artifacts bear a relevant connection to certain conceptions of nature, thus vindicating one of the original insights behind natural law theory.


2021 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 103222
Author(s):  
Laura Schmitz ◽  
Günther Knoblich ◽  
Ophelia Deroy ◽  
Cordula Vesper

SATS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nivedita Gangopadhyay ◽  
Alois Pichler

Abstract Our linguistic communication often takes the form of creating texts. In this paper, we propose that creating texts or ‘texting’ is a form of joint action. We examine the nature and evolution of this joint action. We argue that creating texts ushers in a special type of joint action, which, while lacking some central features of normal, everyday joint actions such as spatio-temporal collocation of agency and embodiment, nonetheless results in an authentic, strong, and unique type of joint action agency. This special type of agency is already present in creating texts in general and is further augmented in creating texts through digital media. We propose that such a unique type of joint action agency has a transformative effect on the experience of our sense of agency and subjectivity. We conclude with the implications of the proposal for social cognition and social agency. The paper combines research in philosophy of mind with the emerging fields of digital humanities and text technology.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162095377
Author(s):  
Lisa J. Stephenson ◽  
S. Gareth Edwards ◽  
Andrew P. Bayliss

When two people look at the same object in the environment and are aware of each other’s attentional state, they find themselves in a shared-attention episode. This can occur through intentional or incidental signaling and, in either case, causes an exchange of information between the two parties about the environment and each other’s mental states. In this article, we give an overview of what is known about the building blocks of shared attention (gaze perception and joint attention) and focus on bringing to bear new findings on the initiation of shared attention that complement knowledge about gaze following and incorporate new insights from research into the sense of agency. We also present a neurocognitive model, incorporating first-, second-, and third-order social cognitive processes (the shared-attention system, or SAS), building on previous models and approaches. The SAS model aims to encompass perceptual, cognitive, and affective processes that contribute to and follow on from the establishment of shared attention. These processes include fundamental components of social cognition such as reward, affective evaluation, agency, empathy, and theory of mind.


ATLAS JOURNAL ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (40) ◽  
pp. 1740-1758
Author(s):  
Kayhan ATİK

The need for cover is a requirement in all parts of the world. More or less this need has been realized in almost every society. In addition, clothing is one of the basic needs of human beings. This basic need has become a pleasure over time, and the temporary innovation that has entered the life of society with the desire to dress completely or the need for change has turned into an excessive, common indulgence shown by the society for a certain period of time. When we evaluate clothing in terms of nations, it has gained very different meanings with the effect of the cultural structure of the society. Considering this situation in the context of civilizations, of course, we can say that it has presented a similar privilege. In short, every society has made its dress code suitable for its culture and civilization. As in the rest of the world, the robes, dresses, turbans and fabrics of the Ottoman sultans showed themselves clearly as an indicator of the position, wealth and status. Especially caftans, fabrics and patterns, each one is a masterpiece of art. Despite having a simple form according to researches, Ottoman caftans have a very magnificent appearance and beauty. The decorations made for these caftans, lining and moldings, fur ornaments, ornaments made with buttons are very perfect. These caftans have aroused the admiration of the whole world with their fabric, motif and splendor, and many researches have been done on these caftans, which have been exhibited and preserved in various local and foreign museums. The sultan's clothes in the Topkapı Palace Museum Sultan's Clothes Archive consist of approximately 2500 pieces. Most of these are hilat, robes and shalwars. In addition, although it is less, there are also children's (prince's) clothes, so there are no women's clothes. RESEARCH ARTICLE ATLAS Journal International Refereed Journal On Social Sciences e-ISSN:2619-936X Arrival Date : 19.03.2021 Published Date : 30.04.2021 2021, Vol:7, Issue:40 pp: 1740- 1758 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31568/atlas.676 ATLAS INTERNATIONAL REFEREED JOURNAL ON SOCIAL SCIENCES Year: 2021 Vol:7 Issue: 40 1740 Here, 21 caftans belonging to Fatih Sultan Mehmet, 77 caftans belonging to Suleiman the Magnificent, 13 caftans belonging to I. Ahmet, II. 30 caftans belonging to Osman, IV. While it is known that there were 27 caftans belonging to Murat, the caftans belonging to six rulers before Fatih Sultan Mehmet were not mentioned by name. In this study, the money spent for the clothes of the sultan in the Archives of the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives, Topkapı Palace Museum, the cocks and dresses that the sultan had to buy from the council; In dâbü's-sâ, we will focus on the kafân, sarık, other items and values that are deserved by the landlords, the palace-i Atiq aghas, the boys, the Treasury, the cellar, the lords of the Voyage rooms and the people in charge. Keywords: Ottoman, Sultan, Bureaucrat, Clothes, Fabric, Special Items.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey N. Doan ◽  
Helen Y. Lee ◽  
Qi Wang

We investigated the role of mothers’ references to mental states and behaviors and children’s emotion situation knowledge (ESK) in a prospective, cross-cultural context. European American mothers ( n = 71) and Chinese immigrant mothers ( n = 60) and their children participated in the study. Maternal references to mental states and behaviors were assessed at Time 1 when children were three years of age. ESK was assessed when children were 3, 3.5, and 4.5 years of age. Multi-group latent growth curve analyses were used to model children’s growth in ESK over time, as well as relations between mental state language and references to behaviors on children’s trajectories. Results indicated that maternal references to mental states were associated with concurrent levels of ESK for European American children, and change over time for the Chinese immigrant children. Maternal references to behaviors were negatively associated with concurrent ESK for both groups.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (04) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
Adrian Bejan

This paper describes human application of their knowledge and technological ability to fly and continue to enhance that power. Through application of their knowledge and technological ability, human beings have evolved the ability to fly and continue to enhance that power. Aircraft technology evolution is about the evolving design of the human movement on the Earth’s surface: people, goods, materials, and everything else. As the whole vehicle or animal evolves toward becoming better at moving mass on the landscape, the organs remain imperfect, because each represents a compromise. The whole vehicle or animal is a construct of organs that are ‘imperfect’ only when examined in isolation. The vehicle design evolves over time and becomes a better construct for moving the vehicle mass on the world map. Flow architectures are evolving right now, throughout nature and in technologies. The legacy of all flow systems (animate and inanimate) is: they have moved weight horizontally and improved the efficiency of that movement because of design evolution.


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