儒家視角下的超人類主義反思——如何監管我們的後人類未來？

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 隨著高科技操縱人類生命的潛力日益明顯，超人類主義運動也愈加受到學界重視，相關研究飛速增長，但尚缺乏一種基於儒家視角的系統研究。本文試圖表明儒家視角對反思超人類主義具有不可替代的重要性，不僅因為它可以幫助我們更清晰、更深刻地把握超人類主義的影響和風險，而且因為它可以在超人類主義的技術主義圖景之外，提供想像和監管我們後人類未來的另一種可能性。具體而言，本研究致力於在一種隱含比較視域下展開儒家的批判性視角，從儒家“天人合一”觀念出發，闡釋儒家為什麼不能接受超人類主義，並嘗試探索儒家反對超人類主義的倫理理由與西方生物保守主義的同異之處。由此，本文嘗試將不同文化來源的思想帶入對話中，既是通過它們分歧之處，更是要通過它們共同關懷的議題，來更好地思考，超人類主義計劃對人類社會、對人類未來意味著什麼，並回答“如何監管我們的後人類未來”這一至關重要的問題。 As the potential of high technology to manipulate human life becomes increasingly evident, the transhumanist movement is receiving greater scholarly attention, and the number of related research projects is growing exponentially. However, systematic research from a Confucian perspective is still lacking. This paper attempts to demonstrate the unique value of a Confucian perspective in reflecting on transhumanism. Confucian thought can not only help us grasp the implications and risks of transhumanism with clarity and depth but also offer alternative possibilities for imagining as well as regulating our posthuman future beyond the technocratic picture of transhumanism. Specifically, this paper develops a critical Confucian perspective in an implicitly comparative context to explain why Confucianism cannot accept transhumanism （due to the Confucian notion of “the unity of heaven and man”（天人合一）and to explore the similarities and differences between Confucian and bio-conservative perspectives on transhumanism. I thereby bring ideas from different cultural sources into dialogue to form a better understanding of what transhumanism means for human society and its future, and to answer the crucial question of how to regulate our posthuman future.

Opposing acceleration: the tragedy of resistance in Brazil

PurposeThe study aims to highlight and reflect on resistance to Brazil's illiberal accelerationist politics highlighting alternative possibilities based on affects and forms of relatedness.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the case of public universities and the arts in today's Brazil, the authors point out a tragedy of resistance (when opposing change fuels its acceleration) and explore a strategy of lines of flight and becomings in the light of Deleuze and Guattari's perspective on acceleration.FindingsAlongside an oppositional and reactive resistance, that is caught in a tragedy of resistance, the authors explore an alternative strategy that protects a plurality of life forms and forces and their becoming. This strategy differs from most critiques of accelerationism.Originality/valueThis strategy of resistance seems more faithful to Deleuze than the accelerationist strategies that claim to be inspired by him. The authors suggest another reading of the often quoted passage by Deleuze and Guattari. While Deleuze and Guattari favor continuous deterritorializations of the flows of desire, accelerationism reterritorializes these flows towards a (often) undesirable future.

Body Boundaries and Discursive Practices in Life Threatening Illness: Narratives of the Self

<p>This thesis tells a story from within and between the boundaries of my professional work as a nurse and my private life as the wife of a patient with life threatening illness. The events related in the thesis are told using a technique I have called writing back to myself, where my own journals and stories of the experience of living with life threatening illness provide data for analysis. The reader is invited to participate in these representations and to consider the potential for the skilful practice of nursing which may be read in the stories, and the analysis I have developed from them. I have developed the theoretical and methodological positionings for the thesis from the work of Foucault (1975,1979,1982,1988), Deleuze (1988), Ellis (1995), Richardson (1998) and other writers who utilise genealogical or narrative approaches. The analysis of my own stories in the thesis explores the philosophical and contextual positionings of the nurse as a knowledge worker through genealogies of practice and the specific intellectual work of the nurse. Local and contextual epistemologies are considered as ways of theorising nursing practice through personal knowledge, which is surfaced through the critical analysis of contextual positionings and the process of writing as inquiry. The idea of harmonising nursing practice in the patient's local world through contingent and thinking responses, and the recognition of one's own agency as the nurse, are considered in terms of what might constitute ethical practice. The thinking nurse is a specific intellectual, who critically engages with the context of her/his own practice to form new discourses derived from local and contextual 'truths' about illness, suffering and dying. The capacities for vision that are developed through the stories in the thesis, are explored as having the potential to present new possibilities for the practice of professional nursing. Notions of what constitutes ethical practice are negotiated and contested through local conversations, which privilege the capacities of the patient and the nurse in taking up new discursive positionings as alternatives to those prescribed through the sovereignty of expert power. In the local and contextual world of the patient, visions for practice may be negotiated moment by moment through careful exploration of discursive tensions and the critical appraisal of the utility of alternative possibilities. This development of local knowledge relies on the ability of the nurse to explore and trust her/his own judgement and nursing responses in situations where visions for practice may not be clear. The 'un-picking' and 're-sewing' of stories related in the analysis of the discursive production of the cancer patient and the 'private nurse' present new possibilities for the ethical substance of nursing. This ethical substance creates the potential for new conceptualisations of practice, where nurses and other health professionals take responsibility for the effects of their activities with patients. In this 'un-picking' of the stories in the thesis, I am concerned with the discursive positionings that are taken up by the patient and the health professional in the story. I identify the means through which subjects become visible in discursive statements and the effects of these subject positionings on specific moments of practice with the patient. The 're-sewing' of events involves the telling of alternative stories, negotiated between the actors in the events, to produce a more ethically desirable outcome in the specific contexts of nursing practice.</p>

Body Boundaries and Discursive Practices in Life Threatening Illness: Narratives of the Self

<p>This thesis tells a story from within and between the boundaries of my professional work as a nurse and my private life as the wife of a patient with life threatening illness. The events related in the thesis are told using a technique I have called writing back to myself, where my own journals and stories of the experience of living with life threatening illness provide data for analysis. The reader is invited to participate in these representations and to consider the potential for the skilful practice of nursing which may be read in the stories, and the analysis I have developed from them. I have developed the theoretical and methodological positionings for the thesis from the work of Foucault (1975,1979,1982,1988), Deleuze (1988), Ellis (1995), Richardson (1998) and other writers who utilise genealogical or narrative approaches. The analysis of my own stories in the thesis explores the philosophical and contextual positionings of the nurse as a knowledge worker through genealogies of practice and the specific intellectual work of the nurse. Local and contextual epistemologies are considered as ways of theorising nursing practice through personal knowledge, which is surfaced through the critical analysis of contextual positionings and the process of writing as inquiry. The idea of harmonising nursing practice in the patient's local world through contingent and thinking responses, and the recognition of one's own agency as the nurse, are considered in terms of what might constitute ethical practice. The thinking nurse is a specific intellectual, who critically engages with the context of her/his own practice to form new discourses derived from local and contextual 'truths' about illness, suffering and dying. The capacities for vision that are developed through the stories in the thesis, are explored as having the potential to present new possibilities for the practice of professional nursing. Notions of what constitutes ethical practice are negotiated and contested through local conversations, which privilege the capacities of the patient and the nurse in taking up new discursive positionings as alternatives to those prescribed through the sovereignty of expert power. In the local and contextual world of the patient, visions for practice may be negotiated moment by moment through careful exploration of discursive tensions and the critical appraisal of the utility of alternative possibilities. This development of local knowledge relies on the ability of the nurse to explore and trust her/his own judgement and nursing responses in situations where visions for practice may not be clear. The 'un-picking' and 're-sewing' of stories related in the analysis of the discursive production of the cancer patient and the 'private nurse' present new possibilities for the ethical substance of nursing. This ethical substance creates the potential for new conceptualisations of practice, where nurses and other health professionals take responsibility for the effects of their activities with patients. In this 'un-picking' of the stories in the thesis, I am concerned with the discursive positionings that are taken up by the patient and the health professional in the story. I identify the means through which subjects become visible in discursive statements and the effects of these subject positionings on specific moments of practice with the patient. The 're-sewing' of events involves the telling of alternative stories, negotiated between the actors in the events, to produce a more ethically desirable outcome in the specific contexts of nursing practice.</p>

Christ and the Principle of Alternative Possibilities

Classical Christology provides reason to reject the principle of alternative possibilities [PAP]. The Gethsemane prayer highlights an instance in which Jesus Christ performs a voluntary and morally significant action which he could not have done otherwise, namely, Christ’s submission to God’s will. Two classical Christological doctrines undermine PAP: (1) impeccability, and (2) volitional non-contrariety. Classical Christology teaches that Christ could not sin, and that Christ’s human will could not be contrary to his divine will. Yet, classical Christology also teaches that Christ’s death is voluntary and morally praiseworthy. First, I present the relevant elements of classical Christology: dyothelitism, impeccability, and volitional non-contrariety. Second, I define and disambiguate varieties of PAP. Third, I show that Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane disproves PAP. I respond to several objections along the way. Finally, I reflect on the implications of denying PAP.

Cross-Hedging Portfolios in Emerging Stock Markets: Evidence for the LATIBEX Index

We consider alternative possibilities for hedging spot positions on the FTSE LATIBEX Index, the index of the only international market exclusively for Latin American firms that is denominated by the euro. Since there is not a futures market on the index, it is unclear whether a relatively successful hedge can be found. We explore the plausibility of employing futures on four stock market indices: EUROSTOXX 50, S&P500, BOVESPA, and IPC, and simulate the results that could be obtained by a hedge position based on either unconditional or conditional second order moments estimated from different asymmetric GARCH models. Several criteria for hedging effectiveness suggest that futures contracts on BOVESPA should be preferred, and that a salient reduction in risk can be achieved over the unhedged LATIBEX portfolio. The evidence in favor of a better performance of conditional moments is very clear, without significant differences among the alternative GARCH specifications.

In-Process Monitoring of Temperature Evolution during Fused Filament Fabrication: A Journey from Numerical to Experimental Approaches

Fused filament fabrication (FFF), an additive manufacturing technique, unlocks alternative possibilities for the production of complex geometries. In this process, the layer-by-layer deposition mechanism and several heat sources make it a thermally driven process. As heat transfer plays a particular role and determines the temperature history of the merging filaments, the in-process monitoring of the temperature profile guarantees the optimization purposes and thus the improvement of interlayer adhesion. In this review, we document the role of heat transfer in bond formation. In addition, efforts have been carried out to evaluate the correlation of FFF parameters and heat transfer and their effect on part quality. The main objective of this review paper is to provide a comprehensive study on the in-process monitoring of the filament’s temperature profile by presenting and contributing a comparison through the literature.

STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF FRICTION CONDITIONS ON THE INDICATORS OF THE ROLLING PROCESS IN A WIRE BLOCK

Physical modeling of the laws of friction during pressure treatment is a complex problem and is solved with many restrictions and assumptions. Computational experiments open up alternative possibilities for investigating the influence of friction conditions on the rolling process. A deeper analysis of the friction mechanism in the wire block is required, since there is a significant scatter in the data on the coefficient of friction during high-speed rolling of wire rod. The aim of this work is to study the influence of friction conditions in the deformation zone of each of the stands of the wire block on the change in specific tensions, on the longitudinal stability of the rolling process, on the change in the angle of the neutral section and on the broadening of the metal. The study of the influence of these factors is based on the joint solution of the differential equilibrium equation of the elementary volume, isolated in the deformation zone, the plasticity equation. In this work, the range of variation of the coefficient of friction was chosen such as to reveal the patterns of rolling in conditions close to the limiting. The work investigated the influence of the coefficient of friction on the parameters of rolling wire rod with a diameter of 5.5 mm in a wire block. The study was carried out with a change in the coefficient of friction from 0.22 to 0.18 during the rolling of one roll. The friction conditions in the deformation zones of the wire block, affect the tension of the roll, affect both the transverse flow of the metal, and the reduction. The study of the process of rolling wire rod in a wire block showed that a toughening of the friction mode in contact between the metal and the rolls increases the longitudinal stability of the rolled wire in the deformation zone. The minimum value of the friction coefficient at which the process remains stable without loss of equilibrium is close to 0.2. With a decrease in the coefficient of friction, the tension of the metal in the inter-stand spaces sharply increases, which can lead to partial or complete slipping of the strip. The friction conditions in the contact between the rolls and the rolled stock affect the coefficient of transverse deformation and reduction of the metal in the stands of the wire block, as well as the power parameters.