Transtechnical Essence of Technology

This chapter introduces the reader to the stage of the discussion on the dialectic transformation of machine into machinery with an eye towards the transhumanist perspectives. With the help of Heidegger, the discussion is focused on the transhumanist technology and the ideologues of transhumanist improvement of human evolution. This early groundwork helps situate the contemporary treatment of cyborgoethics within a historical and philosophical framework. This is important in guiding researchers in exploring the essence of scientific work with an eye towards the cyborgization movement that is reshaping human life and society.

Enoch Olujide Gbadegesin, Yunusa Kehinde Salami and Kola Abimbola (eds.) Exploring the Ethics of Individualism and Communitarianism. Harvest Day Publications ,2016,365p.

A collection of critical essays on Professor Segun Gbadegesin, one of the most preeminent figures in African philosophy, is by no mean an insignificant feat. This is all the more so because the volume has the objective of achieving a multidisciplinary interrogation of Gbadegesin’s philosophical oeuvre. This is a herculean task because Gbadegesin’s philosophical outputs straddles philosophy of culture, bioethics, social and political philosophy, ethics, and African philosophy. With his African Philosophy: Traditional Yorùbá Philosophy and Contemporary African Realities (1991), Professor Gbadegesin effectively brought deep philosophical insights into significant issues in Africa’s postcolonial malaise. The 16-chapter volume has a sufficiently wide array of significant scholars whose different perspectives provide a wide context within which to situate the brilliant scholarship of Segun Gbadegesin. These chapters all attempted to unravel the core of Gbadegesin’s multifaceted philosophical framework. While some confronted some basic elements of his work, like chapter four (human personality), seven (work), and nine (destiny), other chapters took the thematic concerns of, say, communitarianism and ethics as the springboard for further reflections on corruption, nationalism and nation building, citizenship, religion, personhood, leadership, race, justice, gender and the nature of African philosophy. However, with this distribution of chapters, there is a cogent doubt whether the book actually does critical justice to the imperative of critically engagement with Segun Gbadegesin’s philosophical corpus.

Shame, Stigma, HIV

The affective climate often associated with HIV prevention and care practices is often dominated by negative emotions such as shame, fear and suspicion which arise because of HIV’s historical stigma. This article explores the experiential consequences of this affective climate and the continued stigma associated with HIV, through a focus on the experience of shame anxiety which can be under- stood as the chronic anticipation of shame or shameful exposure. Exploring first- person narratives of gay men living with HIV, the article gives an account of how shame anxiety is central to understanding how stigma causes harm, especially in experiences of chronic illnesses such as HIV. Using a philosophical framework, through phenomenology, it will be demonstrated how shame anxiety manifests in bodily lived experience through the structure of the “horizon”. The article will finish with reflections on how shame anxiety can act as a barrier to the effective delivery of health services for those with stigmatised chronic illnesses and, fur- thermore, why the experience of shame anxiety might be useful to consider when delivering health services.

Abduction and entrepreneurial learning

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to describe the similarities between abductive reasoning and entrepreneurial learning processes in order to contribute to the conceptual understanding of learning as an entrepreneurial process in itself.Design/methodology/approachThe research is theoretically rooted in a conceptual development of the understanding of entrepreneurial learning processes as abductive reasoning inspired by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. The theoretical explication of the connection between entrepreneurial learning processes and abductive reasoning is additionally illustrated by a hypotheses-based didactic model, developed by the authors to scaffold abducting reasoning into learning processes.FindingsThe authors found in the theoretical investigation of abductive reasoning a conceptualisation of entrepreneurial learning processes that connects entrepreneurial learning processes to basic cognitive human competences, and the authors found that key concepts in entrepreneurship, such as hunches and experiments, can be understood in a broader philosophical framework as basic cognitive competences.Practical implicationsThe authors exemplify how abductive reasoning can be used in practice through a hypothesis-based didactic approach designed as a loop model.Originality/valueThe authors have discovered that abduction is closely related to entrepreneurship and can be a central conceptual link in understanding the relationship between entrepreneurship and learning. The athors also believe that Peirce's concept of abduction can contribute to the philosophical understanding of entrepreneurship as another name for a constant rethinking of the world.

Penggemblengan Sumber Islam Sebagai Manifestasi Utama Pembinaan Falsafah Kritikan Sastera Islam Sayyid Sayyid Abd al-Raziq: Analisis Karya Manhaj al-Islami fi al-Naqd al-Adabi (The Abolition of Islamic Sources as a Main Manifestation of the Philosophy of Islamic Literary Criticism Sayyid Sayyid Abd al-Raziq: Analysis of the Book of Manhaj al-Islami fi al-Naqd al-Adabi)

This study aims to look at the fusion of Islamic sources applied by Sayyid Sayyid cAbd al-Raziq as his main work in developing a unique and distinctive Islamic literary philosophy. On the one side, it is his effort and reflection on the refinement of the philosophical framework of Islamic literature that is considered to be entirely non-Islamic and largely dependent on Western ideas. As a result there are significant contradictions in Islamic values and this has prompted al-Raziq to produce a work that refines these issues. This study applied qualitative methods in the design of content analysis by analyzing the primary source, Manhaj al-Islami fi al-Naqd al-Adabi. The findings of the study have found that al-Raziq has optimally used Islamic sources as his primary vehicle in producing a philosophy of literary criticism that is truly Islamic. This is reflected in his efforts through the fusion of Islamic sources including the Qur'an, Hadith and also ethical interpretations in the scope of his philosophical debates including al-Turath al-Islami, al-Turath al-Jahili and al-Turath al-Madi.

Inhabiting Space

This chapter develops a philosophical picture of spatially embedded agency and perception, and argues that spaces and their dwellers mutually constitute one another. It lays out a philosophical framework and builds a philosophical toolbox for exploring cities and city living. It defends the strong philosophical claim that as spaces and dwellers make one another, they also generate ecological ontologies. In an ecological ontology, the kinds of real things that populate a particular environment are, in the most literal sense, to some extent constituted by the interactions between dwellers situated within that environment and between dwellers and their environment. The chapter ends by considering what makes a space ‘alive’ or ‘dead.’

Philosophical presentation and the implicitly humorous structure of philosophy

Philosophy often at least implicitly includes and depends on a logical structure which is also that of jokes. This is the case when philosophy involves questioning or establishing concepts in their own right, and when it involves the kinds of metaphysics which ask about reality and the world as a whole or as such. Taking this humour-like structure into account in presenting philosophy helps, among other things, to lay open part of the character of philosophy itself, to underscore the radical self-perspective that is constitutive of philosophy, and to contextualise the often confusing experience of coming to grips with an unfamiliar philosophical framework.

Varro, the Name-Givers, and the Lawgivers: The Case of the Consuls

This essay aims at identifying a tradition of lawgivers in the political culture of the late Republic. It focuses on the antiquarian tradition of the second half of the first century BC, which, it argues, should be considered part of the wider quest for legal normativism that takes place towards the end of the Republic. By reconstructing the intellectual debates on the nature of the consulship, which at the time was carried out through the means of etymological research, this essay shows that, when set within its proper philosophical framework, ancient etymological studies acted as a search for philosophical truth and, in the case of Varro, identify the early kings as the first Roman lawgivers. In turn, the language of political institutions and its etymologies, conceived along philosophical lines, could become a weapon in the constitutional battles of the late Republic.

In defence of our model for just healthcare systems: why an explicit philosophy is needed in addition to the law, and how Scanlon helps derive just policies

In a recent response to our paper on developing a philosophical framework to guide the design and delivery of a just health service, Sarela raises several objections. We feel that although Sarela makes points which are worthy of discussion, his critique does not undermine either the need for, or the worth of, our proposed model. First, the law does not negate the need for ethics in determining just healthcare policy. Reliance on legal processes can drive inappropriate focus on ensuring policies avoid judicial review, as opposed to ensuring they are truly just; the law affords protection against unjust policies but does not put a commitment to avoiding them at the heart of policy-making. We defend the need for Scanlonian supplementation by emphasising the practical value of adding a step based on reasonable rejection, particularly in ensuring that the views of vulnerable stakeholders are robustly considered. We discuss the similarities and differences between the work of Daniels and Sen in considering the relationship between health and opportunity, concluding that Sen’s capability approach is both valuable and compatible with our proposed model. Finally, the practical use of our model requires consideration of what constitutes a reasonable person. Our model is explicitly intended to help develop a healthcare system which is just to all its users. With this in mind, we suggest that those involved in decision-making should meet Scanlon’s definition of reasonable: they should be motivated to justify their actions to, and seek agreement with, others.

Gift Game Metatheory: Social Interaction and Interpersonal Growth

This paper analyzes Game Theory (GT) from the point of view of moral psychology and makes explicit some of its assumptions regarding the human person as a moral agent, as well as the ends of human action, and reciprocity. Using a largely philosophical methodology, we will argue that GT assumes an instrumental form of rationality underpinned by a logic of self-interest, hence placing individuals, communities, and their social practices in service of external goods and their maximization. Because of this, GT is not adequate to describe the entirety of human social existence and interaction. Nevertheless, by revealing these assumptions, GT can be amplified with another form of rationality based on realist ethics and a personalist anthropology reinforced by the logic of gift. This rationality values the singularity of each person as a holistic unity, as the center of the social realm and as an end in herself called to growth and flourishing with others, nurturing the human community through giving and receiving. We will thus provide a wider philosophical framework for GT with a series of non-mathematical axioms of what can be called a Game Metatheory (GMt). These axioms refer to society as a complex system, not to particular interactions. GMt axioms are not a model of social games, but rather an axiomatic description of social life as a game, revealing its systematic character, complexity, and possible deterioration.