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2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Juvénal Ntakarutimana ◽  
Ali Mohammad Fazilatfar

This study investigated the EFL teachers’ conceptualisations of the use of PBLT in EFL instruction. Thirteen EFL teachers selected from two higher education institutions in Burundi participated in the inquiry. The inquiry set out to assess participants’ beliefs and attitudes towards three constructs, namely the use of philosophical questions in the EFL classroom, the use of the EFL classroom as a community of inquiry, and the impact of PBLT in developing the EFL students’ speaking skill. A background information questionnaire, a Likert scale questionnaire, and an online structured interview were used to collect data from participants. The findings revealed participants’ positive views and attitudes towards the role of PBLT in EFL instruction. The use of philosophical questions in the EFL classroom as well as the use of the EFL classroom as a community of inquiry in enhancing EFL students’ productive and receptive skills was found to be highly favoured among participants. Furthermore, it was found that participants believe in the high potential of PBLT in developing the five components of speaking, namely fluency, accuracy, range, coherence, and content. Participants, however, showed a relatively diminished trust in PBLT when it comes to its role in enhancing the accuracy component, and this diminished trust may be attributed to the fact that accuracy relates much more to the linguistic form while PBLT puts greater focus on meaning.


2022 ◽  
pp. jech-2021-217666
Author(s):  
Eric Winsberg ◽  
Stephanie Harvard

More people than ever are paying attention to philosophical questions about epidemiological models, including their susceptibility to the influence of social and ethical values, sufficiency to inform policy decisions under certain conditions, and even their fundamental nature. One important question pertains to the purposes of epidemiological models, for example, are COVID-19 models for ‘prediction’ or ‘projection’? Are they adequate for making causal inferences? Is one of their goals, or virtues, to change individual responses to the pandemic? In this essay, we offer our perspective on these questions and place them in the context of other recent philosophical arguments about epidemiological models. We argue that clarifying the intended purpose of a model, and assessing its adequacy for that purpose, are moral-epistemic duties, responsibilities which pertain to knowledge but have moral significance nonetheless. This moral significance, we argue, stems from the inherent value-ladenness of models, along with the potential for models to be used in political decision making in ways that conflict with liberal values and which could lead to downstream harms. Increasing conversation about the moral significance of modelling, we argue, could help us to resist further eroding our standards of democratic scrutiny in the COVID-19 era.


Author(s):  
Luara Ferracioli

This book focuses on three key questions regarding the movement of persons across international borders: (1) What gives some residents of a liberal society a right to be considered citizens of that society such that they have a claim to make decisions with regard to its political future? (2) Do citizens of a liberal society have a prima facie right to exclude prospective immigrants despite their commitment to the values of freedom and equality? And (3) if citizens have this prima facie right to exclude prospective immigrants, are there moral requirements regarding how they may exercise it? The book therefore tackles the most pressing philosophical questions that arise for a theory that does not endorse a human right to immigrate: the questions of who exercises self-determination in the area of immigration, why they have such a right in the first place, and how they should go about exercising it.


AI and Ethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Persson ◽  
Maria Hedlund

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly influential in most people’s lives. This raises many philosophical questions. One is what responsibility we have as individuals to guide the development of AI in a desirable direction. More specifically, how should this responsibility be distributed among individuals and between individuals and other actors? We investigate this question from the perspectives of five principles of distribution that dominate the discussion about responsibility in connection with climate change: effectiveness, equality, desert, need, and ability. Since much is already written about these distributions in that context, we believe much can be gained if we can make use of this discussion also in connection with AI. Our most important findings are: (1) Different principles give different answers depending on how they are interpreted but, in many cases, different interpretations and different principles agree and even strengthen each other. If for instance ‘equality-based distribution’ is interpreted in a consequentialist sense, effectiveness, and through it, ability, will play important roles in the actual distributions, but so will an equal distribution as such, since we foresee that an increased responsibility of underrepresented groups will make the risks and benefits of AI more equally distributed. The corresponding reasoning is true for need-based distribution. (2) If we acknowledge that someone has a certain responsibility, we also have to acknowledge a corresponding degree of influence for that someone over the matter in question. (3) Independently of which distribution principle we prefer, ability cannot be dismissed. Ability is not fixed, however and if one of the other distributions is morally required, we are also morally required to increase the ability of those less able to take on the required responsibility.


2021 ◽  
pp. 305-334
Author(s):  
Jacek Sobczak

The possibility of using artificial intelligence, modern technologies and algorithms, and going into more details – predictive models, in the judiciary, which was predicted by the authors of science fiction books, has become a fact today. However, this raises a number of concerns, mainly of an ethical nature, and the need to answer philosophical questions regarding the role of a judge, the tasks of the judiciary, access to a court, and the right to defense. Both in the legal system of the Council of Europe and the European Union, numerous normative acts have been made to regulate these issues, but they should be continued and even deepened so that technological progress doesn’t surprise lawyers and doesn’t cause irreversible social consequences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold M. Meiring

In a secular society, obsessed with materialism and consumerism, the 13th-century mystical teacher and poet, Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273), has found a surprisingly widespread following. While his work is often misunderstood and diluted, this research proposed the opposite: that Rumi may broaden his modern admirers’ worldview and bring about an encounter with God. This study thus applied the insights of an 800-year-old mystic to the questions of today. The research comprised of a qualitative literature research method that first explored the life and writings of Rumi, and then investigated the issues and yearnings of a secular society as proposed by philosopher Charles Taylor. The study showed that Rumi may indeed open up the enclosed secular worldview by adding significance to our living, God to our loving and hope to our dying.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article was a study in religion – applying the work of a medieval Sufi mystic to the philosophical questions of today. It also considered Anatolian history and Persian literature and offered philosophical options. It further related to missiology, as well as systematic and practical theology.


Author(s):  
Philip Kitcher

Education ought to be central to our lives—it should be, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s phrase, “the main enterprise of the world.” In its broadest sense, education aims at three goals: to enable people to support themselves, to enable them to function as citizens, and to find fulfillment. In our times, changing features of the workplace environment provide opportunities to focus on the latter two goals, and to liberate education from supposed economic constraints. By doing so, we can improve the lives of individuals, and build more solid foundations for democracy. Philip Kitcher’s humanistic vision of educational reform is not, however, divorced from the realities of contemporary life nor doomed by any conflict with sound economics. After an accessible discussion of central philosophical questions, he examines the content of the curriculum, identifies the social changes required if a fully adequate education is to be provided to all, and considers how the proposals can be reconciled with financial stability. The Main Enterprise of the World renews classical pragmatism: with one eye on the ideal, and the other on the world, it presents a picture of education appropriate for our century.


2021 ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
A.V. Malinov A.V.

This article provides an overview of the Seventh International Readings on the History of Russian Philosophy, entitled “Intercultural Philosophy: A Polylogue of Traditions”, which were held at the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences – a branch of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The path of the intercultural philosophy began around the 1980ies and 1990ies in Germany and Austria as a criticism of Western-centrism in philosophy and as an ideological alternative to the Western style of thinking. In this conference, an attempt was made to transfer the principles and methods of intercultural philosophy (philosophy of polylogue) to the history of Russian philosophy. This article also offers a summary of the structure of the conference, the content of its plenary lectures as well as the reports on the intercultural subjects and polylogue methodology, including their applied aspects. The main parts of the plenary sessions, roundtables and seminars that were held within the conference are also analyzed. It is pointed out that the process of formation of intercultural philosophy has not been completed yet; its terminology has not been established; and, eventually, the methods and results have not received wide recognition. However, the period of declarations and of manifestos is coming to an end. The conference contributed to the popularization of intercultural philosophy and the philosophy of polylogue in Russia. Relying on the experience and traditions of non-Western thinking, it offers a solution to the problems facing modern humanity, it indicates a number of possible ways to overcome the crisis situations in culture and society, and it also provides some answers to the “eternal” philosophical questions.


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