Arquivo para a ‘Information ethics’ Categoria
Clearing: method and contestation
08
Mar
It is through phenomenology that it is possible to resume the positivity of the being
in relation to the only possible transcendentality, where the thing opens up in the dimension of the transcendental, the one that we developed in last week’s post and which in a certain way is opposed to Kant’s transcendent, which goes towards the knowledge of the object and for this reason it is confused with subjectivity.
In phenomenology, there is an intentional consciousness in its “a priori”, taken in a similar way to the subjective (proper of the subject), however, consciousness as a phenomenon reveals what is hidden, what the Greeks called “alétheia”, but at that moment science and all awareness of it was early.
In the phenomenal experience of the clearing (lichtung) there is the truth of the being that gives itself with a kind of “arch-phenomenon” (Ereignis), this is the very thing of phenomenology, where its intentionality is, but this also remains hidden.
If we create a void in consciousness in a phenomenal way (the phenomenological epoche), we open ourselves to our truth, we can enter a clearing even before an external event clears us up, this is the reason why humanism in both Heidegger and Sloterdijk is tied to history.
It was Hans Georg Gadamer who developed “The Question of Historical Consciousness” in his contestation of the romantic historical truth which is a quasi-determinism defended by many variants of leftist thought (Marx did not defend it), however there is the question of “natural time” in opposition to “human time”, a self-awareness of consciousness itself.
The hermeneutic circle method is a way to break this conception of consciousness that is only “temporal”, but it comes up against what must be “beyond the human”, shrouded in mystery and vices of historical interpretation.
Rüsen (2011) says that there is a type of historical consciousness made through the “intellectual transformation of natural time into human time”, understanding natural time as contingent events and human time as human representations of life itself.
Few are able to see in their own representations distortions of the truth, interpretations and repressed feelings that do not “clear” the conscience, this seen in a civilizing panorama transforms authoritarian, inhuman and destructive concepts into obscurity of the conscience, not to use the Greek alethéia again.
War and the End of Winter
06
Mar
The Russian strategy was to “freeze” the Ukrainians and their allies in Europe in the winter, so not
only did it limit the shipment of gas but it also bombed several energy sources in Ukraine, with Europe stocking gas before and knowing the Russian strategy, it went to get natural gas in other sources, such as Africa, and now we are at the end of winter there (and summer here in the southern hemisphere).
A possible war tactic now would be the use of biological weapons, there are already reports that this has occurred in Ukraine, they are prohibited by international agreements, but a direct confrontation with NATO would bring enormous wear and tear beyond the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe.
Brazil’s vote and intervention for peace had a negative reaction in Russia, which has already alerted Brazil to a confrontational position, Brazil was the only country to vote against Russian intervention in the last vote that increased the rejection of Russian intervention, there is no other name for the fact.
The end of winter brings a period of great flooding and shifting terrain and the advance of ground forces is not possible, the young people recruited for the war in Russia do not have skills for heavy weapons and aviation for the most part.
What is the path to peace at the moment, Brazil is trying to form a “neutral” bloc that dialogues with both sides, but NATO is a fundamental part of the war in Ukraine and therein lies the difficulty.
The German newspaper Der Spiegel stated that the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen said that the time of peace is over in Europe, it is a serious statement, which came in response to Russian threats, also there is already a visible movement (I am aware of some cases) of services that can be done from home are moving outside Europe.
In the event of a biological war, of course we hope it never comes to this point, the evacuation of many services would be inevitable and a completely warlike climate would settle on the continent.
We hope and always believe in possible peace.
The electronic narrative
02
Mar
The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence, after a serious crisis towards the end of the
millennium, brings a mystifying aspect to the scenario of scientific dissemination and sometimes even to scientific research itself, which sees it beyond the real possibilities or below what it is able.
That is why we pointed out in the previous post the real evolution and sophistication of Machine Learning algorithms and the growth of Deep Learning technology, this is the current rapid evolution, the evolution of electronic assistants (several of them are already on the market such as Siri and Alexa) is still limited and we commented in a post about the LaMBDA machine that it would have “sentient” capability.
Sentient is different from consciousness, because it is the ability of beings to perceive sensations and feelings through the senses, this would mean in the case of machines having something “subjective” (we have already spoken about the limitation of the term and its difference from the soul), although they are capable of of narratives.
This narrative, however complex it may be, is an electronic narrative, an algorithmic one, with the interaction of man and machine through “deep learning”, it is possible that it confuses and even surprises the human being with narratives and elaborations of speeches, however it will depend on always from the human narratives from which they are fed and create an electronic narrative.
I cite an example of the chatGPT that excites the mystifying discourse and creates an alarm in the technophobic discourse and creates speculations even about the transhuman limits of the machine.
A list of films considered extraordinary, exemplifies the limit of electronic storytelling, due to its human power, the list gave the following films: “Citizen Kane” (1941), “The Godfather” (1972), “Back to the Future ” (1985), “Casablanca” (1942), “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), ” Psycho” (1960), “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Pulp Fiction” (1994).
No mention of the Japanese Akira Kurosawa, the German Werner Herzog or the Italian Frederico Felini, just to name a few, about fiction would not leave out of the list Blade Runner – the hunter of androids, well connected to the technologies of “open AI” or the historic Metropolis (from 1927 by the Austrian Fritz Lang).
The electronic narrative has the limitation of what feeds it, which is the human narrative, even if it is made by the wisest human, it will have contextual and historical limitations.
A chance for peace
27
Feb
Contrary to what was imagined for a year of war, completed this weekend, the Russia-Ukraine
confrontation may have a different outcome, there is finally a chance for peace.
Brazil made a new proposal for a motion at the UN, in addition to offering to mediate the negotiations, China also seems willing, even if on suspicion of possible military aid to Russia and all this changed the voting scenario for a new motion at the UN, more lenient, condemning the Russian invasion.
The motion approved with some inclusion of the Brazilian text, had a very significant vote, 141 votes voted in favor (more countries than the previous one), 32 abstentions, with China being significant, and seven against: North Korea, Nicaragua, Eritrea , Belarus, Syria, Mali and Russia itself.
Russia says it accepts possible mediation by Brazil, and China obviously would be fine, but already in this case there is distrust in the West, as the text proposed by China speaks of Russian “rest”, if China sends arms to Russia, even with NATO’s aid to Ukraine would be very fragile.
Proposals for amendments were made, Belarus, for example, wanted to remove the part of the text that blamed Russia for starting the conflict, but the Brazilian text, even though it was milder, made Russian aggression clear.
So now there is a greater possibility of a bloc for bilateral peace negotiations from an ideological point of view, and a greater awareness of the attrition and humanitarian damage of war.
Peace is finally starting to be thought of realistically and by both sides in conflict.
Power and interiority
24
Feb
Clarified in the previous post the difference between soul and spirit, the concept used by
Hegel to develop the (metaphysical, for him “subjective”) idea of power uses an analogy of digestion, which Byung Chul Han takes advantage of:
“Power is, for Hegel, already effective at the most elementary level of life. Digestion, in this way, is already the process of power in which the living being takes with him, little by little, his other identity” (Chul Han, What is Power?), he goes so far as to say that the living being generates identity with the other, but ignores that in its genesis there is a metaphysical process.
Nietzsche will develop this issue as the will to power, in this case confused with the domination that we have already dealt with here and which is a sociological category, but power as a metaphor, in our view the most appropriate, is what we generate in our digestive interiority.
How do we digest the image of the other as our identity or not, as we recognize differences not only in the genotype, but mainly in the differences in feelings, judgments and decisions, more broadly according to our cosmovision.
So the desire for peace or war with what is different, tolerance or intolerance in diversities of thought about the world and things should not be in the category of right and wrong, of course, wrong should be punished, but what is wrong it must be circumscribed within the limits of the human, so if killing is wrong, war is a serious mistake where one people can exterminate another.
The renunciation of this metaphysical power, generated in our interiority and our vision of the world, must always be internalized (digested) also as a will, a command, of the non-power.
The biblical lesson on this issue, described as the “temptations of Christ”, is found in the passage Mt 4,1-11.
In the passage after fasting and renouncing the power to turn stones into bread and saying that he should fall on the city of Jerusalem, the devil tempts him with power and shows him the kingdoms of the world: “and he said to him: “I will give you all this, if you kneel before me to worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him. And the angels approached and served Jesus ′′ (Mt 4. 9-11).
Power in the current conception: finitude
22
Feb
Undoubtedly one of the most enlightening books on the issue of power was written by Byung
Chul Han, not only because it is in the current context but also because of the excellent philosophical review it does.
Although he passes through several other authors: Nietzsche, Hegel, Heidegger and Lehmann, among others, it is his opposition to Foucault that establishes the best relationship, his psychopolitics is opposed to Foucault’s biopolitics, there is no doubt that today’s society (through media propaganda) ) strong pressure.
However, at the beginning of the book he uses a definition by Max Weber that I think is more accurate, and develops it like this: “power means the opportunity, within a social relationship, to impose one’s will also against resistance, not important on which such opportunity is based” (Han, 2019. 22, quote from Weber’s Economics and Society).
After this, he concludes that the concept of power is sociologically “amorphous”, so he replaces it with the concept of “domination” (we already posted something about this here), which is “obedience to an order, which is sociologically “more precise”.
However, it will be when the concept of “spatial” (or territorial) and “temporal” (a mandate for a certain time) is recovered, that in fact this precision is, in our view, really achieved.
To enter the question of power from the point of view of religion, he takes it from Hegel, and what he considers as “spirit”, and which in the philosopher’s conception is totally dominated by the question of power: “God is power” (pp. 121), and what defines as spirit is nothing other than human subjectivity (comes from idealist dualism) and thus is also enclosed within the finitude of man himself, there is nothing beyond and greater than time-spatial finitude human.
Hegel says that religion is based “on the desire for an absence of limits, for an infinity that, however, would not be infinite power” (p. 123), and what removes the sin of ignorance from him is that he affirms, saying of its true limits is not an unlimited will to power: “Religion is fundamentally profoundly peaceful. She is kindness” (p. 124).
However, he sees this as a “pure concentration of power”, when it is the opposite, remind several biblical readings “Remember that you are dust and to dust we shall return” (Genesis 3,19) and so it is not difficult to see that God made man of clay (of course, they were metabolic structures capable of duplication, but water is a vital element) and it is not difficult to know that when we return to another physical plane we return to inorganic dust.
Ash Wednesday, in the Christian rite, is to remember this human finitude and to humble the power that man thinks he has, he will always be finite and spatial.
Han, Byung-Chul. (2018) What is power?. NY; Wiley. (2019 portuguese version)
Wrath and Peace
17
Feb
It is true that the history of humanity is punctuated by wars, but what would happen if it were the other way around and men sought in all circumstances to find a more solidary and less dark path for their conflicts.
However, an international conflict at this moment would be a tragedy that could put the civilizing process itself in check and whose consequences would be unimaginable numbers of human lives lost, nature contaminated and material damage.
Meanwhile, the conflict in Eastern Europe is taking on an increasingly international outline, a Russian frigate loaded with unstoppable hypersonic missiles and with a range of a thousand kilometers is heading across the South Atlantic towards the American east coast.
The Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 BC–65 AD) who wrote a treatise on Anger, which unlike many others says that there is no wisdom in it, wrote in his work: “No man is made more courageous through anger, except one who, without anger, , would not have been courageous: anger, therefore, does not come to help courage, but to take its place” (I.13).
So war is not only a bad adviser, it takes the place of courage and true heroism, that which leads humanity to harmony, tolerance and true civility.
It may seem altruistic, but the true Christian teaching is present in many religions, remember Ghandi’s Hinduism, which intransigently defended peace, so says the attentive reading of the Bible: “You have heard what was said: An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth! I, however, say to you: do not face those who are evil! On the contrary, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer him the left as well!” (Mt 5,38-39).
We can avoid a civilizing catastrophe, but not without forgiveness and concessions. There´s still time.
Anger and social issues
16
Feb
One of the strongest arguments for anger is the social issue, before economic, now
cultural and ethnic.
The book by the American John Steinbeck, caused a great malaise in society, was cited with a certain reverence when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 although the book is from 1929, the book was well received in Soviet Eastern Europe at the time and in the Scandinavian countries.
At the time, the book was burned in public squares and banned from schools, it was the beginning of the cold war and McCarthyism (persecution of communists in the USA), although the author never had an affiliation.
The book begins with Tom Joad, the central character of the book, asking for a ride after 7 years in prison which was his sentence for having murdered someone as a result of a bar fight, even though it was in his self-defense he ended up being declared guilty.
He finds nothing in his old house and ends up discovering that they had sold all the belongings and going to Uncle John’s house and getting there he realizes that everyone is ready to leave and discovers that the big companies and farms are closed and the farmers are leaving to California to look for work.
It is the period of the great American depression, and social issues are emerging, the book shows the conditions of work and exploration in the fields of fruit plantations in California, Steinbeck is from the Salinas region, where the novel takes place, which although fiction has a connection with the region.
The question is how far can the limits of this type of revolt go, is it just violence and ideological struggles when these conditions are present, what are the alternatives to the problems, is it likely that we will enter a new recession, in addition to the risk of war, the book by Steinbeck gives us a similar scenario (recession and war) and may point us not to a return to the past, but to a new possibility for the dark future that awaits us.
Steibeck, John. (1939). The grapes of wrath. First edition: New York Viking, 1939.
Geopolitics of war and “viruses”
13
Feb
Not even the serious earthquake in Turkey and Syria, with more than 25,000 fatalities,
managed to appease the spirit of anger and revenge that shakes the planet.
The war suffers a scale in a world geopolitics, the Russian ship Almirante Gorshkov (supported by the supply freighter Kama) passes by the coast of Europe and goes towards the USA (recalls the crisis of Pearl Harbor (1941) and missiles in Cuba (1962)), after “spy” balloons now there is a wave of shot down Unidentified Flying Objects, which are not aliens, but just unknown devices.
In the aspect of the pandemic, some changes in the behavior of the syncytial virus (complicated name for a multinucleated mass of cytoplasm formed by the fusion of originally separate cells) that occur in seasonal viruses, now seem to have an atypical and out-of-season behavior, in the southern hemisphere, for example, we are still at the end of summer.
Returning to the war, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov was sailing towards Africa, it was accompanied by a supply ship that followed this route, but the frigate changed course and is now heading towards the United States which causes an increase in tension in the war that it was not only from Ukraine and Russia, some Russian missiles also crossed the southern border of Ukraine and headed towards Moldova, the feeling of total war is growing.
It is good to remember that the frigate heading to the USA has the fearsome and unbeatable Zircon hypersonic missiles, even being in international waters, it can reach a distance for the American east coast to be reached safely, which will certainly aggravate the international and imminent crisis conflict.
After the balloon event, the one accused of being a spy in American airspace, two other “unidentified objects” (which do not have aliens) were shot down, and this Sunday (02/12) one of these objects was shot down in China, everything indicates espionage and ongoing counterintelligence.
In terms of the Pandemic, these extra-seasonal viruses cause concern due to their severity and volume, Marcelo Gomes, coordinator of InfoGripe (from Fiocrus), says that these viruses called RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) can be attributed to two factors: the mitigation of care with the pandemic that also curbed other viruses and the lack of control in collective environments, which prevented greater contact and circulation of viruses socially.
Both in war, concern grows both with peace and with the possibility of new pandemics, the international climate remains tense, recently there were barbs between French Prime Minister Makron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was excluded from the meeting with Zelensky.
Essence, fairness and ethics
10
Feb
When discussing the “good life”, a classic concept that Paul Riocour takes up in his reflection
on fairness, he links it to classical philosophy where “it is “the desire for a ‘good life’ with and for others in just institutions”, and there are problems in democratic institutions, because the concept of being has been abandoned.
The reflection we made on the question of Being in Heidegger, we left a link to what is essence thought of as acting, where the concrete universal differs from the conceptual or representational universal, acting is a question and cannot be reduced to the concept , then it involves an interiority, and not just a subjectivity or objectivity, as Hegel wanted.
Thus justice depends on the Just, who questions and corrects his actions, in this consists the Platonic dialectic, seen as the art of thinking, questioning and organizing ideas (Greek eidos), and this implies correcting the action by thinking, not just punish, but modify thinking about action.
We cannot just question the legal aspects of justice without each man, including those who have committed crimes, being able to rethink and act anew in the conduct of his own life and life with others, of course there are repeat offenders, but both the norms for this are clear, for correction no.
What is fundamental in Hegel’s ethics, and this urge permeates Rawls’s thought, is that we must always choose between two evils, when it is possible to correct both the lesser evil (from which greater evils originate) and the greater evil in order to rethink society. and justice, including the distribution of social goods.
In the long speech of Jesus to his disciples in Mt 5,17-37, he explains that their justice should be superior to that of men, he begins by explaining that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to give it greater amplitude, then he explains about not killing, and says that even those who are angry against their brothers are already sinning, in short, they give each “legal” teaching greater depth, and thus it is not mere legalism, but the full fulfillment of what is just.
Those who condemn the norm, and remember only the fact that the Pharisees did not allow Jesus to heal and do good on the Sabbath, undoubtedly a hypocrisy, cannot forget that for Him there were “divine laws”, which corrected human action and that the modern society wants to abolish.
Full freedom also means full justice, and there is no just society without just men, it is necessary to educate them, this has been thought since Plato.
