Human Rationality Research Articles

Sentient Rationality in the Digital Age: Integration of Neuroscience and Philosophy for Decision Making

This article delves into the intriguing intersection between human rationality and digital technologies, with a specific focus on the influence of emotion and artificial intelligence on decision making. Drawing from the theory of sentient rationality, it examines how emotional and somatic components shape rationality in a digital context. The implications of these insights for understanding human cognition are thoroughly discussed. Moreover, the article proposes innovative transemiotic approaches that integrate neuroscience and philosophy, inviting the reader to delve deeper into these novel methods. The conclusion presents practical recommendations for future research, underscoring their potential applications in the rapidly evolving digital age.

The Concept of Individuality in Ujamaa: Hermeneutical Historical and Phenomenological Aspects of Politics in Tanzania

The phenomena of politics in Tanzania show tension in individual’s freedom of speech as the product of human rationality. This study attempts to display the indispensability of historical influence of the concept of individuality in Ujamaa in the present political realm despite the fact that there is denial of the existence and influence of Ujamaa in the current politics. The hermeneutical method of the source material has been used with a systematic description of ideas in Ujamaa in the past and its interpretation and implication in the present and future. The findings show that the anthropological values in Ujamaa were over shadowed by authoritative elements in the past and so do in the current situation the condition which hinders the individual freedom of unity in diversity in the political realm, the idea which is crucial in the global and digital nation.

Extended human agency: towards a teleological account of AI

This paper analyzes human-machine interrelation concerning artificial neuronal networks (ANNs) from a teleological point of view. The paper argues that AI cannot be understood adequately in terms of subjectivity or objectivity but rather as a new kind of teleological relationship that holds between human and artificial performances of intelligence. Thereby, AI is understood as an enactivist extension of human agency, both in instrumental and moral terms. This hybrid account will be distinguished from four alternative accounts of human-machine relations: (i) the simulation account, according to which AI simulates human rationality; (ii) the instrumentalist account, according to which AI is just a tool; (iii) the anthropomorphic account, according to which AI is human-like; and (iv) the indifference account, according to which AI will merge with human rationality due to technological progress. Against these four accounts, the paper argues for a teleological account of AI as extended human agency that is part of the human lifeworld. By focusing on the teleological interrelation of socially grounded databases and algorithms, the paper finally develops an account of responsible AI that considers its specific relatedness with human actions, purposes, and intentions by means of language. Understanding human-machine relations in terms of extended agency finally allows to tackle the question of how to avoid the problems of AI bias and opacity.

Hegel e o caráter

This paper is devoted to a systematic analysis of the notion of “character” within Hegel's thought. So far, this notion has been considered marginal within Hegelian philosophy and has hardly been addressed in the critical literature. This article, however, attempts to argue in favor of the thesis that character plays a prominent role in Hegel's thought. In this paper we therefore aim to provide (i) a systematic reconstruction of the concept of “character” in Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History and Lectures on the philosophy of Subjective Spirit in order to show that (ii) the notion of character in Hegel has a greater relevance than hitherto acknowledged, a relevance which invests central notions of his philosophy. Our thesis, more specifically, is that the notion of character turns out to be closely related to load-bearing notions in Hegel's thought – namely, the notion of self-consciousness (as distinctive element of human rationality) and the notion of the spirit of a people (as a set of sociocultural and dispositional factors that allow different levels of understanding of the autonomy of human rationality). Precisely on the basis of this relevance and the critical issues it brings, such an operation provides the basis for arguing that iii) the Hegelian concept of character has important repercussions both on the contemporary debate on Hegel and on contemporary hegelianisms.

Borderscape Antarctica: The uncanny geographical imaginaries of Terra Australis Incognita

The harsh beauty of the Antarctic continent has always fascinated explorers, scientists, policymakers, and global audiences alike. From the 18th century onwards, national expeditions competed to discover and claim Terra AustralisIncognita, the fantastical Great Southern Land believed to be located in the southern Asia-Pacific. This article investigates the worldmaking potential of Antarctica as an uncanny borderscape where humans confront the familiar yet otherworldly ice. I argue this encounter produces a double-sided imaginary of Antarctica as a geography of exception – both as a utopian world elevated above the everyday politics that dominates international relations elsewhere and as a dystopian world where monsters and madness lurk just beneath the icy surface. This double-sided imaginary enabled diplomatic agreement at the 1959 Washington Conference that froze competing sovereignty claims and preserved Antarctica as a frozen laboratory for collaborative science. At the same time, it inspires fears of a potentially thawed Antarctica as a place of horror where alien forces threaten to overwhelm human rationality. Drawing on primary accounts of exploration, archival material, and science and speculative fiction, my intertextual analysis demonstrates how this imaginary was created, represented, and reproduced to create utopian and dystopian visions of our collective planetary future.

Active Inference-Based Planning for Safe Human-Robot Interaction: Concurrent Consideration of Human Characteristic and Rationality

Active Inference-Based Planning for Safe Human-Robot Interaction: Concurrent Consideration of Human Characteristic and Rationality

Nous thurathen: between Theophrastus and Alexander of Aphrodisias

ABSTRACT The idea that nous comes from without, deriving from Aristotle’s Generation of Animals II.3, became a key element in late ancient and Medieval accounts of human rationality drawing on Aristotle’s De Anima. But two very different understandings of the concept were around (often occurring next to each other): either it was taken to refer to the human capacity for thought and its origin outside the natural ontogenetic process; or it was taken to stand for the most perfect act of thought, existing separately as the supreme divinity, and becoming, hopefully, ours at the very climax of human development. This paper shows how these two influential conceptions derive from the work of the two greatest scholars of Aristotle’s school, Theophrastus and Alexander of Aphrodisias, respectively. More to the point: it shows that (i) there is an intriguing philosophical story to be told of how the notion developed from one understanding to the other, this being the core of a larger story of nous from without in Western thought; and that (ii) this story sheds new light on what was at stake in the early – genuinely Peripatetic – reception of Aristotle’s account of nous (as contrasted with later, heavily Platonized, interpretations).

Limits of Human Rationality: A Language Philosophy and Evolutionary Biological Interpretation

Limits of Human Rationality: A Language Philosophy and Evolutionary Biological Interpretation

Menemukan Makna Komunikasi di Era Teknologi: Perspektif Teori Heidegger, Logos, dan Kebenaran

Heidegger's thinking about Logos and truth shifts the focus from the traditional static view to a more dynamic and processual view. By emphasizing the role of language in revealing truth, Heidegger provides a new perspective on how we understand and experience reality. The aim of this research is to describe in detail how to find the meaning of communication in the technological era as viewed from the perspective of Heidegger's Theory, Logos and Truth. This research method applies Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using PRISMA guidelines. The research results show that Heidegger's logos theory provides a critical view of modern communication phenomena, especially in the context of social media, online news and instant communication. Logos, which Heidegger understood as the basis of human understanding and rationality, risks being reduced to a mere technical tool in the digital environment. Communication that occurs on these platforms often loses depth and nuance, replaced by information fragmentation and algorithmic interests that prioritize hype and user engagement over truth and deep understanding.

What is it Like to Evolve? Cultural Evolution as a Lived Experience

The evolution of human culture continues to divide social and biological science. Key issues for both sides are the complexity and variability of culture, the frequency of cultural traits that have no adaptive or functional value, and the apparent exceptionality of human creativity and rationality. This article argues that an examination of how evolution affects the lifetime experience of evolution can reconcile these features of human culture with Darwin’s contention that natural and cultural selection follow the same process of evolution. The article offers a new paradigm that focuses on the relationship between uncertainty and choice in human cultural evolution.

The Antinomy of the Anthropocene: The Narrative of Enlightenment in Dipesh Chakrabarty’s Ecological Theory

This article examines Dipesh Chakrabarty’s ecological theory to explore inherent tensions, ambiguities, and contradictions concerning human agency in Anthropocene discourse. Contra most commentators, I argue that Chakrabarty’s account of the Anthropocene remains neither modernistic nor posthumanistic per se because his view of the human turns out to be consistently inconsistent. Chakrabarty apparently advances an anti-anthropocentric and posthumanist explanation of the climate crisis by shifting his focus from the ‘species’ to the ‘planet’. However, his account of the planet remains within the modernistic paradigm that privileges progress, rationality, and human agency because he tacitly embraces the narrative of enlightenment, or transition from ignorance to knowledge, when describing a passage from the global to the planetary. Chakrabarty’s narrative of enlightenment thus epitomizes the remains of anthropocentrism in Anthropocene discourse, registering the extent to which it retains beliefs in human agency, rationality, and singularity.

The logic, life, language and limit of contractarianism on punishment

The objective of this article is the critical assessment of contractarianism as an alternative approach to the justification of punishment. In doing this, the article focused on the logic, life, language and limit of contractarianism. The article discovered that even though the theory of contractarianism, when viewed from the perspectives of its life, logic, language and limit, is not a completely convincing alternative to traditional theories on the justification of punishment, however, it expresses emphasis on the unambiguous utility of the social contract idea in the justification of punishment. Also, the article discovered that contractarianism, in its theoretical justification of punishment, hinges on contractarian ideals such as human rationality, consent, voluntary commitment, agreement, enjoyments of benefits and the desire to see to the sustenance of society, as a morally acceptable and praiseworthy basis for the justification.Contribution: The article concluded that an essential part to the merit of this theory of punishment is its positive allusion to and plausible accommodation and acknowledgement of the philosophy of preservationism.

Credible because it is silly

Tertullian’s paradoxical statement that Christ’s death is credible because it is silly has been understood as a rejection of human rationality. However, there is scholarly consensus that this interpretation cannot be sustained. This raises the question of how Tertullian’s paradox should then be interpreted, which, surprisingly, has received very little attention in research. This article proposes a new interpretation of the famous text: While, according to Tertullian, the incarnation follows directly and necessarily from God being Creator, the crucifixion and death of the Son constitute a genuine paradox. It should not have been possible, given who God is. Nevertheless, this impossible event happened, and did so with the same necessity as did the incarnation, as a consequence of God entering sinful humanity. This, in turn, raises the question of what place this paradox – and paradoxicality as such – should have in Christian thought.

Between bets and rational choices

Abstract
 Starting from the exposition of the fundamental guiding principles of Peirce's philosophy, mainly, its three categories viewed under his Phenomenology and its correlated Ontology, I conjecture about three possible dimensions of Time, considering the function of predicting the future course of events with varying degrees of certainty as the main role of our human rationality. In these three dimensions, the affection of the first of the three Peircean categories occurs with differentiated intensity, this first category precisely the one that includes the way of being of the incidence of Chance, either in the course of a natural Chronos, or in the course of a temporality produced by human actions, or also equally having incidence in the spontaneity of a subjective time, assumed here as Kairós. Inspired by the recent experience of the pandemic that devastated all corners of the planet, this conjecture suggests dimensions of a temporality frayed ontologically in different degrees, leading to a corresponding fraying of our predictive rationality, imposing upon us the condition of being characters who are left to bet on the course of future factuality to the detriment of choices that would be feasible if a history circumscribed by an intense incidence of Chance had not occurred.
 Keywords: Peirce, Pragmatism, Semiotics, Chance, Time

The role of behavioral economics in the system of economic sciences

Introduction. The article analyzes the theoretical foundations and approaches of behavioral economics in the context of their use in the process of creating information resources for business, considers its content, highlights the key aspects of the impact of the key provisions of behavioral economics on economic science and practice, and also reveals possible prospects for the integration of behavioral economics and accounting information formation processes.The purpose of the article. The purpose of the study is to analyze the key provisions of behavioral economics and their interpretation by scientists, as well as to determine the role of behavioral economics in the context of the development of economic sciences and the possibilities of applying the theoretical postulates of behavioral economics in the process of creating information resources.Methods. To achieve the goal, general scientific methods of cognition were used, namely: monographic and logical analysis, empirical methods of cognition, methods of comparison, extrapolation and generalization. Results. The work of researchers on the main theoretical provisions of behavioral economics as a new trend in economic sciences, which is dynamically developing and focuses on understanding human behavior and decision-making in the real world, is summarized. Research in this area shows that people do not always act rationally, and decisions are often determined by cognitive limitations, psychological factors, and social influences. It was determined that behavioral economics reveals the depths of human rationality, helping to enrich economic science and change the paradigm of decisions made, and therefore, its main provisions can be used in the processes of formation and use of information resources for business.Prospects for further research. Further research can be aimed at implementing the main theoretical provisions of behavioral economics in the processes of forming information arrays for business and developing new theoretical models that would take into account more complex psychological and social aspects of decision-making. This will provide an opportunity to investigate how technology and information influence the decisions of economic agents, as well as the use of information to solve important global problems, such as resource conservation, energy efficiency, combating climate change, social justice, etc.

The Intelligence and Rationality of AI and Humans: A Conversation With Steven Pinker

The Intelligence and Rationality of AI and Humans: A Conversation With Steven Pinker

Artificial Intelligence in the Prevention and Detection of Cardiovascular Disease.

For more than 60 years, artificial intelligence (AI) has served as a mainstay in augmenting and assisting the lives of individuals across a wide array of interests and professional fields. Functioning to create deep computer simulations, analyze data, solve problems, and synthesize human behavior/emotion, AI has recently become a topic of popular interest in many fields of medicine. Despite decades of usage, modern AI-and its newer branch of machine learning (ML)-have yet to find a fully established and regulated niche in medicine. Understanding the clinical implications that AI and ML might be able to play in cardiovascular medicine, studies have sought to understand and compare how this technology compares with human rationality and diagnostics. Utilizing AI and ML in an array of cardiovascular medical techniques, analyses, and predictive measurements seems to have produced accurate results while also saving healthcare providers time and enabling them to expand their reach to further populations. Although current research and literature might hypothesize AI's potential clinical applications, it is nearly impossible to fully understand the breadth and scope that this new technology can play in the future. In this article, we attempt to analyze a few of the potential applications of AI and ML for the detection, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Additionally, we discuss how AI might make cardiovascular care more equitable and highlight a few precautions for utilizing this technology.

Passivity-based analysis and design for population dynamics with conformity biases

This paper focuses on conformity bias, a kind of bounded rationality of humans, and addresses the two fundamental questions: How does the bias affect decision making by large population from a control theoretic viewpoint, and how can we lead the biased decision makers to a desired state? We approach these issues based on the notion of passivity. To this end, we first formulate two population dynamics with conformity biases. The models are then analyzed based on so-called δ-passivity, where it is revealed that the conformity biases work to break passivity of decision makers. Based on the passivity perspective, we propose mechanisms so as to lead decision makers to a desired population state. Furthermore, we analyze convergence properties of the designed mechanisms while revealing conditions for guaranteeing stable inducements.

Cognitive distortions in a dynamics of modern capitalism

The article analyzes the relationship between the dynamics of modern capitalism and cognitive distortions as characteristics of a person's thinking trying to understand the content of this system. The mechanisms of exploitation of the phenomenon of limited human rationality by the modern capitalist system are considered. Institutionalized forms of such exploitation are revealed in the system of demonstrative consumption, in the functioning of the securities market and in a number of other forms. There is an objective contradiction between the rationalization of production and the rationalization of consumption processes necessary for the further functioning of capitalism. The author comes to the conclusion that the described mechanisms of exploitation of limited rationality, their forms and the social contradictions arising against this background ensure the positive dynamics of modern capitalism even in the conditions of its social-regressive trajectory of development.

Онтология на ценностите. Ценностно разсъждение

The article engages with the contemporary debate on values by delineating two problem lines. In order to have a proper explanation and derivation of values, we must recognize their ontological status, which undoubtedly provides the basis and movement towards an ontology of the spiritual and of valuable in general. This is the direction taken by Baden neo-Kantianism, and here the article traces the transformation of Kant’s apriorism into axiological apriorism. Once the values are recognized in their “realm”, they must be provided with their axiomatics. But the a priori forms through which they become accessible and are embedded in human rationality and human activity are also subject to consideration. For Rickert, one such form is judgment, but this defined a new role for judgment for human knowledge. The highest class of judgment in the Kantian and Hegelian classifications – modality, provides models of transition and structuring of the new a priori form of ratiocination, as a meta-formation, giving access and work to the unconditional and the values in human knowledge.