Extended Mind and Epistemic Responsibility in a Digital Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-227
Author(s):  
Sergei Yu. Shevchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Epistemology ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Extended Cognition ◽  
Epistemic Responsibility ◽  
Digital Society ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Causal Responsibility ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Extended Mind Thesis

The article deals with the problem of compatibility of the extended mind thesis with the concept of epistemic responsibility. This compatibility problem lies at the intersection of two current trends in Virtue Epistemology (VE): the study of extended cognition, and the return of VE to the topic of epistemic responsibility. I give objections to two seemingly independent positions; their acceptance makes it difficult or even impossible to make the concept of epistemic responsibility applicable to the agents of digital society whose cognition is extended. The core of both positions can be illustrated by the following thesis: “Since the subject cannot voluntarily change his/her beliefs, we cannot ascribe to him/her either epistemic responsibility or intellectual virtues that allow him/her to take responsibility”. The counter-arguments to this thesis are based on the distinction between the causal (responsibility-in) and normative (responsibility-for) components of responsibility. The absence of the former allows us to characterize the subject as not responsible, the absence of the latter as irresponsible. I propose two conceptual foundations that can make possible the consistent talk about the epistemic responsibility of an extended subject. 1) The subject may not be responsible for the beliefs taken from the epistemic environment, but the subject bears significant responsibility for what environment he finds himself in. 2) Being epistemically responsible means deliberately reducing the number of possible causal excuses – excuses based on agent’s unresponsibiity due to his causal dependence on his epistemic environment (‘cognitive extensions’).

scholarly journals Extended Cognition and Extended Consciousness

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Chalmers
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Perception And Action ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Extended Cognition ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Global Control ◽  
The Subject ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Extended Mind Thesis

Chapter 1 discusses two questions about the extended mind. First, what is the extended mind thesis? Second, can there be extended consciousness, and if not, why not? The chapter answers the first question by arguing that the thesis should be formulated in terms of perception and action: a subject’s cognitive processes and mental states can be partly constituted by entities that are external to the subject, in virtue of the subject’s interacting with these entities via perception and action. The second question is answered by appealing to direct availability for global control as the physical correlate of consciousness: extended processes always involve indirect availability for global control, mediated by perception and action, so there is no extended consciousness.

scholarly journals 4E’s Are Too Many Why Enactive World-Making Does Not Need The Extended Mind Thesis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonsina Scarinzi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Extended Cognition ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Active Process ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Extended Mind Thesis

4E’s cognition – embodied, embedded, enacted, extended – replaces the cognitivist notion of world-mirroring with an active process of world-making: cognition needs no mental representation and is distributed over body, brain and environment. In recent years, the remark that extended cognition is not enactive and that the embodied approach to cognition fails to provide a definition of body raise the question of whether a postcognitivist approach to experience needs 4E’s. This contribution suggests that it does not. The enactive body as a moving sense-making-system informed by phenomenology and pragmatism and its role in the constitution of the distinctive quality of an experience are discussed.

Extended Affectivity, Reconsidered

2019 ◽  
pp. 56-68
Author(s):  
Michelle Maiese
Keyword(s):  
Extended Mind ◽  
Extended Cognition ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Convincing Case ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Extended Mind Thesis

According to Andy Clark’s Extended Mind Thesis, the operations that realize certain forms of human cognition do not do not stay neatly in the brain, but instead span brain, body, and world. While this thesis is best known as the hypothesis of extended cognition, Clark himself has wondered whether it also might be applied to affective states. What Colombetti and Roberts call the Hypothesis of Extended Affectivity says that a variety of occurrent and dispositional affective phenomena can extend. However, there are important reasons to reject this hypothesis. First, extended functionalism is in tension with the claim that affective states are essentially embodied. Second, these authors’ examples do not make a convincing case for extended affectivity. Third, their componential approach to occurrent emotions falls short given that they fail to establish that each of the components of emotion is not merely environmentally embedded, but also can extend.

Extending Epistemic Virtue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Battaly
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Virtue Epistemology ◽  
Extended Cognition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Epistemic Virtue ◽  
Virtue Responsibilism

What would happen if extended cognition (EC) and virtue-responsibilism (VR) were to meet? Are they compatible, or incompatible? Do they have projects in common? Would they, as it were, end their meeting early, or stick around but run out of things to say? Or, would they hit it off? This chapter suggests that VR and EC are not obviously incompatible, and that each might fruitfully contribute to the other. Although there has been an explosion of recent work at the intersection of virtue epistemology and EC, this work has focused almost exclusively on the reliabilist side of virtue epistemology. Little has been said about the intersection of VR and EC. This chapter takes initial steps toward filling that gap.

Core Criteria II

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanford C. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Propositional Content ◽  
Epistemic Responsibility ◽  
Process Reliabilism ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Explicit Criteria

This chapter completes the account of the explicit criteria for epistemically proper belief. Given a belief formed through a process or processes on which the subject enjoyed a default permission to rely, the belief is epistemically proper just in case it satisfies a version of Process Reliabilism which the author calls Coherence-Infused Reliabilism (CIR). CIR requires that (i) beliefs be formed and sustained through processes that were reliable (or conditionally reliable), and (ii) the propositional content of the belief, as well as the hypothesis asserting the reliability of the processes as used on this occasion, cohere with the subject’s background beliefs. After arguing that such a view is well motivated, the author suggests that condition (ii) amounts to the exemplification of a minimal kind of epistemic responsibility, and goes on to generalize the account to cover all beliefs (not just basic ones).

scholarly journals JUSTIFIED BELIEF IN A DIGITAL AGE: ON THE EPISTEMIC IMPLICATIONS OF SECRET INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES

Episteme ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boaz Miller ◽  
Isaac Record
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Epistemic Responsibility ◽  
Modes Of Operation ◽  
Internet Technologies ◽  
Justified Belief ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Justificatory Status

AbstractPeople increasingly form beliefs based on information gained from automatically filtered internet sources such as search engines. However, the workings of such sources are often opaque, preventing subjects from knowing whether the information provided is biased or incomplete. Users' reliance on internet technologies whose modes of operation are concealed from them raises serious concerns about the justificatory status of the beliefs they end up forming. Yet it is unclear how to address these concerns within standard theories of knowledge and justification. To shed light on the problem, we introduce a novel conceptual framework that clarifies the relations between justified belief, epistemic responsibility, action and the technological resources available to a subject. We argue that justified belief is subject to certain epistemic responsibilities that accompany the subject's particular decision-taking circumstances, and that one typical responsibility is to ascertain, so far as one can, whether the information upon which the judgment will rest is biased or incomplete. What this responsibility comprises is partly determined by the inquiry-enabling technologies available to the subject. We argue that a subject's beliefs that are formed based on internet-filtered information are less justified than they would be if she either knew how filtering worked or relied on additional sources, and that the subject may have the epistemic responsibility to take measures to enhance the justificatory status of such beliefs.

Education of the Digital Generation: Relying on Traditions and Taking into Account Modern Trends (on the Example of Russia and Kazakhstan)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
A. Abylkasymova ◽  
Sergey Shishov ◽  
V. Kal'ney
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Vocational Education ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Moral Consciousness ◽  
Previous Period ◽  
Digital Society ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
Modern System ◽  
Ethical Norms

The article presents the results of the analysis of the formation of moral norms in older adolescents in Russia and Kazakhstan. The authors posed the following questions: do the modern system of education in the digital society of Russia and Kazakhstan have prerequisites based on the historical traditions of our countries? What are the current trends in the modernization of the system of education in vocational education, characteristic of the digital society? Are there any justifications for the feasibility of forming a system of education of modern professional personnel for the digital economy based on the traditional principles of the system of education of professional personnel in Russia and Kazakhstan? It is shown that in adolescence it is a moral act that characterizes the formation of moral consciousness. The actions of a teenager are determined during this period by the recognition of responsibility, and not by the expectation of approval, which was typical for an earlier age period. Many adolescents have a high situational variability, adherence to diametrically opposite positions. Here is the violation of principles, and intolerance to the opinions of other people, and the demonstration of passivity in the violation of the rights of others, and the justification of immoral actions by profit. The authors proceed from the understanding that now teachers are educating those young people who have a completely different perception of reality, their thinking, moral norms, a new culture, and ways of communication. At the same time, no one removes from the modern teacher the task of transmitting to the young the existing moral and ethical norms that originate in the previous period of education.

scholarly journals Percepción del profesorado hacia las tendencias metodológicas actuales de Educación Musical TITLE: Teachers’ perception of current methodological trends in Musical Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Unai Martin Garro ◽  
Cristina Arriaga Sanz
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Teaching Methodologies ◽  
Musical Education ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Depth Interviews

Este trabajo pretende desvelar cuál es la percepción del profesorado acerca de la práctica educativa musical, así como describir la metodología que se utiliza en el aula, con el objetivo de identificar los factores que influencian la puesta en práctica de tendencias metodológicas actuales. La información se ha obtenido a través de entrevistas en profundidad tanto al profesorado de Música como a tutores. Se ha realizado un análisis de contenido con la ayuda de un sistema categorial. Los resultados muestran que la asignatura de Música está infravalorada con respecto a las demás y que el profesorado tiene dificultades para implementar las metodológicas actuales. Como conclusión se subraya que existe la necesidad de una implicación de la administración para ofrecer cursos formativos relacionados con este tipo de tendencias, tanto musicales como generales.ABSTRACTThis paper intends to reveal the teachers' perception about the current practice in musical education, and to describe the teaching methodologies used in classroom, with the aim of identifying the factors that influence the implementation of current methodological trends. Information was obtained through in-depth interviews with music teachers and tutors. Data have been classified according to a categories’ system, and a content analysis of these data was performed. The results show that the subject of Music is undervalued compared to other subjects. Also, teachers find difficult to implement current methodological trends. The main conclusion is that there is a need for educational administration’s involvement providing training courses on current trends in teaching methodologies. 

scholarly journals Child Protection in the Event of Parents’ Divorce – Conceptualization of the Subject of the Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-204
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Turczyk
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Childhood Studies ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Research Concept ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Constructing Knowledge

SummaryThe article is preconceptual in its nature, as it is an introduction to a planned research project in the area of pedagogy and law. The author describes the research in current trends in modern childhood studies, choosing the protection of children’s rights in the event of their parents’ separation as the basic research category. This category will be analyzed in ontological, epistemological and methodological dimensions. In view of the growing scale of family breakdowns, it becomes justified to ask a question about the way of experiencing, understanding and constructing knowledge about the subject of pedagogical and legal interactions – the child themself. Building knowledge about a child whose parents separate is not only intended to expand and build interdisciplinary theoretical knowledge, but also to provide a basis for designing adequate tools and activities to protect the rights of a child experiencing their parents’ separation. This article provides an outline of a research concept aimed at protecting children’s rights. The article contains extensive justifications for the research topic and the framework of the methodological concept.

scholarly journals Military museums in Poland – between the past and the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-39
Author(s):  
Dagmara Chylińska ◽  
Łukasz Musiaka
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Cultural Tourism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Museum Practice ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Special Mirror

Museums are a constantly developing segment of cultural tourism. Poland is in line with current trends in museums, expanding its offer and adapting it to the requirements of the world of contemporary image culture and multisensory experiences, which is increasingly dominated by technology. The authors of the paper undertook to recognise the specificity of military museums, by conducting a survey of approximately a third of all such institutions in Poland. Due to the subject-matter of their exhibitions, military museums create a broad field of research both in terms of aesthetics and museum practice, as well as the issues of shaping and maintaining collective memory and the identity of the nation. They form a special mirror in which the country’s ideas and aspirations are reflected more often than any real characteristics. In reference to contemporary trends in museums, the article aims to place Polish military museums between locality and universality, education and entertainment, stability and dynamism, knowledge and experience. The results obtained allowed the authors to distinguish three groups of military museums in Poland, as well as indicate conditions conducive to the further development of such attractions in the country.

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