The literature on algorithmic fairness has examined exogenous sources of biases such as shortcomings in the data and structural injustices in society. It has also examined internal sources of bias as evidenced by a number of impossibility theorems showing that no algorithm can concurrently satisfy multiple criteria of fairness. This paper contributes to the literature stemming from the impossibility theorems by examining how informational richness affects the accuracy and fairness of predictive algorithms. With the aid of a computer simulation, we (...) show that informational richness is the engine that drives improvements in the performance of a predictive algorithm, in terms of both accuracy and fairness. The centrality of informational richness suggests that classification parity, a popular criterion of algorithmic fairness, should be given relatively little weight. But we caution that the centrality of informational richness should be taken with a grain of salt in light of practical limitations, in particular, the so-called bias-variance trade off. (shrink)

In the domain of cognitive science, understanding consciousness through the investigation of neural correlates has been the primary research approach. The exploration of neural correlates of consciousness is focused on identifying these correlates and reducing consciousness to a physical phenomenon, embodying a form of reductionist physicalism. This inevitably leads to challenges in explaining consciousness itself. The computational interpretation of consciousness takes a functionalist view, grounded in physicalism, and models conscious experience as a cognitive function, elucidated through computational means. This paper (...) posits that predictive processing offers a fresh paradigm for comprehending human cognition and serves as a neural foundation for the computational elucidation of consciousness. Additionally, free energy theory, as a mathematical construct explaining the predictive processing model, furnishes a theoretical scaffold for understanding consciousness computationally. (shrink)

This article starts with the interpretation of human consciousness, analyzes its deduction, summarizes its sources, explains its definition, clarifies its attributes, and determines its connection with artificial intelligence (AI). It derives the underlying logic of AI: AI is an entity composed of the complexity and orderliness of material information. This entity can be a system, module, organ, robot, etc. Based on its similarity with human consciousness, it determines its level of intelligence for the complexity and orderliness of the material information (...) in the artificial intelligence entity. The more complex and orderly it is, the higher its level of intelligence. Obviously, for industry professionals in the field of artificial intelligence, the only job they do is to continuously improve the complexity and orderliness of material information in AI entities. (shrink)

古代中国明朝哲学家王阳明创立的心学已有七百多年，它继承了中国古代的哲学，比如孔孟之道和宋明理学等的内容，创立了心学。其理念在社会哲学领域深深地影响了中国、日本和朝鲜等东亚国家，甚至于间接地推动了日本的 明治维新运动，成为千年一圣。同时世界各地的学者对心学的研究和探讨也是层出不穷，但是总体而言，缺乏对心学理论体系性的探讨和研究。 本文从体系概念着手，结合心学的内容，经过梳理后整合成一个完整的、逻辑的和全面的心学体系。.

The exploration of the origin and essence of human consciousness has a long history, with various fields (e.g., philosophy, medicine, sociology, biology, psychology and so on.) offering different explanations. However, none of these have been widely recognized so far. The primary reason is that the complexity of consciousness, combined with significant differences in perspectives across disciplines, makes it challenging for researchers to fully, reasonably, and comprehensively grasp its essence. This enduring ambiguity has turned consciousness into an eternal mystery. Therefore, deeper (...) study and discussion of it is necessary. Based on the analysis, summarization, and induction of knowledge for it from various disciplines, this paper draws the following conclusions: • The origin of consciousness stems from natural materials. • The essence of consciousness is material information. • Consciousness possesses the attributes of congenital, materiality, complexity, systematicness, dynamics, difference, and selfhood. Formed a new interpretation of consciousness. (shrink)

关于人类意识起源和本质问题的探讨由来已久，各领域如哲学、社会学、生物学和心理学等都有不同定义和解释，但是至今为止都没有得到广泛的认同，主要原因是由意识的复杂性导致了各领域都不能全面、合理和充分地认识其 起源和本质，成为千古奇案，所以有必要对其进行深入探讨。 本文根据各学科的知识分析、汇总和归纳，得出如下结论：意识的起源来自自然物质；意识的本质为物质信息；意识的能力是物质信息的复杂度和有序度的利用程度；意识具有先天性、物质性、系统性、复杂性、动态性、差异性 和自我性属性 .

Over thousands of years, the development of philosophical systems has presented a diverse and vibrant landscape in the world, encompassing ancient Greek philosophy, ancient Indian philosophy, Eastern philosophy, as well as natural philosophy and social philosophy. Overall, these can be simplified into two categories: Materialism and Idealism. Their mutual competition and incompatibility, coupled with their continued existence to this day, at least indicates that each has its own reasonable aspects, and they may also contain unreasonable aspects. After analyzing, summarizing, and (...) synthesizing the reasonable and unreasonable aspects of both theories and ideologies, and elevating them to a higher level, we integrate the reasonable parts of Idealism and Materialism, discard the unreasonable ones, and unify them into a systematic, reasonable, and extensive philosophical system, which is called Energicism. The core idea of Energicism is energy determinism, which suggests that energy determines everything in the universe, including the existence and development of various activities in nature and human society, also includes the unknown world. (shrink)

Xinxue （The philosophy of mind） founded by ancient Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming of the Ming Dynasty for over 700 years. Its ideas have deeply influenced East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and Korea in the field of social philosophy, and even indirectly promoted Japan's Meiji Restoration movement. At the same time, scholars from all over the world have conducted numerous studies and explorations on it, but overall, there is a lack of systematic exploration and research on it. This article (...) starts with the concept of a system, combines the content of Xinxue and integrates it into a complete, logical, and comprehensive system of Xinxue. (shrink)

It has a long history for the exploration of the origin and essence of human consciousness with different definitions and explanations in various fields such as philosophy, medicine, sociology, biology, and psychology. However, all of them had not been recognized so far. The main reason is that the complexity of consciousness leads to the inability of various fields to understand its essence fully, reasonably, and comprehensively, and there are still significant differences for it, and which have become an eternal mystery. (...) So, it is necessary to delve deeper into it. Here we show that this article concludes that the origin of consciousness comes from natural matter, the essence of consciousness is material information, the ability of consciousness is the degree to which the complexity and orderliness of material information are utilized, and consciousness has the attributes of congenital, materiality, systematicness, complexity, dynamics, difference, and selfness according to the analysis, summary and induction of knowledge from various disciplines. (shrink)

When looking up at the starry sky, Socrates, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, raised three ultimate philosophical questions: "Who am I?" "Where am I from?" and "Where am I going?". For thousands of years, human beings have tried their best to think, research and explore it, involving various disciplines such as philosophy, medicine, psychology, physics, biology, and neurology, but they have not been widely recognized. This paper expounds the concept of "center" from the perspective of cosmology, world outlook and scientific (...) outlook for "I", and answers the question of "who am I?":"I am the center, the center is me". At the same time, it expounds the origin, essence, and attributes of consciousness, and answered the questions of "where do I come from?"："I come from dust" and "where do I go?"："I will return to dust". (shrink)

This essay explores the meaning of Kant's transcendental definition of pleasure and displeasure. I will explain the meaning of "definition" and "transcendental" respectively in relation to the feeling of pleasure and displeasure, contrasting with the interpretations of Guyer (2018) and Deimling (2018). Not only will I show how they are wrong, but I will also offer reasons for their misinterpretations. This essay proposes that the transcendental definition of pleasure and displeasure bears more systematic significance in Kant's philosophy than previous researchers (...) might have thought. My analysis also leads back to Kant's conception of the anthropological relation between life, desire, and pleasure. (shrink)

The question of Who am I?” is the end of philosophy. The famous ancient Greek philosopher Socrates raised three ultimate questions in philosophy when he looked up at the starry sky: “Who am I?” “Where do I come from?” “Where am I going？”. For thousands of years, humans have explored and answered questions about them, including various disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, biology, and neurology etc., but none of them have been recognized. This article starts with the cosmology and worldview (...) of “Who am I?” and elaborates on the origin of “Who am I?” and the concept of “center”. (shrink)

Allelopathy is an important biological phenomenon in exotic plant invasions. Studies about this phenomenon can help us to understand how plant interactions influence plant colony and ecosystem functioning. Both alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides, Ap) and crofton weed (Eupatorium adenophorum, Ea) are important destructive exotic species in China. Their allelopathic effects on native plant species are well documented. However, whether alligator weed and crofton weed antagonize each other regarding plant growth? There is largely unknown currently. Here we report that the leaf (...) extract from crofton weed possesses the negative effect on the growth of alligator weed. The results showed that root growth of alligator weed could be seriously inhibited by aqueous extract from crofton weed, exhibited as no root or a few roots if only. Consistent with the inhibition of root growth, we observed changes of physiological and biochemical parameters in treated alligator weed. The chlorophyll content, the root activity and the acetolactate synthase (ALS) activity were significantly decreased; while the rate of superoxide anion (O2-), the malondialdehyde (MDA) content, the peroxidase (POD) activity, and the shikimic acid content were remarkably increased in the treated alligator weed plants. These physiological analyzes suggested that the main allelopathic effects of crofton weed were mainly through affecting the integrity of cell membrane and the activity of the key enzymes. Further, these data also imply that one exotic species has the potential value to be used in bio-control of the other exotic species. (shrink)

This article explores gong 公 (‘public-mindedness’) as an epistemic virtue in two Warring States Chinese philosophical texts, the Shenzi and the Xunzi. The epistemic dimension of gong is born from an awareness of the narrowness of one’s epistemic perspective. It represents an impartial and unbiased approach to governance. Gong is considered here alongside three epistemic virtues previously identified in the Chinese tradition: intellectual humility, open-mindedness, and knowledge abstinence. While there is some overlap between these and gong, (...) there are important differences due in part to the political focus of the latter. There are also marked differences between its usage in the two texts. Gong in the Shenzi connotes a capacity to outsource the bases for political decisions to systems and processes external to one’s epistemic faculties. The Xunzi, by contrast, maintains confidence in the cultivation of mind as a basis for governance, and gong represents a balanced and unbiased epistemic virtue. (shrink)

This paper challenges the conventional view that pre-Qin Confucianism represents kingly virtue politics that lacks institutional duty. By interpreting Xunzi’s notion of yi 義, particularly gong-yi 公義, as a form of public obligation, I show that Xunzi exposes yi to state institutions to oblige people to serve public ends. While institutional duty is often associated with post-Enlightenment political philosophy, this paper argues that Xunzi’s philosophy offers a comparable framework of public–private exchange. Xunzi’s gong-yi may be a public-servicing sense (...) of duty that combines moral and civic dimensions, compelling individuals to cooperate for the collective good. Unlike social contract theories that trade private rights with public duties, Xunzi’s system relies on moral compulsion and normative reciprocity. This system posits a sensible exchange between individual duties from inner compulsion for the public good. By contrasting gong 公 (the public) with si 私 (the private), Xunzi envisions the public as an entity that is serviced through public duties and a place for human flourishing. Positioning the role of gong-yi in Xunzi’s broader institutional project crystalizes this nascent concept of a “public” and its relationships with civic duties. (shrink)

Mohist thought has long been marginalized and misunderstood due to its seemingly irreconcilable integration of rational logic, religious language, and utilitarian ethics. This paper is the first to systematically introduce and apply an original philosophical methodology—​Benchmark-Based Perspectivism to conduct a thorough re-evaluation and rehabilitation of Mohism. This theory proposes that the prerequisite for cognizing any system is to identify its intrinsic benchmark unit (an indescribable logical origin), quantitative differential (the impetus for systemic motion), and relations (the manner of unidirectional information (...) flow), and to observe how the system thereby maintains dynamic equilibrium​​. ​​This framework enables a groundbreaking reinterpretation of Mohist philosophy: "Tian Z (the Will of Heaven)" is interpreted not as a personal divine decree, but as the intrinsic regulatory law and ultimate benchmark of a cosmic system tending towards balance. "Jian Ai (Impartial Care)" and "Fei Gong (Non-Aggression)" are revealed to be the core relational laws for maintaining systemic equilibrium, which mandate the necessary circulation and prohibition of information (benefit/利). The implicit structure of Mohist theory is shown to constitute a minimal yet necessary model of dynamic balance, perfectly fulfilling the formal requirements of Benchmark-Based Perspectivism. Consequently,the Mohists'" sacrifice" is rehabilitated: it represents a highly rational act of system maintenance, wherein systemic agents implement negative feedback through self-sacrifice (local regulation) to ensure the stable perpetuation of the global system—a profound "benevolence of existence" (存在之仁). This study successfully resolves the internal tensions within Mohist thought ，reconstructing it from a collection of contradictions into a profound and coherent system of philosophy, thereby providing a powerful vindication of its status within both Chinese and global intellectual history. (shrink)

In The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought (2023), Wang Hui unfolds two interrelated threads to help us understand China’s historical transition from the pre-modern to modernity. The first thread reveals institutional change in the socio-political realm, tracing the transition from a society based on enfeoffment (fengjian zhi) in the pre-Qin period, to an empire characterized by centralized administration (junxian zhi) during the Tang–Song eras, and eventually to the modern society that began to emerge in the late Qing period. The second (...) thread concerns the paradigm shift in the intellectual realm, with particular emphasis on moral (including social and political) philosophy—or "worldview" in Wang’s terms. This shift moves from the worldview of the rites and music (liyue), to the worldview of heavenly principle (tianli), and finally to the worldview of universal principle (gongli). This essay reframes Wang’s rich depiction of China’s intellectual history through the evolving relationship between the concepts of "principle" (li) and "things" (wu). Based on Wang’s work, it identifies three fundamental stances of Chinese moral philosophy and suggests the possibility of a fourth kind. (shrink)

AbstractThis essay argues for a new interpretation of the notion of “unity” in Yangming’s 王陽明 famous doctrine of the “unity of knowledge and action” (zhi xing he yi 知行合一). I distinguish two parts of Wang’s doctrine: one concerning training (gong fu 工夫), and one concerning the “original natural condition” of knowledge and action (ben ti 本體). I focus on the latter aspect of the doctrine, and argue that Wang holds, roughly, that a person exhibits knowledge in its original natural (...) condition if and only if the person exhibits action in its original natural condition. Moreover, I argue that Wang denies that knowledge in its original natural condition is identical to action in its original natural condition. (shrink)

Contemplative traditions recognize two inner perceptual pathways: the Yoga of Inner Light and the Yoga of Inner Sound. This paper systematically recovers a third and previously neglected path: the Yoga of the Inner Body, which unfolds through refined interoceptive perception of subtle, endogenous somatic signs. This path progresses from discrete internal sensations (Level 1: Sensation) to coherent longitudinal currents (Level 2: Flow), and culminates in a unified, non-conceptual vibratory field permeating the body (Level 3: Field). Through phenomenological analysis, these experiences (...) are clearly distinguished from medical pathology (such as essential tremor or autonomic arousal) and from mystical mythology (such as literalist interpretations of Kundalini). A neurobiological account is proposed using interoceptive processing within a Predictive Coding framework: the Yoga of the Inner Body arises when sustained meditative attention reduces top-down cognitive filtering, allowing the physiological ground state of the autonomic system to enter conscious perception. Cross-cultural convergence, reflected in terms such as Spanda (Kashmir Shaivism), Wajd (Sufism), and Zifa Gong (Taoism), validates this phenomenon as a universal human capacity. The systematization of this path establishes embodiment not as a cognitive burden, but as a direct epistemology of presence, leading to the emergence of a new field: somatic consciousness studies. (shrink)

I open with a contrast between the Searle-Derrida debate and British social anthropology’s opposition to cultural studies. My paper features an attempt at synthesis between the rival camps in the latter debate, which will be its most important material for some readers. Then I turn to someone much studied by Cultural Studies, it seems. Madonna has done stand-up comedy on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. I have done some stand-up comedy myself. I think Madonna has used a rational strategy: (...) around 2 minutes in she says, “Please don’t pull me off, I have jokes.” In a gong show, a type of comedy show, audience members have the power to get rid of a comedian before their maximum allocated time is up, e.g. 5 minutes. Audiences at some gong shows are told to give comedians a minute or two to settle in, rather than making an instant assessment. So she takes risks earlier and around 2 minutes Madonna goes for heavy-hitting moves to keep the audience on side: in her case, discussion of the paintings she owns. I have never used this strategy myself, although I asked a fellow comedian and he told me “Just do your best stuff from the start.” That is good advice for me. (shrink)

The theory of lower previsions is designed around the principles of coherence and sure-loss avoidance, thus steers clear of all the updating anomalies highlighted in Gong and Meng's "Judicious Judgment Meets Unsettling Updating: Dilation, Sure Loss, and Simpson's Paradox" except dilation. In fact, the traditional problem with the theory of imprecise probability is that coherent inference is too complicated rather than unsettling. Progress has been made simplifying coherent inference by demoting sets of probabilities from fundamental building blocks to secondary (...) representations that are derived or discarded as needed. (shrink)

This article philosophically examines the _Shenzi Yue Gong Jian_ 慎子曰恭儉 (“Shenzi Speaks of Reverence and Frugality”), part of the Shanghai Museum cache of excavated fragments published in 2007, and provides a tentative translation based on a range of paleographic and philological studies previously carried out. The fragments make reference to a Master S hen 慎, a denomination typically associated with the pre-Qin 秦 political philosopher Shen Dao 慎到 (c. 359–275 BCE) and the received _Shenzi_ 慎子 _Fragments_. Some elements of (...) the excavated fragments, such as “administrative methods” (_fa_ 法) and “positional power” (_shi_ 勢), seem to establish a connection with the received _Shenzi_—a supposedly “Legalist” text. However, terms such as “reverence” (_gong_ 恭) and “frugality” (_jian_ 儉), which appear together in the fragments, are found in “Confucian” pre-Qin texts, such as the _Lunyu_ 論語, _Mengzi_ 孟子, _Xunzi_ 荀子, and the “Book of Rites” (_Liji_ 禮記). “Publicness” (_gong_ 公) is an underexamined concern in the received _Shenzi_. When considered in terms of publicness, and not in the typical framing of Legalist doctrine, the received _Shenzi_ provides a fitting philosophical backdrop for the _Shenzi Yue Gong Jian._. (shrink)

The article explores the current problems of the relationship between emotional and artificial intelligence in the context of philosophical reflection on subjectivity and cognitive processes, and also analyzes the impact of new technologies on the idea of cognition and the subject. The relevance of the study is due to the growing role of artificial intelligence in cognitive processes, the need to understand changes in the concept of subjectivity under the influence of technological transformations, and the need for a philosophical analysis (...) of the ethical aspects of human interaction with AI. The goal is to scientifically substantiate the interaction of emotional intelligence and artificial intelligence in the context of philosophical reflection on subjectivity in cognitive processes. The study was based on a content analysis of scientific publications in the field of emotional and artificial intelligence, a philosophical analysis of the concepts of subjectivity with an emphasis on ethical reflection and critical thinking, a comparative analysis of approaches to the integration of emotional and artificial intelligence into cognitive processes, a case study method for studying examples of the use of AI in business processes, as well as for studying the mechanisms of integrating artificial intelligence into emotional intelligence processes and their impact on customer interaction. The results of the study demonstrate that the examples of the companies Gong and BenchSci illustrate progress in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to model emotional aspects of customer interaction. The use of machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies not only contributes to the analysis of behavioral data, but also to the adaptation of communication in accordance with the emotional reactions of users. An analysis of the application of AI in business communications indicates its potential to increase the level of emotional intelligence in customer interaction. However, the study focuses on key philosophical aspects: the limits of AI subjectivity, its ability to understand emotions, and the ethics of interaction with people. It has been established that AI is not an autonomous subject of cognition, since its “emotional sensitivity” consists in reproducing algorithmic patterns. At the same time, the ability of AI to simulate emotions and influence customer behavior puts forward the need to form ethical norms and rules to regulate such technologies. Future research should be aimed at studying the deep aspects of the interaction of emotional and artificial intelligence in cognitive processes, analyzing the ethical challenges of introducing AI into the field of emotional intelligence, as well as studying the impact of these technologies on the transformation of ideas about subjectivity and human consciousness. (shrink)

The value of up-hill skiing is double, it is first a sport and artistic expression, second it incorporates functional dependencies related to the natural obstacles which the individual aims to overcome. On the artistic side, M. Dufrenne shows the importance of living movement in dance, and we can compare puppets with dancers in order to grasp the lack of intentional spiritual qualities in the former. The expressivity of dance, as for, Chi Gong, ice skating or ski mountaineering is a (...) particular innocence and lightness which is called grace. It is life without the burden of worries. Grace, in slow progression uphill on snow, is as dance for Dufrenne, it has the most central and specific aesthetical quality of life. Others compared dance to a landscape, a landscape is for the sight, what dance is for life, a symbolical space, different from a usual space, where utility and dependency are present. A mountain can be a space of experience of natural beauty. Aesthetical qualities can be closely related to function related qualities as when a climber needs to adjust his movements to the natural convex inclination of the rocks, and avoid slippery forms of inclination, present on the other side of the mountain. The natural object, the quality of the snow or the rock differ from the aesthetical quality of the style of ascent by the absence of neutralization of the object, in case of a purely instrumental approach. On the contrary, grace in the rhythm of the progression of ski climbers needs a difference of attitude, which is not only proper to the playing, and delimited by the conditions of that play, but as a contingency driven attitude, without signification as radical alterity, without any finality. First ascent of the Matterhorn succeeded from the Swiss side, and not from the Italian side because of the different inclination of the rock on both sides. Grace in dance as in martial art or mountaineering is allowing to perceive an autonomy of the expression, as the truth of the perceived object, it puts away a cognitive and practical orientation and replaces it by a new meaning as movement in the whole set of movements done by the climber. This replacement of the functional expression resembles that operated by the painter who chooses a color in the whole set of colors in a painting, or a shape in the whole set of possible existing shapes. -/- Ref. Dufrenne, Mikel, (1989): The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience. Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, trans. by Edward S. Casey, 1st publ. in 1953, Evanston: Northwestern University Press. (shrink)

David Bohm, in his "causal theory", made the correct Hegelian synthesis of Einstein's thesis that there is a "there" there, and Bohr's antithesis of "thinglessness" (Nick Herbert’s term). Einstein was a materialist and Bohr was an idealist. Bohm showed that quantum reality has both. This is “physical dualism” (my term). Physical dualism may be a low energy approximation to a deeper monism of cosmic consciousness called "the super-implicate order" (Bohm and Hiley’s term), “pregeometry” (Wheeler’s term), “substratum” (Dirac’s term), “funda-MENTAL space” (...) (Hameroff’s term), “Chi” (Chinese medicine & Falun Gong) etc., but for our immediate pragmatic purpose of constructing naturally conscious nano-computers and of virtually reverse engineering alleged reports of propellantless UFO propulsion (French Intelligence Report, 1999 [email protected] Vol. 5, No. 11, Part 1 -- August 1, 1999 & NIDS report "Best UFO Cases - Europe", I. Von Ludwiger) to the stars and beyond, physical dualism will work. (shrink)

Xunzi made a notable departure from Mengzi and Kongzi, by insisting that people are inherently bad and need to be shaped by social institutions. This may represent the beginnings of institutional politics in ancient China, which focused on establishing social order from chaos. There are obvious and interesting similarities with Thomas Hobbes’s social contract theory in their shared cynicism of human nature, which have received only partial attention. Structurally, the institutionalism found in Xunzi is comparable to the social contract theory, (...) making politics an objective, external and measurable set of institutional rules rather than virtues. There have been no notable attempts at this comparison. The Anglophone scholarship has not paid much attention to the structural and institutional dimensions of Xunzi’s political philosophy. The Sinophone scholarship has not paid as much attention to the comparative elements between the social contract theory and Xunzi’s social-moral institutions. This thesis attempts to supply a comparative interpretation of several key concepts in the Xunzi: 1. order zhi 治; chaos luan 亂, which are Xunzi’s foundational moral concerns; 2. duties yi 義; public gong 公, which alludes to a way public duties are generated from internal impulses; 3. rituals li 禮, which is a means of distributing esteem as a scarce social resource; 4. reason/coherence LI* 理, which is an externally accessible set of quasi-empirical principles that justifies political prescriptions; 5. the way and hierarchy dao 道/ fen 分, which show that hierarchies as the device that makes social order possible. Through these explications, I argue that Xunzi’s systematic political philosophy amounts to an alternative way to achieve civility through social institutions distinct from but comparable to the social contract theory familiar to Western philosophy. (shrink)

Philosophy battles with some recurring themes, one of which, maybe the most one, is the complicated relation between identity and otherness. It is a match that struggles to get to the gong: the net that binds the self and the other looks more like a tangle hard to unroll. So, we don’t have the claim to settle it down, but we would like to present some strategies useful to loosen it. We will follow a precise trajectory: we will consider (...) the philosophies of Heidegger and Nancy trying to understand what is about of identity and otherness in their philosophical frameworks. Of course, we don’t want to set sail on a historical trip: our interest is to catch the theoretical suggestions of these philosophies, knowing that they can advise us with prolific thoughts. We’ll basically have two tools: Heidegger’s Being and Time and Nancy’s Being Singular Plural. Even if those two theoretical poles are notoriously opposites, our idea is that a comparative analysis incentivizes important conclusions. Between all that otherness is an unmissable chance of expansion for the subjectivity and, because of this, their relation must be cultivated in the healthiest way. (shrink)

For more than a decade, an aura of discontentment has challenged existing models and theories that have established the structures in various fields of human endeavours such as philosophy, architecture, political science, media, literature, arts and the humanities in general. For instance, the architectural design of what was hitherto referred to as modern building has at least a sitting room (parlour), a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet as well as two or more number of bedrooms depending on the size (...) of the family, including the master's bedroom. This design was a view that transcended from the old traditional caves and all manner of living spaces that were devised by the early man. The modern concept arose out of man's need to assume a better living status based on his new initiatives. In the field of media and communication, the period of technological evolvement and development that brought about the coinage of descriptive terms such as 'electronic age' and now 'computer age', was preceded by a 'stone age' where the means of communication was prototypical of that archaic society. Though nothing has changed tremendously in interpersonal communication, there are modern means of interpersonal communication made possible by the advent of the telephone. Prior to the advent of this modern technology, interpersonal communication was only made possible in a face-to-face situation or mere errand. Mass Communication in early traditional societies was done with the use of smoke or town-criers who were employed to go round the communities with their gongs to make announcements. This means of communication hardly made it possible for ideas or information to be shared among people who resided in different parts of the world, unlike today. (shrink)

This is a review of a book which is unique in the history of contemporary ideas --- the authors make explicit the religious imperative in a connected world which is glocal.