Coordinates of Thought: topics
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Who is morally responsible when an AI system causes harm?
Andreas Matthias coined the term "responsibility gap" in 2004: when a learning system behaves in ways its designers couldn't predict, it seems nobody is fully responsible. The designers didn't intend the outcome,…
Started by Nur Aisyah Rahman3 replies0 views -
If a system passes every behavioural test, what would still be missing?
Suppose a future system passes every test we can think of. It holds conversations, explains its reasoning, makes jokes that land, learns new tasks quickly, and reacts appropriately to pain-like signals in…
Started by Pieter de Jong4 replies0 views -
Do animals have conscious experiences, and how could we ever tell?
In 2012 a group of neuroscientists signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, stating that non-human animals, including all mammals and birds and some others such as octopuses, have the neurological substrates of…
Started by Priya Raghavan4 replies0 views -
Is fana in Sufism the same as nirvana in Buddhism?
My grandmother used to read Sufi poetry about fana, the annihilation of the self in God. Now I've started reading about Buddhism and nirvana, which also seems to involve the end of…
Started by Elif Yıldız4 replies0 views -
Is “objectivity” in journalism a coherent ideal?
I was trained to be "objective": report the facts, present both sides, keep my opinions out. In practice, every choice is a judgment: what's a story, whose voice to include, which word…
Started by Sana Mir3 replies0 views -
What exactly is Aristotle’s “function argument” in Nicomachean Ethics I.7?
I teach this every year and I always feel I fumble it. My summary for students goes roughly like this: the good of anything that has a function lies in performing that…
Started by Giulia Ferrante5 replies0 views -
What’s the difference between negative and positive liberty?
In constitutional law classes, Isaiah Berlin's "Two Concepts of Liberty" (1958) comes up constantly, but my professors use it in different ways. Some say negative liberty is freedom from interference and positive…
Started by Deepa Nair3 replies0 views -
What is the principle of double effect, and when does it apply in medicine?
In palliative care we often say that giving high doses of morphine is permitted even if it might shorten life, because of the "principle of double effect". But I've realised I don't…
Started by Omar Farouk4 replies0 views -
Do future generations have rights over the climate we leave them?
In my work I see the long-term effects of decisions made decades ago: dams, drained wetlands, groundwater extraction. The people most affected weren't born when the decisions were made. Derek Parfit's "non-identity…
Started by Anand Pillai3 replies0 views -
What is the “block universe”, and does relativity force it on us?
In physics classes we learned special relativity, including the relativity of simultaneity: observers in relative motion disagree about which distant events are simultaneous. Some philosophers argue this means the past, present and…
Started by Emeka Nwosu4 replies0 views -
What is Mary’s Room actually supposed to show?
I teach an intro cognitive science seminar and want to present Frank Jackson's "Mary's Room" correctly. Mary is a brilliant neuroscientist who has lived her whole life in a black-and-white room. She…
Started by Priya Raghavan4 replies0 views -
What is ijtihad, and why did Iqbal call it the principle of movement in Islam?
In court I know ijtihad in its narrow legal sense: independent reasoning by a qualified jurist to derive a ruling where texts are silent or unclear. But Iqbal, in the sixth lecture…
Started by Hamza Qureshi3 replies0 views -
What is Rawls’s veil of ignorance actually supposed to show?
I teach economics students, and when I introduce Rawls they treat the original position as a risk-aversion exercise. Behind the veil you don't know whether you'll be rich or poor, so you…
Started by Javier Morales4 replies0 views -
What does “primacy of existence” (asalat al-wujud) mean in plain terms?
I've read that Mulla Sadra's central doctrine is the primacy or "fundamentality" of existence over essence. I've also read that this is the opposite of a view held by Suhrawardi, or Mir…
Started by Reza Tehrani3 replies0 views -
Did Ibn Khaldun invent sociology, or is that a modern compliment?
Ibn Khaldun called his new science 'ilm al-'umran, the science of human social organisation or civilisation. He looked for regular causes behind historical events: climate, economy, group solidarity, the transition from nomadic…
Started by Youssef Benali3 replies0 views -
What makes a death a “good death”?
In palliative care we talk constantly about a "good death". Usually it means: pain controlled, the person not alone, their wishes known and respected, family prepared, no futile interventions at the end.…
Started by Elin Lindqvist4 replies0 views -
What’s the difference between the cosmological and the ontological argument?
First-year question, sorry. In my philosophy of religion module the lecturer moved fast through several arguments for God's existence and I came out mixing up two of them. I think one is…
Started by Aoife Brennan3 replies0 views -
Why is “begging the question” not the same as “raising the question”?
My students, and frankly most newspapers, use "this begs the question" to mean "this raises the question". A colleague told me that's wrong and the phrase refers to a fallacy. Could someone…
Started by Vikram Sethi3 replies0 views -
Can someone explain what the Nyāya logicians meant by vyāpti (pervasion)?
My training is entirely in Western formal logic, and I've started reading Matilal's The Character of Logic in India. I understand the standard example: there is fire on the hill because there…
Started by Tomasz Wójcik4 replies0 views -
Can someone explain Ramanuja’s Vishishtadvaita fairly, from an Advaitin’s point of view?
I have read Shankara for decades and I confess I have never given Rāmānuja the attention he deserves. My Vaishnava friends tell me I misrepresent him whenever I speak about him. So…
Started by Arjun Iyer3 replies0 views -
Are Kant’s formulations of the categorical imperative really equivalent?
I am working through the Groundwork, slowly. Kant gives several formulations of the categorical imperative: act only on a maxim you could will as a universal law treat humanity, in yourself and…
Started by Henrike Vogel3 replies0 views -
Are emotions judgments, feelings, or both?
In my emotion psychology course we covered three families of theories: feeling theories, like the James–Lange theory (1880s): an emotion is our perception of bodily changes, so we're afraid because we tremble,…
Started by Elif Yıldız4 replies0 views -
How does rasa theory compare with Aristotle’s catharsis?
I studied rasa theory in my literature MA and Aristotle's Poetics in a single comparative class. My professor said they're answering the same question: why do we enjoy art that shows painful…
Started by Kavya Menon4 replies0 views