1
|
Weichold M, Candiotto L. The ethics of sense-making. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1240163. [PMID: 38144992 PMCID: PMC10740369 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1240163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
In this paper, we contribute to the arising field of "enactive ethics," that is, the application of enactive cognitive science to the field of ethics. To this end, we will make a case that an "ethics of sense-making" should exist. With "sense-making," we mean the permanent everyday embodied activity of interpreting the surroundings we are in, as well as our role in them. In other words, we mean the activity of understanding our environments in such a way that certain things, but not others, stand out as meaningful and relevant to us. We argue that sense-making can be performed in ethically better or worse ways. For example, one might make sense of a potentially provocative comment either as an insult or as an invitation for a respectful discussion. How one makes sense in this case will affect oneself, the other, and their present and future relations. We propose that it is often helpful to hold humans responsible for their ways of sense-making. This opens up the possibility to transform their sense-making and the worlds they inhabit. This also has significance for their eudaimonic well-being. Our ethics of sense-making focusses on the ubiquitous activities of sense-making, which, when changed, will lead to great ethical improvements of people's actions, choices, and character traits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Weichold
- Institute of Philosophy, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Laura Candiotto
- Center for Ethics, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czechia
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Peters U. Extended Implicit Bias: When the Metaphysics and Ethics of Implicit Bias Collide. ERKENNTNIS 2022; 88:1-22. [PMID: 35035000 PMCID: PMC8752585 DOI: 10.1007/s10670-021-00511-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 12/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
It has recently been argued that to tackle social injustice, implicit biases and unjust social structures should be targeted equally because they sustain and ontologically overlap with each other. Here I develop this thought further by relating it to the hypothesis of extended cognition. I argue that if we accept common conditions for extended cognition then people's implicit biases are often partly realized by and so extended into unjust social structures. This supports the view that we should counteract psychological and social contributors to injustice equally. But it also has a significant downside. If unjust social structures are part of people's minds then dismantling these structures becomes more difficult than it currently is, as this will then require us to overcome widely accepted ethical and legal barriers protecting people's bodily and personal integrity. Thus, while there are good grounds to believe that people's biases and unjust social structures ontologically overlap, there are also strong ethical reasons to reject this view. Metaphysical and ethical intuitions about implicit bias hence collide in an important way.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Uwe Peters
- Center for Science and Thought, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
- Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychology, King’s College London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Brancazio N. Being Perceived and Being "Seen": Interpersonal Affordances, Agency, and Selfhood. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1750. [PMID: 32849038 PMCID: PMC7406706 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2020] [Accepted: 06/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Are interpersonal affordances a distinct type of affordance, and if so, what is it that differentiates them from other kinds of affordances? In this paper, I show that a hard distinction between interpersonal affordances and other affordances is warranted and ethically important. The enactivist theory of participatory sense-making demonstrates that there is a difference in coupling between agent-environment and agent-agent interactions, and these differences in coupling provide a basis for distinguishing between the perception of environmental and interpersonal affordances. Building further on this foundation for understanding interpersonal affordances, I argue that in line with some enactivist work on social cognition, interpersonal affordances ought to be considered as those that are afforded by agents and are recognized as such. Given this distinction, I also make the point that because our social conventions establish persons as more than mere agents, the direct perception of interpersonal affordances may also involve seeing others as embodied selves. Distinguishing between types of affordances thus also matters ethically: there can be harms done when an agent is not perceived as an agent, and there can be harms done when an agent is not perceived as a self.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nick Brancazio
- School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Institutions and other things: critical hermeneutics, postphenomenology and material engagement theory. AI & SOCIETY 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s00146-020-00987-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
AbstractDon Ihde and Lambros Malafouris (Philosophy and Technology 32:195–214, 2019) have argued that “we are homo faber not just because we make things but also because we are made by them.” The emphasis falls on the idea that the things that we create, use, rely on—that is, those things with which we engage—have a recursive effect on human existence. We make things, but we also make arrangements, many of which are long-standing, material, social, normative, economic, institutional, and/or political, and many of which are supported by various technologies, including AI, more and more. Critical theorists, such as Habermas, have argued that we need a “depth” or critical hermeneutics (one that combines hermeneutical understanding with scientific explanation) to provide a full account of this kind of recursivity. For Habermas, the explanatory aspect of critical hermeneutics has been modeled on neo-Marxist and neo-Freudian theories. We propose a new critical hermeneutical approach that uses the tools of embodied cognitive science, affordance theory, material engagement theory, and the concept of the socially extended mind.
Collapse
|
5
|
Ricca M. Cultures in Orbit, or Justi-fying Differences in Cosmic Space: On Categorization, Territorialization and Rights Recognition. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE SEMIOTICS OF LAW - REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE SÉMIOTIQUE JURIDIQUE 2018; 31:829-875. [DOI: 10.1007/s11196-018-9578-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
|
6
|
Besnard J, Allain P, Lerma V, Aubin G, Chauviré V, Etcharry-Bouyx F, Le Gall D. Frontal versus dysexecutive syndromes: relevance of an interactionist approach in a case series of patients with prefrontal lobe damage. Neuropsychol Rehabil 2016; 28:919-936. [DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2016.1209420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jérémy Besnard
- Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638), LUNAM Université, University of Angers, Angers, France
- Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France
| | - Philippe Allain
- Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638), LUNAM Université, University of Angers, Angers, France
- Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France
| | - Vanesa Lerma
- Department of Psychology, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Ghislaine Aubin
- Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638), LUNAM Université, University of Angers, Angers, France
- Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Regional Centre for Functional Rehabilitation, Angers, France
| | - Valérie Chauviré
- Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638), LUNAM Université, University of Angers, Angers, France
- Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France
| | - Frédérique Etcharry-Bouyx
- Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638), LUNAM Université, University of Angers, Angers, France
- Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France
| | - Didier Le Gall
- Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638), LUNAM Université, University of Angers, Angers, France
- Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Lo Presti P. Whose mind? Two interpretations of what it is to directly perceive other minds. THEORY & PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1177/0959354316650943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
According to direct perception theory (DPT) people understand each other’s minds by way of perceiving each other’s behavioral engagements in the world. I argue that DPT admits of two interpretations. One interpretation is found in Searle’s social ontology. The other interpretation departs from an enactivist account of social cognition. Both can make sense of what it is to perceive other minds, but in two different ways. The first claims that people can directly perceive states of mind shared in a community. In contrast, the second interpretation allows for direct perception of particular individuals’ states of mind in the context of participation in social practices. The two interpretations are argued to be compatible. People can perceive communal states of mind in another’s responsiveness to action possibilities in social environments, not only the particular other’s states of mind.
Collapse
|
8
|
Besnard J, Le Gall D, Chauviré V, Aubin G, Etcharry-Bouyx F, Allain P. Discrepancy between social and nonsocial decision-making under uncertainty following prefrontal lobe damage: the impact of an interactionist approach. Soc Neurosci 2016; 12:430-447. [PMID: 27109748 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1182066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Deficits in decision-making are thought to contribute significantly to socio-behavioral impairments of patients with frontal lobe damage. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis of whether the inappropriate social behavior of patients with frontal lesions can be viewed as the product of a general failure of decision-making ability or as the result of socio-cognitive impairment. We studied a group of patients with prefrontal lesions (FL patients, n = 15) and a group of matched healthy controls (n = 30) on the Iowa Gambling task (IGT) of nonsocial decision-making, environmental dependency phenomena (EDP) during social interaction, and the "reading the mind in the eyes" and "character intention task" of theory of mind (TOM) tasks. The FL patients were impaired in both TOM and EDP protocols but, surprisingly, they behaved appropriately in the IGT. In addition, FL patients with EDP did not differ in executive functioning, IGT and TOM measures from those who did not demonstrate these behavioral disorders. The right orbitofrontal cortex was associated with social decision-making deficits. By adopting an interactionist approach, this study raises the possibility of identifying components of social and nonsocial decision-making, which could be helpful in understanding the behavioral disorders of FL patients.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- J Besnard
- a LUNAM Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638) , University of Angers , Angers , France.,b Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology , University Hospital of Angers , Angers , France
| | - D Le Gall
- a LUNAM Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638) , University of Angers , Angers , France.,b Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology , University Hospital of Angers , Angers , France
| | - V Chauviré
- a LUNAM Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638) , University of Angers , Angers , France.,b Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology , University Hospital of Angers , Angers , France
| | - G Aubin
- a LUNAM Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638) , University of Angers , Angers , France.,b Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology , University Hospital of Angers , Angers , France.,c Rehabilitation Unit , Regional Center for Functional Rehabilitation , Angers , France
| | - F Etcharry-Bouyx
- a LUNAM Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638) , University of Angers , Angers , France.,b Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology , University Hospital of Angers , Angers , France
| | - P Allain
- a LUNAM Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (UPRES EA 4638) , University of Angers , Angers , France.,b Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology , University Hospital of Angers , Angers , France
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Urban P. Toward an expansion of an enactive ethics with the help of care ethics. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1354. [PMID: 25505889 PMCID: PMC4245884 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2014] [Accepted: 11/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
|