Kritike 

Abstract: This paper focuses on the research field of machine ethics and how it relates to a technological singularity—a hypothesized, futuristic event where artificial machines will have greater-than-human-level intelligence. One problem related to the singularity centers on the issue of whether human values and norms would survive such an event. To somehow ensure this, a number of artificial intelligence researchers have opted to focus on the development of artificial moral agents, which refers to machines capable of moral reasoning, judgment, and decision-making. To date, different frameworks on how to arrive at these agents have been put forward. However, there seems to be no hard consensus as to which framework would likely yield a positive result. With the body of work that they have contributed in the study of moral agency, philosophers may contribute to the growing literature on artificial moral agency. While doing so, they could also think about how the said concept could affect other important philosophical concepts.

Abstract: This paper is mainly a provisional survey of the engagement of the Filipinos with the thoughts of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher. It presents first the main tenets of Freire’s liberating pedagogy. Then, it explores the Filipinos’ engagement with his ideas. Then, it gives some observations on the said engagement. Finally, it suggests a possible way on how philosophical researches in the Philippines can continually appreciate the relevance of Freire’s liberating pedagogy especially in relating it to a form of Filipino philosophy that is involved in a critique of the society.

Abstract: The digital revolution has drawn us into the “information age,” and information has become central in our discourses of communication, economics, socio-cultural studies, etc. A look into the historical evolution of the concept of information reveals its assimilation into the technical and positivistic orientation, largely shaped by the technicallyand mathematically-oriented information theory and the analytic philosophy of information. A hermeneutical view of information is to bring information into the phenomenon of understanding from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer. Philosophical hermeneutics is not concerned with the art of interpretation, as what the traditional hermeneutics characteristically was, but with understanding as the fundamental mode of being of the human person. To view information within the realm of understanding, or to unfold its hermeneutic dimension, it is necessary to challenge its objectified and reified conception. To achieve this, an elucidation of the essential features of hermeneutic understanding, like its interpretive nature and linguisticality, shall take the aspect of engaging the phenomenon of information in the context of information technology. A relevant conclusion shall reveal the possibility of reintegrating information into the fundamental orientation of human praxis as coming to an understanding.

Abstract: This paper will explore the ethics of employee profit sharing. It will challenge the view that profit sharing is and will always remain a moral option of the employer—that it has no obligatory character whatsoever. Normative arguments grounded on justice, equity, rights, and general welfare are necessary, but they are not sufficient to account for the ethics of employee profit sharing. Building upon the insights of some meta-ethicists, I will show that granted that employee profit sharing is not morally obligatory, to call it morally optional in all instances is simplistic and evasive of possible nuances in moral life and the complexities of the business sphere.