On The Contexts Of Things Human

Besides outlining a new plateau of wider integrative understanding both within and beyond neuroscience, the book advances a theory and model of an integrated functional unity of consciousness and brain, inclusive of freedom of will. Its scope is wide, covering topics ranging from first principles of human awareness and apprehension and the physical foundations of consciousness, through a structured integrative view of consciousness and the brain grounded and developed in neuroscience, to the outline of the ambient contextual influences of human living. Human apprehension, language, value and rational knowing are discussed, and seen to operate within contexts of imagination, holistic sensibility, circumstances, the human condition, and higher thought.

This book is a contribution to African philosophy, by philosophers focusing specifically on the concept of human dignity in ethical theory. The concept of ‘human dignity’ denotes the intrinsic and superlative worth associated with human beings in virtue of which we owe them utmost moral regard. Although dignity is a foundational concept for African philosophy, there remains scant literature in African philosophy dedicated to critical and systematic reflection on the concept of human dignity. This volume responds to this lacuna by bringing together chapters that offer philosophical exposition, defense (or even rejection) and application of the concept of human dignity in light of intellectual resources in African cultures, such as ubuntu, personhood, and serithi.

Restoring the Human Context to Literary and Performance Studies argues that much of contemporary literary theory is still predicated, at least implicitly, on outdated linguistic and psychological models such as post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism, which significantly contradict current dominant scientific views. By contrast, this monograph promotes an alternative paradigm for literary studies, namely Contextualism, and in so doing highlights the similarities and differences among the sometimes-conflicting contemporary cognitive approaches to literature and performance, arguing not in favor of one over the other but for Contextualism as their common ground.

Human-Machine Shared Contexts considers the foundations, metrics, and applications of human-machine systems. Editors and authors debate whether machines, humans, and systems should speak only to each other, only to humans, or to both and how. The book establishes the meaning and operation of “shared contexts between humans and machines; it also explores how human-machine systems affect targeted audiences (researchers, machines, robots, users) and society, as well as future ecosystems composed of humans and machines. This book explores how user interventions may improve the context for autonomous machines operating in unfamiliar environments or when experiencing unanticipated events; how autonomous machines can be taught to explain contexts by reasoning, inferences, or causality, and decisions to humans relying on intuition; and for mutual context, how these machines may interdependently affect human awareness, teams and society, and how these "machines" may be affected in turn. In short, can context be mutually constructed and shared between machines and humans? The editors are interested in whether shared context follows when machines begin to think, or, like humans, develop subjective states that allow them to monitor and report on their interpretations of reality, forcing scientists to rethink the general model of human social behavior. If dependence on machine learning continues or grows, the public will also be interested in what happens to context shared by users, teams of humans and machines, or society when these machines malfunction. As scientists and engineers "think through this change in human terms," the ultimate goal is for AI to advance the performance of autonomous machines and teams of humans and machines for the betterment of society wherever these machines interact with humans or other machines. This book will be essential reading for professional, industrial, and military computer scientists and engineers; machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) scientists and engineers, especially those engaged in research on autonomy, computational context, and human-machine shared contexts; advanced robotics scientists and engineers; scientists working with or interested in data issues for autonomous systems such as with the use of scarce data for training and operations with and without user interventions; social psychologists, scientists and physical research scientists pursuing models of shared context; modelers of the internet of things (IOT); systems of systems scientists and engineers and economists; scientists and engineers working with agent-based models (ABMs); policy specialists concerned with the impact of AI and ML on society and civilization; network scientists and engineers; applied mathematicians (e.g., holon theory, information theory); computational linguists; and blockchain scientists and engineers. Discusses the foundations, metrics, and applications of human-machine systems Considers advances and challenges in the performance of autonomous machines and teams of humans Debates theoretical human-machine ecosystem models and what happens when machines malfunction

In recent years, the challenge of relating one’s own theological concept of man and his destiny to secular topics, such as the inviolability of human dignity, has generated a dynamic discourse about how Islamic anthropology can help cultivate and perfect the individual self and social ‘humanisation’. This anthology brings together contemporary Muslim and non-Muslim approaches to the secular notion of human dignity with reference to the Islamic tradition in general and the anthropology of the Qur’ān in particular. The collection presents approaches to Islamic theological anthropology, across a range of fields, especially with regard to the narrative of Adam and Iblīs, which occurs in all monotheistic traditions. It focuses on the specific ‘grammars’ of anthropological narratives at the levels of the canonical text of the Qur’ān itself (Section I) and the interpretations that focus on its performative discourse (Section II). Further to this, the normative implications of the human images that are derived from the canonical text and its interpretations are discussed in Section III. The dynamic interdependencies between the hermeneutics of the Qur’ān, theological anthropology and legal philosophy, particularly in the European context, are a promising field of research that not only allows a deeper insight into the multiperspectivity and indexicality of theological anthropology, but also has the potential to facilitate the long-overdue discursive cooperation and rapprochement between Muslim and non-Muslim scholarship.

The two-volume set LNCS 9172 and 9173 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Human Interface and the Management of Information thematic track, held as part of the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2015, held in Los Angeles, CA, USA, in August 2015, jointly with 15 other thematically similar conferences. The total of 1462 papers and 246 posters presented at the HCII 2015 conferences were carefully reviewed and selected from 4843 submissions. These papers address the latest research and development efforts and highlight the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The papers accepted for presentation thoroughly cover the entire field of human-computer interaction, addressing major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. This volume contains papers addressing the following major topics: context modelling and situational awareness; decision-support systems; information and interaction for driving; information and interaction for learning and education; information and interaction for culture and art; supporting work and collaboration; information and interaction for safety, security and reliability; information and interaction for novel advanced environments.

Property as a human rights concern is manifested through its incorporation in international instruments and as a subject of the law through property-related cases considered by international human rights organs. Yet, for the most part, the relationship between property and human rights has been discussed in rather superficial terms, lacking a clear substantive connection or common language. That said, the currents of globalisation have witnessed a new era of interrelation between these two areas of the law, including the emergence of international intellectual property law and the recognition of indigenous claims, which, in fundamental ways, speak to an engagement with human rights law. This collection starts the conversation between human rights lawyers and property lawyers and explores analytical approaches to the increasing relationship between property and human rights in a global context. The chapters engage with key theoretical and policy debates and range across three main themes: The re-evaluation of the public/private divide in the law; the tensions between the market and social justice in development and the balance between the rights of individuals and those of communities. The chapters adopt a global, comparative perspective and engage in case studies from countries including India, Philippines, Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom and includes various regions of Africa and Europe.