Alle Publikationen
2018
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(2018): Die feinen Unterschiede. Kritik der gesellschaftlichen Urteilskraft. Unter Mitarbeit von Bernd Schwibs. 26. Auflage 2018. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp (Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft)Keywords: Bourdieu, Bourdieus Habitustheorie, Einkommen / Beruf, Familiengeschichte, Favoriten, feine Unterschiede, Feld, Geschmack, Gestik/Mimik, Good manners, Habitus, Klasse, Kleidung, Körperhaltung, Macht, Modelle/Theorien, Rollen, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziologie, Sprache, Status / biologische Marker
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(2018): Diplomatic protocol. Dunbeath: Whittles Publishing
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(2018): Li Zehou's notion of subjectality as a new conception of the human self. In: Philosophy Compass 13 (5). DOI: 10.1111/phc3.12484
Abstract: Li Zehou stands among the most influential Chinese philosophers in the post-Mao era. His notion of subjectality(zhutixing) is of paramount importance for current developments in contemporary Chinese philosophy. It belongs to the central concepts in Li's theoretical framework, around which his entire philosophical system is constructed. With his elaboration of this concept, Li expanded the problem of the self in post-revolutionary modernism. The present article analyzes the theoretical bases of this concept, exposes its importance in the scope of contemporary Chinese theory and shows why and how it represents a call for a new humanism. Through a multidimensional comparative perspective, the author also explains why the human subject, which is based upon Li's notion of subjectality, has the potential not only to transform (post-)modern alienation into a real human condition, that is, into spiritually fulfilled society of autonomous individuals but also to fill up the prevailing vacuum of values.
2017
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(2017): Explaining the Criteria of Designing Urban Furniture and Landscape, with a Cultural-social Design Approach. In: Journal of History Culture and Art Research 6 (4). DOI: 10.7596/taksad.v6i4.1034
Abstract: Attention to the deep relationship between human personality and the place in which he lives causes the place to play a crucial role in cultural transformations and prevalence of human life style and formation of values, connections and human activities. Cities are not just a place of transit, but they are also environments that must have mutual communications with the inhabitants in order to realize the meaning of citizen, as there is a distinction between the status of citizenship and urbanization. Urban furniture is one of the elements of urban space that its quantity, beauty and durability play a major role in achieving a healthy and favorable city and satisfies the needs of citizens in terms of performance and beauty. Accordingly, the present study, using descriptive-analytical method and with data collection tools including library and documentary studies, examines the concept of product ecology and answers to the questions whether urban furniture can start or support social interaction or positively affect the roles of citizens? In this paper, the relationship between social-cultural design in urban furniture and the disturbances regarding uneven distribution of elements are identified, and finally the criteria of designing urban furniture and landscape are expressed with a social-design approach.
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(2017): To be or Not to be Authentic. In Defence of Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal. In: Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 20 (3), S. 567-580. DOI: 10.1007/s10677-017-9803-4
Abstract: It has recently been pointed out that the cloudiness of the concept of authenticity as well as inflated ideologies of the 'true self' provide good reasons to criticize theories and ideals of authenticity. Nevertheless, there are also good reasons to defend an ethical ideal of authenticity, not least because of its critical and oppositional force, which is directed against experiences of self-abandonment and self-alienation. I will argue for an elaborated ethical ideal of authenticity: the ambitious ideal of a continuous self-reflective process of 'self-authentication'. For this purpose, the ideal of being authentic in expressing and unfolding one's individual personality and characteristics will be combined with the ideal of being 'an authentic person' - whereby 'a person' is to be understood in a Kantian sense as an autonomous person who is (at least potentially) reasonable and morally responsible.
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Burgoon, Judee K.; Magnenat-Thalmann, Nadia; Pantic, Maja (Hg.) (2017): Social signal processing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Abstract: Social Signal Processing is the first book to cover all aspects of the modeling, automated detection, analysis, and synthesis of nonverbal behavior in human-human and human-machine interactions. Authoritative surveys address conceptual foundations, machine analysis and synthesis of social signal processing, and applications. Foundational topics include affect perception and interpersonal coordination in communication; later chapters cover technologies for automatic detection and understanding such as computational paralinguistics and facial expression analysis and for the generation of artificial social signals such as social robots and artificial agents. The final section covers a broad spectrum of applications based on social signal processing in healthcare, deception detection, and digital cities, including detection of developmental diseases and analysis of small groups. Each chapter offers a basic introduction to its topic, accessible to students and other newcomers, and then outlines challenges and future perspectives for the benefit of experienced researchers and practitioners in the field.
Keywords: Computer vision, Computerwissenschaft, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Favoriten, Human behaviour analysis', Interaktion, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Realtechnik, Sammelband, Signal, Signale, Signaling social preferences/ Social signal processing, Social interactions, social signal processing, Social Signal Processing (SSP), social signalling, Social signals, Soziale Angemessenheit, soziale Kognition, Soziosensitive Systeme, speech processing, Technik -
(2017): Subjetividad y biopolítica. La pregunta por «la vida». In: Daímon. DOI: 10.6018/daimon/269911
Abstract: With modernity a new definition of the political is established. This article will reflect on the implications of what authors such as Michel Foucault or Hannah Arendt have called "the entrance of life" in the political. From the sharing of these insights, a range of questions will emerge about the possibility of contemporary subjectivity. These questions will be approached by using the contributions of Judith Butler and her theories about precariousness, vulnerability and acknowledgment.
Keywords: acknowledgment, acknowledgment and subjectivity, Anerkennung, biopolitics, Butler, Disziplin, Favoriten, Konstitutionen des Selbst (Anerkennung), life, Modelle/Theorien, Philosophie, (post)strukturalistische Ansätze, postmodern, postmoderne Theorien der Subjektivität, precariousness, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sozialphilosophie, subject -
(2017): ‘What I see is not what you get’. Why culture-specific behaviours for virtual characters should be user-tested across cultures. In: AI & Society 32 (1), S. 37-49. DOI: 10.1007/s00146-014-0567-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-014-0567-2 Abstract: Abstract Integrating culture into the behavioural models of virtual characters requires knowledge from very different disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology and computer science. If culture-related behavioural differences are simulated with a virtual character system, users might not necessarily understand the intent of the designer. This is, in part, due to the influence of culture on not only users, but also designers. To gain a greater understanding of the instantiation of culture in the behaviour of virtual characters, and on this potential mismatch between designer and user, we have conducted two experiments. In these experiments, we tried to simulate one dimension of culture (Masculinity vs. Femininity) in the behaviour of virtual characters. We created four scenarios in the first experiment and six in the second. In each of these scenarios, the same two characters interact with each other. The verbal and non-verbal behaviour of these characters differs depending on their cultural scripts. In two user perception studies, we investigated how these differences are judged by human participants with different cultural backgrounds. Besides expected differences between participants from Masculine and Feminine countries, we found significant differences in perception between participants from Individualistic and Collectivistic countries. We also found that the user’s interpretation of the character’s motivation had a significant influence on the perception of the scenarios. Based on our findings, we giverecommendations for researchers that aim to design culture-specific behaviours for virtual characters.
Keywords: Agent-based Modelling, Behaviour modelling, Culture, Design, Disziplin, Evaluation, Favoriten, Interaktion, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, Kultur, Kultursensibilität, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modell, Modelle/Theorien, Modellierung, Realtechnik, social importance dynamics, Soziosensitive Systeme, Technik, User testing, Virtual characters -
(2017): On recognition and self. A discussion based on Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā and Buddhism. In: Asian Philosophy 27 (4), S. 292-308. DOI: 10.1080/09552367.2017.1389388
Abstract: The phenomenon of recognition is a point of contention in the debate between the orthodox Hindus and Buddhists on whether the self (tman) exists. The Hindus, including Naiyyikas and Mm?sakas, argue that recognition evidences the existence of the self, while Buddhist philosopher ntaraksita maintains that there is no self and recognition should be explained in another way. This article examined two disputes, focusing on the two subsidiary aspects of a recognition: memory and self-recognition. For Hindus, it is the existence of the self that makes memory and self-recognition possible. For Buddhists, it is due to the phenomena of memories and self-recognitions that people postulate the existence of the self. I argue that Buddhist explanation of memory is more acceptable, while their debates on self-recognition should be considered as a tie.
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(2017): Engineering the emergence of norms. A review. In: The Knowledge Engineering Review 32. DOI: 10.1017/S0269888917000169
Abstract: Complex systems often exhibit emergent behaviour, unexpected macro-level behaviour caused by the interaction of micro-level components. In multiagent systems, these micro-level components may be autonomous agents and the emergent behaviour may be expressed as norms-patterns of behaviour that arise among the agents in response to their environment and each other. These emergent norms may be beneficial (e.g. by encouraging cooperative behaviour), or detrimental, but in either case it is useful to recognize these norms as they emerge and either encourage or discourage their establishment. We term this process engineering the emergence of norms and have identified three steps: the identification of a possible norm, evaluation of its benefit and its encouragement (or discouragement). This paper is an attempt to provide a survey of existing research related to these steps. We also provide an analysis of the approaches based upon their suitability for a variety of normative systems: we examine the requirements for agents to have autonomy over their choice of norms, the degree of observability required in the system, and the norm enforcement methods. The paper concludes with an discussion of open issues.
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(2017) : Der face-Begriff im Schnittpunkt zwischen politeness und facework. Paradigmatische Überlegungen In: Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.): Sprachliche Höflichkeit: Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven: Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto, S. 57-76
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(2017): Kant, Oppression, and the Possibility of Nonculpable Failures to Respect Oneself. In: The Southern Journal of Philosophy 55 (3), S. 285-305. DOI: 10.1111/sjp.12242
Abstract: I argue that Kant's ethical framework cannot countenance a certain kind of failure to respect oneself that can occur within oppressive social contexts. Kant's assumption that any person, qua rational being, has guaranteed epistemic access to the moral law as the standard of good action and the capacity to act upon this standard makes autonomy an achievement within the individual agent's power, but this is contrary to a feminist understanding of autonomy as a relational achievement that can be thwarted by the systematic attack on autonomy that occurs within oppressive social conditions. Insofar as Kant's negative duty of self-respect is unable to accommodate the ways immersion in oppressive social environments can warp an individual's understanding of what she is owed and capable of as a moral agent, it perpetuates the cruelty of unjust social systems in the guise of respecting individual autonomy. I conclude by considering Carol Hay's argument that those who are oppressed have an obligation to themselves to resist their own oppression, in order to explore how this limitation in how Kant conceives of the duty to respect the self may reach expression in contemporary ethical theory inspired by Kant.
Keywords: agency, Autonomie, Diskriminierung, Disziplin, Ethik, feminism, Feminismus, Gender, Handlungsmacht, Hay, Kant, Macht, Modelle/Theorien, Moral, moral agents, moralische Gesetze, moralisches Wissen, Moralphilosophie, oppressive social systems, Philosophie, Respekt, social systems, ethics, Three main normative ethic perspectives Kant, Utilitarismus virtue ethics, Unterdrückungssysteme -
(2017): Competition and conflict between communicative norms. In: Journal of Argumentation in Context 6 (2), S. 220-246. DOI: 10.1075/jaic.6.2.05hop
Abstract: When engaging with each other, discussants navigate a complex set of communicative norms that aim at very different goals. Within argumentation theory naturally the most studied set of norms are those aiming at reasonableness, of which I take the pragma-dialectical rule set to be a representative example. They are however far from the only norms that guide communicative behavior. This paper offers an analysis of the areas of intersection and potential conflict of reasonableness (as understood by pragma-dialectics) with other communicative norms in general and rules of politeness (as presented by Geoffrey Leech) in particular.
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(2017): How can the study of action kinematics inform our understanding of human social interaction?. In: Neuropsychologia 105, S. 101-110. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.018
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28119002 Abstract: The kinematics of human actions are influenced by the social context in which they are performed. Motion-capture technology has allowed researchers to build up a detailed and complex picture of how action kinematics vary across different social contexts. Here we review three task domains-point-to-point imitation tasks, motor interference tasks and reach-to-grasp tasks-to critically evaluate how these tasks can inform our understanding of social interactions. First, we consider how actions within these task domains are performed in a non-social context, before highlighting how a plethora of social cues can perturb the baseline kinematics. We show that there is considerable overlap in the findings from these different tasks domains but also highlight the inconsistencies in the literature and the possible reasons for this. Specifically, we draw attention to the pitfalls of dealing with rich, kinematic data. As a way to avoid these pitfalls, we call for greater standardisation and clarity in the reporting of kinematic measures and suggest the field would benefit from a move towards more naturalistic tasks.
Keywords: Favoriten, Imitation, Interaktion, interference of social interaction, Kinematics, kinematics and social interaction, Kinematik, kinematische Dimension, Kontext, Körperbewegungen / Kinematik, Modelle/Theorien, Motor, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, social, social interaction, Soziale Angemessenheit -
(2017): Artificial agents among us. Should we recognize them as agents proper?. In: Ethics and Information Technology 19 (1), S. 1-17. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-016-9411-3
Abstract: Abstract In this paper, I discuss whether in a society where the use of artificial agents is pervasive, these agents should be recognized as having rights like those we accord to group agents. This kind of recognition I understand to be at once social and legal, and I argue that in order for an artificial agent to be so recognized, it will need to meet the same basic conditions in light of which group agents are granted such recognition. I then explore the implications of granting recognition in this manner. The thesis I will be defending is that artificial agents that do meet the conditions of agency in light of which we ascribe rights to group agents should thereby be recognized as having similar rights. The reason for bringing group agents into the picture is that, like artificial agents, they are not self-evidently agents of the sort to which we would naturally ascribe rights, or at least that is what the historical record suggests if we look, for example, at what it took for corporations to gain legal status in the law as group agents entitled to rights and, consequently, as entities subject to responsibilities. This is an example of agency ascribed to a nonhuman agent, and just as a group agent can be described as nonhuman, so can an artificial agent. Therefore, if these two kinds of nonhuman agents can be shown to be sufficiently similar in relevant ways, the agency ascribed to one can also be ascribed to the other-this despite the fact that neither is human, a major impediment when it comes to recognizing an entity as an agent proper, and hence as a bearer of rights.
Keywords: agency, Anerkennung, Anerkennung technischer Systeme, Anerkennung und technische Systeme, Artificial agent, artificial agents, doppelter Treffer, Favoriten, Group agent, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Personhood, RATIONALITY, Realtechnik, recognition and self, responsibility, Rights, Serviceroboter, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik -
(2017) : Interpersonale Pragmatik und (Un)Höflichkeitsforschung In: Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.): Sprachliche Höflichkeit: Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven: Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto, S. 77-88
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(2017): Establishing norms with metanorms over interaction topologies. In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 31 (6), S. 1344-1376. DOI: 10.1007/s10458-017-9364-x
Abstract: Norms are a valuable means of establishing coherent cooperative behaviour in decentralised systems in which there is no central authority. Axelrod's seminal model of norm establishment in populations of self-interested individuals provides some insight into the mechanisms needed to support this through the use of metanorms, but considers only limited scenarios and domains. While further developments of Axelrod's model have addressed some of the limitations, there is still only limited consideration of such metanorm models with more realistic topological configurations. In response, this paper tries to address such limitation by considering its application to different topological structures. Our results suggest that norm establishment is achievable in lattices and small worlds, while such establishment is not achievable in scale-free networks, due to the problematic effects of hubs. The paper offers a solution, first by adjusting the model to more appropriately reflect the characteristics of the problem, and second by offering a new dynamic policy adaptation approach to learning the right behaviour. Experimental results demonstrate that this dynamic policy adaptation overcomes the difficulties posed by the asymmetric distribution of links in scale-free networks, leading to an absence of norm violation, and instead to norm emergence.
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(2017): El habitus. Una revisión analítica. In: Revista Internacional de Sociología 75 (3). DOI: 10.3989/ris.2017.75.3.15.115
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present an analytical view of Pierre Bourdieu's habitus concept. For this definition the author is reviewed, then a look of both explanatory and hermeneutic possibilities of this concept, and finally the criticism he has received, to try to answer them from the more analytical approach proposed are reviewed. On one hand, it shows that you can take some of the criticisms made by authors such as analytical Boudon and Elster. On the other hand, the greater relevance of other authors noted, the lack of sensitivity to social contexts. The habitus allows an objectivist study of established social practices of meaning, through a combination of mechanisms and structuralist concepts to capture this meaning.
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(2017): Autonomie, Souveränität und Entfremdung. In: Philosophische Rundschau 64 (2), S. 122-133. DOI: 10.1628/003181517X15004614386196
Abstract: Der Entfremdungsbegriff ist als sozialwissenschaftliche Zeitdiagnose wieder zunehmend nachgefragt. Dabei werden allerdings sehr unterschiedliche Phänomene wie die Zunahme psychosomatischer Erkrankungen, die >Entfremdung< von Bevölkerung und Eliten oder der Strukturwandel der Arbeitswelt adressiert. Die Sammelrezension diskutiert vier aktuelle Beiträge zum Thema: Die beiden Einführungswerke von Christoph Henning sowie Peter V. Zima, ein Essay von Hartmut Rosa und eine Essaysammlung von Sean Sayers. Die Heterogenität dieser Werke zeigt die Schwierigkeit der analytisch scharfen Bestimmung der Entfremdungsdiagnose auf. Die geteilte Bedeutung des Begriffs betrifft grundlegende Fragen: Inwieweit stehen Menschen authentisch hinter dem, was sie tun? Sind sie in der Lage, ihre Freiheit produktiv selbst zu begrenzen und ihre allgemeinen menschlichen Potentiale durch sinnstiftende Tätigkeiten zu entwickeln? Der Beitrag zeigt, dass Entfremdung wesentlich der Entwicklung von Autonomie und Souveränität gegenübersteht. UTB. 212 S.
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(2017): Ali Baba and the Thief, Convention Emergence in Games. In: Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 20 (3), S. 1-6. DOI: 10.18564/jasss.3421
Abstract: In this paper we propose a model that supports the emergence of conventions via multi-agent learning in social networks. In our model, individual agents repeatedly interact with their neighbours in a game called Ali Baba and the Thief. An agent learns its strategy to play the game using the learning rule imitate-the-best. We show that some conventions prescribing peaceful behaviours can emerge after repeated interactions among agents inhabited in some social networks. Our experiments suggest that there are critical points of convention emergence in Ali Baba and the Thief. When the quotient of the amount of robbery and the initial utility is smaller than the critical point, the probability of convention emergence is high. The probability drops dramatically as long as the quotient is larger than the critical point.
Keywords: Computerspielwissenschaft, Design, Disziplin, Favoriten, Informations- & Kommunikationstechnik, Konventionen, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Norm negotiation model, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Realtechnik, Soziale Angemessenheit, Technik, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten -
(2017): The Network Dynamics of Status. Assimilation and Selection. In: Social Forces 96 (1), S. 389-422. DOI: 10.1093/sf/sox040
Abstract: Using longitudinal data that we have collected on friendship and advice relations in a cohort of MBA students, we examine how status affects the dynamics of network ties among peers. Estimates of Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs) suggest that status is a consequence of network ties because over time the level of status attributed to individual students by other students tends to the average level of status attributed to their network partners-a phenomenon we call status assimilation. Status is also an antecedent to network ties because it affects partner selection decisions, giving rise to distinct forms of social attachment. We find that both network-based processes of status assimilation, as well as status-based processes of social selection, are present, but they vary subtly yet significantly across network domains. Students tend to the average level of status of their friends, but not to that of their advisors. High-status students are more active in the friendship network, but more popular in the advice network. We find evidence of performance homophily rather than status homophily: students with similar grades are more likely to exchange friendship and advice ties. High-status students tend to be more central in the advice network, but status attributions spill over through friendship, rather than advice relations. The study documents how the relation between social status and social networks varies both over time, as well as across network domains. The study also demonstrates the importance of accounting for multiplexity-the tendency of a network to operate through another.
Keywords: ADVICE, Bekanntheitsgrad, CENTRALITY, decision-making, Disziplin, EXCHANGE, Favoriten, friendship, Gruppenverhalten / Joint Action, INEQUALITY, MARKET, Modelle/Theorien, Netzwerk, Netzwerktheorien, ORGANIZATIONAL CHOICE, POWER, social importance dynamics, social networks, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziologie, Status, Status-zentriert -
(2017): Toward Socially Aware Robot Navigation in Dynamic and Crowded Environments. A Proactive Social Motion Model. In: IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 14 (4), S. 1743-1760. DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2017.2731371
Abstract: Safe and social navigation is the key to deploying a mobile service robot in a human-centered environment. Widespread acceptability of mobile service robots in daily life is hindered by robot's inability to navigate in crowded and dynamic human environments in a socially acceptable way that would guarantee human safety and comfort. In this paper, we propose an effective proactive social motion model (PSMM) that enables a mobile service robot to navigate safely and socially in crowded and dynamic environments. The proposed method considers not only human states (position, orientation, motion, field of view, and hand poses) relative to the robot but also social interactive information about human-object and human group interactions. This allows development of the PSMM that consists of elements of an extended social force model and a hybrid reciprocal velocity obstacle technique. The PSMM is then combined with a path planning technique to generate a motion planning system that drives a mobile robot in a socially acceptable manner and produces respectful and polite behaviors akin to human movements. Note to Practitioners-In this paper, we validated the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed proactive social motion model (PSMM) through both simulation and real-world experiments under the newly proposed human comfortable safety indices. To do that, we first implemented the entire navigation system using the open-source robot operating system. We then installed it in a simulated robot model and conducted experiments in a simulated shopping mall-like environment to verify its effectiveness. We also installed the proposed algorithm on our mobile robot platform and conducted experiments in our office-like laboratory environment. Our results show that the developed socially aware navigation framework allows a mobile robot to navigate safely, socially, and proactively while guaranteeing human safety and comfort in crowded and dynamic environments. In this paper, we examined the proposed PSMM with a set of predefined parameters selected based on our empirical experiences about the robot mechanism and selected social environment. However, in fact a mobile robot might need to adapt to various contextual and cultural situations in different social environments. Thus, it should be equipped with an online adaptive interactive learning mechanism allowing the robot to learn to auto-adjust their parameters according to such embedded environments. Using machine learning techniques, e.g., inverse reinforcement learning [1] to optimize the parameter set for the PSMM could be a promising research direction to improve adaptability of mobile service robots in different social environments. In the future, we will evaluate the proposed framework based on a wider variety of scenarios, particularly those with different social interaction situations and dynamic environments. Furthermore, various kinds of social cues and signals introduced in [2] and [3] will be applied to extend the proposed framework in more complicated social situations and contexts. Last but not least, we will investigate different machine learning techniques and incorporate them in the PSMM in order to allow the robot to automatically adapt to diverse social environments.
Keywords: Disziplin, Favoriten, Human comfortable safety, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), mobile service robots, Modelle/Theorien, proactive social motion model (PSMM), Realtechnik, Robotics, Serviceroboter, social field and polite, social robots, socially aware robot navigation, Soziale Robotik, Technik 2016
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(2016): What We Can Intend. Recognition and Collective Intentionality. In: The Southern Journal of Philosophy 54 (1), S. 5-26. DOI: 10.1111/sjp.12162
Abstract: The concept of recognition has played a role in two debates. In political philosophy, it is part of a communitarian response to liberal theories of distributive justice. It describes what it means to respect others' right to self-determination. In ethics, Stephen Darwall argues that it comprises our judgment that we owe others moral consideration. I present a competing account of recognition on the grounds that most accounts answer the question of why others deserve recognition without answering the question of what is involved in recognizing them. This paper answers the latter. I argue that, in general, recognition is something that we do to others rather than something that we think about others. In particular, recognition is an intentional action to treat another individual as a legitimate, self-determining agent. I then show that recognition's realizability requires that agents understand their intentions as dependent on others for their satisfaction. Thus, relations of recognition are instances of collective intentionality.
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(2016): Semantic language models with deep neural networks. In: COMPUTER SPEECH AND LANGUAGE 40, S. 1-22
Abstract: In this paper we explore the use of semantics in training language models for automatic speech recognition and spoken language understanding. Traditional language models (LMs) do not consider the semantic constraints and train models based on fixed-sized word histories. The theory of frame semantics analyzes word meanings and their constructs by using "semantic frames". Semantic frames represent a linguistic scene with its relevant participants and their relations. They are triggered by target words and include slots which are filled by frame elements. We present semantic LMs (SELMs), which use recurrent neural network architectures and the linguistic scene of frame semantics as context. SELMs incorporate semantic features which are extracted from semantic frames and target words. In this way, long-range and "latent" dependencies, i.e. the implicit semantic dependencies between words, are incorporated into LMs. This is crucial especially when the main aim of spoken language systems is understanding what the user means. Semantic features consist of low-level features, where frame and target information is directly used; and deep semantic encodings, where deep autoencoders are used to extract semantic features. We evaluate the performance of SELMs on publicly available corpora: the Wall Street Journal read-speech corpus and the LUNA human-human conversational corpus. The encoding of semantic frames into SELMs improves the word recognition performance and especially the recognition performance of the target words, the meaning bearing elements of semantic frames. We assess the performance of SELMs for the understanding tasks and we show that SELMs yield better semantic frame identification performance compared to recurrent neural network LMs.
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(2016): On Friendship Between Online Equals. In: Philosophy & Technology 29 (1), S. 21-34. DOI: 10.1007/s13347-014-0183-6
Abstract: There is an ongoing debate about the value of virtual friendship. In contrast to previous authorships, this paper argues that virtual friendship can have independent value. It is argued that within an Aristotelian framework, some friendships that are perhaps impossible offline can exist online, i.e., some offline unequals can be online equals and thus form online friendships of independent value.