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Author(s): Luca M. Possati [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.5292.c, 0000 0001 2097 4740, Delft University of Technology, , Delft, The Netherlands Correction to : Philosophy & Technology (2023) 36:48 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-023-00651-6 [...]

This paper intends to address social robotics from the Actor-network theory (ANT) perspective. Starting from the critique of Seibt's approach and the distinction between anthropomorphing and sociomorphing, the paper proposes a new methodological approach based on ANT and negotiation concepts. This approach allows us to: a) assume a more symmetrical ontology in which robots are considered as social agents, like humans; b) consider all the interactional elements as of equal importance; and c) overcome the dualistic limit that is often imposed on social robotics studies, i.e., the tendency to consider only the one-to-one relationship, one man-one robot, inside the laboratory. Anthropomorphing and sociomorphing are the results of a negotiation process that cannot be reduced to a series of degrees of simulation, but must be understood as a complex interactional process between many agents and material mediations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's society the use of new technologies for data visualizations is becoming increasingly widespread. This article seeks neither to give a complete view of its history nor an exhaustive definition of the phenomenon of data visualization. This article takes a new perspective on data visualization by dealing only with a new type of data visualizations, those based on "Big Data" and AI systems. This perspective is completely different from existing ones. Therefore, I explore three main theses: (a) that AI systems applied to large amounts of data that we cannot directly know (so-called "Big Data") can create "living" and interactive images with a multifaceted nature and efficacy (epistemic, phenomenal, and subjective); (b) that this new type of data visualizations is deeply linked to the so-called "iconic turn" trend in the field of social sciences because many of the theses of the "iconic turn" are confirmed and even reinforced by these data visualizations; (c) that through the production of "living" images, digital technologies demonstrate their ability to re-define and re-configure our experience and re-ontologize reality by creating new entities requiring new philosophical tools to be fully understood. I focus mainly on this third thesis by stressing the hermeneutical function of data visualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the relation between software and human experience. I argue that software-based experiences are based on a radical discrepancy between the code and "lived experience." This break is different than the so-called "opacity" of technology. I start analyzing a case study: the video game Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Video games are one of the most profound digital experiences humans can have. When I play a video game I do not see the code. However, the code is the source of my experience. I claim that the code's concealment is the necessary condition of the digital experience. I discuss the ontological definition of software as an entity. Software, I claim, is a complex object, composed of many different levels, whose unity is problematic. In the last part of the essay I argue that the break between lived experience and code is recomposed by imagination through the act of design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I formulate an analysis of software from a Kantian perspective. The central thesis is that software is a form of reflective judgment, namely, "digital reflective judgement". This transcendental approach allows us to overcome the limitations of an overly dualistic and over-intellectualized conception of software. The paper is structured as follows. In section 2, I develop a series of criticisms of Turner's (2018) approach. Turner defines software as a computational artifact and distinguishes two series of its properties: functional and structural. I argue that this distinction cannot be applied to software and that Turner's approach cannot explain the essence of software, namely, its twofold nature--abstract and concrete--at the same time. Moreover, Turner's perspective is characterized by some philosophical limitations. In sections 3 and 4, I present a proposed definition of software from a transcendental Kantian perspective, that is, by using the concept of reflective judgment. In section 5, I explain why and how we can consider software as a new form of reflective judgment. This judgement is based on a specific type of imaginative act that mediates between physical implementations and mathematical structures. In section 6, through a parallelism between software and the Kantian judgment of taste, I hold that the condition of possibility of software is the principle of finality, which is shown in the design. Software is, above all, a design act. In the conclusion, I show why this approach overcomes Turner's limitations and is much closer to how programmers conceive their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the historiographical approach associated with the late French historian Bernard Lepetit, which the author characterizes as experimental, and its influence on the field of history and on historiography. Lepetit's career as director of the historical journal called in the article Annales is particularly highlighted. Among other topics addressed are the historical school named for the Annales and inspired by Lepetit as an historian, how that school has been described by other historians, and the actual approach to historiography the school takes.