Showing papers on "Wonder published in 2020"

AI ethics should not remain toothless! : A call to bring back the teeth of ethics

Abstract: Ethics has powerful teeth, but these are barely being used in the ethics of AI today – it is no wonder the ethics of AI is then blamed for having no teeth. This article argues that ‘ethics’ in the ...

The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution: A Collection of Anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life Research Communities

Abstract: Evolution provides a creative fount of complex and subtle adaptations that often surprise the scientists who discover them. However, the creativity of evolution is not limited to the natural world: Artificial organisms evolving in computational environments have also elicited surprise and wonder from the researchers studying them. The process of evolution is an algorithmic process that transcends the substrate in which it occurs. Indeed, many researchers in the field of digital evolution can provide examples of how their evolving algorithms and organisms have creatively subverted their expectations or intentions, exposed unrecognized bugs in their code, produced unexpectedly adaptations, or engaged in behaviors and outcomes, uncannily convergent with ones found in nature. Such stories routinely reveal surprise and creativity by evolution in these digital worlds, but they rarely fit into the standard scientific narrative. Instead they are often treated as mere obstacles to be overcome, rather than results that warrant study in their own right. Bugs are fixed, experiments are refocused, and one-off surprises are collapsed into a single data point. The stories themselves are traded among researchers through oral tradition, but that mode of information transmission is inefficient and prone to error and outright loss. Moreover, the fact that these stories tend to be shared only among practitioners means that many natural scientists do not realize how interesting and lifelike digital organisms are and how natural their evolution can be. To our knowledge, no collection of such anecdotes has been published before. This article is the crowd-sourced product of researchers in the fields of artificial life and evolutionary computation who have provided first-hand accounts of such cases. It thus serves as a written, fact-checked collection of scientifically important and even entertaining stories. In doing so we also present here substantial evidence that the existence and importance of evolutionary surprises extends beyond the natural world, and may indeed be a universal property of all complex evolving systems.

Assessing Nature’s Contributions to People

Abstract: Do the misty mountains, fast-flowing rivers, and sandy beaches leave you in awe and fill you with insatiable wonder? Does nature bring you a jubilant feeling? Nature contributes to our quality of life in multiple ways. Some of these gifts are easily visible, like the clothes you wear, the food you eat, and the water your drink. However, some contributions, such as flood protection and pollination of food crops are hardly ever seen. Scientists warn that we are now losing many of these gifts from nature, and this is why in this article we want to talk about it. In fact, one of the things we need to conserve nature is to understand why and how it is important for our lives. In this article, we introduce you to nature’s contributions to people and why it is important to assess them. (Less)

“Bloody Wonder Woman!”: Identity performances of elite women entrepreneurs on Instagram:

Abstract: Critical scholarship has challenged traditional assumptions of entrepreneurship as a ‘neutral’ economic activity, demonstrating instead how entrepreneurship is a cultural phenomenon. In particular,...

Tocqueville and Democracy in the Internet Age

Abstract: D eogu Tocqueville and Democracy in the Internet Age is an introduction to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and his monumental two-volume study Democracy in America (1835, 1840) that pays particular attention to the critical conversation around Toqueville and democracy since the end of the Cold War during the Internet Age. The book is addressed broadly to beginning students, specialists, and ordinary curious people who wonder if democracy is still possible today and under what conditions.

Problems No One Looked For: Philosophical Expeditions into Medical Education.

Abstract: Issue: Medical education has "muddy zones of practice," areas of complexity and uncertainty that frustrate the achievement of our intended educational outcomes. Slowing down to consider context and reflect on practice are now seen as essential to medical education as we are called upon to examine carefully what we are doing to care for learners and improve their performance, professionalism, and well-being. Philosophy can be seen as the fundamental approach to pausing at times of complexity and uncertainty to ask basic questions about seemingly obvious practices so that we can see (and do) things in new ways. Evidence: Philosophy and medical education have long been related; many of our basic concepts can be traced to philosophical ideas. Philosophy is a problem-creation approach, and its method is analysis; it is a constant process of shifting frames and turning into objects of analysis the lenses through which we see the world. However, philosophy is not about constant questioning for the sake of questioning. Progression in medical education practice involves recognizing when to switch from a philosophical to a practical perspective, and when to switch back. Implications: In medical education, a philosophical approach empowers us to "slow down when we should," thereby engaging us more directly with our subjects of study, revealing our assumptions, and helping us address vexing problems from a new angle. Doing philosophy involves thinking like a beginner, getting back to basics, and disrupting frames of reference. Being philosophical is about wonder and intense, childlike curiosity, human qualities we all share. Taking a philosophical approach to medical education need not be an unguided endeavor, but can be a dialog through which medical educators and philosophers learn together.

Encounters with suchness: contemplative wonder in environmental education

Abstract: Much of the current literature on environmental education links the outdoors with experiences of wonder, which connotes a range of experiences from fascination to curiosity, excitement to d...

Songs of wonder: an inquiry into wonder and magic in everyday andorganisational life

Abstract: This doctoral research explores which practices might support ‘wonder’ in everyday and organisational life. How do I live my life with a sense of wonder? How do I create spaces of wonder with and for others? How do I create a wonder-full research practice? As an action researcher (Reason & Bradbury, 2008) with a background in Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987), I have endeavoured to ‘live’ these questions myself through developing an approach for wholeheartedly loving and living questions. Specific methods I created to do so are daily morning walks, writing ‘moment-stories’ from within the experience of wonder and creating ‘temporary constellations of inquiry’ with others. Whereas some believe wonder is impossible because the world is disenchanted, I followed Bennett’s (2001) approach of enchantment by emergence by challenging the discourse of disenchantment individually. Building on Carson (1956/1998), I think of wonder as ‘seeing the extraordinary within the ordinary’ and found this seeing requires a continuous effort and benefits from routines and rituals as a daily reminder and opportunity to wonder. I distinguish between wonder as a way of seeing you can cultivate and ‘moments of magic’ that strike unexpectedly. ‘Windows’ in time when I feel fully alive in a world bursting with life. I learned these potentially transformative moments cannot be forced, predicted or replicated and therefore argue to approach them ‘obliquely’ – by holding the intention and possibility of magic in the corner of your eye. And instead focus on the practices that help you to wonder on a day-to-day basis. I learned the most important thing I can do as a practitioner to invite others to wonder is to continue to actively and wholeheartedly live my own questions. This allowed me to create the conditions for wonder and magic through showing up differently myself and ‘embodying the container’. I also learned that giving words to wonder through writing and sharing moment-stories can increase the importance and possibility of wonder for myself and others.

From Suspicion to Wonder in Journalism and Communication Research

Abstract: In this article, we call for a critical reflection on the lens that we adopt when researching journalism and communication. Adopting a lens of wonder can enhance our ability to consider the rich di...

Autonomous Conceptions of Our Planetary Situation

Abstract: This article is constructed through a series of linked aphorisms that articulate the relations between autonomy, sense, the world, different people’s worlds, disagreement, and wonder. It advances anthroponomy—the organization of humankind to support autonomous life. In the context of the planetary, sociallycaused environmental changes of today such as global warming or the risk of a mass extinction cascade, a part of autonomous engagement with our planetary situation is developing an autonomous conception of it—a conception of our situation that makes sense to us. This pluralistic idea has consequences for environmentalism, notably around coloniality, and the reduction of different autonomous worlds to a dominant world, which is currently part of the discourse of the Anthropocene. The aphorisms in this article develop a reflective path toward autonomous conceptions of our planetary situation given the reality of coloniality in how that situation is understood. One result of this path is to open up a way for people to become more autonomously engaged with our environmental situation, an engagement grounded in wonder and critical of the discourse of the “Anthropocene”.

Diana in the World of Men: a character network approach to analysing gendered vocal representation in Wonder Woman

Abstract: As a big-budget action film both directed by and starring a woman, Wonder Woman is unusual given the well-documented under-representation of women in Hollywood both in front of and behind t

An Ecology of Eudaimonia and its Implications for Music Education

Abstract: In her chapter, June Boyce-Tillman traces the history of eudaimonia, from Aristotle’s writing of an ethical orientation comprising virtue, wisdom, and flourishing, to its Christianization by Aquinas, who adds the element of transcendence. She argues that self-actualization through music is one of the last remaining places for the soul in Western culture, in which the notion of spirituality has been gradually usurped by aesthetic experience. Boyce-Tillman proposes a phenomenography of music, emphasizing spirituality/liminality and re-engaging with music’s connections to the natural world. Like Orr and van Der Schyff, this author sees music-making as a vital means to challenge the disastrous contemporary sociopolitical paradigm that burdens and threatens to consume our species; through music we can access spirituality and wonder.

Enchantment as fundamental encounter: Wonder and the radical re-ordering of subject/world

Abstract: In this article, we approach enchantment as a fundamental encounter that incites new worlds. Our aim is to add to the recent discussion on enchantment as an immersive, life affirming moment. We out...

Monsters: interdisciplinary explorations in monstrosity

Abstract: There is a continued fascination with all things monster. This is partly due to the popular reception of Mary Shelley’s Monster, termed a ‘new species’ by its overreaching but admiringly determined maker Victor Frankenstein in the eponymous novel first published in 1818. The enduring impact of Shelley’s novel, which spans a plethora of subjects and genres in imagery and themes, raises questions of origin and identity, death, birth and family relationships, as well as the contradictory qualities of the monster. Monsters serve as metaphors for anxieties of aberration and innovation (Punter and Byron, 2004). Stephen Asma (2009) notes that monsters represent evil or moral transgression and each epoch, to speak with Michel Foucault (Abnormal: lectures at the College de France, 1975–75, 2003, p. 66), evidences a ‘particular type of monster’. Academic debates tend to explore how social and cultural threats come to be embodied in the figure of a monster and their actions literalise our deepest fears (Gilmore, 2009; Scott, 2007). Monsters in contemporary culture, however, have become more humane than ever before. Monsters are strong, resilient, creative and sly creatures. Through their playful and invigorating energy they can be seen to disrupt and unsettle. They still cater to the appetite for horror, but they also encourage us to feel empathy. The encounter with a monster can enable us to stop, wonder and change our attitudes towards technology, our body and each other. This commentary article considers the use of the concepts of ‘monsters’ or ‘monstrosity’ in literature, contemporary research, culture and teaching contexts at the intersection of the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

Battle scars: Wonder Woman, aesthetic geopolitics and disfigurement in Hollywood film

Abstract: Wonder Woman (2017) has been one of the most lucrative entries in the recent superhero film canon. With a female lead and director, it has also proven a rich text for feminist analysis. Here, the f...

Wonderful Life: Exploring Wonder in Meaningful Moments:

Abstract: In this article, we bring the study of meaning together with the emerging field of study focusing on the emotions of wonder: wonder, enchantment, awe, and being moved. It is in meaningful moments t...

Ecodemocracy and Political Representation for Non-human Nature

Abstract: As we witness the sixth mass extinction unfold, it is hard not to feel exasperated by the lack of a say in human democracy for all the species and ecosystems that are suffering, if not being destroyed outright, at the hands of humans (see Washington in A sense of wonder towards nature: healing the world through belonging. Routledge, London, 2018). We are making decisions that have dramatic impacts on their fates without stopping to think what they might want. But this does not need to be the case. This paper is intended to contribute to the creation of political processes that recognize the intrinsic value of non-human nature (a value that is independent of any benefits for humans). We present, first, a review of the background—exploring where ecodemocracy fits into broader political and ethical theory—and then turn to consider how representation for non-human nature might be practically implemented in political processes. We are considering a political scale ranging from local groups all the way up to international alliances of governments—ecodemocracy can be put into practice at any of these.

Education as Mediation Between Child and World: The Role of Wonder

Abstract: Education as a deliberate activity and purposive process necessarily involves mediation, in the sense that the educator mediates between the child and the world. This can take different forms: the educator may function as a guide who initiates children into particular practices and domains and their modes of thinking and perceiving; or act as a filter, selecting what of the world the child encounters and how; or meet the child as representative of the adult world. I look at these types of mediation (or aspects of the mediating role of the educator) at the hand of the work of John Dewey, Martin Buber, Hannah Arendt, and Richard Peters. The purpose of this paper is to explore the bearing that the mediating role of the educator—as interpreted by these authors—has on the role wonder may play in the educational process. I suggest that initiation highlights the familiarizing function of wonder, and is most readily associated with inquisitive wonder; representation draws attention to the defamiliarizing role of (in particular contemplative) wonder, as well as to its world-affirming role; and selection (the educator as ‘filter’) foregrounds the distinction between momentary and dispositional wonder.

On Time and Tea Bags: Chronos, Kairos, and Teaching for Humanistic Practice.

Abstract: In these days of overwhelming clinical work, decreased resources, and increased educational demands, time has become a priceless commodity. Competency-based medical education attempts to address this challenge by increasing educational efficiency and decreasing the "steeping" of learners in clinical activities for set durations of time. However, in this environment, how does one teach for compassionate, humanistic practice? The answer arguably lies in clinician-teachers' recognition and engagement in a different type of time, that of kairos. Ancient Greek thought held that there were 2 interrelated types of time: chronological, linear, quantitative time-chronos-and qualitative, opportune time-kairos. Unlike chronos, kairos involves a sense of the "right time," the "critical moment," the proportionate amount. Developing a sense of kairos involves learning to apply general principles to unique situations lacking certainty and acting proportionally to need and context. Educationally, it implies intervening at the critical moment-the moment in which a thoughtful question, comment, or personal expression of perplexity, awe, or wonder can trigger reflection, dialogue, and an opening up of perspectives on the human dimensions of illness and medical care. A sensibility to kairos involves an awareness of what makes a moment "teachable," an understanding of chance, opportunity, and potential for transformation. Above all, inviting kairos means grasping an opportunity to immerse oneself and one's learners-even momentarily-into an exploration of patients and their stories, perspectives, challenges, and lives.

Arabic Poetics : Aesthetic Experience in Classical Arabic Literature

Abstract: What makes language beautiful? Arabic Poetics offers an answer to what this pertinent question looked like at the height of the Islamic civilization. In this novel argument, Lara Harb suggests that literary quality depended on the ability of linguistic expression to produce an experience of discovery and wonder in the listener. Analyzing theories of how rhetorical figures, simile, metaphor, and sentence construction are able to achieve this effect of wonder, Harb shows how this aesthetic theory, first articulated at the turn of the eleventh century CE, represented a major paradigm shift from earlier Arabic criticism which based its judgement on criteria of truthfulness and naturalness. In doing so, this study poses a major challenge to the misconception in modern scholarship that Arabic criticism was 'traditionalist' or 'static', exposing an elegant widespread conceptual framework of literary beauty in the post-eleventh-century Islamicate world which is central to poetic criticism, the interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics in Arabic philosophy and the rationale underlying discussions about the inimitability of the Quran.

Wounds and Wonder: Emotion, Imagination and War in the Cultures of Romantic Surgery.

Abstract: This article uses the writings of the surgical siblings John and Charles Bell to explore the relationships between surgery, war and emotion in the Romantic era. Drawing on the argument that it was in this period that war came to be constructed as the 'ultimate' emotional experience, rich in pathos and distinct from anything in civil life, it argues that surgeons such as the Bells might capitalise on the cultural cachet of war to bridge the professional and experiential divide between the civil and military spheres, but that this process was fraught with complexity and ambiguity, both politically and emotionally.

From Curiosity, to Wonder, to Creativity:a Cognitive Developmental Psychology Perspective

Abstract: In the present chapter, we review the state of the cognitive developmental research on the topics of curiosity, wonder and creativity, with a special focus on successful methodological approaches, as well as challenges for the experimental study of their cognitive underpinnings. The chapter comprises four main sections: 1) Curiosity, where we focus on children’s active exploration, information seeking, and question asking; 2) Wonder, where we emphasize affective response, reflection, and pursuit of further knowledge; 3) Creativity, where we discuss capacities such as generating ideas, original transformations, and novel combinations; and 4) Relationship between curiosity, wonder and creativity, where we propose that these links are complex and dynamic; concluding with suggestions for future research to understand their interrelations as they unfold developmentally.

Why Reliabilism Is not Enough: Epistemic and Moral Justification in Machine Learning

Abstract: In this paper we argue that standard calls for explainability that focus on the epistemic inscrutability of black-box machine learning models may be misplaced. If we presume, for the sake of this paper, that machine learning can be a source of knowledge, then it makes sense to wonder what kind of \em justification it involves. How do we rationalize on the one hand the seeming justificatory black box with the observed wide adoption of machine learning? We argue that, in general, people implicitly adoptreliabilism regarding machine learning. Reliabilism is an epistemological theory of epistemic justification according to which a belief is warranted if it has been produced by a reliable process or method \citegoldman2012reliabilism. We argue that, in cases where model deployments require \em moral justification, reliabilism is not sufficient, and instead justifying deployment requires establishing robust human processes as a moral "wrapper'' around machine outputs. We then suggest that, in certain high-stakes domains with moral consequences, reliabilism does not provide another kind of necessary justification---moral justification. Finally, we offer cautions relevant to the (implicit or explicit) adoption of the reliabilist interpretation of machine learning.

Wonder—through Aesthetics and Environmentalism to Politics

Abstract: The paper offers a contribution to the political account of wonder. The rationale for addressing this problem is provided by Hannah Arendt’s observations on the paradoxical relationship between wonder and politics—wonder appears here as both essential and indispensable to politics as the realm of opinions (doxai). This quandary corresponds to two common-sense uses of the term “wonder”—as an emotion and as an act of judging. It is argued that the political interpretation of wonder should link these two poles. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s account of wonder and its reformulation developed by Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, the paper offers such a synthesis by emphasising the environmental and aesthetic dimensions of the concept.

Recommendations for positive psychology interventions in school settings

Abstract: As positive psychologists learn more about what makes people feel happier, more productive, and more connected, it is natural to wonder how these lessons can be applied to our younger citizens. In ...

A contribution to the ontology of the Fundamentals of Care framework from a wonder-based approach.

Abstract: Aim and objectives To critically discuss the ontological framework of Fundamentals of Care (FoC), as developed by Uhrenfeldt, et al. (2018), Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27, 3197-3204; to suggest theoretical improvements by taking a wonder-based approach; and to show how this approach can be applied in healthcare sectors. Background Based on a critical discussion of a discursive study on the ontology of FoC, studies in phenomenology of wonder and two action research projects involving "Wonder Labs," this article discusses whether the ontology and reflective practices behind FoC can be qualified further by an existential phenomenology of wonder and with practices of "Wonder Labs." Design This is a discursive study critically discussing Uhrenfeldt et al.'s primary focus on dyadic and relational openness and person-oriented attentiveness in a nurse-patient relationship. This is done by unfolding the phenomenology of wonder and wonder experiences at a hospice and a hospital, and by critically examining the psychologically influenced interpretation of Heidegger. Conclusion The first attempts by Uhrenfeldt et al. to identify the philosophical roots and ontology of FoC by pointing to existential phenomenology and philosophy are acknowledged. However, in this article, we further elaborate this attempt by focusing on the phenomenology of wonder. We show that Heidegger speaking about "existential homecoming" referred to a philosophical practice focusing on the resonance with being, rather than on interpersonal and psychological relations. In conclusion, the article recognises the importance of integrating these two approaches described on the one hand as a person-oriented and lifeworld-led approach, and on the other hand as a being- and phenomenon-oriented approach to the nurse-patient relationship. Relevance to clinical practice To be open to the "musicality" of the being dimension, as the core values of FoC, a wonder-based approach to value clarifications and phenomenological dialogues is pivotal for the presence of openness, trust and attentiveness of the nurse-patient relationship. The practices of the "Wonder Lab" may be an approach for training nurses in hearing the call of this "ontological resonance."

Awe and Wonder in Scientific Practice: Implications for the Relationship Between Science and Religion

Abstract: This paper examines the role of awe and wonder in scientific practice. Drawing on evidence from psychological research and the writings of scientists and science communicators, I argue that awe and wonder play a crucial role in scientific discovery. They focus our attention on the natural world, encourage open-mindedness, diminish the self (particularly feelings of self-importance), help to accord value to the objects that are being studied, and provide a mode of understanding in the absence of full knowledge. I will flesh out implications of the role of awe and wonder in scientific discovery for debates on the relationship between science and religion. Abraham Heschel argued that awe and wonder are religious emotions because they reduce our feelings of self-importance, and thereby help to cultivate the proper reverent attitude towards God. Yet metaphysical naturalists such as Richard Dawkins insist that awe and wonder need not lead to any theistic commitments for scientists. The awe some scientists experience can be regarded as a form of non-theistic spirituality, which is neither a reductive naturalism nor theism. I will attempt to resolve the tension between these views by identifying some common ground.