Jos de mul. The Living Sign. Reading Noble from a Biosemiotic Perspective. Biosemiotics. 14 (2021), 1,   (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-021-09426-y)

Abstract
The author argues that the reductionist illusions of the Modern Synthesis, which Noble criticizes in his target article, are to a large extent resulting from a mere syntactical notion of biological information, neglecting the pragmatic and semantic dimension of information. Although the syntactical notion, introduced by Shannon, has been applied with much success in information theory and computer technologies, it is too narrow to understand biological reality. Biosemiotics can help to clarify the problems identified by Noble, and offers a more adequate biological information concept, which not only may help to overcome these problems in the life sciences, but may also serve to integrate natural-scientific and humanities approaches to life.

Keywords Biosemiotics . Noble . Living sign . Syntactics . Pragmatics . Semantics

Jos de Mul. Biopolitical Anthropology in the Age of Converging Technologies. Invited lecture at the workshop  The Public Use of Reason – Philosophical Anthropology in the 21^st Centure. Organized by the Helmuth Plessner Society on occasion of the Conferral of the Helmuth Plessner Award upon Onora O’Neill.  Wiesbaden/Zoom Conference, 24 & 25 March 2021, 10-18. Lecture De Mul at 10 AM.  Link:  https://dshs-koeln.webex.com/dshs-koeln/j.php?MTID=mceda3b56f7d46e6c0f08426f179b0374

In my contribution, I will focus on the reciprocal constitution of Plessner’s philosophical anthropology and political philosophy. I will analyze Plessner’s critique of reductionist and determinist Neo-Darwinism and its political implications as elaborated in Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch (1928), Macht und Menschliche Natur (1931) and his recently published lectures on Philosophische Anthropologie, which he held in Göttingen in 1961. Against this background, I will discuss the challenges and task of philosophical anthropology in our present age, characterized by converging technologies. This term refers to the increasingly integrated biotechnologies (such as genetic modification), digital neuro-technologies (such as brain implants), artificial intelligences (such as predictive algorithms) and nanotechnologies (manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale, which plays an enabling a role in the other three).

The thesis I will defend is that whereas in 1919 Neo-Darwinism was primarily a theoretical challenge, which necessitated a rethinking of – to quote the title of Scheler’s most famous contribution to philosophical anthropology – »the human place in the cosmos« (Scheler, 1928), in the course of the 21st century, it became a practical one. Supported by multinationals like the ›Big Five‹ tech companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft), the ›Big Six‹ seed, biotech and agrochemical corporations (Dow Chemical, DuPont Pioneer, ChemChina, Syngenta, Bayer and Monsanto), as well by authoritarian states such as the People’s Republic of China (we should not only think of the social credit system, but also of the present biopolitical state terror against the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang Province), Neo-Darwinism has become a biopolitical project, more or less intentionally aiming at a transformation of human life in the direction of trans- and posthuman lifeforms. The question is no longer what is the human’s place in the cosmos, but rather whether there still is a place for human life in the cosmos, and what we should do vis-à-vis Neo-Darwinian biopolitics. The decisive question in the present age is, in other words, how to choose our right enemy.

I will argue that today, Plessner’s philosophical and political anthropology, and especially the key concept of Unergründlichkeit, will not only help us to understand and criticize the contemporary theoretical challenge of Neo-Darwinism, but may also inspire us if we want to tackle the practical threats of Neo-Darwinism politically.

Jos de Mul. Next Nature. Sublime Landscapes Technological and Natural Sublime.  In: Nakama Yuko and Takenaka Yumi (ed.), An Anthropology of Landscape - On Representations of Nature, Cities and Memories. Tokyo: Sangensha, 2020, 50-77.

The Japanese version appeared in print as ジョス・デ・ムル、「次世代の自然─崇高なる自然科学技術的風景」 仲間裕子、竹中悠美編『風景の人類学─自然と都市、そして記憶の表象』 三元社、2020年, 50-77.

This English version has been published  on the website of Sangensha Publisher.

Abstract

The development of the representation of the landscape in Europe since the 14th century Renaissance can be understood as a mirror of the development of modern and postmodern Western culture as a whole. After sketching the development of landscape representation in modern and postmodern Europe, the article focuses on the theme of sublimity, which, at least since the era of Romanticism, has been inherent to the European experience and representation of the landscape, both in its successive natural and technological manifestation. Against this background, the paper also discusses some striking differences between the European and the Asian landscape.

Keywords : NextNature, Sublimity, Sublime landscapes, European landscape, Asian landscape, natural landscapes, technological landscapes

Jos de Mul. Some reflections on the Japanese Society 5.0 program. Tokyo: Cabinet Office Japanese Government. October 11, 2019.

Jos de Mul. The Total Turing Test. Robotics from Japanese and European perspectives. Kyoto: Graduate School of Sociology and Humanities. Ritsumeikan University, October 8, 2019.

After an general introduction of the famous Turing test, in the first part of my lecture I will illustrate the role deception plays in this test in a discussion of three recent Western science fiction movies in which the Turing test plays a prominent role. Although all three movies are fiction films, they reveal some important characteristics of the Western view on robotics. In the second part I will contrast the Western approach with the way the Turing Test is approached in Japanese robotics, more particular in social android robotics. Hiroshi Ishigiro’s ERICA (ERato Intelligent Conversational Android) will be my main example. In the third and final part I will I will argue that, in the final analysis, the difference in approaches in Western and Eastern robotics is closely connected with different religious worldviews, which even in a secularized world still inform robotics and AI research at a fundamental level.

Jos de Mul. These boots are made for talkin'. Some reflections on Finnish mobile immobility. In: Oiva Kuisma, Sanna Lehtinen and Harri Mäcklin (Eds.), Paths from the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics. Finnish Society for Aesthetics Publication Series. Volume 1, 2019, 214-222.

These boots are made for talkin’. Some reflections on Finnish mobile immobility

You can’t be a Real Country unless you have a beer and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.

                                                                                                              Frank Zappa

Abstract

On January 13-15 2005, a conference entitled Aesthetics and Mobility was held in Helsinki. On invitation of the organizers, Arto Haapela (University of Helsinki) and Ossi Naukkarinen (University of Art and Design Helsinki), I took part in this wonderful event. I knew Arto from the regular meetings of the International Association for Aesthetics and it was a great opportunity to get acquainted with his research project Aesthetics, Mobility, and Change and his international network of scholars. As it was my first visit to Finland, I also took the opportunity to get introduced to Helsinki and Finnish culture.  Afterwards, I wrote down my impressions of the conference and my memories of the visit. On occasion of the Festschrift for Arto I’ve worked up these personal notes as a tribute to him, esteemed colleague and distant friend.

Jos de Mul. The Task of Philosophical Anthropology in the Age of Converging Technologies. Keynote at the conference Philosophische Anthropologie als interdisziplinäre Praxis. Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner und Nicolai Hartmann in Köln – historische und systematische Perspektiven. Universität Köln, 5 November, 2019.

06.–09. November 2019, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Köln

Tagung des Research Lab der a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne in Kooperation mit der Hartmann-, Plessner- und Scheler-Gesellschaft

Wissenschaftliche Koordination: Andreas Speer & Erik Norman Dzwiza Organisation und Ausarbeitung Matthias Schloßberger

Jos de Mul. Metadesign. Imagination in the age of digital recombination. Keynote at the workshop international research project Philosophizing Data Visualizations in the Middle Ages and Early Modernity (XIIIth-XVIIth century).  Institute of Philosophy. University of Porto. Porto, June 25, 2019.

Jos de Mul. Plessner and actual theories about embodied cognition. Invited lecture at the workshop  The Future of Philosophical Anthropology, organized by Marcus Düwell and the Helmuth Plessner Gesellschaft. Utrecht: Utrecht University, November 29-December 1, 2018.

Helmuth Plessner’s Levels of Organic Life and the Human [Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch, 1928] is one of the founding texts of twentieth century philosophical anthropology (understood as philosophical reflection on the fundamental characteristics of the human lifeform). It is argued that Plessner’s work demonstrates the fundamental indispensability of the qualitative humanities vis-à-vis the naturalscientific study of man. Plessner’s non-reductionist, emergentist naturalism allots complementary roles to the causal and functional investigations of the life sciences and the phenomenological and hermeneutic interpretation of the phenomenon of life in its successive levels and stages. Within this context, human agency can be understood as a higher-order property of organic life, which act by the selective activation of lower-level psychophysical powers. Plessner’s three ‘anthropological laws’ are used to situate the notion of practical self-understanding in between two extremes: deterministic views that deny human freedom and responsibility and views that ascribe an unrealistic amount of autonomy to human beings.

Against this methodological background, in the third section I will elucidate Plessner’s non-dualist interpretation of the embodied, embedded, extended and enacted nature of the psychophysical unity of life. I will explain the key concepts ‘dual aspectivity,’ ‘boundary realization,’ and ‘positionality,’ and will describe and analyze the types of positionality of the successive lifeforms of plants, animals, and human beings. With regard to the human being, I will also point at the extended character of this lifeform. In addition, I will refer to recent work in the life sciences that underpin Plessner’s philosophy of nature and philosophical anthropology.

The Future of Philosophical Anthropology

Venue: Utrechts Centrum voor de Kunsten (UCK), Domplein 4, Utrecht (www.uck.nl)

Thursday, November 29, 2018 (Room: Torenzaal, UCK)

Program:

14.00 - 16.00   Jos de Mul (Rotterdam): Plessner and actual theories about embodied  cognition

                        Hans-Peter Krüger (Potsdam): comment

                        Discussion

16.00 - 16.30  Coffee

16.30 - 18.30  Marcus Düwell (Utrecht): Ethics and philosophical anthropology

                        Volker Schürmann (Köln): Comment

                        Discussion

19.00               Dinner: Hofman Café, Janskerkhof 17a, Utrecht

Friday, November 30, 2018 (Room: 115, UCK)

9.00 - 11.00   Gesa Lindemann (Oldenburg): Plessner’s method of theory construction and empirical research

Anna Henkel (Lüneburg): Observing with Plessner. Analytical strategies for observations of interaction and society

Discussion

11.00 - 11.30  Coffee

11.30 - 12.30   Paul Ziche (Utrecht): Abstraktion und Einfühlung” – Abstract feelings in the history of anthropology

12.30 - 13.30  Lunch

13.30 - 15.30   Jan Vorstenbosch (Utrecht): Plessner, Scheler, Heidegger: the significance of the Interbellum debate on philosophical anthropology for its future.

Huib Ernste (Nijmegen): Plessner, on borders, difference and geography

15.30 - 16.00  Coffee

16.00 - 18.00   Joel Anderson (Utrecht): Transparency, Plasticity, and Niche Construction: Plessnerian Reflections on Extended Agency

Maarten Coolen (Amsterdam): Ontological Affirmation in Love: Merleau-Ponty and Plessner

18.00 - 19.00  General Assembly of the Helmuth Plessner Society

19.30               Dinner: Stadskasteel Oudaen, Oudegracht 99, Utrecht

Saturday, December 1, 2018 (Room: 115, UCK)

9.00 - 11.00    Carola Dietze (Jena): Plessner and the Discussion about the European Union

Katharina Block (Oldenburg): What would Plessner say to an Anthropocenist?

11.00 - 12.00  Final Discussion

Jos de Mul. The Emergence of Practical Self-Understanding. Human Agency and Downward Causation in Plessner’s Philosophical Anthropology. In: Human Studies, December 2018 (DOI: 10.1007/s10746-018-09483-2)

Abstract Helmuth Plessner’s Levels of Organic Life and the Human [Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch, 1928] is one of the founding texts of twentieth century philosophical anthropology (understood as philosophical reflection on the fundamental characteristics of the human lifeform). It is argued that Plessner’s work demonstrates the fundamental indispensability of the qualitative humanities vis-à-vis the naturalscientific study of man. Plessner’s non-reductionist, emergentist naturalism allots complementary roles to the causal and functional investigations of the life sciences and the phenomenological and hermeneutic interpretation of the phenomenon of life in its successive levels and stages. Within this context, human agency can be understood as a higher-order property of organic life, which act by the selective activation of lower-level psychophysical powers. Plessner’s three ‘anthropological laws’ are used to situate the notion of practical self-understanding in between two extremes: deterministic views that deny human freedom and responsibility and views that ascribe an unrealistic amount of autonomy to human beings.

Keywords Helmuth Plessner · Philosophical anthropology · Non-reductionist naturalism · Emergentism · Downward causation · Human agency · Practical selfunderstanding