Jos de Mul. Metaphors we nudge by. Reflections on the impact of predictive algorithms on our self-understanding. In: Katz, J., Schiepers, K., Floyd, J. (eds) Nudging Choices Through Media. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 33-57 (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26568-6_3)

Abstract

Conceptual metaphors have an important cognitive function; they not only help us capture unknown or elusive things in concepts but also nudge our actions. If metaphors get materialized they can even forcefully direct human behavior. Whereas the conceptual metaphor MAN IS A MACHINE nudges medical research, when an mechanical heart is implanted in a human body, it becomes a behavior enforcing material metaphor. At least partly, a human being then actually becomes a machine. In this chapter it is argued that in the information society the database not only acts as a conceptual metaphor (MAN IS A DATABASE), but implemented in e-commerce and biopolitics, it becomes a material metaphor which threatens to reduce human beings to algorithmically predictable entities without freedom and responsibility.

Jos de Mul. Over de drie scenario's van de toekomstige mens. In Kirsten Poortier, Erik Myin, Peter-Paul Verbeek (red.) Wat maakt de mens? Onze lichamelijkheid in relatie tot techniek en wetenschap. Amsterdam: Boom, 206-209.

Het onderwerp van het centraal examen Filosofie voor het VWO 2024-2028  'de vraag naar de mens in relatie tot techniek en wetenschap. Een van de primaire teksten die behoren tot de examenstof is afkomstig uit Kunstmatig van nature. Onderweg naar Homo sapiens 2.0. Rotterdam: Lemniscaat 2016 (van dit boek zal in 2024/2025 een geactualiseerde druk verschijnen). De primaire tekst is ontleend aan de inleiding van deel II van dit boek, waarin drie scenario's worden geschetst van de toekomst van Homo sapiens. Elk van deze scenario's knoopt aan bij een van de convergerende versmeltende wetenschappelijke en technologische ontwikkelingen, respectievelijk neurotechnologie (het zwermgeest-scenario), biotechnologie (het alien-scenario) en robotica (het zombie-scenario). Hieronder volgt de als primaire tekst opgenomen passage uit Kunstmatig van nature (pp. 95-99).

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Jos de Mul. Tragedy light. Kanttekeningen bij Frissens vrolijke fatalisme. In S. Zouridis, M. Thaens, L. Timmermans & Volkert Batelaan (red.). De blijvende staat van Frissen. Den Haag: Boom Bestuurskunde, 2022, 220-226.

Soms roept een vriendenboek ook de spijt op bij een buitenstaander dat er zo zelden vijandboeken worden opgesteld.  Nico Wilterdink

Beste Paul,

Op 10 december 2010 schrijf je in je tweewekelijkse kolom in Binnenlands Bestuur onder de titel ‘Ben ik nog wel rechts genoeg?’ dat je opvattingen “op een aantal punten een ijzeren consistentie vertonen, hetgeen voor een vermeende postmodernist opmerkelijk mag heten”, om te vervolgen met een kernachtige samenvatting van je gedachtengoed:

Nog steeds acht ik de staat een gevaarlijke illusie, veel beleid betuttelend, maakbaarheid een illusie. Nog steeds is in mijn ogen het leven in essentie tragisch, het recht een waarborg tegen de macht en vrijheid de kern van de liberale democratie. [1]

Sinds het moment dat onze paden zich in de tweede helft van de jaren negentig kruisten en we samen het onderzoeksprogramma Internet en Openbaar Bestuur op poten zetten, vormen je geschriften voor mij vaak een feest van herkenning. Zowel je pleidooi voor vrijheid, liberale democratie en rechtsstaat als je kritiek op het maakbaarheidsgeloof zijn mij op het lijf geschreven. Dat geldt zeker ook voor het onderliggende idee dat het leven een tragische dimensie bezit. Tegelijkertijd vormen je geschriften voor mij ook vaak een steen des aanstoots. Carl Schmitts door jou vaak geciteerde definitie van de politiek als het maken van onderscheid tussen vriend en vijand – waarover later meer - heeft geen greep op onze omgang. Met filosofische vrienden als Frissen heb je geen vijanden nodig.

Jos de Mul. Games as the True Organon of Philosophy. Playful ontologies: Schelling, Huizinga, Borges and beyond. In: Marco Accordi Rickards & Fabio Belsanti (Eds.) Homo Cyber Ludens. Bari: Idra Editing, 2021, pp. 97-124.  Also availble as Kindle edition in Italian and English.

Introduction

A playful specter is haunting the world. Since the 1960s, in which the word ‘ludic’ became popular in Europe and the US to designate playful behavior and artifacts, playfulness has increasingly become a mainstream characteristic of our culture. In the first decades of the 21^st century, we can even speak of a global ‘ludification of culture’ (Raessens 2006). Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind in this context is the immense popularity of computer games (Frissen et al. 2015). But although perhaps most visible, computer game culture is only one manifestation of the process of ludification that seems to penetrate every cultural domain (Neitzel and Nohr 2006). In our present experience economy, for example, playfulness not only characterizes leisure time (fun shopping, game shows on television, amusement parks, playful use of computers, internet and smartphones), but also those domains that used to be serious, such as work (which should above all be fun today), education (serious gaming), politics (ludic campaigning), and even warfare (video games like war simulators and interfaces). According to Jeremy Rifkin “play is becoming as important in the cultural economy as work was in the industrial economy” (Rifkin 2000, 263). Postmodern culture as a whole has been described as “a game without an overall aim, a play without a transcendent destination” (Minnema 1998, 21). And according to sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, even human identity has become a playful phenomenon. In ludic culture, he argues, playfulness is no longer restricted to childhood, but has become a lifelong attitude: “The mark of postmodern adulthood is the willingness to embrace the game whole-heartedly, as children do” (Bauman 1995, 99).

As a result, the phenomena play and game have gained strong attention in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. One can think, for example, of the implementation of game theory in biology (Sigmund 1993), economics (Von Neumann and Morgenstern 2007, Leonard 2010) and cultural anthropology (Bateson 1977, 1955). In addition to the increased interest in play and games in these already existing disciplines, in the last decades – motivated by the substantial growth of leisure time and the growth of ludo-industry and ludo-capitalism (Dibbell 2008), several new fields entirely devoted to the study of play and (computer) games have emerged (e.g. Raessens and Goldstein 2005, Fuchs et al. 2014).

How should we understand this ‘ludification of culture’? What does it say about our life and world view at the beginning of the 21^st century?  Today I will present an interpretation of this phenomenon of ludification with the help of two books - Friedrich Schelling’s System of transcendental Idealism [System des transzendentalen Idealismus] (1800) and Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens. A Study of the Play-Element in Culture [Homo Ludens. Proeve ener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur] (1938) and one short story, Jorges Luis Borges’ ‘The library of Babel’[‘La biblioteca de Babel’] (1941). I will argue that these works, when we situate them in the context of the database ontology which characterizes our computer age, offer an illuminating outlook on the playful ontology that underpins the ludification of culture.

I will develop my argument in three steps. In the first two I will present some of the key ideas that can be found in respectively Schelling’s System of transcendental Idealism and Huizinga’s Homo ludens. I will discuss their shared romantic desire for immanent transcendence through aesthetization of the world, as well as their shared – and no less romantic - aversion toward modern technology. However, as I will argue in the third and last part of my talk, contrary to what both Schelling and Huizinga expected, precisely in modern information technologies the playful ontology they were after, is realized. Using ‘The Library of Babel’ (and also referring to playful simulations of this Library at the internet), this will lead me to the conclusion that the ludic turn of technology turns the computer game into the ‘true organon of philosophy’.

Jos de Mul. I giochi come vero Organon della filosofia. Ontologie ludiche: Schelling, Huizinga, Borges e oltre. In: Marco Accordi Rickards & Fabio Belsanti (Ed.) Homo Cyber Ludens. Bari: Idra Editing, 2021, pp. 101-129.[1] Also availble as Kindle edition in Italian and English.

Introduzione

Uno spettro ludico si aggira per il mondo. Dagli anni '60, in cui la parola "ludico" è diventata popolare in Europa e negli Stati Uniti per designare comportamenti e oggetti inerenti il gioco, la ludicità è diventata sempre più una caratteristica fondamentale della nostra cultura. Nei primi decenni del XXI secolo si può persino parlare di una «ludificazione della cultura» globale (Raessens 2006). Forse la prima cosa che viene in mente in questo contesto è l'immensa popolarità dei videogiochi (Frissen et al. 2015). Ma sebbene forse più visibile, la cultura dei videogiochi è solo una manifestazione del processo di ludificazione che sembra penetrare in ogni dominio culturale (Neitzel e Nohr 2006). Nella nostra attuale economia dell’esperienza, ad esempio, la ludicità non caratterizza solo il tempo libero (shopping “divertente”, giochi televisivi, parchi divertimento, uso ludico di computer, internet e smartphone), ma anche quegli ambiti che un tempo erano seri, come il lavoro (che oggi dovrebbe essere soprattutto divertente), educazione (serious games), politica (campagne ludiche) e persino guerra (wargames digitali e simulatori virtuali di battaglie sul campo). Secondo Jeremy Rifkin, «il gioco sta diventando importante nell'economia culturale quanto il lavoro lo era nell'economia industriale» (Rifkin 2000, 263). La cultura postmoderna nel suo insieme è stata descritta come «un gioco senza uno scopo generale, un gioco senza una destinazione trascendente» (Minnema 1998, 21). E secondo il sociologo Zygmunt Bauman, anche l'identità umana è diventata un fenomeno ludico. Nella cultura ludica, sostiene, la ludicità non è più limitata all'infanzia, ma è diventata un atteggiamento permanente: «Il segno dell'età adulta postmoderna è la volontà di abbracciare il gioco con tutto il cuore, come fanno i bambini» (Bauman 1995, 99).

Di conseguenza, i fenomeni del giocare e del gioco sono osservati e studiati con sempre più attenzione dalle scienze naturali, le scienze sociali e le scienze umane. Si può pensare, ad esempio, all'implementazione della teoria dei giochi in biologia (Sigmund 1993), economia (Von Neumann e Morgenstern 2007, Leonard 2010) e antropologia culturale (Bateson 1977, 1955). Oltre al crescente interesse per  l’attività ludica, che in queste discipline era preesistente, negli ultimi decenni – motivato dalla crescita sostanziale del tempo libero e dalla crescita della ludoindustria e del ludocapitalismo (Dibbell 2008), diversi nuovi campi interamente dedicati allo studio di giochi e videogiochi sono emersi (es. Raessens e Goldstein 2005, Fuchs et al. 2014).

Come dobbiamo intendere questa “ludificazione della cultura”? Cosa dice della nostra vita e della nostra visione del mondo all'inizio del XXI secolo? In ciò che segue presenterò un'interpretazione di questo fenomeno della ludificazione con l'aiuto di due libri: il Sistema dell’idealismo trascendentale (System of transcendental Idealism, 1800) di Friedrich Schelling e Homo ludens (1938) di Johan Huizinga, insieme a un racconto di Jorges Luis Borges intitolato La biblioteca di Babele (The Library of Babel, 1941). Sosterrò che questi lavori, quando li collochiamo nel contesto dell'ontologia dei database che caratterizza la nostra epoca informatica, offrono una prospettiva illuminante sull'ontologia ludica che sta alla base della ludificazione della cultura.

Svilupperò la mia argomentazione in tre passaggi. Nei primi due presenterò alcune delle idee chiave che si possono trovare rispettivamente nel Sistema dell’Idealismo trascendentale di Schelling e nel saggio Homo ludens di Huizinga. Discuterò il loro comune desiderio romantico di trascendenza immanente mediante l'estetizzazione del mondo, così come la loro comune – e non meno romantica – avversione verso la tecnologia moderna. Tuttavia, come sosterrò nella terza e ultima parte del mio intervento, contrariamente a quanto credevano sia Schelling sia Huizinga, è proprio nelle moderne tecnologie dell'informazione che si realizza l’ontologia ludica che cercavano. Usando La biblioteca di Babele (e facendo anche riferimento a simulazioni ludiche di questa biblioteca su internet), questo mi porterà alla conclusione che la svolta ludica della tecnologia trasforma il gioco per computer (i videogiochi) nel "vero organon della filosofia".

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Jos de Mul & Alberto Romele. Imagination, Images, and Imaginaries. A Dialogue with Jos de Mul, In: José Higuera Rubio, Alberto Romele, Sarion Ridrighiero & Celeste Pedro (eds.) From Wisdom to Data. Philosophical Atlas on Visual Representations of Knowledge. Porto: University of Porto Press, 2022, 35-44.

1. Imagination

Alberto Romele: The first part of this dialogue is focused on the notion of imagination. It is from your work (to which I would add the work of Paul Ricoeur) that I have learned that (1) imagination is not creatio ex nihilo, but rather recombination and (2) imagination is always technologically (and digitally) externalized. I am thinking, for instance, of your 2009 article “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Recombination”. Could you tell me a little bit more about your understanding of imagination, its relationship with technology, and the importance you attribute to authors like Kant, Dilthey, and Cassirer in your research?

Jos De Mul: I have been writing a new book on database for some time now. The reason why the book is still not finished is that it completely went out of hand in a way when I rediscovered Cassirer. I wrote an additional chapter on Cassirer and it's about 90 pages now, so it's almost a complete book on Cassirer now. But it was important for me because all things fell in that place. The first chapter of my book is called “The Medialization of Experience”. And I start with Kant in the book.

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Transhumanismus aus Sicht der Philosophischen Anthropologie Helmuth Plessners. In: Olivia Mitscherlich-Schönherr (Hrsg.), Das Gelingen der künstlichen Natürlichkeit. Mensch-Sein an den Grenzen des Lebens mit disruptiven Biotechnologien. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021, 351-365. [Open access: download the entire book for free]

Zusammenfassung. Der Beitrag vergleicht die extra-, trans- und posthumanisti­schen Utopien der Menschenverbesserung mit der philosophischen Anthropolo­gie von Helmuth Plessner kritisiert den Transhumanismus anhand der drei an­thropologischen Grundgesetze, die Plessner in seinem Opus Magnum „Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch“ (1928) formuliert. Es wird gezeigt, dass der Transhumanismus mit Plessners erstem anthropologischen Gesetz überein­stimmt: dem Gesetz der „natürlichen Künstlichkeit“ des Menschen. Es gibt jedoch zwei wichtige Unterschiede, die den Transhumanismus zu einer radikalisierten philosophischen Anthropologie machen. Erstens wollen Transhumanisten im Gegensatz zu Plessner die natürliche Künstlichkeit nicht nur beschreiben, son­dern auch aktiv befördern. Zweitens bemühen sich die Transhumanisten, das gegenwärtige Mensch-Sein in eine transhumane oder sogar posthumane Le­bensform zu verwandeln. Während Plessner die Möglichkeit von Lebensformen jenseits der exzentrischen Position des Menschen nicht für möglich hält wird mit Bezug auf Bienen, Oktopoden und Craniopagus Zwillingen argumentiert, dass die Natur bereits polyzentrische und polyexzentrische Lebensformen kennt und dass die technische Realisierung dieser Lebensformen mindestens logisch nicht aus­geschlossen ist. Gleichwohl gibt es gute Gründe gibt, sich den transhumanisti­schen Träumen nicht begeistert zu überlassen. Plessners zweites Grundgesetz - das Gesetz der „vermittelten Unmittelbarkeit“ - lehrt, dass die Entwicklung von Techniken weder vorhersehbar noch kontrollierbar ist. Und das dritte Grundge­setz - das Gesetz des „utopischen Standorts“- macht deutlich, dass eine Über­windung der konstitutionellen Heimatlosigkeit des Menschen - wenn dies über­haupt möglich wäre - das Ende der menschlichen Lebensform bedeuten würde. In einem Einzeiler zusammengefasst: Transhumanisten lassen sich mit jemandem vergleichen, der alle Vorbereitungen für eine wilden Party trifft, zu der er selbst allerdings nicht eingeladen sein wird.

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The Political Task of Philosophical Anthropology in the Age of Converging Technologies. In Erik Norman Dzwiza-Ohlsen & Andreas Speer (Hrsg). Philosophische Anthropologie als interdisziplinäre Praxis. Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner und Nicolai Hartmann in Köln – historische und systematische Perspektiven. Paderborn: Brill/Mentis, 2021, 305-326.

Die philosophische Anthropologie des 20. Jahrhunderts ist ohne sie undenkbar: Plessner, Scheler und Hartmann. Dass die drei Denker nicht nur Pioniere einer philosophischen, sondern auch einer interdisziplinären Anthropologie waren, macht sie zu idealen Dialogpartnern für die großen Fragen unserer Gegenwart und Zukunft. Der Band liefert eine einzigartige Standortbestimmung der philosophischen Anthropologie und Ontologie von Max Scheler, Nicolai Hartmann und Helmuth Plessner. Der Band dokumentiert auf umfassende Weise, wie die Denker an der nach dem 1. Weltkrieg neu gegründeten Kölner Universität einen nachhaltigen interdisziplinären Dialog initiierten und dabei eine erhebliche internationale Strahlkraft entfalteten.

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.

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Jos de Mul. From mythology to technology and back. Human‐animal combinations in the era of digital recombinability. In: Bruno Accarino, Jos de Mul und Hans-Peter Krüger (Hrsg.). Internationales Jahrbuch für Philosophische Anthropologie. Band 10 (2020)/ International Yearbook for Philosophical Anthropology. Volume 10 (2020) Katharina Block &Julien Kloeg (Eds.). Ecology 2.0 - The Contribution of Philosophical Anthropology to Mapping the Ecological Crisis.  Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021, 79-97.

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  [Jos de Mul, NextNature. Sublime natural and technological landscapes. In: Nakama Yuko and Takenaka Yumi (ed.), An Anthropology of Landscape - On Representations of Nature, Cities and Memories. Tokyo: Sangensha, 2020. 

商品基本情報

• 発売日：  2020年04月02日頃
• 著者／編集：  仲間裕子, 竹中悠美
• 出版社：  三元社
• 発行形態：  単行本
• ページ数：  336p - ISBNコード：  9784883035076

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.

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.

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Jos de Mul. Polyzentrizität und Poly(ex)zentrizität: neue Stufen der Positionalität? Zu Telerobotern, Craniopagus-Zwillingen und globalen Gehirnen. In: A. Henkel & G. Lindemann (Hrsg.) Mensch und Welt im Zeichen der Digitalisierung. Baden Baden: Nomos, 2019, 187-207.

In diesem Kapitel untersuche Ich die Möglichkeit einer nächsten Stufe der Positionalität jenseits der Stufe der exzentrischen Positionalität, wie sie Plessner in Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch eingeführt hat. Ich stelle zwei mögliche Kandidaten für eine nächste Positionalitätsstufe vor. Die erste Möglichkeit betrifft telerobotic experiences (telerobotische Erfahrungen), über die Howard Rheingold in seinem Buch Virtual Reality von 1995 berichtete und auf die ich in meinem Freiburger Vortrag von 2000 zurückgegriffen hatte. Entsprechende telerobotische Experimente wurden in jüngerer Zeit von Wissenschaftlern wie dem japanischen Roboterforscher Hiroshi Ishiguro in seinen Experimenten mit geminoiden Robotern noch systematischer und detaillierter fortgeführt – mit androiden Robotern, die existierenden Personen gleichen, im Falle von Ishiguro ihm selbst. In diesem Kontext werde ich diese künstlichen Formen der Polyzentrizität zudem mit deren natürlichem Gegenstück vergleichen: der sogenannten Schwarmintelligenz (hive mind) sozialer Insekten. Als zweiten Kandidaten einer möglichen nächsten Positionalitätsstufe
werde ich die sogenannten Craniopagus-Zwillinge diskutieren. Es handelt sich dabei um Zwillinge, die an Kopf und Gehirn verbunden sind. Weil sie so Teile des Thalamus teilen (einen Bereich des Gehirns, der für das Bewusstsein eine wichtige Rolle spielt), sind sie in der Lage, wechselseitig ihre Gedanken zu lesen. Obwohl Craniopagus-Zwillinge ein sehr seltenes Naturphänomen sind, könnte die Form von Positionalität, die sich in ihnen ausdrückt, als Vorreiter jener künstlicher Formen poly(ex)zentrischer Positionalität angesehen werden, die die Form künstlicher Thalamus-Brücken (artifical thalamic bridges) annehmen. Diese könnten ein zentrales Element in der Konstruktion sogenannter globaler Gehirne sein und eine menschliche Schwarmintelligenz begleiten.