Publication: Debunking Fake Humanities. Critical Reasoning from Ovid to Roboethics
Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Abstract
We assume that the sense of being human involves our critical attitude of reasoning, but when
we come across the roots of this capability, we get lost in logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics,
neurobiology and ethics. Nowadays, the expression “debunking fake news” is the practice
of calling into question or denying false, exaggerated or unscientific statements. In accordance
with that definition of debunking, is it possible to debunk fake humanities? And, above
all, which are the fake humanities we are referring to? Our proposal aims to discuss this foundation
of common reasoning – which relies on the “human measure” - through ancient myths
and the idea of Metamorphoses, that the Roman poet Ovid delivered to us in his poem as a
kind of predisposition to debunking; then moving forward in the article, we will look through
the hermeneutic lens of one of the latest debates between the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur
and the neuroscientist Jean Pierre Changeaux about human being’s identity, which will help us
to engage critically the ethical aspects of upcoming metamorphoses such as Robotics.We assume that the sense of being human involves our critical attitude of reasoning, but when
we come across the roots of this capability, we get lost in logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics,
neurobiology and ethics. Nowadays, the expression “debunking fake news” is the practice
of calling into question or denying false, exaggerated or unscientific statements. In accordance
with that definition of debunking, is it possible to debunk fake humanities? And, above
all, which are the fake humanities we are referring to? Our proposal aims to discuss this foundation
of common reasoning – which relies on the “human measure” - through ancient myths
and the idea of Metamorphoses, that the Roman poet Ovid delivered to us in his poem as a
kind of predisposition to debunking; then moving forward in the article, we will look through
the hermeneutic lens of one of the latest debates between the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur
and the neuroscientist Jean Pierre Changeaux about human being’s identity, which will help us
to engage critically the ethical aspects of upcoming metamorphoses such as Robotics.
Description
Keywords
Debunking, Metamorphoses, Identity, Roboethics, Hermeneutics
Citation
Fabrizia Abbate, "Debunking Fake Humanities. Critical Reasoning from Ovid to Roboethics", in "Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics (2019) XXI/2", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2019, pp. 113-120