Volitional causality vs natural causality: reflections on their compatibility in Husserl’s phenomenology of action

Spano, Nicola

doi:10.1007/s11097-020-09724-9

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This reading, distinguishing between general causal claims and singular causation, in fact mirrors Jaspers' own distinction between two different kinds of causality that seems in line with Husserl's distinction of volitional and natural causality (Spano, 2021;Husserl, 2020), yet sometimes renders Jaspers' arguments seemingly contradictory. While causal relations in the strict sense are, according to Jaspers, only to be found in the objectifiable outward observations of the natural sciences, (Jaspers, 1946, p. 250) he sometimes also employs a notion of causality that grasps the understandable subjective phenomena: understanding and explaining.…”

Section: Karl Jaspers: Explaining and Understandingsupporting

confidence: 55%

Karl Jaspers and artificial neural nets: on the relation of explaining and understanding artificial intelligence in medicine

Starke

Poppe

2022

Ethics Inf Technol

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Assistive systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) are bound to reshape decision-making in all areas of society. One of the most intricate challenges arising from their implementation in high-stakes environments such as medicine concerns their frequently unsatisfying levels of explainability, especially in the guise of the so-called black-box problem: highly successful models based on deep learning seem to be inherently opaque, resisting comprehensive explanations. This may explain why some scholars claim that research should focus on rendering AI systems understandable, rather than explainable. Yet, there is a grave lack of agreement concerning these terms in much of the literature on AI. We argue that the seminal distinction made by the philosopher and physician Karl Jaspers between different types of explaining and understanding in psychopathology can be used to promote greater conceptual clarity in the context of Machine Learning (ML). Following Jaspers, we claim that explaining and understanding constitute multi-faceted epistemic approaches that should not be seen as mutually exclusive, but rather as complementary ones as in and of themselves they are necessarily limited. Drawing on the famous example of Watson for Oncology we highlight how Jaspers’ methodology translates to the case of medical AI. Classical considerations from the philosophy of psychiatry can therefore inform a debate at the centre of current AI ethics, which in turn may be crucial for a successful implementation of ethically and legally sound AI in medicine.

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Section: Karl Jaspers: Explaining and Understandingsupporting

confidence: 55%

Karl Jaspers and artificial neural nets: on the relation of explaining and understanding artificial intelligence in medicine

Starke

Poppe

2022

Ethics Inf Technol

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“…On the explanatory account of motivational causality, seeCaminada (2019, 91-119),Spano (2021),Williams (2020aWilliams ( , 2020b.…”

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confidence: 99%

Phenomenological explanation: towards a methodological integration in phenomenological psychopathology

Summa

2022

Phenom Cogn Sci

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Whether, and in what sense, research in phenomenology and phenomenological psychopathology has—in addition to its descriptive and hermeneutic value—explanatory power is somewhat controversial. This paper shows why it is legitimate to recognize such explanatory power. To this end, the paper analyzes two central concerns underlying the debate about explanation in phenomenology: (a) the warning against reductionism, which is implicit in a conception of causal explanation exclusively based on models of natural/physical causation; and (b) the warning against top-down generalizations, which neglect the specificity of the individual. While acknowledging that these two caveats express serious concerns regarding the debate on explanatory models, I show that phenomenology has the resources to respond to them. These can be found in analyses of different types of causation relating to different regions of reality and in the structure of explanatory models based on exemplarity. On the basis of these analyses, I defend a pluralist account vis-à-vis explanatory models.

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Husserl’s Taxonomy of Action

Spano

2022

Husserl Stud

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In the present article I discuss, in confrontation with the most recent studies on Husserl’s phenomenology of acting and willing, the taxonomy of action that is collected in the volume ‘Wille und Handlung’ of the Husserliana edition Studien zur Struktur des Bewussteins. In so doing, I first present Husserl’s universal characterization of action (Handlung) as a volitional process (willentlicher Vorgang). Then, after clarifying what it means for a process to have a character of volitionality (Willentlichkeit), I illustrate the various types of actions, which Husserl distinguishes as ‘straightforward’ (schlicht) or ‘deciding’ (entscheidend), ‘primary’ (primär) or ‘secondary’ (sekundär), ‘inner’ (innere) or ‘outer’ (äußere), ‘immediate’ (unmittelbar) or mediate (mittelbar), ‘simple’ (einfach) or ‘compound’ (zusammengesetzt). Finally, I consider Husserl’s discussion of the direction and foundation of action.

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Volitional causality vs natural causality: reflections on their compatibility in Husserl’s phenomenology of action

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

Karl Jaspers and artificial neural nets: on the relation of explaining and understanding artificial intelligence in medicine

Karl Jaspers and artificial neural nets: on the relation of explaining and understanding artificial intelligence in medicine

Phenomenological explanation: towards a methodological integration in phenomenological psychopathology

Husserl’s Taxonomy of Action

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