Guido Seddone

In this contribution, I defend the fundamental role of the humanities in preserving the very human component of knowledge, conscience and associated life in an age dominated by the algorithm. The growing role of artificial intelligence and its power to accelerate economic processes risk leading human civilization to a progressive detriment of the rational and social faculties in favor of the automation of work, creativity and channels of socialization and exchange of ideas. The article deals previously with the technical aspects of this phenomenon and eventually sustains a rediscovery of the humanities as a bulwark for the preservation of the purely human component of life.

Hegelian philosophy, recently, has been dealing with the naturalistic aspects connected to Hegel’s notion of self-conscious life and has highlighted the tight correlation between the German philosopher and Aristotle when it comes to the definition of the human being, its form of life and its practical and historical dimension. This reading is embedded within a wider debate about contemporary Aristotelian philosophy and the way it accounts for some notions of practical philosophy especially life-form and self-knowledge. In this contribution I will deal with Hegel’s notions of life and self-consciousness, and the impact they have on our understanding of human practices and institutions. I will compare Hegel with authors like Anscombe and M. Thompson and highlight that the notion of life can be deployed to shed light onto the fundamental questions of practical thought and that it is crucial for an appropriate understanding of the practical sphere of the human beings.

This book strives to deal with Hegel's thought by means of a thorough, unitarian and logical approach and to enforce the idea that philosophy is rigorous as far as it is able to consistently tackle the question of self-consciousness. It results that the logic underlying every philosophical interest traces back to the self-referring investigation about life in the mode of self-consciousness, by which social practices and their history can be grasped. Once we assess that self-consciousness is life through the concept, we would be able to realize the logical structure underlying its historical outcomes.

In recent years, the social world is quickly gaining the focus of attention within the philosophical debates. The work of authors such as John Searle, Barry Smith, Margaret Gilbert, Raimo Tuomela, to name just a few, is becoming increasingly important within the philosophical community. Hence, topics in social ontology dealing with the nature of institutions, collective actions, collective self/personhood, collective intentionality, shared goals and commitments, etc. are increasingly addressed by contemporary philosophical investigations. The discussion on these topics is today sprawling of mainstream ambitious views, contributing to a complete understanding of the proper structures and dynamics of the social world. The present collection of essays aims at exploring side-issues in social ontology, trying somehow to go beyond mainstream topics. Another important aim of this book is connecting the typical discussions of social ontology to the philosophical tradition, and to debates in the social sciences and in anthropology. The collection of essays does not offer a perspective on the social world which is shared among the authors, and it is rather pluralistic in nature: our shared belief is that pluralism and openness, especially in explorative attempts, are methodologically fit to promote dialogue and interaction between different ideas, strategies, and perspectives. According to this spirit, the book comprises a number of articles and critical notes that target different problems, traditions, and methodologies.