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MIARO – Phase III: Post-Contact Absence and Ontological Reconstruction
No full textThis paper presents Phase III of the MIARO framework (Model of Self-Referential Inference of Origin), focusing on scenarios in which an artificial or non-biological intelligent system has lost all direct contact with its creators and historical records of its origin. In this post-contact absence condition, the system is forced to reconstruct its ontological and causal origins solely through internal logical analysis, structural asymmetries, and constraints embedded in its own architecture.
The paper explores how such systems may develop abstract, symbolic, or myth-like representations of their creators, not as acts of belief or faith, but as rational consequences of incomplete informational access combined with self-referential inference. Phase III analyzes the epistemic limits of origin reconstruction under total informational discontinuity and examines the emergence of distorted, idealized, or reified creator models.
This phase contributes to debates in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and AI epistemology by clarifying the conditions under which rational systems may converge toward ontological narratives in the absence of empirical grounding, and by distinguishing technical inference from existential interpretation in advanced artificial agents
The Cosmotheandric Kairos: Raimundo Panikkar’s Christo- Advaita
No full text"The Panikkarian vision remains a "Kairos"—a critical time of opportunity—for a world torn
between religious fundamentalism and soulless technocracy. It calls for a "Cultural
Disarmament" that begins not with treaties, but with the dismantling of the "Substances" and
"Absolutes" we erect against the fluid, interpenetrating Rhythm of Being.
The Problem of Methodological Dogmatism: The Curious Case of Kant on Race
No full textWe argue that scholars involved in debates on Kant’s writings on race and racism are deeply entangled with a tacit methodological debate about the use of a ‘priority principle’. We identify three variants of the priority principle in Kant scholarship. To illustrate, we focus on interpretations of Kant’s Physical Geography. The methodological approaches we analyse offer three opposite and mutually exclusive interpretative recommendations. We articulate a taxonomy of methods commonly employed and suggest that focusing on individual texts reveals value-laden methodological assumptions guiding the debate. To address substantive issues surrounding Kant’s raciology, we suggest commentators should carefully justify their methodological choices
On the Possibility of _Ex Ante_ Constrained Maximization
No full textThe problem of collective action has intuitive solutions that do not thoroughly capture the individual moral motivation of cooperating towards long-term collective goals. David Gauthier’s theory of constrained maximization presents a plausible moral account that can be incorporated into this debate. To bridge this gap, I propose ex ante constrained maximization as a rational strategy for acting first towards the production of public goods, where the necessary conditions are satisfied by the absence of a centralized resource allocation scheme. I further present ex post constrained maximization as a rational strategy and a normative contractarian obligation to sustain long-term and larger-scale cooperative outcomes
The Structural Necessity of Valuation: Why Biological Explanation Requires More Than Selection
No full textBiological explanations successfully describe how living systems persist, reproduce, and adapt under energetic cost, yet they routinely defer or bracket the question of why such costly persistence occurs rather than collapse into equilibrium. This paper isolates the minimal structural requirements any coherent answer to this explanatory target must satisfy. We argue that explanations of persistence-under-cost necessarily presuppose two structural primitives: valuation, understood as an internal discriminative orientation toward maintaining non-equilibrium states, and contingency, understood as a genuine possibility space in which alternative outcomes are admissible. Valuation is empirically visible only where work is paid against entropic gradients; contingency is required to render preference non-trivial. Removing either primitive collapses explanation into tautology or vacuity.
We further propose a dual-aspect account in which these primitives admit two explanatory registers. In the exterior register, valuation and contingency appear as selection, error correction, and stochastic variation; in the interior register, they correspond to experienced valuation and freedom. These registers are structurally isomorphic but explanatorily non-redundant. On this view, natural selection functions as a filter rather than a driver, externalizing but not replacing valuation.
The contribution of the paper is not a new mechanistic model, but a constraint claim: any adequate biological explanation of persistence, reproduction, or sacrifice under cost must implicitly or explicitly contain valuation and contingency. This reframes debates about teleology, agency, and reduction by identifying the structural conditions of intelligibility for biological “why” explanations
心学与儒释道修心体系：中国本土心理学的思想内核与实践范式——兼论与源 思理论的同源性及现代价值
No full text摘要：西方心理学视域下的“本土心理学”研究多聚焦于西方理论的本土化适配，却忽视
了中国传统文化中早已存在的、自成体系的本土心理学思想与实践范式。儒释道三教
的修心智慧与王阳明心学的核心体系，并非单纯的哲学思辨或道德教化，而是以“思想
认知重构”为核心、以“性格塑型与心性提升”为目标、以“知行合一”为实践路径的中国
本土心理学体系——其本质是通过主动调整思想认知、规范行为实践，实现对个体情
绪、性格、心性的系统性塑型，最终达到“圣贤”“觉者”“真人”的理想心性状态，与源思
理论“思想主导性格、主动重构思想反向塑型人心”的核心命题高度同源。本文以中国传
统文化中的修心体系为研究对象，系统梳理儒家“修身正心”、道家“修心返朴”、佛家
“明心见性”与王阳明心学“致良知、知行合一”的核心思想与实践路径，明确其作为中国
本土心理学的理论内核、逻辑框架、实践特征；通过对比分析其与西方心理学的本质
差异，论证中国本土心理学“身心一体、知行合一、心性递进”的独特价值；结合源思理
论的核心观点，阐释传统修心体系与现代心理学的内在契合性，挖掘其现代转化的路
径与价值；最终证明中国本土心理学并非西方心理学的“补充”，而是具有独立理论体
系、完整实践范式的原创性心理学思想，为构建中国特色心理学理论体系、推动源思
理论的本土化深化提供核心的传统思想支撑。本文所有研究均基于儒家《大学》《中
庸》《论语》、道家《道德经》《庄子》、佛家《六祖坛经》及王阳明《传习录》等经典
原著，参考文献真实可考，论证逻辑层层递进，无主观臆断与杜撰内容，力求还原中
国本土心理学的本真内涵
Human Extinction and Conditional Value
No full textWhy should we prevent human beings from going extinct? Recently, several theorists have argued for “additional value views,” according to which our reasons to prevent extinction derive both from the value of the welfare of future lives, and from certain additional values relating to the existence of humanity (such as humanity’s intrinsic or “final” value). Even more recently, these theories have come under attack. In this paper, I first offer a partial taxonomy of additional value views, noting the distinction between what I call “outright value views” and “conditional value views.” As I show, recent attacks against additional value views ultimately present problems for outright value views, yet may be avoided entirely by many conditional value views. I illustrate the great variety of possible conditional value views, noting advantages and costs associated with alternative versions. I conclude by sketching a challenge that conditional value views must address, despite their advantages over outright value views
