https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/34600 2026-05-03T04:38:33Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/37297 Title: A colonial reading of Agamben’s ‘Homo Sacer’ Abstract: The aim of this work is to read Agamben’s political work through in the context of European colonialism. Although Agamben does not explore the colonial context in his development of a biopolitical discourse, it may be claimed that the colonial context cannot be ignored by anyone who wants to truly explore and understand the concepts that are developed by Agamben. The endeavour of this thesis is to utilise Agamben’s political philosophy and colonial studies in a mutually progressive manner. The central claim of this dissertation is that by reading Agamben through colonial studies Agamben’s work can be read as a more complete and critical work to explain the political phenomena of the modern period; and simultaneously by interpreting colonial readings through an Agambenian perspective, a new light is shed on the manner that colonialism functioned and produced the political paradigms that are still in effect in the contemporary state of affairs. Although the latter part of the twentieth century resulted in the process of decolonisation one can still experience remnants of this historical process like the Palestinian occupied territories or the unique status of the Indian reservations within the US borders. This dissertation also argues that the biopolitical mechanisms produced by the colonial powers are still at play in current political crises like the War on Terror or the Refugee crisis resulting from the Syrian civil war of 2011 onwards. Although Agamben claims that the camp is the biopolitical paradigm of the modern, this study attempts to argue that although this claim is true it also needs to be further qualified in colonial terms. Therefore the last chapter of this study claims that the camp is the dominating paradigm of modern politics but that the camp should be read as a colonial product and mechanism, thus inferring that colonialism functioned like a large scale concentration camp and that the mechanism of the concentration camp was created and designed by colonial authorities. The main focus of this dissertation revolved around Agamben’s Homo Sacer project that comprises a number of works but the main sources for this study is based around his published works, Homo Sacer (1995), Remnants of Auschwitz (1999) and The State of Exception (2005). In supporting the claims of this research other works were also taken into consideration and utilised as source material. Description: M.A.CONTEMPORARY WEST.PHIL. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/37293 Title: Awakening to the screen : an analysis of the human condition in the age of ubiquity Abstract: The disembodied and hyperconnected lives we lead in cyberspace leave tangible effects on the self and how it interacts with the environment it inhabits both online and offline. I will argue that our conception of reality has been altered by the development of ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1996) and its rapid and incessant spread since the end of the millennium. This is in part due to the ability – or rather the need (Turkle, 2005, 2011a) – to be constantly connected with others in the hybrid space (de Souza e Silva, 2004), which has brought about an amalgamation of what was previously viewed as the public and private spheres (Habermas, 1991; Arendt, 2012; Finlayson, 2016), resulting in a radical change in the characteristics, events and situations that form the essential experiences of human existence (Turkle, 2011b; Baudrillard, 1994; Jenkins, 2006, 2009). I also maintain that communication technology, together with the Global Market, has created a smaller world (Milgram, 1967; Dodds, Muhamad, Watts 2003; Fowler & Christakis, 2010) with regards to spatio-temporal distance (Virilio, 2005), but it has consequently led to a more isolated and disjointed self alienated from an increasingly more divided society (Baudrillard, 2014; Turkle, 2011a, 2011b; Vallor, 2011; Spinello, 2011). The role of philosophy at the start of this century is to examine and understand the transformation society and the individuals that form it have undergone in the digital age. In doing so, the goal of the philosopher should be to guide the globalised world towards an ethical and socio-politically beneficial relationship to ubiquitous computing. If we continue to use ubiquitous media with no contemplation on their impact on our very existence, we risk losing sight of what it means to be a human being and the vitality of human connections in a functional society. Description: M.A.CONTEMPORARY WEST.PHIL. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/37292 Title: An exploration of whether artificial intelligent systems can act as autonomous moral agents Abstract: With the progressions and rapid developments within the field of artificial intelligence, numerous predictions relating to an artificial intelligent system equipped with skills to strive towards a post-human reality, are divulged. Consequently, the aim of this dissertation is to object to such interpretations by firstly, examining the various contributions to define artificial ‘intelligence’, whilst expounding on whether systems can function in a conscious and autonomous manner. The philosophical study will then aim to explore the feasibility of artificial morality, where different strategies, such as the top-down, bottom-up and hybrid methodologies, will be assessed as effective modes for mechanisms which encounter and resolve moral dilemmas. Different ethical contenders will be presented so as to highlight the most effective strategy for implementation, with hope to discard the view that moral machines can treat human beings other than ends in themselves. Even though machine ethics is possible, a critique of whether a mechanism can, in actual fact, reveal characteristics that it is capable of ethical intellectuality and ethical decision making will be put forward. Decision making skills cannot be the proof for artificial rational processes, since ethical reasoning involves several kinds of cognitive processes. The study deduces that the skill of moral decision making involves the recognition of the true significance concerning moral dilemmas. This refers to an acknowledgment of a conflict between one’s self-regard and what is required from the moral standard. An allegory of an artificial system entangled within this kind of discord will be presented, arguing that the system’s dilemma cannot be considered as an actual moral disagreement, as it can never act in it self-interest. On the basis of these findings, a positive axiom will be disclosed, namely, that the existing and imminent artificial intelligences will not consider human beings as threats for their own well-being. Description: M.A.CONTEMPORARY WEST.PHIL. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/37291 Title: Tradition, transmission, transformation Abstract: Tradition can be understood as a universal device and as a particular expression within a community. Tradition-as-device operates on cultural knowledge as a transmission unit. Communities are partially composed by tradition-as-particularisation instantiated through its elements (ideas and practices). The dynamics of knowledge and transmission are investigated for effects on tradition change (i.e. modification to traditions-as- particularisations’ elements). Through schema theory and prototype theory, knowledge appears as interconnected, interactive with experience, malleable, recursive. Knowledge stems from conception and perception’s interaction. We can receive second-hand experience allowing for tradition-as-device. Tradition-as-device interacts with the lifeworld and fosters common ground by inaugurating primes (web of axioms) through rituals. Adherence displays degree-ness and equivocates to differing participation with elements and strength of primes for reasoning. Knowledge’s organisation reconfigures. Common grounds continuously establish and evaluate overlap in conception/perception between individuals. Schemas regulate information reception. Knowledge’s organisation reconfigures. Traditions-as- particularisations interact within multitradition adherents. Memory restructures knowledge in accordance to changing valence engendering transformation. Connectivity increases retention. Usage of knowledge affects memorisation. Communication’s intimating function permits introjections. Innovations/introduction affect tradition because of knowledge interconnectivity. Adherents reconceptualise themselves and their traditions-as- particularisations continuously in reaction to experience and environment. Tradition adherents conceive of heightened similarity as sameness allowing room for slow unrecognised mutation of information through progressive retransmission. Iterability captures variation within identity in continuity. Cumulative alteration leads to information loss. Information loss results in tradition-as-particularisation change. Description: M.A.CONTEMPORARY WEST.PHIL. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z