Moral Certainty

Hermann, Julia

doi:10.1057/9781137447180_5

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Before investigating last case, we clarify the criterion 'certain cannot be meaningfully uttered in ordinary context' (Hermann, 2015). Shortly written, the certainty is about something that could not be expressed, communicated, even to ourselves, nor it is an emotion or feeling (Lupyan & Winter, 2018;Zdrazilova et al, 2018).…”

Section: Inarticulate Certainty (Sixth Case)mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Let us consider a second case and feature of moral certainty, namely 'everyone seems to know the issue in question' (Hermann, 2015). Let us look firstly into numbers and remember that we consider ex-ante state of the algorithm.…”

Section: Shared Issues and Numbers (Second Case)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Let us consider the fourth case, 'mistakes are impossible' (Hermann, 2015). Before delving into, we clarify the notion of mistake as the error in judgment involving choice and decision by describing the most idealized circumstances when and where a mistake is nearly impossible, very unlikely or a mere accident.…”

Section: Unanticipated Mistake (Fourth Case)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Let us consider the fifth case, the one dealing with 'no supporting reason that are more certain' (Hermann, 2015) 6 . We could ask then about the circumstances in which more certain moral givens would not change the claim.…”

Section: Additional Reason and Certainty (Fifth Case)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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On Algorithmic Opacity and Moral Certainty

Litvinski¹

2020

Preprint

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In modern society, algorithms play an important role in social and cultural realms, in political and economic spheres. In spite of algorithmic pervasiveness in many areas and wide diffusion in digital life, algorithmic opacity is still poorly understood compared to other ethical issues (e.g., fairness, accountability, and transparency). In this essay, we try to elucidate the relation between algorithmic opacity and moral certainty from the individualistic standpoint and through the virtue ethic perspective. For doing so, we follow hermeneutic tradition and rely on interpretation of recent authors and impactful papers. We summarize our argument as follows: if the algorithm is understood as the combination of rules and numbers we create for simplifying our lives and sharing with others, then our present activities and future actions as imagined, realized or missed, ascertain if algorithmic opacity become a moral issue or problem for us and others. Among the implications, we emphasize that sometime dormant and hard to anticipate, algorithmic opacity becomes an apparent during executions, deployments and prolonged uses of algorithmic systems. Moreover, our lived experience and disharmony between our unrealized expectations and unanticipated algorithmic behavior may lead to moral issues and problems for us and others. Overall, algorithmic opacity may constantly evade the formalization efforts (e.g., outlining as guidelines, principles) or quantification exercises (e.g., assigning numerical values to symbols or signs), both of which are essentially social practices.

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Section: Inarticulate Certainty (Sixth Case)mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Shared Issues and Numbers (Second Case)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Unanticipated Mistake (Fourth Case)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Additional Reason and Certainty (Fifth Case)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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