It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, February 21, 2025
Selfhood is a precondition for true community
In his new book Being We, Professor Dan Zahavi shares the results of five years of research into communal experience. He argues that being part of a we requires an experiential anchoring; an identification with the group.
Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Centre for Subjectivity Research. His primary research area is phenomenology and philosophy of mind and their intersection with empirical disciplines such as psychiatry and psychology.
Comedian Groucho Marx famously once said that he did not wish to be a member of any club that would accept his membership. Marx’ comment, joking aside, highlights a key aspect of the communal experience; that you cannot be a member of a we, a community, without somehow endorsing that membership yourself.
- By birthright, we may belong to a variety of groups such as class, ethnicity or blood type, but group memberships that can be determined on the basis of objective markers are not particularly useful when trying to understand what it means to be part of a we, says Professor Dan Zahavi from the University of Copenhagen.
Professor Zahavi’s new book Being We: Phenomenological Contributions to Social Ontology explores what it takes to constitute a we with others and how being part of a we affects one’s sense of self. He adds:
- It is important to understand that a we is a particular kind of social formation distinguishable from e.g. the ones based purely on shared objective features inasmuch as you can be a member of such a group – possessing citizenship, for example – without ever having decided to. To be part of a we, you have to experience yourself as one of us. It involves subjective endorsement.
Community first? In many recent scholarly accounts of the collective and the self, however, the collective is considered prior to the individual. Some go even further and claim that the self is nonexistent, but Dan Zahavi is skeptical of such claims:
- There is no doubt that communities and groups are extremely important to the values and beliefs we form over the course of our lives. No one disagrees with that. The problem is that the great importance that communities have for us also leads many to assume that our self-identity depends solely on the group or groups we belong to, says Dan Zahavi and continues:
- But we need to be careful here: While some dimensions of self are clearly social and first established through socialization, a proper appreciation of our experiential life also has to recognize its intrinsic subjectivity. The experiences we as human beings have involve a point of view, they come with perspectival ownership, and this feature is not a social construction.
Selfhood, argues Zahavi, is both what allows us to mark our difference to others and what permits us to share a perspective with them. To deny the self is real is by the very same token to deny the reality of the community.
- In other words, if you eliminate the first-person singular, you also lose the first-person plural.
I, we – and you Even though one has to identify with a we in order to become a member, it is not, Dan Zahavi points out, sufficient for obtaining membership. Since a we obviously consists of more than one member.
So if we wish to understand what it means to share a belief, an intention, an emotional experience or, more generally, a perspective with others, we also need to look at how we come to understand and relate to others in the first place.
- To understand the nature of a we, it is not enough to look at the relation between I and we. We also have to look at the relationship between the members of a we. And here second-person engagement and the communicative intertwinement it allows for is of crucial importance, says Dan Zahavi and concludes:
- There are, of course, important differences between dyadic kinds of we where the members know each other in person and the kinds of large-scale we, like religious communities or national communities, whose members have never met, but who are nevertheless united via shared rituals, traditions and normative expectations. But the latter would never have become possible were it not for the direct, embodied, experiential sharing that we find in the I-you relationship.
About Dan Zahavi Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Centre for Subjectivity Research. His primary research area is phenomenology and philosophy of mind and their intersection with empirical disciplines such as psychiatry and psychology.
Since 2020, Zahavi has been the principal investigator on two large research projects focusing on the nature of the we, which are supported by the European Research Council and the Carlsberg Foundation. Zahavi’s writings have been translated into more than 30 languages.
TRUMPWORLD
Study: Countries across the world use more land for golf courses than wind or solar energy
While the land requirements of renewable energy projects are often criticized in public debates, this study highlights a striking contrast: vast areas are allocated to golf courses, which serve a relatively small, often affluent population. The study shows that in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, far more land is allocated to golf courses than to renewable energy facilities. In the top ten countries with the most golf courses, an area equivalent to that used for golf could support up to 842 GW of solar and 659 GW of wind capacity—exceeding current installed capacity in many cases.
Golf courses typically require large amounts of water and chemical treatments, leading to a significantenvironmental impact. In contrast, renewable energy installations such as solar farms and wind turbines offer a sustainable land use option while directly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Utility-scale solar farms require approximately 0.01 km² of land per megawatt (MW), while wind farms require around 0.12 km² per MW, though only a small fraction of this land is actually impacted by turbines and infrastructure.Additionally, built-up land such as golf courses is often overlooked in renewable energy potential analyses, emphasizing the need to rethink land use priorities.
Dr. Jann Weinand, lead author of the study and Head of the Integrated Scenarios department at the Institute Jülich Systems Analysis at Forschungszentrum Jülich, says: “Our study does not advocate for the direct conversion of golf courses, but it highlights the vast potential for renewable energy on similarly large and underutilized areas. In light of the ongoing debates about land use for renewables, it is crucial to consider how we allocate land overall—especially when significant space is dedicated to activities that benefit only a limited segment of the population.”
ENDS
For more information contact:
Faye Holst, communications manager at IOP Publishing
About IOP Publishing IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, delivering impact, recognition and value to the scientific community. Its purpose is to expand the world of physics, offering a portfolio of journals, ebooks, conference proceedings and science news resources globally.
IOPP is a member of Purpose-Led Publishing, a coalition of society publishers who pledge to put purpose above profit.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit society, IOP Publishing supports the Institute’s work to inspire people to develop their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of physics. Visit ioppublishing.org to learn more.
Countries across the world use more land for golf courses than wind or solar energy
Article Publication Date
27-Feb-2025
Iberian nailed head ritual was more complex than expected
The isotope analysis of the Puig Castellar and Ullastret sites point to different mobility patterns in these individuals, who would not have been randomly selected.
The nailed heads ritual did not correspond to the same symbolic expression among the Iberian communities of the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, but rather a practice that differed in each settlement. In some, external individuals were used as symbols of power and intimidation, while other settlements could have given priority to the veneration of members of the local community.
This is the conclusion reached by a study led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) which analyses the mobility patterns of these human communities existing in the Iron Age of the last millenium BCE. Researchers studied seven nailed skulls of men found in two sites dating back to this period: the city of Ullastret (found in the same town of the province of Girona) and the settlement of Puig Castellar (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona).
The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, was coordinated by researchers from the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology of the UAB and also included the collaboration of researchers from the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia (MAC), the Museum Torre Balldovina and the universities of Lleida, Bordeaux (France), and Tübingen (Germany).
Severed heads: more than just simple war trophies
Severed heads were a unique funerary practice within the Iberian world and represent an exceptional opportunity to analyse these communities, of which very little archaeological record exists since cremation was the predominant burial ritual. This practice consisted of the public exhibition of the skulls of certain individuals, subjected to a post-mortem treatment. Some of these skulls have been recovered with signs of nailing and in some cases with an iron nail still in place.
“Who were these individuals and for what were their heads used?” Traditionally, archaeologists have debated whether the skulls were war trophies — to intimidate their enemies — or venerated relics of important community members. These hypotheses, however, based on oral and ethnographic sources, have not yet been verified, nor has there been in-depth studies on the relationship between these groups and the land they inhabited. “Our premise in approaching the study was that if they were war trophies they would not come from the sites analysed, while if they were venerated individuals, these would most likely be local”, explains Rubén de la Fuente-Seoane, archaeologist at the UAB and first author of the study.
“Our results reveal that the individuals from Puig Castellar and Ullastret would not have been randomly selected. There would have been a homogeneous trend towards men in these rituals. However, the mobility and localisation patterns suggest a greater diversity, which could also imply social and cultural differences among the individuals of the two communities,” says the UAB researcher.
Isotope analysis reveals differences between the sites
To carry out the study, the research team combined bioarchaeology and the analysis of stable strontium and oxygen isotopes in the dental enamel of seven severed skulls of men recovered from Puig Castellar and Ullastret, together with archaeozoological data and a detailed sampling of sediment and vegetation collected in the vecinity of the sites. The results of the strontium isotopes of the sediment and vegetation allowed researchers to define the reference range of the strontium in the area near each site (bioavailable strontium). This in turn made it possible to discern which individuals coincided or not with this range and, therefore, identify whether they were local or not.
“At Puig Castellar the isotope values of three of the four individuals differ significantly from the local strontium reference, which suggests that they were probably not from the local community. In contrast, Ullastret revealed a mixture of local and non-local origins. This result suggests that the practice of severed heads was applied in a different way at each site, which seems to rule out a homogeneous symbolic expression. But more research is needed to be sure”, says de la Fuente-Seoane.
The fact that in Puig Castellar the skulls were exposed in an area such as the wall makes the researchers opt for the hypothesis that the reason for their exposure was aimed at the demonstration of power and coercion, both for internal repression and towards a group outside the community. In the case of Ullastret, the two local individuals were found in a street, in the middle of the city, which suggests that they were exhibited on a wall or doorway of the adjacent houses. This fact would provide support to the hypothesis suggesting that they could have belonged to important people of this community, venerated or vindicated by its inhabitants. A third Ullastret skull, of possible foreign origin, was found in one of the external walls of the settlement, which could represent a war trophy.
New tools to help understand the Iberian society
The results of the study reveal for the first time direct evidence of human mobility patterns during the Iron Age in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, and provide new perspectives on the territorialisation contexts of northeastern Iberia.
Previous research on Iberian territorial management suggested differences in how these societies exploited the resources surrounding them. With this study researchers were able to see that the skulls found at Puig Castellar and Ullastret also show different mobility patterns, given that the values of the humans and their relationship with the values of the area are completely different in each site. The faunal samples also reveal a very differentiated resource management, in coherence with the typology of each of the settlements.
“This differentiation reflects a dynamic and complex society with important local and external interactions. Our study is a first approach to this archaeological problem using a method that is revolutionising the way we study mobility in the past. At the same time, it suggests that the selection of individuals for the severed heads ritual was more complex than initially thought”, indicates Rubén de la Fuente-Seoane.
The study underlines the importance of integrating bioarchaeological and isotope data to improve the understanding of social structures and human interactions in the past. “We have established a local strontium reference based on a rigorous protocol, applying in humans a pioneering methodology in Catalonia that, moreover, serves as a first step towards the creation of a Catalan map of bioavailable strontium. This will favour other future studies and the group of archaeologists studying mobility”, concludes the UAB researcher.
Territorialisation and human mobility during the Iron Age in NE Iberia: An approach through Isotope Analyses of the Severed Heads from Puig Castellar (Barcelona, Spain) and Ullastret (Girona, Spain)
Sweden's Viking Age population appears to have suffered from severe oral and maxillofacial disease, sinus and ear infections, osteoarthritis, and much more. This is shown in a study from the University of Gothenburg in which Viking skulls were examined using modern X-ray techniques.
About a year ago saw the publication of research based on the examination of a large number of teeth from the Viking Age population of Varnhem in the Swedish province of Västergötland. Varnhem is known for its thousands of ancient graves and excavations of well-preserved skeletons.
Now, odontologists at the University of Gothenburg have taken this research further, looking at not only teeth but also entire skulls, by using modern computed tomography, also known as CT scans.
Detailed image analysis
The results presented in British Dental Journal Open suggest that the fifteen individuals whose skulls were examined suffered from a broad range of diseases. The CT scans show pathological bone growths in the cranium and jawbone, revealing infections and other conditions.
Several individuals showed signs of having suffered from sinus or ear infections that left traces in the adjacent bone structures. Signs of osteoarthritis and various dental diseases were also found. All the skulls came from adults who died between 20 and 60 years of age.
The study lead, Carolina Bertilsson, is an assistant researcher at the University of Gothenburg and a dentist within Sweden's Public Dental Service. The study was performed with specialists in dental radiology at the University of Gothenburg and an archaeologist from Västergötlands museum.
Together, they conducted the examinations and analyzed the images. CT scans provide three-dimensional images that enable researchers to study in detail the various types of skeletal damage, layer by layer, in the different parts of the skull.
Greater understanding
"There was much to look at. We found many signs of disease in these individuals. Exactly why we don't know. While we can't study the damage in the soft tissue because it's no longer there, we can see the traces left in the skeletal structures," says Carolina Bertilsson, and continues:
"The results of the study provide greater understanding of these people's health and wellbeing. Everyone knows what it's like to have pain somewhere, you can get quite desperate for help. But back then, they didn't have the medical and dental care we do, or the kind of pain relief – and antibiotics – we now have. If you developed an infection, it could stick around for a long time."
The study is described as a pilot study. One important aspect was to test CT as a method for future and more extensive studies."Very many of today's archaeological methods are invasive, with the need to remove bone or other tissue for analysis. This way, we can keep the remains completely intact yet still extract a great deal of information," says Carolina Bertilsson.
Computed tomography provide 3D photos and the possibility of advanced image analysis where layer by layer of bones, jaw bones and teeth are studied in detail .
Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly large language models like GPT-4, has shown impressive performance on reasoning tasks. But does AI truly understand abstract concepts, or is it just mimicking patterns? A new study from the University of Amsterdam and the Santa Fe Institute reveals that while GPT models perform well on some analogy tasks, they fall short when the problems are altered, highlighting key weaknesses in AI’s reasoning capabilities.
Analogical reasoning is the ability to draw a comparison between two different things based on their similarities in certain aspects. It is one of the most common methods by which human beings try to understand the world and make decisions. An example of analogical reasoning: cup is to coffee as soup is to ??? (the answer being: bowl)
Large language models like GPT-4 perform well on various tests, including those requiring analogical reasoning. But can AI models truly engage in general, robust reasoning or do they over-rely on patterns from their training data? This study by language and AI experts Martha Lewis (Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam) and Melanie Mitchell (Santa Fe Institute) examined whether GPT models are as flexible and robust as humans in making analogies. ‘This is crucial, as AI is increasingly used for decision-making and problem-solving in the real world’, explains Lewis.
Comparing AI models to human performance
Lewis and Mitchell compared the performance of humans and GPT models on three different types of analogy problems:
Letter sequences – Identifying patterns in letter sequences and completing them correctly.
Digit matrices – Analyzing number patterns and determining the missing numbers.
Story analogies – Understanding which of two stories best corresponds to a given example story.
A system that truly understands analogies should maintain high performance even on variations
In addition to testing whether GPT models could solve the original problems, the study examined how well they performed when the problems were subtly modified. ‘A system that truly understands analogies should maintain high performance even on these variations’, state the authors in their article.
GPT models struggle with robustness
Humans maintained high performance on most modified versions of the problems, but GPT models, while performing well on standard analogy problems, struggled with variations. ‘This suggests that AI models often reason less flexibly than humans and their reasoning is less about true abstract understanding and more about pattern matching’, explains Lewis.
In digit matrices, GPT models showed a significant drop in performance when the position of the missing number changed. Humans had no difficulty with this. In story analogies, GPT-4 tended to select the first given answer as correct more often, whereas humans were not influenced by answer order. Additionally, GPT-4 struggled more than humans when key elements of a story were reworded, suggesting a reliance on surface-level similarities rather than deeper causal reasoning.
On simpler analogy tasks, GPT models showed a decline in performance decline when tested on modified versions, while humans remained consistent. However, for more complex analogical reasoning tasks, both humans and AI struggled.
Weaker than human cognition
This research challenges the widespread assumption that AI models like GPT-4 can reason in the same way humans do. ‘While AI models demonstrate impressive capabilities, this does not mean they truly understand what they are doing’, conclude Lewis and Mitchell. ‘Their ability to generalize across variations is still significantly weaker than human cognition. GPT models often rely on superficial patterns rather than deep comprehension.’
This is a critical warning for the use of AI in important decision-making areas such as education, law, and healthcare. AI can be a powerful tool, but it is not yet a replacement for human thinking and reasoning.
