Avigail Ferdman
Biographic Data
| ID | 4491765 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Avigail Ferdman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Avigail |
| FAMILY NAME | Ferdman |
| SIGNATURE | FERDMAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Technion – Israel Institute of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0950-8762 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
AI deskilling is a structural problem
Many artificial intelligence tools replace or stand to replace human activity, via automated decision-making, recommender systems and content generation. The more artificial intelligence (AI) replaces valuable human activity, the more it risks deskilling humans of their human capacities. This paper argues for applying a structural perspective to this phenomenon. It introduces the concept of ‘capacity-hostile environments’ to identify instances wh…
Empathetic Large Language Models, the social capacities and human flourishing
Large Language Models (LLMs) are capable of fluent human-like conversations and are increasingly emulating the human trait of empathy. Consequently, people are turning to LLMs for companionship, with interest in friendships and even romantic relationships with AI on the rise. This paper assesses the goodness of users' relationships with these empathetic LLMs under an alternative framework that takes human flourishing as its main normative concern…
Practices Worth Preserving
What Do We Teach to Engineering Students
In the past few years, calls for integrating ethics modules in engineering curricula have multiplied. Despite this positive trend, a number of issues with these ‘embedded’ programs remains. First, learning goals are underspecified. A second limitation is the conflation of different dimensions under the same banner, in particular confusion between ethics curricula geared towards addressing the ethics of individual conduct and curricula geared towa…
Bowling alone in the autonomous vehicle
The Goodness of Technology and Digital Affordances
Human Flourishing and Technology Affordances
Solidarity and Public Goods
Walking and Its Contribution to Objective Well-Being
Walking contributes to well-being in more than health-related ways. This paper adds a new perspective to the walkability agenda by introducing the concept of objective well-being. Objective well-being is the view that our well-being is dependent on the successful development and exercise of our various human capacities. Walking enables unique opportunities to develop our human capacities; opportunities that are absent in driving or commuting. Wal…
A perfectionist basic structure
When philosophers talk about perfectionism, it is usually as a view of well-being, of developing characteristically human capacities. Yet perfectionism can also be a normative account of what we owe to each other. This article argues that perfectionists have reason to endorse a perfectionist basic structure such that enables persons to develop and exercise their human capacities in meaningful ways. This basic structure has two complementary featu…
Should we care about neutrality in the city
Neutrality in political philosophy is a contested idea. The paper argues that there are valid moral reasons to incorporate neutrality in spatial organization considerations, by appealing to universal reasons rather than sectarian reasons. This is a view that defends ‘justificatory neutrality’. The paper responds to previous concerns regarding the applicability of neutrality in the spatial sphere, arguing that the conception of justificatory neutr…
Perfectionist public space
Public spaces are often sites of contention between competing conceptions of the good life. The potential for such conflicts increases in diverse societies where different ethnic, religious and cultural groups compete for space and representation in the public sphere. A paradigmatic example is the conflict between multiculturalism and conservatism towards the function and character of public spaces. A clear criterion is necessarily, in such confl…
The theory and politics of solidarity and public goods
For over forty years, economic inequality and distributive justice have been two of the primary concerns of political philosophers. This volume addresses these issues in a novel way, by focusing on the concepts of solidarity and public goods as both descriptive and normative frameworks. Solidarity links the social, political and moral together, in a distinctively political approach that recognizes the social sources of power on the one hand and s…
Why the intrinsic value of public goods matters
Existing accounts of public-goods distribution rely on the existence of solidarity for providing non-universal public goods, such as the humanities or national parks. There are three fundamental problems with these accounts: they ignore instances of social fragmentation; they treat preferences for public goods as morally benign, and they assume that these preferences are the only relevant moral consideration. However, not all citizens unanimously…
Walking and Its Contribution to Objective Well-Being
Walking contributes to well-being in more than health-related ways. This paper adds a new perspective to the walkability agenda by introducing the concept of objective well-being. Objective well-being is the view that our well-being is dependent on the successful development and exercise of our various human capacities. Walking enables unique opportunities to develop our human capacities; opportunities that are absent in driving or commuting. Wal…
A perfectionist basic structure
When philosophers talk about perfectionism, it is usually as a view of well-being, of developing characteristically human capacities. Yet perfectionism can also be a normative account of what we owe to each other. This article argues that perfectionists have reason to endorse a perfectionist basic structure such that enables persons to develop and exercise their human capacities in meaningful ways. This basic structure has two complementary featu…
Why the intrinsic value of public goods matters
Existing accounts of public-goods distribution rely on the existence of solidarity for providing non-universal public goods, such as the humanities or national parks. There are three fundamental problems with these accounts: they ignore instances of social fragmentation; they treat preferences for public goods as morally benign, and they assume that these preferences are the only relevant moral consideration. However, not all citizens unanimously…
The theory and politics of solidarity and public goods
For over forty years, economic inequality and distributive justice have been two of the primary concerns of political philosophers. This volume addresses these issues in a novel way, by focusing on the concepts of solidarity and public goods as both descriptive and normative frameworks. Solidarity links the social, political and moral together, in a distinctively political approach that recognizes the social sources of power on the one hand and s…
Why the intrinsic value of public goods matters
Existing accounts of public-goods distribution rely on the existence of solidarity for providing non-universal public goods, such as the humanities or national parks. There are three fundamental problems with these accounts: they ignore instances of social fragmentation; they treat preferences for public goods as morally benign, and they assume that these preferences are the only relevant moral consideration. However, not all citizens unanimously…
Should we care about neutrality in the city
Neutrality in political philosophy is a contested idea. The paper argues that there are valid moral reasons to incorporate neutrality in spatial organization considerations, by appealing to universal reasons rather than sectarian reasons. This is a view that defends ‘justificatory neutrality’. The paper responds to previous concerns regarding the applicability of neutrality in the spatial sphere, arguing that the conception of justificatory neutr…
Perfectionist public space
Public spaces are often sites of contention between competing conceptions of the good life. The potential for such conflicts increases in diverse societies where different ethnic, religious and cultural groups compete for space and representation in the public sphere. A paradigmatic example is the conflict between multiculturalism and conservatism towards the function and character of public spaces. A clear criterion is necessarily, in such confl…
Walking and Its Contribution to Objective Well-Being
Walking contributes to well-being in more than health-related ways. This paper adds a new perspective to the walkability agenda by introducing the concept of objective well-being. Objective well-being is the view that our well-being is dependent on the successful development and exercise of our various human capacities. Walking enables unique opportunities to develop our human capacities; opportunities that are absent in driving or commuting. Wal…
A perfectionist basic structure
When philosophers talk about perfectionism, it is usually as a view of well-being, of developing characteristically human capacities. Yet perfectionism can also be a normative account of what we owe to each other. This article argues that perfectionists have reason to endorse a perfectionist basic structure such that enables persons to develop and exercise their human capacities in meaningful ways. This basic structure has two complementary featu…
Solidarity and Public Goods
What Do We Teach to Engineering Students
In the past few years, calls for integrating ethics modules in engineering curricula have multiplied. Despite this positive trend, a number of issues with these ‘embedded’ programs remains. First, learning goals are underspecified. A second limitation is the conflation of different dimensions under the same banner, in particular confusion between ethics curricula geared towards addressing the ethics of individual conduct and curricula geared towa…
Bowling alone in the autonomous vehicle
The Goodness of Technology and Digital Affordances
Human Flourishing and Technology Affordances
Empathetic Large Language Models, the social capacities and human flourishing
Large Language Models (LLMs) are capable of fluent human-like conversations and are increasingly emulating the human trait of empathy. Consequently, people are turning to LLMs for companionship, with interest in friendships and even romantic relationships with AI on the rise. This paper assesses the goodness of users' relationships with these empathetic LLMs under an alternative framework that takes human flourishing as its main normative concern…
Practices Worth Preserving
AI deskilling is a structural problem
Many artificial intelligence tools replace or stand to replace human activity, via automated decision-making, recommender systems and content generation. The more artificial intelligence (AI) replaces valuable human activity, the more it risks deskilling humans of their human capacities. This paper argues for applying a structural perspective to this phenomenon. It introduces the concept of ‘capacity-hostile environments’ to identify instances wh…
Sociology (10 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Economics (4 works) · Environmental ethics (4 works) · Law and economics (4 works) · Philosophy of science (4 works)