A Functional Naturalism

I provide two arguments against value-free naturalism. Both are based on considerations concerning biological teleology. Value-free naturalism is the thesis that both (1) everything is, at least in principle, under the purview of the sciences and (2) all scientific facts are purely non-evaluative. First, I advance a counterexample to any analysis on which natural selection is necessary to biological teleology. This should concern the value-free naturalist, since most value-free analyses of biological teleology appeal to natural selection. My counterexample is unique in that it is likely to actually occur. It concerns the creation of synthetic life. Recent developments in synthetic biology suggest scientists will eventually be able to develop synthetic life. Such life, however, would not have any of its traits naturally selected for. Second, I develop a simple argument that biological teleology is a scientific but value-laden notion. Consequently, value-free naturalism is false. I end with some concluding remarks on the implications for naturalism, the thesis that (1). Naturalism may be salvaged only if we reject (2). (2) is a dogma that unnecessarily constrains our conception of the sciences. Only a naturalism that recognizes value-laden notions as scientifically respectable can be true. Such a naturalism is a functional naturalism

Building-as-a-service: theoretical foundations and conceptual framework

The provision of data with information management are a significant challenge for the digital developing construction industry. The utilisation of data from a built asset’s planning, design, and construction phases to the operations phase core and to the facility management function of building and integration in supporting core business and support services is frequently limited due to technical obstacles in information management. The paper presents the second of three stages of design science research to propose a conceptual approach for the implementation of the “as-a-service” method for the construction industry, namely “Building-as-a-Service” (BaaS). BaaS involves a shift in the concept of services: users become recipients of services generated by the building, not only services provided in the building. The paper shows the interdependencies between these various concepts and suggests a possible framework for the inclusion of these “as-a-Service” approaches for enabling a Digital Twin based on Building Information Modelling, which is becoming mandatory in several European states. The study gathered the foundational theoretical constructs through a literature review and elucidated them to make the proposed framework feasible. The theoretical foundations comprise Building Information Modelling (BIM), the Digital Twin (DT), the interconnecting technology of smart applications and the practical application in projects. The approach of “Building-as-a-Service” in combination with smart applications can be an approach to making the use of buildings available in a resource-saving way to clients, building owners and users

A Framework for Grounding the Moral Status of Intelligent Machines

I propose a framework, derived from moral theory, for assessing the moral status of intelligent machines. Using this framework, I claim that some current and foreseeable intelligent machines have approximately as much moral status as plants, trees, and other environmental entities. This claim raises the question: what obligations could a moral agent (e.g., a normal adult human) have toward an intelligent machine? I propose that the threshold for any moral obligation should be the "functional morality" of Wallach and Allen [20], while the upper limit of our obligations should not exceed the upper limit of our obligations toward plants, trees, and other environmental entities

Justice Through a Multispecies Lens

The bushfires in Australia during the Summer of 2019–2020, in the midst of which we were writing this exchange, violently heightened the urgency of the task of rethinking justice through a multispecies lens for all of the authors in this exchange, and no doubt many of its readers. As I finish this introduction, still in the middle of the Australian summer, more than 10 million hectares (100,000 km2 or 24.7 million acres) of bushland have been burned and over a billion individual animals killed. This says nothing of the others who will die because their habitat and the relationships on which they depend no longer exist. People all around the world are mourning these deaths and the destruction of unique ecosystems. As humans on this planet, and specifically as political theorists facing the prospect that such devastating events will only become more frequent, the question before us is whether we can rethink what it means to be in ethical relationships with beings other than humans and what justice requires, in ways that mark these deaths as absolute wrongs that obligate us to act, and not simply as unfortunate tragedies that leave us bereft

Pilot study of readiness of Czech companies to implement the principles of industry 4.0

This article describes results of the survey, which was conducted in the context of investigating the readiness of selected companies in the Czech Republic to implement the principles of Industry 4.0. The main objective of the survey was to analyze the level of a basic knowledge of this topic in enterprises, the existence of appropriate strategies, responsible persons, and the general awareness among employees

Application of IS/IT, process and constraint management in optimization of business processes

The paper deals with business process based on the IS/ICT (information systems, information and communication technology) applications, mainly ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) software packages, process and constraint management. The analysis of the current ERP and APS offer in the Czech market is presented. The second part of the paper deals with the principles of the innovation of IS/ICT in enterprise and with the approaches to the its effectivenes

Research the behavior of the assistance toward fixed costs and profit making

Contemporary science and business regard controlling as the inseparable part of the modern management concept. The current scientific and practical knowledge of industrial engineering was used as a basis for identification the main tasks of controlling management in an enterprise. The analysis of controlling tasks frequency shows, that the cost calculation and the performance calculation belong among the most frequent tasks, and that there is some kind of evaluation for all (production or nonproduction) areas in enterprises. Lean production is characterized by elimination of redundant, useless or partly necessary processes. Lean production is considered as the basis for the network enterprises and clusters. Individual enterprises are selected to clusters on the basis of rules of outsourcing

Implementation of the CQT methodology forbusiness process optimization

This contribution deals with business process optimization and management. The aim of this paper is to introduce new CQT methodology for process management and optimization. This new methodology combines known principles and methods for the process management and optimization. The CQT (Cost-Quality- Time) methodology target is the quality improvement, process time and cost reduction as principal process management objectives. The contribution presents also a practical application of the CQT methodology for printed circuit board manufacturing

The importance of the information system ́s quality in the concept of the knowledge organization and the relation to the process (theoretical basis and practical experience) analysis

This contribution concerns the problems of information system in the broadest meaning of the word and the approaches and methods used to analyse it. This work examines how they are percepted in present days and what is their mutual relationship. It outlines the possibilities and problems of analysis, defines the relationship of information system and processes. Anyway, many analytic instruments and methods ́ results give the similar output as our motto. This contribution emphasizes the importance of the holistic comprehension of the term “information system” and the importance of its general quality in relation to principles of modern management