Mitchell Atkinson III | Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

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Papers by Mitchell Atkinson III

Dialogue and universalism, 2023

The question of the possibility of a phenomenological sociology is of the utmost importance today... more The question of the possibility of a phenomenological sociology is of the utmost importance today. In this paper, techniques in transcendental-genetic phenomenology are introduced as applicable to sociological work. I introduce the concept of recoil, a habit of thought which negatively determines protentions and expectations concerning types sedimented in far retention. Recoil is seen to be an important element in the theory of alterity in social life, including the understanding of alters as invisible. Finally, arguments in favor of the use of the epoché in sociological work is given, as the epoché allows us to engage with the experience of the subject of study without a latent invidious comparison to a naturalistic substructure.

Alterity and the Flint Water Crisis

Phenomenological reviews, 2022

Dialogue and Universalism

In this paper, I argue that philosophers, while developing ontologies, can be classed as misers o... more In this paper, I argue that philosophers, while developing ontologies, can be classed as misers or profligates. I develop the categories of ontological miserliness and ontological profligacy and supply explanatory examples. I explore the theoretical motivation of both misers and profligates in terms of thought-time and inquiry scope. In brief, misers prioritize thought-time over inquiry scope; vice-versa for profligates. I examine the extent to which conservation of thought-time is an active concern for misers and provide a miserly taxonomy for ontologies; ontologies may be cheap, expensive or impossible. I argue that profligates countenance the generative character of the ontological enterprise at the expense of exclusion and limitation. The works of Willard Van Orman Quine and Ludwig Wittgenstein provide canonic examples of miserly and profligate ontologies. I argue that Quine is an ontological miser par excellence, and that Wittgenstein is profligate in his later period and evinc...

SSRN Electronic Journal

The paper discusses empathy as a necessary constituent feature of moral reasoning. Building on Br... more The paper discusses empathy as a necessary constituent feature of moral reasoning. Building on Brannmark (2015), I construct a definition of empathy employing two restrictions and two assertions: the Self Affecting Restriction (SAR), the Person Affecting Restriction (PAR), the Self Affecting Assertion (SAA), and the Person Affecting Assertion (PAA). I provide an adumbration of a counterfactual approach to grounding empathy and argue that a consistent practice of counterfactual empathy requires a concept of human essence, which may be seen as some sort of ensoulment. The approach delineates a logic of the moral subject which asserts the primacy of empathy as a sine qua non of moral reasoning and behavior. I attempt to reinterpret these results in light of Fichtean self-positing. I argue that a standard reading of the Fichtean X of the Wissenshaftslehre is not adequate to Fichte’s purposes, and propose an alternative reading. Finally, I examine similarities and differences between the Fichtean X, under this new reading and the concept of ensoulment under counterfactual empathy.

Gestalt Theory

Summary I outline an approach to the phenomenology of improvised music which takes typification a... more Summary I outline an approach to the phenomenology of improvised music which takes typification and the development of multi‐ordered phenomenological structures as central. My approach here is firmly in line with classical Husserlian phenomenology, taking the discussion of types in Experience and Judgment (Husserl, 1973) and Brudzińska (2015) as guide. I provide a phenomenological analysis of musical types as they are found in improvisational contexts, focusing on jazz in the 20th century. Styles are higher‐order musical types. Musical types are structures that are temporally “thick,” relying on sedimented typification and knowledge, driving expectations as definitional. In most forms of music (including improvised music), musical styles involve maintaining a balance between confirming expectations and flouting expectations. I show that improvised music has a phenomenal structure which is enriched by the communicative and “ real‐time” nature of improvised music. Improvised music can...

This paper argues that the transhumanist dream of whole brain emulation and migration of human co... more This paper argues that the transhumanist dream of whole brain emulation and migration of human consciousness from one substrate to another suffers upon phenomenological analysis of potential criteria for confirmation that migration has taken place. While migration of personality from one substrate to another may be in some objective sense possible, it may not be confirmed personalistically, that is to say, from within the migration. The upshot is that would-be migrants cannot determine for themselves if they are indeed continuations of their ancestor consciousnesses, or if in fact they are complex recordings, new forms of life, or something else entirely. This line of argumentation is supported by a discussion of Husserlian phenomenological attitudes, Leibniz Law arguments asserting the non-identity of simulations and their ancestors, and a phenomenological analysis of the invariant structures (essences) comprising the notion of continuation and migration. I argue that an epistemic chasm results between ancestors and emulations, and that neither participant in the migration process can personalistically confirm the continuation of the ancestral conscious entity.

DIALOGUE AND UNIVERSALISM JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR UNIVERSAL DIALOGUE Vol. XXX No. 1/2020 PHILOSOPHY IN AN AGE OF CRISIS: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS PART IV PAST PHILOSOPHY FOR THE PRESENT AND FUTURE, 2020

The following study is an exploration of the applicability of the wisdom of the crowd phenomenon ... more The following study is an exploration of the applicability of the wisdom of the crowd phenomenon to the prediction of mass behavior in political contexts. I give a brief review of the crowd wisdom literature and the attendant advancement in usage of the crowd wisdom phenomenon through prediction markets and forecasting tournaments. I further explain and discuss recent advancements in the theory of the crowd wisdom phenomenon and the so-called -surprisingly popular‖ principle in evaluating crowd wisdom responses. As a case study, I perform an analysis of the outcome of the prediction market called Good Judgment Open (GJO) in reference to the forecasts made in response to the question -Who will win the 2016 US presidential election?‖ I perform a quantitative analysis of all forecasts made on the 2016 presidential election outcome from the date of October 28 th 2016 onward, and a qualitative, discourse analysis of comments made by forecasters in relation to this question over the entire period that the question was -live‖. Two related research questions are addressed. Namely, in what way may various social conditions modulate the effectiveness of the wisdom of the crowd phenomenon? And also: Were forecasters who predicted the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election correctly in possession of some special knowledge or forecasting expertise, or were their predictions predicated on something else? I discuss implications for the theory of informational social influence, and present recommendations for future research.

Conference Presentations by Mitchell Atkinson III

The present study is the result of a close reading of a corpus compiled from transcripts of press... more The present study is the result of a close reading of a corpus compiled from transcripts of press conferences held during a promotional tour for a boxing match of extraordinary social impact and cultural import. I code the corpus for several types of dominance signalling: Skill Dominance, Economic/Financial Dominance, Oppositional Racial Dominance, Co-optational Racial Dominance, and Gendered Dominance. I argue that the data presented here is an indication of a decay in the public discourse surrounding dominance signalling in public. I analyze the behavior of the two fighters under examination, making use of Goffman's work on self-presentation, and provide results of a quantitative linguistic analysis of the data under study.

Drafts by Mitchell Atkinson III