Electronic copies of Philosophy conference papers and proceedings. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/539 2026-10-03T10:31:41Z 2026-10-03T10:31:41Z Dodd, Leslie http://hdl.handle.net/1893/36948 2025-04-02T00:01:13Z 2022-10-01T00:00:00Z

Title: 1603 and All That: Thomas Craig and the Union of the Crowns Author(s): Dodd, Leslie Abstract: Following the Stuart accession to the English throne, there was an outpouring of unionist literature on both sides of the border promoting the idea of constructing a new Kingdom, or perhaps Empire, of Great Britain. Foremost among the unionist authors, north and south of Hadrian’s Wall, was the Edinburgh jurist Thomas Craig, whose De unione regnorum Britanniae or “Treatise on the union of the kingdoms of Britain” runs to about 95,000 words in the Latin. While the union project was unpopular on both sides of the border, it remains a recurring theme in all of Craig’s writings and seems to represent a personal preoccupation. The De unione was only one of a number of unionist works written in response to the union of the crowns, but it is both the longest and by far the most sophisticated work of Jacobean unionism possessing a deeper intellectual foundation than most of the others. This paper will show that Craig’s argumentation in the De unione is circumscribed by his deep Protestant faith but also by a lingering insecurity about the future of British Protestantism in a world dominated by Catholic Spain. Craig envisioned British history as a repeating cycle of internal division which led inevitably to foreign conquest, beginning with the Romans and ending with the Normans. This history of relations between Scotland and England, meanwhile, was of internecine warfare between co-religionists which had provoked God’s anger and allowed the rise of an apocalyptic enemy in the form of Catholic Spain. Union, for Craig, was a political and religious imperative that was necessary to preserve the Reformation in the British Isles. While his thinking was informed by classical and mediaeval thought and was shaped by the Old Testament, he ultimately understood union as something that could only be realised within a feudal-legal framework.

2022-10-01T00:00:00Z Ebert, Philip A Miller, David L Comerford, David A Diggins, Mark http://hdl.handle.net/1893/36340 2025-09-21T02:02:14Z 2024-09-23T00:00:00Z

Title: End User Interpretation of the Avalanche Danger Scale: A Scottish Study Author(s): Ebert, Philip A; Miller, David L; Comerford, David A; Diggins, Mark Abstract: In this study, we investigate Scottish end users' understanding and interpretation of the five point European Avalanche Danger Scale. Our main findings are, first, that many end users report to draw on detailed avalanche information including the avalanche problem information in their planning. Second, only seven in ten end users are aware that there are five danger levels. Third, end users' risk perception of the danger scale, which we elicited using numerical probability judgements about each danger level, increases mostly linearly-results that cohere well with recent findings by Morgan et al. (2023) who used a different response format and a North American user group. Lastly, we report the results of an exploratory analysis whether individual characteristics of end users (such as their outdoor sport experience, age, gender, avalanche education), predict the individuals' interpretation of the danger level. We find these characteristics have little explanatory power, which suggests that avalanche education needs to take a broad and inclusive approach to improve the intended understanding of the avalanche danger scale. We finish our discussion by contextualising the main findings.

2024-09-23T00:00:00Z Noto La Diega, Guido http://hdl.handle.net/1893/33160 2025-09-27T00:46:19Z 2020-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The Artificial Conscience of Lethal Autonomous Weapons: Marketing Ruse or Reality? Author(s): Noto La Diega, Guido Abstract: There are two interwoven trends in cyber-counterterrorism. On the one hand, countries such as Israel and Russia announce the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons. Such weapons constitute the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms. On the other hand, researchers try and embed ethics into the design of these weapons (so-called artificial conscience or "ethics by design"). The contention of this paper is that artificial conscience is a mere marketing ruse aimed at making the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons and other autonomous robots acceptable in society. Whereas there are strong reasons to object to this trend, some solutions to the pitfalls of ethics by design have been presented. However, they do not seem viable in a military context. In particular, the so-called customised-ethics approach is applicable only to commercial and civil machines. When deciding whether to kill 600 civilians in order to hit 14 al-Qaeda leaders, which set of values should be implemented? This is a compelling argument for banning lethal autonomous weapons altogether.

2020-05-01T00:00:00Z Yu, Hong-Lin Olmos Giupponi, Belen http://hdl.handle.net/1893/32108 2025-09-27T05:16:11Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Analysing Obstacles and Challenges in Fighting Corruption in Cases of Illegal Investments: How to Bell the Cat? Author(s): Yu, Hong-Lin; Olmos Giupponi, Belen Editor(s): Halmai, Gábor; Lovejoy, Marnie; Mardikian, Lisa Abstract: First paragraph: Various mechanisms have been devised to address corrupt practices in international trade transactions and investment projects within the broader legal framework for fighting against corruption. Currently, three layers of legislation and practice have been developed. Yet, their suitability and effectiveness are questioned.

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