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A BEAUTIFUL LIFE AS AN END OF EDUCATION

Author(s): Christoph Teschers / Language(s): English / Issue: 6/2017

Following the theme of a conference held in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2016, this article explores the notion of “enabling students to live a beautiful life” as a possible end of education. A distinction is made between short-term, contextual aims in education and overarching, encompassing end(s) of education. Following Dewey, educational aims are considered to be manifold and to change over time within a socio-cultural context, whereas a proper end of education, if such a thing exists, could be seen as “the best possible realization of humanity as humanity.” Drawing further on the work of R. S. Peters, who contests the existence of any final end of education other than education itself, it can be seen that proposing such an end can be a challenging undertaking. Nevertheless, this article argues for a possible humanistic end of education, building on Schmid’s philosophical concept of the art of living in conjunction with the German notion of Bildung and Aristotle’s concept of phronesis, consolidating Peter’s and Dewey’s positions. An argument is made that a, if not the end of education would be to support every person as much as reasonably possible to develop their own art of living and live a good and beautiful life. Resulting implications for schooling, curricula and education systems are explored to show how education understood in such way transcends theory into practice.

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ABOUT PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING

Author(s): Arto Mutanen / Language(s): English / Issue: 89/2016

Knowledge is, by definition, reliable and, hence, it can be applied to a variety of different problems. Nevertheless, in practical problem solving, we do not rely on mere truthful knowledge, but also on information which frames the practical acceptability. We are not looking for truthful solution but an optimal solution. Optimal solution is found out by optimizing some given (practical) parameters. The optimization is both theory based and practice based process. That is, practical problem solving is a human deliberation that interconnects theoretical and practical knowledge. So, the philosophical foundation of practical problem solving interconnects theoretical and practical philosophy. Especially ethical deliberation plays – or should play – central role in practical problem solving. The complexity of the advanced scientific knowledge needed in solving present day practical problems separates the people who know, from the people who do (decide). The situation makes immediate that we need some deeper pedagogical conviction: we need ecological education.

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Against Lepore and Stone’s Sceptic Account of Metaphorical Meaning

Author(s): Esther Romero,Belén Soria / Language(s): English / Issue: 47/2016

In this paper, we discuss Lepore and Stone’s account of metaphor which is based on three of Davidson’s proposals: (i) the rejection of metaphorical meanings; (ii) the rejection of metaphors as conveying metaphorical propositional contents; and (iii) the defence of analogy as the key mechanism for understanding metaphors. Lepore and Stone defend these proposals because the non-sceptic strategy on metaphorical meanings, characterized in general by the negation of (i) and (ii), fails to come to grips with neither the power of metaphor nor the explanatory resources of traditional pragmatic theories. In this paper we show not only how our non-sceptic account of metaphorical meaning as a variety of ad hoc concept eliminates these difficulties but also how it can solve two related difficulties that appear in Lepore and Stone’s account. One of them is that Lepore and Stone’s account involves the possibility of interpreting all metaphorical utterances literally (metaphors only have one meaning, the ordinary meaning) as a criterion of metaphorical identification; the other is that their proposal is not suited for explaining how speakers can agree or disagree when they use metaphorical utterances.

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AIMS AS EXPERIENCE

Author(s): John Freeman-Moir / Language(s): English / Issue: 6/2017

Human action runs thick with aims and means. Without aims, without means, and the interplay between them the very idea of action itself would be unintelligible. Through space and time means are transformed into aims or ends-in-view; and aims simultaneously signal the possibilities of further means, and so ad infinitum. This article represents a keynote address given to the NZARE Conference on Aims and Ends in Education, at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 29 August 2016.

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An Examination of Superluminal Motion

Author(s): Argun Abrek Canbolat / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

In this work, the debate between Yuri Balashov and Hud Hudson is reviewed in terms of the views put forward by Tim Maudlin. It seems that Maudlin’s view can shed light on the debate and may ensure new discussions and perspectives. Hudson, posing an interesting thought experiment, says that superluminal motion is possible whereas Balashov argues to the contrary. If we take into account what Tim Maudlin suggests in the first chapter of his book The Metaphysics within Physics, namely, that “laws of nature ought to be accepted as ontologically primitive,” we can interpret Balashov-Hudson debate from a new perspective. It can be said that Balashov would be taking a step forward if we were to take into account Maudlin perspective.

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ASPECTS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION IN JOHN DEWEY’S VIEW

Author(s): Gabriela Pohoata,Mihaela Mocanu / Language(s): English / Issue: 04/2015

Rethinking education in a globalized world requires the analysis and thorough research of the great philosophers-educators’ works as current education claims a new philosophy which needs to be based on authentic landmarks that can be objectified under the new circumstances. From this perspective, we consider it useful and necessary to examine the contribution of the American philosopher and educator J. Dewey with a view to analyzing some of the most valuable ideas in the philosophy of education, which we think of great importance for adapting the Romanian education system to the specific of a dynamic and pragmatic youth, by rethinking the national curriculum after the American pragmatist model.

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Bourdieu Vs. Habermasas: „Mass Media“ Poveikio Viešybei Problema

Author(s): Ernesta Molotokiene / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 74/2013

The article deals with the influence of the mass media on public space by a comparison with mass media functioning on social space in the philosophies of Jürgen Habermas and Pierre Bourdieu. One of the main problems analyzed in this article is that of communication as a realization ofan ideal linguistic situation which is focused on consensus. The article argues that the concept of a mediated society for Habermas is inseparable from a mass media that shapes public space. Accordingly, mediated society for Bourdieu is inseparable from the concept of a meta-capital field, which, by involving different capitals acquires a dominant position in today’s society. It is proved that the hegemony of the meta-capital is problematic in relation to other fields that form the social space. The article contains the following question: how does mass media work the public space? The article argues that Habermas and Bourdieu’o recognize the fact that the dominant power and influence of mass media to the public space is a problematic phenomenon because mass media negatively transforms the public space.

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Cooperation with Multiple Audiences

Author(s): Marilynn Johnson / Language(s): English / Issue: 47/2016

Steven Pinker proposes a game-theoretic framework to help explain the use of veiled speech in contexts where the ultimate aims of the speaker and hearer may diverge—such as cases of bribing a police officer to get out of a ticket and paying a maître d’ to get a table. This is presented as a response to what Pinker sees as the failure in H. P. Grice’s infl uential theory of meaning to recognize that speakers and hearers are not always cooperating. In this paper I argue that Pinker mischaracterizes Grice’s views on cooperation, and use this to refine a positive picture of what sort of cooperation is demanded by Grice’s Cooperative Principle. This positive picture serves to insulate the Gricean framework from objectors— including Pinker—who overstate the obligations entailed by the adoption of the Cooperative Principle. I then argue that the cases Pinker presents are best treated by recognizing that in each instance the utterance is formulated with two intentions towards two different audiences and detail a resulting revision to Pinker’s game-theoretic framework that reflects this proposal. I conclude by demonstrating how this proposed game-theoretic framework of cooperation with multiple audiences can be used to model the costs and benefits of other types of discourse, including political speech.

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Coordinating with Language

Author(s): Jessica Keiser / Language(s): English / Issue: 47/2016

Linguistic meaning is determined by use. But given the fact that any given expression can be used in a variety of ways, this claim marks where metasemantic inquiry begins rather than where it ends. It sets an agenda for the metasemantic project: to distinguish in a principled and explanatory way those uses that determine linguistic meaning from those that do not. The prevailing view (along with its various refinements), which privileges assertion, suffers from being at once overly liberal and overly idealized. By parsing the most prominent aims we use language to achieve, noting their relations of dependence and the specific type of uses they involve, I arrive at a novel metasemantic account: facts of linguistic meaning are determined by locutionary action.

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Czy prawnicy powinni być pragmatystami? Kilka słów o edukacji prawniczej z perspektywy neopragmatyzmu R. Rorty’ego

Author(s): Filip Rakoczy / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

In my paper I would like to analyze the topic o academic legal education, using for that purpose tool granted by Rochard Rorty’s neopragmatism and Artur Kozak’s juriscentrism. In this article I consider the possibility of describing higher education and legal culture using both of those concepts, and to form some proposals for future shaping of this proces. In my text I aim to prove, tha contemporary legal education is basem mostly on the mechanisms of socialisation and professional training, which base rather on transfer of rules of legal reasoning and discussion within legal community, than on transfer of actual skills. Therefore I consider to which extent this process should be suplemented by methods which individualise students, and which allow the autocreation, which is, according to Rorty, should be the mian task of higher education. In the further parts of my paper I consuder, how those mechanisms will impact shaping of future lawyers, and by that, the legal community itself, and what benefits could we achieve this way.

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De Man i američka kulturna ljevica

Author(s): Richard Rorty / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 7/1996

Paul de Man je bio jedan od najomiljenijih i najutjecajnijih učitelja u posljednje vrijeme. Prvenstveno je on bio taj koji je odgovoran za pravac koji danas zovemo "dekonstrukcijom". Specifični okreti koje je izveo iz određenih Heideggerovih i Derridinih tema predstavljali su jedinstveni utjecajan doprinos onome što njegovi protivnici nekad nazivaju "politizacijom društvenih znanosti" na američkim univerzitetima. De Manova interpretacija pomenutih autora postavila je temelje za pokušaj, široko rasprostranjen u posljednje vrijeme medu američkim profesorima, ponovnog ojačavanja ljevičarske društvene kritike razvijanjem novog filozofsko-književnog oružja.

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Djuijevo pragmatističko poimanje umetnosti u knjizi "Art as Experience"

Author(s): Dušan Milenkovic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 26/2016

This paper examines the aesthetics of John Dewey in light of his pragmatist philosophy, with special emphasis on Dewey’s ideas discussed in his famous book Logic, Theory of Inquiry. We analyze his views on art in close relation with his conceptions of qualitative experience and the similarities between everyday life experience and aesthetic experience. After considering certain aspects of Dewey’s critique of traditional aesthetics, the paper focuses on his rejection of the notion of “art for art’s sake” as particularly relevant when pointing out the relation between his aesthetics and his pragmatism. The paper also examines some purposes of art that Dewey mentions in his aesthetics.

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DO IGNORANT ASSESSORS CASES POSE A CHALLENGE TO RELATIVISM ABOUT EPISTEMIC MODALS?

Author(s): Heidi Furey / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2017

Epistemic modality concerns what is possible given a body of knowledge or evidence. Cases involving epistemic modals, present an interesting semantic challenge: in order to give a semantic treatment of epistemic modals, we must explain how informational states figure in the semantic representation of these terms. According to John MacFarlane’s (2011, 2014) view – Assessor Relativism – epistemic modal claims are assessment-sensitive in that their truth depends on what is known by the assessor at the time he or she assesses the claim. Hence, truth for epistemic modal claims varies with the context of assessment. Critics of MacFarlane’s approach, such as Anthony Gillies and Kai von Fintel (2008) point to so called “ignorant assessor cases,” ones in which the assessor knows less than the speaker. They claim that such cases pose a serious problem for Assessment Relativism. I argue, however, that these cases do not uncover a flaw in the assessment relativist’s semantics. The apparent problems only seem to arise because the authors have not given adequate attention to the epistemic details of the cases. In making my argument, I present a larger methodological point about the role of epistemic data in semantic theory construction. I claim that, it is often difficult to distinguish the boundary between semantics and epistemology when discussing epistemic modals. As a result, linguists and philosophers of language sometimes fail distinguish between epistemic intuitions that are directly relevant to the semantics and those that are indirectly relevant. I conclude that we do not have to complicate the semantics of epistemic modals in order to accommodate epistemic data such as intuitions about epistemic warrant.

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Egzistencinio teizmo ir ateizmo tiesos perskyra: J. Girniaus ir A. Maceinos perspektyva

Author(s): Tomas Kavaliauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 93/2017

The article analyses J. Girnius’s religious philosophy in which he divides the truth of theism and atheism. The former claims God’s existence, the latter negates it. The author of the article calls the reader’s attention to the fact that the truth of theism of God as existing is abstract, void of cultural and social reality, because there are so many different denominations of various Christian churches, Protestants and Catholics share different approaches to the meanings of the Bible and teaching of Jesus. For this reason the article mentions the letter of tolerance by John Locke, whose liberal civic ideas wanted to defend citizens from true-believers of various denominations when religion was used as an instrument for political interests and power. The other parts of the article are devoted to the analyses of A. Maceina’s concept of existential complaint, which for him is a proof of the human’s religious nature. When a human is suffering s/he is complaining. And when fellow humans cannot provide a reason, s/he is complaining ultimately to God. Maceina interprets the story of Job from the old testament in order to prove the religious meaning of existential complaint as superior to Heidegger’s existential Sorge. The article concludes that for a possible reconciliation of the divided truth of theism and atheism we should look into the philosophy of W. James’ pragmatism and R. Rorty’s neopragmatism.

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Enlightenment’s faith in human creative possibilities

Author(s): Zbigniew Drozdowicz / Language(s): English / Issue: 41/2016

In this article I present an argument for the thesis that one of the most significant revaluations of the Enlightenment was the creation and popularization of faith in the effective shaping of fate by man himself. In every example the Enlightenment had been referring to the creative possibilities of human reason. However, major differences occurred in understanding this very reason and its application in the praxis between the main representatives of the period. In my remarks I recall just a few of selected representatives of the English, Scottish and French enlightenment philosophy. The broadening of that list with other names, including the representatives of other nations, would allow probably to present much more diversified variants of this Enlightenment faith which since that period is a specific distinguishing mark of modernity.

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F. NIETZSCHE’S IDĖJŲ RECEPCIJA M. FOUCAULT GENEALOGIJOJE: ISTORIJOS IR SOCIALINIŲ PRAKTIKŲ KRITIKOS GALIMYBĖ

Author(s): Arunas Mickevicius / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 91/2017

The aim of the paper is to explicate Foucault’s interpretational access to Nietzsche’s basic concepts; second, to show Nietzsche’s importance for the development of M. Foucault‘s genealogy; and third, to disclose how Foucault’s genealogical research in polemics with J. Habermas turns to the problem of legitimizing the question “How can genealogical history and a variety of social practices criticism?” This article is intended to support the thesis that genealogical research developed by Foucault can be seen as legitimate historical and social practice and an alternative to Habermasian project.

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Faidonas: Filosofavimo Subjekto Demarkavimo Problema

Author(s): Skirmantas Jankauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 71/2012

In the Phaedo, Plato discussed the soul. It was Socrates who included the soul on the agenda of philosophy. In his ardent polemics with sophists, Socrates promoted an alternative man measure. Socrates spoke of the need to take care of the soul by making it better. Plato attempted to reconstruct theoretically the practical philosophizing of Socrates. So Plato was compelled to define the subject of the imperative as well as the preconditions that make sense of the imperative. Sensual soul or body, which already has been defined by sophists as the anonymous subject of pragmatic or daily thinking, was taken as the starting point for the definition of the soul as a subject of ethically specified philosophizing. Following Heraclitus, daily thinking and its subject were related to death. In opposition to them, philosophical thinking and its subject were marked with a meaning of immortality. Therefore, the definition of the subject of ethically modified philosophizing turned into theoretical arguments for the soul’s immortality. This article attempts to reconstruct those aspects of the new subject of philosophizing which became apparent in the dialectical and gnoseological arguments for the soul’s immortality. The dialectical argument for the soul’s immortality rests on the ambiguity of speech that in synoptical thinking is ontologically interpreted as an ambiguity of reality. The latter assumption presupposes an alternative to daily thinking and demarcates the traditional image of the soul from the area of daily thinking. The gnoseological argument for the soul’s immortality departs from the gnoseology of daily thinking and constructs a theory of recollection as a specific cognitive feature of the ethically specified soul.

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FAMILY RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY POST-SUBJECTIVIST PHILOSOPHY AND ANIMISTIC RELIGIONS

Author(s): Argo Moor,Leo Luks / Language(s): English / Issue: 89/2016

Criticism of the Cartesian subject and attempts at establishing a post-subjectivist philosophy are prevalent in contemporary continental philosophy. People living in modern Western cultures are frequently characterized as residing in a permanent state of identity crisis. The question “who comes after the subject?” is topical both in philosophy and in the daily life of Western people. In this interdisciplinary study, we argue that that there are considerable family resemblances between the aims of post-subjectivist philosophy and animistic religions. We will first provide the requisite background for understanding the animistic treatment of subjectivity by describing three principles: the Principle of Unity, the Principle of Balance, and Complementary Polar Thinking. These principles further develop our treatment of the concept of network thinking, as outlined in our previous joint paper, “Networks and Hierarchies: Two Ways of Thinking”. We will then compare the animistic treatment of subjectivity with current critiques of the subject. Although we will not express a normative request for the resurrection of animism, we nonetheless cannot exclude the possibility that the study of animistic principles may provide local solutions to the postmodern crisis of the subject.

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Filosofinė Kariava: Natūralizmas Ir Fenomenologija

Author(s): Evaldas Juozelis / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 86/2016

The article discusses the contradistinction of perhaps the most influential paradigms of contemporary philosophy – naturalism and phenomenology, while simultaneously trying to discern its ideological nature. I show particular interest not in the historical perspective, namely truisms widely generated throughout phenomenological and naturalistic traditions, but rather in their functioning as combative as well as agitating worldviews. Accordingly, instead of searching for self-justificatory mechanisms inherent in the paradigms under discussion, I try to see their philosophical validity through the lenses of foolishness and bold creativity.

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Filozofia jako demaskatorka zła w poglądach Terry’ego Eagletona

Author(s): Anna Slonimska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 13/2016

The aim of the article is to highlight one of the roles in which philosophy has to operate in present times, namely the exposing of the evil that we experience, while additionally searching for methods and ways of overcoming it. It is also my intention to show how one contemporary philosopher, Terry Eagleton, expresses this problem. The philosophic/literary work of Eagelton is vast and topics of evil are raised in almost each of his titles. The British philosopher Boldly reveals roots of evil and their particular aspects, pointing out the consequences resulting from the postmodern era along with its principles. Eagleton presents results relating to the secularisation of societies, and although is a declared atheist, is not afraid to defend religion, revealing its irreplaceable role, which does not necessarily have to meet or be in sympathy with either culture or other ideology. The topic of terrorism, contemporarily inspiring widespread dread, is of particular interest to Eagleton, writing that it has accompanied humanity since the dawn of time. He does not stop merely at exposing indications of evil, but presents methods for overcoming it. He calls for ‘social love’ called by him ‘political love’, according to the Aristotelian conception. It is also necessary, in his opinion to foster the return of Europe to its foundations as a counterweight to Islamic fundamentalism. Although the British philosopher does not give a one hundred percent certain ‘recipe’ (because such probably does not exist) to control and overcome evil, his views ought to be considered. The work of Eagleton is an example of the necessity for philosophy in the modern world – against those gazing at Pragmatics – proclaiming that it is superfluous.

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