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The paper discusses three major points:1. Concerning the matrix of intelligence, as a solution to the problem, Popper proposes a Darwinian model based on a hierarchical idea of causality (downward causality);2. Underlying hierarchical causality are systemic properties, whether they be holistic or reductionist;3. Intelligence is a hierarchical causality imposed by an external agent – i.e., whenever an external agent is able to impose its system characteristics upon the object of its impact
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Usually associated with the notion of scientific cognition is the notion of scientific rationality. But science is bivalent – it is a synthesis of cognitive and social components, factors, functions, results. It develops under the influence of broader cognitive and social contexts. It is natural that, within science, cognitive rationality is closely intertwined with specific forms of value-normative rationality. This significantly, and often decisively, affects the process of the production of scientific knowledge and its impact on society.
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This article discusses the significance of Hilary Putnam’s “brains in a vat” argument for the metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language in the last 30 – 35 years; the presentation is limited only to the classical discussion of the argument, almost entirely leaving aside the contemporary debate. Putnam devised this argument in order to refute both metaphysical realism and skepticism in philosophy. The analysis of the argument against metaphysical realism demonstrates that this realism is based on the causal restriction of linguistic reference. After the reconstruction of Putnam’s argument, the article attempts to show by further analyzing it the extent of its consequences for a philosopher’s epistemological stance, and especially for theories of truth.
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The Principle of Common Cause (PCC) puts forward the idea that events which occur simultaneously and are correlated have a prior common cause which screens off the correlation. I endorse the view that the PCC does qualify as a principle that can be used as a tool in explaining improbable coincidences. However, though there are epistemological advantages in common cause explanations of correlated events, the PCC is not impeccable. This paper offers a preliminary assessment of the PCC advocated by Reichenbach, and then attempts to illustrate three scenarios in which the principle might be inadequate in explaining correlated events. The paper also compares the Common Cause Principle and the Causal Markov Condition (CMC), and examines the advantages of CMC over the Common Cause Principle.
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Quine’s thesis regarding indeterminacy (linked to relativity) of translation passes into the thesis regarding the inscrutability of reference, developed within the framework of a philosophical project in which natural science is seen as the only form of empirical knowledge (naturalism). Following the tradition of analytic philosophy, Quine uses speculative ("thought") experiments, such as that of the radical translator (a linguist interpreter in a foreign culture and lacking a mediator). If we accept Quine’s approach and naturalism project, and his theses about reference and translation, we can check the extent to which his experiments and analyses have meaning and validity in linguistic anthropology and to what extent linguists themselves use and criticize them. Developed as a speculative experiment and debate regarding natural language, Quine’s thesis makes sense in the framework of analytic philosophy, but, like other purely philosophical theses, is fictional and poorly referred to the empirical situations of translation in linguistic anthropology. I apply here some relevant conclusions regarding indeterminacy, which are drawn from my Philosophy of Relativity (Gerdjikov 2008).
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1) The adaptation of our system of knowledge to “recalcitrant experience” can be postponed, even indefinitely. 2) This also holds true for the elimination of contradictions internal to the system. 3) Hence, the system does not automatically obey the laws of logic and the logical relations between statements are never definite. 4) There is not only one system of knowledge comprising all sentences, ranging “from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic”; there are numerous such systems. 5) Since logic is no less answerable to the “tribunal of sense experience” than are the natural sciences, their laws can also be regarded as rules of inference. 6) The system’s function (and the stimulus to its continuous reconstruction) is not merely to predict future sense perceptions, but also to actively create phenomena.
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The article presents a critical analysis of the Russell-Strawson debate of the 1950s, focused both on the problem of definite descriptions; but the author also discusses the expressions currently defined as indexicals. The article presents a critical review of Russell’s views on egocentric particulars (his term for indexicals) in his An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940) and Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). Тhe article traces his theoretical insights, that can be thought of both in the spirit of the “wisdom” (criticized by Russell himself ) of Wittgenstein’s later works, and as closely approaching Strawson’s problematic of ordinary language. Among these insights are the notion of implicit egocentricity (1948) as well as of variable denotation, a notion introduced much earlier, in the manuscript of On Meaning and Denotation (1903), and that offers a possibility for rethinking the distinction between attributive and referential uses of definite descriptions that Keith Donnellan presents in Reference and Definite Descriptions (1966). In this context, the author emphasizes the productivity of the thesis suggested by Strawson regarding the direct link between the problem of indexicality and that of definite descriptions.
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Quine’s thesis regarding indeterminacy (linked to relativity) of translation passes into the thesis regarding the inscrutability of reference, developed within the framework of a philosophical project in which natural science is seen as the only form of empirical knowledge (naturalism). Following the tradition of analytic philosophy, Quine uses speculative (thought) experiments, such as that of the radical translator (a linguist interpreter in a foreign culture and lacking a mediator). If we accept Quine’s approach and naturalism project, and his theses about reference and translation, we can check the extent to which his experiments and analyses have meaning and validity in linguistic anthropology and to what extent linguists themselves use and criticize them. Developed as a speculative experiment and debate regarding natural language, Quine’s thesis makes sense in the framework of analytic philosophy, but, like other purely philosophical theses, is fictional and poorly referred to the empirical situations of translation in linguistic anthropology. I apply here some relevant conclusions regarding indeterminacy, which are drawn from my Philosophy of Relativity (Gerdjikov 2008).
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This publication is devoted to the specificity of translating philosophical texts. Important issues of philosophical translation are presented in the course of a conversation between three authoritative Bulgarian philosophers and translators of such texts; these issues include the translation of the texts into a modern version of the language, the use of philosophical concepts in accordance with the context, the difference between ordinary and philosophical translation, the connection between the translator and the text being translated, the purpose of different translations of the same classical philosophical work, etc. One of the important achievements of a philosophical translation is when the translator has grasped the meaning and ideas of the translated author ant text. The participants in the discussion are Prof. T. Boyadjiev, Prof. L. Koprinarov, and Assoc. Prof. K. Lozev.
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The article explores yet another view of the history of mankind, and examines global problems related to historical processes, which are still far from receiving an unequivocal explanation. As an alternative to Marxism and other theories of social development that shed light on key historical events and global processes, I propose an account based on the hypothesis of the age periodization of the intellectual evolution of mankind. The main provisions of the hypothesis are set out in the content of the article. The methodological basis of the hypothesis is a comparative analysis of ontogenesis and phylogenesis. In other words, on the basis of known laws of intellectual development in ontogeny, I examine historical processes occurring in phylogeny, paying special attention to the substantiation of the main provisions of the hypothesis of the age periodization of the intellectual evolution of mankind.
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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notions of mediational fields and dynamic situated senses as a way to identify the structure of experiences, thoughts and their relations. To reach this purpose I draw some lessons from the debate between Dreyfus and McDowell about the structure of experience, from Cussins’s conception of mediational contents, and from Evans’s account of singular senses. I notice firstly that McDowell’s answer to Dreyfus consists in developing a practical and demonstrative notion of the products of our conceptual capacities. A conception that entails that human experience is not entirely characterised in terms of an abstract specification of truth-conditions. McDowell and Cussins endorse Evans’s conception of singular senses. A specification that takes into account the dynamic and situated abilities involved in making reference. Whereas the first argues in favour of a conceptual conception of experience, the second one argues in favour of a nonconceptual conception. I introduce the notions of mediational fields and dynamic situated senses to argue that both converge in conceiving the contents of experience as mediational and not reducible to an abstract specification of truth-conditions. My proposal is to define a bidimensional space orthogonal to the conceptual/ nonconceptual, experience/thought, know-how/know-that dichotomies. Cognitive contents are ways to disclose the world both as mediational fields and as referential structures. The degree in which those elements are presented determine different varieties of cognition. I use the previous notions to develop the sketch of an account of singular, objective and contextual ways of cognition, and to argue that it is better to begin an enquiry about cognition with notions that do not presuppose a distinction between practical and intellectual capacities.
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2018 is a distinguished year regarding the fate and publication of the literary, albanological, linguistic and cultural works of the Albanian writer and intellectual Mid’hat Frashëri, otherwise known with his literary pseudonym Lumo Skendo. During this year, his work was completed and systematized in various volumes. Sparse writings on various periodicals - some of whom he helped in establishing and directed himself, but also new writings, unknown till now, taken out of archives are presented for the first time to the researchers of the present author. Vepra të zgjedhura, Vëllimi 3, (Selected Opera, Edition 3) published by the passionate researcher Uran Butka, brings a fundamental contribution to the recognition, reading and discovery of the profile of Lumo Skendo, who is taking its deserved place in the hierarchy of the values of our literary system. In one of the new poetical prose, titled “Ëndërrimtari” (“The Dreamer”, 1920) Lumo Skëndo, now from his most preferred and most wanted position – which means that of the Dreamer, finishes his text with a long and sincere prayer: "Oh, please, let me, let me keep intact my vital confidence and belief, let me suppose that nothing around me has changed so far; for I delight most in dreaming, and reality I'm leaving to you." The diverse manifestations of the dream and its variations derived by a specific relationship between the Lyrical Ego and the object of desire, in all the collection of poetical prose (around 70 pieces) will be the object of our study. The focus of our research work will be the text, because within the text are found the characteristic traits of the author's style. We hope they will bring interesting results for the greater knowledge on various aspects of the prose poetics and literary works of Lumo Skëndo.
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The theme selection is on the track of attempts to research through analysis and interpretations, how the theme of dream evolves through years 1990-2000 in Albanian editions (Albanian literature and translated literature) based on the bibliographic evidence of editions in the National Library of Albania. This paper aims to justify the place that the dream as a topic has in the editions of this period of time. The varieties of dream in these editions are different (dream as a wish, dream as a challenge, dream as determinant of fate, dream as pain and suffer etc.) Furthermore, this paper has aimed to reveal the theme of dream through literary genres based on literary-textual guidelines and not ethnographic or psychological ones. There are brought on focus researches of new occurrences related to a point of view completely literary and aesthetic of the dream as a model of interpretation. In this working we will analyse the dream as a form of artistic organization in the structure of the literary system. Through this paper we aim to come in conclusions and recommendations of high importance through analysis and interpretations to make the readers realise the varieties of dream and its different forms in the Albanian literature of these years. This form of dream occurrence in the Albanian literature of that decade will be realised through the combination of quantitative method with that qualitative. What is fundamental in our working is, the intensity of information “vertically” remains much more important than the quantity, “horizontal” extension. The entire study based on these principles would give us an adequate interpretation of dream that is quite complicated.
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Theme "The function of the dream in the poem" Andra of life "of Ndre Mjedja" comes as a proposition for the International Seminar on Albanian Language, Literature and Culture, aiming to get closer to the poetry masterpiece of Ndre Mjeda "Andras of Life" concretely to investigate the role and function of dream-dreaming in the poem. "Andrra of life" is one of the main poems of Mjeda, which is often considered by critics as his masterpiece. To understand how the dream come true, we will deal with the theme, the features of the composition, the artistic features, the symbolism, the characters, the poem in general as a poetic dream. With a symbolic structure consisting of three parts, Trina, Zoga, Lokja, this poem appears to us as a life story wrapped in social colors where each of the parts represents a human life and a special ending to it by bringing art to art life, a natural season in connection with human seasons. Our interpretation will focus on Zog, exactly in the Dream of Dreams, in the dream of life. We will not miss Loka and her social dream. It is between dreams and death that the characters that represent the dream of life, the coming of death, must be seen. The fate of Bird is presented in the second part of this poem, which consists of four poems, in which Mjeda through the dream strongly shows the experiences, the situations of both Zog and Lokes. Both women in the poem of Mjeda, mother and daughter dream, but her daughter dreams differently, for a boy, a dream of love and mother otherwise, for the good of tomorrow, a social dream. Here, one must surely see the reality of dream awakening. Dreams and life will be seen as two different directions for treatment, one capturing imagination, the other being reality. As the title says, in the poem, the dream of life also takes on a meaning of life representing a vital metaphor. The search is profound, but the goal is through this study to encourage curiosity to investigate, interpret and capture the most eminent and characteristical segments of the poem related to its dream and its function. All of this will make an effort to accomplish thanks to the help of literature, research and non-scarcity studies that refer to this poem by using a comparative, research, historical, empirical methodology as a research methodology.
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Once theatre aims at children, who are the citizens and decision makers of the future, it can influence the course of society through the values and worldviews that it promotes. The exceptional capacity of this medium in engaging the audience, along with children’s receptiveness, necessitates a meticulous study of the ideologies embedded in plays. This study unravels how these ideological factors can hamper the theatre’s main purpose which is to encourage the audience to form individual fantasies. Accordingly, Žižek’s theories are drawn upon for their hints on ideology, fantasy, reality, and subjectivity. Taking his psychoanalytic views into account, four Persian plays are examined to determine what ideologies underlie these plays’ motifs and instructions, as well as what may justify their presence in plays. On close inspection, it becomes evident that these plays are loaded with conscious manipulative ideologies which are intended to train homogeneous social members rather than present objective glimpses of real life.
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This article examines Herbert Spencer’s organic-evolutionary sociological theory, built on an analogy between dependencies in the development of society and the development of biological organisms that emphasized the interpretation of the idea of progress. The article analyzes a number of basic points in Spencer’s doctrine, such as the relationship between social and industrial progress, the role of property and socio-economic well-being, the evolutionary forms of statehood, legislation and lawmaking, the interpretation of positive and negative freedom. Also considered is Spencer's concept of social evolution, according to which societies are not created, but develop; they cannot be created artificially and intentionally, as they grow naturally, similar to a natural system
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Inspired by the work of Eric Santner (1996, 2011) on political theology and the king’s two bodies, in this paper, I question the political theology of film. I analyze how the carnal dimension of sovereignty (or king’s second body, the body of his power), migrates into a new body, the body of the people, and in various traces appears in the filmic mode of production that marked the twentieth century. I analyse or instead bring into imaginary connection two characters (one real, the other fictional) who in a way embody this migration: (1) Judge Daniel Paul Schreber (whose autobiographical record of mental illness, from the moment it was published (in 1903), occupied the attention not only of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts but also of various theorists) and (2) Dr. Caligari, a hypnotist in the film The Office of Dr. Caligari (dir. Robert Wiene, 1920), one of the most famous characters of German expressionist film.
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Gemäß der Dreiteilung des Hegelschen Systems in Logik, Philosophie der Natur und Philosophie des Geistes gliedert sich auch Hegels Begriff der Freiheit. Die Freiheit ist in der Logik die Freiheit des Begriffs selbst, der sich von den Bestimmungen der Seinslogik und der Wesenslogik für die Bestimmungen der Begriffslogik befreit. Der Begriff gelangt zu seiner Freiheit in der absoluten Idee, die nichts anderes als die Idee der Freiheit ist. Auf dem logischen Freiheitsbegriff gründet die Freiheit, wie sie in der Philosophie des Geistes auf allen Stufen der Entwicklung des Geistes begriffen wird. In der Philosophie der Natur aber wird die Natur als die Negation der Freiheit und als notwendige Vermittlung der Idee der Freiheit im Fortgang ihrer Verwirklichung aufgefasst. In der Philosophie des Geistes stellt sich heraus, dass die Freiheit das Wesen des Geistes ist. Das Selbstbewusstsein des Geistes erscheint zuerst im subjektiven Geist, der sich aus der Natur befreit. Die weitere Verwirklichung des Geistes geschieht durch den objektiven Geist, der sich im abstrakten Recht, in der Moralität und Sittlichkeit objektiviert. In der Weltgeschichte, welche die letzte Bestimmung des objektiven Geistes ist, wird der Geist als der Fortschritt im Bewusstsein der Freiheit verwirklicht. Im Bereich des objektiven Geistes wird die Freiheit als die Freiheit des Willens begriffen. Der Wille ist dabei kein Substrat der Freiheit, und die Freiheit ist keine bloße Eigenschaft des Willens, sondern sie ist die Substanz oder das Wesen des Willens. Gemäß der Gliederung des objektiven Geistes in das abstrakte Recht, die Moralität und die Sittlichkeit entwickelt sich die anfängliche abstrakte Freiheit zur immer konkreteren Freiheit. Das abstrakte Recht, die Moralität und die Sittlichkeit sind die Stufen der einheitlichen Entwicklung und Verwirklichung der Freiheit. Während der subjektive Geist nur die subjektive Freiheit als die Freiheit der Wahl von unmittelbar gegebenen Inhalten und Zwecken (der unmittelbare oder natürliche Wille) hat, eignet dem objektiven Geiste die formale Freiheit des persönlichen Willens (das Recht), die formale Freiheit des autonomen subjektiven Willens (die Moralität) und schließlich die substantiale Freiheit des substantialen Willens (die Sittlichkeit). Am Ende der Sittlichkeit aber bleibt noch die Unfreiheit übrig, welche der objektive Geist als solcher nicht überwinden kann. Die Freiheit ist auf der Stufe des objektiven Geistes immer noch begrenzt, denn sie erscheint in ihm als die Willensfreiheit. Die Freiheit als das Wesen des Geistes kommt zum Bewusstsein erst dann, wenn das Absolute als der absolute Geist in der Kunst, Religion und Philosophie bewusst wird. Jede von drei Gestalten des absoluten Geistes überwindet auf ihre Weise die Willensfreiheit, aber unter ihnen ist die Philosophie die freieste Gestalt des Geistes. In der Philosophie als der absoluten Wissenschaft wird die höchste Gestalt des Selbstbewusstseins des Geistes erreicht, bzw. die vollkommene Bewusstwerdung der Freiheit als seines Wesens. Dabei hat jede Stufe der Verwirklichung der Freiheit vom subjektiven über den objektiven zum absoluten Geist ihren notwendigen Ort und alle sind in das Ganze der notwendigen Momente des Systems vereinigt. Durch die Philosophie wird der Geist für seine Freiheit als sein Wesen vollkommen befreit. Er ist als das Zurückkehren zu sich selbst aus seinem Anderen bestimmt, so dass er schließlich alle Äußerlichkeit aufhebt, bzw. sie in seine Innerlichkeit aufnimmt, und dessen bewusst wird, dass das Andere von ihm nicht von ihm getrennt ist, sondern sein Anderssein ist. Vor aller Willensfreiheit, sei es Freiheit der Wahl, moralische Freiheit oder sittliche Freiheit, ist die Freiheit das Wesen des Geistes, und zwar die Selbstbestimmung, die keiner äußerlichen Bestimmung unterliegt: bei sich sein im Anderen seiner selbst, bzw. das Selbstverhältnis durch das Verhältnis zum Anderen als dem eigenen Anderen. Die Philosophie ist als die Wissenschaft des Absoluten zugleich die Wissenschaft der Freiheit. Durch die Freiheit kehrt sich das Absolute als die absolute Idee aus seinem An-sich-Sein frei in die Natur als in sein Anderssein um, kehrt im Geiste zu sich selbst zurück und offenbart sich in seiner Wahrheit als der absolute Geist. Die absolute Idee ist nichts anderes als der an sich seiende Geist, und das Absolute ist nach seiner höchsten Bestimmung der absolut selbstbewusste Geist. Die absolute Wissenschaft als die höchste Gestalt des absoluten Geistes ist das absolute Selbstbewusstsein des Absoluten selbst. Dass die Philosophie die Wissenschaft der Freiheit ist, bedeutet nicht nur, dass die Freiheit der Gegenstand der Philosophie ist, sondern auch, dass die Freiheit selbst durch die Philosophie in ihrer Wahrheit verwirklicht wird. Die Wahrheit der Freiheit ist, dass die Freiheit das Wesen des Absoluten ist. Das zu seiner Wahrheit befreite Absolute ist der absolute Geist.
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The article examines the various conceptions dealing with the interrelationship between genius and psychical disorder. These conceptions were developed by three most influential representatives of psychopathology: Moreau de Tours, Lambroso and Nordau. The article highlights the peculiarities of these authors’ theoretical and methodological approaches, their views on the problems of artists’ creative potential and the process of artistic creativity. The focus of the article is on: the connections between these authors and the earlier non-classical tradition of the philosophy of art, the critical discussion of principal ideas and theoretical and methodological attitudes, and the relations with other influential theories that deal with psychopathological problems.
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