‘Mais la fantaisie est-elle un privilège des seuls poètes?’ Schlick on a ‘Sinnkriterium’ for Thought Experiments

Author(s): Daniel Dohrn / Language(s): English / Issue: 52/2018

Ever since the term ‘thought experiment’ was coined by Ørsted, philosophers have struggled with the question of how thought experiments manage to provide knowledge. Ernst Mach’s seminal contribution has eclipsed other approaches in the Austrian tradition. I discuss one of these neglected approaches. Faced with the challenge of how to reconcile his empiricist position with his use of thought experiments, Moritz Schlick proposed the following ‘Sinnkriterium’: a thought experiment is meaningful if it allows to answer a question under discussion by imagining the experiences that would confirm that the thought experimental scenario is actual. I trace this view throughout three exemplary thought experiments of Schlick’s.

“Is logic a physical variable?” Introduction to the Special Issue

Author(s): Michał Eckstein,Bartłomiej Skowron / Language(s): English / Issue: 69/2020

“Is logic a physical variable?” This thought-provoking question was put forward by Michael Heller during the public lecture “Category Theory and Mathematical Structures of the Universe” delivered on 30th March 2017 at the National Quantum Information Center in Sopot. It touches upon the intimate relationship between the foundations of physics, mathematics and philosophy. To address this question one needs a conceptual framework, which is on the one hand rigorous and, on the other hand capacious enough to grasp the diversity of modern theoretical physics. Category theory is here a natural choice. It is not only an independent, well-developed and very advanced mathematical theory, but also a holistic, process-oriented way of thinking.

„След Бог“ – проблем(атич)ни размишления

Author(s): Anguel S. Stefanov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 3/2020

These are reflections born by the reading of Richard Dawkin’s new book under the title Outgrowing God. A Beginner’s Guide. The text is not intended to be a review of this book, but an attempt at formulating problems and providing assessments of their putative answers. They refer to Dawkin’s optimism about the explanatory potential of natural selection and his atheistic position.

Јонасова идеја макроетике за планетарну цивилизацију

Author(s): Radivoje Kerović / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 5-6/2006

In dieser Arbeit verweist der Autor auf die Bedeutung Jonases Projekt der Makroethik für die technologische Zivilisation. In diesem Sinne betrachtet er dass sind die Fragen und die Problemen, die Jonas stellt, legitime und unabwendbare Probleme für das zeitgenössische philosophische Denken, auf. Deswegen sind auch die Imperative der Ethik der Verantwortung legitim, die Jonas gründet.

Философски поглед върху психиатрията

Author(s): Roman Harizanov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2019

In the Sun-Earth system, the second thermodynamic principle is manifested in a specific way. The sun exerts a potent protective effect on the most energy-intensive chemical reaction: the synthesis of proteins through nucleic acids. A buildable-degradable matter is accumulated. This process passes through several phases: growth of the individual, maturation, reproduction, saturation of the ecological niche of the population, formation of the species, increasing complexity of the environment, a progressive course of evolution, a transition from living beings’ adaptation to their environment to the environment’s adaptation to living beings. This happens as follows: a “conditioned stimulus”, designated here as “love of the future” is presented. The latter creates an un-conditioned stimulus. The consumption of the latter is designated as “love of the present”, which comprises satisfaction of instincts and the use of “free play”. “Free play” is fragmented by the rationality of the actions; and it has different forms of manifestation. Schizophrenia is a failure to build the neural connection between love of the future and love of the present. The author supports Bleuler’s view that the essential feature of schizophrenia is deficits in the higher functions. The article also discusses certain features of other psychoses, affective disorders, personality disorders, the role of transmitters, etc. A life strategy for better health is presented.

Формирование представления о шарообразности Солнца в греческой философии и науке

Author(s): Dmitri Panchenko / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 1/2019

According to a standard idea of Greek science and philosophy, the shape of the sun is spherical. Such an idea appears already in Aristotle who offers, however, no good account for it, and only Stobaeus cites an authority, or rather collective authority, the Pythagoreans, for an early recognition of the idea in question. The ancient tradition left no direct evidence of how the sphericity of the sun was recognized, and the issue attracted very little attention in modern scholarship. I propose that in the late sixth century new empirical knowledge about the sun reached the Aegean and Italy. Some people who crossed the northern tropic repeatedly observed the sun from its ‘other’ side, for in the height of the summer an observer located south of the northern tropic saw the midday sun in the north. This made impossible Anaximander’s idea of the sun as a body containing fire and having one aperture and triggered a search for a better version. Since the sun invariably displayed a circular outline at any time, at any place and on all sides of the horizon, one had to consider the possibility that its shape was either spherical or ‘bowllike’. The study of lunar light that led to the discovery of the sphericity of the moon was also helpful. The doctrine of a spherical sun was firmly established by the consensus of professional astronomers rather than due to an initiative by an outstanding thinker; however, one may think that Parmenides contributed to it. A spherical sun cannot be a sphere of fire – without a container, fire would have dispersed. This problem brought about a number of theories that treated the sun as a kind of mirror, etc. Further, a spherical sun that issues a reflected light was recognized to have been a solid and hence a heavy body, which contributed to approaching the spheres of the Sun, Moon and Earth in a similar way and making the Earth a planet.

Формирование трансдисциплинарных знаний у студентов технических направлений вузов

Author(s): Vladimir Ivanovich Gorbunov,Olga Konstantinovna Evdokimova,Giorgia Rimondi,Vsevolod Vladimirovich Andreev / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 1/2019

Introduction. The paper investigates the problem of modernization and development of engineering education within the contemporary context of global challenges. The aim of the research is to identify the particularities of acquiring transdisciplinary knowledge by students pursuing a degree in the field of engineering. Materials and Methods. The researchers took synergetic and systemic approaches to the study and conducted an analysis of university-level engineering education. The experimental substantiation involved processing and analyzing students’ examination results using the elements of cluster analysis. Results. The authors have identified the main features of acquiring transdisciplinary knowledge by students pursuing a degree in the field of engineering. It has been revealed that the discipline ‘The Russian language and Standards of Speech’ can be considered as an integrating discipline in the curriculum ensuring acquiring transdisciplinary skills by engineering students. Moreover, the study has summarized international experience of applying transdisciplinary approach to training highly qualified specialists. The authors have proved that the discipline ‘The Russian language and standards of speech’ is one of the most effective means of promoting figurative thinking, which is significant for developing creative thinking of prospective engineers. Transdisciplinary approach, based on the rational relationship between the known and the unknown, creates sufficient motivation which can arouse and maintain students’ interest in the essence of problems in the process of learning and acquiring new knowledge. Conclusions. The authors conclude about the specificity of acquiring transdisciplinary knowledge by university students pursuing a degree in the field of engineering.

Функции археологической теории

Author(s): Leo S. Klejn / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 3/1999

Is archaeological theory necessary? The answer is expected from the theoretical archaeology. Strange as it is, works devoted to this issue are nearly absent in archaeological literature. In this article various stages of full empirical archaeological inquiry are considered in order to detect whether in each of them archaeological theory plays any role, and if it does, which namely. There are the following functions analysed: 1) identificative; 2) integrative; 3) selective; 4) descriptive; 5) systematising; 6) explanative; 7) predictive; 8) instrumental; 9) heuristic; 10) controlling; 11) synthesising; 12) enlightening. Every of them is connected with difficulties, especially the explanative and predictive functions. So the sections devoted to these two functions are entitled not simply with the designation of the function but as «The problem of explanative function» or «The problem of predictive function». Properly speaking the explanative functions is expressed in archaeology as interpretative one (not in the sense which this word has in hermeneutics but rather which it has in translation practice). The predictive function (some theorists speak on retrodiction instead of prediction in archaeology) is expressed as reconstructive one.

Функционален модел на социалните въздействия на науката

Author(s): Ludmila Ivancheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian / Issue: 6/2016

The paper presents the author’s functional model of the exo-systemic social context of science in the form of a typology, and builds a classification scheme of the model’s social functions, decomposed into target (external and internal) and instrumental functions; the latter group is divided into relational and performative functions. Through application of the principles of functional and structural analysis, indicators are proposed for determining the level of development of a social function. A summary of the types and directions of functional transformations of modern science in the context of their social impact is presented. The article concludes that both the target and instrumental social functions of science undergo significant development in the modern knowledge society.

ХV международен конгрес по логика, методология и философия на науката

Author(s): Anton Donchev,Mila Marinova,Lilia Gurova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2016

The article offers an overview of the 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, held on 3-8 August 2015 in Helsinki. It includes a brief outline of the history of these congresses, with special attention to its trends of development and comparisons between the last five of them. These trends are indicative of the changes taking place in the development of philosophy of science over the last 16 years. A special focus is put on the main topics of the congresses as well as on some of the most significant presentations. Finally, the paper provides information about the Bulgarian participation in the latest congress, which reveals a significant increase compared with the previous ones, which inspires hope that the ascending development of philosophy of science in Bulgaria will continue and its presence at international forums will become increasingly visible.

Харизматичната култура на ХII век и формите на монашеска образованост

Author(s): Oleg Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian,Latin / Issue: 20/2014

The purpose of this paper is to explore this intriguing chapter in the history of ideas and higher learning and opens a new view of intellectual and social life in eleventh- and early twelfth-century Europe. The paper is concerned with the shaping of the monastic scholarly tradition in the West; as such it is a exposition of the charismatic ideals and the intellectual aspirations of the masters and scholars who brought it into being, and whose influence was to linger on almost down to our own time and place. Monastic schools educated students in a course of studies aimed at perfecting their physical presence, their manners, and their eloquence. The formula of schools was “letters and manners” (litterae et mores), which asserts a pedagogic program as broad as the modern „letters and science.“ The main instrument of what we may calls “charismatic pedagogy” was the master’s personality, his physical presence radiating a transforming force to his students.

Циклите на Кребс

Author(s): Ivelin Kuleff / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 4/2019

In the present paper the idea about the cycles discovered by Dr. Hans Krebs is given. The career of Dr Krebs in Germany and England is outlined and his cycles are described in details. It is given also the evaluation of his discovery both about life and development of the biology as well.

Человек слова и поступка

Author(s): Alexei Vyacheslavovich Zyablikov / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 1/2020

The article is dedicated to the personality of V. S. Memetov (1939—2019), a major teacher and scientist, founder of the scientific school of intelligentsia studies. The article focuses on life situations in which the best qualities of an intellectual and a scientist are revealed: decency, responsibility, scientific thoroughness and delicacy, moral uncompromisingness. The article analyses activity of V. S. Memetov as editor-in-chief of the journal “Intelligentsia and the World”, which today is a cognitive and methodological basis for studying the intellectual history of Russia. Outstanding organizational skills of V. S. Memetov and his special role in the formation of a research center for the study of the history of the intelligentsia deserve a credit. An important part of this work is holding an annual conference, which for more than a quarter of a century serves as a platform for fruitful scientific discussions and combines the efforts of historians, political scientists, philologists, philosophers, and cultural scientists. The article views V. S. Memetov’s attitude to the complex and controversial processes that determine the content of higher education today. It is stated that V. S. Memetov aimed at preservation of the root foundations of our history and culture, so that the rapid flow of innovations will not destroy our national identity.

Чему још образовање?

Author(s): Predrag Krstić / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 149/2014

This paper focuses on a few simple questions that fundamentally challenge the idea of education, as well as its modern realization. The suggestion is that, within the undividedly accepted educational strategy of the West, there are still uninspected costs and smuggled dilemmas. They then burden the contemporary disputes over education at a lower level of generality: general or vocational, culturally determined or universal, standardized or deregulated, uniform or plural, privileged or available to all, elite or “open” education, and so on. We believe that such thorough clearing up of conceptual field would point to those presumed purposes, functions, and outcomes of education which make its investments seem constantly unsatisfactory, and education itself appears chronically in crisis.

Човешкото съзнание като когнитивно-афективна цялост

Author(s): Rosen Stapov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2016

Човјек као жртва и талац технике – мали прилог једној великој теми

Author(s): Ana Galić / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 2/2018

The phenomenon of technique and technology applied to human life brings with itself many different perspectives from which we can look at the technique as the future salvation of mankind or, if we observe without prophetic vision, as currently advancing and facilitating the present life circumstances. In this paper, the author will try to clarify how the technique has influenced and influences the development of man and whether there is a real danger of catastrophic proportions if we allow the technique to go along step by step with man. When analyzing the above, we will use the relevant works of authors who have been researching the subject for the research: Nick Bostrom, Rebecca Roache, Wolfgang Velsch and Lewis Mumford.

Шест вариации върху холизма на Куайн

Author(s): Konstantin Yanakiev / Language(s): English,Bulgarian / Issue: 6/2018

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.

Эволюция технологий, «зелёное» развитие и основания общей теории технологий

Author(s): Sergey Krichevskiy / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 14/2015

Methodological aspects of the evolution of technology in the modern scientific picture of the world in the paradigms of universal evolution, global future, "green" development, using socio-techno-natural approach. Posed the problem of controlling the evolution of technology. Proposed: 1) new interdisciplinary conceptual approach to the analysis of the evolution of technology, technological ways; 2) the approach, methodology, classification and model for an assessment of environmental friendliness of technologies, technology industries; 3) management technology evolution through technology spectrum management technologies. Given a new interpretation of the concept of "technological way," taking into account the interaction with the environment. Formulated grounds and proposed structure of the general theory of technology.

Экзистенциализм как интернет-тренд

Author(s): D.V Prokofieva / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 2/2014

The article is devoted to Internet-trend on Existentialism in Russian social networks. Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Franz Kafka became popular characters for Russian young people who are active Internet users. They correlated Existentialism with concepts of “hopeless”, “Futility”, “emptiness”. We made an attempt to analyze this phenomenon and tried to explain that Existentialism is not directed against the person but for him.

ЭПИСТЕМОЛОГИЯ VERSUS ОНТОЛОГИЯ В АНТИЧНОЙ ФИЛОСОФИИ МАТЕМАТИКИ

Author(s): Vitaly Tselishchev / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 2/2015

This article discusses two alternative concepts of the philosophy of mathematics in ancient philosophy, associated with Plato and Aristotle. The dominant theme in Plato ontological understanding of the eternal nature of mathematical objects is rejected by Aristotle in favor of epistemological procedures in the practice of geometric mathematical proof.