(M)any Questions? A Comparison of the Use of Questions in Wittgenstein’s first 37 paragraphs of Philosophical Investigations with Austin’s essay “The Meaning of a Word”

Author(s): Blahoslav Fajmon / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2014

Wittgenstein’s approach to philosophy is closely related not only to the content but also to the form of his investigations. The following paper presents the uniqueness of Wittgenstein’s writing style, namely his use of questions, by comparing part of his work with Austin’s essay. For this purpose a typology of questions with regard to their function in the text is established and applied. The difference between Wittgenstein’s and Austin’s writing style is then documented by the frequency of certain types of questions, and omission of others, and related to some of Wittgenstein’s remarks about his approach to philosophical inquiry. The difference is then summarized tentatively as one between “pedagogical” and “academic” writing style, which poses questions concerning the translation of Wittgenstein’s investigations into academic prose.

(rec.) Michał Piekarski, Logika-Gramatyka-Pragmatyka. Ewolucja wittgensteinowskiej koncepcji związku języka ze światem, Wydawnictwo UKSW, Warszawa 2015

Author(s): Marek Porwolik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2015

A Different Take on Humanities

Author(s): Wlodzimierz Bolecki / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

The foreword to this issue focuses on the core functional differences between the humanities and hard sciences (i.e. different approaches to such phenomena as language, translation, teamwork, writing, discipline.s history, publishing, tradition, innovation). Yet, this dichotomy is questioned in the conlusion. The author argues that whenever human artifacts are at stake, both the humanites and experimental sciences are equally hard, because they inquire the same matter, ie. how the products of human cognitive activities were created and what are their social functions. Therefore, the author calls for a new model for interdisciplinary studies.

A less simplistic metaphysics: Peirce’s layered theory of meaning as a layered theory of being

Author(s): Marc Champagne / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2015

This article builds on C. S. Peirce’s suggestive blueprint for an inclusive outlook that grants reality to his three categories. Moving away from the usual focus on (contentious) cosmological forces, I use a modal principle to partition various ontological layers: regular sign-action (like coded language) subsumes actual signaction (like here-and-now events) which in turn subsumes possible sign-action (like qualities related to whatever would be similar to them). Once we realize that the triadic sign’s components are each answerable to this asymmetric subsumption, we obtain the means to track at which level of complexity semiosis finds itself, in a given case. Since the bulk of such a “trinitarian” metaphysics would be devoted to countenancing uninterpreted phenomena, I argue that current misgivings about sign-based ontologies are largely misplaced.

A philosophical investigation in machine understanding. The case of implicit meaning

Author(s): Maria Wilkowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/2013

The question of machine thinking and understanding, once initiated by Alan Turing, has puzzled scholars from various disciplines. This paper aims at investigating some of the facets involved in the topic of machine language understanding with particular interest devoted to indirect meaning comprehension (more specifically, the implicature). So far as the subject under examination – the chatbot – manages to understand directly conveyed information, still much is to be done with respect to implicit data in which everyday messages (formulated in ordinary language) abound. This situation generates a number of not only hard-science questions but also, more importantly, given the viewpoint of this paper, it gives rise to a considerable amount of philosophically- oriented and frequently neglected issues and dilemmas too. This study is a brief investigation of exactly those phenomena.

A. Platonov’un “Çukur” Eserinde Umudun Kayiplari

Author(s): Reyhan Çelik / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 76/2013

With the revolution of October 1917 a new political process has begun in Russia. This process has not only changed the daily life of the Russian people, but also has exterminated the humanistic emotions of them. This subject has been the main question of the works of A.Platonov, who observed the sechanges on the people since the begining of the revolution. Although aforementioned difficulties expressed by some writers of that period, due to the tough stance in the works Platonov is considered to be against the regime. However, despite all the pressures he continues to express thoughts clearly. He is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century Russian literature with language, philosophy, as well as the revolution approaches; in his time he reflects the suffering of the people and challenges in society. He attracts attention both the stylistic features of literary art and thoughts of anti-regime. Some of the author’s works have been translated into Turkish. These works are “Dzhan”, “The Foundation Pit”, “Chevengur”. “The foundation Pit” which he has written up in 1930, however, published in 1987 in Russia. In his work “The foundation Pit”, he has drawn the profile of ‘new human’ which has occuerd to get her with the the socialist system. In this work are transferred painful losses, which given to achieve overall collectivization. Voşçev removed from his job because of the thoughtfulness, for the search to truth, will join the ranks of people working for the sake of this hope and in work is expressed what happened in this process. At the same time in work, against the Soviet regime’s utopian thought has created an anti-utopia. In this work the life philosophy of the villagers that live in the Soviet system and their journey to hope has been examined relative to the life philosophy of the period.

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.

Against the Frame

Author(s): Wojciech Kalaga / Language(s): English / Issue: 1-2/2016

The paper explores theoretical foundations of the frame from two semiotic perspectives: that of the Saussurean dyadic sign dominant in the European tradition and that of the triadic sign of the Peircean/American descent. If – within the post- Saussurean agenda – meaning can be fairly easily “framed” and closed in the field of the signified, Peirce’s concepts of interpretant and infinite semiosis implement a mechanism which inherently obliterates the frame. Given this duality of approaches, the contention “No meaning without a frame” is thus true and paradoxical at the same time, and that paradox goes far beyond the Derridean concept of the parergon, which only belongs to both the inside and the outside. The frame, as construed in this paper, is not merely a material or imaginary, inactive partition, but is itself an operational agent which isolates and delineates a text ontologically as the other of the context, and simultaneously subverts that otherness by necessitating further semiosis and its own partial self-erasure. Regarding the interrelations amongst texts and between text and context, the frame is thus envisaged, and investigated in the paper, not so much as a factor of resistance or separation, but as an osmotic boundary facilitating rather than preventing a bi-directional flow of meanings. Putting this in epistemological terms, one may say that interpretation – paradoxically again –requires an enframing of its object, but at the same time it dissolves the stipulated frame and reaches beyond it.

All the Superhero’s Names

Author(s): Olga Poller / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

In this paper I concern myself with The Superman Puzzle (the phenomenon of the substitution failure of co-referential proper names in simple sentences). I argue that the descriptive content associated with proper names, besides determining the proper name’s reference, function as truth-conditionally relevant adjuncts which can be used to express a manner, reason, goal, time or purpose of action. In that way a sentence with a proper name “NN is doing something” could be understood as “NN is doing something as NN” (which means “as-soand-so”). I argue that the substitution of names can fail on modified readings because the different descriptive content of proper names modifies the main predicate differently. Here I present a formal representation of modified predicates which allows one to model intuitively the different truth-conditions of sentences from The Puzzle.

Analiza tekstu jako zdarzenia komunikacyjnego

Author(s): Edyta Paluszynska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 17/2010

Celem artykułu jest próba opisania następstw, jakie wynikają z podejścia do tekstu jako zdarzenia komunikacyjnego. Zostaną one omówione na płaszczyźnie ontologicznej, typologicznej, semantycznej. Rozpatrywanie tekstu w kategoriach komunikacji hierarchizuje te dwa pojęcia operacyjne. Kierunek podporządkowania jest taki, że tekst jako pojęcie podrzędne dziedziczy cechy jednostki wyższego rzędu, czyli komunikacji. Najważniejszą z nich jest cecha ontologiczna, podstawowa: komunikacja jest procesem, rodzajem działalności ludzkiej . Zatem postrzeganie tekstu jako zdarzenia komunikacyjnego zmienia jego dotychczasowy status z substancjalnego (tekst jako produkt, efekt działań) na procesualny2 . Ze zmianą cechy ontologicznej wiąże się zweryfikowanie uprzednio przyjmowanych przeświadczeń i otwarcie nowych perspektyw badawczych.

Analogia w służbie realizmu metafizyki i antropologii

Author(s): Jerzy Krzanowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2013

1. In this article we presented a metaphysical analysis of the analogy, presenting it as an essential condition for ontological and cognitive realism. 2. We use analogy every day, both in philosophy and in ordinary life, expressing ourselves, description of reality, etc. 3. The analogy is briefly saying “similarity of dissimilar”. 4. The analogy occurs in the ontological, cognitive and language aspect (predication), providing them with realism. The main aspect is the aspect of the ontic. 5. Apart from realistic analogy, there is also the analogy in poetry and language of mysticism, called a metaphor or parable. However, it is connected with subjective and experiential human world. 6. The analogy exists primarily as a way of cognition, which reveals ontological pluralism of the world. This cognition is a reflection of analogical being in terms of its constituent compositions and both intra-being (integrating parts, essence and existence, substance and accidents, matter and form, act and potency, etc.) and inter- beings relations. 7. The analogy of cognition is realized as: metaphorical analogy, analogy of attribution and the analogy of general and transcendental proportionality. 8. In the predication we have to deal with analogy of predicates and the analogy of the predicate rule. 9. The analogical inference is an extension of analogy of predication.

Antikos Kinikų Iššūkis Šiuolaikiniam Pasauliui: Vaistai Chroniškai Civilizacijos Ligai Gydyti

Author(s): Vytis Valatka / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 66/2011

This article analyses one of the most important and interesting aspects of ancient Greek cynicism. Namely, the diagnosis of the main disease of ancient Greek civilization – the chase of surplus of pleasures – is investigated. The author of the article also explores radical temperance as the only remedy prescribed for that malignant malady together with askesis – the recipe for production of that remedy. The relevance of such a remedy to the modern form of above mentioned malady is as well analyzed. The article comes to conclusion that radical temperance once proposed by cynics is simply an overbitter and overtough tablet for unduly squeamish stomach of contemporary man. Meanwhile, the milder and softer variant of that tablet could contribute to mitigation of eternal malaise of civilization. That is, not radical but considerably milder form of temperance, which could be entitled the sense of proportion in everything; not ultimate constraint on human needs but just a reduction of consummation, could become contemporary means of prophylaxis. Similarly, askesis of ancient Greek cynics deprived of its radical dimension could become one of possible ways to achieve above mentioned sense of proportion.

Antiteologija novoga događaja

Alain Badiou i kontingencija politike

Author(s): Žarko Paic / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 10-12/2015

Jezici u kojima je riječ »novo« sinonimom bezuvjetnoga raskida s tradicijom u metafizičkim su temeljima dovoljno »stari« da bi imali mogućnosti istinskoga kazivanja tog imperativa vremena. Kao da umjesto njih o našem vremenu bolje govori ono neljudsko iz sklopa kibernetičke tehnologije. Programski jezici računalstva zasnovani na binarnome kôdu postali su nadmoćni simboličkoj snazi »prirodnih« jezika. Štoviše, čini se da su u svojoj zastarjelosti osuđeni na ono isto što je suvremeni francuski filozof Alain Badiou namijenio filozofiji. Da je, naime, njezina sudbina postati izložbenim »predmetom« u muzeju ukoliko ne uspije otvoriti mogućnosti nadilaženja ove epohe. A ta epoha od 19. Stoljeća za svoje presudne pojmove ima znanost, politiku i umjetnost.

Antyrealistyczna ucieczka w sferę możliwości

Author(s): Krzysztof Wójtowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 42/2008

The article is devoted to a popular presentation of two important styles of thinking concerning the problem of existence of mathematical objects: Chihara's linguistic constructivism, and Hellman's modal structuralism. According to Chihara, mathematical statements should be interpreted as referring to certain linguistic construction; according to Hellman, mathematics is the science of possible structures. The motivations and main ideas are examined (without going into technical details), and the similarities and differences between these two viewpoints are highlighted.

Aporia Phila z perspektywy teorii aktów mowy

Author(s): Bartosz Biskup / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2018

The aim of this paper is to analyze the „possibility puzzle” presented by Shapiro (2011) in the context of the debate between conventionalism and non-conventionalism in speech act theory. Conventionalism claims that for every speech act there is a pattern (convention) which determines its illocutionary force. To perform a felicitous speech act is to fulfil necessary and sufficient conditions for this particular speech act. Non-conventionalism criticizes the view that for every speech act there is a conventional pattern and hidden conditions, which are to be fulfilled. This view maintains the conventional thesis for the so-called strict conventional speech acts (e.g. performatives), but negates using universal quantifier for so-called communicative speech acts whose aim is, in short, to express an intention and force someone to act by virtue of this intention. As in (Shapiro 2011), Phil said: in order for someone to have the power to make, change and apply rules, there has to be a rule that empowers someone to do so. This objection concerned „The First Legislator” only from the conventional perspective on speech acts. If it can be maintained that The First Legislator’s speech acts may be non-conventional, then Phil’s argument misses the point. Finally, I will emphasize that only lawyers analyze „the very first speech acts” whereas for philosophers, the problem of e.g. „the very first question” is less absorbing.

Ar Galima Semiotiką Pradėti Nuo Aristotelio? Ženklo Aiškinimas, Grįstas Hilomorfine Esaties Teorija

Author(s): Algirdas Budrevicius / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 74/2013

Sign—the basic idea of semiotics—has been explored by great many philosophers since antiquity; nevertheless, as of now we do not have its ultimate and systematic theory. Peirce proposed an original and philosophically (ontologically) grounded conception of the sign. Could there be a different ontologically based conception of the sign? Could there be developed a different and ontologically based semiotics? The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the fundamentals of semiotics can be developed starting from the ideas of Aristotle. The idea of sign might be grounded on Aristotle’s account of Being and cognition considered in terms of form and matter. Various signs can be treated in terms of form and matter. Pictures, letters are signs of form. A wedding-ring is a material sign-symbol. Many signs can be treated in terms of similarity to the objects they signify: photographs, pictures, sculptures, diagrams, graphical charts, land maps, etc. It is quite natural to treat signs in terms of form and matter. The paper shows how the sign can be defined in terms of form and matter. A concrete model of sign as similarity of form (homomorphism) to the signified object is described. The structurally treated Cartesian system of coordinates is involved for articulation of the modes of Being. Intentionality as directedness of consciousness of the sign perceiver toward the signified object is used in the account of sign.

Are Non-Human Primates Gricean? Intentional Communication in Language Evolution

Author(s): Lucas Battich / Language(s): English / Issue: 5/2018

The field of language evolution has recently made Gricean pragmatics central to its task, particularly within comparative studies between human and non-human primate communication. The standard model of Gricean communication requires a set of complex cognitive abilities, such as belief attribution and understanding nested higher-order mental states. On this model, non-human primate communication is then of a radically different kind to ours. Moreover, the cognitive demands in the standard view are also too high for human infants, who nevertheless do engage in communication. In this paper I critically assess the standard view and contrast it with an alternative, minimal model of Gricean communication recently advanced by Richard Moore. I then raise two objections to the minimal model. The upshot is that this model is conceptually unstable and fails to constitute a suitable alternative as a middle ground between full-fledged human communication and simpler forms of non-human animal communication.

Are Quantifier Phrases Always Quantificational? The Case of ‘Every F’

Author(s): Pierre Baumann / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2013

This paper argues that English quantifier phrases of the form ‘every F’ admit of a literal referential interpretation, contrary to the standard semantic account of this expression, according to which it denotes a set and a second-order relation. Various arguments are offered in favor of the referential interpretation, and two likely objections to it are forestalled.

ARGUMENTATION, R. PAVILIONIS’S MEANING CONTINUUM AND THE KITCHEN DEBATE

Author(s): Elena Lisanyuk / Language(s): English / Issue: 88/2015

In this paper, I propose a logical-cognitive approach to argumentation and advocate an idea that argumentation presupposes that intelligent agents engaged in it are cognitively diverse. My approach to argumentation allows drawing distinctions between justification, conviction and persuasion as its different kinds. In justification agents seek to verify weak or strong coherency of an agent’s position in a dialogue. In conviction they argue to modify their partner’s position by means of demonstrating weak or strong cogency of their positions before a ‘rational judge’. My approach to argumentation employs a ‘light’ version of Dung’s abstract argumentative frameworks. It is based on Stich’s idea of agents’ cognitive diversity the epistemic aspect of which is argued to be close to Pavilionis’s conception of meaning continuum. To illustrate my contributions I use an example based on the Kitchen Debate (1959) between Khrushchev and Nixon.

Aristotelova filozofija jezika (I dio)

Author(s): Milenko A. Perovic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 27/2017

This article carries out the integral analysis of Aristotle’s concept of language. The analysis is partly set as the critique of Heidegger’s critique of Aristotle. The author refutes Heidegger’s understanding that Aristotle reduces the whole of manifestation of language to the logical function of judging (λόγος ἀποφαντικός). Made against this understanding is an investigative decision that Aristotle's concept of language – utilising the metaphysical doctrine of the four causes as the key – can be understood in its immanent quaternity, which goes to say what are Aristotle’s definitions for linguistic causa materialis, causa formalis, causa efficiens and causa finalis. The decision rests upon a clear difference between Aristotle's philosophy of understanding and philosophy of reason, as well as upon the high interpretative value of his nonthematic differentiation between categories of immediacy and categories of mediation.