(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.

(Ne)moć reči

Author(s): Slaviša Orlović / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 3-4/2016

Počev od 2009. godine u Ivanjici se svake godine krajem avgusta održava Nušićijada. Reč je o kolaž festivalu satkanom od muzičkih koncerata, pozorišnih predstava, sportskih događaja, performanasa, izložbi i filmskih projekcija, začinjen ceremonijama i paradom kostimiranih građana kao svojim zaštitnim znakom. Ona predstavlja spoj kulture i zabave, tradicionalnog i modernog, mladosti i iskustva, individualnog i kolektivnog. Poznato je da je Branislav Nušić bio odličan besednik i da je napisao jedan od najboljih priručnika za retoriku na srpskom jeziku Retorika – nauku o besedništvu. Imajući to u vidu u okviru Nušićijade u Ivanjici počev od 2012. godine organizuje se Besedničko veče: „NUŠIĆ I REČ“. Ono se sastoji iz dva dela. U prvom delu ugledna ličnost iz javnog života po pozivu govori „Besedu o Nušiću“ na temu o Branislavu Nušiću kao besedniku i teoretičaru retorike. U drugom delu „U slavu reči“, nastupaju revijalno najuspešniji takmičari u besedništvu u Srbiji u tekućoj godini. U ovoj rubrici Hereticusa objavljujemo besede dr Slaviše Orlovića, redovnog profesora Fakulteta političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu i studenata Olivere Ševo, Stefana Dragićevića i Bojane Petrović, koje su održane 27. avgusta 2016. u Ivanjici. Na kraju je beseda dr Đorđa Sibinovića notarima Srbije. [...]

(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): Włodzimierz 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 Half-Formed Thing, a Fully Formed Style. Repetition in Eimear McBride’s A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

Author(s): Katarzyna Bazarnik / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

The article begins with addressing alleged similarities between Eimear McBride’s debut novel A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing and James Joyce’s works to suggest that they cannot be systematically sustained. Her much praised, experimental style relies on the opposite of Joycean richness. Limited vocabulary, jumbled word order, and lexical and phrasal repetitions are one of the most salient features of her style. McBride applies rhetorical variants of conduplicatio to create an emotionally powerful idiom to narrate an anti-Bildungsroman about a loving sister and her dying brother, her sexual abuse by an uncle and final suicide. So despite some thematic parallels, and linguistic experimentation, A Girl bears only superficial resemblance to the modernist master, which is additionally evidenced by stylometric findings.

A HEALTHIER RELATIONSHIP WITH TECHNOLOGY STARTING FROM CHILDREN’S OPINION ON IT. A CASE STUDY FROM THE PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN WORKSHOPS IN THE LOCAL LIBRARY

Author(s): Liana Fanca / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2019

A Healthier Relationship with Technology Starting from Children’s Opinion on it. A Case Study from the Philosophy for Children Workshops in the Local Library. One of the most discussed problems in parenting is children’s relationship with technology. The article analyses a few of parents’ fears that drives their attitude and some of the skills developed while using technology, mirrored by the skills of the future work. Also includes a study case from our philosophy for children workshops on technology held in the local libraries in 2019. Children are prepared to understand the arguments of a parent in a real dialogue. In order to create one, parents should consider the opposite of the truth they know as well as children’s opinion. Due to the attractiveness of technology, every child needs help from adults in order to create a strategy for a healthy relationship with technology.

A ještě jedna nepřesnost

Author(s): Marie Duží / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 1/2003

Souhlasím s kritikou Bělohradovy argumentace, kterou provedl výše Pavel Materna a chtěla bych doplnit, že ve zmíněném (jinak velice kvalitním příspěvku) je ještě jedna nepřesnost.

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 MISCONCEPTION OF LOGIC IN ITS DIFFUSION ACROSS NON-MATHEMATICAL ENVIRONMENTS: THE EMBARRASSING MISTAKE OF RELYING ON NATURAL LANGUAGE

Author(s): EDGAR ANDRADE-LOTERO,JULIÁN M. ORTIZ-DUQUE / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2019

In this paper we criticize a widespread practice in the teaching, use, and dissemination of first-order logic in non-mathematical environments. This practice consists in the presentation of the truth-conditions of logical formulas by means of sentences in natural language – e.g., if ‘s’ represents Socrates and ‘H’ represents the property of being human, ‘Hs’ is true iff Socrates is human. We will argue that it is inadequate a presentation of the semantics of first-order logic and that it is problematic for the study of natural language. Our argumentation is three-fold. First, there are constructions in natural language that do not behave as this logic requires. Second, the use of natural language is not able to provide an explanation of the semantics of individual constants and predicates. Third, this practice instigates the idea that natural language possesses a formal structure, and does so unreflectively and without justification.

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 posteriori

Author(s): Maurice Blanchot / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 23/2018

Mallarme je nekom novopečenom autoru, koji je od njega tražio tekst prezentacije ili podrške, uzvratio: »Užasavam se proslova napisanih iz autorova pera, a sjoš većim mije pravom odbojno kad proslov priredi netko drugi. Pravoj knjizi, dragi moj, predstavljanjeje suvišno, ona osvaja na prvi pogled kao žena ljubavnika i bez pomoći nekog trećeg, muža...«. […]

A priori komunikácie a základy humanitných disciplín

Author(s): Karl-Otto Apel / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 4/2003

Aký typ vzťahov by sa mal postulovať medzi prírodnými vedami [science] a humanitnými disciplínami [humanities] v kontexte súčasnej spoločnosti?

A Review on the Relationship Between Logical Positivism and Glossematics

Author(s): Evrim Önem / Language(s): English / Issue: 169/2018

As with most theories put forward in sciences, different fields and disciplines affect others in social sciences. In this sense, logical positivism and glossematics are no exceptions. Logical positivism was one of the leading movements in philosophy and proposed ideas for philosophy to be recognized as a true science just like natural sciences. Glossematics was a linguistic school also known as Copenhagen Linguistic Circle, which proposed ideas similar to those of logical positivism for linguistic studies. This comparative study aimed to show the reflection of the ideas of logical positivism on glossematics. After presenting the main ideas of both schools, a comparative analysis was made in this paper. When the general ideas were analyzed, it was seen that, logical positivism proposed verifiability, deduction of structures via scientific methods, and creating unambiguous terms to provide a universal theory for philosophy. Such ideas were also championed in glossematics to yield a universal linguistic theory. As a result, it can be said that logical positivism and glossematics were strongly related in their views although they were in different fields.

A Short Reflection on Speech-Act Theory of Literary Fiction

Author(s): Jiří Koten / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

Esej sumarizuje přístup k literární fikci, který vyvinuli představitelé teorie řečových aktů (autor fiktivního vyprávění předstírá autentické vypovídání). Autor eseje teorii předstírání domýšlí a navrhuje ilokuční charakter fikčního diskurzu popsat jako nepřímou deklaraci (vyprávění svou ilokuční silou nepřímo deklaruje stav věcí, o kterém vypovídá).

A TOUCHY SUBJECT: THE TACTILE METAPHOR OF TOUCH

Author(s): Mirt Komel / Language(s): English / Issue: 82/2016

The article proposes an interpretation of metaphors and metaphoric discourse through the perspective of touch. The article first deals with metaphors of touch in the history of western philosophy (especially traditional metaphysics from Plato to Hegel) in order to produce an operative category of touch that will allow, in the second step, to grasp the tactile quality of the metaphors. If metaphors are usually (rhetorics, politics, literature) regarded as a specific form of language able to not only touch the subject matter in the most suitable way but also touch on the target subject (listener/reader), then it is precisely because there is a certain haptic quality involved in language itself, discernible especially in the discourse of those who know how to best exploit metaphors in their endeavours.

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 BELIEF SENTENCES AND BELIEF CONTEXTS: TRADITIONAL VS. CONTEMPORARY VIEWS

Author(s): Svetlana Zečević / Language(s): English / Issue: 9/2014

The main aim of this work is to represent the analysis of the belief sentences from the respect to traditional and contemporary views. The two main representatives are Rudolf Carnap and Saul Aron Kripke. First analysis regards the belief sentences as intensionally isomorphic and in this particular context Carnap regards the concept of context that is neither extensional nor intensional, and finds that it is the case of the sentences about belief. Second analysis goes through translational and disquotational principle, where Kripke arises question whether we may have contradictory beliefs and finds such possibility in the concept of different cognitive contexts.

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.

Acquaintance and Naming: A Russellian Theme in Epistemology

Author(s): Augustín Riška / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2005

Russell's distinction between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description has been recently re-examined in frequently controversial epistemological contributions. The present essay reflects upon the pertinent papers by D. F. Pears. J. Hintikka. R. Chisholm, W. Sellars. A. J. Ayer, and others, but is primarily founded on Russell's significant formulations from his writings published between 1910 and 1918. By employing an auxiliary device of a late-Wittgensteinian language game, I explore at first the situation in which human subject is "experiencing" and naming particular objects (Russell's sense-data and sensibilia) and later the subject's acquaintance with universals. The reconstruction of such situations shows that, contrary to Russell's assumptions, even the "purest" acquaintance cannot function without knowledge by description, i.e. without stating propositions about the object of acquaintance (whatever its nature). Then the only "descriptionless" alternative would be a kind of intuitive knowledge ot such objects which is difficult to reconcile with the position held by Russell in the 1910s. Whatever the consequences, this topic retains its fundamental epistemological significance.

Afirmacija ljudskog simboličkim oblicima. Cassirer o jeziku i znanosti

Author(s): Hasnije Ilazi / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 02/150/2018

In his philosophy of culture, Cassirer refused to understand the human being as homo faber, and he partially accepted to understand the human being as animal rationale. The essence of the human being is composed of his creational acts, and he is creating culture by the way of symbolic forms. The paper will present Cassirer’s theory of symbols as the basis for differentiating human nature from the nature of other living beings, and the base of human existence as the communication in the social surrounding. The human being as a symbolic animal will be elaborated through a relation between language and science, as well as tradition and innovation in the dynamic process of creating culture. Because the paper is presenting an anthropological review of the rule of the symbol in confirming the essence of human being, the goal was to point at the (lack of) rational mechanisms of symbols for manifesting the irrational human nature.