Realitatea se întoarce: O presupoziţie a lui Blaga despre raportul cunoaştere–realitate

Author(s): Mona Mamulea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2015

: Prompted by the quantum revolution of the last century as well as by other scientific theories like Einstein’s relativity and Driesch’s entelechy, Blaga suggested an unconventional alternative epistemology which he thought to be more suited to explain the paradoxes that had occurred in certain scientific descriptions of reality. The following paper considers one of Blaga’s rather silent hypotheses concerning the reality behind his theory of knowledge.

Antinomii metodologice în epistemologie

Author(s): Teodor Dima / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2015

The methodological antinomies of axiomatization and formalization, advanced by Petre Botezatu in Valoarea deducţiei (The Value of Deduction, 1971), were first put forward in his doctoral thesis: Cauzalitatea fizică şi panquantismul (Physical Causality and Panquantism, 1945) in various statements: „What is gained through abstraction, through a scholarly technique, is lost in objectivity, through a detachment from the concrete reality”, or „The advance in the profound knowledge of real causation leaves behind the methodical use of probability”, or „What is gained in terms of generality is lost in terms of objectivity”. I have reached the conclusion that Petre Botezatu’s initial concern was with epistemology, especially with the „turn” taken by the philosophy of physics after the revolutionary discoveries from the laboratories where the chemical elements were investigated in their intimate structures. The philosopher who, after his return to the university, in 1957, was mainly concerned with logic and metalogic, described with precision the epistemological procedures which helped clarify the principle of determinism in the philosophy of quantum physics.

Scepticism & Transcendental Arguments: Some Methodological Reconsiderations

Author(s): Kenneth R. Westphal / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

Kant provided two parallel, sound proofs of mental content externalism; both prove this thesis: We human beings could not think of ourselves as persisting through apparent changes in what we (apparently) experience – nor could we think of the apparent spatio-temporal world of objects, events and people – unless in fact we are conscious of some aspects of the actual spatio-temporal world and have at least some rudimentary knowledge of it. Such proofs turn, not on general facts about (or features of) the world, but on appreciating various fundamental regards in which our finite human cognizance depends upon the world we inhabit. The ‘transcendental’ character of these analyses concerns identifying and appreciating various fundamental features of our finite form of human mindedness, and basic constraints upon, and prospects of, cognitive justification within the non-formal domain of human empirical knowledge. Such analyses and proofs have been developed in various ways, using distinctive strategies, not only by Kant, but also by Hegel, C.I. Lewis, Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Frederick Will. Here I examine and defend the methodological reflections required to understand, assess and appreciate such transcendental proofs, and why so few analytic epistemologists have found them persuasive or illuminating.

Prawdopodobieństwo: droga do pewności? Probabilistyka w myśli Johna Henry’ego Newmana

Author(s): Piotr Cebula / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2013

The term „probability” in Newman’s philosophy is ambiguous. This fact, very often causes the chaos of interpretation. The second difficulty is to grasp the relationship between the probability and certainty-certitude in the system of its thought. The aim of this article is to try to solve these two matters. The way of using the word by the cardinal shows that it is an instrument of implicit reasoning and it has an epistemic meaning. The accumulation of probabilities brings us to assent something as the truth. However, they never extort for it. When in the province of implicit reasoning the assent is the fact, and is reflected upon, then the assent is the certitude. So, in Newman’s thought probability is a natural way to certitude.

Are We Causally Redundant? Eliminativism and the no-Self View

Author(s): Jiri Benovsky / Language(s): English Issue: 49/2017

Some friends of eliminativism about ordinary material objects such as tables or statues think that we need to make exceptions. In this article, I am interested in Trenton Merricks’ claim that we need to make an exception for us, conscious beings, and that we are something over and above simples arranged in suitable ways, unlike tables or statues. I resist this need for making an exception, using the resources of four-dimensionalism.

Baseless Knowledge

Author(s): Guido Melchior / Language(s): English Issue: 50/2017

It is a commonly held view in contemporary epistemology that for having knowledge it is necessary to have an appropriately based belief, although numerous different views exist about when a belief’s base is appropriate. Broadly speaking, they all share the view that one can only have knowledge if the belief’s base is in some sense truth-related or tracking the truth. Baseless knowledge can then be defined as knowledge where the belief is acquired and sustained in a way that does not track the truth. I will argue that rejecting baseless knowledge leads to controversial consequences. The problem increases if we consider contrasting persons who know because of appropriate belief forming processes but who fail to possess further epistemic virtues such as understanding. I will not argue which belief bases constitute a sufficient condition for knowledge. Rather I will stress the point that the common assumption that an appropriate basing relation constitutes a necessary condition for knowledge has controversial consequences.

Multi-, trans- and inter-disciplinarity, essential conditions for the sustainable development of human habitat

Author(s): Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2013

While the hierarchy of inter-, trans- and multi-disciplinarity is not commonly agreed upon, the vast majority of authors emphasize the utility of integrating to more or lesser extent different disciplines in research. The paper analyzes the particular case of the disciplines dealing with the design of human habitat, in order to prove that a supra-disciplinary approach is an essential condition for a sustainable output. The results indicate that, in addition to the need for crossing disciplinary borders, a multi-scale approach is also required.

Vybrané koncepcie evolučného prístupu k teórii vedy

Author(s): Miroslav Karaba / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 3/2011

Evolutionary Epistemology is a€naturalistic approach to epistemology, which emphasizes the importance of natural selection in two primary roles. In the first role, selection is the generator and maintainer of the reliability of our senses and cognitive mechanisms, as well as the “fit” between those mechanisms and the world. In the second role, trial and error learning and the evolution of scientific theories are construed as selection processes. EET (Evolutionary Epistemology of Theories) is the label for the program which attempts to analyze the development of human knowledge and epistemological norms by appealing to relevant biological considerations. Some of these attempts consider in this paper involve analyzing the growth of human knowledge in terms of selectionist models and metaphors (Toulmin, Hull).

Innatism in Kant

Author(s): Adam Drozdek / Language(s): English Issue: 59/2014

Although Kant very seldom mentioned the concept of innateness, it is very important in his epistemological system. The article shows that although the a priori and the innate must be distinguished from one another, they are intertwined concepts. Also, taking into account different levels of generality of Kantian cognitive subjects allows us to show that the same thing can be considered innate and acquired at the same time.

On the Transcendental Philosophy in the Light of the Kantian Aggregate – System Opposition

Author(s): Przemysław Parszutowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 58/2013

The article represents an attempt to determine the essence of critical philosophy in the light of Kantian distinction between aggregate and system. In order to achieve this, the article harks back to Kant’s work and to accomplishments of Marburg School of neo-Kantianism and particularly to Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy. Discrimination between aggregate and system as two possible types of knowledge representation rests on the precedent discrimination between substance and function and constitutes the main motive that determines the basic core of philosophical transcendental method in its opposition to the “dogmatic” method.

Group as a Distributed Subject of Knowledge: Between Radicalism and Triviality

Author(s): Barbara Trybulec / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

In the paper, I distinguish the bottom-up strategy and the intentional stance strategy of analyzing group intentional states, and show that the thesis of distributed group subject of knowledge could be accommodated by either of them. Moreover, I argue that when combined with virtue reliabilism the thesis satisfactorily explains the phenomenon of group knowledge. To justify my argument, in the second part of the paper, I distinguish two accounts of justification pointing to conditions of group knowledge. The first, which I call the belief-centered approach to group intentional states, determines the concept of group belief and group justificatory reason. The second, the process-centered approach represented by S. Orestis Palermos, employs the theory of virtue reliabilism and focuses on the group knowledge-conducive process. In the paper, I argue in favor of the latter as the internalism associated with the former appears to lack sufficient explanatory power. The theory of virtue epistemology runs into considerable difficulties when trying to deal with an extended epistemic subject composed of one individual and her cognitive artifact. In the two last parts of the paper, I consider the most important difficulties and argue that these obstacles are overcome once one adopts an approach combining virtue epistemology and the thesis of distributed group epistemic subject.

RECONDIȚIONAREA CONDIȚIEI UMANE ȘI AMURGUL LIBERTĂȚII

Author(s): Gheorghe Văduva / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 26/2016

Depuis toujours, l’homme a reflété sur sa condition. Il n’a jamais touché un jugement catégorique, mais il s’en est contenté seulement à constater qu’il soit ce qu’il soit. Sa condition se trouve quelque parte entre une réalité non-conditionnée et une cognition conditionnée, entre un Univers visible, perceptible, donc cognoscible, et un mystère encore non-solutionné. En même temps, l’homme real ne peut pas être dissocie de l’homme abstract, de l’homme cognitif, de l’homme qui panse sur soi-même. Sa condition se positionne quelque part entre la liberté de la pensée et le conditionnement de la liberté, entre l’existence et le temps, entre ce qu’on est et ce qu’on n’en est pas. Ses horizons, de plus en plus élargies après une matrice chaotique, définissent, en effet, un crépuscule de la liberté qui devienne de plus en plus conditionnée de même éternel droit à liberté.

Četiri shvatanja kauzaliteta

Author(s): Władysław Krajewski / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 03+04/1984

The author explores four fundamental concepts of causality: materialistic, spiritualistic of voluntaristic, racionalistic or aprioristic and phenomenologic or positivistic. In the first part, causality is viewed as a motion or feed-back; in the second, causality is seen as a will or a conscious act; in the third, causality is founded as a phenomenon of a cause-effect type, and in the fourth part, the author demonstrates it as a consistent line.

Wisdom and Reason

Author(s): Andrei Mărăşoiu / Language(s): English Issue: 53/2018

On Ryan’s (2012) theory of wisdom as deep rationality, to believe or act wisely is to believe or act in a justified way, informed by a body of other justified beliefs about the good life. Ryan (2017) elaborates the view along evidentialist lines: one’s belief or act is justified when it is based on the best available evidence. The resulting package faces counterexamples. Transformative experiences are rational ‘leaps of faith’ (Paul 2014), so the agent’s decision to undergo one is not best supported by the evidence available. Many transformative experiences (such as deciding to become a mother, or choosing a career path) often endow lives with meaning, and agents with a sense of purpose (Wolf 2010). Because so much is at stake, it is sometimes rational for agents to take on the risk involved in transforming themselves. Deciding to undergo such experiences may be wise—even if the evidence available at the time doesn’t positively support that decision. In reply to this challenge, I argue that, instead of evidentialism, Ryan’s view should include virtue theory, which helps explain the seeming counterexamples. I focus on the virtues of openness to experience, and of steadfastness in the face of experience.

APRIORISMUL PRAGMATIC CONTRIBUŢIUNI LA PSICO-BIOLOGIA GÂNDIRII (I)

Author(s): Eugeniu Sperantia / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 1/2019

Posredni utjecaj A-teorije na B-teoriju i geneza nove B-teorije

Author(s): Strahinja Đorđević / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 03/151/2018

The paper aims to analyse those aspects of the discussion between the two opposing approaches to the interpretation of time, A-theory and B-theory, which are responsible for the emergence of the new B-theory. The text explains how the implications of A-theory influenced the changes in B-theory and how the failure of the old B-theory resulted in the creation of the so-called new B-theory. The mutual influence of A-theory and B-theory has interesting consequences for the A-theory itself, which has been criticized by the new B-theorists for using indexicals in their language. As a result, this research will include a brief overview of this problem. Furthermore, the relationship between the new variants of the date and token-reflexive theory, which have emerged as a direct consequence of the discussion that is the subject of this research, will also be considered. After pointing out the similarities and differences of these positions, the critique of the new B-theory will also be presented, stating that this theory can in no case offer the correct description of time due to its incompatibility with the semantics of the natural language.

CONSTITUIREA TRADIŢIEI POZITIVISTE ŞI PROBLEMA MATEMATIZĂRII ŞTIINŢELOR OMULUI

Author(s): Constantin Stoenescu / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 2/2019

Our aim in this paper is to offer a historical reconstruction of the beginningsof positivist tradition starting with its definition in programatic works published byAuguste Comte and John St. Mill. Comte has identified two immediate consequences ofthe positivist project, a methodological one, namely, the positivist philosophy haseffects towards the improvement of scientific research as a quest for truth, and anotherwith reference to the uses of research results and their applicability. Natural sciencesare understood as a methodological ideal for social sciences, first of all for Sociologyand Psychology. Mill will be focused on the possibility to use mathematics in thedescription of invariable laws which assure the capacity to make predictions based onthe knowledge of causes. Mill mentions the difficulties which are produced by thecomplexity of social phenomena and he proposes a statistical and probabilisticapproach, opening a debate which continues in contemporary philosophy

CĂRŢILE BLAGIENE ALE CUNOAŞTERII ŞI RECEPTAREA LOR DE CRITICA FILOSOFICĂ

Author(s): Eugeniu Nistor / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 2/2019

Works about cognition in Lucian Blaga’s system of thought originallyconstituted a trilogy, according to his “Trilogy of Cognition” (1943), but in 1959 heproceeded to a new restructuring, by adding two more works, one as an opening, andthe other as a “supplement”, thus resulting in a “pentalogy” that includes: ConcerningPhilosophical Consciousness (lithographed manuscript from 1947, published in 1974);The Dogmatic Aeon (1931); The Luciferian Knowledge (1933); The TranscendentalCensorship (1934); Supplement: Experiment and Mathematical Spirit (manuscript,published in 1969). Thus, after reordering philosophical ideas from antiquity to thepresent day and stirring consciences, Lucian Blaga declares himself the adept of thedogmatic method of work, by resorting to the deepening of human knowledge, byestablishing a new line of decryption of the mysteries of the world: the Luciferianknowledge. The next step is to uncover the mechanisms of the transcendental brakes ofthe Great Anonymous, who stops and censures all access to the mystery of humanthought, leaving though a door open to epistemological perspectives and cultural-artisticrevelations. Soon as they came out, Blaga’s books about cognition were subjected tophilosophical criticism, being sometimes praised and sometimes suffering criticalattacks and qualitative mutations from their commentators, more or les pertinent.

REALISMUL EPISTEMOLOGIC CA REALISM CONVERGENT. O ABORDARE CRITICĂ A PROBLEMEI REFERINŢEI

Author(s): Constantin Stoenescu / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 3/2016

My aim in this paper is to analyze the strong criticism which was proposedby Larry Laudan against epistemological realism understood as convergent realism.Richard Boyd and Hilary Putnam claimed that the terms of mature scientific theoriesusually refer and that the scientific laws are true. Based on the history of science, Laudanasserts that we can’t argue that all successful theories usually refer. My thesis is that wecan use the notion of aproximative truth in order to save the so-called convergentrealism in a weak sense. Moreover, a shift to pragmatism is a good way toward areconciliation.

APRIORISMUL PRAGMATIC. CONTRIBUŢIUNI LA PSICO-BIOLOGIA GÂNDIRII (III)

Author(s): Eugeniu Sperantia / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 3/2019