Is Comparison Based on Translatable Formal Concepts?

Kevin Guilfoy

doi:10.3390/rel11040163

Abstract

Fully realized ethical and metaphysical concepts have intension and extension only within an historically situated epistemic tradition. Only people who live the epistemic tradition fully understand the concept and can accurately identify items that satisfy the concept. Such concepts are only fully understood by those whose lives are shaped from within the epistemic tradition. This makes comparison of ethical and metaphysical concepts across epistemic traditions difficult if not impossible. Comparative hagiology employs theological concepts that may function differently from ethical and metaphysical concepts. The articles in this volume seem to suggest that some theological concepts may function as formal concepts. A formal concept is defined by rules or form, rather than by its intensional or extensional content. Thus, formal concepts may be translatable across epistemic traditions. Because the rules do not fully determine intension or extension, a formal concept can apply to otherwise diverse individuals. Theological concepts may be formal concepts that could provide the basis for comparison of the untranslatable concepts that give meaning and value to the lived experience of people in epistemic traditions. The articles in this volume suggest several candidates for such formal concepts.

Highlights

Realized ethical and metaphysical concepts have intension and extension only within an historically situated epistemic tradition
I am not a member of any religious tradition or community, nor am I steeped in the scholarly community of comparative hagiology
There literally cannot be a saint outside the tradition in which the concept is defined, because the epistemic tradition defines the concept for that tradition from within that tradition

Summary

Introduction

Realized ethical and metaphysical concepts have intension and extension only within an historically situated epistemic tradition. I have argued that ethical and metaphysical concepts are historically situated, socially constructed, and are only meaningful within an epistemic tradition (Guilfoy 2018). The concept of saint only has meaning and content as culturally and historically situated within the Christian epistemic tradition.

Results

Conclusion