Critical Epistemology Research Articles

PHENOMENOLOGY WITHOUT EGOLOGY: EDITH STEIN AS AN ORIGINAL PHENOMENOLOGICAL THINKER

Edith Stein is considered a leading figure in the early phenomenological movement and the disciple who performed in the best way the phenomenological method proposed by Husserl, and yet her relationship to phenomenology remains unclear in the literature. This article seeks to add clarity to her relationship to phenomenology while considering three inescapably related questions. (1) What did Stein conceive phenomenology to be? (2) How should we understand Husserl’s influence on Stein? (3) Was Stein an original phenomenological thinker? I argue that Stein conceives of phenomenology as an epistemological critique that aims to clarify the essential foundations of knowledge. It involves intentional analysis that proceeds by way of essential-seeing (Wesensschau), which can be brought about through the method of free imaginative variation, and its intentional analysis involves close attention to the relationship between meaning-intention and meaning-fulfillment. I argue that the primary influence Husserl exerts on Stein is in the development of phenomenology as conceived in his Logical Investigations. Finally, I offer an understanding of how Stein conceived of her differences with Husserl on the issue of idealism in order to argue that Stein’s phenomenological writings in On the Problem of Empathy and “Sentient Causality” offer us a novel phenomenological account of the human being that begins with the ego but escapes being a mere egology. Edith Stein’s phenomenology of the human person begins with the ego and its experiences, and yet, she identifies within those experiences a certain kind of extra-egoic content, viz. experiences of my sentient states.

Simon Vestdijk en de levensfilosofie

Abstract Simon Vestdijk and Life-philosophy This article questions the philosophical themes in de work of one the most influential and prolific writers in Dutch literary history, Simon Vestdijk (1898-1971). Vestdijk was heavily engaged with European life-philosophical ideas, which were at their height in de period 1900-1930. Essentially, these ideas were a critique of positivist epistemology. They postulate that consciousness is an organic part of life in full. The article analyses the ways in which typical life-philosophical notions such as ‘intuition’, ‘rigidity’ or ‘interdisciplinarity’ have shaped the writings of Vestdijk. The perspective of life-philosophy adds to an understanding of the unity in the diverse and extensive oeuvre of Vestdijk. More generally, it points to the significant influence of this philosophical current in the Dutch literary climate between the wars.

O terraplanismo e o apelo à experiência pessoal como critério epistemológico

Movimentos negacionistas vêm ganhando destaque nos últimos anos, disseminados principalmente pelas mídias sociais. A crescente receptividade às suas ideias, assim como a notícias com conteúdos inverídicos, pode ser apontada como indício de uma crise epistemológica relacionada à perda de confiança nas instituições fundamentais da sociedade, na ciência inclusive. As pessoas descrentes nessas instituições tornam-se cada vez mais dependentes das próprias experiências e crenças, até mesmo para avaliar aquilo que se encontra no campo científico. Neste trabalho abordamos uma das características do movimento terraplanista atual: o apelo à experiência pessoal como critério epistemológico incontestável. Para tanto, apoiamo-nos sobretudo nas discussões desenvolvidas por Alfred Schutz relacionadas a formas de experienciar a realidade, seja no campo cotidiano, seja no científico. Identificamos nas concepções terraplanistas modos de caracterização da realidade que são típicos do campo cotidiano, mas acentuados e extrapolados para o contexto científico, em especial para avaliar o formato da Terra e seu movimento. Apresentamos, ainda, exemplos de ideias expressas por adeptos do terraplanismo que apontam para essa direção. Consideramos importante que professores de ciências se apropriem do fenômeno recente da crescente disseminação de movimentos negacionistas e anticientíficos, buscando compreender suas características e discuti-las com estudantes, principalmente sob o ponto de vista epistemológico, esclarecendo seus critérios simplificadores e limitantes.

Glocalização interativa, dromocracia informacional e espaço urbano: smart cities como último refúgio do imaginário tecnoutópico contemporâneo

Resumo O presente texto está dedicado à compreensão da significação social-histórica das smart cities no profuso rastro do imaginário tecnoutópico ocidental. A política da argumentação é flexionada por três movimentos cumulativos, assim dispostos: primeiro, as smart cities são inseridas no quadro da epistemologia crítica da glocalização mundial e de sua dinâmica informacional em tempo real; segundo, as smart cities são apreendidas no arco recente de um profundo deslocamento de padrões imaginários utópicos tradicionais em favor de tecnoteleologias emergentes, vinculadas aos media digitais e às redes interativas; e, terceiro, são mobilizados fundamentos necessários para caracterizar as smart cities como última fulgurante configuração do mencionado imaginário tecnoutópico.

Succès et opportunisme dans les réflexions méthodologiques d’Hilbert et von Neumann

Although there does not seem to be a direct influence of utilitarianism on David Hilbert and his School, there are some pragmatic aspects in the foundational investigations of the father of modern axiomatics and of some of his scholars that can be read in utilitarian terms. In this article, I detail these aspects, focusing on the foundational research of Hilbert throughout his career and the later methodological reflections of John von Neumann on the mathematical sciences. As for research on Hilbert, much attention is paid to the role played by the notion of success as an alternative epistemological criterion for the introduction of powerful conceptual tools within axiomatic theories, as well as for the justification of these theories in the case where consistency proofs were not available. Ironically, after the discovery of Godel’s incompleteness theorems, success became a plain epistemological criterion for the justification of axiomatized sciences, together with all the conceptual tools contained therein. In his later foundational reflections, von Neumann, in particular, a former mathematician of Hilbert’s School, subscribed to an opportunistic methodology of science, i.e. a methodology that tried to coherently develop Hilbert’s thought on success, as well as his axiomatic reform of mathematical sciences. There seems to be, therefore, a clear evolutionary line that can be traced from Hilbert to von Neumann, which also reveals utilitarian aspects (broadly conceived) not only in science, but in axiomatics as well.

Å vurdere yrkeskompetanse: Hva er yrkeskompetanse, og hvordan kan den vurderes?

The aim of vocational education is that students develop initial vocational competence. However, what is vocational competence, and how can it be evaluated and assessed? In this article, questions of evaluating vocational competence are investigated from epistemological perspectives. First, I will examine definitions of competence in official documents and in research and look at research that can illuminate vocational competence and assessment in vocational education. Then, I will direct the focus towards epistemological perspectives on vocational competence and analyse what kind of implications the understanding of vocational competence has for curriculum and assessment. A main question is which forms of evaluation and assessment are relevant to stimulate and express students’ development of vocational competence. Questions concerning the relationship between vocational competence, curriculum frameworks and forms of evaluation are analysed in light of rationalist, pragmatic and critical epistemology. I will argue that theoretical, practical and social aspects of vocational competence constitute a whole that also includes professional judgement, and that this must be expressed in the assessment. The article ends with a summary discussion of some important challenges and principles for relevant evaluation of vocational competence.

“Women Who Wail”: An auto-ethnographic study of four Latina educators and the heroínas who shaped their understanding of critical pedagogies

The lore of La Llorona, the woman who wails, is a pervasive archetype in Latin American cultures. While stories vary by country and region, the most common telling is associated with Mexican folklore, in which an anguished woman cries for her drowned children—in some retellings, their death results from her murderous rage at being betrayed by her lover; in others their deaths result from an accident. These stories have traditionally served as cautionary tales, often positioning Latinas as tragic forces within their communities (Morales, 2010); however, Chicana scholars have reconceptualized La Llorona to symbolize a feminist power. This autoethnographic study reflects on the lore of La Llorona as a metaphor for a Latina’s “resistance in society” (Anzaldúa, 1987, p.33) or as Morales (2010, p.3) states, “the voice who cries out against injustice”. Specifically, through the application of Chicana/Latina feminist and critical epistemologies, the authors explore the works of Gloria Anzaldúa, Nela Martinez Espinosa, Dolores Huerta, and Nisia Floresta— Latina feminist authors and politicians, who have used their voices to fight injustices within their communities. Furthermore, the authors reflect upon how these heroines have influenced their own identities as “women who wail”—as feminist Latina educators who work toward a pedagogy for social justice.

Epistemology, Social Work and Substance Use

Abstract Social work and substance use research often neglect to make epistemological perspectives explicit in their studies, inadvertently embedding numerous assumptions that remain invisible and uncontested. Consequently, the unchallenged dominance of post-positivist epistemologies in Western European countries becomes (re)produced in social work and substance use education, policies and practices, limiting space for alternative viewpoints. This narrative review examines some of the social work and substance use literature, highlighting the value of making epistemology more explicit and the importance of applying critical epistemologies to counter dominant paradigms. This article makes a unique contribution to substance use literature by examining substance use from post-positivist, social constructivist and critical paradigms and by promoting a critical social work lens. A critical paradigm is particularly useful for questioning prevailing assumptions of substance use as a medical problem requiring professional treatment and for generating greater attention to structural policies that promote a more equitable society. Social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice effectively positions the discipline to apply a critical paradigm to the field of substance use studies.

The unbearable whiteness of being (in) Shakespeare

What happens to the critical work of scholars, teachers, and performers of Shakespeare if we take very seriously the whiteness of our author and the critical epistemologies that develop and contour the body of his corpus? How is such work affected by the BIPOC identities of these scholars, teachers, and performers? In this essay I consider these questions through a sustained critique of Shakespeare’s whiteness and the whiteness of the critical gaze that has been directed at Shakespearean canon. My essay is subtended by the personal, which is an important facet of the confessional mode being considered, interrogated, and recapitulated in this issue. My confession, to which I turn at the close of this essay, rehearses a pedagogical experience wherein the wages of whiteness exact their usual cost from me and my students, demanding that we yield to white practices of knowledge-making in Shakespeare.

What Follows from the Problem of Ignorance?

ABSTRACT In Power Without Knowledge, Jeffrey Friedman develops a critique of social science to argue that current technocratic practices are prone to predictive failures and unintended consequences. However, he does not provide evidence that the cause he singles out—“ideational heterogeneity”—is in fact a non-negligible source of technocratic limitations, more than or alongside better-known problems such as missing data, measurement issues, interpretive difficulties, and researcher bias. Even if we grant ideational heterogeneity, Friedman’s preferred institutional solution of exitocracy does not necessarily follow. His critical epistemology would also be compatible with radical forms of collective action.

Political Epistemology Beyond Democratic Theory: Introduction to Symposium on Power Without Knowledge

ABSTRACT Jeffrey Friedman’s Power Without Knowledge builds a critical epistemology of technocracy, rather than a democratic argument against it. For its democratic critics, technocracy is illegitimate because it amounts to the rule of cognitive elites, violating principles of mutual respect and collective self-determination. For its proponents, technocracy’s legitimacy depends on its ability to use reliable knowledge to solve social and economic problems. But Friedman demonstrates that to meet the proponents' “internal,” epistemic standard of legitimacy, technocrats would have to reckon with the heterogeneity of people’s ideas, which he presents as one of two aspects of a political anthropology of ideational beings. The other aspect is ideational determinism: the shaping of our conscious actions by our interpretations, and of our interpretations by “ideational exposures” (which are, to some extent, heterogeneous). For the most part, our symposiasts agree with this anthropology or leave it uncontested, but they fall back on democratic theory to point toward alternatives to technocracy. This raises the question, which Friedman does not ask, of whether his political anthropology undermines a certain brand of democratic theory: the liberal brand that attaches respect to people’s opinions as products of “free reflection,” i.e., as underdetermined.

KANT’S CRITICAL EPISTEMOLOGY AND ITS BORDERLINES WITH METAPHYSICS: A CRITIQUE

This paper focuses extensively on Kant’s critical epistemology as postulated in his Critique of Pure Reason. It grapples with the problem of identifying and harmonizing these borderlines of empirical and rational knowledge with that of metaphysical knowledge. Kant argues that the mind is so structured and empowered that it imposes interpretative categories on our experience so that we do not simply experience the world, as the empiricists claim, but interpret it through the categorizing mechanism of the mind. In ruling out indifference to metaphysical questions, Kant posits that if metaphysics is not science, yet still as natural disposition, human reason is driven on ‘by an inward need’ and not by mere ‘idle desire’ to ask metaphysical questions. Furthermore, Kant posits that what makes skepticism about metaphysics unsustainable is that metaphysics cannot be discarded in isolation from cognition in general. Kant, therefore, is of the view that the very same principles of reasoning as are employed in empirical judgments about physical objects are also used in a purified form, in metaphysical judgments about God, the soul and other non-empirical entities. However, the paper criticizes Kant for being too anxious to prove the subjectivity of space, as an escape route from materialism. Kant was quite averse to the argument that if space is objective and universal, God must exist in space, and hence, be spacial and material in nature. Thus, Kant might have been satisfied with the critical idealism which holds that all reality is known to us as our sensations and ideas.

Ethos crítico y a priori histórico de una experiencia posible. Contribución filosófica a la noción de crítica desde una ontología del presente

Tal como lo anticipa el título de este dossier, la crítica se concibe como el trabajo sobre los límites y las posibilidades de un determinado objeto. Nuestra contribución se ocupará de atender el carácter de la crítica desde una perspectiva filosófica, más específicamente, desde el trabajo filosófico de una ontología del presente. Para eso, la abordaremos en un primer momento como una metódica de la investigación en las ciencias sociales y humanas, tomando distancia del disciplinamiento que busca reducir el trabajo teórico a metodologías prefabricadas. El posicionamiento crítico involucra al investigador en la realidad que investiga, e historiza su emergencia junto al objeto de estudio, con atención a las implicancias entre saber y poder, en el marco de lo que podemos denominar una epistemología crítica.

Retomando o estruturalismo para interpretar a desigual América Latina no século XXI

Esse ensaio coloca em foco os entraves ao desenvolvimento da América Latina no século XXI, representados por suas diversas formas de desigualdade. Inspiradas pelo novo-estruturalismo, as autoras defendem uma crítica epistemológica na direção da construção de novos métodos e métricas para se compreender e enfrentar a desigualdade na região a partir de seu caráter interseccional.

Uma arquegenealogia histórica da ciência das políticas públicas nos Estados Unidos (1906 -1960)

O artigo propõe uma abordagem arquegenealógica, inspirada nos estudos de Michel Foucault, da emergência e consolidação das Políticas Públicas como uma área cientifica do campo empírico do saber político, nos Estados Unidos, entre 1906 e 1960. Explora-se, nestes 60 anos iniciais de formação do campo, os discursos fundantes, as tensões e os embates entre as diversas correntes teóricas e filosóficas, praticamente ignorados nos estudos históricos da área, e a afirmação de um saber, pragmático e racionalista, que passou a orientar e definir o que são as Políticas Públicas e como se deve estudá-las.

The communicative dynamics and its relation with the social dynamics. Reflections for communication research from the paradigm of critical epistemology

In this work the communicative phenomenon is understood as the germ of social action. This invites us to think of communication as expressive behavior through which the social, even the historical, is configured. Consequently, to think of communication in the social as social action demands to conceive and study the social reality as a reality in constant movement, that is, giving in the given. From the critique of the traditional concept of communication, through the epistemological legacy of Hugo Zemelman, this paper proposes a reflection on the role of communication in the shaping movement of social reality.

Political Versus Apolitical Epistemologies in Knowledge Organization

Section 1 raises the issue of this article: whether knowledge organization systems (KOS) and knowledge organization processes (KOP) are neutral or political by nature and whether it is a fruitful ideal that they should be neutral. These questions are embedded in the broader issue of scientific and scholarly research methods and their philosophical assumptions: what kinds of methods and what epistemological assumptions lie behind the construction of KOS (and research in general)? Section 2 presents and discusses basic approaches and epistemologies and their status in relation to neutrality. Section 3 offers a specific example from feminist scholarship in order to clearly demonstrate that methodologies that often claim to be or are considered apolitical represent subjectivity disguised as objectivity. It contains four subsections: 3.1 Feminist views on History, 3.2 Psychology, 3.3 Knowledge Organization, and 3.4. Epistemology. Overall, feminist scholarship has argued that methodologies, claiming neutrality but supporting repression of groups of people should be termed epistemological violence and they are opposed to social, critical, and pragmatic epistemologies that reflect the interaction between science and the greater society. Section 4 discusses the relation between the researchers’ (and indexers’) political attitudes and their paradigms/indexing. Section 5 considers the contested nature of epistemological labels, and Section 6 concludes that the question of whose interest a specific KOS, algorithm, or information system is serving should always be at the forefront in information studies and knowledge organization (KO).

Epistemological critique of “Islamic reason” in the neomodernist project of Mohammed Arkoun

The article deals with analyzing the historical epistemology of “Islamic reason” as it is developed in the works of the French philosopher Mohammed Arkoun. The key concepts comprising the supporting framework of Arkoun’s theory are clarified. Special attention is given to the problem of historical interrelation of religion and violence, the role of “dogmatic enclosure” in legitimizing the religious violence and the “secular theology” as a possible antidote that could preserve the religion from being instrumentalized by different political actors. In Arkoun’s view, one can reach the unthought of Islamic religious tradition by consciously resorting to modern historical-anthropological, linguistic and sociological knowledge. This appeal makes it possible to reveal a special “regime of truth” and the attitude that have accompanied Islamic reason throughout history, and, therefore, to reach new horizons of thought. This whole process may be called criticism of the Islamic mind. According to Arkoun, the “deconstruction” of traditional structures performed in the course of this criticism is not identical with the destruction of the Islamic mind par excellence, but coincides with the emancipation of its content within the framework of the emergent reason, that is, with the demonstration of its inclusive and truly all-human — humanistic — potential. In the conclusion of the article, both the theoretical scientific and practical existential significance of reaching the unthought of Islamic tradition is noted.

The American Roots of Social Epidemiology and its Transnational Circulation. From the African-American Hypertension Enigma to the WHO’s Recommendations

In 2008, the Commission on Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organisation published a report demonstrating the existence of a socio-economic gradient for health. Though health inequalities had been apparent since at least the 19th century, the report introduced a bio-psycho-social aetiological model that was absent from 19th century social medicine, as well as from former WHO documents. To bio-psycho-social epidemiologists stress associated with social status is the main cause of morbidity and death. Here I begin by noting that the history social epidemiologists have written for their fi eld tends to inscribe their work in continuity with 19th century social medicine. This contributes towards minimizing the epistemological and contextual transformations that led bio-psycho-social epidemiology to initiate a profound transformation in international health policy. Adopting an epistemological and transnational perspective, I fi rstly argue that bio-psycho-social epidemiology emerged from René Dubos’ historical and epistemological critique of the foundation of 19th century social medicine. I secondly show how the political and epistemological research program elaborated by Dubos developed in the US context, which was characterized both by a growing concern for chronic diseases and for racial inequalities. Finally, I show that through its transnational circulation in the United Kingdom, bio-psycho-social epidemiology was “de-racialized”. This step was a prerequisite for its aetiological model to be integrated into international public health strategies and to transform them.

“We called that a behavior”: The making of institutional data

Predictive uses of data are becoming widespread in institutional settings as actors seek to anticipate people and their activities. Predictive modeling is increasingly the subject of scholarly and public criticism. Less common, however, is scrutiny directed at the data that inform predictive models beyond concerns about homogenous training data or general epistemological critiques of data. In this paper, I draw from a qualitative case study set in higher education in the United States to investigate the making of data. Data analytics projects at universities have become more pervasive and intensive to better understand and anticipate undergraduate student bodies. Drawing from 12 months of ethnographic research at a large public university, I analyze the ways data personnel at the institution—data scientists, administrators, and programmers—sort student data into “attributes” and “behaviors,” where “attributes” are demographic data that students “can’t change.” “Behaviors,” in contrast, are data defined as reflective of what students can choose: attending and paying attention in class, studying on campus, among other data which personnel categorize as what students have control over. This discursive split enables the institution nudge students to make responsible choices according to behavior data that correlate with success in the predictive model. In discussing how personnel type, sort, stabilize, and nudge on behavior data, this paper examines the contingencies of data making processes and implications for the application of student data.