Epistemological Implications Research Articles

Social Theory and Navigating Indeterminacy: A Configurational Analysis of Iranian Youth’s Identity Construction in Contemporary Iran

An emerging disparity within contemporary social science highlights a disconnection between the world in the process of metamorphosing and cosmopolitanization and the knowledge of the social world that is still trapped in the cognitive assumptions of modern episteme, which provided the conditions for the emergence of modern social sciences a century ago. This divide inhibits the efficacy of social analysis in comprehending and elucidating contemporary phenomena. This article advocates for a shift in the ontology of social theory and science towards the cosmopolitanization of the world, characterized by the prioritization of indeterminacy and fluidity in the construction of social phenomena. It investigates the epistemological implications and prerequisites of this ontological transformation, favoring a post-foundationalist approach as the most suitable epistemological framework. In response to the challenges posed by the uncertainty and indeterminacy of cosmopolitanization, after reviewing some of the existing theoretical efforts to address and provide alternatives to this challenge, the article proposes the examination of social configurations as the most fitting subjects for study. This approach necessitates the suspension of conventional, given, regulated categories, and trans-historical theories. It underscores the importance of recognizing configurations as incomplete, contingent units shaped within specific historical contexts and moments. The fluidity, relationality, and indeterminacy of configurations situated between the universal and the singular make them suitable for analysis at the level of particular. After elaborating on the most important features of social configurations, finally, by employing the proposed theoretical framework, this article aims to investigate its effectiveness in analyzing the process of identity construction among Iranian youth in Tehran in the context of the cosmopolitanization of reality, particularly in the face of the Islamist regime of Iran’s official politics of identity. Through a review and revision of selected empirical studies on youth identity construction in the consumer spaces of Tehran, based on the idea of social configurations within the framework of cosmopolitanization, it is argued that the genuine understanding of identity politics in contemporary Iran is not rooted in conventional analytical norms and categories but rather in a comprehensible conceptual apparatus characterized by fluidity and indeterminacy, capable of effectively making sense of the conflict between the politics of determinacy and indeterminacy in Iranian everyday life.

Education and qualitative research

This essay reflects on the relationship between qualitative research and the study of educational practice. Based on a review and analysis of scientific literature, it is argued that the need to study social practices, especially subaltern ones, is the context of legitimation of qualitative research in the social sciences and this allows us to identify a series of epistemological motives that constitute this approach. Educational practices are problematized from the notion of field proposed by Bourdieu. As central conclusions, the theoretical and epistemological implications of approaching the practices of educational agents from a qualitative approach are argued. The need to strengthen the epistemological, theoretical and ethical-political discussion of research on educational practices is emphasized, and a set of questions that could guide the study of teachers’ reality are problematized.

Systematicity and Skepticism

Abstract The fact that philosophy is systematic—that philosophical issues are thoroughly interconnected—was a commonplace among nineteenth century idealists, then neglected by analytic philosophers throughout much of the twentieth century, and has now finally started to get some renewed attention. But other than calling attention to the fact, few philosophers have tried to say what it consists in, or what its implications are. I argue that the systematicity of philosophy has disastrous epistemological implications. In particular, it implies philosophical skepticism: philosophers are rationally prohibited from believing any philosophical thesis. The argument goes by way of a new principle that connects inquiry with what is rational to believe. I conclude with a discussion of the relationship between my argument and other, more well-trodden arguments for philosophical skepticism.

Reconstructing the Past: A Critical Study of Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending

This paper examines how the protagonist of Julian Barnes’s novel The Sense of an Ending (2011), Tony Webster, reconstructs his past through memory and narrative. Tony, an unreliable narrator in his sixties, attempts to decipher the truth and meaning of his past through his fallible memory and limited and insufficient documents. The central argument of the paper posits that Tony’s narration of his personal history holds a comparable level of authority to that found in any traditional historical narration. Therefore, like a professional historian, his narration of the past employs the narrative strategy of emplotment to make his story coherent and persuasive. As Hayden White argued, a historical narration is parallel to storytelling and a historian employs ‘fictive elements’ to make the historical representation comprehensive and sympathetic to the target readers. The paper also throws light on the fragmented depiction of Tony’s past which is effectively linked to his struggle to fully comprehend and cope with his somewhat traumatic history. By incorporating the theories of Hayden White and Pierre Nora to explore the connections and differences between memory, history, and fiction in the novel. The paper contributes to the critical studies of Barnes’s novel by highlighting the ethical and epistemological implications of Tony’s interest in the past and self-historicization, providing a nuanced perspective on the novel.

Analysis and Performance of Stockhausen's Klavierstück X

ABSTRACTHerbert Henck's (1980) analysis of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstück X (1961) offers a fascinating insight into the composer's compositional process at an important juncture in his career. In this article I draw on the now significant recording tradition, including Henck's own canonical version (on Stockhausen [1986] 1996), and Stockhausen's contemporaneous moment‐form theory to explore the influence of the performer – confronted with the many novel rhythmic and technical features of the score – on the salience of the serial processes that Henck describes and the concomitant emergence of the piece's form in performance. I begin with a summary and contextualisation of Henck's analysis in terms of performance practice and audience perception. This then informs my analysis of the eight commercially available recordings, proceeding from discussion of global and sectional tempo data and their bearing on the teleological drive of the piece to qualitative close readings of five case studies, whose serial aesthetics, structural properties and interrelationships are negotiated with recourse to Stockhausen's moment classifications. As well as illustrating the contingency of the performer's contribution on the piece's teleological, serial‐statistical and moment‐formal properties, my methods have epistemological implications for the reciprocal and peculiar relationship that, I argue, must continue to inform the relationship between analysis and performance in the field of New Music.

Sensing anthropology: A critical review of the sensorial turn in anthropology

This article aims to present the existing epistemological ties between the <i>sensorial turn</i> in anthropology and collaborative forms of production of knowledge in the framework of shared anthropology. From this perspective, the major debates in anthropology regarding the senses and emotions and their epistemological implications will be critically analyzed. The focus firstly lies on questioning those approaches that approach the senses and the body as another traditional subject for anthropological studies. Secondly, on exploring the existing misconceptions in the sensory approach. Thirdly, on claiming that the most valid form of exploring and presenting the state of experience is through integrating collaborative engagement of the subject, optimally through the framework of shared anthropology. Lastly, the potentials and advantages of audio-visual media and art in general as the medium of (re)presentation will be explored.

Dreyfus is right: knowledge-that limits your skill

Skilful expertise is grounded in practical, performative knowledge-how, not in detached, spectatorial knowledge-that, and knowledge-how is embodied by habitual dispositions, not representation of facts and rules. Consequently, as action control is a key requirement for the intelligent selection, initiation, and regulation of skilful performance, habitual action control, i.e. the kind of action control based on habitual dispositions, is the true hallmark of skill and the only veridical criterion to evaluate expertise. Not only does this imply that knowledge-that does not make your actions more skilful, but it also implies that it makes them less skilful. This thesis, that I call Radical Habitualism, finds a precursor in Hubert Dreyfus. His approach is considered extreme by most philosophers of skill & expertise: an agent –says Dreyfus– does not perform like an expert when they lack the embodied dispositions necessary to control their action habitually or when they stop relying on such dispositions to control their actions. Thus, one cannot perform skilfully if their actions are guided by representations (isomorphic schemas, explicit rules, and contentful instructions), as the know-that that they convey disrupts or diminishes the agent’s habitual engagement with the task at hand. In defence of Radical Habitualism, I will argue that only the contentless know-how embedded in habitual dispositions fulfils (i) the genetic, (ii) the normative, and (iii) the epistemic requirements of skilful performance. I will examine the phenomenological premises supporting Dreyfus’ approach, clarify their significance for a satisfactory normative and explanatory account of skilful expertise, and rebut the most common objections raised by both intellectualists and conciliatory habitualists, concerning hybrid actions guided by a mix of habitual and representational forms of control. In revisiting Dreyfus anti-representationalist approach, I will particularly focus on its epistemological implications, de-emphasizing other considerations related to conscious awareness.

On the use of sentiment analysis for linguistics research. Observations on sentiment polarity and the use of the progressive in Italian.

This article offers a conceptual and methodological contribution to linguistics by exploring the potential value of using sentiment analysis (SA) for research in this field. Firstly, it discusses the limitations and advantages of using SA for linguistics research including the wider epistemological implications of its application outside of its original conception as a product reviews analysis tool. Methodologically, it tests its applicability against an established linguistic case: the correlation between subjective attitudes such as surprise, irritation and discontent and the use of the progressive. The language example is Italian for which this function of the progressive form has not been analyzed yet. The analysis applies FEEL-IT, a state-of-the-art transformer-based machine learning model for emotion and sentiment classification in Italian on language samples from various sources as collected in Evalita-2014 (238,556 words). The results show statistically significant correlations between negative subjective attitudes and the use of the progressive in line with previous accounts in other languages. The article concludes with a few additional propositions for practitioners and researchers using SA.

Savaş Sonrası Amerikan Estetik Kuramında Gestalt’tan Örüntüye Geçiş: Rudolf Arnheim ve György Kepes’in Çalışmaları

The following article is an inquiry into the aesthetic valences of the concept of pattern as informed both by Gestalt theory and information theoretical tendencies toward quantification. In the trail of its object, it evokes the historical context of the second half of the 20th century American artistic and technological culture and offers critical engagements with texts by its main interlocutors Rudolf Arnheim and György Kepes. While Arnheim is a second-generation Gestalt theorist whose responses to the rise of a digital paradigm are instructive, Kepes stands out for the way he seeks a rapprochement between science and art through visuality. The article demonstrates that both theorists grapple with the challenges issued by advances in computation and the epistemological implications of visions of data processing (even machine learning research) ascendant in their time. The article has a philosophical orientation in paying particular attention to matters of abstraction underlying patterns, the contrasts between analog and digital coding, quality and quantity, the temporality of pattern formation, and the dimension of subjectivity. Finally, in its departure from the interface Kepes’ work offers between science and art, the article contextualizes the question of pattern with reference to the history of science, by putting it in contact with influential treatments of objectivity in the discourse of Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, but more critically, in the work of Donna Haraway.

Concordancing for CADS

Abstract Concordance analysis is widely recognised as one of the main techniques in a corpus linguist’s toolkit. However, despite a growing body of work critically exploring previously unquestioned mainstays of corpus methods (Mautner, 2015; Taylor & Marchi, 2018), this has not focused on concordance analysis specifically. In this paper, we aim to discuss issues that researchers may encounter when interpreting concordances. We begin in Step One with a cursory examination of 800 concordance lines in order to identify potential issues. In Step Two, we assess the distribution of those issues in a reduced sample of 200. As a result, we identify eight interpretability issues: noise in the corpus, non-standard syntax, unclear referring expressions, unclear quotation source attribution, technical terms/jargon, acronyms/initialisms, unspecific co-text, and lines unrelated to the research question. After reflecting on practical challenges, we discuss the epistemological implications of removing concordance lines uncritically and suggest ten recommendations for future work.

Not MY Intersectionality

Although Black women’s college participation rates have increased, it has not led to corresponding increases in graduation rates. Through the evolution of intersectionality as a methodology, theory, and framework, this paper examines the epistemological socialization of Black women in historically white institutions (HWIs), examining what this can tell us about Black women’s higher education experiences. Additionally, analyzing how Black women’s intersections affect the legitimacy and illegitimacy of knowledge production in an evolving system of neoliberal globalization. Its objective is to go beyond superficial understandings of the systemic oppression of Black women to uncover the epistemological implications of intersectionality, which renders some invisible intellectually and socially while cultivating others. Thus, this paper builds on current scholarship on how Black women have contextualized their unique higher education experiences through an analysis of Afro-Pessimism, sociology of absences and emergences, and critiques of intersectionality to locate Black women’s experiences with epistemic violence and imagine beyond. In the end, seeking to explore how Black women can embrace a new epistemic resistance by rejecting intersectionality.

Problematizing the model-building duality: Examining the New Sacristy at S. Lorenzo, Florence, Italy

This reflection paper considers the epistemological implications of constructing a digital model of an existing building. The paper compares, in detail, three distinct approaches to constructing a digital model of the New Sacristy at S. Lorenzo in Florence, Italy. Each of the three approaches explores the effects of problematizing the model-building duality. This problematization implicates two conventional assumptions about existing-building models, namely, that they must be geometrically accurate and semantically predictable in order to be useful for research purposes. Proposed counterstrategies of “frictional reciprocity” and “emergent semantics” draw attention to often-overlooked knowledge-production capacities of existing-building models. Thereby, the paper aims to highlight and recommend these strategies as necessary to visioning possible futures, as a viable alternative to conventional modelmaking approaches.

Web archive analytics: Blind spots and silences in distant readings of the archived web

Abstract In this article, we discuss epistemological and methodological aspects of web archive analytics, a recent development towards more data-centred access to web archives. More specifically, we suggest understanding both the process of archiving and subsequent steps of analysis at scale as acts of observation that can be questioned for their epistemological priori. Therefore, we propose the concepts of ‘blind spots’ (features of the live web not included upon creation in the archive) and ‘silences’ (latent features present in the archive but requiring a particular method to be made articulate). In particular, we address two forms of silences playing a structural role in web archive analytics, crucial to both historians and social scientists alike: abundance (or scale) and time. We trace epistemological implications of web archive analytics across an exemplary case study workflow and suggest methodological answers to the issues raised in this process. On the data extraction side, we introduce warc2corpus (w2c), a new tool for extracting granular, structured data, especially temporal information related to the creation, modification, and publication specifically of webpages. For data analysis, we demonstrate how distant reading techniques—more specifically structural topic modelling (STM)—can contribute to providing a rich, temporally structured representation of textual web archive content that in turn can be subjected to scholarly inquiry, interpretation, and re-contextualization.

The Elusive Progress of Prosodical Study: Essays in Honor of Thomas Cable

The Elusive Progress of Prosodical Study: Essays in Honor of Thomas Cable

Rethinking the dialogical dimension of narrative productions beyond co-construction: unveiling the role of disagreement, contradictions, and dispute

ABSTRACT Narrative productions methodology (NPM) constitutes a social research technique that, within feminist epistemologies and, in particular, Haraway’s situated knowledge, seeks to produce partial knowledge from co-writing practices of research texts between researcher and participant. The question that emerges is the extent to which NPM goes beyond co-construction to involve a deeper sense of dialogism, in which alterity is not dissolved but remains as a tensioned difference. The aim of this paper is to explore how dialogizing NPM can improve narratives as a feminist research tool. This has political and epistemological implications, as in the construction of knowledge some validation mechanisms dominated by specific groups have been privileged. As a consequence, not all knowledge has the same recognition, and feminist epistemologies argue against this over-representation. The political and epistemological implications of these suggestions are discussed.

The Nature and Limits of Theology: A Response to Rowan Williams

AbstractTheology is both a human endeavor and something of Divine origin, insofar as it is a human attempt to make sense of certain Divinely revealed propositions. How does one reconcile these two elements? One attempt to do so was on the part of the Anglican theologian Rowan Williams. In sections I and II of chapter 1 of his work ‘On Christian Theology’, Williams speaks of the nature of authentic theological discourse, that is, theological discourse that has integrity. In his work on theological integrity, Williams explores how human intentions or hidden agendas can potentially warp our attempt to make sense of the truths contained within Divine Revelation. He then goes on to speak of how to avoid such pitfalls. In this article, I will respond to the epistemological implications of William's thoughts on this topic. I will use various ideas from Catholic theology, including the development of doctrines and the notion that faith has both a subjective and objective element, to explore both the strengths and weaknesses of Williams's thought.

The Importance of Mathematic History Education

The most fundamental way to comprehend mathematics is through its history. It is becoming more widely acknowledged that studying and teaching mathematics history has important epistemological implications. However, learning about the history of mathematics is also a good way to get a liberal education. This paper, through a method of literature review, introduces the functions of mathematics history education and provides several suggestions for mathematics history education.

Consciousness and the mind-brain-body-world relationship: towards a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach.

The aim of this paper is to overview the main epistemological implications of the scientific approach to consciousness and the mind-brain relationship, undergone a lively debate in the past decades by strict materialist monist and dualist stances. Their limits, as well as the limits of reductionism and the shortcomings of classical Western thought, suggest the need for a broader perspective. Actually, a transdisciplinary approach helps overcoming the limits and incompleteness of single axiomatic disciplines. Likewise, a transcultural, metaphilosophical approach allows to understand key concepts and meanings common to different philosophies and cultures and properly face them beyond the multiplicity and ostensible oddity of forms. This approach seems to be appropriate in the study of consciousness and subjective phenomena, where the first-person perspective and the meaning of the experience are the condition sine qua non for their comprehension.

Paradoxes and Epistemological Implications of Nick Bostrom’s Transhumanism in Nietzsche’s Genealogical Perspective

<p class="Abstract">Nick Bostrom, a transhumanist figure, referred human
 perfection on three pillars: including super longevity (super long life), super
 wellbeing (super happy) and super intelligence (super intelligent). This cyborg
 human model adheres to the epistemology of scientism which he values ​​as
 anti-traditionalist culture, religious dogmas and metaphysics, but in principle
 ostrom bases his perfect human model on Nietzsche <i>(Der ubermensch)</i>,
 whereas scientism in Nietzsche's view is a form of religious ideas in a certain
 degree. This paper attempts to reveal the epistemological paradox of Bostrom's
 concept of transhumanism through Nietzsche's genealogical philosophy and its
 epistemological implications. The method used in this research is an
 epistemological and genealogical analysis on the three main pillars of Bostrom
 which are the basic foundations of its transhumanism. In this study, it is
 found first that the Bostrom paradox occurs not only in the misinterpretation
 of a perfect man, where Bostrom considers the fulfillment of the three pillars,
 whereas what Nietzsche means is as an independent human being in the sense of
 two things, namely: able to govern himself and be united or only rely on
 himself, and not relying on external reality or dogma. The second, paradoxes occur
 in the belief system of the pillars of Bostrom's transhumanism where he relies
 on the absolutism of science and negates all assumptions or arguments that come
 from metaphysics and religion. Meanwhile, what Nietzsche means is to hold on to
 the relativity of truth where humans will be weak and flawed if they rely on
 beliefs outside themselves, including science. <o:p></o:p></p>

Paradoxes and Epistemological Implications of Nick Bostrom’s Transhumanism in Nietzsche’s Genealogical Perspective

<p class="Abstract">Nick Bostrom, a transhumanist figure, referred human
 perfection on three pillars: including super longevity (super long life), super
 wellbeing (super happy) and super intelligence (super intelligent). This cyborg
 human model adheres to the epistemology of scientism which he values ​​as
 anti-traditionalist culture, religious dogmas and metaphysics, but in principle
 ostrom bases his perfect human model on Nietzsche <i>(Der ubermensch)</i>,
 whereas scientism in Nietzsche's view is a form of religious ideas in a certain
 degree. This paper attempts to reveal the epistemological paradox of Bostrom's
 concept of transhumanism through Nietzsche's genealogical philosophy and its
 epistemological implications. The method used in this research is an
 epistemological and genealogical analysis on the three main pillars of Bostrom
 which are the basic foundations of its transhumanism. In this study, it is
 found first that the Bostrom paradox occurs not only in the misinterpretation
 of a perfect man, where Bostrom considers the fulfillment of the three pillars,
 whereas what Nietzsche means is as an independent human being in the sense of
 two things, namely: able to govern himself and be united or only rely on
 himself, and not relying on external reality or dogma. The second, paradoxes occur
 in the belief system of the pillars of Bostrom's transhumanism where he relies
 on the absolutism of science and negates all assumptions or arguments that come
 from metaphysics and religion. Meanwhile, what Nietzsche means is to hold on to
 the relativity of truth where humans will be weak and flawed if they rely on
 beliefs outside themselves, including science. <o:p></o:p></p>