Epistemological Issues Research Articles

Philosophical Value of the Confucian Treatise "Kong-Zi Jia Yu"

This article reveals the philosophical value of the Confucian treatise "Kong-zi jia yu," it examines issues of the theoretical importance for the history of world sinology. In the historicо-philosophical tradition, this text has long been attributed to the Confucian scientist Van Su (3rd century), however, not so long ago the situation changed significantly. In the modern scientific community, disputes around the authorship and time of writing this treatise continue. The content of "Kong-zi jia yu" is composed of stories from the life of Confucius, his conversations with his closest students, as well as prominent political figures of that time. These conversations are philosophical dialogues, they concern the most important ontological, ethical, aesthetic and epistemological issues, such as: harmonization of the Tianxia on the basis of virtuous management, the philosophical need for ritual practice, cosmological device of the Tianxia, issues traditional for early Confucianism of a pedagogical and educational nature, moral self-improvement. The diverse theme of "Kong-zi jia yu" is a valuable source that reveals the essence of the philosophy of early Confucianism. Individual fragments of "Kong-zi jia yu" coincide with the classic Confucian monuments "Shang shu," "Lun yu," "Xiao jing," etc. Although "Kong-zi jia yu" for a number of reasons, is not considered a classic text of Confucianism, but it carries an enduring philosophical value. The study of "Kong-zi jia yu" seems to the author of this work to be an urgent scientific task, the solution of which can expand the arsenal of world philosophical knowledge, as well as contribute to the dialogue of the philosophical cultures of the East and West.

Epistemological issues of research of the subject and object of legal protection in genomic relations

The relevance of the research topic is justified by the rapid technological development of genetics and genomics and introduction of genetic technologies and inventions in scientific and medical practice, which is not provided with a proper systematized legal protection in national and international legislation. The legislators problems are caused by the uniqueness and complexity of the genomic legal relationship. The subjects of knowledge in the framework of post-non-classical scientific rationality need to focus on the epistemological philosophical foundations of the knowledge of genomic legal relations. The purpose of the study is to identify and reflect the features of knowledge of the legal protection of genomic legal relations. Research tasks suggest defining the concept and composition of genomic legal relations, identifying the object and subject of legal protection of genomic legal relations, distinguishing between the concepts of "legal safeguard" and "legal protection" of genomic legal relations. The methodology of scientific research includes the dialectical method, general scientific logical operations (deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis), and private scientific methods (formal legal and comparative legal methods). Within the framework of the methodology of post-non-classical scientific rationality, a systematic approach to the study of the object of knowledge is used - the study of the structure, functional and instrumental aspects of the protective genomic legal relationship.

Introduction

Abstract We present the structure and guiding principles of this Special Issue, with a brief description of the participants’ contributions and the relations holding between them. The intersection between aesthetics and ethics as a field of philosophical enquiry is presented under the guise of a ‘layer cake’: at the top layer we find the most general metaphysical and epistemological issues concerning the nature of value, aesthetic and ethical; the middle layer encompasses several normative issues about the interactions of aesthetic, moral and cognitive values in art; finally at the bottom layer we introduce issues of a more restricted focus, like the aesthetic peculiarity of political songs and the ethics of artistic appropriation.

Creating a corpus of sensitive and hard-to-access texts: Methodological challenges and ethical concerns in the building of the WiSP Corpus

Corpus linguistics is increasingly employed to explore large, publicly-available datasets such as newspaper texts, government speeches and online fora. However, comparatively few corpora exist where the subject matter concerns sensitive topics about living individuals since, due to their highly personal and confidential nature, these texts are hard to access and raise difficult ethical questions around secondary data analysis. One exception is the Writing in professional social work practice (WiSP) corpus, comprising texts written by UK-based professional social workers in the course of their daily work and now available to other researchers through the ReShare archive. This paper focuses on the challenges involved in building the WiSP corpus and the epistemological and ethical issues raised. Two key aspects of research practice are discussed: data anonymisation and dataset archiving. Specifically, the paper explores decision-making around anonymisation and an ethically-informed rationale for treating some texts as ‘not for sharing’, leading to the decision to create two corpora: one for the research team and a further anonymised and slightly reduced version for archiving. The paper explores what the WiSP corpora (Corpus 1 and Corpus 2) contribute to understandings about social work writing, the extent to which the two corpora enable different analyses and whether the existence of two corpora is problematic from a corpus linguistic perspective. The paper concludes by considering how the ethical decisions around corpus creation of sensitive texts raise questions about key principles in corpus linguistics.

Introduction: Algorithmic Thought

This introduction to a special section on algorithmic thought provides a framework through which the articles in that collection can be contextualised and their individual contributions highlighted. Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI). This special section reflects on this AI boom and its implications for studying what thinking is. Focusing on the algorithmic character of computing machines and the thinking that these machines might express, each of the special section’s essays considers different dimensions of algorithmic thought, engaging with a diverse set of epistemological questions and issues.

Intelligence, Ignorance, and Diplomacy in the Cold War: The UK Reaction to the Sverdlovsk Anthrax Outbreak

Drawing on perspectives from “ignorance studies,” this article examines a case of multiple types of expertise and ignorance within the geo-political context of the Cold War. It revisits a suspected breach of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). In 1979, an outbreak of anthrax occurred in the Russian city of Sverdlovsk, killing numerous people; Sverdlovsk was also the site of a military facility suspected by the West of undertaking biological weapons research. As news of the outbreak reached the West, first the USA, then the UK approached the USSR seeking clarification. The diplomatic path followed by the two nations involved a tricky balancing act, requiring attention to the souring of East-West relations following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the integrity of the BWC, and the remote possibility of ratifying the SALT II nuclear negotiations. Diplomatic tactics depended on epistemic issues: How to tell whether the disease outbreak was natural or a military accident, how to decide what evidence was needed? I argue that although officials and scientists did not welcome ignorance and uncertainty, they recognized it as an inevitable and highly problematic epistemological issue (can we know what happened?) and tempered it into a less problematic, or at least more manageable, pragmatic issue (is there sufficient evidence to follow a particular course of action?). This article is part of a special issue entitled “Histories of Ignorance,” edited by Lukas M. Verburgt and Peter Burke.

Evaluation of Water‐Energy‐Food (WEF) Nexus Research: Perspectives, Challenges, and Directions for Future Research

AbstractIn 2018, Albrecht et al., published a comprehensive review of water‐energy‐food nexus literature, coming to five main criticisms in nexus research based on their perception of the state‐of‐the‐art. The five central conclusions of that review together with a consideration of more recent initiatives form the basis for this critical review. The current state of nexus research, and in particular modeling research, is examined and updated to reflect recent advances, correct some misperceptions, and put the nexus enterprise into the context of larger epistemological issues. The main conclusions of this review are: The considerable and growing diversity in nexus studies necessarily precludes a one‐size‐fits‐all approach, and indeed it has never been an objective to develop a “grand unified nexus theory or model.” A lack of “fundamental equations” between many nexus parameters hinders full quantification of all nexus linkages, though data‐driven, stochastic, and agent‐based approaches offer useful avenues for further development. The use of qualitative and social science methods in nexus studies is rapidly gaining traction, especially when blended with quantitative modeling. Great progress has been made in attempting to break disciplinary siloes, especially when considering integrated assessment models and system dynamics models. The paper concludes with some reflections on how progress to date could inform new initiatives, such as the Sustainable Urban Nexus Project, and future work more generally. These reflections are summarized as follows: Integration of ecosystem services and their relationships to the nexus should be a priority in near‐future nexus research efforts. Social science techniques blended with quantitative modeling efforts, and local stakeholder engagement, are critical to the success and impact of nexus studies and their recommendations. Policy‐relevant recommendations are starting to be developed. Greater focus, and stakeholder involvement, will further the policy impact of nexus studies.

Nonmonotonic Reasoning, Expectations Orderings, and Conceptual Spaces

In Gärdenfors and Makinson (Artif Intell 65(2):197–245, 1994) and Gärdenfors (Knowledge representation and reasoning under uncertainty, Springer-Verlag, 1992) it was shown that it is possible to model nonmonotonic inference using a classical consequence relation plus an expectation-based ordering of formulas. In this article, we argue that this framework can be significantly enriched by adopting a conceptual spaces-based analysis of the role of expectations in reasoning. In particular, we show that this can solve various epistemological issues that surround nonmonotonic and default logics. We propose some formal criteria for constructing and updating expectation orderings based on conceptual spaces, and we explain how to apply them to nonmonotonic reasoning about objects and properties.

The Philosophical Aspects of the Dialogue between Modern Cosmology and Theology

Introduction. The paper deals with the philosophical problems of the modern dialogue between cosmology and theology. It is argued that no existential contradiction is possible between them as originating in one and the same human condition. The difference between cosmology and theology amounts to the difference in their open-ended hermeneutics of the outer world. It is from within this philosophical conclusion that the hot issue of the dialogue are discussed and some insights are proposed.Methodology and sources. The philosophical analysis is based on the discussion of epistemological issues in modern cosmology and their relevance to theological view of the world. The method is similar to existential phenomenology’s approach to the constitution of the notion of the universe in cosmology and theology as an open-ended hermeneutics of the world.Results and discussion. It is shown that no existential contradiction is possible between two types of hermeneutics as originating in one and the same human condition. It is human being that becomes the major theme of the dialogue between cosmology and theology.On the basis of the conclusions made the paper discusses some “hot” issues in the contemporary cosmology-theology discussion, including: 1) The inseparability of cosmology and theology in justification of the possibility of cosmological knowledge, 2) Fine-tuning, Anthropic principle, fitness of the universe for life, 3) The unknowability of the universe and apophaticism in cosmology, 4) Multiple universes and their ontology, 5) How much of life is in the universe: the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), exoplanets and theological consequence for multiple incarnations, 6) The origin of the universe in modern scientific cosmology and its relevance to the theologically understood creatio ex nihilo, 7) Consciousness and the universe: can cosmology account for its own possibility without appealing to the theologically understood human capacity in producing an intellectual synthesis of the universe.Conclusion. On the basis of the methods applied to the hot issues in the dialogue between cosmology and theology one concludes that the dialogue between cosmology and theology is an open-ended enterprise related to the fundamentally concealed origins of humanity and universe. The difference is hermeneutics of the universe does not create any contradiction or tension but reflects a dualistic position of humanity in the universe, being an insignificant part of it and at the same time its center of disclosure and manifestation.

Por uma ética da resistência: a História na História da Tradução

The main objective of this article is to point out possible positions of History in the History of translation. More specifically, we want to show what the historian's craft in the History of translation consists of. Based on Certeau (2002), Bloch (2001), Burke (2009), Kosellek (2006, 2013), or Loraux (1992), among others, we reinforce that the meanings of “History” are accessed only through the identification of theoretical and epistemological issues constituting the field in question. Then, we analyse the historiographical practice in the History of translation, establishing the historicity of the translating gesture of four translators: Charles Antoine, Antoine Berman, Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas. Finally, from Berman (2002), Petry (2016), Cardozo (2013, 2018), Ricoeur (2011), or Crary (2016), we associate the gestures of these translators with an ethics of resistance in view of the conception of translation as a privileged relationship with time.

Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies

The aim of this discussion paper is to raise awareness of the conceptual and practical limits of mainstream practices in social measurement and to suggest possible directions for social indicator construction, in view of effectively supporting policies for social sustainability and well-being promotion. We start with a review of the epistemological issues raised by the measurement of social phenomena, investigate the notion of social complexity, and discuss the critical link between it and measurement. We then suggest that social indicators should be primarily designed to build structural syntheses of the data, unfolding the patterns and stylizing the complexity of social phenomena, rather than computed pursuing numerical precision, through hardly interpretable aggregated measures. This calls for tools and algorithms capable of rendering structural information, preserving the essential traits of complexity and overcoming the limitations of classical aggregation procedures. We provide some examples along this line, using real data pertaining to regional well-being in OECD countries.

Artificial Intelligence Robots And Revolutionizing Society In Terms Of Technology, Innovation, Work And Power

In what ways do recent advances in robotics and artificial intelligence signal a historic economic and social transformation? This study presents a critical assessment of the subject, critiques many of the ongoing debates of technical determinism, and reframes the issues involved within a political-economic and social framework. It focuses on technological innovation's economic, political, and historical processes and their implications for employment and financial restructuring, mediated by sovereign and discursive authorities. Several epistemological and empirical issues with a transformational viewpoint are noted, and alternative views are suggested to highlight the complexity and ambiguity surrounding current and future trends. Robotics entered when the industrial revolution had many significant changes for humans. Efficiency is increased to produce various productive things. This paper uses a literature study as a method. The results of his discussion on Revolutionizing Society In Terms Of Technology, Innovation, Work And Power of Robotics.

ЗАКОНИ МИСЛЕННЯ ЯК ПРЕДМЕТ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ В СПАДЩИНІ ПРОФЕСОРІВ ДУХОВНО-АКАДЕМІЧНОЇ ФІЛОСОФІЇ ХІХ ст.

The article is devoted to studying the logical and epistemological issues, in particular the laws of thinking in the creative heritage of the representatives of Kyiv theological-academic philosophy of the XIX century, such as V. Karpov, J. Mikhnevych, O. Novytsky, P. Linytsky. The central problem of the article is the theoretical search for ideological origins of understanding the essence, place and significance of the laws of thinking in human cognitive activity. The authors of the article focus on studying the creative heritage only of those personalities who had their own textbooks on logic, although the lectures were delivered without exception by all professors of philosophy of the KTA. This approach to the problem is associated with a number of difficulties, because in the textbooks it was difficult to find the thinker's own position on a particular problem. Despite this, the positions of professors differ significantly from each other. And we tried to prove it. The aim of the study was to clarify the ideological coincidence and at the same time fundamental differences of the main statements on understanding the essence, place and significance of the laws of thinking in human cognitive activity in the creative heritage of professors of the Kyiv Theological Academy. This goal was realized in the following tasks. to analyze the main ideas of works on the logic by K. Karpov, J. Mikhnevych, O. Novytsky, P. Linytsky and to reveal their worldview preferences; find ideological coincidences among the main statements of their theoretical preferences; to substantiate the fact of the influence of the Western European philosophical tradition on the philosophers of the Kyiv school of theological-academic philosophy of the XIX – early XX centuries

From Seminary to University in Quebec: de la théologie aux études religieuses

In his book From Seminary to University: An Institutional History of the Study of Religion in Canada, Aaron Hughes offers a comprehensive portrait of the historical construction of the study of religion in Canada. While Hughes explains in-depth the social, political and historical conditions of production of knowledge on religion as an academic domain in provinces of Protestant heritage, his contribution is less thorough regarding the development of this academic field in the province of Quebec. In this article, I depict how the creation of institutions of knowledge in Quebec hinged around the Catholic hegemony that lasted since the inception of the colony, namely among faculties of theologies that framed main historical universities. I also argue that this heritage has shaped the ongoing construction of the study of religion as an epistemological issue between Catholic theologians and religious studies scholars.

Interaction and conflict between outreach workers and research officers in implementing collaborative action research in the field of harm reduction: a qualitative study

BackgroundThe effectiveness of collaborative approaches in health interventions is underlined in the literature. Given the serious challenges to adequately managing the HCV epidemic in people who inject drugs (PWID), and the need to improve existing harm reduction (HR) interventions in this population, it seems important to investigate how collaboration between stakeholders is ensured in action research interventions. The present study aimed to explore interactions between outreach workers and research officers collaborating in the implementation of an action research project for PWID entitled OUTSIDER.MethodsUsing three focus groups, we studied the views of 24 outreach workers involved in the implementation and evaluation of a harm reduction educational intervention to help PWID inject more safely in off-site settings.ResultsThe analysis of participants’ discourses highlighted the mixed perceptions they had about OUTSIDER. Several limitations to collaboration emerged. Epistemological (theoretical vs. practical knowledge), methodological (science vs. intervention), axiological (standardised vs. adapted approach), and material (mobilised vs. available resources) issues all placed a burden on the outreach worker–research officer relationship. Outreach workers’ acceptance of the project’s intervention dimension but rejection of its scientific dimension highlights a lack of contractualisation between the stakeholders involved, and a more general problematisation of the role of outreach workers in implementing action research in HR. How collaboration was perceived and practised by outreach workers participating in OUTSIDER can be considered a reflection of the current challenges to implementing action research in HR.ConclusionThis study of the interaction between the research and implementation dimensions of an action research project explored the tensions between different intervention stakeholders that must work together. Equitable participation and integration of the expertise, practices, and knowledge of all stakeholders involved is essential for successful action research. Given current HCV epidemiological challenges, new forms of cooperation are needed when developing healthcare services and when strengthening collaborative approaches.

The Theory-Practice Gap in the Evaluation of Agent-Based Social Simulations.

Agent-based social simulations have historically been evaluated using two criteria: verification and validation. This article questions the adequacy of this dual evaluation scheme. It claims that the scheme does not conform to everyday practices of evaluation, and has, over time, fostered a theory-practice gap in the assessment of social simulations. This gap originates because the dual evaluation scheme, inherited from computer science and software engineering, on one hand, overemphasizes the technical and formal aspects of the implementation process and, on the other hand, misrepresents the connection between the conceptual and the computational model. The mismatch between evaluation theory and practice, it is suggested, might be overcome if practitioners of agent-based social simulation adopt a single criterion evaluation scheme in which: i) the technical/formal issues of the implementation process are tackled as a matter of debugging or instrument calibration, and ii) the epistemological issues surrounding the connection between conceptual and computational models are addressed as a matter of validation.

A Commentary on “Eating Disorders and the Rorschach” (Guinzbourg de Braude et al., 2021)

A Commentary on “Eating Disorders and the Rorschach” (Guinzbourg de Braude et al., 2021)

SQER: Establishing the sciences of religion in Quebec: A work still in progress1

This article identifies and problematizes the institutional and epistemological issues of the study of religion in Quebec. Its thesis is the unfinished foundation of the discipline that is primarily devoted to it, the social sciences of religion. The first section traces the institutional evolution of the field of study of religion in Quebec, from theology to the social sciences of religion, from faculties and departments to centers and institutes. The second section measures the progress made in the social sciences of religion since the first programs and assessments devoted to it. The authors note a growing difficulty in understanding the religion of the “center”, that of the majority of Quebecers. The third section deepens this point by drawing up a panorama of the main religious trends observed in contemporary social sciences of religions. Three related trends are identified: advanced secularization, increasing diversity and the unexpected survival of religion. In conclusion, the authors argue for the consolidation of the social sciences of religion in Quebec.

Education for Sustainability, Peace, and Global Citizenship: An Integrative Approach

The complex nature of contemporary challenges requires a culture of cooperation between academic disciplines. However, to what extent do educational systems prepare students to think beyond the boundaries of austerely defined and often entrenched academic fields? UNESCO has successively called for Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development, and Education for Global Citizenship to incorporate complex socio-environmental issues into mainstream education. Despite the presence of strong institutional support by governments and international organizations, the introduction of these interdisciplinary approaches into actual educational settings has been slow. With no intention to underestimate the pertinence and agency of strong political will in promoting educational change, we explore the presence of deeper, epistemological issues that may account for the generally slow progress of interdisciplinary pedagogies. To elaborate on this discussion, we focus on pragmatic solutions that can promote the integration of environmental, sustainability, and global citizenship education into the existing educational ethoi.

Corruption and international development: a review of project management challenges

PurposeThe outcomes and quality of international development projects (IDPs) remain highly controversial, especially with perception of corruption by various stakeholders. This study aims to integrate findings from both social and administrative sciences to focus attention on the governance challenges involved in both business and public administration of such projects. It also asks to what extent Project Management (PM) methods can effectively be harmonized with broader anti-corruption initiative in both donor and receiving countries.Design/methodology/approachTaking a transdisciplinary viewpoint, this study proposes a review and synthesis of the literature on the theoretical, methodological, and epistemological issues in researching corruption as a construct in PM as applied to IDPs.FindingsSome experts recognize the inefficacy of applying classical PM tools and processes. By contrasting the literature, this study concludes that an alternative approach to overcome the taboos and prejudice in studying corruption is to ask a different research question. As opposed to studying “who and why” about corruption occurrences (ex-post), given the challenge of unveiling its practices and motivations, PM researchers can to ask instead “where and how” it occurs and help understand methods to mitigate its effects on projects (ex-ante).Originality/valueA research agenda is proposed for the several disciplines and fields concerned with solving this phenomenon. To guide PM research on development projects, focusing on the “where and how” of corruption requires addressing how actors build their knowledge management capabilities and address the social and cultural challenges inherent to IDPs.