Epistemological Questions Research Articles

Epistemologia gravitației cuantice

Din punct de vedere metodologic, atât Newton cât și Einstein, și ulterior Dirac, au susținut fără rezerve principiul simplității matematice în descoperirea noilor legi fizice ale naturii. Lor li s-au alăturat și Poincaré și Weyl. Eduard Prugovecki afirmă că gravitația cuantică a impus luarea în considerare a unor întrebări epistemologice fundamentale, care pot fi identificate în filosofie cu problema minții-corp și cu problema liberului arbitru. Aceste întrebări au influențat epistemologia mecanicii cuantice sub forma “paralelismului psiho-fizic” al lui von Neumann și analiza ulterioară a tezei de către Wigner că “colapsul pachetului de unde” are loc în mintea “observatorului”.

Writing Lives in the Eighteenth Century ed. by Tanya M. Caldwell

Reviewed by: Writing Lives in the Eighteenth Century ed. by Tanya M. Caldwell Mark Fulk Tanya M. Caldwell, ed., Writing Lives in the Eighteenth Century (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell Univ. Press, 2020). Pp. 250; 2 b/w illus., 1 table. $34.95 paper, $120.00 cloth. Tanya M. Caldwell's edited collection of essays focuses on life-writing in the circles of Samuel Johnson and Frances Burney. The six essays and Caldwell's introduction reach beyond the long eighteenth century to model vital practices for the reading of life-writing in a myriad of forms, including letters (original and edited/republished collections), journals, and family memoirs alongside the more traditional categories of biography and autobiography. One of the strengths of Caldwell's collection overall is its tracing of critical strategies across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in relation to the life writings of Johnson, Burney, and their circles. These essays also provide insight into the significance of works at the margins of the literary and the ways we can incorporate them into our discussions of how various texts shape the interpretation of the lives and the canons that comprise our scholarly and pedagogical concerns. Lisa Berglund's essay on Hester Lynch Piozzi's Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1788) opens Caldwell's volume by examining the ways that Piozzi's editing shapes the publication of Johnson's letters in a way that offers an apologia for Piozzi's second marriage to a younger man, the Italian musician Gabriel Mario Piozzi. Berglund shows how Piozzi's ordering of Johnson's letters, like her other editorial practices (including some but not all of Piozzi's own letters to Johnson), "deliberately construct … from 'found' epistolary materials" the arguments that tell her story in a way that supports her second marriage (27). Berglund explores the reception history of Piozzi's work to highlight the way Piozzi's reconstruction of Johnson (and, indirectly, of herself) is still contested even today. Peter Sabor's continued writing on Alexander D'Arblay, the only son of Frances Burney D'Arblay and the Duke D'Arblay, offers in tandem with his earlier article "Creative and Uncreative Gloom: Frances Burney and Alexander D'Arblay" a fuller picture of a young man who would develop mental illness in later life than has previously been available.1 The essay Caldwell includes is valuable for its insights into the impacts of parental favoritism on child-rearing as well as the situation of an only son in the age of the French Revolution and Romanticism. Describing Alexander's childhood and years at Cambridge as a student and as a fellow, Sabor's essay traces with subtle and arduous detail Frances Burney's views of and concerns about her favorite and only child. Although Sabor determines that "Alexander clearly suffered from depression" even though it remains "difficult to [End Page 508] determine the source of his ill" or assess his parents' "responsibility" for them, Sabor's essay offers valuable insight into these tumultuous times and the case of one, perhaps average, young man of two rather exceptional parents (69). Marilyn Francus's article considers how the family biographies written by Frances Burney (of her father Charles Burney) and Alicia LeFanu (of the Sheridan family) play with the promise of private, secret information. Francus delivers a rich context for the epistemological questions that family biography even today exploits, arguing that these questions concerning methodology and reader expectation shape the ways that family biography is written and consumed. Francus provides the publication history, contexts, and receptions of these biographies, showing how Burney and LeFanu are writing against prevailing notions as well as other unauthorized biographies of their subjects. Through this combining of methodologies, Francus demonstrates that the reading of family biographies and their constructions of privacy create a vexing context for our own reading, ultimately raising profound questions about "knowledge, truth, accuracy, and authorial agenda" that go to the heart of how we read life-writing in this period as well as our own (101). Victoria Warren's detailed treatment of Isabelle de Charrière demonstrates the importance of the inclusion of this remarkable writer in the canon. Normally only considered in...

Words That Bind: Moral Obligation, Textual Epistemology, and Globalizing Legal Power.

In this review essay, we probe three main elements of Laura Ford's Intellectual Property of Nations: her discussion of the structure of moral obligation and its materialization via writing and the institutions of the law; reflections on how the book intersects with questions of textual epistemology (especially the question of inferring intent from texts); and, finally, a self-consciously "presentist" discussion of how the book's findings intersect with our modern world of global legal regimes.

Respect for juries: A rejoinder to Hemming on Pell

The High Court decision in Pell v The Queen continues to be the subject of extensive academic controversy. In a pair of important articles, evidence and criminal law scholar Andrew Hemming has defended the Court’s decision. This rejoinder critiques Hemming’s defence (and, by extension, the High Court’s decision) on three grounds. First, because the decision conflates unchallenged testimony with honest and reliable testimony. Second, because it relies on ad hoc probabilistic determinations of discrete and unreplicable historical events. Third, because it fails to answer a key epistemological question: how could the High Court know more about what really did or did not happen in that sacristy than the jury?

Grounding in the unconscious: “The field” in psychosocial organizational ethnography

Psychosocial research, which explores the unconscious and affective dynamics of organizational and social phenomena from critical perspectives, often adopts ethnographic methods. However, its locus, the unconscious, has an obscure, diffuse and dynamic nature that calls into question two central assumptions of conventional organizational ethnography: that an organization is a self-contained physical (research) site, and ethnographic research is best led by participant observation. The unconscious is produced by countless agents dispersed across time and space, making it impossible to readily identify a research site. Furthermore, psychosocial phenomena cannot be physically demarcated because a multitude of discourses, imagery, psyches, bodies, and objects are enmeshed in them. These raise contentious ontological, epistemological, and methodological questions for psychosocial researchers. In this article, we ruminate on “the field” in psychosocial organizational ethnography, seeking a robust epistemological and methodological approach to constructing and dwelling in an unconscious research site. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis, we present a conceptual discussion of these issues and translate them into ethnographic methods illustrated by examples from the authors’ research. By critically re-evaluating the question of “the field,” we contribute to ethnographic studies of organizational phenomena with “fuzzy fields” without self-evident boundaries that draw on diverse onto-epistemologies.

Toward a grounded theology: reflections on a grounded theory study of faith and athletic coaching

ABSTRACT This research note is a reflection on my recent dissertation study, in which I employed ‘grounded theology’ as a qualitative method that merges grounded theory and theological reflection. The purpose of this method is to produce new insights and frameworks that help us think theologically about a particular social phenomenon or process. Grounded theology has been explored as a possible qualitative research method (Stevens, B. A. 2017. “Grounded Theology? A Call for a Community of Practice.” Practical Theology 10 (2): 201–206; Barnsley, J. 2016. “Grounded Theology: Adopting and Adapting Qualitative Research Methods for Feminist Theological Enquiry.” Feminist Theology 24 (2): 109–124) with calls for future developments that contribute to clearer definitions, distinctive research techniques, and a better understanding of the epistemological assumptions that undergird the research project. After introducing the relationship between qualitative and theological inquiry, I will trace some of the ontological and epistemological questions that must be considered when conducting a grounded theology, followed by some methodological implications by way of examples of my own research techniques. I conclude with some avenues for further developments on grounded theology.

The Ethical Values and Leadership Practices in Deuteronomy

A search for a philosophy of leadership has to begin with ontological and epistemological questions. The former deals with what leadership is and the latter is concerned with how one can know. Hence, this work engages in exploring the meaning, scope, and nature of leadership through the methods of analysing common words and metaphors of leadership in the Old Testament, particularly the Book of Deuteronomy. In addition, the research perspectives on the nature of leadership in the area of leadership studies are discussed to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and functions of leadership. This article deals with the ethical values that lay the foundation for the leadership practices in Deuteronomy. In doing so, sources of moral courage will be discussed first, as people’s personal and corporate moral courage has to originate from certain concepts, which serve as a philosophical underpinning, driving leaders in the ethical directions of leadership practices. Next, leadership with a concern for people and ethics is discussed. The crux of the philosophy of Deuteronomy is that people should choose life by obeying the law of the Lord and avoid destruction that results from disobeying the law. Hence, leadership practices are there to create life or well-being for the people. Finally, there will be a study on how ethical practices shape society, with reference to Israelite society in the context of the narratives in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Music as research: the integrated doctoral degree in music from a South African perspective

The integrated doctoral degree in music is a relatively new qualification in the South African tertiary education system and there is no broad consensus yet about its precise format or its artistic and scholarly requirements, even if there is agreement that it somehow fits into the field of what has become known as practice-based or artistic research. This article examines some of the key issues concerned, especially those of a music-specific (as opposed to a broadly aesthetic) nature. Consequently, it focuses on crucial epistemological and methodological questions through the perspective of concepts such as emergence, semiosis, truth, qualia, presence, intentionalism and authenticity. The discussion is informed by ideas from the work of philosophers and scholars such as Henk Borgdorff, Marcel Cobussen, Denis Dutton, Hans-Georg Gadamer, David Bentley Hart, Martin Heidegger and Simone Mahrenholz. A generic model is presented for a doctoral degree based on the notion of ‘music as research’.

Открытое применение разума: Сократ и Кант

Kant is compared with Socrates because the two philosophers have much in common. Both thinkers were central figures in their time. Kant revolutionised the philosophy of the modern period dealing with questions of ethics and epistemology; Socrates brought about a similar revolution in ancient Greek philosophy. The image of Socrates continues to inspire modern scholars, the main features of this image being rationality and publicity. Socrates is seen as an arch-rationalist and the founder of science and philosophy as a whole. Besides, he practised philosophy publicly, being an antipode of another ancient Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, whose doctrines were secret. Coming together in the image of Socrates, publicity and rationality mutually condition each other. This again is a feature shared with Kant who put forward the concept of the public and private use of reason. Today, the term “publicity” should be replaced by the more accurate term “openness.” Like publicity, openness implies accessibility of knowledge to the largest possible number of people. However, openness is a broader concept: it makes it possible both to explain the interconnection between the freedom of reason and its publicity advocated by Kant and to draw a demarcation line between Socrates and the Sophists who were also public intellectuals. Whereas the Sophists sought personal gain and popularity, Socrates viewed the practice of philosophy as a form of self-sacrifice for the good of society; this led the Sophists to relativism and Socrates to the discovery of rational thinking. The conclusion is that openness, interpreted as accessibility of knowledge and the possibility of its development, constitutes the key component of rationality.

Foodscapes – a Neopragmatic Redescription

This paper aims to redescribe the rapidly developing research on Foodscapes from a neopragmatic perspective. Redescriptions, in the sense of Richard Rorty, become necessary when time-honored vocabularies have become fragile. This redescription is done by means of a double approach, on the one hand with direct reference to philosophical neopragmatism as represented by Richard Rorty, on the other hand to the theory of Three Landscapes derived from Karl Popper’s Three Worlds Theory, in order to give redescription a structure by means of which theories of medium scope can be placed in the meta-theoretical perspective of the neopragmatic approach of ‘horizontal geographies’. In derivation of Popper’s theory, Landscape 3 is understood as that part of the World 3 that relates to interpretations, categorizations, and valuations of World as Landscape. Landscape 2 accordingly encompasses the individual aspects of consciousness perceiving Landscape. Landscape 1 is understood as that part of the tangible World 1 that is synthesized into Landscape from the perspective of Landscape 2 and 3. Foodscapes 1, 2, and 3 are understood to be those respective parts of the relative landscape that are associated with the production, distribution, and consumption of food. In this respect, it hardly seems possible to adequately examine Foodscapes, in their complexity, on the basis of a single theoretical perspective. A metatheoretical perspective, for dealing with this challenge, is offered by neopragmatism, which provides hints on the triangulation of theories, methods, modes of constructing ‘scapes’, researchers, data, and last, but not least, forms of representation. The proposal of a neopragmatic re-description of Foodscapes presented here starts from epistemological questions of contingent interpretations of the world, from which an ontological engagement with different levels of Foodscapes is derived, which is operationalized methodologically.

Hypertextuality and the fall of the structuralist paradigm: a genettian reading of the Odyssey's selected hypertexts

Man's natural ability to tell stories was not hidden from literary critics' speculative eyes. Oral and written storytelling has been around for thousands of years. The fascination with ontological and epistemological questions regarding being and the unknown has prompted the man to use his imagination motor to explore and dwell simultaneously in both real and fictional worlds, actual and virtual ones. This article is an attempt to connect different interpretations of trans-textualized hypertexts or retellings that have emerged as a result of the contemporary movements of structuralism and poststructuralism in the light of Gerard Genette’s narrative theory, in order to emphasize the dialectic of assumptions and positive expectations. Structuralist narrative theories prove inapt to justify the thematic modifications of the hypertexts created as the result of trans fictionality. To meet the aim of the study the descriptive method is utilized, which seeks to explore the narratological dimensions of the four retellings above of the Odyssey, based on the structuralist view. Considering the results, narratological reading based on the overall structure of a narrative, or langue, cannot justify the changes that hypersexuality is responsible for, and the reading has to be in line with the parole, or the specific style of each hypertext.

Bridging as Metaphor- A Systems Thinking Approach for Exploring Transboundary Risk

This paper provides a novel approach for understanding transboundary risk, including ‘grand challenges’ such as climate change. Discussion begins with an exploration of the origins of transboundary risk as a byproduct of globalization. Thereafter, the concept of ‘bridging’ is used in order to conceptualize the spread of transboundary risk across traditional physical boundaries, including geographic borders. Building upon prior theory, systems thinking and complexity are used as conceptual lenses for understanding the dynamics of transboundary risk. Scenario planning is offered as a means for envisioning and addressing the challenges presented by transboundary risk. The result of this discussion is a holistic, systems view of transboundary risk which stands in contrast to traditional, reductionist perspectives of risk. As such, the paper concludes by proposing a set of epistemological questions that emerge as a result of this shift.

Epistemological Questions for a Psychology of Dialogue

"Notwithstanding the magisterial work of the psychologists H. H. Clark and A. Trognon, in comparison with sociology and linguistics a veritable psychology of dialogue still remains little elaborated. This paper analyses epistemological obstacles facing such an enterprise, arguing that dialogue can not be understood as a ‘window’ on the individual mind. A vision of dialogue as a process of collective thinking, with the exchange as the fundamental unit of analysis, is sketched out. Dialogue is a complex system, involving multidirectional relations between situational representations, communicative action and emergent thinking. Keywords: dialogue, collective thinking, interaction analysis, methodology, complex systems. "

Contributions of Science Fiction to Thinking up (Im)possible Future Societies: Medical Students’ Genetic Imaginary

Science fiction has been an inexhaustible source for the creation of technoscientific imaginary that has marked certain historical periods and influenced the production of subjectivity. This imaginary evokes complex ontological, epistemological, political, social, environmental and existential questions on the present and the future. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the cultural productions accessed by the public to form an opinion about the genetic manipulation of human beings. A survey about sources of information that influence opinions on the genetic manipulation of human beings was applied to 360 medical students (70.8% female). Movies were the most commonly mentioned source of information, followed by books, documentaries, news programs, television series, informational videos, soap operas and videogames. Science fiction was the most frequent genre and dystopian views of the future of humanity predominated.

Understanding epistemology and its key approaches in research

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that concerns itself with the theory of knowledge. It is regarded as a core area of philosophy because it deals with the nature of our knowledge. Drawing on the literature on epistemology, this article provides some basic definitions of the term epistemology and answers some key epistemological questions such as: “what is knowledge?” “what are the sources of our knowledge?” “what do we know?” and “what differentiates knowledge from wisdom and opinion?” The article also discusses key epistemological approaches, namely positivism, interpretivism, and pragmatism, which are central to research. The article concludes that a high degree of epistemic justification is required for knowledge claims and for the conduct of research.

From the New Editorial Team of “Third Space”

From the New Editorial Team of “Third Space”

A turning point? Interview with Emmanuel Falque

An interview with the professor and philosopher Emmanuel Falque, in the context of his passage through the University of Coimbra, in the context of the Journée Internationale d’études philosophiques, which will take place on 26 May 2022, at the Faculty of Letters, entitled: «L’im‑pensable : Aux confins de la phénoménalité». In this interview, In this interview, our author coming to his entire philosophical project, from its origins to his most recent scientific production. The philosopher tells us about the provenance of his thought through his main philosophical works and his existential interpretation and phenomenological reading of patristic and medieval philosophy as well as his debates with phenomenology and contemporary philosophy, particularly French philosophy. Here the epistemological and metaphysical question between philosophy and theology, literature and aesthetics, psychoanalysis and phenomenology is also addressed; the concept of «corps épandu», the corporeality or the embodiment as the cardinal point of human finitude and its incessant search to think our «humanity in common». Emmanuel Falque also presents us in this interview the genesis and the fundamental idea of Hors phénomène, as the central axis of his global philosophical project, but also as the revelation of a certain «turning point», inflexion or even of «radicalization» of his démarche, as well as its possible consequences to rethink aesthetics, ethics, politics and theology. The French thinker also talks to us here about the future of philosophy and the new horizons of his reflection (the new triptych...), about the authors and figures in the history of thought (philosophers or others) who have influenced and impacted his own philosophical‑existential path. Thus, the work of a thinker-philosopher is always an ex-position of himself to others, permanently thinking the world of life, the embodiment of reason in the folds of history.

Review of Epistemological and Methodological Debates of Educational Research and Its Links to Theoretical Perspectives in Education

Research activities are based up on research paradigms such as positivism, interpretivism, critical paradigm and pragmatism. The paradigm is based on the four components of research paradigms: such as ontology, epistemology, axiology and methodology. The research paradigms suggest different research methodologies on how to approach reality, create knowledge, and values. Epistemological questions were also forwarded from investigator that direct to contestation on the option and appeal of objectivity, subjectivity, causality, validity and generalization of research findings. Educational activities are based on distinct theoretical viewpoints that have strong linkage with the epistemological and methodological research paradigms. Therefore, this study is intended to review the epistemological and methodological debates in educational research and its links to theoretical dimensions of educational theories. The study employed qualitative research approach in reviewing the existing research paradigms, and components of research paradigms, educational theory perspectives and continuous debates existing among these divergent philosophical thoughts. However, reality, knowledge and values are perceived to be contextual rather than universally agreed particularly in the contemporary global academic scenario. The study implies that though there are persistent debates concerning research paradigms; intermingling different research paradigms are vital to suggest solutions for social researches such as in educational problems. Keywords: Epistemology, interpretivism, methodology, ontology, positivism, pragmatism, research paradigm. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-28-01 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

On some intracranialist dogmas in epistemology

Research questions in mainstream epistemology often take for granted a cognitive internalist picture of the mind. Perhaps this is unsurprising given the seemingly safe presumptions that (i) knowledge entails belief (viz. the entailment thesis) and that (ii) the kind of belief that knowledge entails supervenes exclusively on brainbound cognition. It will be argued here that (contra orthodoxy) the most plausible version of the entailment thesis holds just that knowledge entails dispositional belief. However, regardless of whether occurrent belief supervenes only as the cognitive internalist permits, we should reject the idea that dispositional belief supervenes only in cognitive internalist-friendly ways. These observations, taken together, reveal two things: first, that a cognitive internalist picture of the mind is much more dispensable in epistemology than has been assumed and, second, that pursuing questions in extended epistemology need not involve any radical departure from the commitments of more traditional epistemological projects.

A Genetic Interpretation of the Preface of The Genealogy of Morals

Traditional interpretations of Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals (GM) argue that the work is a treatise on, or a straightforward account of, Nietzsche’s moral thinking. This is typically contrasted with what has become known as the postmodern reading, which holds that the core of GM is an attack on the very notion of the truth itself. These two interpretations are often taken to be non-coextensive and mutually exclusive. However, I argue, using a genetic form of argumentation that tracks the development of the text through archival evidence, that both are partially correct, since Nietzsche sees all fundamental problems hitherto as moral questions in service of the ascetic ideal and the will to truth. According to Nietzsche, all the hitherto fundamental questions of philosophy are not value-free but are deeply value-laden. To put this more precisely, Nietzsche rejects the fact-value distinction itself. Questions of morality are not separable from epistemology, questions of epistemology are not separable from morality, and both subjects have worked in service of the ascetic ideal. Further, I provide new evidence on the debate about the counter-ideal to the ascetic ideal. I claim that Amor Fati embodies that ideal. I argue for this using a section from the preface that was added but then removed. This section was removed because it gave away the conclusion of the work, that all fundamental problems, including questions of truth, are based on moral prejudices.