Aptopadesha Pramana in Ayurveda: A Critical Review of Its Epistemological Role and Relevance to Evidence-Based Medicine

Abstract. This editorial article introduces and contextualises the theme issue on socio-environmental emotionalities in the context of ecological crises. It highlights the political and academic relevance of analysing the emotional and affective registers of shifting society–environment relations in the broader context of the uncertainties, conflicts and multiple crises of a climate-changed world. Grounded in a political and spatial conceptualisation of emotions and affects, this introduction understands emotional and affective expressions as always indicative of contentious and shifting relations of power, knowledge, experience and identity. The editorial article draws on an expanding body of research to outline a series of key analytical perspectives on the political and epistemological role of emotions and affects in environmental politics, subjectivations and knowledge production. The article brings these perspectives in dialogue with the individual contributions to the theme issue, whose rich explorations of political feelings in the context of ecological crises are presented in the final section.

This paper examines the role of indigenous epistemologies, legal traditions, and linguistic diversity in reshaping legal education to make it more inclusive, culturally grounded, and socially responsive. Drawing support from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, this study emphasizes the integration of Indian Knowledge Systems across disciplines. The study also explores how teaching law in Indian languages and incorporating indigenous legal concepts, values, and histories can enhance comprehension, critical thinking, and fairness within legal education. The paper evaluates the contribution of Indian Knowledge Systems to the historical and contemporary development of legal education in India and assesses the potential of indigenous epistemologies to refine legal curricula and pedagogical approaches. Further, the study identifies structural, institutional, and systemic challenges in adopting Indian Knowledge Systems and Indian languages in legal education, including issues of standardization, resource availability, faculty preparedness, and policy implementation. Ultimately, this study submits that embedding Indian Knowledge Systems and languages in legal education can contribute to the development of a more accessible, equitable, and culturally aligned legal system responsive to India’s unique social realities.

This study investigates a 1954 Javanese Sufi manuscript written in Pegon script within the Naqshbandīyah al-Mrikīyah lineage. Addressing a gap in existing scholarship—which has concentrated predominantly on pre-20th-century Pegon Qur’anic exegesis—this article analyzes a modern non-exegetical Pegon Sufi text that articulates Naqshbandī metaphysics through Javanese mystical idioms. Methodologically, the study employs a compounded hermeneutic–semiotic framework, integrating Ricoeur’s layered model of textual configuration with Peircean triadic analysis to examine Pegon's lexical formations and the manuscript’s sixteen doctrinal and contemplative diagrams. The findings demonstrate that the manuscript generates a linguistic-performative matrix in which Pegon terminology and Javanese expressions such as kemrenthek operate as affective-semiotic modulators in dhikr and murāqabah. The diagrams function as epistemic icons that formalize interior states and encode the sequential logics of Naqshbandī contemplative praxis. The study advances current understandings of Javanese Sufi manuscript culture by elucidating the epistemological role of Pegon texts in vernacularizing Sufi metaphysics into localized semiotic architectures.

This article examines the epistemological role of scientific error by analyzing the responses of Karl Popper and Paul Feyerabend to the problem of error. It begins by clarifying the terminological foundations for the use of the term error in scientific contexts. Popper’s response is then discussed within the framework of falsifiability, emphasizing how his conception of conjectures and refutations departs from traditional views, while still presenting certain limitations. Feyerabend’s progressive response, in turn, attributes an essential and non-transitory role to error in the advancement of knowledge, particularly within the divergent proliferation of cosmologies. By critically examining this response, the article contributes to a broader understanding of the significance of errors in scientific progress.

Aim. To identify and demonstrate the concept “parliamentarism” as an integrating factor of the Russian statehood, presented in the journalistic narratives created by the representatives of the Siberian democratic regionalism (regionalism) ideology at the beginning of the 20th century.Methodology. With use of tools of political textology, the written narratives containing political discussions on the development of representative bodies in Siberia and the entire Asian part of Russia are analyzed. The methodology of the “new political history” also played an epistemological role for cognitive purposes, which make it possible to direct discursive analysis to social groups.Results. It was established that at the beginning of the 20th century, the narrative about the prospects for the development of legislative and representative bodies in the peripheral and outlying territories of our Fatherland has become more active. It was revealed that the discourse had conceptual and systemic content. A clear holistic scheme was emerging by establishing and developing the zemstvo as a form of local self-government, legislatures at the regional level will be actively formed and effectively operate, which will make it possible to consider the true problems of territorial entities at the level of a single all-Russian parliament.Research implications. The results of the study can contribute to the development of the study of domestic political thought in pre-revolutionary Russia, in which the legacy of Siberian regionalists is still fragmentary. The paradigmatic concepts of the teachings of democratic regionalists, according to which parliamentarism, local self-government and federalism have an integrating principle of national statehood, they can be of importance for strengthening the foundations of the Russian state system.

Background: Our research problem mainly concerns the following question: what are the consequences of an autism spectrum condition diagnosis for everyday functioning and self-understanding? Method: The research methodology is based on a semi-structured interview, which allows respondents to share their experiences freely while maintaining the structure and standards necessary to collect consistent data. The research was conducted remotely, using the ZOOM platform and the Messenger application. Six individuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC) diagnosed in adulthood, selected intentionally, participated in the study. Interviews lasted between 20 and 60 min. Results: The analysis of the experiences of individuals with ASC diagnosed in adulthood highlights the complexity of the diagnosis process and its far-reaching consequences. The diagnostic process, which varied in time and depended on the availability of specialists, was often evaluated positively. Obtaining an ASC diagnosis proved to be a crucial moment for the interviewees, enabling them to better understand themselves and their needs. It led to a better adjustment of their work, education, and private life environment. Relationships with loved ones tended to remain unchanged or improved, highlighting the importance of the diagnosis in improving the understanding and acceptance of individuals with ASC. Conclusions: The study sheds light on the positive impact of diagnosis on self-awareness and quality of life for individuals with ASC, revealing the need to improve the availability of specialised diagnostic and support services. Further research should focus on the development and adaptation of support methods to meet the individual needs of individuals with ASC and on promoting awareness of ASC in the community and among mental health professionals.

Abstract Political science prioritizes mechanisms, yet static formal models fail to capture their dynamic evolution. Roger Myerson’s fables address this gap by isolating recursive processes—trust formation, credibility decay, and institutional adaptation—and embedding them in dynamic models. I extend Myerson’s approach by contrasting his recursive logic with static frameworks, such as Milan Svolik’s coup model, and introduce the Napoleon Paradox to show how institutional constraints evolve into stabilizing mechanisms through path-dependent trust. Fables act as a mechanism that reveals heuristics and bridges theoretical insight into empirically grounded modeling and simulation.

ABSTRACT What is the relationship between image and text? Can we conceive of continuity between a visual image and a mental one? Is there an “opsis,” or a distinct category to frame the visuality within texts as a phenomenon of imagery? Furthermore, what epistemological role might this concept play in the comparative analysis of cultures, especially in the Mediterranean, a region marked by extensive intercultural exchanges and influences? This article proposes to approach these questions by applying Aby Warburg’s semiotic-cognitive theory to a reading of Angelo Poliziano’s poem of 1478. Central to Warburg’s approach is the concept of the pathosformel, the emotional formulas that elicit emotional responses to artworks and evoke and produce cultural memory. Poliziano’s poem lends itself well to a reading through this concept. Its publication opened its engagement with multiple forms of Renaissance visualities, or performances, including jousting festivals, Italian garden design, and Greek-inspired art forms adapted from fifteenth-century Florentine culture, offering a rich site for examining Warburg’s pathosformel in action at the intersections of visual and literary arts.

The article examines the main works of the famous American historian of science Naomi Oreskes, highlighting examples of scientific misconceptions and their background in sources of funding, academic ambitions, and social values. Her works attract the attention of both a wide range of readers and specialists. For fans of the popular style, complex questions about the relationship between science and business in the United States, modern criteria of research activity, and the epistemological role of ecology in the system of scientific knowledge are presented. For specialists, a thorough archival work is obvious, and the novelty of covering events from a historical perspective is interesting. Describing examples of incompetent research and views, Oreskes uses the phrase scientific ignorance. Due to the lack of a direct semantic analogue in Russian, the concept of delusion replaces it in the article. The analysis and synthesis of the key theoretical provisions of Oreskes' works was carried out by identifying the role of epistemic standards that the author adhered to in characterizing questionable research practices. Historical-genetic and historical-systemic methods were used to study the relationship of misconceptions with commercial interests in the socio-historical context of the development of science in the United States. The productivity of the regulatory function of expert consensus, interdisciplinarity, value pluralism in the criticism of destructive doubts, outdated criteria, and fundamentalism in the scientific community is determined. The history of scientific misconceptions is an important aspect of the sociology of knowledge, presented in Oreskes' writings using a variety of empirical material. The historical approach made it possible to highlight both the social and epistemological consequences of distortions and falsifications in science that arose under the influence of the material motives of scientists or their sponsors and employers. The appeal to Oreskes' works is designed to actualize the sense of social responsibility among scientists, which, in her opinion, contributes to the perception of research norms adequate to the modern level of knowledge. The article may be useful for specialists in the history and philosophy of science, used in educational courses in these disciplines.

The purpose of this study is to find a way to achieve awareness of spiritual existence through the role of epistemology in the Al-Hikmah Al-Muta'aliyah school of philosophy. This study uses a qualitative descriptive literature method based on literature data from books, journals and comparisons to previous studies. The results of the study indicate that epistemology is a fundamental aspect of knowledge that underlies all science and perspectives on the world showing the connection of knowledge to existence and spirituality, which in fact cannot be separated or particularized or secularized. The conclusion of this study shows that placing epistemology as an aspect of science can be introduced early on to be able to foster awareness of spiritual existence as a fundamental foundation that goes beyond the limitations of interpretation in the form of religious doctrines and the limitations of particular science and influenced by secularism, so that it can form humans in a complete awareness and ready to face modernity and globalization that reduces human nature. Keywords: Al-Hikmah AlMuta’aliyah, Epistemology, Existential, Mulla Sadra, Spiritual

Scientific reasoning and argumentation (SRA) are complex thinking skills enabling students to evaluate, generate, and use information that helps to understand and solve scientific and societal challenges. Unlike in hard sciences and history education, teaching SRA in psychology education is understudied. This is problematic as SRA-skills are highly discipline-specific and can help students to cope with the characteristics of psychology as ill-structured and nonparadigmatic discipline. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory study was to identify key issues in teaching SRA in psychology education. Fifteen secondary psychology teachers participated in three focus groups. An inductive thematic analysis identified three key themes which show that (1) teachers' ambitions for psychology education, (2) the ways in which teachers understand SRA, and (3) teachers' epistemological beliefs, help to understand the reported difficulties in teaching SRA in psychology. The strong epistemological dimension of SRA was not easily recognized by teachers, nor did teachers refer to epistemological criteria when discussing assessment criteria, making it difficult for teachers to see how to assess SRA. The study indicates that teachers’ epistemological beliefs (e.g. psychology is vague and subjective) may explain this difficulty. The results can serve as starting point for further research on SRA in psychology education.

Integrating ethical principles into curricula is crucial for nurturing moral development among students. This study explores the foundational role of Islamic epistemology in shaping knowledge acquisition and ethical conduct. The study investigates ethical curriculum practices in Islamic education through a qualitative research approach combining literature review and content analysis. Islamic epistemology, rooted in Quranic revelations, Prophetic traditions, and scholarly interpretations, delineates knowledge's sources and ethical dimensions. Islamic scholars distinguish between revealed and acquired knowledge, with revelation serving as the cornerstone. The Quran and Hadith provide guidance on faith, morality, and conduct, complemented by reason ('aql/عقل) for critical inquiry and ethical discernment. Drawing from the synthesis of revelation and reason, Islamic ethics guides individual conduct, social interactions, and environmental stewardship. Ethical curriculum development entails integrating Islamic values across academic disciplines, facilitated by pedagogical approaches such as experiential learning, cooperative inquiry, and Socratic dialogue. Challenges including curricular alignment, teacher training, and cultural sensitivity exist, yet ethical curriculum development rooted in Islamic epistemology offers opportunities to cultivate ethical consciousness and foster global citizenship. Upholding methodological rigor and ethical considerations ensures validity and reliability, respecting diverse cultural and religious perspectives. This study underscores the need for further research and collaboration to advance ethical education practices grounded in Islamic principles, responsive to evolving learner needs and fostering ethical leadership in an interconnected world.

African indigenous knowledge (AIK) for environmental management and sustainable development: the role of Yoruba epistemology

ABSTRACT Consider reading the news about the recent election, taking part in a classroom discussion about injustice, or having a conversation about dinner, with your friend. In these cases, you rely on your capacity for linguistic understanding. How do we come to understand what other people communicate to us on particular occasions? In recent philosophical debates about this question, we find two broad approaches: the perceptual approach, which claims that we come to understand an utterance by employing broadly perceptual capacities to perceive or quasi-perceive the utterance’s meaning; and the inferential approach, which claims that we come to understand an utterance by employing broadly inferential capacities to infer what is being conveyed by an utterance. This paper focuses on the debates concerning these two approaches. We provide conceptual and methodological clarifications regarding linguistic understanding and introduce some of the key philosophical debates concerning its nature, including those concerning its phenomenology and underlying psychology, with a focus on the role of perception and inference. We also discuss some epistemological questions concerning the understanding of linguistic utterances and different views that try to explain its epistemological role(s). This paper is an introduction to the special issue ‘Linguistic Understanding: Perception and Inference’.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is evident that so-called Western philosophy is undergoing a shift in both its objects of thought and its epistemological role. This shift is visible from within the discipline itself, through what it does or does not legitimize as a philosophical concept, and it reveals the power dynamics embedded in some of these supposedly universal concepts. In this way, debates on race, gender, migration, and environmental justice are unfolding within a broader inquiry into the meaning of philosophy and what it is to practice it in France. Today, one of the blind spots of the philosophical tradition is a knot reflected in the political history of race—that is to say, in the very conditions that shape how we in France think about political issues tied to slavery, colonization, migration, discrimination, and racism, and which postcolonial and anti-colonial studies now call upon us to examine. Through a reading of Étienne Tassin’s latest works, this essay proposes to discuss two issues. The first concerns the role of political action in considering the effectiveness of a truly common world, still embedded in this history. The second is on a decolonization of philosophy, that is, of a politics of philosophy proposing to reclaim every concept that has become abstract, disembodied, and detached from any historical or political grounding.

Introduction. The article contrasts the religious-philosophical views of the two major representatives of presuppositional apologetics: Gordon H. Clark and Cornelius Van Til. Content. The article examines the main differences in the related apologetic presuppositional systems created by G. H. Clark and K. Van Til. Existing English-language studies on the topic by G. Bansen and G. Crapton are taken into account. Similarities between the systems, existing due to their common presuppositional nature, are summarized. Differences in attitudes to positive proofs for the existence of God are considered. Discrepancies in views on the relationship between God's knowledge and man's knowledge and on logic as a discipline are taken into account. Peculiarities in the attitude to the role of epistemology in apologetics and in philosophy in general are analyzed. Conclusions. Clark's and Van Til's views bear a common presuppositional character. Clark's presuppositionism has a more pronounced character. Van Til did not deem presuppositionism to be the sole acceptable Christian type of apologetics, was more skeptical regarding the abilities of the human mind and gave less value to the role of epistemology.

This article shows that the stigmatizing cultural view of menstruation affects the production of medical-scientific knowledge about this phenomenon and that, concomitantly, medical-scientific knowledge reinforces the taboo and cultural stigma that weighs on menstruating bodies. The roots of the idea of ​​menstruation as an essential defining attribute of femininity and of the characterization of the feminine as inferior in natural and social terms in medical, protoscientific and Western scientific discourse are exposed. The role of feminist epistemology and menstrual activism is characterized in pointing out androcentric and sexist biases in the production of medical-scientific knowledge that reinforce and reproduce these discriminatory meanings about menstruating bodies. Reasons are offered in favor of including the concept of “active production of ignorance” to this field of analysis in order to strengthen our understanding of the epistemic mechanisms that are at play in the medical-scientific reproduction of menstrual taboo and stigma.

In the development of contemporary epistemology, the evolving research focus of virtue epistemology has shifted towards the rational virtue that generates knowledge, thereby deepening our understanding of the essence of knowledge. Sosa's moral perspective is particularly prominent, skillfully blending the essence of internalism and externalism. Sosa not only retained the emphasis of internalism on the "controllability" of the internal state of the knower, but also absorbed the viewpoint of externalism that emphasizes the close connection between knowledge and the external world. This dual perspective of internal and external cultivation not only enhances the inclusiveness of its theory, but also significantly improves its ability to explain complex knowledge phenomena, opening up new avenues for resolving the long-standing internal and external disputes. Furthermore, Sosa's holistic approach fosters a comprehensive view of epistemic virtue, seamlessly integrating personal introspection with environmental interaction, thereby enriching contemporary debates and fostering a deeper, more nuanced understanding of knowledge acquisition.

The research is devoted to the analysis of the problem of cognition in the work of the 20th century Russian philosopher Vasily Sesemann (1884-1963). A number of circumstances concerning his life and work influenced the fact that to this day his works remain little known. Domestic philosopher spoke several languages; his scientific works were written in Russian, German and Lithuanian. The article provides an detailed overview of Sesemann's main works on epistemological issues; it is substantiated that the problem of cognition in the work of the Russian thinker occupies a highly significant position. An analysis of his approaches to solving epistemological issues, in particular the problem of pure knowledge, allows us to see the strong links between the elements of his philosophical system (epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of culture). Sesemann's focus on understanding knowledge in general, his critical attitude towards the positivist position on the superiority of natural science methodology is demonstrated by the persistent inclusion of questions about moral, aesthetic and religious cognition in works devoted to epistemological issues. This emphasises not only the key role of epistemology in the system of Sesemann’s philosophy, but also the importance of problems related to the spiritual and moral realm. The foundation of epistemological issues in ontology and the consistency in the application of the anthropological approach in the interpretation of knowledge gives its position depth and creates the unity of the philosophical system. The connection between various areas of philosophy is carried out, among other things, through such cornerstone concepts as: attitude, objective and non-objective, rational and irrational, reflexivity, temporality, consciousness, self-awareness, which are the conceptual framework of Sesemann’s entire philosophy.