Epistemological Nature Research Articles

Norms, Reasons, and Anthropological Naturalism

This article addresses the two most important areas of potential conflict between inferentialism and naturalism, namely normativity and rationality. Concerning the first, it sides with inferentialism, while at the same time developing a normativist position less vulnerable to naturalistic objections. There is nothing problematic or mysterious about semantic normativity or normativity in general. But one needs to distinguish different types of normativity and recognize that statements of norms can be perfectly truth-apt. Concerning the second area of conflict, my verdict is partly naturalistic. It rejects overly intellectualist accounts of the normative practices that underlie meaning and content. The article ends with a plea for an ‘anthropological’ naturalism that eschews both ontological supernaturalism and epistemological naturalism.

A mámoron és az igézeten túl

As an introduction to a special, thematic issue, the author reviews four possible analytic approach to information history centered view of lists. The microhistory explanation (1), a tipology-driven, time-sensitive contextualization (through melting the given type of list with similar ones, extending the scope to other information managing objects, actors and institutions of a given age (2), the macrohistory framing, when we try to insert the list into different sets of trendlines and trajectories (3), and a group of content-oriented, functional, structural points of views, reviving the epistemological nature of list-making, regarding to different societies, cultures and situations (4).After speculating on the validity and possible significance of a substantive and dedicated ‘science of lists’, the author summarizes the aspects, which can be devoted to specially information history-related dissections.

“The Right to Your City”: A Project of the Epistemological Urban Studies

Within the framework of a new interdisciplinary scientific scientific field – epistemological urbanism – the authors develop the idea of the human right to their city and show the epistemological nature of this right, which is explained by the fact that it is conditioned by the processes of cognition and scientific communication. Three main provisions are substantiated. Firstly, the city is an intelligent system. “The right to your city” is a specific right to scientific and intellectual production and consumption. Such a right is not realized in every locality designated as a city, but only where there are conditions for intellectual dynamics – where art, education and science are developing. Secondly, the intellectual system of the city has autonomy. Each city has its own intellectual resource. Realizing the right to their city, citizens are involved in the activity of the city's scientific and intellectual autonomy. In other words, a city where there are opportunities to realize the “right to the city” generates an autonomous scientific school or a set of scientific schools. Thirdly, cities (we are talking only about those cities where the right to their own city is realizable) how research centers form a scientific network. Not a scientific consortium with common ideas and goals, but a network based on the principles of proliferation. The authors insist on the decentralization of science not for the purpose of its enclavization, but for the purpose of developing the potential, multi-vector and intellectual self-realization of urban communities themselves. It is shown that the development of science as a whole (at the global or state levels) can be ensured by the heterogeneity of science itself (in this case, due to the development of urban universities): integration and differentiation give rise to an integration scientific and communicative process.

PANORAMA DA PEDAGOGIA NO BRASIL: CIÊNCIA, CURSO E PROFISSÃO

ABSTRACT: After completing eighty-three years of existence in Brazil, Pedagogy stands out among the undergraduate courses with the highest number of students in the country. Despite its contribution over all these decades concerning the training of educators and studies related to education in general, its historical trajectory is marked by intense disputes around its training purposes. Based on the understanding that the definition of the profile of graduates of a higher education course must be traced in dialogue with the epistemological nature of the scientific areas that configure it and the demands of the social and educational field, this article sought to analyze aspects of the course’s historical trajectory at the interface with the production of pedagogical knowledge in the country. From this perspective, it begins with a conceptual discussion about education as a social phenomenon and Pedagogy as a science that has it as an object of study. This study also analyzed the course’s historical trajectory and pedagogical thinking in Brazil and problematizes the (dis)place of Pedagogy in the scenario of Brazilian graduate studies.

The Writings: Job-Sirach

The WritingsJob-Sirach Thomas Hieke, Christopher T. Begg, and Fred W. Guyette Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary 536. [Nature and Creation in OT Wisdom Literature] Markus Saur, "Dynamische Ordnung: Natur und Schöpfung zwischen physis und ṣædæq," JBTh 34 (2019) 65-90. S. examines the relationship between nature and creation in Hebrew Bible wisdom literature. He bases his considerations on a comparison between the Greek lexeme φύσις and the Hebrew lexeme (ṣdq, ṣedeq). The Hebrew term ṣedeq corresponds in parts of its semantic spectrum to a concept which can be observed in pre-Socratic philosophical traditions, especially in some fragments of Heraclitus. The terms φύσις and ṣedeq do not seem to be expressions of a static ontology and the concepts associated with them do not reflect an understanding of the world as an immovable cosmos. φύσις and ṣedeq rather serve to describe change and process as the constituents of a dynamic reality. The idea of a cosmic order, which is fundamental for Hebrew Bible wisdom literature, must therefore be understood as a dynamic order; and the lexeme ṣedeq has to be interpreted in this sense. See also ##599, 698. [Adapted from published abstract—T.H.] Google Scholar 537. [Revelation in Wisdom Literature] Annette Schellenberg, "'Wisdom Cries Out in the Street' (Prov 1:20): On the Role of Revelation in Wisdom Literature and the Relatedness and Differences between Sapiential and Prophetic Epistemologies," Scribes as Sages and Prophets, 157-73 [see #792]. In her essay, S. explored how the three undisputed wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible (Proverbs, Qoheleth, and Job) deal with different types of revelation. Starting from the traditional distinction between natural epistemology connected with wisdom literature on the one hand and the revelatory epistemology of prophetic texts on the other, S. follows a track laid out by the revelatory terminology used in both prophetic and wisdom texts in the Hebrew Bible. The conclusion she draws from her investigation is that both types of epistemology can be found in both types of texts. Both assume that human beings are capable of perception, reflection, and knowledge drawn from experience. However, wisdom literature, like prophetic literature, also allows for the possibility of a supernatural source of insight, knowledge that is directly revealed by God. At the same time, the two corpora do evidence some differences regarding their respective epistemological orientations. See also #546. [Adapted from editor's introduction—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 538. [Maśśāʾ; the Confluence of Wisdom and Prophecy] Mark Sneed, "Inspired Sages: Massaʾ and the Confluence of Wisdom and Prophecy," Scribes as Sages and Prophets, 15-32 [see #792]. S. argues that the use of the term maśśāʾ in the sayings of Agur (Proverbs 31) and in the last—and presumably latest—writings in the Book of the Twelve (Zechariah, Malachi) [End Page 179] signals the final stage in an developing mixture of prophetic and sapiential thought, for which he uses the term "confluence." In developing his thesis regarding the relationship of these traditions, S. makes reference to the slightly different theories of David Carr and Karel van der Toorn on the emergence of the Hebrew Bible in antiquity. [Adapted from editor's introduction—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 539. [The Representation of the Divine in the Book of Job; Job 42:5] Jean-Daniel Macchi, "'Mais maintenant mon oeil t'a vu: Job et la représentation du divin," Représenter des dieux et hommes, 271-84 [see #802]. My article seeks to show that the Book of Job exhibits many similarities with Greek tragedies. The book's main section consists of dialogues and monologues written in verse and spoken by a limited numbers of characters. Job's incomprehensible and tragic destiny is similar to that of the heroes of Greek tragedy. In addition, the poem about wisdom in Job 28 can be understood as the intervention of a chorus comparable to those found in Greek tragedies. This poetic chapter marks the dividing point between the book's two main parts, i.e., the dialogue between Job and his friends (chaps. 3–27) and...

Intellectual Virtue and the Epistemological Nature of Medical Evidence

This article examines the problem of defining the epistemological nature of evidence in modern medicine through its two interrelated aspects — bias in the collection of data in randomized controlled trials and personal bias of the physician — which form part of the general bias problem in various professional fields. This problem is widely discussed today in the medical community, in which there is no unanimity in understanding what grounds for making the correct clinical decision are considered decisive — randomized controlled trials or the doctor's own clinical experience. In this article, it is interpreted from the point of view of the modern epistemology of virtues, which makes it possible to raise the question of the doctor's responsibility not from the position of professional deontological morality, but from the point of view of intellectual virtue. The virtuous nature of the medical profession lies in the ability of the subject to make responsible clinical decisions in the course of the cognitive process and to find the optimal balance between standardized protocols for diagnosis, prevention and treatment and their own clinical experience, which makes an individualized approach to each individual medical history possible. A standardized approach requires the “grafting” of the hermeneutic experience expressed in a general theory of understanding and interpretation. Against the background of a decrease in the level of social trust in the medical community, the substantiation of individualizing standardization as a methodologically productive way of integrating various cognitive practices is intended to help overcome the limiting abstraction of the epistemological subject in the classical epistemology of medicine and to recognize the productive-heuristic role of the doctor as a subject of cognition.

Harmony of Sustainability and Productivity: Korean Templestay as Sustainable Tourism

Achieving the three pillars of sustainable tourism development has long been debated in the literature. This study revealed that sustainability and productivity are not mutually exclusive, analyzing Templestay as part of Korea’s 1700-year-old cultural heritage. The study discussed the challenging case of fulfilling triple-bottom-line sustainable social, environmental, and economic requirements in tourism development. Templestay has enormous potential to be one of the competitive tourism products as a cultural resource, attracting visitors to local areas. The prosperity and potentiality of Templestay may offer insightful contexts to bridge the gap between a sustainable philosophy and destination productivity. The study suggests further research to investigate tourism’s ontological and epistemological nature in terms of sustainability and productivity.

Leader in law theory: in memory of Alexander Fedorovich Cherdantsev

The article is dedicated to the memory of Professor A.F. Cherdantsev, a well-known Russian legal theorist. In the focus are creative periods of the scientist's life. Particular attention is paid to his contribution to the development of legal science with the emphasis on law interpretation, scientists achievements in the field of investigating epistemological nature, values (principles) of interpretation of legal norms, formulation of linguistic, systemic and other rules. The author's contribution to the development of methodology of law and his criticism of the integrative approach in jurisprudence have also been illustrated. The article analyzes the scholars development of the legal norm doctrine, its structure, technical and legal regulations, etc. His contribution to the development of educational literature is separately considered and highly appreciated. The tribute is also given to his individual scientific papers. It is proposed to systematize and republish Professor Cherdantsevs works.

Our sisters the plants? notes from phylogenetics and botany on plant kinship blindness

ABSTRACT Before the upheaval brought about by phylogenetic classification, classical taxonomy separated living beings into two distinct kingdoms, animals and plants. Rooted in ‘naturalist’ cosmology, Western science has built its theoretical apparatus on this dichotomy mostly based on ancient Aristotelian ideas. Nowadays, despite the adoption of the Darwinian paradigm that unifies living organisms as a kinship, the concept of the “scale of beings” continues to structure our analysis and understanding of living species. Our aim is to combine developments in phylogeny, recent advances in biology, and renewed interest in plant agency to craft an interdisciplinary stance on the living realm. The lines at the origin of plant or animal have a common evolutionary history dating back to about 3.9 Ga, separating only 1.6 Ga ago. From a phylogenetic perspective of living species history, plants and animals belong to sister groups. With recent data related to the field of Plant Neurobiology, our aim is to discuss some socio-cultural obstacles, mainly in Western naturalist epistemology, that have prevented the integration of living organisms as relatives, while suggesting a few avenues inspired by practices principally from other ontologies that could help overcome these obstacles and build bridges between different ways of connecting to life.

Contributions of Motor Behavior to Physical Education: what has changed in the last 15 years?

This article aimed to continue with the reflections on the relationship between Motor Behavior as a field of investigation and Physical Education as an area of knowledge, seeking to analyze what changes have occurred in the last 15 years, regarding the challenges and suggestions formulated in an article that I have published in the Brazilian Journal of Motor Behavior’s first issue, in 2006. The analyzes carried out that were based on data extracted from publications throughout this period allow us to conclude that the picture has not had significant changes, particularly concerning the contribution of Motor Behavior researchers to a better definition of the academic identity of Physical Education, which is necessary for the proper contextualization of researches performed on motor behavior in the field. The results show the researchers' lack of interest in discussing more macroscopic themes of epistemological nature, concentrating on the publication of articles to increase their scientific productivity.

The Philosophy of History and New Testament History: A Survey of the Former with Some Implications for the Latter

Abstract This article surveys a selection of figures in the recent history of historiography with particular focus on their discussion of the nature of historical epistemology (including facts, evidence, and knowledge) and concludes with implications for New Testament history. Figures and works are selected for their representativeness of new thinking in the field at their time, their critique of prior thinking, and in some cases their reception/critique by representatives of that prior thinking. Specifically, I consider in varying depth the historical epistemology of E. H. Carr, G. R. Elton, Hayden White, Richard Evans, Frank Ankersmit, John Zammito, and Aviezer Tucker. These exemplars are considered in order to construct a landscape of traditional, postmodern, and post-postmodern philosophy of historical epistemology. The survey is selective, but the effect is dialectic; ending with recent post-positivist historical epistemology, I raise a number of considerations for thinking about New Testament history.

Engineering advice in policy making: a new domain of inquiry in evidence and policy

Background: Academic research on technical advice to policy commonly focuses on social and related policy areas such as health, education and crime (Oliver et al. 2014) and disciplinary advice from science disciplines (Jasanoff 1994; Millstone and van Zwanenberg 2001). Little or no prior research in the social sciences have explored engineering expertise in policy domains where such advice is critical (e.g. energy policy). Aims and objectives: We aim to establish ‘engineering advice’ as a new domain of inquiry by showing how civil servants view it as distinctive (from ‘science advice’), important and similar to policy making – implying it can clash or complement it. Methods: 18 qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of officials across a UK ministry were conducted by the authors (all but one of whom were civil servants) in 2012. The qualitative data were thematically coded to address the study aims. Findings: A majority of officials spontaneously identified engineering expertise as both distinctive and important for their work. There was clear evidence that it both complemented and clashed with policymaking. Discussion and conclusions: We identified a range of interactions that imply a need to consider styles of management internal deployment of experts within policy organisations as well as the implications for policy making and engineering expertise given the way practices overlap. Further research on the ontological, epistemological nature of engineering as it relates to policy making is needed if governments and therefore society are to fully benefit from engineering advice.

Knowledge, Power, and Technology

This article examines the epistemological nature, material forms, and social functions of zhentu (diagrams of troop formation) in the context of early Northern Song history. The first two sections contextualize the concept of zhentu in the new political and military institutions during this period. In the early Northern Song, the diagrams and geographic knowledge came to be incorporated into the imperial knowledge system in a more systematic manner. The third section divides the diagrams into two categories according to their forms and purposes: diagrams involving relative positions that were used for military training purposes, and diagrams combining topographical components that were used for military campaigns. The last section of the article discusses how the use of diagrams was intertwined in court debates. Their making and circulation demonstrate the changing power dynamics between the emperor and the court officials.

Феноменология жизненного мира и натуралистическая эпистемология

This paper aims to reveal parallels between the phenomenological concept of the life-world in Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the naturalistic epistemology of Gerhard Vollmer, in which a central concept is the mesocosmos (“world of medium size”). Such a comparison is necessary because the concepts of life-world and mesocosmos are quite similar in content, since they both refer to the human dimension of our world experience, to our natural position in the world. However, these concepts are far from identical. In Husserl’s case, the world of life is the world of pre-scientific experience taking place before scientific idealizations. According to Merleau-Ponty, the world of life is primarily a world of perceptual experience, in which I participate not as a subject of culture, but as an anonymous subject of perception, as a living perceptive body. Both philosophers call for a return to the life-world as a ground of scientific idealizations in order to overcome a crisis brought about by an excessive trust in scientific knowledge and “objectifying thinking”. In turn, Vollmer interprets the mesocosmos as a “world of medium size” that we can successfully explore due to the evolutionary adaptation of our cognitive abilities. This is our “ecological niche”, but while Husserl and Merleau-Ponty encourage us to return to this “cradle of humankind” to take root in it, Vollmer emphasizes that we are not bound to our ecological niche and can expand our knowledge both in the direction of the microworld and in the direction of the “world of mega scales”. He calls this process the objectification and deanthropomorphization of our picture of the world, and this is, in his view, the main trend of the development of scientific knowledge in its history, which is supported by the views of some prominent scientists of the 20th century.

A Formal Deductive Inference of the Law of Inertia in a Logically Formalized Axiomatic Epistemology System Sigma from the Assumption of Knowledge A-Priori-Ness

The general purpose of the research—systematical clarifying and explicating the too vague proper philosophical concepts of space, void, matter, motion, inertia, for making a logical harmony between them and the corresponding notions of proper physics. The special purpose of the research—invention (construction) of a formal inference of the well-known Newton’s first law of mechanics within a logically formalized axiomatic epistemology system from a set of precisely defined presumptions. For realizing this aim the following work has been done: a two-valued algebraic system of metaphysics as formal axiology has been applied to philosophical epistemology and philosophy of nature; a formal axiomatic theory called Sigma has been applied to physics for realizing the above-indicated special purpose of the research. Thus, constructing a discrete mathematical model of relationship between universal epistemology and philosophy of physics has been done. Research results: The main hitherto not published significantly new nontrivial scientific result of applied investigations presented in this article is a formal inference of the well-known Newton’s first law of mechanics within the formal axiomatic epistemology system Sigma from conjunction of the formal-axiological analog of the proper-law-of-mechanics (which analog is the formal-axiological law of two-valued algebra of metaphysics) and the assumption of a-priori-ness of knowledge. For obtaining this main research result, a set of accessory nontrivial novelties has been used, for instance; a precise algorithmic definition is given for the notion “law of metaphysics” in the algebraic system of metaphysics as formal axiology; a formal-axiological equivalence in the algebraic system is defined precisely. Precise tabular definitions are given for relevant evaluation-functions determined by evaluation-arguments, for example; “movement of (what, whom) x”; “speed of x”; “vector of x”; “velocity of x”; “magnitude of x”; “finiteness (definiteness) of x”; “dynamical closed-ness (isolated-ness) of x”; “constant-ness, immutability, conservation of x”.

Metaphysics and Realism

The article deals with the problem of the return of metaphysics within the framework of the ontological turn of philosophy and the situation of post-metaphysical thinking. The conditions for the possibility of modern metaphysical discourse in the projects of empirical metaphysics and historical ontology are revealed. Historical ontology as a meta-reflexion of philosophy over its own historical foundations is able to bridge the gap between the epistemological static nature of transcendental subjectivity and the ontological dynamism of the growth of scientific knowledge about reality by comprehending the conditions of interaction between science and metaphysics in conditions of post-metaphysical thinking and realistic reversal of ontology. Philosophical knowledge in the context of the ontological turn and the associated return of metaphysics becomes focused not so much on the sharp demarcation of science and metaphysics and postulating the incommensurability of their ontologies, but on identifying mutually enriching areas of research that could give a new impetus to their development.

Rethinking adult learning and education as global citizenship education: A conceptual model with implications for policy, practice and further research

This article provides a conceptual analysis of the two domains of global citizenship education and adult education and learning, along with their similarities and differences. It begins by unpacking the ambiguous and contested concept of global citizenship education and proposing a critical vision of it, within a global social justice framework. Against this backdrop, the article argues for re-conceptualizing adult education and learning as global citizenship education, instead of considering the latter to be one of the key issues of the former. Their structural link is grounded in their common epistemological nature. The domains are interlocked to the extent that both (1) promote active citizenship skills, (2) strive towards equality and social justice on a global level and (3) adopt a values-based approach and promote transformative learning. In conclusion, an original ‘Four-dimensions approach to adult education and learning as global citizenship education’ conceptual model is advanced potentially to inform policymakers, practitioners and researchers. The model is made up of four basic components of adult education and learning as global citizenship education, namely: aims and scope (what for), contents and skills (what), processes and pedagogies (how), actors and learning environments (who).

CONSTANTS OF ACADEMICIAN V.M. RUSANIVSKYI’S SCIENTIFIC STYLE

Rusanivskyi’s scientific works on grammar, lexicology, lexicography, spelling, history of Ukrainian literary language, sociolinguistics, as well as philosophy of language, theoretical and practical issues of Slavic studies represent the level of development of Ukrainian linguistics of the second half of XX – early XXI century. The overarching idea of the author’s research is the search for new aspects of language cognition due to the ontological and epistemological nature of this object. The first studies are devoted to the history of the Ukrainian language, namely the study of grammatical categories of type and time in the Ukrainian language of the XVI – XVII centuries. In the landmark work “Structure of the Ukrainian verb” on a large factual material, the researcher traced the structural changes (variance of the morpheme composition) of verbs in different time sections of the Ukrainian language. The most expressive among the constants of the linguist’s scientific style is attention and constant reference to lexical semantics, to the meaning of a word in a dictionary and in specific texts. The author traces and theoretically substantiates the tendencies of movement in the immanent semantic structure of the vocabulary of each natural language. It is this tendency that explains V.M. Rusanivskyi’s constant appeal to the structural-semantic analysis of T. Shevchenko’s dictionary of language, to the disclosure of the semantic depth of the word in his texts. Without claiming a comprehensive analysis of the constants of Rusanivskyi’s scientific style, we emphasize the heuristic value of the following authorial concepts: a) representation of grammatical categories of verbs as the unity of form and meaning of a language unit; b) the interaction of lexical and grammatical semantics at all levels of language structure; c) constructive interaction of functional and expressive styles in the history of literary language; d) the history of the formation of the literary norm of the Ukrainian language; e) development of the Ukrainian literary language in the context of system-structural, functional-communicative and extralingual factors.

'Epistemology Naturalized' and the Vienna Circle

This paper considers W.V.O. Quine's inauguration of naturalistic epistemology at the 14th International Congress of Philosophy in Vienna in 1969 and argues that, contrary to his suggestions, naturalistic epistemology was practiced in the Vienna Circle already back in the days when he visited them fresh out of graduate school.

TRANSFORMING SOUTH AFRICA’S UNIVERSITIES OF TECHNOLOGY: A ROADMAP THROUGH 4IR LENSES

Since their birth in the 6th century, universities have undergone different forms of transformations, especially of structural, ideological, and epistemological nature. Recently, the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has triggered a wave of such transformations and just like other industrial revolutions, university management ought to be cautious as such transformations could exacerbate existing inequalities between the rich and the poor students. To this end, a clear roadmap for such a transformation becomes critical. This is the contribution of this paper. We achieve this through a bibliometric analysis of the state of scientific research into the ‘university transformation’ topic, with a special focus on South Africa’s (RSA) context. The content of the identified scientific publications on RSA was further subjected to thematic analysis leading to the revelation that decolonisation, community engagement and structural transformation, are the main research themes. It also emerges that RSA universities have not embraced 4IR as a lens through which to pursue transformation. On the other hand, the RSA government launched the project: “Transformation at Public Universities” during the 2017/18 planning year. Subsequently, all universities in the country adopted and rolled out a customised transformation agenda. Among these universities, are the six universities of technology (UoTs), which, for historical reasons, the transformation project presents unique challenges and opportunities. Created slightly after the millennium, UoTs are still seen as critical role players in the third mission of universities, that of “achieving economic growth and social progress”. These findings, as wells as the existence of systemic exclusion, marginalisation, and discrimination (especially along racial lines) in RSA universities, defines our proposed roadmap. Using one of the UoTs and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the reference, the proposed university transformation roadmap is supported by empirical data on the assessment of the readiness of students to adopt 4IR technologies.