Implicit Presuppositions Research Articles

Labour Values and Production Prices in Joint Production

In this article, we show that in joint production, both labour values and production prices are positive but not unambiguously determined. Usually, the former is determined under the implicit presupposition that labour productivity in the production of each commodity is the same in all production processes that produce this commodity, and the latter is determined under the indirect presupposition that the capital productivity in the production of each commodity is the same in all production processes, with the consequence that this also applies to the maximum profit rate. This presupposition is equivalent to a transformation of joint into single production—not in the ‘space’ of material quantities but in that of corresponding nominal quantities in terms of labour values or production prices, respectively. The same presupposition is not only arbitrary but also, in the case of separable technique, contradicts the technical data of the given production technique. The same applies to the above transformation of joint into simple production, which is made possible under this presupposition. Consequently, either no theory of joint production based on nominal quantities is possible, or, when it is possible, it is based on an arbitrary and, in some cases, contradictory presupposition. JEL Codes: B50, B51, B59

The system model of argumentation in a comparative study of texts by Kant and Solovyov

There is a noteworthy methodological approach which is based on the system model of argumentation (SMA) proposed by V.N. Bryushinkin. Argumentation theory is used to reconstruct the implicit presuppositions of philosophical systems or their fragments. The results of a comparative analysis of philosophical and legal texts by Immanuel Kant and Vladimir Solovyov are presented as well as the reconstruction of their world models performed by Bryushinkin using the SMA. A summary is given of Bryushinkin’s reconstruction of Kant’s and Solovyov’s arguments concerning the law of retribution (the death penalty). The SMA methodology is shown to highlight differences between the views of the two philosophers on the death penalty, rooted in variations between their world models. Bryushinkin’s reconstruction of the world models of Kant and Solovyov, based on fragments of their texts on specific problems of the philosophy of law (punishment and retribution, the death penalty), provides insights into their fundamental ideas on relations between society and the individual and the values underlying these relations. The SMA seems an elegant and rational methodological tool for philosophical text interpretation. We introduce the concepts of world model and philosophical thinking style to describe unique ways to express meanings in a text.

Inclusivism, Perspectivism and Pluralistic Tendencies in the History of Indian Culture

This article provides a survey of approaches and conceptual means elaborated in recent decades in the studies of pluralistic tendencies in Indian culture. The concepts of inclusivism, perspectivism, antologizing and polyphony are discussed in a close relation with the specific context in which they were introduced, as well as with the implicit presuppositions of the scholars who elaborated them. In particular, the interpretations of inclusivism introduced by Paul Hacker and Gerhard Oberhammer were inextricably intertwined with the views on Indian religions these scholars developed. The concept of perspectivism was introduced in a philosophical context, mainly with respect to Bhartṛhari’s and Jaina philosophy. Antologizing and polyphony can be characterized as a more cautious way to conceptualize pluralistic tendencies in Indian traditional discourse, because they focus on narrative strategies that enable expressing alternative views in the frames of a single text. From a historical point of view pluralistic tendencies might be stipulated by the diverse social reality in Ancient India where heterogeneous cultural phenomena coexisted in a process of mutual reinterpretation and adaptation. Another possible presupposition of perspectivism could be the cyclic concept of time that was predominant in Indian traditional discourse. In Indian intellectual systems pluralistic practices were usually legitimized with the view that there are different levels of truth. Though instances of inclusivism can be discovered in the cultures of different regions, it was in India that inclusivism became a dominant trend in the cultural history.

The Theological Lineage of N. T. Wright’s Historical Method

In this article the author examines the historiographical methodology of N.T. Wright. The author claims that Wright employs the methods of “critical realism” in an attempt to retain metaphysical and theological neutrality in his historiographical writing. However, the author argues that Wright’s reception of critical realism, from Meyer and Lonergan, ignores implicit theological presuppositions within the critical realist approach that make it unsuitable for this very task from the outset.

Uncertainty Promotes Neuroreductionism: A Behavioral Online Study on Folk Psychological Causal Inference from Neuroimaging Data

Introduction: Increased efforts in neuroscience try to understand mental disorders as brain disorders. In the present study, we investigate how common a neuroreductionist inclination is among highly educated people. In particular, we shed light on implicit presuppositions of mental disorders little is known about in the public, exemplified here by the case of body integrity dysphoria (BID) that is considered a mental disorder for the first time in ICD-11. Methods: Identically graphed, simulated data of mind-brain correlations were shown in 3 contexts with presumably different presumptions about causality. 738 highly educated lay people rated plausibility of causality attribution from the brain to mind and from mind to the brain for correlations between brain structural properties and mental phenomena. We contrasted participants’ plausibility ratings of causality in the contexts of commonly perceived brain lesion-induced behavior (aphasia), behavior-induced training effects (piano playing), and a newly described mental disorder (BID). Results: The findings reveal the expected context-dependent modulation of causality attributions in the contexts of aphasia and piano playing. Furthermore, we observed a significant tendency to more readily attribute causal inference from the brain to mind than vice versa with respect to BID. Conclusion: In some contexts, exemplified here by aphasia and piano playing, unidirectional causality attributions may be justified. However, with respect to BID, we critically discuss presumably unjustified neuroreductionist inclinations under causal uncertainty. Finally, we emphasize the need for a presupposition-free approach in psychiatry.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in the Czech public service media during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract This paper focuses on Sinophobia which is usually not expressed openly in the public service media. The Sinophobia discourse intensified in 2020 in connection with the coverage of the pandemic. How are anti-Chinese attitudes expressed in the news discourse of the Czech Radio and Czech Television? Examples from a broader analysis of the representation of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic in news and journalism programmes are given. Inductive qualitative research methods (discourse and semiotic analysis) were used to detect subtle nuances of meaning and reveal implicit presuppositions. This study focuses on the manifestations of bias, e.g., the ideologically grounded attitudes of the speakers. The anti-Chinese statements (about poor hygiene habits and eating wild animals) were most often mentioned in connection with the origin of the coronavirus, vaccination, and China expansive policy. Sinophobic messages were built on the opposition of Us and Them, which is, according to van Dijk (2000), the core of new racism. In spite of the fact that the open hate speech and systematic bias (intentional implications, obvious evaluation or signposting) were not found in the researched sample, the analysis identified the presence of Sinophobic statements in both public service media.

„Du musst nur die Laufrichtung ändern“ Bemerkungen anlässlich Winfried Schröders Atheismus. Fünf Einwände und eine Frage

Main aim of the paper is to propose a slightly different version of negative atheism. Assuming that the debate between theists and atheists cannot be decided by arguments, it explores the limited role of arguments in the philosophy of religion. By analysing some presuppositions made by different authors in this debate, I try to show that most arguments have their specific force only in presupposed contexts settled by a set of explicit or implicit presuppositions of different kinds. This observation permits to develop the idea of a kind of negative atheism, which not only has simply no opinion concerning Gods’ existence, but simply rejects the question if God exists: It might be reasonable to assume that some of the presuppositions of this question are not fulfilled.

Transcendence and Immanence in Contemporary Psychotherapies: Trends, Tensions, and Treatment

Psychotherapies, beginning with psychoanalysis, came of age in the waning years of the modern age. As our world has been turned by a new paradigm we call the postmodern critique, psychotherapy theory and practice along with all disciplines, changed and developed within this new paradigm. For millennia, cultures were guided by imbedded implicit presuppositions that held in dialectic tension the parallel realities of transcendence and immanence. The progressive rejection of transcendence over the last seventy years has collapsed the dialectic, and has radically and absolutely altered the course of human history. The loss of transcendence has denuded psychotherapy of nearly all vestiges of human understanding that claim to be lawful, universal, or absolute. This paper will explore the current presuppositions, theory, and practice of psychotherapy, and beckon psychotherapists who are Christians to renew their affirmation of and reliance upon a fully orbed treatment approach.

Formal Argument that Contract Meaning Depends on Linguistic Cooperation

In Pseudo-Contract and Shared Meaning Analysis, Professor Radin and I recently drew on contemporary insights into meaning, pioneered by Paul Grice, to develop a contemporary approach to contract interpretation — “shared meaning analysis” — which is adapted to modern circumstances. Part of our argument for using shared meaning analysis rested on the claim that when interpreting contracts, “the primary search is for a common meaning of the parties” — as the Restatement (Second) of Contracts puts the point. When identifying this common meaning, we argued that courts and parties implicitly rely on presuppositions of linguistic cooperation in ways that often go unrecognized. We suggested that the dependence of contract meaning on linguistic cooperation is pervasive and practically ineliminable. But some tests for contract interpretation, which are repeated more from habit than careful thought, have begun to delink contract meaning from the common meaning of the parties. This brief essay separates out and develops a detailed formal argument for the proposition that contract meaning depends on linguistic cooperation. Following Grice, I define “sentence meaning” as the meaning that a competent speaker of a language would attribute to a sentence independent of any knowledge of its occasion of use. I define “speaker meaning” as the meaning that a speaker intends to convey to another person within an interpersonal conversation, which often depends upon both parties relying on implicit presuppositions of linguistic cooperation. Building on these distinctions (but also departing from both in some ways), Professor Radin and I have offered a contemporary definition of the “shared meaning” of a contract. It is the meaning that the parties produced and actually agreed to based on the presupposition that both were using language cooperatively to contract. The purpose of this essay is to establish just how pervasive and practically ineliminable the presupposition of linguistic cooperation is to derive pervasive and uncontroversial aspects of contract meaning. Neither contemporary “objective” nor long-rejected “subjective” approaches to interpretation are getting contract interpretation perfectly right in some contemporary settings.

Education and philosophy in R. F. Holland’s Against Empiricism: A reassessment

In his 1980 book Against Empiricism: On Education, Epistemology and Value, British philosopher R. F. Holland (1923–2013) exposes the inadequacies of a philosophy of education originating from an empiricist worldview. By following Plato’s view that the issue of what qualifies as knowledge has to be understood with reference to whether it is teachable, Holland’s critique of empiricism highlights the social and communal dimensions of education. The primary objective of this paper is to offer a reassessment of Holland’s thoughts on education and value. To do so, I first discuss Holland’s use of Plato’s ideas in his article ‘Epistemology and Education’ to demonstrate that Holland’s position can offer us a fruitful way to diagnose common, prevalent educational practices. I then turn to look at Holland’s views on value and morality. To illustrate how his thoughts on education can be seen to be relevant to the contemporary world, I explore and criticize some implicit presuppositions on knowledge in the 2011 box-office hit Limitless. The conceptual dimension of Holland’s take on education is then examined alongside with some recent trends in epistemology and philosophy of education.

Semantics and the sacred

ABSTRACTThis article looks at four different scholarly perspectives on ‘sacred’ – the ineffable sacred, the experienced sacred, the polarized sacred and the contextualized sacred – in order to draw out their implicit presuppositions about meaning. The first two stances presuppose that meaning depends on what bits of language are about (referentialism), and the other two stances presuppose that meaning depends on relations between bits of language (holism). The article concludes three things: these prominent views of ‘sacred’ rest on usually implicit or unrecognized assumptions about the nature of meaning; some of those assumptions explain why certain theories are contentious and problematic and others ground more promising and productive approaches.

Facts and values in psychotherapy-A critique of the empirical reduction of psychotherapy within evidence-based practice.

This paper addresses an implicit presupposition in research-supported psychological treatments and evidence-based practice in psychology. It argues that the notion of research-supported psychological treatments is based on a reductive conceptualisation of psychotherapy. Research-supported psychological treatments hinge upon an empirical reduction where psychotherapy schools become conceptualized as mere collections of empirical propositions. However, this paper argues that the different psychotherapy schools have distinct ethoses that are constituted by normative claims. Consequently, the evaluation of the different psychotherapy schools and the practice of psychotherapy should include the underlying normative claims of these ethoses.

Scale Effects in Moral Relevance Assessment.

Research on moral judgment often employs bipolar rating scales to assess whether the difference between two contrasted options is judged to be morally relevant. We give an account of how different numbers of response options provided on such scales (odd vs. even) change the meaning of the test question by communicating different implicit presuppositions. We demonstrate experimentally that these changes can qualitatively affect the moral relevance judgments that subjects express in response to a given judgment problem. Several alternative explanations in terms of trivial measurement distortion are tested and refuted, and we present suggestive evidence as to what kind of factors might be prone to scale effects. The findings underscore that expressed moral judgments are constructed ad hoc and do not necessarily reflect the content of underlying stable moral commitments. We discuss implications for theories and methodology in moral psychology and in judgment and decision-making research more generally.

Value Policy: Conceptual Interpretation of Research Practices

Background/Objectives: Today the problem of increasing the efficiency of policy management is extremely urgent. Former administrative practices often do not provide desired results; hence there is the need to find new management approaches. Method/Statistical Analysis: Conceptual interpretation of research practices related to the study of value policy is based on a methodological reflection, which is aimed at understanding scientists' research actions and revealing hidden, implicit presuppositions of scientific knowledge. Methodological reflection is the external reflection existing as a condition and means of analysis of a specific research activity. Findings: In general, the content of value policy based on public values can be summarized as follows: 1) an effective governance should be based on collective public values and generating in the society the most significant of them; 2) public values must be legitimate, i.e., approved by both politicians and the general public in the process of social dialogue; 3) the efficient use of public values in the policy should be constantly monitoring; 4) state and public organizations should understand, articulate and review, if required, public values. The basic principles of value policy based on humanitarian technologies are publicity, axiologiness, subjectivity and humanitarism. Applications/Improvements: In the research practices related to the study of value policy such methodological principles as interpretationism, indeterminacy, contextualism, pragmatism and pluralism should be further studied.

Editing a Discourse, Not a Text: Meta-Methodological Remarks on an Editorial Endeavour

AbstractWhereas in literary studies poststructuralist theory (e. g. deconstruction, discourse analysis, broad concepts of intertextuality, ›Death of the Author‹-claims and several versions of anti-intentionalism) has had – and still has – a massive impact on practices ofHowever, within my contribution I will outline an entirely different approach by asking the question: If we actually decided to give up on author-centricity in scholarly editing and radically rejected authors’ intentions as well as authors’ single or collected works as objects of textual scholarship, could the yet unrealized project of ›editing a discourse‹ or ›discourse edition‹ work as a complement, an extension, or a replacement of traditional editions?To make this clear: So far there is no such thing as a discourse edition, so I cannot give aOne of the underlying ideas of this article is to confront contemporary edition philology (textual scholarship) – which is oriented towards categories like author, work, or text – with a ›foil‹ for contrast specifically invented for the purpose to show quite plainly that those leading categories scholarly editorial work is based on are anything but self-evident and without any alternatives but in the end rather contingent (namely uponI designed a meta-philological thought experiment to exemplify exactly this and I will thereby reveal a discipline-specific methodological ›blindness‹, irritate seemingly unproblematic habitual ways of thinking and thus uncover a deficit of reasoning and self-reflection in the field. Basically, I will clarify some implicit (categorial and methodological) presuppositions of scholarly editing and thereby uncover some aspects of the (invisible) normative framework underlying editorial practices.Firstly, I will clarifySecondly, I will askWhen I will have shown that a discourse edition can actually beFinally, I will briefly consider the question of

„Radikali“ abejonė Descartes’o filosofijoje

Descartes’o kūriniai paprastai laikomi takoskyra tarp scholastinės ir Naujųjų laikų filosofijos. Vyrauja nuostata, kad šiuose kūriniuose pristatytas ir praktikuojamas radikalios abejonės metodas atveria naujus minties horizontus – leidžia pasiekti neabejotiną tikrumą, laikantis „pirmojo asmens perspektyvos“ ir nesiremiant iš principo nepatikrinamomis prielaidomis apie suvokiančio subjekto santykį su suvokimo objektais. Straipsnyje mėginama parodyti, kad toks požiūris į kartezinę filosofiją yra gana paviršutiniškas. Įdėmesniam žvilgsniui atsiskleidžia tiek „eksplicistinės“, tiek „implicistinės“ Descartes’o presupozicijos, kurios, praktikuojant radikaliąją abejonę, lieka jo nekvestionuotos ir, maža to, ilgainiui įtvirtinamos kaip fundamentalūs pasaulėžiūriniai principai ar racionalios mąstysenos normos.

Editorial: Decision-making experiments under a philosophical analysis: human choice as a challenge for neuroscience.

Editorial: Decision-making experiments under a philosophical analysis: human choice as a challenge for neuroscience.

Sur les Notions d'Usage chez Wittgenstein et Heidegger

Use | Meaning | Understanding | Language Game | Dasein | Sign | Instrument/Tool | Aspect | Seeing-As | Wittgenstein | Heidegger | استعمال | دلالة | فهم | لعبة لغة | دزاين | علامة | آداة | بعد | فيتجنشتاين | هيدجر | Usage | Signification | Comprendre | Jeu De Langage | Dasein | Signe | Instrument/Outil | Aspect | Voir-Comme | Wittgenstein | Heidegger

Three Criticisms of Newton’s Inductive Argument in the Principia

In this paper, I discuss how Newton’s inductive argument of the Principia can be defended against criticisms leveled against it by Duhem, Popper and myself. I argue that Duhem’s and Popper’s criticisms can be countered, but mine cannot. It requires that we reconsider, not just Newton’s inductive argument in the Principia, but also the nature of science more generally. The methods of science, whether conceived along inductivist or hypothetico-deductivist lines, make implicit metaphysical presuppositions which rigorously require us to make them explicit within science so that they can be critically assessed, alternatives being developed and assessed, in the hope that they can be improved. Despite claiming to derive his law of gravitation by induction from phenomena without resource to hypotheses, Newton does nevertheless acknowledge in the Principia that his rules of reasoning make metaphysical presuppositions. To this extent, Newton has a more enlightened view of scientific method than most 20th and 21st century scientists and historians and philosophers of science.

O desenvolvimento da autocompreensão em posturas pedagógicas: explicitando o implícito entre os novos docentes

Em sua prática docente inicial, os professores universitários geralmente vivenciam dificuldades relacionadas a como promover a aprendizagem dos alunos (por exemplo, como planejar uma aula, usar os recursos pedagógicos e avaliar a aprendizagem). A maneira como os novos professores enfrentam e abordam essas dificuldades afeta a evolução de suas carreiras acadêmicas e o modo como eles usam diversos referenciais para refletir sobre suas práticas de ensino. Levando em conta que algumas dessas dificuldades ainda não são suficientemente compreendidas, este trabalho tem por objetivo analisá-las por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa. Para tanto, foram adotadas várias técnicas de coleta de dados e fontes (professores, estudantes e pesquisadora) ao longo de um ano letivo. Os resultados evidenciam as dificuldades explícitas reconhecidas pelos docentes em relação ao seu ensino. Além disso, os dados apontaram também para as dificuldades que permaneceram implícitas, sugerindo que elas podem ser particularmente resistentes à autocompreensão, pois estão relacionadas ao desejo interior dos docentes de ordem e previsibilidade em seu ensino. O artigo conclui sugerindo possíveis formas de melhorar tais pressupostos implícitos.