Metaphysical Issues Research Articles

What the States of Truthmaker Semantics Could (Not) Be

AbstractDevelopments in truthmaker semantics for the most part stay clear of the metaphysical issue of what sort of entities serve as the truthmakers and falsitymakers for sentences. It is assumed that perhaps facts or states of affairs (Fine 2017a; Jago 2020), with these taken sometimes as concrete particulars (Hawke 2018) could serve for the job, but nonetheless that some such entities would do. In this paper I take a closer look at the issue of what entities could or could not play the role of truthmakers and falsitymakers in standard truthmaker semantics (Fine 2016, 2017a, b; Fine and Jago 2019), based on desiderata imposed by metaphysical and semantic considerations.

AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND METAPHYSICS

ABSTRACT Thinking together about all the elements of music based on concrete indicators and the qualities of this field that point beyond what is known, brings to the agenda an accumulation of knowledge on the axis of art, philosophy and music. The idea of art, which is the subject of music, or the key issues that transform music into art, point to the deep meanings of music in connection with metaphysics. The approaches adopted in the history of thought, scientific advances and social turning points have shaped the quality of music and the meanings attributed to music. In this descriptive study, which aims to make an epistemological examination of the relationship between music and metaphysics through this accumulation, metaphysical issues that enable us to characterize music as art are revealed. Thus, regardless of the context, it is possible to see a metaphysical perspective that progresses intertwined with music in many circumstances, with various semantic contents, forming itself both as a natural result of music and on an axis that inspires music.

Philosophical issues of quantum mechanics

In this paper we discuss some of the philosophy of quantum mechanics regarding a hidden fifth dimension and the symbols used to describe the metaphysical issues of this.

Jung’s Conceptualization of Synchronicity Theory and the Role of Astrology Inside

Abstract Jung’s conceptualization of synchronicity has a relation to his engagement in astrology began in roughly 1906. Jung’s conceptualization of varieties of synchronistic experiences can be divided into non-divinatory and divinatory experiences. Among the divinatory sources, he overlooked the differences between I-Ching divination and astrology. His neglect caused a logical discrepancy in his early synchronicity theory. Forty-six years after his first engagement in astrology, his essay on synchronicity (1952) possesses a long section for his astrological experiment. In his astrological experiment, his problematic understanding of metaphysical and methodological issues behind the experiment led to the failure of his statistical part of the experiment. The case study part of it turns to support his meaningful chance version of synchronicity theory and leads to the acknowledgement of the standard version of synchronicity theory: meaningful chances.

Review of the IXth Annual Moscow International Scientific Conference "Transcendental Turn in Contemporary Philosophy - 9: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Theory of Consciousness, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Theology"

From April 11 to April 13, 2024, the 9th annual International Scientific Conference “Transcendental turn in modern philosophy – 9: metaphysics, epistemology, theory of consciousness, cognitive science and artificial intelligence, theology” was held in Moscow. The focus of the conference remains the current and innovative ideas of transcendental cognitive science and artificial intelligence. The seminar also reflected metaphysical, epistemological and theological issues.

Language and Critical Thinking as Vehicles of Environmental Ethics and Metaphysics

Language, metaphysics and environmental ethics are specific and universal aspects of culture. Language and critical thinking are phenomenal means of communicating and rationalising environmental and metaphysical issues, among other existential concerns in general. This study argues that language and critical thinking are vehicles of metaphysics and environmental ethics. It also argues that the kind of metaphysics and environmental ethics inherent to a people determine their attitude towards the environment. As some scholars affirm in the literature, this is where continental philosophy comes into environmentalism, because no philosophy is independent of culture and a larger number of environmental issues are peculiar to a place, while a few others obtain across places as universals. Thus, environmentalists look at environmental issues and metaphysical concerns from both specific and general contexts. It is realised that upon giving the issues at stake critical reflections, ethical principles are made or advanced using language constructively to express, disseminate and sustain them across ages. The study concludes that despite being neglected in metaphysical and environmental discourses, language plays a critical role in them, as (mis)representation of the two depends on how language is used to express and disseminate (un)critically constructed thoughts on environment and metaphysics.

Neurophilosophy: A Philosophical Analysis for Interpretation of fMRI to Replace the Commonsense Psychology

For thinking, brain activity occurs, yet not every area of our brain is active when we think about various things. There are significant ramifications for cognitive psychology and neuroscience from functional brain areas. It should enable us to apply neurophilosophical theories to the brain. This review aims to draw attention to neurophilosophy and its focus on fundamental problems in neuroscientific theories to address age-old metaphysical issues, i.e., the nature of consciousness, thinking, intention, and action. There are different theories and points of view in the field of neurophilosophy, but eliminative materialists and reductive materialists (a.k.a. mind-brain identity theory) are both strong candidates. Those are very well-established in the philosophy of mind, and they run counter to the development of conceptual succession in neuroscience. Both theorists rely on neuroscience to back up their conclusions about the mind. Eliminative materialism has received a lot of attention from several philosophical points of view. It begins with a critique of commonsense psychology and offers neurophilosophy as an alternative. So, for reductive materialists, mind is brain, whereas for eliminativists mind as brain. Both theorists have different views about mental states to cohere with neurophysiology. The philosophical problem of dualism, as the body/brain (physical), and mind/cognition (mental) is discussed in psychiatry, neuropsychology, and neuroscience. Neurophilosophy deals with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to shed light on psychosocial problems like moral psychology, free will, social interaction, and mood disorders. An fMRI is a neuroimaging technique and an essential tool for bridging cognitive psychology and neurophilosophic theories. It is used to investigate mental resilience, impairments, changes in neural dynamics, and neuroplasticity mainly for brain trauma. I will tie this discussion by discussing fMRI and commonsense psychology as exploratory rather than confirmatory evidence in my conclusion.
 How to cite this: Sohail A. Neurophilosophy: A Philosophical Analysis for Interpretation of fMRI to Replace the Commonsense Psychology. Life and Science. 2023; 4(4): 494-500. doi: http://doi.org/10.37185/LnS.1.1.392

Defending ‘Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm': Abrahamic Dialogues and Interdisciplinary Insights

ABSTRACT In this article, I respond to my interlocutors, who have raised various points while engaging my book, Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. In addressing their arguments and points of engagement, I have ordered this article into four parts: (1) methodological issues, (2) scientific issues, (3) metaphysical issues, and (4) hermeneutic issues.

Transrationality as a Methodological Principle of Cognitionin the Philosophy of S. L. Frank and N. O. Lossky

The article is devoted to transrationality as a methodological principle of cognition associated with the study of the issues of metaphysics and the irrational in the philosophical concepts of Russian thinkers S. L. Frank and N. O. Lossky. The author turns to the study of ideas related to the theory of being and the theory of knowledge of thinkers, divine and human existence, namely, the essence of man and his significance in social and internal existence. In the proposed article, the author explores the religious views of thinkers within the framework of the metaphysical tradition, in which philosophers built their worldview through the prism of transrationality and metalogicality as principles of cognition, construction and formation of nature, both Absolute Being in general and its aspects in particular. The essence of the Supercosmic principle and the Incomprehensible, shown by N. O. Lossky and S. L. Frank in the framework of their worldview systems, is also considered, attempts to overcome the objective world and comprehend the super-logical, super-rational through rationality are considered. Along with this, the author touches upon the issues of faith and its role and significance in the comprehension of the Incomprehensible and Supercosmic principles, and also pays attention to antinomian cognition as the principle of cognition of the mysterious - hidden and experienced - reality. By means of which both thinkers build complex philosophical and theological systems that are significant for the entire philosophy of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. And also refers to the unity and interconnection of the philosophical concepts of thinkers to religious beliefs within the framework of Holy Scripture.

現代時間論の哲学史的意義について

The contemporary debate on time which was opened up by J. E. M McTaggart tends to focus on metaphysical issues framed in the dispute between tensed theories and tenseless theories. In the history of the philosophy of time, on the other hand, the subject matter looks strikingly different, and the focus is more wideranging. At least three main categories should be considered: idealism, realism, and relationism. This paper aims to offer an insight into contemporary and classical philosophy of time from a systematic perspective and thereby to suggest a research program worth exploring.

Processes and their modal profile

A widely debated issue in contemporary metaphysics is whether the modal profile of ordinary objects has to be explained in non-modal terms (that is, Thesis 1). However, how to solve such an issue with respect to occurrences – namely, processes and events – is a question that has been largely neglected in the current metaphysical debate. The general goal of this article is to start filling this gap. As a first result of the article, we make it plausible that, if Thesis 1 holds for objects, then it also holds for processes and events. Then, we develop a metaphysical account of processes derived from Fine’s (1999, 2022) suggestions, according to which a process is a variable embodiment that is manifested by different events at the different times it goes on – namely, Thesis 2. We raised the challenge from the completion of a process that asks the Finean account of processes to explain relevant modal features of processes in non-modal terms. As a second result, we argue that four initially plausible strategies for solving such a challenge fall short of solving it. As a third result, we show that the theory of variable embodiments Fine formulates for objects must differ from the theory of variable embodiments that aims to model processes. We conclude by investigating some revisions to a theory of variable embodiments that aims to model processes.

E.J. Lowe and Ontology

Since E.J. Lowe's premature passing, there has been a growing interest in Lowe scholarship, reflecting on and discussing the influence of his work on other figures as well as exploring various aspects of his own (often highly systematic) views. This book is a contribution to this emerging field of interest, focused on selected themes in Lowe's metaphysics and ontology (broadly conceived). The chapters in the book cover a wide range of topics, as befitting the wide range of metaphysical issues that Lowe himself engaged with. Split into four parts, most of the chapters are valuable contributions to their respective literatures, and those working in the relevant areas interested in Lowe's work will gain from reading and engaging with them. In some chapters, the connection with Lowe's work is weaker or harder to discern. These chapters, though often interesting in their own rights, will offer less to a reader who picks this volume up as a way into, or as a further discussion of, Lowe's work.

Matters of Interest: Difference and Responsibility in Goswami’s Subjects That Matter

Abstract: Namita Goswami’s book, Subjects That Matter: Philosophy, Feminism, and Postcolonial Theory , challenges its reader not only to attend to how one philosophizes about difference but also how one might philosophize differently. It is concerned with how we, now, practice philosophy as well as what we philosophize about. In this response, I raise a series of questions meant to challenge and expand Goswami’s work from the standpoint of someone rooted in the dominant framework of the Anglo-European academic discourse on difference. In raising these questions, I take myself to be attempting the very twisting free of conventional philosophizing that Subjects That Matter invites. Some of the most powerful discussions in Goswami’s book concern the issues of metaphysics, dialectics, and history. The questions raised here predominantly concern whether specifically “dialectical” non-identity is faithful to Goswami’s conception of a non-antagonistic understanding of difference. Relatedly, does the past-facing metaphysical concept of the Whole insinuate itself in philosophy in such a way as to preclude thinking in ways that go against the grain of the Eurocentric tradition? From this concern for the conceptual commitments of dialectics and its associated metaphysics arises the further concern of whether even a negative dialectics allows for sufficiently differential genealogies.

Editorial

We have the honor to invite you to access the latest, this time mainly philosophical, issue of the semi-annual journal of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow. It is largely devoted to the thought of Fr. Prof. Stanisław Ziemiański, PhD, S.J., an important and vivid figure of the Cracow Jesuit philosophical center. He was a student of Fr. Prof. Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec, O.P., who was the supervisor of his doctoral thesis defended at the Catholic University of Lublin in 1978. From 1962 to 2006, Fr. Ziemiański taught metaphysics, natural theology, philosophy of God and cosmology at the then Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus in Krakow, and from 1988 to 2006, he also taught the history of medieval philosophy. For many years, he worked at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow (the present-day Pontifical University of John Paul II) and at the Faculty of Theology in Bratislava, Slovakia. Father Ziemiański’s writings dealt with metaphysical and epistemological issues, but he devoted most of his attention to the question of God (primarily the arguments for His existence) developing considerations at the crossroads of metaphysics and sciences, mainly physics and cosmology. He included his reflections on this topic in a monograph titled Teologia naturalna. Filozoficzna problematyka Boga (Kraków 1995, 2008). Father Professor also studied the philosophy of inanimate nature, using the results of natural sciences, which he interpreted in a neo-Thomistic spirit. Father Ziemiański’s 90th birthday provided a great opportunity to summarize and deliver an initial critical response to the 60 years of his scientific work. To commemorate this event, the Institute of Philosophy at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow organized a one-day scientific symposium titled Around the Philosophical Reflections of Stanisław Ziemiański, which took place on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, within the walls of his alma mater. Subsequent papers by researchers from various academic centers dealt with issues from his key areas of scientific interest, namely, Fr. Ziemiański’s metaphysics, his natural theology, philosophy of nature, his research on the philosophy of Francis Suarez, meta-philosophical problematics and the relationship between science and religion.

Negativna kritika suvremenih interpretacija Aristotelove Metafizike / Negative Critique of Contemporary Interpretations of Aristotle’s Metaphysics

The history of Aristotle’s writings, posthumously collected, edited, published and named Metaphysics, is the history of its interpretations. From the first commentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics to its contemporary interpretations, there is a two-thousand-year-long tradition. However, the tradition of interpreting Aristotle’s search for the sought-after science is such that in modern times it is reduced to a discussion of the relationship between E and Λ books of Metaphysics through the relationship between ontology and theology in Aristotle’s system. In this paper, we will present the sought-after science as a fundamental issue in Metaphysics, a brief sketch of Metaphysics and the historical problems of the E and Λ books. This paper aims to prove the negative teachings of posthumously published Aristotle’s writings through a critique of their modern interpretations that present the sought-after science in Aristotle’s project as negative i.e. unfinishable and as evidently unfinished.

Some Epistemological and Ontological Reflections on Concept of Causality: From Scientific Causality to Contextual Causality

This research tries to present a critical analysis of the concept of scientific causality and the problems it entails within the scientific domain. This study claims that scientific causality is not enough to understand the nature of relationships existing among the members of a chain and it is concerned with the possible action of correspondence apart from the context of action. It is argued here that all types of scientific causality fail to reflect the flexible nature of members of any possible correlation. This paper offers the concept "contextual causality" as a possible alternative perspective that reflects both the variable and elastic nature of the elements of correlation and discusses the relationship between the context and the process of correlation. The introduction of the concept of contextual causality raises new metaphysical and epistemological issues that can be solved from the perspective of structural idealism. 
 Keyword: Causality, Contextualism, Structuralism, Structural Idealism, Linear Causality, Epistemology.

The metaphysical issues in the social sciences and how social scientists debate them

The metaphysical issues in the social sciences and how social scientists debate them

Transforming knowledge to wisdom: Feng Qi and the new Neo-Marxist humanism

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the philosophical theory of Feng Qi, an important modern Chinese philosopher, who is practically unknown in the West. I argue that his theory of knowledge is not limited to epistemology in the strict and narrow sense, but also refers to ontological and metaphysical issues. The paper shows how Feng Qi integrated ontological and ethical suppositions into the framework of what he called ‘expanded epistemology’. In this way, he offers an innovative solution to several problems, linked to the dichotomous relations of substance and phenomena. The article analyses and interprets his theoretical system in order to highlight that it represents an important contribution to comparative epistemology and its underlying methodology.

Review of Islamic Ethic Metaphysics in Oriental Studies by İbrahim Aslan (İstanbul: Endülüs Yayınları, 2020), 462 pages, ISBN: 9786052105931

İncelenen ‘Şarkiyat Çalışmalarında İslam Ahlâk Metafiziği’ başlıklı çalışma, İslamî etik teoriler alanında tanınan Batı’lı araştırmacılarca kaleme alınmış olan eserlerden seçilmiş derleme bir metindir. TÜBİTAK’ın yurtdışı desteğiyle hazırlanmış olan bu eser, İslamî etik teorilerin metafizik çerçevesini incelemektedir. Müsteşriklerin ‘bakış açısından’ yola çıkarak okuyucuyu Mu‘tezile, Eş‘arî ve Mâtürîdî çevreler arasındaki klasik tartışmalara yönlendirerek, teolojik değer sistemlerine ihatalı şekilde yaklaşmayı teşvik etmektedir. Bu tür çalışmalar, kuşkusuz, İngilizce, Almanca ve Fransızca gibi batı dillerinde kaleme alınmış olan literatürü fark etme, anlama ve eleştirme gibi hususlarda Türk İlahiyat akademisindeki araştırmacılara katkı sağlayacaktır.

WORDSWORTH AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

Almost all the Romantic poets, with the possible exception of Byron, have accepted the existence of evil and considered pain and suffering as a part of human life. The sources of evil and suffering are diverse: socio-economic imbalance, political crisis, personal failures and disappoints of the poet, and, above all, a sense of alienation from social, economic, philosophical and religious dimensions. Wordsworth in his poetry has recorded the presence of evil in life and consequent human suffering. The tragic elements in Wordsworth’s poetry demonstrate this inescapable pattern of human destiny. The spirit of Wordsworth’s poetry lies, in the face of all individual, social and political evils, in denouncing warfare, in upholding democratic ideals and in finding a solution to the problems of evil and suffering that mankind has always confronted. He tried to find in his despair a consolation which lies in love for humanity, love for Nature, the transfiguration of vision, and a belief in an afterlife. Wordsworth undertook to reconstitute the grounds of hope for mankind in a world full of pain, sorrow, and despair. From a reading of his poetry, one can be familiar with Wordsworth’s conception of the true end of man, which can be applied to the social, moral and metaphysical issues of our time. The purpose of this paper is to show that although Wordsworth’s approach to the problems of evil and suffering follows theological and philosophical archetypes, his solutions are essentially aesthetic and humanistic.