Metaphysical Nature Research Articles

Illusionism and a Posteriori Physicalism: No Fact of the Matter

Illusionists and a posteriori physicalists agree entirely on the metaphysical nature of reality — that all concrete entities are composed of fundamental physical entities. Despite this basic agreement on metaphysics, illusionists hold that phenomenal consciousness does not exist, whereas a posteriori physicalists hold that it does. One explanation for this disagreement would be that either the illusionists have too demanding a view about what consciousness requires, or the a posteriori physicalists have too tolerant a view. However, we will argue that this divergence of opinion is merely an upshot of the semantic indeterminacy of the term 'conscious' and its cognates. We shall back up this diagnosis by showing how semantic indeterminacy of the kind in question is a pervasive feature of language. By illustrating this pattern with a range of historical examples, we shall show how the dispute between the illusionists and a posteriori physicalists is one instance of a common kind of terminological imprecision. The disagreement between them is thus not substantial. In effect, the two sides differ only about how to make an indeterminate term precise. The moral is that they should stop looking for arguments designed to settle the dispute in their favour.

The metaphysics of mechanisms: an ontic structural realist perspective

Existing metaphysical accounts of mechanisms commit to the existence of objects or entities posited in scientific theories, and thus fall within the category of maximal metaphysics. In this paper, I demonstrate the incompatibility of object-based metaphysics of mechanisms with the prevailing trend in the philosophy of physics by discussing the so-called bottoming-out problem. In response, I propose and flesh out a structuralist metaphysics of mechanisms based on Ontic Structural Realism (OSR), which is a kind of minimal metaphysics. I argue that the metaphysical underpinnings of mechanisms are structures, whose metaphysical nature is elaborated through comparison with existing metaphysical theories of mechanisms. After that, I address the concern of whether objects in mechanisms can be accommodated in my account by invoking existing metaphysical theories of objects in special science by structuralists, such as Ladyman, J., & Ross, D. (2007). Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized. Oxford University Press.)’s real pattern account, and suggesting a potential alignment between OSR and processual ontology. Finally, I demonstrate how my view can naturally serve as the metaphysics for Mechanism 2.0 and be applied to systems biology.

Justus Buchler and the Community of Query

Before he originated the field of philosophy for children, Matthew Lipman spent nearly twenty years teaching at Columbia University and its affiliated colleges under the tutelage of the American philosopher Justus Buchler. In those years Lipman’s scholarship focused on Buchler’s naturalist metaphysics, which was informed by Buchler’s scholarship on the philosophy of Charles Peirce. In this essay I relate Lipman’s relationship with Buchler, summarise Buchler’s theory of human judgement, and indicate key parts of that theory that influenced Lipman’s own theory of judgement and multidimensional thinking. I then discuss the pedagogical turn Buchler made with his theory, including his conception of classroom discussion as a mode of ‘community of query,’ which became the prototype for Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp’s theory of ‘community of inquiry’ as a protocol of classroom dialogue and a paradigm of philosophical practice and democratic decision-making.

The conceptual injustice of the brain death standard.

Family disputes over the diagnosis of brain death have caused much controversy in the bioethics literature over the conceptual validity of the brain death standard. Given the tenuous status of brain death as death, it is pragmatically fruitful to reframe intractable debates about the metaphysical nature of brain death as metalinguistic disputes about its conceptual deployment. This new framework leaves the metaphysical debate open and brings into focus the social functions that are served by deploying the concept of brain death. In doing so, it highlights the epistemic injustice of medicolegal authorities that force people to uniformly accept brain death as a diagnosis of death based on normative considerations of institutional interests, such as saving hospital resources and organ supplies, rather than empirical evidence of brain death as death, which is insufficient at best and nonexistent at worst. In light of this injustice, I propose the rejection of the uniform standard of brain death in favor of a choice-based system that respects families' individualized views of death.

Pandemiczne doświadczenie zła

The article is an attempt to address the issue of evil philosophically and also in terms of theology, which is related to the global coronavirus pandemic that humanity has experienced. It emphasizes the metaphysical nature of understanding this evil, going beyond ethical categories. Difficulties in interpreting this evil as a moral consequence of original sin were pointed out. The issue of the impact of the pandemic on religious life was also raised. Attention was paid to possible attitudes towards the mysterious nature of this type of evil (heroic secular humanizm, Christian theology of suffering).

LITERARY REFLECTION OF THE WAR IN THE WINNING WORKS OF THE CONTEST “HEROIC NATION CREATES HEROES” : GENRE AND STYLE FEATURES

The paper deals with the genre features and stylistic trends of short prose texts presented at the Open Patriotic Festival-Contest in Kyiv Borys Hrinchenko University (June 2022). The aim is to understand the artistic features of the works by young Ukrainian authors written after February 24, 2022. The dominance of short genres is determined by the fragmentation of the world picture and the awareness of the gap between the past and the present. At the same time, the paper pays due attention to the actualization of mythological thinking based on the understanding of the metaphysical nature of war.
 The genre of the literary diary is undergoing a process of hybridization. The factual nature of diary entries often interacts with the genre forms of interviews, reports, and various structural modifications of the short story. The stylistic, topical, and compositional variability of the short story is examined within the context of the significant literary tradition established by Ukrainian modernism, while noticeable neo-realist and neo-populist tendencies shape the authors' pictures of the world as well. For modern authors, the relevance of populism and realism as literary systems is explained by the need for a trustworthy representation of the war events and the development of plot models that are familiar and understandable to a wide range of readers. The paper also explores ways of updating the genres of parable and vision, with which the short story actively interacts. The fantasy genre is interpreted from the perspective of postcolonial criticism. The world of fantasy, based on neo-mythological thinking, actualizes important existential problems of memory, national identity, and resentment in the modern context. Resentment as a natural reaction to the actions of the enslaver reveals its constructive nature, awakening the will to fight and win.

THE EXISTENCE OF JAMU AS A TRADITIONAL DRINK IN THE PRESERVATION OF INDONESIAN CULINARY (CASE STUDY: GENERATION Z AGE 18 -23 YEARS AT TOURISM SCHOOL IN SOUTH JAKARTA)

Jamu is a traditional Indonesian drink inherited from our ancestors. The existence of herbal medicine, which has been a culture passed down from generation to generation for a long time, is not only used as a means of treatment but can be used for other benefits such as body care or related to matters of a metaphysical nature. Little cultural information about herbal medicine has been found or conveyed. Herbal medicine is holistic, safe to consume, and has many benefits for those who regularly consume it. Two hundred respondents were involved in this research's data collection process. The family's most important role is the main factor in preserving herbal medicine. Introducing herbal medicine early will foster a concern for cultural heritage later. Apart from family, the social environment is also essential in its implementation. This research aims to determine the existence of herbal medicine among Generation Z regarding elements related to ensuring that herbal medicine remains sustainable and maintained. This research uses qualitative methods using data sources, journals, and reference documents. The data collection techniques are interviews, observation, and question and answer. The results of the research show that (1) family social culture and social environment are still relatively low, (2) sensory factors are still a feature of herbal medicine, and (3) lack of information and basic knowledge about the history of herbal medicine. jamu. (4) There are no additional subjects about herbal medicine in schools, (5) Lack of introduction of herbal medicine at the upper-class level as a treat in star hotels. (6) The current Café Jamu business model lacks a clean, hygienic, modern presentation.

O Problema dos Pensadores Artificiais: Um Debate Metafísico

The possibility of artificial intelligence is usually discussed by philosophers as a problem about artificial thought: can an artificial system think? The production of intelligence in an artificial system would, however, give rise to an intelligent artificial being: an artificial thinker. As such, there is another, less explored way of discussing the possibility of artificial intelligence: can there be an artificial thinker? This is the problem of artificial thinkers (Olson 2018). In this essay, I discuss this problem. To do so, first, I present the problem of artificial thinkers and discuss how best to interpret it (section §1). Then, I discuss the three main views on the metaphysical nature of artificial thinkers: the hardware view, according to which artificial thinkers are intelligent artificial systems; the software view, according to which artificial thinkers are types or copies of programs for artificial intelligence; and finally, the CPU perspective, according to which artificial thinkers are intelligent spatial parts of artificial systems (section §2). All of these views have problems regarding their conception of the persistence conditions of artificial thinkers. Even so, I conclude, artificial thinkers are best conceived as functional artificial systems.

TRUTH, REALITY, AND LANGUAGE IN TOM STOPPARD’S JUMPERS

This study emphasizes the problem of truth, reality, and language, highly philosophical notions, as they are expressed in Jumpers (1972) by the contemporary British playwright, Tom Stoppard (1937: 87 years old). Basing our analysis on some theories of analytical philosophy and the postmodern thought, we show how Stoppard stresses, in his aforementioned play, the problem of knowledge or truth in a context where old certainties have collapsed. After displaying the intrinsic link between truth, reality, and language from a historical and philosophical perspective, the study focuses on the relativity of human knowledge, particularly with regard to questions of an ethical and/or metaphysical nature. It also shows that reality is ultimately only the subjective interpretation or representation that individuals have of facts and things. This means that it only exists in subjective consciousness and is, from this point of view, always elusive.

Typology of philosophical worldviews. Problems of the naturalistic worldview

The article proposes a typology of philosophical worldviews: naturalistic, pantheistic and transcendental. The naturalistic worldview, which includes positivism and materialism, is analyzed in detail. On the basis of historical-philosophical and epistemological consideration, the metaphysical nature of the category "matter" is determined. It is shown that in materialism this category is hypertrophied to the status of a pseudo-absolute. It is noted that the logic of historical, philosophical and spiritual development inevitably leads to the formation of the concept of the Absolute, realizing the principle of monism in the interpretation of the fundamental basis of being. This process is considered on the example of ancient hylozoism, through the crisis of atomistics going to the dualism of Plato (idea and matter) and Aristotle (form and matter), removed in the dialectic of Hegel. It is shown that if we proceed from materialistic axiomatics, it is impossible to solve such cardinal philosophical problems as an adequate definition of the ontological status of the category of matter, the establishment of the cause of movement, the creation of theodicy, the explanation of the existence of freedom, the justification of morality and humanism. The unresolved nature of these problems in materialism leads to the need to form other types of philosophical worldviews: pantheistic and transcendental, which have a pronounced metaphysical character, however, although they proceed from the concept of the Absolute, they think it fundamentally differently. In the future, the authors plan to publish articles devoted to the consideration of pantheistic and transcendental types of philosophical worldviews.

Grounding Basic Equality

Although egalitarianism has been the dominant orthodoxy in Anglophone social and political philosophy for many decades, there have been surprisingly few attempts to account for the axiom on which it rests, namely that human moral worth does not come in degrees. This article begins by rehearsing and evaluating two families of approaches to the grounding problem. The first favours accounts that seek to preserve consistency with metaphysical naturalism, while the second relies on more philosophically contentious claims about the metaphysical status of the human person. I then outline reasons for supposing that none of these accounts of basic equality offers a convincing theoretical foundation for egalitarianism. I conclude by sketching permutations of a theological account before arguing that one of these variations satisfies many of the explanatory criteria that a successful solution requires.

RELATIONAL SPACE AND TIME: METAPHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES OF EXPERIMENTS

Questions of a general philosophical, metaphysical nature about the properties of space and time inevitably intersect with their physical interpretation, including in hypothetical experiments. In this paper, relational ideas about the limiting philosophical categories are studied, which make it possible to concretize the ways of specifying space and time. This approach is compared with Leibniz’s concept. The development of relational theoretical propositions leads to predictions of new effects and a discussion of their possible experimental verifications. It is concluded that the foundations and future limits of the theory can, in a certain sense, be reconciled.

Christopher Nolan’s Joker as a Consistent Naturalist (And That’s Still a Bad Thing)

In this article, we discuss C. S. Lewis’s description, and critique, of metaphysical naturalism, and apply this to our reading of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. We argue that Nolan’s Joker is the most ethically consistent type of naturalist, and that this makes his ethical position at once more praiseworthy than that of numerous naturalistic moral thinkers, such as Sam Harris, insofar as it is consistent, and yet blameworthy in that other naturalistic ethicists, inconsistent though they may be, at least, reasonably, assume a kind of objective morality via implicit supernaturalist assumptions about “right” and “wrong”.

Modern landscape science before the challenges of Postmodernism

Purpose of the article: to determine the distinctive features of the subject of research, methodology and method of landscape studies in the state of transition from late Modern to early Postmodern (late 20th – early 21st century). Research methodology: historical and cultural analysis with the involvement of hermeneutics, philosophical comparative studies. Results. The research objects specific to postmodern landscape science are characterized: ambivalent, socially devastated, camp landscapes, anti-landscapes, landscapeoids. It is pointed out the complexity nature of the research subject of modern and future landscape science, in particular, such research phenomena as the landscape nature of subjectivity; the immanence of contradiction, paradox and absurdity in a complexity geosystem; and also on virtual landscape reality as a product of artificial intelligence. New philosophical and methodological approaches – multiculturalism and multihistoricism – are proposed. Scientific novelty: for the first time in the Ukrainian-language scientific geographical and philosophical literature, an attempt has been made to analyze the current and potential features of landscape science in the Postmodern era. Today, landscape science is in a state of transition to a new historical stage – the Postmodern era. This transition is not a “scientific revolution” in the sense of T. Kuhn, but is coupled with more profound changes that touch the very foundations of rational world perception, scientific world explanation and goal setting in the field of scientific activity – changes that have an existential and metaphysical nature, changes that associated with the transformations of the historical process on a global scale. Areas of study of landscape objects and phenomena, which were methodologically, epistemologically, and existentially inaccessible to the scientific thought of the New Age, the Modern Era, and landscape studies of the 20th century are becoming very popular. were mostly ignored. Actual and future transformations in the methodology of landscape science are also related to the introduction of paradox, contradiction, and absurdity into the scientific discourse. One of the cornerstone and already clearly visible empirical challenges to modern landscape science is the formation of virtual landscape reality. Postmodern landscape science is characterized by a movement towards the assimilation of metaphysical and discursive systems of non-European cultures of mankind (for example, the category of “Delusions” of the indigenous Australian aboriginal civilization). It should also get rid of the new European supremacy in relation to the methods of scientific and quasi-scientific world explanation by European discourses from antiquity to the 16th century. Examples here can be turning to Pythagorean numerology (O.K. Cherkashin) or the so-called eniogeography (G.I. Shvebs) when studying the landscape. As a result, profound future shifts in the landscape scientific discourse will not be dialectical, but fundamental metaphysical in nature. Perhaps this will force a person to radically reconsider his place and his own role in the landscape envelope and in history. Practical significance. A number of unusual, to some extent unusual, methodological approaches to the further development of landscape science in the 21st century have been proposed, with the fact that the very concept of development must be fundamentally rethought in all respects, primarily existential and ecological.

Evolution of the ontology of ancient Chinese music

The subject of the study is the ontological ideas of ancient Chinese music in the context of the formation of philosophical schools of Ancient China, which make it possible to identify a number of philosophical categories that underlie traditional chinese music and outline different approaches to its understanding and interpretation. Most Chinese researchers in the field of musical aesthetics focus on the art of music, rare to pay attention to the philosophical origins of the categories of music that past thinkers wrote about when analyzing laws of existence of the universe. Restoring and rethinking these values in the context of the philosophical and cultural analysis of ancient Chinese music is key to this work, which allows us to gain an understanding of the specifics of ancient Chinese culture and its musical heritage. The novelty of the work lies in carrying out the correlation of genesis of the musical ontology of Ancient China with the dynamics of the formation of the philosophical schools of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, their rise or fall depending on the historical and cultural situation. Musical philosophy in China has not yet become an independent discipline, so the presented work makes a significant contribution to the field of musical ontology. During the study, the authors revealed three main aspects which are basic for the ontology of ancient Chinese music: The nature of music has its source three categories: Tao, air and sound, existing both in a natural state in nature and embodied in musical structure and instruments; Sound and rhythm being the essence to any musical work, organize the sounding space in accordance with the cosmic order; The metaphysical nature of music is justified by the basic principles of Taoist philosophy and number theory.

존 듀이 미적 경험의 이해를 위한 젤트너의 제안

P. M. Zeltner was a John Dewey aesthetician who greatly enhanced his understanding of Dewey's aesthetic experience. He argues that Dewey's aesthetics represent naturalistic metaphysics, and in Dewey, organic humans and music result in the existence of ‘of nature’, ‘in nature’, and ‘by nature’. From this point of view, music is defined as containing the mysterious things of nature, that is, the metaphysical things of nature. Aesthetic experience is a key concept of Dewey aesthetics and a medium for restoring continuity between daily life and art. Dewey introduces everyday aesthetic experiences as ‘an experience’. Zeltner argues that this an experience is an aesthetic experience “as a convergent completion,” and that all experiences in everyday life become an aesthetic experience as well as an experience when they have aesthetic structures and properties. Zeltner suggests dividing ‘an experience’ into a primary phase of aesthetic experience and an intentionally cultivated phase of aesthetic experience for understanding Dewey’s aesthetic experience. However, these two phases have a continuity that can never be separated.

Substantive Social Metaphysics

Social metaphysics is a source of important philosophical and moral insight. Furthermore, much social metaphysics appears to be substantive. However, some have recently argued that standard views of metaphysics cannot accommodate substantive social metaphysics. In this paper I offer a new diagnosis of this problem and defend a new solution, showing that this problem is an illuminating lens through which to examine the nature and boundaries of metaphysics. This case instantiates a broad, common pattern generated by attempts to align distinctions between realism and anti-realism, mind-independence and mind-dependence, and legitimate and non-legitimate inquiry. I show that the best response is to abandon the association between substantive metaphysics and mind-independence, and I sketch a new definition of substantivity, given in terms of explanatory power, that makes room for substantive social metaphysics while also offering an attractive basis for general metaphysics.

The Other Relativism

ABSTRACT Relativism and discussions of the relativity of human judgment have played an important role in philosophy since the 1950s. Such claims are regarded by many as the enemy of realism, the view that human judgments can be valid with respect to their objects as those objects obtain independent of the judgments. Most relativisms assert the relativity of human judgment to some trait of the judge, hence are anthropic. But there is another kind: objective relativism. It was espoused by some of the American pragmatists of the early to mid-twentieth century. Their hope was that objective relativism was compatible with realism while avoiding dualism and idealism. It claimed things themselves are relative. The view eventually disappeared. This article examines this neglected doctrine, not to determine its truth, but its nature. What kind of theory was it, what could it claim to accomplish, and what could it not? Some of its proponents regarded it as a naturalistic metaphysics, but this is problematic. This topic is suggestive for the formulation of a naturalism that rejects physicalism yet is compatible with science and realism.

Christianity Cultivated Science with and without Methodological Naturalism

Many people assume ceaseless conflict between natural science and Christianity, but the real conflict has been between scientism and Christianity. Scientism is the view that only the sciences (especially not theology) generate knowledge or rational belief. I show how Christianity generated rational beliefs that contributed to the rise of science. This science-fostering rational belief included rationales for when to practice methodological naturalism, and when to study nature without that restriction. Both practices cultivated science, though in different ways. This historical difference is of enduring value for recent debates about metaphysical naturalism (atheism), creationism, theistic evolution, and intelligent design.

LEGAL CONCEPTS, THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND TEACHING METHODS

This study aims to identify the characteristics of legal concepts in terms of the foundations of their construction and methods of downloading them in classroom practice in teaching and evaluation, in proportion to the specificity of these concepts, which are distinguished from other concepts by their abstract characteristics and their metaphysical nature at times. To address this problem represented in: "What are the advantages and characteristics of the legal concept, and what are the problems of downloading it in classroom practice, and what are the proposed solutions to overcome it"? This research was organized in two sections, the first of which was devoted to clarifying the reality of concepts, the second to their characteristics, and the third to teaching methods and the proposed methodology for evaluating them, in order to bring them closer to learners, and to overcome the problems that teachers face when presenting these concepts to their learners, whether at the methodological or didactic level. In order to address the research problem, the study started from the following hypothesis: - The legal concept has its own nature that distinguishes it from the rest of the other legal concepts, and therefore its teaching requires its own methodology because it is an abstract and intangible concept, and therefore teachers of Islamic education must have knowledge of these legal concepts, in order to have a clear vision of the reality of the legal concept and its characteristics. And the requirements of teaching it, just as the textbooks should reveal legal concepts in a dialectical way that takes into account the level of growth of the learners’ knowledge, through educational and educational activities directed to them, and in effective pedagogical ways. In conclusion, the research presents a set of proposals and recommendations in order to overcome the imbalances and solve the problems that prevent building doctrinal concepts on sound foundations, and downloading them properly in classroom practice.