Ontological Theory Research Articles

Aesthetic Experience and the Unfathomable: A Pragmatist Critique of Hermeneutic Aesthetics

Abstract In his attack on the notion of immediate experience (Erlebnis), Hans-Georg Gadamer argues that aesthetic experience should be absorbed into hermeneutics because alone it cannot account for the historical nature of experience (Erfahrung); predicated on an ontological theory of art, the unfathomable, therefore, is the sense we have of these infinite hermeneutic depths. I argue that this account is methodologically and existentially unacceptable: methodologically because it is overly speculative, and existentially because it betrays authentic existence. I critique Gadamer from the perspective of William James’ Pragmatism and argue, inverting Gadamer’s main thesis, that hermeneutics should be reduced to aesthetic experience. The meaning that emerges in aesthetic experience does not ‘rise up’ from the depths but is immanent in what James calls ‘pure experience’. The unfathomable, therefore, is not a glimpse into the metaphysical abyss but a phenomenological insight into the immanent structure of experience.

Статус объекта в современных онтологиях

The philosophical discourse of the XX–ХХI, in the face of the latest ontologies, is characterized by a change in the way of speaking about things (objects), the restoration of their philosophical rights, almost completely, excluding one of the central ontological roles of a person in access to the surrounding reality. The purpose of this study was to identify the features of ideas about the ontological status of an object in modern philosophical and ontological theories. Achievement of the stated goal of the research was ensured by complex application, based on the comparative approach, dialectical and hermeneutic methods, as well as the method of ontological differentiation. In the course of the study, the features of the vision of an object, characteristic of postclassical ontologies of the 20th century, were considered. In the course of the research, the features of the object vision characteristic of post-classical ontologies of the XX century (actor-network theory, flat ontologies) were considered. Based on the ideas of plurality, heterogeneity, anti-essentialism and relationalism in the philosophical discourse of our time, the author presents a modern interpretation of the ontological statuses of objects. By analyzing the relationship of postclassical ontologies to the category of truth, the epistemological and methodological nature of the above ontological theories has been revealed. A critical analysis of the features of the status that is attributed to the object within their framework is carried out. The author substantiates the idea that the ontological status of an object in modern ontologies is reduced exclusively to its communicative and intermediary nature. The article ends with a brief presentation of the author’s views that the ontological status of an object is a fundamental issue of the connection between the idea of essence and the idea of subjectivity, which is inherent in intentionality as the ability to cognize an object. At the same time, it is pointed out that the researcher must concentrate exclusively on «cognition» and not on the «construction» of the object. The author notes that modern specialists, operating with traditional ontological terms (being, existence) in the sphere of the considered ontologies, and trying to create a new «ontology of the social», miss their original intention. In this connection, the idea turns into a new epistemology and, as a consequence, the construction of a completely different methodological framework for the cognitive process, but not an integral ontological concept.

Construction and implementation of extraction rules for assembly hierarchy information of a product based on OntoSTEP

In the framework of an intelligent assembly information system, the three-dimensional model of a product serves as a critical information source for the system, which also provides initial product feature information for assembly sequence planning. At present, in the process of extracting information from the STEP neutral file, the products are rarely performed at the assembly level. In addition, the characteristic of semantic expression of the same parts included in a product is always ignored. In this paper, based on the theory of ontology, the OntoSTEP model is constructed to extract information from STEP neutral files at the assembly level. A set of extraction rules for the basic corresponding information of the same parts in the assembly are developed. Further, a SWRL rule library is established in Protégé to realize the comprehensive information extraction of the assembly hierarchy for a product from its 3D model, which lays the foundation for the assembly sequence planning.

Bartleby as Subject

Interpreting Bartleby the scrivener’s formula, “I would prefer not to,” in Herman Melville’s short story is a challenge for many philosophers, and Bartleby’s inaction also hints at a political position. The problem is how to explain this (in)action. It is unclear whether the scrivener is an active subject or a passive object. One potential solution would be to reduce Bartleby’s duality to one of its modes. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri claim the scrivener is a revolutionary subject; the uncertainty of his actions is regarded as a refusal. Hardt and Negri link this refusal with the next stage in the production of a new society and a new subject. Slavoj Žižek is also ambivalent about “Bartleby politics”. Although the Slovenian philosopher criticizes the authors of Empire, he still declares Bartleby a parallax figure combining action and inaction. However, Žižek did not stake out a position on the ontological status of the scrivener: is he a cunning subject and escape artist, or is he a distinction-basis of the system itself? In the contrary direction, Gilles Deleuze and Giorgio Agamben propose a program for the desubjectification of the scrivener from Wall Street. Here Bartleby is not a subject, but a figure of the ontology of a transcendental source which exists before all ontic differences. The essay offers a radically different solution to the Bartleby problem. It rejects the dichotomy between the subject and object and moves toward the object-oriented theory of action and relational ontology as presented in the works of Bruno Latour. In this ontology, any actors (human or non-human) may turn out situationally to be active or inactive, depending on their position in relation to other actors.

A Conventionalist Approach to Human Actions in Classical Kalam With Regards To the Theory of Motion in Modern Anatomy

İslâm düşüncesinde var olan kelâmî meselelere yeni yaklaşımların geliştirilebilmesi için varlık alanını açıklama hususunda bilim adamları tarafından yürütülen nazarî tartışmalarda bilimin verilerini dikkate almak gerekir. Öyle ki İslâm dininin esaslarını temellendirip savunma vazifesini üstelenen kelâm âlimleri hem varlığı hem de Allah’ın âyetlerini anlamada bilimle iç içe bir teoloji oluşturmuşlardır. Günümüze baktığımızda bilimin geçtiğimiz yüzyılda gerçekleştirdiği keşif ve kuramlarla geçmişe göre ciddi bir ilerleme katettiğini görüyoruz. Her bilim, kendi problem alanında kalmak, kendi yöntemini ve kimliğini korumak kaydıyla, diğer disiplinlerin yöntemlerinden ve verilerinden yararlanma imkânına sahiptir. Kelâm ilmi açısından bakıldığında, onun da kendi problem alanında kalarak diğer disiplinlerin yöntem ve verilerinden yararlanmaya imkân tanıdığını söyleyebiliriz. 
 Modern bilim açısından bakıldığında hareket sistemi, canlıların hareket etmesini sağlayan yapılar birliğidir. İskelet sisteminin yapıları olan kemikler ve eklemler, hareket sisteminin pasif elemanlarıdır. Kaslar ise hareket sisteminin aktif elemanları olup kemik ve eklemlere etki ederek vücudun hareketini sağlar. Kas dokusu kemiklere yapışarak vücuda şekil verirken aynı zamanda hareket işinin ortaya çıkmasını sağlar. Hareketi sağlayan en önemli sistemlerden biri de sinir sistemidir. Çünkü bir insanda hareketin olması için kasların kasılması, kasların kasılması için de kasların uyartı alması gerekmektedir. İşte bu kasılmanın meydana gelmesini sağlayan sistem sinir sistemidir. İnsan vücudunda kasılmanın gerçekleşebilmesi için enerji de gerekir. Kaslar enerjilerini ilk olarak kas hücrelerinde hazır bulunan ATP molekülünden sağlayarak hareket için enerji oluşturur.
 Klasik kelâm âlimlerinin hareket teorilerine bakıldığında insan fiillerinin meydana gelmesini kudret kavramı üzerinden şekillendirdikleri görülmektedir. Âlimler, kudreti yapısı itibariyle mâna ve bedensel sağlamlık diye ayırırken, mâhiyeti itibariyle araz nitelemesini yapmışlardır. Bu bağlamda kelâmcıların insan fiillerinin oluşumu için zorunlu olarak kabul ettikleri kudretin günümüz bilimindeki karşılığının hareket sistemi olduğunu söyleyebiliriz. Âlimlerin insan fiilinin meydana gelmesi için kudretin bir yapısı olarak kabul ettikleri mana, günümüz biliminin hareket sistemi çerçevesinde ele alındığında, kasları harekete geçiren elektriksel aktivite olarak kabul edilebilir. Kelâm âlimlerinin kudret tanımlarında fiziksel yetkinliğe de vurgu yaptıkları görülmektedir. Bu noktada Eş’ariler uzuvların selameti, Mu’tezile, organların bulunması ve onların afetlerden uzak olması, Mâturîdîler de vasıtaların sağlıklı olması şeklinde bir tanım sergilemişlerdir. Bu kavramlarla kelâm âlimleri, insanın hareketi yapabilmesi için bedeni yeterliliğe de sahip olmasını kastetmişlerdir. Bilimsel olarak hareket sisteminde biyolojik ve fiziksel yeterlilik olarak kabul edilen yapılar, iskelet sistemi, kaslar ve sinir sistemidir. Dolayısıyla kelâm âlimlerinin kudret tanımında vurguladıkları fiziki donanımın sağlamlığının, bilimsel açıdan iskelet sistemi, kaslar ve sinir sistemine tekabül ettiğini söyleyebiliriz. Kelâm âlimlerinin kudret konusunda tartıştıkları konulardan biri de kudretin arazlığı meselesidir. Onların, kudreti araz nitelemelerinin nedeni, onun geçiciliğine vurgu yapmak ve bunun Allah tarafından yaratıldığını ortaya koymaktır. Öyle ki modern bilime bakıldığında insan uzuvlarının hareket etmesi için beyinde elektriksel aktivitenin oluşması gerekmektedir. Bu elektriksel aktivitenin meydana gelmesi de insandan bağımsızdır. Elektriksel aktivitenin insandan bağımsız bir şekilde meydana gelmesi, kelâm âlimlerinin araz nitelemesine uyduğunu göstermektedir. Netice itibariyle kelâm âlimlerinin insan hareketi için oluşturdukları kudret teorisinin günümüz biliminin ortaya koyduğu hareket sisteminde bir karşılığının olduğunu söyleyebiliriz.

The Metaphysical Grounding of Logical Operations: John Dewey’s Theory of Qualitative Continuity

Abstract In John Dewey’s logical theory, qualities or qualitative relations account for the capacity to distinguish and associate the objects of reflective thought; they are antecedent to reflective analysis and necessary for coherent processes of inquiry. In Dewey’s writings that are specifically “metaphysical” in orientation, he is much more vague about the function of qualities, but does call them “generic traits of existence.” As such, they appear to be central to his mature ontological theory. In order to more fully understand the metaphysical import of qualitative relations, I first examine the details of Dewey’s logical theory, and then generalize those details in accordance with Dewey’s larger theory of nature. The end result is a novel interpretation of Dewey’s metaphysics.

Powers ontology and the quantum revolution

An Aristotelian philosophy of nature rejects the modern prejudice in favor of the microscopic, a rejection that is crucial if we are to penetrate the mysteries of the quantum world. I defend an Aristotelian model by drawing on both quantum chemistry and recent work on the measurement problem. By building on the work of Hans Primas, using the distinction between quantum and classical properties that emerges in quantum chemistry at the thermodynamic or continuum limit, I develop a new version of the Copenhagen interpretation, a version that is realist, holistic, and hylomorphic in character, allowing for the attribution of fundamental causal powers to human observers and their instruments. I conclude with a critique of non-hylomorphic theories of primitive ontology, including Bohmian mechanics, Everettianism, and GRW mass-density.

Reasoning in Life: Values and Normativity in Georges Canguilhem

This paper aims at giving an account of the philosophy of norms of Georges Canguilhem in the framework of his philosophical vitalism. According to Canguilhem, vitalism is not a metaphysical or ontological theory, but rather a general attitude or a perspective about life and living beings, both understood employing the axiological concept of ‘normativity’. This notion allows Canguilhem to enlarge the concept of life beyond the field of biological phenomena, encompassing also phenomena of the social world, included technique and scientific knowledge and rationality. Canguilhem’s perspective relocates human activities within a vitalistic conception of life, which redefines the meaning of human reason by putting it in relation to values and norms.

Ontological modeling of micro and macro architectures Co-Design of cyber-physical systems

For effective design and modeling of modern mobile cyber-physical systems, it is proposed to use the theory of ontology, which has a number of important advantages: conceptual modeling of the target area in order to find hidden relationships, conflicts and description of incomplete (indefinite) information through abstraction at the physical or digital levels of the system, support for different styles modeling; modern interface of a large number of applications with a hierarchy of menus or work windows based on its developed conceptual model; the ability to combine two database applications or knowledge bases with completely different schemes of incompatible information systems into a single information space. Shown the importance of modern very high and is rapidly increasing mobile cyber-physical systems is determined by their wide range of application: almost all socially significant sectors of industry, economy, social systems: smart healthcare, smart home, smart city, smart e- and m-government. It is noted that the requirement for effective collaborative design and modeling leads to unusual complexity and ultra-high demands, application parallelism and heterogeneity, distribution of intelligence, computing resources для services and workloads in the Internet of Thinks hierarchy too. Suggested for modern complex applications require ultra-high performance and/or ultra-low power consumption иcпoльзoвать the authors propose using heterogeneous computing platforms, designing processors with parallel management multiprocessor macroarchitecture and parallel microarchitecture processors using various types of parallelism and application-specific parallel equipment based on super large-scale integrated circuit 1879VM6Y with high-performance processor core NMC4 of new generation architecture VLIW / SIMD.

Ideology in positivist research articles on issues of teaching English as a foreign language

Abstract The research articles(RAs) as the dominant genre of academic writing can be accounted as the sites of reproduction of unequal power relations and dominance. Through critical discourse analysis of epistemological and ontological underpinnings and subsequently methodological aims and values of positivist paradigm as social structures, this article aims to foreground power and ideology stricken latent aspects of empiricist RAs. Research as a social practice mediates between the social structures and the RAs as social events. Textual analysis of practical arguments presented mostly in the pedagogical implications part revealed that the scientific world views manifest themselves as the premises of these arguments. The premises can provide reasons for actions (Searle’s,2010, social ontology theory). The reasons can signify the empiricist interests as the global concerns. They exclude the rival paradigms or ways of understanding the world. These world views maintain the dominance of Western societies on global academic and social discourses.

The impact of distance learning on the social practices of schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic: reconstructing values of migrant children in Poland

ABSTRACT In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish government decided to shut down all public and private institutions, including schools, from 12 March 2020. Since then, 4.58 million students from 24,000 schools have remained in their homes and practiced distance learning. Distance learning has greatly affected children’s social practices, including domestic, everyday, specialist, and cultural practices. This paper applies social practice theory, rooted in Schatzki’s ontological theory of practices, and Shove, Pantzar, and Watson’s structure of social practices to study the changes to migrant primary school children’s social practices during distance learning in Poland. The data are derived from a subsample of a larger qualitative study of the transnational transition processes of migrant children in Poland. This paper investigates how the COVID-19 lockdown and distance learning have prompted migrant primary school children to reflect on the transformation of traditional social practices and the value of school.

“Sometimes It Seems You’re in Another World”

This article traces the development of Afrocentric feminist aesthetics within the LA Rebellion, a film movement made up primarily of Black film students at UCLA from 1970 to the late 1980s. It argues that these aesthetics are integral to the movement’s heterogeneous but radical politics, even as the filmmakers express them through widely different means. The article focuses primarily on three films that span the final decade in which Rebellion filmmakers were active at UCLA: Barbara McCullough’s Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979), Alile Sharon Larkin’s A Different Image (1982), and Zeinabu irene Davis’s Cycles (1989). Each of these films’ renderings of Afrocentric feminist aesthetics—through attention to African oral and mythical traditions, African and Pan-African-inflected mise-en-scène, rich col-oration and film stock, and play with nonlinear, nonteleological time—register at once the sedimented condition of patriarchal anti-Blackness in the United States and Black feminists’ ongoing projects of freedom that perdure within and despite that condition. In many ways, such representations anticipate contemporary Black feminist grapplings with recent Black studies scholarship that orbit around Afro-pessimist theories of Black ontology and social death. Through their expressions of Afrocentric feminist forms of communal, caring, and creative living, the films represent a form of Black social life that expresses value systems and ways of being that are incompatible with social death, even when they are inevitably moored within its ontological structure.

Epistemology in African Thought: Theory and Language

This work presents epistemology in African thought system as it is informed by theory and language. Numerous problems faced in Africa on how we know what we know and the power of sustaining knowledge becomes clearer as we define knowledge in the question of ontology and metaphysics. The African nations have been termed as not been able to produce written historical documents until recent times. This thought seems to downgrade African theory of knowledge even with it deep seated languages of meaning. To foster an understanding of African theory of knowledge, we employ African epistemology in theory and in language which informed ontology and metaphysics. This work utilizes primary and secondary sources while deploying any useful materials and journals articles on African theory of knowledge, language, ontology and metaphysics. This study linked up the African theory of knowledge with historical search that connect African thought system as we found that African epistemology lies in and beneath the statuesque of African though system. We conclude that in the context of Africa epistemology in theory and language, each culture have a philosophical position that are articulated by its gifted individuals in any given society. Keywords: Epistemology, Theory, Knowledge, Language, Africa, Ontology, Metaphysics DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/69-04 Publication date: June 30th 2020

Instrumentalizing and Naturalizing Social Ontology: Replies to Lohse and Little

This article addresses Simon Lohse’s and Daniel Little’s responses to my article “Is Social Ontology Prior to Social Scientific Methodology?.” In that article, I present a pragmatic and deflationary view of the priority of social ontology to social science methodology where social ontology is valued for its ability to promote empirical success and not because it yields knowledge of what furnishes the social world. First, in response to Lohse, I argue that my view is compatible with a role for ontological theorizing in the social sciences. However, the view that results instrumentalizes social ontology. Second, in my response to Little, I argue that the same considerations I made in my article apply to naturalistic attempts to motivate a non-deflationary view, repeating some of the central issues of that article.

The important of Ontology to Public Administration

Metaphysics, as we understand, is a philosophical enterprise that deals with the nature of the ultimate reality. However, this is a sweeping conception; we can say metaphysics, is concerned with the nature of reality as well as problems of existence which is more appropriately considered under ontological discussions. Thus, there have been questions on whether ontology has vital importance in human practical dealings. This paper aims to show the importance of ontology in administration. The work analysis some existing philosophers' postulation on the importance of ontology in public administration. This work agrees with most philosophers on the ontological abstract theories that have some bearing on the ethical and practical issues. It defends this position by analysing unique cases of humane administration; that metaphysical thesis, theories, and conceptions are equally important in resolving real-life cases. The research is carried out with the philosophical method of textual analysis.

Spatialization of Time from the Perspective of Information Philosophy

The spatialization mechanism of time is one of the important ways to explore the essence of time. The theory of cognitive linguistics holds that metaphor and metonymy are two ways of the spatialization of time concept. However, from the perspective of information philosophy, the above research only stays at the level of regenerative temporal and spatial information (concept) and does not trace back to the source of objective ontology to explain the spatialization process of time. According to the ontology theory of information philosophy, information can be divided into three different forms and the concept is just the third form of information. Thus, we can analyze the spatialization process of time under the objective time and space, in-itself, for-self, and regenerative space-time information form, revealing the inevitability spatialization of human’s perception of time. This informational perspective shows the ontological source of the human’s perception of “past, present, and future” and deepens the study of the essence of time.

Social Ontology De-dramatized

The article responds to Richard Lauer’s (2019) “Is Social Ontology Prior to Social Scientific Methodology?” The article concurs that “social ontology matters” for the conduct of research and theory in social science. It argues, however, that neither of the interpretations of the status of social ontology offered by Lauer is satisfactory (either apriori philosophical realism or pragmatist anti-realism). The article argues for a naturalized, fallibilist, and realist interpretation of the claims of social ontology and presents the field of social ontology as the most abstract edge of social-science theorizing, subject to broad empirical constraints. The approach taken is anti-foundationalist in both epistemology and metaphysics. Ontological theorizing is part of the extended scientific enterprise of understanding the social world. Claims about the nature of the social world are not different in kind from more specific sociological claims about social class or individual rationality, to be justified ultimately by the coherence and explanatory success of the theories they help to create. At the same time, it is justified to treat the claims of social ontology as provisionally true, which supports a realist interpretation of the findings of social ontology.

Intuitions on the Individuation of Musical Works. An Empirical Study

Abstract Philosophers often consider better compliance with prevalent pre-theoretical intuitions to be an advantage of a theory of ontology of musical works. However, despite many predictions of what these intuitions on relevant questions might be, so far there is only one experimental philosophy study on the repeatability of musical works by Christopher Bartel. We decided to examine the intuitions concerning the individuation of musical works by creating scenarios reflecting the differences in the positions of musical ontologists: pure and timbral sonicism, instrumentalism, and contextualism. The results show that emotional expressivity, instrument, timbre, and images evoked in the listeners were not considered as properties individuating musical works. However, the musical works were held to be different if the composers were different. In most cases, the participants had clear intuitions. Pure sonicism, complemented with additional stress on significance of the composer’s creativity, seems to be the most intuitive position.

An ontic–ontological theory for ethics of designing social robots: a case of Black African women and humanoids

Given the affective psychological and cognitive dynamics prevalent during human–robot-interlocution, the vulnerability to cultural-political influences of the design aesthetics of a social humanoid robot has far-reaching ramifications. Building upon this hypothesis, I explicate the relationship between the structures of the constitution social ontology and computational semiotics, and ventures a theoretical framework which I proposes as a thesis that impels a moral responsibility on engineers of social humanoids. In distilling this thesis, the implications of the intersection between the socio-aesthetics of racialised and genderised humanoids and the phenomenology of human–robot-interaction are illuminated by the figuration of the experience of a typical black rural African woman as the user, that is, an interlocutor with an industry-standard socially-situated humanlike robot. The representation of the gravity of the psycho-existential and socio-political ramifications of such woman’s life with humanoids is abstracted and posited as grounds that illustrate the imperative for roboticists to take socio-ethical considerations seriously in their designs of humanoids.

ON THE THEME OF LIBERATED LOVE AND GLOBAL FEMINIST DISCOURSE

My exploration of the work of Pamela Sue Anderson focuses on what she calls “a philosophical imaginary” in her article “Towards a New Philosophical Imaginary,” in which she responds to Judith Butler’s theory of relational ontology and vulnerability. Anderson’s project is to recast the term vulnerable, which is often associated with feminine weakness, as a positive energy. Critiquing Western myths that portray women as less empowered than men, as in Mary Midgley’s reference to Minerva and Owl that denigrates women as other, according to the Lacanian imaginary, Anderson strikes at the root of Western patriarchy. In contrast, she adduces Michèle Le Doeuff’s contemporary myth on Dawn, adapted from the Spanish philosopher Zambrano’s figure of Dawn, and offers us a new paradigm where Dawn’s heart expresses a new framework of love that is liberated from sex/gender discrimination. Although Anderson believed in Kantian philosophy, she did not hesitate to question the limitations of it. In this context, I also discuss the modern Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo’s theory of supramental consciousness, the French philosopher Henri Bergson’s theory of intuition, and the ways in which Anderson’s theory of love is grounded in spiritual transformative practice, following Paul Fiddes. Other attractions of Anderson’s essay are the nuances of postcolonial discourse. I explore ways in which the theory of relational ontology proposed by Judith Butler intersects with the Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen’s theory of capability/justice.