Epistemological Perspective Research Articles

Linguistic modality acts in existential semiotics: the epistemological turn from “being-in-the-world” awareness to “lived-through-world” experience

Abstract Against the background of deliberations about the conception of worldhood as developed in existential semiotics on the basis of linguistic modality acts, this paper proposes merging mundane and transcendentalist phenomenology with epistemology as a theory of knowledge, in general, that alludes to pragmatic sources of human knowledge about the world, in particular. From the epistemological perspective, the reality of the human “life-world” is considered not only as a static position of the individual subject’s being-in-the-world, but also as his/her/its experience of living-the-world or things-of-the-world. Against the background of epistemology, defined in terms of ontological and gnoseological assessments pertaining to the knowledge of how things exist and how they are cognitively accessible, and epistemology as an activity of acquiring knowledge about an object of cognition, the author puts forward a hypothetical deductive scaffold of the linguistically and phenomenologically rooted documentary epistemology of practice, which refers to the practicing researchers’ knowledge as a set of texts created for the purposes of communicating in the first person about the awareness of lived word-ness and lived sign-ness of the transmedial and multimodal means and ways of how the world is perceived.

Support worker’s experiences of self-disclosure within domestic abuse support services and women’s voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organizations: a qualitative enquiry

ABSTRACT This article examines the experiences of self-disclosure of women’s support workers within domestic abuse support organizations in England. This research considers the voice of women support workers from a feminist epistemological perspective using thematic analysis , and invites the consideration of who decides readiness to work in the sector, and the appropriateness of organizations making this decision for women who wish to work in the milieu of domestic abuse support work. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were held with twelve women support workers who identified their lived experience of surviving domestic abuse. Three key themes were generated through thematic analysis (ibid.): women’s choice in making a disclosure regarding lived experience, the impact of non-disclosure policies of women’s organizations on practitioners and the sense of hope emanating from practitioners with lived experience of domestic abuse. The findings from this study make a useful contribution to an under-researched and overlooked area within research on violence against women, that of the women who undertake such vital work in the sector.

Exploring the role of first language in ecological awareness and communication across Pakistan: A mixed method study

The present study proposes a linguistic habitat that may evoke people's first language (L1) to support a better understanding of current environmental catastrophes and address one pathway to support solution finding. A purposive participant sample consisted of 25 undergraduate students majoring in linguistics was selected to provide input regarding how their first language (Balochi, Balti, Pashto, Punjabi, and Sindhi) might approach ecological problems and consider its role in promoting ecosolidarity. While considering the epistemological perspectives offered by ecolinguistics, the qualitative data were analyzed to determine linguistic resources (words and structures) employed by the participants to describe aspects of the environmental crisis. As an element of the analysis, findings were also explored through quantitative percentages of representation. Findings revealed that while describing the natural environment in Urdu and English, the two official, and dominant languages of Pakistan, the participants often borrowed words and used structures that did not connect directly to first language terminology. This situation not only may result in misunderstandings and misinterpretation of subsequent actions for change, but it also suggests that multiple world voices as native speaker tongues may not have played an integral role in messaging to a broad population of speakers across Pakistan. The study suggests that purposeful, ecological language planning and the application of ecological content to local languages should be part of the ecological dialogue because they have the potential to promote deeper understanding at individual and collective societal levels.

Survival versus sustaining: A multidisciplinary inquiry of the environmental dilemma in rural Uganda

AbstractThe livelihoods of the majority of Uganda's population depend on declining environmental resources. The sustainability of the natural environment requires that the people who are interdependent with it, as well as the structures of governance and leadership around them, understand the implications of resource degradation and take deliberate steps towards restoration. The interdependency of human and environment conditions in Uganda requires multidisciplinary attention and this paper reflects a contribution to this end. Socio‐cultural perceptions and relations with a vulnerable environment are put into dialogue with the physical status of environmental resources in Alebtong District, Uganda. Southern epistemological perspectives are considered in relation to Western scientific paradigms. Culturally responsive socio‐cultural research data are related to MODIS NDVI data, using time series analyses and NDVI as a proxy for productivity. The research confirms the declining availability and condition of natural resources and the acknowledgement of local influence on this condition. Despite this, deliberate community and governance efforts towards conservation and restoration varied from non‐existent to insufficient. The causes for this inconsistency revolve around conflicting priorities. This paper demonstrates and discusses the difficult trade‐offs in decision‐making about natural resources that rural communities face, and supports new partnership models as a route to improvement.

A Review of Current Evaluation Urban Sustainability Indicator Frameworks and a Proposal for Improvement

This paper addresses the link between data, metrics, and the paths from cause to effect in urban sustainability and livability frameworks. The first section thoroughly discusses the different existing frameworks for evaluating sustainability and livability goals for urban communities. In the results section, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of a comprehensive list of frameworks that evaluate sustainability and livability in cities is elaborated, with a thorough post-process of the different schemes from an epistemological perspective to analyze the subjectivities implicit in any urban-level sustainability framework. Finally, in the discussion section, two main aspects are tackled. The first is the development of a proposal for a set of indicators that incorporates the best of the different frameworks analyzed. The second aspect deals with the methodology of implementation of these frameworks. Here, the authors point out the weaknesses of current urban-level sustainability frameworks and their main components, and they propose a set of criteria to overcome the different detected gaps. All these steps have helped the authors establish a clear roadmap for developing the platform TOOLS4Cities that can help set a future reference methodology for urban sustainability evaluation.

The Role of Strategic Awareness in Developing the Practice of Strategic Foresight in Business Organizations -Epistemological Perspective-

Current research aimed at investigating the role of strategic awareness in developing the practice of strategic foresight in business organizations; in an attempt to cope with an intellectual dilemma summarized in that the practice of strategic foresight is still very limited in business organizations in general and in Arab business organizations in particular, for three reasons, first: its novelty and lacking its awareness; second: anxiety towards the future; third: nature of consideration to the future. Furthermore, to achieve the foregoing, the qualitative approach was used employing the epistemological prospective, because this prospective fathoms on rooting the knowledge for exploring factors, variables, and dimensions affecting the stimulation to use the strategic foresight, and reduce the barriers to practicing this prospective in the lived reality thru stimulating out-of-the-box thinking on the one hand, and increase the cognitive movement sensibly, analytically, critically, synthetically, and evaluative on the other hand. Yet, as for the study sample, it was purposive consisting of many studies, literature, documents, and documented experiments that were predetermined and purposively. However, the research reached a number of conclusions most notably: that strategic awareness plays a (synergistic) role to strategic foresight from the realism simulation perspective. This research depends on the reliable knowledge already gathered from people of knowledge and books. Whereas, strategic awareness plays the (influential) role of strategic awareness from the rationalism simulation perspective which uses logical knowledge that inquires into the fact thru knowing the cause. The research has presented several recommendations first of which: the necessity to invest in the relation of strategic awareness with strategic foresight to activate the synergistic role thru stimulating critical thinking where this type of thinking would help in developing the area of strategic foresight. As well as to activate the influential role thru developing creative thinking, because this thinking encourages the detection of new relations, the adoption of authentic solutions, and the capability to sense problems.

Who cares about coral? The biological species concept and ‘cumulative intrinsic value’ in cross-cultural perspective

This paper examines the intrinsic and instrumental value of corals, and coral reefs, from the epistemological perspectives of Western conservation biologists and Pacific coastal fishers. It uses data on local language names (‘folk taxonomies’) from several language groups to understand the salience, or perceived value, of corals and coral reef fishes for the speakers of those languages. In all of the folk taxonomies examined, there are very few local language names for corals or reef-associated fishes in the most species-rich families (gobies, blennies, damselfishes, and butterflyfishes). This is interesting particularly because one of the primary rationales for Western conservation interest in Indo-Pacific coral reefs is the ‘cumulative intrinsic value’ of the large number of biological species associated with these ecosystems, irrespective of their other values, including fishery production. The ‘weight’ of this cumulative intrinsic value underpins a moral mandate for transnational conservation intervention, typically in the form of marine protected areas, most of which impose a short- to medium-term economic cost on people who are already very poor. The related and widely used Western cultural construct of ‘iconic’ is also investigated. The paper examines various implications of the large differences between Western scientific and Pacific Islander attributions of value to corals and coral reef ecosystems, including in the context of their importance for fishery production and food (or nutrition) security. I also discuss the apparent lack of (a) reflexivity about the social construction of science and (b) curiosity about the environmental knowledge and values of Indo-Pacific coastal fishers, among many in the Western transnational conservation community.

A critique of transnational research on subjectivation from the perspective of postcolonial epistemology

The article shows how modern subject constitutions and postcolonial relations of white dominance are systematically reproduced in school contexts. Postcolonial critique is thus revealed as an analytical strategy to focus on processes of transnationalization in schools (through internationalization and immigration). The empirical foundation of this article is formed by two qualitative research projects that show different variants of interactive and performative entanglement of school actors in colonial knowledge orders and their subjectivizing logics of production in relations of power and recognition. Two case analyses illuminate different dimensions of how racialized subjects are produced and of postcolonial orders. These different projects illustrate the multi-perspectival complexity of how structures of differences are reproduced. The article also underlines the importance of an educational perspective on the dynamics of power, recognition, and subjectification in school orders. It concludes by briefly touching on possibilities for future reflection on perspectives of knowledge within orders characterized by the dominance of one culture and their relationality.

The dynamic nature of scientific knowledge: an epistemological look at the research activity of human hand anthropometry

This research focuses on analyzing the dynamic nature of scientific knowledge from an epistemological perspective, focusing specifically on anthropometric research of the human hand. The main objective of this study is to examine how knowledge is generated and evolves in this field, in the light of epistemological theories such as Lakatos'. Key concepts of epistemology and philosophy of science are addressed, including the theories of Lakatos, Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend. Subsequently, Lakatos' theory of Scientific Investigation Programs (SIPs) is applied to the field of hand anthropometry, identifying its fundamental core (which refers to the belief in the relevance of hand measurements) and its protective belt (comprising auxiliary theories and methods). It discusses how both heuristics and empirical evidence drive the evolution of knowledge in this field, also emphasizing the importance of creative inquiry, scientific debate, and methodological rigor. Ultimately, it is concluded that anthropometric research eloquently exemplifies the inherent dynamic nature of scientific knowledge.

Unraveling the frontier: A new look at the Inter-Korean border

Constantly shifting geopolitical-economic conditions of the Korean peninsula pose analytical challenges that existing approaches to the inter-Korean border have failed to address; they require a fresh epistemological perspective. The concept of a frontier, which has been widely employed in association with Western history, is helpful in elucidating these complexities. This paper claims that conflicting imperial interests and imperatives construct the inter-Korean border as a frontier. Once a geopolitical front line to recover lost territory and extend freedom, the inter-Korean border was relegated to the periphery as the Cold War order persisted. It was only after the early 2000s that a new geoeconomic vision of frontier was promoted in South Korean academia and policy circles. However, it is not a clear-cut transition but a more complicated competition between geopolitical and geoeconomic visions that has constructed the border in the form of a frontier. Examining the recent conflicts in border cities regarding the distribution of anti-North Korean leaflets across the border, this paper demonstrates that these imperial visions projected in the form of frontiers lay bare hope, profit, or desire but mask the suffering of local border people.

Perception of Bank Managers on the Use of Personal Social Media for Bank Product Promotion: A Narrative Study of Nepal

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, this qualitative narrative study uncovers the intricate perspectives of three Nepalese bank managers on the use of personal social media platforms to promote their bank's products and services. The most modern qualitative approach that focuses on life stories as the essence of people-oriented sciences is narrative study, therefore the study adopts an interpretivist epistemological perspective and a constructivist realism ontology, employing in-depth interviews to gather rich narratives from the participants. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed four prominent themes: Work-Life Balance, Belongingness, Enforced Instructions, and Boon and Bane. These themes offer theoretical insights into the complex interplay between personal and professional aspects in the context of digital marketing and organizational culture. The study provides valuable insights into how bank managers perceive the use of personal social media accounts for product promotion within Nepal's banking industry.

Principals' Ethical Leadership Perspectives: A Narrative Inquiry

Everyone's top priority is ethics because it is the foundation of a prosperous society. The educational system is responsible for cultivating, fostering, and strengthening ethical sensibilities in society. Respected as innovators, explorers, and transformers of ethical awareness are educators and principals. Unfortunately, they lack the maturity and confusion necessary to serve as examples. They receive criticism as a result of their various unethical actions. This paper presents stories of school principals from their leadership experiences while drawing on ethical school leadership. The primary goal of this paper is to examine three-dimensional lived experiences: care ethics, justice ethics, and critiques of ethical leadership. We mainly focused on the principals' professional backgrounds, performances, and epistemological perspectives regarding ethical leadership. In-depth interviews from protracted interviews were used to create narratives as part of interpretivist narrative inquiry—four principals specifically chosen from Kathmandu Valley institutional schools. The interpretations were verified by pertinent literature. This study examined how ethical leadership promotes fairness in society and schools by valuing individuals. Crossing the structural line to include and empower the followers also takes courage. This research clarified the nature of the school leadership phenomenon so that concerned authorities could enhance matters. Additionally, it might direct readers toward moral principles that could serve as a fundamental tenet.

An Interpretation of the Deep Disagreement between Plato and Protagoras from the Perspective of Contemporary Meta-Ethics and Political Epistemology

Since the early 20th century, two new disciplines emerged in the tradition of analytic philosophy: meta-ethics and political epistemology. Nevertheless, debates on such questions go back to the ancient Greeks and, in particular, to the debates between Plato and Protagoras. This article elucidates the controversy between Plato and the influential sophist Protagoras from the perspective of contemporary meta-ethics and political epistemology. It argues that the main motivation of Plato’s philosophical endeavors is to overcome Protagoras’s skeptical claims that no moral facts and no moral knowledge applicable to political issues exist. The paper defends the thesis that there exists a deep disagreement between Protagoras and Plato on the existence of moral facts and moral knowledge. A deep disagreement is a disagreement that cannot be resolved through the use of reasons and arguments. Applying the foundationalist approach Robert J. Fogelin proposes in his seminal paper “The Logic of Deep Disagreements”, this article argues that the deep disagreement between Protagoras and Plato exists because their political thought is based on “underlying principles” that clash. While Plato’s political philosophy rests on his religious and theological convictions, the political thought of Protagoras is based on his skepticism, relativism, and agnosticism.

Epistemology of Feelies. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and the Dream of Smell Media

The essay analyses from an epistemological point of view the functions of an imaginary medium, the feelies, namely some stereoscopic, tactile, and especially olfactory movies imagined by Aldous Huxley in the futuristic dystopia Brave New World (1932). Its main goal is to comprehend the identity, functions, and objectives of yesterday’s and today’s multisensory media. In this perspective, the essay reconstructs the cultural-historical horizon which produced Huxley’s imaginary entertainment, considering the three polarities which constitute a media dispositive in the perspective of media epistemology, i.e. machinery, representation, and spectator. With regard to the mechanical function of the fictional dispositive, its ability to catch sensory spheres such as smell and touch reflects the contemporary debate on media specificity, a discussion in which Huxley himself participated with a famous 1929 article. In the same way, the fictional feely Three Weeks in a Helicopter appears as a parodic pastiche which bears the marks of various cinematic paradigms of the time: especially early “cinema of attractions”, as well as film genres which communicate directly to the spectator’s unconscious. Finally, focusing on the imaginary spectator’s experience, the essay reconnects feelies to the cultural history of olfaction, a repressed sense whose media conquest coincides with a precise form of colonization of human subjectivity.

The transindividual right to health and the false dilemmas of individual freedom

This text aims to answer the question: is the mandatory vaccination imposed by the State in conflict with individual freedom? Given the recent scenario of health chaos resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the public, transindividual dimension of health was questioned by discourses based on the idea that people would have the right not to be vaccinated. Although the Brazilian legislation and the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court have settled the issue in favor of the mandatory vaccine, we seek to present the problem from an epistemological or hermeneutic perspective. In this sense, it is shown that, unless the legal community reviews its discourse about constitutional principles and fundamental rights, in other words, its understanding and methodology of application, such dichotomies that arise in the public debate and in the courts will persist as obstacles to the full realization of the democratic State of law and, particularly, the right to health. Received: 26/07/23 | Accepted: 04/09/23

Operational concepts in the history of embryology: methodological study

The aim of the present work is to discuss select concepts called by me “operational concepts.” Despite the fact that they were introduced to biological research from different epistemological perspectives, they have all played an important role in the development of embryology as a science. They have been useful cognitively in planning observations and biological experiments in the area of morphogenesis. They have constituted an essential causal element of theories explaining and describing the course of epigenetic processes.

Christian epistemology. How faith can shape and promote rationality

AbstractCan epistemology be shaped by the Christian faith? Is there anything specific to this faith that can give rise to an equally specific epistemology without compromising the autonomy that the latter requires from faith? In the footsteps of Aquinas's religious epistemology, I first focus on the fact that Christian faith seems to characterize intellectual activity in a way that appears to be irreconcilable with epistemological perspectives that are not shaped by faith. Second, I argue that it is possible to do justice to the irreconcilability in question by making reference to what radically distinguishes the Christian faith from the epistemological reflection. Finally, I focus on two ways in which the specific nature of Christian faith can shape and promote rationality, and give rise to a Christian epistemology.

Analysis the Nature of Logic: The Distinctions Between Logic and Mathematics

The paper aims to explore the distinctions between logic and mathematics. Logic and mathematics have always been important branches of human knowledge, closely related in many ways and with far-reaching consequences in areas such as science, technology and philosophy. Although logic and mathematics have much in common in terms of necessity, universality, a priori and a high degree of abstraction, leading to the belief that the two fields of study are identical, they are essentially two very different disciplines. While they do appear very similar owing to their universal necessity and independence from temporal and spatial constraints, logic and mathematics are, in essence, two very distinct disciplines. They can be strictly differentiated based on their focus and epistemological perspectives. This paper will first explain the fundamental concepts of mathematics and logic, then delve into the two main differences between logic and mathematics, and finally, point out the limitations in the study of mathematics and logic.

Therapists’ use of feedback from clients about Sensate Focus exercises: an interpretive description of therapists’ perspectives

Sensate Focus (SF) forms a core part of psychosexual therapy (PST) but in many respects is under researched. A literature review identified gaps in research including: how practitioners use language when asking for feedback, in particular about sensations and pleasure, and how they help clients deal with specific distractions and blockages arising from SF exercises. Sally Thorne’s Interpretative Description methodology was used for this study, using a social constructionist epistemology and interpretive theoretical perspective. Seven therapists were selected using purposive sampling and participated in semi-structured interviews, analysed using Template Analysis. The results identified two general approaches to dealing with feedback, characterised as “touch-centred” feedback and “broad-based” feedback, though the differences are ones of emphasis rather than a strict demarcation. Therapists are also divided about the value of asking clients about their experience of pleasure in SF exercises. Differences were found in the kinds of techniques used to address distractions and blockages and the extent to which Mindfulness is applied. Recommendations made relate to raising the profile of Mindfulness in training courses, giving greater emphasis to client note-taking after sensate focus exercises, and the need for further research into the language used by therapists when dealing with feedback.

Fact and Opinion

Our goal is to analyze the distinction between factual statements and opinions from a philosophical—specifically an epistemological—perspective. Section 1 reviews the most common criteria for drawing the distinction, which while inadequate, as explained in Section 2, still plays an important cultural and political role. In Section 3, we argue that the difference between factual statements and opinions does not involve a single criterion. Instead, the conceptual structure of the terms ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’ is analogous to that of natural kinds—terms with multiple dimensions. We expect that improved theory will lead to improvements in pedagogy, decision-making, and public discourse. But these consequences are not our chief focus.