Philosophical Discipline Research Articles

Experiencia y vivencia. Dimensiones estéticas desde el pensamiento pedagógico de Gabriela Mistral

El presente artículo propone una reflexión sobre la importancia de la estética como disciplina filosófica en la educación. En este trabajo, hemos optado por los filósofos Hans-Georg Gadamer, de la escuela hermenéutica, y John Dewey, del pragmatismo, con el objetivo de interpretar y analizar, desde sus dimensiones estéticas, experiencia y vivencia, juego, símbolo y fiesta, y la riqueza estética en el pensamiento educativo de Gabriela Mistral. La discusión bibliográfica propuesta como método se justifica en tanto pretende reflexionar sobre la formación en la sensibilidad de quienes participan de todo proceso pedagógico. La novedad radica en que, conjuntamente, filosofía y estética comprenden y proyectan la belleza de las acciones que concluyen en mirar nuestros procesos pedagógicos, más allá de la gestión u otro proceso administrativo, como un elemento de humanidad presente en lo propio de lo humano.

ГЕРМЕНЕВТИКА Х.-Г. ГАДАМЕРА ЯК ФІЛОСОФІЯ МОВИ

The sequential development of H.-G. Gadamer philosophical doctrine of language as the basis of its philosophical hermeneutics. The various stages of representations of the language are analyzed in connection with the criticism of the instrumental approach and understanding of the language as the foundation of historical discourse and poetic creativity. The latter is considered as the pre-reflexive basis of the language, a fundamental expression of its essence. Moreover, artistic experience is presented as a procedure for knowing the truth, to the extent that this experience contains understanding, it itself is a hermeneutical phenomenon.The linguistic turn, which marked one of the turning points in the development of modern philosophy, led to the formulation of a fundamentally new question about the essence of language. We are, of course, not talking about some kind of planned event or about any single process that coincides in its characteristics, or is something close to different philosophical directions. It is difficult to say how correctly it is to compare interest in language within the framework of linguistic philosophy and the phenomenological school, in the framework of which the development of hermeneutics took place.The latter, from a method that was essentially intended to serve historical-philological and religious discourse, hermeneutics has evolved into an independent philosophical discipline that reflects the very essence of metaphysical issues. First of all, this change is connected with the development of the phenomenological tradition, and especially with the works of M. Heidegger, who was able to free hermeneutics from the excessive influence of theories of language and to base it on metaphysical inquiry. This, of course, does not mean that the language itself has been given to philosophical oblivion; it is only a matter of changing the accents and research attitudes.This task, in our opinion, was set and largely solved by H.-G. Gadamer, in any case, if we accept his theoretical assumption about the transcendence of the meaning of the interpreter.Gadamer interprets the hermeneutic phenomenon very broadly, in which he sees the integral unity of the three aspects – understanding, interpretation and application. Gadamer argues for their inseparability, an actual identity: understanding is always an interpretation and always implies an application of what is to be understood. The concept of application in Gadamer outlines the limits of the phenomenon to be interpreted and establishes the fact that all phenomena of spiritual culture in a particular situation must be understood differently.

The Survey of International Symposium “The Legacy of Kazimierz Twardowski” (24th-26th October 2019, Warsaw)

International Symposium “The Legacy of Kazimierz Twardowski” was organized by Committee of Philosophical Disciplines, Polish Academy of Sciences; Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw; Institute of Philosophy, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz; Kazimierz Twardowski’s Philosophical Society of Lviv, was held in Warsaw.

Interdisciplinary Approach as One of the Most Effective Approaches of Teaching Philosophical Disciplines (Overview of International Internships in the Scientific-Educational Program “Philosophy & Economics” at the University of Bayreuth, Germany)

The purpose of the overview is to illustrate the didactic, pedagogical, scientific aspects of the relevance of an interdisciplinary approach in teaching philosophical disciplines, using the example of the Master’s and Bachelor’s Programs «Philosophy & Economics» at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. The organizational structure and educational process of the «Philosophy &

African Identity, Cultural Knowledge and the Imperative of Endogenous Development for Africa

Abstract The search for knowledge is a fact of any human society in the quest for development, as it is in the nature of human species to do so. This is geared towards humanisation of the society in the attainment of positive social change, which cannot be realised without adequate and informed knowledge from the culture of the people. This form of knowledge is seen from the identity of the people, focusing on the social change of their society. The creation of a national consciousness is a crucial component of the society as it (consciousness) presupposes identity, seen as the heart of any culture that motivates the collective common goal of the people. This paper, using the analytic methodology in the philosophical discipline, therefore argues that the acceptance of cultural knowledge from the platform of its identity in the quest for development in Africa is a conditio sine qua non.

What Makes Epistemic Injustice an “Injustice”?

What Makes Epistemic Injustice an “Injustice”?

Field Philosophy: Practice and Theory

ABSTRACT Field philosophy marks out a new path for 21st century philosophy, offering both a practical and theoretical alternative to disciplinary philosophy. The balance between disciplinary philosophy and field philosophy shifted in the late 19th century: philosophers were now almost entirely to be found in one location – on campus. Contemporary philosophy has not theorized the effects that location have on philosophizing. Field philosophy rebalances the philosophical ledger – reestablishing a multiplicity of sites, identifying a new practice, and offering an accompanying theory rooted in the differences that location makes to philosophizing.

Peculiarities of using of the Moodle test tools in philosophy teaching

The paper considers the role of philosophy and philosophical disciplines as the means of forming general cultural competences, in particular, in the development of critical thinking. The article emphasizes that the process of forming over-subject and soft skills, which, as a rule, include also critical thinking, gets much more complicated under the conditions of the reduction in the volume of philosophical courses. The paper grounds that one of the ways to “return” philosophy to educational programmes can be the implementation of training, using the e-learning environment, especially Moodle. In addition, authors point to the expediency of using this system and, in general, e-learning as an instrument for collaborating students to the world’s educational community and for developing their lifelong learning skills. The article specifies the features of providing electronic support in philosophy teaching, to which the following belongs: the difficulty of parametrizing the learning outcomes; plurality of approaches; communicative philosophy. The paper highlights the types of activities that can be implemented by tools of Moodle. The use of the following Moodle test tasks is considered as an example: test control in the flipped class, control of work with primary sources, control of self-study, test implementation of interim thematic control. The authors conclude that the Moodle system can be used as a tools of online support for the philosophy course, but it is impossible to transfer to the virtual space all the study of this discipline, because it has a significant worldview load. Forms of training, directly related to communication, are integral part of the methodology of teaching philosophy as philosophy itself is discursive, dialogical, communicative and pluralistic. Nevertheless, taking into account features of the discipline, it is possible to provide not only the evaluation function of the test control, but also to realize a number of educational functions: updating the basic knowledge, memorization, activating the cognitive interest, developing the ability to reason and the simpler ones but not less important, – the skill of getting information and familiarization with it.

THE HUMANITIES THROUGH ARCHITECTURE

Architecture has taken various impression and expression of what it is and its intent through the perspective of man, by the reflection of the place and its existence through time. The architecture being viewed as humanities was one progressive perspective by man, spanning from the period when buildings were erected in the past to the present. Architecture is a peculiar public art with buildings having a social function, and many buildings have public interface. The paper discusses architecture as discipline, which personifies man as the important entity and is define through primary humanistic disciplines philosophy, history, language, literature and theology .The appropriate conclusive contention is to view architecture through the atmosphere of humanities which affirms meaning and purpose to modern science, rather than merely comprising a series of supplementary fields of intellectual enquiry, alongside with scientific counterparts.

Problematization of Modern Philosophical Anthropology and Prospects of its Development

Introduction. The paper is devoted to the problematization, updating and analysis of the development prospects of modern philosophical anthropology. The author seeks to clearly define the concept, status and position of philosophical anthropology among philosophical disciplines, identifying problems in this area, including those associated with the concept of "death of man". Methodology and sources. The condition, the complex and ambiguous path of development of philosophical and anthropological knowledge throughout the XX century is examined in detail. For the further productive development of philosophical anthropology, the need for its critical problematization is recognized. Special attention is devoted to the relationship between the philosophical anthropology of Max Scheler and the fundamental ontology of Martin Heidegger. Results and discussion. Multiple methods of understanding philosophical anthropology and determining its semantic horizon are distinguished, which complicates the meaningful concretization of this discipline in the 20th century. The author of the paper emphasizes that philosophical anthropology, if it wants to be philosophia prima, should not abandon the ontological context, but strive to create a new, personalized oriented ontology, actualizing the person's personal understanding. For this, it is necessary to critically take into account the experience of the Orthodox understanding of personality in Byzantine patristics, Russian religious philosophy, phenomenology, the philosophy of Scheler and Heidegger, and even the works of French philosophers of the second half of the 20th century, primarily M. Foucault, who developed the chain of "death of man", but in his later works he approached a new, productive understanding of man. Conclusion. Modern philosophical anthropology should critically rethink the history of its development and open up to the urgent problems of modernity, for example, intersubjectivity, the philosophy of communication, and especially visuality, presented in the form of a productive aesthetics of the human image. The author expresses a cautious hope that philosophical anthropology can become a locomotive for the development of all modern philosophy.

Plagiarism in the Sacred Sciences

This article diagnoses the problem of plagiarism in academic books and articles in the disciplines of philosophy and theology. It identifies three impediments to institutional reform. They are: (1) a misplaced desire to preserve personal and institutional reputations; (2) a failure to recognize that attribution in academic writing admits of degrees; and (3) a disproportionate emphasis on the so-called “intention to plagiarize.” A detailed case study provides an illustration of the need for institutional reform in the post-publication processes in the disciplines of philosophy and theology.

What Philosophical Aesthetics Can Learn from Applied Anthropology

Through a detailed case study of investigations on beauty, I demonstrate that a thoughtful consideration of empirical evidence can lead to the disclosure of the fundamental assumptions entrenched in a philosophical discipline. I present a contrastive examination of two empirically oriented approaches to art and beauty, namely, the anthropology of art and the anthropology of aesthetics. To capture these two different ways of interpreting the available evidence, I draw upon a debate between Alfred Gell and Jeremy Coote on the understanding of beauty and art in the Dinka community. Following Gell, I reveal that the Western-centric predilection of Coote, who uses traditional aesthetic categories, leads to his failure to grasp the functional and causal roles of beauty in the social relations of the Dinka. In more general terms, my study reveals the inherent limitations of aesthetics as developed in the Western tradition and its Kantian legacy. Being steadily driven towards purely abstract and speculative concepts, such as ‘work of art,’ Western aesthetics has lost the ability to account for the causal role of beauty in social relations. By contrasting this approach with Gell’s anthropological approach to art, I indicate those fundamental assumptions of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline that apparently confine it to a particular cultural context, compromising its ability to account for the universal human condition. As my study illustrates, this limitation could be overcome by a thoughtful and unprejudiced examination of empirical evidence.

History of Science: Projects and Realities

The article analyzes the key methodological problems of the contemporary research in the field of the history of science. It is shown that in the 18th and 19th centuries works on the history of science demonstrated the difficult paths of scientists to the heights of scientific discoveries. The positivism of the 19th century has opened the field of the philosophy of science, emphasizing the crucial role of scientific knowledge for the development of civilization. The history of science is fundamental for the justification of this thesis. However, in the 20th century, the history of science has solved mainly applied problems. It was necessary as a cursory review of the main achievements of various scientific disciplines arranged in chronological order. In fact, the history of science was based on the cumulative concept of the development of science. The criticism of cumulatism and the fight against anti-historical stereotypes emerged thanks to T. Kuhn. Later, the criticism of presentism in the community of science historians has become the main methodology for reconstructing the development of cognition. It is shown in the paper that the history of science was closely connected with the philosophy of science. However, genuine cooperation between philosophers and historians of science had not yet occurred. The situation has changed with the advent of a new philosophical discipline – historical epistemology.

The Concept of Argument in Philosophy as a Threshold for Learners

It is commonplace for undergraduate students to find certain concepts inherent to the disciplines of study troublesome. While some concepts are troublesome simply because they represent new vocabulary for the students, other concepts are troublesome in a more significant sense. Concepts of this kind are troublesome because they highlight an aspect of the deep structure of the discipline, a way of thinking and inquiry, that the students are likely to find strange and even, counter-intuitive, relative to their own pre-existing conceptual frameworks. In this paper, I will argue that the concept of ‘argument’ in the discipline of philosophy, is one such concept. To make the case for this, I will be drawing upon a relatively new and important framework for inquiry into troublesome disciplinary concepts, known as “threshold concept theory” (Meyer and Land 2006, 2008). In addition, I propose to consider the implications, in terms of the design of curriculum and pedagogy for the philosophy classroom, of conceiving argument in threshold concept terms.

Why I Publish in “Predatory” Journals—and Why You Should, Too

This article has two purposes. The first is to explain why, after 38 years of publishing in “reputable” academic journals, I have decided to publish exclusively in what critics call “predatory” journals. The adjective “predatory” is singularly inapt in this context, for the true predators (i.e., exploiters, oppressors, plunderers) are wealthy multinational publishing corporations who treat researchers and authors as slave laborers. The second purpose is to advocate that other academics (especially those in my own discipline of philosophy) follow my lead. Keyword: Philosophy; Academia; Publishing; Periodicals; Exploitation; Justice; Oppression

Открытия в науке и познавательный прогресс в философии

For a long time discoveries were recognized only in natural sciences. We can talk about “discoveries” in the social sciences only in some other sense. At the same time the accumulation of general theoretical knowledge in economics and sociology is not in doubt. Eleven criteria of “positive knowledge” (respectively, “discoveries” when such knowledge is first acquired) are formulated. Three groups of scientific and philosophical disciplines with similar indicators according to these criteria are distinguished. In philosophy (with the exception of logic and analytical philosophy) it is difficultto talk about discoveries and knowledge due to the lack of agreement regarding any non-trivial judgments with a philosophical level of generality and abstractness. At the same time the development of philosophy is more than the accumulation of ideas as optional opinions. To solve this difficulty the metaphor of “a lock” (obstacles to cognition), “a key” (intellectual means selected and created to obtain reliable knowledge) and “a view” (holistic meaningful image on “opening different doors”) was used. Even if philosophy does not produce full-fledged discoveries and generally accepted knowledge it progressively develops its ideas as heuristic “keys” for scientific research and as “views” that generalize heterogeneous, accumulated scientific knowledge connecting them with changing self-consciousness and values in human generations.

Философско-методологические основания психологии: проблемы и пути их решения

At the beginning of its formation psychology used to be a philosophical discipline; permanent methodological crisis started along with psychology standing apart as a separate science. The common questions that defined methodological crisis of psychology are its philosophical foundation and subject of study. This article contains information about one of the attempts to find a solution to listed problems on materials of the history of Russian psychology. The path of psychology formation on a basis of Marxist philosophy wasn’t easy; there were many debates and arguments upon a subject. This way wasn’t a coincidence, it was conditioned both social processes and inner logic of this science development. The chosen historical example shows the connection between philosophy and psychology. This connection back there was reasoned by the fact that at first there was a need to defend the materialistic approach to the understanding of psychological. Currently, the question of the philosophical basis of psychology is being ignored, though in the Soviet era for a short period this crisis was overcome and methodology that was constructed allowed to achieve expected results. The methodological crisis arose again with the political system being demolished. Pluralistic methodological positions that existed afterwards couldn’t grand the actual solution, they only acknowledged the existence of a multiplicity of psychologies. One of the alternatives to further development would be the construction of an independent discipline going by the name of a philosophy of psychology. Psychology needs philosophical conceptualization and a view from the meta on its history and future evolution. This discipline can stop arguments that went on for years. We though suppose that the construction of this discipline needs full scientific cooperation including support from those who work in the field of psychology, philosophy and methodology. Constructing unified methodological and communicative space on a basis of the philosophy of psychology can help with solutions to practical tasks such as the question of consciousness or the development of artificial intelligence.

Peirce’s Classification of the Sciences

Charles Peirce’s classification of the sciences was designed shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. The classification has two main sources of inspiration: Comte’s science classification and Kant’s theoretical philosophy. Peirce’s classification, like that of Comte, is hierarchically organised in that the more general and abstract sciences provide principles for the less general and more concrete sciences. However, Peirce includes and assigns a superordinate role to philosophical disciplines which analyse and provide logical, methodological and ontological principles for the specialised sciences, and which are based on everyday life experience. Moreover, Peirce recognises two main branches of specialised empirical science: the natural sciences, on the one hand, and the social sciences, the humanities and psychology on the other. While both branches share logical and methodological principles, they are based on different ontological principles in studying physical nature and the human mind and its products, respectively. Peirce’s most basic philosophical discipline, phenomenology, transforms his early engagement with Kant. Peirce’s classification of aesthetics, ethics and logic as normative sub-disciplines of philosophy relate to his philosophical pragmatism. Yet his more overarching division between theoretical (philosophical and specialised) sciences and practical sciences may be seen as problematic. Taking Peirce’s historical account of scientific developments into consideration, however, I argue that his science classification and its emphasis on the interdependencies between the sciences could be seen as sustaining and supporting interdisciplinarity and interaction across fields of research, even across the divide between theoretical and practical sciences.

Теоретико-методологическое проблемное поле российского проекта цивилизационного развития

The authors in a discussion manner raise a series of questions of a theoretical and methodological nature that constitute the problem field of the research megaproject “The Russian of civilizational development: philosophical foundations”. In particular, they highlight several issues that need to be discussed in order to the implementation of the project. First, they argue that it is important to discuss the dependence of the used theoretical and methodological tools on the research identity of the philosopher. Then, according to the authors, representatives of all philosophical disciplines need to be included into the discussion and implementation of the project. The authors emphasize the significance of the scientific content of the concept of project that also needs to be under discussion. Among the questions related to the implementation of the the authors also highlight the following ones: the nature of self-determination of Russia in the system of cultural-civilizational types; ambiguities in the interpretation of the content, forms and types of civilization development, including in relation to Russia; the variety of meanings of understanding the Russian of civilizational development and the possibilities of their integration; the presence and collision of various civilization projects and subprojects of civilizational development with the prospect of developing an appropriate standard project.The authors conclude that currently there are no actual civilization development projects, but the need for them is beginning to be realized. The emergence of this need among various actors of the world community is explained by the completion of a certain cycle of world-historical development. Such a need is marked by the concepts of “limits of growth” and “clash of civilizations” at the global level and expresses the situation of resource limitations that characterizes spontaneously developed models of civilizational development. In this situation, the concept of sustainable development put forward by the UN as claiming universal status does not solve the problem, since it, like its alternatives, relies on local civilization experience, not eliminating the clash of civilizations, but translating it into the plane of their dialogue.The authors raise the question of the appropriateness of developing the “Russian Philosophical Development Project: Civilizational Foundations”. They substantiate its relevance, firstly, by the presence of philosophical identity in specific civilizations, secondly, by the formation in a clash of civilizations, the prospects for rivalry of different philosophical traditions as the basis for projects of local and global civilization development, and thirdly, by an increase in geopolitical significance in the modern world of interaction of philosophical traditions.

«Why» and «how» philosophy is needed today : methodological and ppsychological aspects

The article reflects some approaches of methodological and psychological nature to the teaching of philosophy in institutions of both high and general secondary education. The question of the introduction of effective methods of teaching philosophy was examined. It is actually from the point of persuasion of a modern complicated cultural situation in Ukraine and the world. This is equally important for the formation of spiritually developed personality, which is characterized by dialectical, systemic, strategic thought, the desire to create and develop oneself. The analysis of modern distance learning methods and the possibility of their application in the teaching process with the justification of the criterion of maximum usefulness and appropriate practical application, considering the skills required of a highly professional modern specialist. Among the latter, in particular, emphasis is placed on the development of some that are considered key and are a direct subject of reflection in the field of philosophy, such as "critical thinking" and "analytical thinking and innovation." The expediency of using such a type of work as an essay is considered and proposed as the most effective development of these qualities. There is a separate opinion that philosophy can be called with some caution a discipline, the study of which sometimes goes hand in hand with both psychological problems and serious mental illnesses, as well as the mental health of the individual. On the basis of the author's experience of teaching philosophical disciplines, future specialists of the relevant specialty-teachers of secondary education institutions are invited to show the beauty of a harmonious (dialectical) combination of opposites on examples from the field of their profile. Thus, in particular, the beauty of the construction of the oxymoron - philologists, the fight against Aikido - specialists in physical education, "psychological Aikido" - psychologists, so-called techniques. "TOSIP" (theories of solving inventive problems) - students of natural sciences, etc. The conclusions, in particular, state that teaching will thus be able to develop the above-mentioned certain qualities in future teachers of general secondary education, and they, in turn, will be able to develop them in their students.