Philosophical Methodology Research Articles

A MODERNIST MYSTIC: PHILOSOPHICAL ESSENCE AND POETIC METHOD IN GERDA WALTHER (1897–1977)*

AbstractThis article presents the work of the neglected philosopher and mystic Gerda Walther (1897–1977) as a work of modernist philosophy. It offers an analysis of Walther's two most important texts, Ein Beitrag zur Ontologie der sozialen Gemeinschaften (1922) and Zur Phänomenologie der Mystik (1923), written during Walther's involvement in the Freiburg and Munich circles of early phenomenologists. Analysis of these texts reveals a compelling, non‐discursive philosophical methodology in which mystical essences unfold as social and historical realities, rather than some ideal standing behind or beyond materiality. Walther offers a pragmatic and poetic vision of language that is inadequate in a representational sense, yet still capable of guiding us to philosophical redemption. In quoting the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, she displays a complex interrelation between poetic and philosophical language in her work. This article argues for a significant re‐orientation of emerging scholarship on Walther, with a focus on her language and textual strategies. It positions her work in terms of recent developments in scholarship around the connections between phenomenology and modernist literature.

The structure of hermeneutic experience

The applied aspects of philosophical hermeneutics in connection with the formation of a special hermeneutic space in modern humanitarian culture are considered. The concept of meaning and understanding inherent in the ancient philosophical tradition is analyzed, the terminological aspects of the concept of understanding in its practical plane are considered. The hermeneutic method and its use in the analysis of specific semantic formations is associated with the concept of metaphor, which can be considered as a mediastinum of hermeneutic experience.Hermeneutics is a special aspect or turn in the development of European philosophy, which includes all other levels: ontology, epistemology, transcendental phenomenology and language philosophy. It is language that is the source from which the very possibility of hermeneutics arises. Language is the medium of hermeneutic comprehension of the world and today we observe in modern philosophy the situation of the formation of hermeneutical environment, a special semantic space in which we comprehend all the philosophical systems of the past and present.The hermeneutics constantly raises the question: is understanding possible in principle? It is not even a matter of whether we can understand Hesiod or the Bible. The question is whether we can understand ourselves and what this actually means. How adequate is the expressed meaning to the subject himself? The fundamental basis of hermeneutics, its ability and its necessity is the presence of external and internal in a word, speech, sign, etc. The presence of hidden meaning, metaphoricality, connotations, polysemy, personal meaning, etc. – this makes hermeneutics possible, even regardless of its real achievements. Here the principles of F. Schleiermacher are quite appropriate: 1. Everything that is subject to interpretation should be determined only from the language of the author and the original circle of readers. 2. The meaning of every word in a given place should be determined by its connection with the meaning of the context. For example, the Greek logos may mean, in various contexts, reason and law, prose and the Savior, which is, in general, a traditional problem of translation and translators.As a result, it should be noted that the problem of stratification of hermeneutic experience is fundamental for understanding the very essence of hermeneutics. This experience is not a separate form of it, at present we can talk about the fact that it permeates all humanitarian knowledge, which allows us to talk about the formation of a special hermeneutic cultural, semantic, semantic space in which any person should make sense. This attitude allows a completely different look at the role and tasks of hermeneutics on the way of turning it into a universal philosophical methodology.

Bergson’s philosophical method: At the edge of phenomenology and mathematics

This article highlights the mathematical structure of Henri Bergson’s method. While Bergson has been historically interpreted as an anti-scientific and irrationalist philosopher, he modeled his philosophical methodology on the infinitesimal calculus developed by Leibniz and Newton in the seventeenth century. His philosophy, then, rests on the science of number, at least from a methodological standpoint. By looking at how he conscripted key mathematical concepts (especially the concepts of “limit” and “approximation”) into his philosophy, this article invites us to re-imagine Bergson’s place in the history of Western philosophy.

Education and health: From practices to knowledge

In this article, we propose to reconcile history and philosophy in order to study and analyze different health paradigms. Over the centuries, these paradigm shifts have influenced understandings in health and education and have also impacted practices. In this contribution, we engage both a historical and philosophical methodology and cross-compare the two. Based on research on the history and philosophy of health, we conduct a study of health and education archives and a critical and reflective analysis of them. Our results are grouped into five categories: intuition, medical, social, global, ecological. Based on these categories, we will examine the evolution of education over several centuries. We also discuss the place of the body within the fields of medicine and education and within a society undergoing transformations of knowledge, awareness, and practices. Finally, we discuss how different paradigms have changed the way we relate to ourselves and to others, how education and health work together to construct an education for life, and the interactions that take place between knowledge and practices in health.

Speaker’s reference, stipulation, and a dilemma for conceptual engineers

Advocates of conceptual engineering as a method of philosophy face a dilemma: either they are ignorant of how conceptual engineering can be implemented, or else it is trivial to implement but of very little value, representing no new or especially fruitful method of philosophizing. Two key distinctions frame this dilemma and explain its two horns. First, the distinction between speaker’s meaning and reference and semantic meaning and reference reveals a severe implementation problem for one construal of conceptual engineering. Second, the distinction between stipulating meanings and conceptually analyzing allows us to see why, on another construal of what conceptual engineering involves, the practice is neither a new nor neglected philosophical methodology. The article also argues that semantic externalism is not the root of the implementation problem for conceptual engineering, and that the usual rationale for adopting the practice, one that ties its value to the amelioration of “conceptual defects”, is unsound.

THE COMPETENCE AND KNOWLEDGE APPROACHES: PHILOSOPHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS OF UNDERSTANDING AND APPLICATION

The philosophical and educational methodology of the educational process organization is discussed in the aspect of understanding the system, essential and practical-applied principles of the knowledge and competence approaches. Ontological, epistemological and instrumental methods of research of these approaches are considered as integrative qualities of the individual. Contradictions and interrelation of knowledge and competences in the aspect of their influence on the theoretical and practical component of the content of education are shown on the basis of the ratio of semantic and structural-content parameters.

Структурно-содержательная характеристика системы духовно-действенных отношений студентов – будущих учителей физической культуры

We consider system and subsystems of spiritual and effective relations of the future teacher of physical culture to the surrounding objective and subjective reality, including relations to yourself. We give a structural and substantive characteristic in the course of education in a secondary or higher educational institution, in which such specialists are trained. In structuring the spiritual and effective relations of students - future teachers of physical culture on subsystems we use philosophical and psychological methodology: systemic and structural, activity, subjective, personal-oriented and relative approaches. We identify in the system of relations, which include the future teacher of physical culture at the educational institution, the following subsystems of spiritual and effective relations: the first subsystem of spiritual and practical relations is the attitude of the subject to various types of student life activity, the second subsystem of the spiritual and effective relations of the future teacher to the mass media, the third subsystem of spiritual and effective relations of the future teacher of physical culture to other people, the fourth subsystem of the student’s spiritual and practical relations to social groups, the fifth subsystem of the subject’s spiritual and effective relations to material reality, the sixth subsystem of relations to subjective reality, the seventh subsystem of spiritual and effective relations of the subject to his Self, to his inner world.

Ratio As A Worldview Benchmark: From Mystifikation To Objectivity

A necessity of studying of historical worldview kinds with an aim of a formation an optimal, worldviewable orientation of public processes to supply social progress has being justified in this study. In the introduction the author depicts a public crisis situation, which appeared while crossing from postmodern to postpostmodern ideology. The aim of the study is a comparison of considerations regarding the fate of rationalism and irrationalism, substantiation of methodological, conceptual guidelines on the prospects of postmodern humanism and the limits of their effectiveness. The task is to carry out a philosophical analysis of the content of rationality in the sociocultural sphere of postmodernism, the potentials of irrational forms of cognition, ways of typologizing rationality and its perspective. Research method is rational philosophy, because it provides the maximum depth of human cognitive capacity. Operating a system of categories (freedom-necessity, essence-phenomenon, content-form, system-structure-element, etc.), which are based on the principles of objectivity, rationality, determinism, reflection, laws of formal and dialectical logic, rational philosophy as a methodology requires their consistent, constant adherence to all stages of cognition and practical implementation. Research results: in a postmodern period positive changes in society have occurred: the boundaries of freedom and mutual understanding have expanded; but ignoring objective truth, reason, the absolutization of subjectivity has great negative consequences. Philosophical postmodern project, in fact, tried to realize an illusory picture of the world and that has become a big problem for today. It is proved that irrationalism cannot be at the center of worldview and methodology. And if its objective-substantial aspects will be abstracted from the mind, then, in fact, there will be nothing to control mental activity; there will be a thinking process that is changing arbitrarily in accordance with our whims. We have come to the following in discussion: the objective global thinking exclusively as an extremely abstract spiritual “framework” can carry out the spiritual “guidance” of human activity; that must be transformed into a philosophical methodology of interpretation, understanding, explanation, prediction and forecast of reality. Conclusions: the global thinking as overall, unique brain could become the centre of dominant worldview. Herewith it gives an opportunity of developing for a different, irrational, subjective appearing in human matter-but only for bright frameworks of mind.

PHILOSOPHICAL METHODOLOGY AND LEVELS OF GENERALITY

PHILOSOPHICAL METHODOLOGY AND LEVELS OF GENERALITY

Religio-philosophical analysis of freewill and determinism in relation to the Yoruba perception of Ori

There is much debate regarding the seeming contradictions and ambivalence in the metaphysical concepts of freewill and determinism. Several interpretations have been given by various African philosophers on what freewill or determinism connote. In this regard, the traditional Yoruba conception of freewill and determinism is replete with contradictions by virtue of their perception of human destiny which is variously chosen by the people. This paper argues that the Yoruba have a two-sided conception of destiny, as something given and unalterable and yet alterable under certain circumstances and conditions. The conception of destiny appears problematic. On the other hand, the Yoruba are regarded as determinist but not fatalist. Thus, it could be argued that the Yoruba could be seen as both freewillers and determinists. It is in this perspective that this paper does a critique of freewill and determinism in relation to Yoruba perception of Ori using a philosophical methodology. Therefore, the paper offers and defends soft determinism as a better alternative to the causal explanatory paradigm among the Yoruba.

О некоторых вопросах роли философской методологии в социологических исследованиях состояния религиозности населения

О некоторых вопросах роли философской методологии в социологических исследованиях состояния религиозности населения

Being realistic and demanding the impossible

Characterising realism by contrasting it with moralism leaves open several questions to do with realism’s practical import. If political judgment is not to be derived — exclusively or at all — from pre-political moral commitments, what scope is there for genuinely normative political thinking? And even if there is some scope for political normativity, does realism’s reliance on interpretations of political practices condemn it to some form of status quo bias? In this paper I address those questions. My main aim is to assuage some worries about realism’s alleged conservative tendencies. I argue that there is an important sense in which realists can support radical and even unachievable political change — one can be realistic and demand the impossible, as the soixante- huitard slogan goes. To see how that may be the case one needs to characterise realism by contrasting it with both non-ideal theory and utopianism. In a nutshell, realism differs from non- ideal theory because it need not be concerned with feasibility constraints, and it differs from utopianism because it eschews detailed blueprints of the perfect polity.

The dental anomaly: how and why dental caries and periodontitis are phenomenologically atypical

BackgroundDespite their shared origins, medicine and dentistry are not always two sides of the same coin. There is a long history in medical philosophy of defining disease and various medical models have come into existence. Hitherto, little philosophical and phenomenological work has been done considering dental caries and periodontitis as examples of disease and illness.MethodsA philosophical methodology is employed to explore how we might define dental caries and periodontitis using classical medical models of disease – the naturalistic and normativist. We identify shared threads and highlight how the features of these highly prevalent dental diseases prevent them fitting in either definition. The article describes phenomenology and the current thought around the phenomenology of illness, exploring how and why these dental illnesses might integrate into a phenomenological model.ResultsWe discover that there are some features particular to dental caries and periodontitis: ubiquity, preventability and hyper-monitorablility. Understanding the differences that these dental diseases have compared to many other classically studied diseases leads us to ethical questions concerning how we might manage those who have symptoms and seek treatment. As dental caries and periodontitis are common, preventable and hyper-monitorable, it is suggested that these features affect the phenomenology of these illnesses. For example, if we experience dental illness when we have consciously made decisions that have led to it, do we experience them differently to those rarer illnesses that we cannot expect? Other diseases share these features are discussed.ConclusionsThis paper highlights the central differences between the classical philosophical notion of disease in medicine and the dental examples of caries and periodontitis. It suggests that a philosophical method of conceptualising medical illness - phenomenology - should not be applied to these dental illnesses without thought. A phenomenological analysis of any dental illness is yet to be done and this paper highlights why a separate strand of phenomenology should be explored, instead of employing those that are extant. The article concludes with suggestions for further research into the nascent field of the phenomenology of dental illness and aims to act as a springboard to expose the dental sphere to this philosophical method of analysis.

Odus: Filosofia Africana para uma metodologia afrorreferenciada

O presente artigo apresenta a metodologia filosófica, que também é conteúdo, dos Odus. Trata-se de uma metodologia afrorreferenciada demarcada por nossa origem, nossa ancestralidade, nossos caminhos / experiências / vivências. Alimentaremos, aqui, um diálogo formativo desde as culturas, os modos de ser / estar no mundo, as filosofias e saberes africanos e afrodescendentes. Busca-se delinear um pensamento plural, diverso, numa perspectiva horizontal, circular, que compreende a universalidade desde um lugar, desde nosso próprio chão, onde o corpo é produtor e fonte de conhecimento. Apresentaremos esta metodologia que é tecida por implicações epistemológicas, ativistas, política, ética, em busca de descolonização curricular e do próprio conhecimento, delineada pela escuta sensível, perpassada pelo coletivo, pela memória histórica, pela resistência negra e pela autoformação.

Collingwood on Philosophical Methodology. Edited by KarimDharamsi, GiuseppinaD’Oro, and StephenLeach. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Pp. xiii + 270.

MetaphilosophyVolume 50, Issue 5 p. 747-751 BOOK REVIEW Collingwood on Philosophical Methodology. Edited by Karim Dharamsi, Giuseppina D’Oro, and Stephen Leach. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Pp. xiii + 270. James Camien McGuiggan, James Camien McGuiggan jamescamien@gmail.com Knockmark House, Knockmark, Drumree, Co. Meath, Ireland, A85 WR83Search for more papers by this author James Camien McGuiggan, James Camien McGuiggan jamescamien@gmail.com Knockmark House, Knockmark, Drumree, Co. Meath, Ireland, A85 WR83Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 October 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12387Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume50, Issue5October 2019Pages 747-751 RelatedInformation

Praca i słowa: humanizm socjalistyczny Karola Marksa w świetle foucaultowskiej tezy o kresie człowieka

The aim of this paper is to compare philosophical methodologies of Karl Marx and Michel Foucault. The comparison is centered on the problem of humanism: whereas socialist humanism can be seen as a core belief of Marx's historical materialism, Foucault on the other hand is often described as the one of the most fierce critics of humanism. Presented analysis consists of: reconstruction of Marx's notion of work and its ontological and epistemological consequences, reconstruction of Foucault's critique of Marx's outlooks presented in The Order of Things and analysis of Foucault's thesis about the death of men. The author points out that the philosophical methodologies of Marx and Foucault are in fact similar to a large degree, as both philosophers can be described as materialists, nominalists. Furthermore, both for Marx and Foucault the human subject is to be thought as historical and socially manufactured being.

Theoretical conceptual construct of the ukrainian children’s subculture

The article presents the theoretical construct of the developed social and psychological concept of the Ukrainian children’s subculture. It is stressed, that in terms of composition this concept, as a system of scientific knowledge and form of presentation of research results, should be highlighted with regard to the following sections: basic ideological methodologies (general provisions); conceptual and categorical apparatus; conceptual methodologies (theoretical and methodological grounds); conceptual core (research principles); main content meaning (content and semantic content); psycho-socio-cultural conditions for the effective functioning and development of children’s subculture; verification. Interaction of various levels of methodology with certain aspects of children’s subculture has been considered in this research. Among the level of methodology the highest level is maintained by the philosophical methodology of science, which performs an integrative function in cognition of a phenomenon, summing up the dissected points of view. It is emphasized that within the limits of a study all levels of methodology are closely intertwined, although each of them has its own function, whereas the philosophical level acts as the substantive basis of methodological knowledge. Levels of methodology set the logic of the subject of research, formulation of tasks, analysis and clarification of concepts, the development of general and specific methodological principles and procedures. Nowadays there is a certain delineation of two vectors of development in the subculture sphere of Ukraine – «socially oriented» and «nationally oriented». The suggested in this research theoretical conceptual construct of the children’s subculture with sufficient empirical content of each section will allow to enrich the scientific data bank on the problem of the Ukrainian children’s subculture, which has its own mental, regional, age and multi-ethnic peculiarities, and contribute to the creation of «children’s subcultural map of Ukraine».

Strawson’s Method in ‘Freedom and Resentment’

While P.F. Strawson’s essay ‘Freedom and Resentment’ has had many commentators, discussions of it can be roughly divided into two categories. A first group has dealt with the essay as something that stands by itself in order to analyse Strawson’s main arguments and to expose its weaknesses. A second group of commentators has looked beyond ‘Freedom and Resentment’ by emphasizing its Humean, Kantian or Wittgensteinian elements. Although both approaches have their own merits, it is too often forgotten that Strawson was an original thinker with his own views on the nature of philosophical problems and how to appropriately deal with them. The aim of this article is to remedy this forgetfulness and to make sense of ‘Freedom and Resentment’ from a Strawsonian perspective, by looking at Strawson’s own views on philosophical methodology.

Quantitative methods in philosophy of language

AbstractIn this paper, I survey and defend the use of quantitative methods in philosophy of language. Quantitative methods in philosophy of language include a wide variety of methods, ranging from model‐based techniques (computer simulations and mathematical models) to data‐driven approaches (experimental philosophy and corpus‐based studies). After offering a few case studies of these methodologies in action, I single out some debates in philosophy of language that are especially well served by their use. These are cases in which quantitative methods increase precision, improve the accuracy and reliability of results, and allow philosophers of language to borrow from other fields the best epistemic practices available. I conclude with some far‐reaching considerations about the role of qualitative and quantitative methods in debates about philosophical methodology.

ДУХОВНІ ЦІННОСТІ І СМИСЛИ ЛЮДСЬКОГО БУТТЯ У СВІТОГЛЯДНИХ ПОШУКАХ ТАРАСА ШЕВЧЕНКА (ДО 205 РІЧНИЦІ ВІД ДНЯ НАРОДЖЕННЯ ГЕНІАЛЬНОГО УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ПОЕТА, МИСЛИТЕЛЯ, ПЕДАГОГА)

In the article on the basis of primary sources, the application of general philosophical methodology (hermeneutics, existentialism, phenomenology) and the use of systemic, historical and logical methods, the question of spiritual values and the meaning of human being is examined through the prism of ideological searches of the outstanding Ukrainian thinker, poet and educator – Taras Shevchenko. The authors emphasize that spiritual values are a real phenomenon that forms the elite of a nation, a living resource that promotes not only the modern development of the individual and society, but also the future. At the same time, the idea is based on the fact that human being is determined by real freedom, humane relations between subjects of interaction and micro and macro environment. It was the aspect of the problem that Taras Shevchenko paid his attention, arguing that human non-freedom has a negative impact on society, and at the same time – a “closed society” humiliates people, destroys the spiritual potential. The free man is capable of knowledge and self-knowledge, creativity and self-realization.It was proved that the leading spiritual value of personality, T. Shevchenko considered love for the Motherland, he emphasized: human patriotism is manifested not by its loud statements, words, but by real affairs, actions for the common wellness of the nation and people. T. Shevchenko attached special attention to his worldview searches, as the primary sources testify, he gave the unity of the people, because it forms the “sensation of a united family”, therefore, its real strength and power. It is the basis of self-determination and self-preservation of the nation, its spiritual development. The prophet of the Ukrainian nation argued that the unity of the nation is manifested in the preservation and multiplication of folk traditions, culture, language. In his opinio the language mysteriously contains in itself the whole soul, all the past, all spiritual experience and all creative ideas of the people.