Philosophy Of Natural Science Research Articles

Recontextualizing Max Weber’s Ideal Type

Abstract In this article, I recontextualize Weber’s ideal type in the philosophy of natural science and economics in terms of idealization. The goal is to promote the appreciation of this methodology in contemporary social science and improve upon some Weberians’ underdeveloped interpretations. Drawing on Weber’s methodological writing and study of the Protestant ethic, I argue that the philosophy of idealization and Weber’s ideal type share methodological characteristics: both support the selection of a research topic by isolating a particular component of reality and then constructing an imagination based on empirical materials and thought experimentation. By using the imagination as a benchmark, investigators counterfactually and contrastively explain why a particular case was observed as it was, as opposed to other possible outcomes.

Induction and certainty in the physics of Wolff and Crusius

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyse conceptions of induction and certainty in Wolff and Crusius, highlighting their competing conceptions of physics. We discuss (i) the perspective of Wolff, who assigned induction an important role in physics, but argued that physics should be an axiomatic science containing certain statements, and (ii) the perspective of Crusius, who adopted parts of the ideal of axiomatic physics but criticized the scope of Wolff’s ideal of certain science. Against interpretations that take Wolff’s proofs in physics to be based on empirical statements that are probable, we show how inductively established statements, coupled with assumptions concerning the uniformity of nature, can be certain according to Wolff. We examine Crusius’ little known work on physics and show that he attacked Wolff, arguing that many statements of physics are probable. We provide a discussion of the reception of methodological rules similar to Newton’s Regulae Philosophandi, discussing different interpretations of such rules. We conclude by briefly hinting at how the debate between Wolff and Crusius provides historical context for understanding Kant’s philosophy of natural science.

Проблема применимости понятия парадигма к философскому процессу

Since the second half of the 20th century, Kuhn's concept has been used in philosophy of natural science, sociology and history of science, biology, medicine, political sciences, economics and history of economics, anthropology and history of anthropology, psychology and history of psychoanalysis, theory of art and literature, mathematics, linguistics. A.P. Ogurtsov and S.S. Neretina systematized the controversial issues of this concept, including the question of the qualification of philosophy as a discipline. The author joined this discussion in the process of reconstructing the political philosophy of M.K. Petrov. This article discusses several new topics related to the interpretation of T. Kuhn's concept.

Обзор Международной научно-практической конференции «Современная онтология – XI: онтология и религия» (Санкт-Петербург, Волгоград, 26–30 июня 2023 г.)

The review of the international scientific and practical conference "Modern Ontology – XI: Ontology and Religion", which took place from June 26 to June 30 at the Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation and Volgograd State University, is presented. The speeches of the conference participants were devoted to several significant topics on the stated issues. The first thematic block consisted of theoretical issues of the relationship between ontology and religion. Within the framework of this topic, the plenary report of P.M. Kolychev's "Ontology and religion", in which theology was considered as part of ontology became the key one. The second thematic block included the problems of human existence in the context of religion. Within the framework of this topic, S.B. Tokareva in the plenary report "Ontological consequences of human and angelic freedom: a modal approach" examined the interpretations of the real, possible and necessary, analyzed the ontological consequences of human and angelic freedom. Within the framework of the third thematic block, in which the problems of the relationship between ontology and religion were discussed in a historical and philosophical retrospective, the most interesting was the plenary report of I.I. Evlampiev "The problem of creation and the status of nothing in the metaphysics of mystical Pantheism", which presented an original view on the development of the concepts of creation in the history of Christian thought. The fourth thematic block covered the problems of theory and practice of ontology. Within the framework of the conference, a fruitful discussion was held on the topic "What kind of philosophy do we need?", dedicated to the problems of teaching philosophy for non-philosophical specialties. Most of the participants supported the idea of developing a unified program of a general philosophy course based on the domestic (including Soviet period) experience of teaching this discipline. The following structure of the philosophy course is proposed: 1) ontology; 2) philosophy of natural science; 3) philosophy of socio-anthropological reality; 4) philosophy of religion.

Normative Foundations of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right: The Overlooked Legacy of Kant’s Metaphysics of Nature

AbstractKant’s philosophy of natural science has traditionally concentrated on a host of issues including the role of laws of nature and teleological judgements. However, so far, the literature has made virtually no contact with the no less important tradition in Kant’s legal and political philosophy. This article explores one aspect of such connection in relation to the normative foundations of Kant’s notion of cosmopolitan right. I argue that Kant’s argument for cosmopolitan right is based on two main premises: the first is what I call thelaw of equilibrium, and the second is thepremise of physical interaction(commerciumin Latin) at work behind what Kant called the original ‘community of land’. The article argues that the relevant notion of community quacommerciumshould be understood in the context of Kant’s metaphysics of nature as a ‘real community of substances’ governed by a dynamical law of equality of action and reaction. This metaphysical-causal interpretive reading has far-reaching implications for the foundations of cosmopolitan right and its scope of applicability well beyond Kant’s envisaged right to universal hospitality.

A controversy about chance and the origins of life: thermodynamicist Ilya Prigogine replies to molecular biologist Jacques Monod.

The ancient, interlinked questions about the role of chance in the living world and the origins of life, gained new relevance with the development of molecular biology in the twentieth century. In 1970, French molecular biologist Jacques Monod, joint winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, devoted a popular book on modern biology and its philosophical implications to these questions, which was quickly translated into English as Chance and Necessity. Nine years later, Belgian thermodynamicist Ilya Prigogine, 1977 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, published a popular book on the history and philosophy of natural sciences with Belgian philosopher Isabelle Stengers. Translated into English under the title Order out of Chaos and widely discussed, the whole book can be seen as a response to Monod on these biological and philosophical questions. This study will trace this intellectual controversy between two Nobel Prize winners defending two opposing scientific and philosophical visions of the living world, rooted in two different scientific disciplines.

Философские аспекты физики в трудах В. Гейзенберга: что такое действительность?

The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of “reality” in the philosoph­ical and scientific works of the theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg. It ana­lyzes the Heisenberg’s works on the philosophy of natural science, a significant part of which is devoted to quantum theory and its basic concepts. The author shows that Heisenberg’s thought was formed in parallel with the development of relevant problems among neo-Kantian philosophers (N. Hartmann, B. Nicolescu, etc.) throughout the 20th century. According to the author, many European re­searchers focus their attention on the scientific side of Heisenberg’s work, that is, on the analysis of his physical argumentation. The philosophical aspects of Heisenberg’s works are mostly studied by Russian philosophers of science. The intellectual vector of Heisenberg’s work was the idea of the need for a new philosophical thinking that goes beyond the scope of rational activity and re­quires a reconception of the gnoseological categories used as an instrument for the cognition of the reality. It relies on the phenomenological tradition, as well as on the arguments of J.W. von Goethe that theory cannot “capture” reality; it re­quires a synthesis of “trust in experience” and “intelligent observation” (discre­tion) to understand it. It is also demonstrated in the article the Heisenberg's atti­tude to the formation of the language of science and to the comparative studies of the philosophical systems of such thinkers as Plato, Democritus, Aristotle.

Determinants of Capital Structure:The Case in Vietnam

This is a quantitative research, underpinned by the philosophy of natural science and deduction approach that examines the impact of the various aspects of corporate governance mechanism on the choice of capital structure of Vietnamese listed firms. We focus on the effect of factors such as the board size, the board independence, and especially different ownership structures, which include the managerial ownership, the state ownership, the concentrated ownership, and the foreign ownership. They are the main scopes of corporate governance and are supposed to be relevant to determine the corporate financing choice. To explain the causal relationship between factors, we construct the regression model and then test it by using different statistical method approaches, including the pooled OLS, the fixed effects model, and the random effects model. Data are collected from 336 firms with shares listed in the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in Vietnam, totaling 1583 observations. Overall, the results reveal that the board size, state ownership, and concentrated ownership have positive impact on the firm's capital structure, whereas foreign ownership appears to have negative influence on the capital structure. The research does not find evidence of a the correlation between board independence, managerial ownership and corporate capital struture.

الطبیعیات عند أبی الریحان البیرونی

يهدف هذا البحث الموسوم بـ الطبيعيات عند أبي الريحان البيروني إلى الوقوف على أهم جوانب الفلسفة الطبيعية عند أبي الريحان محمد بن أحمد البيروني (362هـ /973م—440هـ/ 1048م) , کما تبين الدراسةأن البيروني تناول مبادئ الطبيعة(الهيولي والصورة) ولوحق الجسم الطبيعي( الزمان والحرکة و المکان والخلاء), وانتقاداته على الفلسفة المشائية المتمثلة في أرسطو ومن سار على نهجه من فلاسفة الإسلام کابن سينا , والطريقة المنهجية التي کان يعالج بها البيروني المشاکل الفلسفية والعلمية الکبرى التي عرض لها سواء التي واجهها بحکم کونه فيلسوفا والتي واجهها بحکم بکونه عالما. This research entitled“The Philosophy of Natural Sciences” by Abi Al-Rayhan Al-Biruni, aims to identify the most important aspects of natural philosophy for Abi Al-Raihan Muhammad bin Ahmad Al-Biruni (362 AH / 973 AD - 440 H / 1048 AD). The study also shows that Al-Biruni addressed the principles of nature (the matter and the form) And the affection of the natural body (time, movement, place and emptiness), and his criticism of the pedagogical philosophy represented by Aristotle and those who followed his approach from the philosophers of Islam as Ibn Sina, and the systematic way in which Al Biruni was dealing with the major philosophical and scientific problems that he presented to him whether he faced as a philosopher and which he faced By virtue of being a scientist.

Dialectical epistemology

The article is devoted to epistemology. It is revealed that progress in the direction of the true representation of a natural object occurs when a meaningful representative definition of it organically connects two fundamental dialectical epistemological flows. The first is the intuitive heuristics that are born of the imagination and are purely subjective nouns, the Genesis of which is idealistic. The second is the sensory-rational experience of observation-apperception, which is a purely external, in relation to the subject, induced reaction due to the material nature of the object. The results of verification activities are an indicator of the organic connection of the indicated flows. It is shown that the «parallel» materialistic and idealistic lines in epistemology point to two equal oppositional realities, the contradiction of which, according to the dialectical method of reasoning, is removed through the constitution of a single metaphysical substance — the spirit. These lines are clearly separated through the reflection of two heterogeneous cognitive components. The necessity of changing paradigmatic guidelines in the philosophy of natural science from mechanistic-atomistic to organismic is discussed. In the preceding part, a criticism is rejected of metaphysics of scientism.

On Some Prospects of the Russian Philosophy of Natural Sciences

The article discusses the prospects of philosophical understanding of the problem situations that have arisen in modern science due to its thorough involvement in the socio-economic dynamics of technogenic civilization. The natural sciences are under the powerful influence of social demands, which significantly affect the forms, directions, and intensity of the realization of the cognitive potential of natural science. The problems that arise in this case are thoroughly investigated today in specific socio-economic perspectives, as well as through various options for social epistemology. But, the author believes, a full understanding of the relevant problems also involves its discussion in the conceptual field of the philosophical, in its essence, issue of the cultural, and by no means only the socio-pragmatic sense of the phenomenon of scientific knowledge. Moreover, the need of scientists themselves for this kind of philosophical understanding of science is due, according to the author of the article, primarily to the widespread dissemination of scientific collaboration in interdisciplinary research programs. In the course of joint scientific research, acute problems of mutual understanding arise among collaborating scientists of various specialties. Their philosophical understanding and the search for ways to solve them effectively is becoming today the central task of the philosophy of natural sciences. However, to effectively solve these problems, the author insists, both philosophers and scientists need to disclose and analyze the specific sources of relevant philosophical topics that mature in the interdisciplinary practices of science itself. According to the author, first of all, the philosophy of the natural sciences is called upon to solve this problem today.

Майбутнє як філософська проблема

Розуміння часу дає шанс розкрити таємниці світу й людського життя. Особливо загадковим із часових станів для людини виглядає майбутнє. Майбутнє як один із станів часу постає і як необхідний складник світу, в якому ми знаходимо себе, і як визначальний вимір людського життя. Проблема майбутнього має декілька аспектів. Насамперед, це онтологічна проблема. Епістемологічний аспект проблеми майбутнього стосується можливості його пізнання. Окремо постають проблеми майбутнього в галузях філософії природничих наук і філософії суспільства. Філософія людини також не є повноцінною без роздумів про людське, антропологічне майбутнє. Розуміння філософами майбутнього в його різних аспектах залежить від загальної концептуалізації проблем часу. Кожна концепція часу з тих, що склалися й набули визнання у філософії, має свій образ майбутнього і викликає свої питання щодо його онтологічного і епістемологічного статусу.

Academician Ljubomir Berberovic, PhD (1933-2019).

On February 12th, 2019 passed away academician Ljubomir Berberovic. He was born in Sarajevo in 1933. He studied medicine, biology and philosophy at the universities in Ljubljana and Sarajevo. Graduated in Biology at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Sarajevo, in biology in 1958 from the Natural-Mathematics Department. In the same department he was elected assistant in 1959. Since 1961 he has been employed by the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Sarajevo. In 1964, Ljubomir Berberovic defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic „The Microevolution of the Species Eobania Vermiculata on the Central Adriatic Coast and the Islands”. For an assistant professor on the subject Organic Evolution with Genetics, he was elected in June 1964, for a professor in January 1970 and in a full professor in June 1975. In addition to the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, he was a teacher at the subjects of Genetics, Evolution, Anthropology at several other faculties of the University of Sarajevo, including Medical faculty. He was a lecturer at several universities abroad. Academician Ljubo Berberovic is the author of a large number of academic and scientific publications from three scientific areas: Genetics Population, with an emphasis on human populations, Karyology and Cytotaxonomy, with an emphasis on studying freshwater fish and the history and philosophy of natural sciences.

Mathematical Expression of Minakata Kumagusu's philosophy of Natural Science

Mathematical Expression of Minakata Kumagusu's philosophy of Natural Science

Ortega y Gasset, filósofo de la ciencia

Aunque ignorado por lo común en este campo, Ortega y Gasset posee una filosofía de la ciencia de gran actualidad. No hay más que ver que en 2006 Ronald Giere, uno de los más destacados filósofos de la ciencia actuales, publica una obra con el título de Scientific Perspectivism. El presente trabajo quisiera prolongar los estudios sobre Ortega en este terreno, a partir de una interpretación de la «razón vital» basada en la fenomenología, la psicología cognitiva y la filosofía constructivista de la ciencia. A las concomitancias que se le han encontrado con Dilthey y la hermenéutica en su filosofía de las ciencias humanas, y con Popper y Kuhn en la filosofía de las ciencias naturales, quisiera añadir su afinidad con Feyerabend, autor a quien le acerca su «liberalismo» cultural.

Philosophy of natural science from Newton to Kant

Philosophy of natural science from Newton to Kant

MENGGUGAT RELASI FILSAFAT POSITIVISME DENGAN AJARAN HUKUM DOKTRINAL

In the teaching of law, there is often "mistaken", that puts legal positivism (jurisprudence) is identical with the philosophy of positivism. Legal positivism be identified as an instance of positivism philosophy intact. The study of legal positivism, in fact very closely related to the philosophy and teachings of the law from time to time. The effects of natural law in the scholastic era, then the era of rationalism and the influence of positivism in the philosophy of natural science is very attached to the legal positivism until today. Therefore not only the philosophy of positivism affecting the development of legal positivism. Based on that then the legal positivism in fact has a characteristic which is different from the social sciences. If the social sciences were developed based on the philosophy of positivism, the doctrinal teaching of the law is not entirely been developed based on the philosophy of positivism. Not all the logical positivist philosophy can be applied in the doctrinal law. Keywords : positivism, legal positivism, doctrinal

Bernhard Witkop (1917-2010)

Bernhard Witkop (1917-2010)

Introduction to Cosmological Aesthetics: The Kantian Sublime and Nietzschean Dionysian

This paper is founded on a close reading of Kant’s Opus Postumum in order both to explore the essential motivation that drove Kant to write a last comprehensive magnum opus (after having completed his critical philosophy) and, by doing so, to show the essential link between his aesthetics and the idea of Ubergang, the title of this last work. For this work contains not only his dynamical theory of matter defining motion as preliminary to the notions of space and time, and the advanced version of his philosophy of natural science, but also his arguments for the phenomenal validity of the metaphysical foundations (or the essential unity of the theoretical and practical reason), his teachings on the aesthetic human faculties of judgment and Anschauung (sense-intuition), and the discernment of the transcendental philosophy from Platonic idealism carrying it to a cosmological level, i.e. Kant’s insertion of the concept of cosmotheoros. Since the process of transition is an aesthetic process based on human senses, intuitions and judgments, the argument will follow that in order to explicate Ubergang, we need to reconcile cosmology, as the oldest branch of philosophy dealing with the interactions between the cosmic forces and the ways they affect human life, with aesthetics, as the youngest branch of philosophy dealing with how we sense, intuit and judge the form and motion of matter. Therefore, in the last analysis, Ubergang becomes rather a cosmologic-aesthetic principle similar to the Heraclitean logos. Another building block of the paper is the fruitful comparison between the Kantian sublime and Nietzschean Dionysian, which are going to be construed as the aesthetic theories on human understanding representing the transition from nature to art. For they are not only conceptual – aesthetic but also dynamic – cosmological theories due to their reference both to nature and to human nature.

The Use of History and Philosophy of Science as a Core for a Socioconstructivist Teaching Approach of the Concept of Energy in Primary Education

The present study should be thought as a socioconstructivist teaching approach (a teaching model) for the concept of energy in primary education. It contains important and crucial aspects of the History and Philosophy of Natural Sciences, introduces the concept of energy using the macroscopic framework of thermodynamics, takes into consideration learners’ alternative ideas or frameworks relating to energy, takes advantage of the causal and the unifying characters of energy, which have been founded on the historiographical analysis of this concept, uses energy chains as visual representations for the deep understanding of it, uses visual grammar of Kress and van Leeuwen to design energy chains and introduces a teaching methodology for this concept.