Ontological Principles Research Articles

ОТРАЖЕНИЕ ОНТОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ МОДЕЛИ СААНКХЬИ В ПРОСТРАНСТВЕННОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ИНДИЙСКИХ ВААСТУ-МАНДАЛ

The paper describes the regularity of the transition from the 25-element sankhya model to the 45-element structure of the vastu-mandalas. The author takes into account mathematical, structural and functional problems. The allocation of the first four ontological principles of Samkhya, as well as the sixth one, is similar to those of the Pythagorean Tetractys, but the fifth and the seventh to the ninth principles are expressed in each case by five-element groups, symbolizing the space of human life. The results obtained are applied to the analysis of cultural processes and geopolitical issues. The author describes the ontological foundations for identifying the "northern" and "southern" cultures and explains the inevitability of the confrontation between East and West. The analysis confirmed the characteristics of the space sectors, adopted in the ancient Indian picture of the world. Review of 40- / 45-element models includes the numerical model of Vastu-vidya in a general scientific context that has multiple temporal applications. An outstanding organization of vastumandalas allows to take into account general laws, analyze geopolitical processes, and perform functional zoning, combining the experience of antiquity and the achievements of modern times. The author considers that the analyzed models must be included into the methodological apparatus of the modern science.

КОНЦЕПТ СОПРИСУЩНОСТИ (CO-INHERENCE) В ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ ЧАРЛЬЗА УИЛЬЯМСА

The article examines the concept of coinherence (or co-inherence) as one of the central and unifying concepts in the life and work of Charles Stansby Williams (1886 – 1945), English poet, writer, and literary critic, also known as “the third Inkling” in conjunction with C .S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Through a close study of the writer’s biography and letters as well as his poetry, novels, theological treatises and essays we trace the origin of the term “coinherence,” borrowed from the Church Fathers in the meaning of mutual indwelling of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, uncover the unique interpretation that Williams gave to the term, and look at various ways he used to integrate it into his writing. Understanding coinherence as a fundamental ontological principle of comprehensive mutual interdependence, exchanged life, and substitution as direct fulfillment of the Gospel commandment “to carry each other’s burdens,” Williams portrays it as a necessary condition of any truly human existence and expounds its universal nature on every level of life, from childbirth to money as a means of exchange, to mutual services of empathy, to intercessory prayer, and to self-sacrifice for another’s sake. In his thinking, people can carry each other’s burdens even through barriers of space and time, since they are simultaneously co-inherent to each other and to God who exists both outside of time and space and in all time and space. Thus, in his novels Williams often employs a version of Dante’s vertical chronotope of simultaneity, and one of the most important symbols that reflect the nature of coinherence is the City as a web of continuous mutual exchange and substitution, in its turn coinherent to the City of God. Williams portrays refusal to participate in the principle of co-inherence as “descent to hell” which is seen as a gradual unraveling of any personhood and ultimate annihilation.

The Conspiracy of Objects

The task this essay set for itself is a reconsideration of the status of the “object” in contemporary forms of philosophical realism that postulate “flat ontologies.” I argue that the theoretical construction of the “object” often comes about in these ontologies through a fetishistic disavowal that effectively makes these objects speak. As a result, the construction of the generalized field of objectivity (according to which everything that exists is an object) passes through a double articulation. On the one hand, since contemporary realism defines itself as a rejection of all forms of linguistic idealism, it also tries to shift the focus away from human language as the primary medium of the construction of objectivity. On the other hand, however, this demotion of language proceeds in these works simultaneously with the elevation of the concept of “translation” to an ontological principle: these non-linguistic objects exist through their perpetual translations of each other. The fetishistic disavowal at work in realism (we know very well that objects do not speak, yet we act as if objectivity had to be construed as a field of translation) introduces the modality of fiction into the very heart of objectivity. This fictional dimension constitutive of objectivity can be described through an engagement of the Kantian notion of “purposiveness.” I argue that these translations that supposedly constitute objectivity rest on the fundamental presupposition that guides the entire Kantian system: we must presuppose purposiveness even where we can detect no evidence of it at all. Hence, today, the theory of the “democracy of objects” must be supplemented by its necessary correlate, a theory of the “conspiracy of objects.”

THE NEED FOR A NEW ONTOLOGY IN THE SUBSTANTIATION OF THE QUANTUM THEORY OF LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS

The article substantiates the need for the develop of a new ontology,which includes the common foundations of physical science and the science of life and consciousness. A hypothesis is put forward about the quantum-informational nature of matter, life, and consciousness. The basic concepts and principles of substance-information ontology are formulated.

Information service “Database OF Clinical Trials of Pharmaceutical Products” in rational use of hepatoprotectors in preferential pharmaceutical provision

The problem of rational hepatoprotector use in patients in the system of preferential pharmaceutical provision has become significantly relevant recently because of the increase in hepatobiliary system diseases, namely, hepatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cirrhotic lesions. Appropriate pharmacotherapy with this drug class can be prescribed only when healthcare professionals receive evidence-based information obtained from medical electronic databases. The work aimed to fill the information service “Database of Clinical Trials of Pharmaceutical Products” with the results of randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis for the most frequently purchased and prescribed drugs from the hepatoprotector group (phospholipids + glycyrrhizinic acid and ademetionine) in the preferential segment, as well as the development of recommendations for the rational use of these drugs. The study used official data of the state portals “State Register of Pharmaceutical Products” (www.grls.rosminzdrav.ru) and “Unified Information System in Procurement” (http://zakupki.gov.ru) on medicinal products with hepatoprotective action, namely, phospholipids in combination with glycyrrhizinic acid and ademetionine, which were purchased for the “Program for the provision of necessary drugs to certain categories of citizens” in 2014–2020. The study results were searched in MEDLINE (PubMed) websites (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/), EMBASE (https://www.elsevier.com/), COCHRANE (https://www.cochrane.org/), eLibrary, and CyberLeninka (https://cyberleninka.ru/). The data obtained were entered into the information service “Database of Clinical Trials of Pharmaceutical Products,” which is based on the ontological principle. It was developed by the specialists from the Institute of Automation and Control Processes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The effectiveness of the hepatoprotectors being studied in relation to “surrogate” endpoints in the form of a significant reduction in clinical symptoms, improvement in biochemical parameters, and decrease in viral load in liver pathology limits their use and inclusion in the lists for preferential provision. The presented information resource and recommendations developed by the authors can be used for the rational prescription of hepatoprotectors.

El pensamiento cartesiano y la fundación de la sociología

espanolResulta de interes para el presente trabajo analizar los fundamentos de la denominada mathesis universalis y como esta nocion, propuesta por Descartes en pleno siglo XVII, ha tenido implicancias significativas en el origen y constitucion (muy ulterior) de dos de las versiones mas importantes de la sociologia: el positivismo sociologico y la sociologia comprensiva. Sosteniendo que la disciplina que estudia los fenomenos sociales ha estado influenciada constantemente por el pensamiento cartesiano, se analizan algunos postulados de ambos enfoques con base en el principio indicado. Se concluye que, pese a ser diametralmente opuestas desde el punto de vista de los principios ontologicos sobre los que observan la realidad social, en ambas lineas de analisis sociologico el principio de la mathesis universalis sigue vigente. Esto da cuenta de una evidente logica de continuidad critica del cartesianismo en los enfoques fundacionales de la sociologia, todo lo cual ha resultado ser epistemologicamente significativo para la disciplina que se encamina a estudiar cientificamente los hechos sociales. EnglishThis paper analyses the foundations of the so-called mathesis universalis, and how this notion, proposed by Descartes in the 17th century, has had significant implications in the origin and constitution (much later) of two of the most important versions of sociology: sociological positivism and comprehensive sociology. Maintaining that the discipline that studies social phenomena has been constantly influenced by Cartesian thought, some postulates of both approaches are analysed based on the indicated principle. It is concluded that, despite being diametrically opposed from the point of view of the ontological principles on which they observe social reality, in both lines of sociological analysis the principle of mathesis universalis remains in force. This shows an evident logic of critical continuity of Cartesianism in the foundational approaches of sociology, all of which has turned out to be epistemologically significant for the discipline that aims to scientifically study social facts.

Techniques and Forces and the Communicative Constitution of Organization: A Deleuzian Approach to Organizational (In)Stability and Power

This article introduces five principles of Deleuzian ontology and the conceptual framework of techniques and forces into emerging CCO scholarship addressing (dis)organization and power. By introducing Deleuzian concepts of (1) the virtual, (2) mutual (in)stability of meaning and materiality, (3) forces (and techniques), (4) communication, and (5) power, this essay builds a relational ontology that centers communication, speaks across existing theories of CCO, and offers a more detailed emphasis on power. In doing so, it enhances the explanatory power of CCO in general, as a set of theories useful for describing how organizational constitution and power play out in an increasingly (dis)organized world where the prevalence of bounded stable organizations can no longer be taken for granted.

Quantum prescriptions are more ontologically distinct than they are operationally distinguishable

Based on an intuitive generalization of the Leibniz principle of `the identity of indiscernibles', we introduce a novel ontological notion of classicality, called bounded ontological distinctness. Formulated as a principle, bounded ontological distinctness equates the distinguishability of a set of operational physical entities to the distinctness of their ontological counterparts. Employing three instances of two-dimensional quantum preparations, we demonstrate the violation of bounded ontological distinctness or excess ontological distinctness of quantum preparations, without invoking any additional assumptions. Moreover, our methodology enables the inference of tight lower bounds on the extent of excess ontological distinctness of quantum preparations. Similarly, we demonstrate excess ontological distinctness of quantum transformations, using three two-dimensional unitary transformations. However, to demonstrate excess ontological distinctness of quantum measurements, an additional assumption such as outcome determinism or bounded ontological distinctness of preparations is required. Moreover, we show that quantum violations of other well-known ontological principles implicate quantum excess ontological distinctness. Finally, to showcase the operational vitality of excess ontological distinctness, we introduce two distinct classes of communication tasks powered by excess ontological distinctness.

THEATER AND THEATRICALITY IN THEIR RELATION TO HISTORY AND THE ARTS IN THE NOVELS OF VLADIMIR SHAROV

Vladimir Sharov (1952–2018), a distinguished contemporary Russian writer, published nine quasi historical novels. Each of his novels suggests a different semi-fantastical version of Russian history that is locked into continuing cycles or - to use Sharov’s preferred word - “rehearsals” of violence. Theater and performance are a recurring theme in Sharov’s prose.
 In Before and During [До и во время], one of the main characters is Alexander Scriabin. In The Rehearsals [Репетиции] Patriarch Nikon orders a play – a mystery-play about Easter — in which the amateur peasant actors are assigned roles from the Bible and replay these roles for generations. In Should Not I Spare [Мне ли не пожалеть], the opening section shows characters participating in Chekhov’s plays, and the main part of the narration tells the story of staging an oratorio. In the last two novels, several of the protagonists are theater directors. This article argues that for Sharov, theater is an apt metaphor for history and a basic ontological principle, because theater is an experience that can be documented but is never reproduced in exactly the same form. The article examines how Sharov brings out the power of the playwright, director, and actor to implement multiple and different scripts and life stories. Life and art in his works imitate each other through a constant multiplication of versions or rehearsals - “rehearsals” in its expanded sense as reinterpretations, revisions, rewritings, and continuations.

Al-Fārābī’s Understanding of Scientific Method in the Context of His Book Aḥkām al-nujūm

Orta çağ İslâm düşüncesinde bilim çalışmalarına katkı sunan ve bir bilim felsefesi oluşturmaya çalışan önemli filozoflardan biri de Fârâbî’dir (öl. 339/950). Bilim anlayışını, mantığın ilkelerine dayandırmıştır. Bilim konusunu epistemolojik ve metafiziksel bütünlük içerisinde değerlendirmeye çalışmıştır. O, dinî ilimler ile aklî ilimleri kendi sınırlılıkları içerisinde bir bütün olarak ele almıştır. Nitekim İhsâü’l-ulûm (İlimlerin Sayımı) adlı eserinde ilimlere ilişkin yapmış olduğu sınıflandırma onun bilim ve felsefe tasavvurunu en iyi yansıtan örneklerdendir.Bu çalışmada kısaca Ahkâmü’n-nücûm şeklinde ifade ettiğimiz “Makale Ebi Nasr el-Fârâbî fi ma yasihhu ve mâ lâ yaṣiḥḥu min aḥkâmi’n-nücûm” risalesi bağlamında Fârâbî’nin bilimsel araştırma anlayışı değerlendirilmiştir. Bahse konu olan bu değerlendirme astronomi bilimi ile astroloji sanatının ayrımı konusunda Fârâbî’nin kullandığı felsefî ve mantıkî argümanlar üzerinden onun yöntem anlayışını izah etmektir. Çalışmanın temel örgü-sünün ise bu iki disiplinin bilimsel niteliklerinin mukayesesinde ve konunun izahında kriter olarak öne çıkan kıyas, tümevarım, örneklem, tecrübe ve nedensellik kavramları etrafında şekillendiğini söyleyebiliriz.Fârâbî, yıldızlar bilimini (İlmu’n-nücûm) nazarî felsefenin bir alt disiplini olan matematik/teâ‘lîmi bilimler başlığı altında ele alır. Yıldızlar bilimi kavramının iki ilim için ortak kullanıldığını belirtir. Bunlardan biri; a) Yıldızlardan çıkarılan hükümler ilmi (İlmu ahkâmi’n-nücûm). Bu ilim astroloji olarak isimlendirilir. Yıldızların gelecekte olacak olaylar ile şu andaki insanî birtakım durumlara işaret etmesini inceleyen bir sanattır. b) Talîmî yıldızlar ilmi (İlmu’n-nücûmi’t-teâ‘lîmî). Bu ilim ise astronomi olarak isimlendirilir. Bu ilim gök cisimlerinin şekillerini, hareket türlerini, kozmik konumlarını, kütle ve ağırlık hesaplamalarını, yer küreyi, iklimler ve bunlarla ilişkili olarak yer-yüzü şekillerini kendine konu edinir. Dolayısıyla Fârâbî konusu bakımından değerli olan, öğrenilmesi ve öğretilmesi teşvik edilen bilimin Talîmî yıldızlar ilmi (İlmu’n-nücûmi’t-teâ‘lîmî) olduğunu belirtir. Bilimsel anlayışla uyumlu olmayan ve tezat teşkil eden Astroloji sanatının geçersiz kabul edilen önerme ve çıkarımlarından da uzak durulmasını önerir.Risaleyi önemli kılan husus, özelde astroloji genelde ise diğer bilimlerdeki araştırmalarda takip edilecek bir yöntem teklif etmesidir. Zira o, astroloji sanatında olduğu üzere ortaya çıkan birtakım felsefî ve mantıksal hataların temel sebebini işlevsel bir yöntembilimden uzak olmakta görür. Fârâbî’ye göre araştırma yapacak kişilerin öncelikle felsefî formasyona ve yetkin bir tabiata sahip olmaları gerekir. O, bu alandaki araştırma yönteminin felsefî bilgi ve mantık ilkeleri üzerinden temellendirilmesinin gerekli olduğunu söyler. Çünkü ona göre bu ilkeler bilinmeden geçerli ve doğru bir yargıya ulaşmak mümkün değildir. Dolayısıyla kıyas ve kıyasın uygulandığı sanatlar-dan burhanın bilinmesinin önemine vurguda bulunur. Zira bir bilim alanında araştırmacıyı hataya sevk eden olumsuzluklardan biri de kişinin zorunlu kesin kanıt olmayanı burhanmış gibi kabule yönelmesidir.Fârâbî, astroloji sanatıyla uğraşanların, “benzerler ortak yargıyı paylaşırlar” ilkesinde yaptıkları mantıksal ihlallere de dikkat çeker. Bir şeyin herhangi bir niteliğinin bir başka şeyin niteliğiyle benzerlik göstermesi, tüm o şeylerin özü ve mahiyeti itibariyle de diğer şeye benzemesini gerektirmeyeceğine işaret eder. Fârâbî ontolojik müsâvât ilkesine de vurguda bulunarak mümkün iki eşitten birinin diğerinden daha üstün olamayacağını belirtir.Bu bağlamda yöntembilim açısından akıl yürütme formlarından örneklem ve tümevarım metodunun uygulanmasında birtakım ilkelere dikkat edilmesi gerektiğini söyler. Fârâbî tümevarımdan elde edilen tümel yargının zorunlu kesin bir bilgi niteliği taşımadığını belirterek bu konuda düşülen hataya dikkat çeker. Tecrübî bilginin yöntembilim açısından epistemik değerini tartışarak astroloji açısından bize sağlayacağı sonuçları ortaya koymaya çalışır. O, geleceğe dair astroloji ilminin verileri üzerinden hayatı determine etmenin yaratacağı ahlakî, dinî ve toplumsal sorunlara dikkat çeker. Dolayısıyla Astroloji ilminin geleceğe dair mümkün önermelerin sonuçlarına ilişkin vermiş olduğu yargıyı geçersiz kabul eder. Metafizik bir esas olarak nedensellik ilkesi perspektifinde astroloji sanatıyla uğraşanların tutarsızlığını ve yanlış çıkarımlarını fizikî determinizm anlayışıyla yorumlayarak “rastlantı/ittifakî” ve “mümkün meçhul” kavramlarıyla beraber değerlendirmeyi tercih eder.

The Twofold Limit of Objects: Problematising Timothy Morton’s Rift in Light of Eugenio Trías’s Notion of Limit

AbstractThe ontological abyss that separates real objects from sensual objects is one of the central principles of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), which has its most explicit and profuse modulation in Timothy Morton’s notion of rift. This article argues that, despite succeeding in explaining the radical difference that inhabits every object, Morton’s rift fails to explain the object’s unification, rendering the overall theory inconsistent. An alternative approach that accounts simultaneously for disjunction and conjunction between essences and appearances can be found in Eugenio Trías’s philosophy of the limit, a term widely ignored in OOO despite its deeply non-relational conception of the reality of things. The article further argues that the reinterpretation of Trías’s twofold liminal approach in light of OOO successfully addresses the inconsistencies found in Morton’s rift, paving the way for a theory of limits within Harman’s ontological framework.

Knowledge-driven machine learning based framework for early-stage disease risk prediction in edge environment

Early-stage disease risk prediction can be beneficial to improve the health of the mass and can reduce the economic burden of late treatment. Machine learning has played a pivotal role in predictive systems, which requires achieving a specific degree of accuracy for healthcare systems. Most recently researchers have found the necessity of bridging between epidemiology and machine learning classifications toward health risk prediction. This work proposes an epidemiology knowledge-driven unique model that follows the principle of association rule-based ontology to select features and classification techniques. The goal of this approach is to generalize a framework for future robust systems to predict the likelihood of diseases, which can be executed in the edge computing environment. The framework introduces epidemiological library and structured attribute set along with the library of precaution to derive the disease risk-prediction process. To investigate the adoption of the epidemiology knowledge-driven model, we considered a real dataset of early-stage likelihood prediction of diabetes and carried out a set of experiments for highlighting the significance of several epidemiological factors. The classification aspect of the framework is further compared with widely accepted approaches for machine learning based healthcare, which shows the novelty of the proposed model.

Articulating the Optimal Features of a Good Muslim Wife: Some Qur’anic expressions that Affiliate with the Woman’s Perfect, Metaphysical and Real Worlds

This small-scale study investigates the optimal features of good Muslim woman. It aims to describe, interpret, and explain the rhetorical features of the properties the Qur’anic discourse (QD) maintains for both sexes and those it excludes for the good Muslim woman. The study benefits from corpus, i.e. text, linguistics for data collection. It also applies a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to the Quotes collected from the Noble Qur’an (NQ). The paper builds on Van Dijk’s 1998 model of analysis at the syntactic, semantic and schematic levels of the properties identified for a good Muslim woman. It has been found that the QD assigns ten properties to describe a good Muslim man and woman; they include submission, belief, obedience, truthfulness, faithfulness, humbleness, alms giving, fasting, chastity, and turning to Allah. Among these, the QD exclusively and inclusively lists ‘being resigned, believing, always turning to Him, being devoted to worship, fasting’, and ‘being a widow or a virgin’ as general semantic features for a good Muslim wife. It has been concluded that the properties identified for a good Muslim woman have directive, informative, meta-linguistic and affective functions. They are part of the sociology of Islam which accommodates the ontological principle of creating women as a different sex having other roles to play with the deontological theory of moral obligation to obey freely the other sex. The Qur’anic engineering tactfully goes beyond reconciling both sexes’ needs and roles to repair some social norms established and entrenched against the woman who has already experienced marriage before.

HUMAN DESTRUCTIVENESS IN THE EXISTING PRACTICES OF LATE MODERNISM VIOLENCE: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DIMENSIONS

Purpose. Research of the phenomenon of human destructiveness in the context of metaphysical images and violence practices of late Modernism. Theoretical basis. The problem is that the philosophical reflection of violence as objectified, realized destructiveness of man is usually contextual in nature and is on the periphery of understanding its external manifestations. Accordingly, anthropological crisis remains behind the scenes, as evidenced by the devaluation of the humanistic potential of modern culture. That is why one should turn the focus from the obvious, objectively conditioned incarnations of violence in the XXI century (armed conflicts, local wars, terrorist acts) to the internal factors that are in the realm of existential. The departure from the consideration of violence as an abstract, faceless or ideologically colored evil allowed us to focus on man, his way of thinking, life and social orientations, feelings and internal contradictions, which find their expression in one or another form of destructiveness. Originality. Based on the works of M. Scheler and E. Fromm defining for philosophical anthropology and psychoanalysis, for the first time the conceptualization of positive and negative forms of manifestation of human destructiveness against the background of sociocultural transformations of late Modernism was carried out. It has been proved that its ontological principles are rooted in specifically human existence and relations with other members of society, while anthropological ones are directly connected with the endless struggle of the life, the vital with the spirit in man. Conclusions. Violence is a tool and a product of man’s transition to more mature and complex forms of existence. The interdependence of the violence and nonviolence practices ensures the progressive movement of humanity towards society humanization. This progress is accompanied by a natural internal conflict of personality, which can be both progressive and regressive. At the metaphysical level, destructiveness appears as a connection between the entropy of world existence as a whole and the instability of human existence itself, which is a complexly organized and open to the world system. Self-transcendence as an anthropological prerequisite for human destructiveness has a dual nature and combines negative and positive characteristics, the content and significance of which were revealed in the study. The authors are convinced that there is no other way to overcome the negative, malignant destructiveness, except for the incessant, daily gathering of life meanings around them and their development. After all, the loss of such core structures of the existence as the meaning, purpose and value of life has become a truly global problem for the modern world. Emphasis is placed on the need to keep in harmony the trinity of body-soul-spirit, which will allow a person in any social transformation to preserve and increase his integrity.

Speculative Inquiry: Thinking With Whitehead

This article explores what Whitehead’s process philosophy opens up for “new” approaches to philosophically informed inquiry. The article begins with a brief discussion of Whitehead’s process philosophy, an explanatory section that develops key concepts necessary for understanding his ontological principle, followed by a discussion of how Whitehead offers a recalibration of experience and the subject in his process philosophy. The article ends with a discussion of how this system of thought is different from the epistemological system of thought that grounds conventional social science inquiry and what is opened up in terms of inquiry in the new.

The African wildlife ontology tutorial ontologies

BackgroundMost tutorial ontologies focus on illustrating one aspect of ontology development, notably language features and automated reasoners, but ignore ontology development factors, such as emergent modelling guidelines and ontological principles. Yet, novices replicate examples from the exercise they carry out. Not providing good examples holistically causes the propagation of sub-optimal ontology development, which may negatively affect the quality of a real domain ontology.ResultsWe identified 22 requirements that a good tutorial ontology should satisfy regarding subject domain, logics and reasoning, and engineering aspects. We developed a set of ontologies about African Wildlife to serve as tutorial ontologies. A majority of the requirements have been met with the set of African Wildlife Ontology tutorial ontologies, which are introduced in this paper. The African Wildlife Ontology is mature and has been used yearly in an ontology engineering course or tutorial since 2010 and is included in a recent ontology engineering textbook with relevant examples and exercises.ConclusionThe African Wildlife Ontology provides a wide range of options concerning examples and exercises for ontology engineering well beyond illustrating just language features and automated reasoning. It assists in demonstrating tasks concerning ontology quality, such as alignment to a foundational ontology and satisfying competency questions, versioning, and multilingual ontologies.

Steps for Applying the Complex Dynamical Systems Approach in Educational Research: A Guide for the Perplexed Scholar

In this commentary, we propose a framework for applying the Complex Dynamical Systems (CDS) approach in educational research. Drawing on the conceptual articles in the special issue for ontological, theoretical, and methodological principles, and on the empirical articles for examples of these principles’ application, we suggest six interdependent steps for researchers who seek to pursue educational research from the CDS approach: (1) Conceptualizing the phenomenon as a CDS; (2) Defining a theory of the relevant CDS level; (3) Generating a CDS research goal and question; (4) Selecting a CDS corresponding methodology for data collection and analysis; (5) Interpreting the findings as a CDS; and (6) Disseminating the knowledge to relevant audiences and participating in a CDS scholarly community. We end the commentary with several of the promises and challenges of applying the CDS approach in educational research.

An Incoherence inProcess and Reality

AbstractThe incoherence is between Whitehead’s definition of “speculative philosophy” in the first section of Process and Reality’s opening chapter, which defines metaphysics as transcendental, and important moments in later chapters of the book, where he asserts that metaphysical formulations are generalizations of empirical or contingent features. In explicating this inconsistency, the article attends to Whitehead’s definition of metaphysical in distinction from cosmological features, his understandings of the “aeroplane” metaphor, the ontological principle, and especially the initial aim. The article argues that Whitehead’s account of these, and especially the initial aim, should be deleted from neoclassical metaphysics.

Being Edgy in Health Professions Education: Concluding the Philosophy of Science Series.

The philosophy of science is concerned with what science is, its conceptual framing and underlying logic, and its ability to generate meaningful and useful knowledge. To that end, concepts such as ontology (what exists and in what way), epistemology (the knowledge we use or generate), and axiology (the value of things) are important if somewhat neglected topics in health professions education scholarship. In an attempt to address this gap, Academic Medicine has published a series of Invited Commentaries on topics in the philosophy of science germane to health professions educational science. This Invited Commentary concludes the Philosophy of Science series by providing a summary of the key concepts that were elucidated over the course of the series, highlighting the intent of the series and the principles of ontology, epistemology, axiology, and methodology. The authors conclude the series with a discussion of the benefits and challenges of cross-paradigmatic research.

Jesuit Visual Culture and the Song nianzhu guicheng. The Annunciation as a Spiritual Meditation on the Redemptive Incarnation of Christ

This paper examines the set of fifteen prints included in the seventeenth-century Chinese text Song nianzhu guicheng. This catechism was translated by Portuguese Jesuits serving in the China mission and consists of instructions for spiritual meditation on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary. The processes of visual acculturation of Christian art will be examined in the context of the transmission of doctrine and instructions for spiritual meditation. The paper discusses the Chinese visual experience and the particular circumstances of the Catholic missions in China during and after the Nanjing persecutions. This paper demonstrates that although the illustrations of the Song nianzhu guicheng were executed and adapted by Chinese artists, the ontological principles of European Renaissance art and the precepts of Christian iconography are still a structural component in the Jesuit methods of teaching and preaching.