Relation Of Knowledge Research Articles

Desenvolvimento, materialidades e o ator social: orientações metodológicas para aproximações territoriais

This work proposes methodological designs contributing to an analytical-practical repositioning of ethnographic-studies of development, beyond the exclusive human domain. Starting from a conceptual and methodological actor-oriented perspective bases, we are proposing a socio-material approach. The proposal suggests an experimental ontology of the social actor that interconnect social relations to the territories’ material properties. Considering the place of the material in human agency, we highlight interfaces of knowledge, affects, practices and values that lead to a relational epistemology. ‘Creaturization’ and assemblages are practical implications that make visible territorialization processes. By updating a series of works, carried out since the 1980s in different countries of Latin America, we illustrate heterogeneous territories, in which the development process unleashes a myriad of singular socio-material compositions, identified as counter-development processes.

Can hinge epistemology close the door on epistemic relativism?

I argue that a standard formulation of hinge epistemology is host to epistemic relativism and show that two leading hinge approaches (Coliva’s acceptance account and Pritchard’s non-doxastic account) are vulnerable to a form of incommensurability that leads to relativism. Building on both accounts, I introduce a new, minimally epistemic conception of hinges that avoids epistemic relativism and rationally resolves hinge disagreements. According to my proposed account, putative cases of epistemic incommensurability are rationally resolvable: hinges are propositions that are the objects of our belief-like attitudes and are rationally revisable in virtue of our overarching commitment to avoid systematic deception in our epistemic practices.

Conspiracy theories in political-economic context: lessons from parents with vaccine and other pharmaceutical concerns

ABSTRACT Profit-boosting manipulation and subterfuge is axiomatic to late-stage US capitalism, even in healthcare. I demonstrate how acknowledgements of this can overextend into ‘false beliefs’ using data from Southern Californian parents who vaccinate selectively and those treating intractable paediatric epilepsy with cannabis; and I explore appropriate responses. Both groups’ discourses referenced corporations’ self-interested duplicity, such as in sham invitations for patient engagement. Parents also pointed to contemporary measures of good health and citizenship moored to the US political economy’s expectation for independent, self-responsible, ‘productive’ adulthood (ableism). Rejecting normative and epistemological relativism yet attending in good faith to parents’ experiences and concerns, I recommend a Utilitarian approach to spurious claims – one that leverages culture’s potential fluidity while accounting for the ideological and material matrices of such claims’ emergence. Although unorthodox views with empirically verifiable underpinnings always deserve consideration, those unmoored to scientifically assessable reality can and should be challenged, with cultural sensitivity, in proportion to the degree to which their promulgation could underwrite harm. Moreover, interventions must bring the deep critiques that conspirational worries encapsulate to the attention of those with power to address them. If a community’s real concerns are taken seriously, discrete scientifically-untethered claims may be more easily relinquished.

ЯЗЫК ПОЭЗИИ И ПОЭТИЧЕСКИЙ ДИСКУРС (к вопросу о взаимоотношении понятий)

The article examines the essential and logical-hierarchical relationships of such concepts as poetic discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry. The relevance of the research is determined by fact that the understanding and interpretation of poetic discourse within the framework of the scientific theory is in a state of development, the methodology of literary criticism and linguistics is evolving, and many concepts are still confused. Opinions expressed by the researchers who have studied the essence of poetic language and language of poetry, as well as support the concept of poetic discourse, are analyzed. The main results of the study include the definition of concepts of ethical discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry in close logical and epistemological relationship with each other. Based on the obtained results, the following conclusions are made. Firstly, the phenomenal essence of poetic language is described. Secondly, the mechanism of poetic discourse development is viewed as a result of two refractions (author’s and reader’s) of the language of poetry. At the same time, the language of poetry is presented as a locus (modus) of a worldview or a linguistic worldview. Thirdly, poetic discourse is considered as part of artistic discourse, which is not only emotional and aesthetic, but also cognitive and aesthetic content. The above-given conclusions are important for the theory of linguistics and literary criticism, because they contain the rationale for the statement that poetic discourse is a level of understanding and interpretation of the language of poetry as a mode of the linguistic reality. At the same time, poetic language is a skillfully applied technological side of a special kind of creative, heuristic activity.

Discourse as a Generator of Epistemic Relativism in Scientific Argumentation

Discourse as a Generator of Epistemic Relativism in Scientific Argumentation

КРИТИЧЕСКИЙ ПОТЕНЦИАЛ ФЕМИНИСТСКОЙ ЭПИСТЕМОЛОГИИ

The article explores the arguments in favor of feminist epistemology used in the works of L. Code, S. Harding, D. Haraway, J. Lloyd and other gender (radical) feminists. The sources of feminist epistemology are the naturalized epistemology and the thesis of underdetermination by W. Quine, the views of W. Sellars, Marxism, the strong program of sociology of knowledge, logical positivism. The features of feminist epistemology include many signature schemes, the tendency to use different schemes from suitable disciplines, rethinking of the concepts «knowledge» and «knower» for previously excluded or non-included groups of women, people with disabilities, representatives of different races, sexual minorities. Another feature is that «Feminine» experience and voice, viewed from an essentialist or non-essentialist approach, are considered the grounds for the position of «knower». The article examines the critical remarks made by feminists against the assumptions of traditional epistemology: universal human nature, «a view from nowhere», pureimpersonal reason, the assumption of «Robinsonade». Attention to subjectivity, values and selfish interests in the production of knowledge should be considered a merit of feminist epistemology. However, L. Laudan has already shown that no one, including representatives of feminist epistemology, have demonstrated the plausibility, let alone the veracity of judgements that justify any number of possible interpretations of the knowledge gained. The paper shows that feminist epistemology cannot avoid the well-known vicissitudes of epistemological relativism. However, feminist epistemology deserves the attention of philosophers because it is part of a broader relativist turn in social sciences and the humanities that seeks to extend its criticism to scientific knowledge.

Hautamäki, Antti. Viewpoint Relativism: a new approach to epistemological relativism based on the concept of points of view. Springer: Suiza, Synthese Library 419, 2020, 210 pp.

Resena de la obra Viewpoint Relativism: a new approach to epistemological relativism based on the concept of points of view de Antti Hautamaki

Influencia del pensamiento fenomenológico en el desarrollo de la disciplina etnográfica

Esta investigación explora la relación epistemológica entre la antropología y la etnografía con la filosofía husserliana, desde una serie de autores que articulan las ideas de la fenomenología con los presupuestos de la etnografía, en especial, en lo concerniente al desarrollo de la noción de intersubjetividad. Una primera generación de autores incorpora de forma indirecta y parcial las bases epistemológicas y ontológicas de la propuesta filosófica de Husserl. Así, autores como Clifford Geertz, Maurice Natanson, Thomas Luckmann, Harold Garfinkel, Michael Agar y Thomas Csordas, construyeron parte de su pensamiento con la continuación de la fenomenología husserliana realizada por Merleau-Ponty y Alfred Schütz, utilizando los conceptos operatorios de ambos filósofos. Aun así, la profundidad y rigurosidad en el tratamiento de estos conceptos fenomenológicos por esta primera generación llevará a un manejo de la noción de intersubjetividad de forma más restringida y específica que los planteamientos realizados por Husserl. En los años 70 y 80, las influyentes y discutibles críticas realizadas por Bourdieu y Derrida a la filosofía husserliana tuvieron un importante eco en la antropología y la etnografía, propiciando el abandono del tratamiento directo de las ideas de Husserl. A pesar de esto, en las últimas dos décadas, autores como Michael Agar, Michael Jackson, Vincent Crapanzano, Alessandro Duranti, Jason Throop conforman una tercera generación que retoma las ideas husserlianas, logrando establecer una serie de dimensiones y aplicabilidades del concepto de intersubjetividad introducido y desarrollado por Husserl, que podrían servir de fundamento posible para un estudio de la condición humana y la cultura. This research explores the epistemological relationship between anthropology and ethnography with Husserlian philosophy, from a series of authors who articulate the ideas of phenomenology with the presuppositions of ethnography, especially as regards the development of the notion of intersubjectivity. The first generation of authors indirectly and partially incorporate the epistemological and ontological bases of Husserl’s philosophical proposal. Thus, authors such as Clifford Geertz, Maurice Natanson, Thomas Luckmann, Harold Garfinkel, Michael Agar, and Thomas Csordas, built part of their thinking with the continuation of the Husserlian phenomenology performed by Merleau-Ponty and Alfred Schütz, using the operative concepts of both philosophers. Even so, the depth and rigor in the treatment of these phenomenological concepts by this first generation will lead to a handling of the notion of intersubjectivity in a more restricted and specific way than the approaches made by Husserl. In the 70s and 80s, the influential and debatable criticisms made by Bourdieu and Derrida to Husserlian philosophy, had an important echo in anthropology and ethnography, leading to the abandonment of the direct treatment of Husserl’s ideas. Despite this, in the last two decades, authors such as Michael Agar, Michael Jackson, Vincent Crapanzano, Alessandro Duranti, Jason Throop, make up a third generation that takes up Husserlian ideas, managing to establish a series of dimensions and applications of the intersubjectivity concept introduced and developed by Husserl, which could serve as a possible basis for a study of the human condition and culture.

O ensino da Natureza da Ciência como forma de resistência aos movimentos Anticiência: o realismo estrutural como contraponto ao relativismo epistêmico

As discussões realizadas neste trabalho se situam no debate sobre a Natureza da Ciência (NdC) no ensino de ciências. Defendemos que os conteúdos metacientíficos que dão forma às abordagens histórico-filosóficas no ensino precisam sofrer atualizações que façam frente aos desafios políticos, sociais e educacionais impostos pelos nossos tempos, nos quais movimentos anticientíficos e discursos exageradamente relativistas ganham força. Advogamos por discursos críticos às visões “positivistas ingênuas” sobre a ciência, mas que ao mesmo tempo seja capaz de dar conta de suas virtudes epistêmicas, configurando uma estratégia de resistência a formas exageradas de relativismo epistêmico. Mais especificamente, localizamos este debate dentro do problema da mudança científica, tópico da filosofia da ciência que dialoga com temas considerados relevantes no ensino da Natureza da Ciência. Apresentamos as contribuições do realismo estrutural para a construção de um discurso moderado frente aos dilemas relacionados ao caráter provisório e descontínuo da ciência por um lado e, por outro, sua possibilidade de progresso e compromisso com a verdade e com a realidade.

"It was Like Magic": Relationships Supporting Compassion, Creativity, and Sense of Coherence in Nutrition Students.

The purpose of this exploratory research was to understand the experiences and learnings of dietetic and nutrition students following a 3-week intensive summer course designed to enhance students' understandings of compassion, creativity, and sense of coherence as they apply to personal growth and socially just professional practice. Seven of 15 students participated in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was conducted using inductive thematic analysis, resulting in 3 meta-themes: (i) personal meaning and sense making, (ii) relational and power dynamics, and (iii) disruption; participants contextualized these themes via a dynamic interplay within and among the domains of self, pedagogy, and practice. As a result of taking this course, participants developed an enhanced sense of coherence, self-compassion, well-being, and a more equity-focused understanding of health. Student development may have been achieved through attending to student experience and a relational pedagogical epistemology that allowed students to make personal, interpersonal, and systemic connections among their own subjective experiences, the experiences of peers, and broader social impacts on health. Given nutrition classrooms are largely positivist, it is important to consider how these environments as relational contexts may support or undermine compassion, sense of coherence, and ultimately the health and well-being of students.

The spatial turn, reification and relational epistemologies in ‘knowing about’ security and peace

How we approach knowing conflict and security makes a difference. This article first considers how reification, instrumental subject/object relations and the drive for certainty and control undermine effective knowledge and practice in questions of conflict and peace. It then turns to what the spatial turn and notions of emplaced security might offer to working against violence. As with any theoretical perspective, the spatial turn can itself be reified, repeating epistemological relations entrenched in much security analysis. The spatial turn and emplaced security explicitly highlight alternative, more relational knowledge practices, however. A relational epistemology approaches knowledge not only as information about a subject out there, but also as a form of practice with others which changes conditions of possibility for co-existence. If pursued, such approaches could help loosen the grip of narrow constructions of security, insecurity, the person, power and agency which dominate security analysis and obstruct understanding and the generation of alternatives in situations of entrenched conflict. An orientation to place could not only enable more nuanced accounts of peace and conflict, but support mutual recognition and exchange across division, assisting an ethic of attention and concrete peace and conflict resolution efforts.

Notes on a complicated relationship: scientific pluralism, epistemic relativism, and stances

While scientific pluralism enjoys widespread popularity within the philosophy of science, a related position, epistemic relativism, does not have much traction. Defenders of scientific pluralism, however, dread the question of whether scientific pluralism entails epistemic relativism. It is often argued that if a scientific pluralist accepts epistemic relativism, she will be unable to pass judgment because she believes that “anything goes”. In this article, I will show this concern to be unnecessary. I will also argue that common strategies to differentiate relativism and pluralism fail. Building upon this analysis, I will propose a new way of looking at both positions’ relations. This article aims to understand what explains the friction between scientific pluralism and epistemic relativism. I will demonstrate that conceptualizing both epistemic relativism and scientific pluralism as “stances” sheds better light on their relation and demonstrates that it is, in principle, possible to support both positions at the same time. Preferred policies and levels of analysis, however, cause friction in practice.

God beyond the Boundary-Stones of Thought

In this paper, I make the case for epistemic relativism: the radical view that all human knowledge/truth is relative. I extend the application of epistemic relativism to include necessary laws such as the laws of logic. I argue that the truth of such laws are relative to human thought, which are ultimately instances derived from our experiences. These experiences act as limitations to which we are conceptually bound. As a result of this, we cannot apprehend God’s omnipotence. This includes God’s maximal power in being able toperform logically impossible actions. Our epistemic inability to conceive of such logically impossible actions is therefore testimony that God transcends the laws of logic.

A Lógica da Ciência e o Falibilismo Epistemológico do Logical Syntax de Rudolf Carnap

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar um importante momento de transformação na obra de Rudolf Carnap. Este momento diz respeito à publicação do livro The Logical Syntax of Language em 1934 e as modificações versam sobre a estrutura de análise lógica e as posições metateóricas do autor. Especificamente, no campo metodológico, Carnap desenvolve a sintaxe lógica enquanto estrutura de análise lógico-linguística e, a partir dela, elabora a Lógica da Ciência como o campo da Filosofia da Ciência e, no campo metateórico, substitui o fundacionismo metodológico do Aufbau pelo falibilismo epistemológico. Diante de tais mudanças, Coffa, uma referência fundamental do revisionismo carnapiano, alegou que o empirismo de Carnap, com a ascensão sintática e a perda do status de incorrigibilidade das sentenças protocolares, foi levado ao convencionalismo da base empírica e ao relativismo epistemológico. Deste modo, nosso objetivo neste artigo é apresentar uma interpretação consistente do Logical syntax, assim como avaliar e criticamente discutir a interpretação de Coffa em The semantic tradition from Kant to Carnap.

Social constructionism and climate science denial

It has been much debated whether epistemic relativism in academia, for instance in the form of social constructivism, the strong programme, deconstructionism, and postmodernism, has paved the way for the recent upsurge in science denial, in particular climate science denial. In order to provide an empirical basis for this discussion, an extensive search of the social science literature was performed. It showed that in the 1990s, climate science was a popular target among academic epistemic relativists. In particular, many STS scholars used it as an allegedly clear example of claims by natural scientists that should be treated as mere social constructions, rather than as reports on the actual state of the natural world. A few connections between social constructivists and corporate science denialism were also uncovered, but the extent of such connections could not be determined. With few exceptions, the stream of criticism of climate science from academic relativists has dwindled since the 1990s. One reason for this seems to be that the contrarian position lost its attraction when it became associated with corporate and right-wing propagandists.

Towards a critical realist epistemology?

AbstractWhen critical realists consider epistemology they typically start from “epistemological relativism.” We find this position necessary, but we also find it insufficient because it lacks a critique of the highly unequal social relations among observers themselves—relations that shape the very production of knowledge. While it is indeed the case that all knowledge is fallible, it is also the case that all knowledge is positioned, with a particular standpoint. What is more, the social power relations between standpoints organize the production of truth in ways that produce systematic distortions. In this paper, we propose a critical realist social epistemology. We introduce feminist standpoint theory and postcolonial theory as our suggested interventions into critical realism and we use two case studies of existing work to highlight i) the social production of truth and the real, and ii) what is at stake for radicalizing epistemology in critical realism. In so doing, our paper emphasizes the epistemic complexities that continuously shape ontology, a commitment to subaltern voices or experiences, and a thorough interrogation of the relations between positions of knowledge production.

ELT teachers\u2019 epistemological beliefs and dominant teaching style: a mixed method research

Despite voluminous studies into teachers’ cognition and the role of teachers’ beliefs in their practices, not many studies have addressed the impact of teachers’ epistemological beliefs (EB, beliefs about the source of knowledge) on their teaching styles. In this study, a mixed design research method was adopted to show English language teachers’ epistemological beliefs, teaching styles and possible relationships between EB and teaching styles. To do this, a sample of 200 EFL teachers participated in the quantitative phase of the study to fill out the teaching style inventory (Grasha, Teaching with style, 2002) and epistemological beliefs scale (Chan and Elliott, Teaching and Teacher Education 20:817–831, 2004). In qualitative phase, 20 participants of this sample volunteered to attend the semi-structured interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that facilitator style is the dominant style of teaching and learners should not assume teachers as mere source of knowledge and should use different resources to learn the language. Regression analyses and interview results showed that EFL teachers teaching style is informed by their EB. Implication and limitation of the research were discussed in detail in the paper.

What Kind of “Real World” Makes South Korea's Middle Power Categorization Necessary?*

The fundamental dilemma in the middle power study is the repeated epistemic fallacies that attempt to answer an ontological question of middle powers with epistemic features. With the common epistemic belief that middle powers are significant actors that play some constructive roles, South Korea is automatically designated as a middle power as long as the agent (researcher or practitioner) finds comparable middle power‐like characteristics in South Korea's material attributes and foreign policy behaviors. However, this research adopted a critical realist research design that addresses the epistemic fallacy and finds the “real world” that makes South Korea's middle power categorization necessary. It analyzed South Korea's middle power rhetoric in South Korean presidents' and foreign ministers' foreign policy discourses, and ultimately uncovered that the “real world” behind South Korea's middle power rhetoric has been its environment comprised of the dominant and less dominant countries. As the less dominant country, South Korea has utilized the middle power title to balance and neutralize the asymmetrical power relations and create an environment more conducive to South Korea's national interests. This includes the removal of South Korea's deeply ingrained victim mindset. Yet, it should be emphasized that such a conclusion is valid only because of the critical realist research design, committed to ontological realism, epistemological relativism, and judgmental rationalism. If not, South Korea's unequal power environment would be viewed as merely an additional condition that a “middle power” South Korea must deal with.

If only they had accessed the data: Governmental failure to monitor pulp mill impacts on human health in Pictou Landing First Nation

For over fifty years, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), a small Mi'kmaw community on the northern shore of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada, has been told by a Joint Environmental Health Monitoring Committee (JEHMC) mandated to oversee the health of the community that their health has not been impacted by exposure to 85 million litres of pulp mill effluent dumped every day into what was once a culturally significant body of water bordering their community. Yet, based on lived experience, the community knows otherwise, and despite countless dollars spent on government and industry-sponsored research, their concerns have not gone away. Using biopolitical theory, we explore why JEHMC never fully implemented its mandate. We will use a Mi'kmaw environmental ‘theoretical’ framework to demonstrate that indicators of a relational epistemology and ontology that have been consistently and persistently overlooked in Indigenous environmental health research demands that Indigenous connections to the air, land and water must be taken into consideration to get a full understanding of environmental health impacts. Guided by the principle of Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), which brings together the strengths of both western and Indigenous knowledge, and employing a community-based participatory research approach, we use data that could have been accessed by the JEHMC that might have signaled that human health studies were warranted. Further, we developed an environmental health survey that more appropriately assesses the impacts on the community. Finally, we will discuss how an Indigenous-developed framework can adequately assess the impacts of land displacement and environmental dispossession on the health of Indigenous communities and illustrate how our framework can serve as a guide to others when exploring Indigenous environmental health more broadly.

Epistemic violence, relativism, and objectivity

Held (2020) provides an admirable overview of the importance of and challenges associated with epistemic violence. However, likely due to length restraints, she did not attend to an important consideration related to her discussion of epistemic violence: that objective knowledge is not possible. The view that objective knowledge is not possible can be interpreted as a species of relativism. This commentary connects discussions of epistemic violence to an ancient argument against relativism, arguing that those concerned with epistemic violence ought to also be concerned with the potentially dangerous belief that relativism is true.