Search For Certainty Research Articles

Prospect, Perspective and the Evolution of the Landscape Idea

The landscape concept in geography has recently been adopted by humanistic writers because of its holistic and subjective implications. But the history of the landscape idea suggests that its origins lie in the renaissance humanists' search for certainty rather than a vehicle of individual subjectivity. Landscape was a 'way of seeing' that was bourgeois, individualist and related to the exercise of power over space. The basic theory and technique of the landscape way of seeing was linear perspective, as important for the history of the graphic image as printing was for that of the written word. Alberti's perspective was the foundation of realism in art until the nineteenth century, and is closely related by him to social class and spatial hierarchy. It employs the same geometry as merchant trading and accounting, navigation, land survey, mapping and artillery. Perspective is first applied in the city and then to a country subjugated to urban control and viewed as landscape. The evolution of landscape painting parallels that of geometry just as it does the changing social relations on the land in Tudor, Stuart and Georgian England. The visual power given by the landscape way of seeing complements the real power humans exert over land as property. Landscape as a geographical concept cannot be free of the ideological overlays of its history as a visual concept unless it subjects landscape to historical interrogation. Only as an unexamined concept in a geography which neglects its own visual foundations can landscape be appropriated for an antiscientific humanistic geography.

The Search for Certainty and the Uses of Probability

Abstract Some recent papers by document examiners have included discussions of findings stated in terms of probability and have raised questions about the propriety of giving such testimony in criminal trials. The present paper asserts the view that formation of a conclusion is progressive; that examination may be terminated in some cases with a statement of probability; and that the examiner must report whatever conclusion he or she has and must describe the evidence that brought about that conclusion. If, as the result of laboratory work, the document examiner is asked by competent authority to appear in court, he or she has an obligation to take the witness stand and respond to questions of attorneys and the court.

The Principle of Uniformitarianism and the Problem of Induction in Geology — a Geology Student's Search for Certainty

It has been suggested that the principle of uniformitarianism can be used to solve the “problem of induction” in geology. That is, application of the principle can transform an inductive argument into a deductive one, thereby guaranteeing that conclusions reached in such an argument are correct. A review of the characteristics of uniformitarianism and inductive reasoning indicates, however, that this is not a valid procedure. The principle of uniformitarianism is itself arrived at by inductive reasoning. Therefore, its use may only increase the probability that geological hypotheses arrived at by inductive reasoning are correct, but it cannot guarantee it.

Myth, Magic, and Administrative Innovations

An examination of the spread of administrative innovation through state and local governments which attributes the propensity to innovate to the unrequited search for certainty. This article borrows the framework of Mahnowski and the metaphor of magic to explain why governments adopt new procedures like benefit-cost analysis and zero-base budgeting and what the latent and manifest functions of such innova tions are.

The Plurality of Science

What I have to say falls under four headings: What is unity of science, unity and reductionism, the search for certainty, and the search for completeness.To answer this initial question, I turned to the introductory essay by Otto Neurath for Volume 1, Part 1, of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. He begins this way:Unified science became historically the subject of this Encyclopedia as a result of the efforts of the unity of science movement, which includes scientists and persons interested in science who are conscious of the importance of a universal scientific attitude.The new version of the idea of unified science is created by the confluence of divergent intellectual currents. Empirical work of scientists was often antagonistic to the logical constructions of a priori rationalism bred by philosophico-religious systems; therefore, “empiricalizatlon” and “logicalization” were considered mostly to be in opposition—the two have now become synthesized for the first time in history (p. I).

Atypical psychoses. A search for certainty in this ambiguous borderland.

Atypical psychoses. A search for certainty in this ambiguous borderland.

An Outline of the Theology of the New Testament, by Hans Conzelmann. SCM, London, 1969. 372 pp. 50s.

AN OUTLINE OF THE THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, by Hans ConzelmannTHE TENDENCIES OF THE SYNOPTIC TRADITION, by E. P. Sanders.CHRIST IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, by Norman HookSECULAR CHRIST, by John VincentTHE WAY TO FAITH: AN EXAMINATION OF NEWMAN'S GRAMMAR OF ASSENT AS A RESPONSE TO THE SEARCH FOR CERTAINTY IN FAITH, by David A. PailinVRAIE ET FAUSSE REFORME DANS L'EGLISE (2nd Edition, revised and corrected), by Y. M‐J. Congar, O.P.FROM SHADOW TO PROMISE, Old Testament Interpretation from Augustine to the Young Luther, by J. S. PreusSPIRIT VERSUS STRUCTURE, Luther and the Institutions of the Church, by Jaroslav PelikanEMPEDOCLES COSMIC CYCLE, by D. O'BrienCONCERNING TEILHARD, AND OTHER WRITINGS ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION, by Bernard TowersSOCIETY WITHOUT THE FATHER: A CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, by Alexander Mitscherlich, translated by Eric MosbacherWORK AND COMMUNITY: The Scott Bader Commonwealth and the Quest for a New Social Order, by Fred H. BlumTHE GREAT CHURCH IN CAPTIVITY. A STUDY OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE FROM THE EVE OF THE TURKISH CONQUEST TO THE GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, by Steven RuncimanTHE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND INDEPENDENT GREECE, 1821–1852, by Charles A. FrazeeCELTIC NATIONALISM, by Owen Dudley Edwards, Gwynfor Evans, loan Rhys and Hugh MacDiarmldSELECTED POEMS, by Yves Bonnefoy, translated by Anthony Rudolf

Book Review: The Way to Faith: an examination of Newman's Grammar of Assent as a response to the search for certainty in faith. By David A. Pailin. Epworth Press, 1969. viii+280 pp. 50S.; The Modernist Crisis: von Hügel. By John J. Heaney, SJ. Geoffrey Chapman, 1969. 304 pp. 42s.

Book Review: <scp>The Way to Faith</scp>: an examination of Newman's <i>Grammar of Assent</i> as a response to the search for certainty in faith. By David A. Pailin. Epworth Press, 1969. viii+280 pp. 50S.; <scp>The Modernist Crisis</scp>: von Hügel. By John J. Heaney, SJ. Geoffrey Chapman, 1969. 304 pp. 42s.

The Rise of Scientific Philosophy.

This book represents a new approach to philosophy. It treats philosophy as not a collection of systems, but as a study of problems. It recognizes in traditional philosophical systems the historical function of having asked questions rather than having given solutions. Professor Reichenbach traces the failures of the systems to psychological causes. Speculative philosophers offered answers at a time when science had not yet provided the means to give true answers. Their search for certainty and for moral directives led them to accept pseudo-solutions. Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, and many others are cited to illustrate the rationalist fallacy: reason, unaided by observation, was regarded as a source of knowledge, revealing the physical world and 'moral truth'. The empiricists could not disprove this thesis, for they could not give a valid account of mathematical knowledge. Mathematical discoveries in the early nineteenth century cleared the way for modern scientific philosophy. Its advance was furthered by discoveries in modern physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology. These findings have made possible a new conception of the universe and of the atom. The work of scientists thus altered philosophy completely and brought into being a philosopher with a new attitude and training. Instead of dictating so-called laws of reason to the scientist, this modern philosopher proceeds by analyzing scientific methods and results. He finds answers to the age-old questions of space, time, causality, and life; of the human observer and the external world. He tells us how to find our way through this world without resorting to unjustifiable beliefs or assuming a supernatural origin for moral standards. Philosophy thus is no longer a battleground of contradictory opinions, but a science discovering truth step by step. Professor Reichenbach, known for his many contributions to logic and the philosophy of science, addresses this book to a wider audience. He writes for those who do not have the leisure or preparation to read in the fields of mathematics, symbolic logic, or physics. Besides showing the principal foundations of the new philosophy, he has been careful to provide the necessary factual background. He has written a philosophical study, not a mere popularization. It contains within its chapters all the necessary scientific material in an understandable form - and, therefore, conveys all the information indispensable to a modern world-view. The late Hans Reichenbach was Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The search for certainty.

The search for certainty.