Ion Clopoţel: sociograf

Author(s): Andrei Negru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/1999

Ion Clopoţel: Sociographist. Known mainly as journalist and publicist, Ion Clopoţel was at the same time one of the most dedicated and competent social researcher in Transilvania during the interwar period. He named as sociographic the methodological approach he proposed and used and it synthesizes three main ways of research that existed at the beginning of our century in the field of social sicence, namely the sociographical pattern (S.R. Steinmetz), family budgets (Frederic Le Play) and the sociological monography (D. Gusti). Ion Clopoţel did not have the intention of turning the sociography into an autonomous branch of science, but rather he conceived it as a first and necessary stage of sociological knowledge, preamble of sociology. He distinguished himself in the field of Romanian sociological research both for the sociographical investigations he carried on in various mountainous areas of the country and for his endeavour to create an institutionalized framework for this type of research, endeavour that materialized in The Institute of Studies The Society of Tomorrow and in The Socio-Economic Movment –the association of publicists with a permanent interest in the socio-economic problems.

Sociologia comunităţilor sociale în viziunea lui George Em. Marica. Satul

Author(s): Silviu G. Totelecan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/1999

The Sociology of Social Communities in George Em. Marica' s Approach. The Village. In the context of the social science that we practice today, in contemporary Romania, we thought that now, more than ever, is time for looking back at our roots in sociology and fulfill the missing links in our scientific tradition. We can see there many things, which are now in the top of international debates around the world, unused for long decades and even forgotten in our space of knowledge. One example is the marvelous work of George Em. Marica which, with more then fifty years ago, wrote about the relation between scientist and his subject of investigation, about new methodological ways of research, and, not in the last instance, about attempts to discover that "thing" that is the essence of social communities, in this particular case the "soul" of the village. His experience, which I have already mentioned, can help us today to reach the core of theoretically issues that are now on the market and understand them. Rather than summarize my paper I will prefer to say that until we will put the light on our ancestors' s work and show their contribution we will not be full connected with the real meaning of science.

O schimbare în sistemul universitar - admiterea

Author(s): Irina Culic / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/1999

Change in the Strategies of Entrance into University. The study focuses on the changes in the form of entrance examinations of candidates in the Romanian state universities after 1989 and their consequences in terms of practices. Essentially the changes meant a shift in emphasis, from the special preparation of the candidates for the two or three examination disciplines, to the general high school preparation, assessed through the grades in the Bacalaureat examination and the general average grade at the end of the high-school years. We show how these changes altered the motivation of candidates and their approach of higher education studies. The new formulae of examination determine the choice of specialization by the form of examination, rather than by the contents of the studies and the substance of the future profession.

The Philosophy of Robert Nozick

Author(s): Carla Bagnoli / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

Optional Stops, Foregone Conclusions, and the Value of Argument

Author(s): Catherine Z. Elgin / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

If the point of argument is to produce conviction, an argument for a foregone conclusion is pointless. I maintain, however, that an argument makes a variety of cognitive contributions, even when its conclusion is already believed. It exhibits warrant. It affords reasons that we can impart to others. It identifies bases for agreement among parties who otherwise disagree. It underwrites confidence, by showing how vulnerable warrant is under changes in background assumptions. Multiple arguments for the same conclusion show how our beliefs hang together.

The Ontological Meta–Argument (and the Ontological Argument for the Actuality of the World)

Author(s): Elijah Millgram / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

Would the Ontological Argument Greater Than Which None Can Be Conceived prove the existence of God? Might an ontological argument prove the actuality of the world (as Robert Nozick once suggested)? Should you believe that you’re actual, even if you’re not? And what happens if we attempt to answer these questions, having adopted Nozick’s mature view of the function of argument?

Skepticism, Sensitivity, and Closure, or Why the Closure Principle is Irrelevant to External World Skepticism

Author(s): Adam Leite / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

Is there a plausible argument for external world skepticism? Robert Nozick’s well–known discussion focuses upon arguments which utilize the Sensitivity Requirement and the Closure Principle. Nozick claims, correctly, that no such argument succeeds. But he gets almost all the details wrong. The Sensitivity Requirement and the Closure Principle are compatible; the Sensitivity Requirement is incorrect; and even if true, the Closure Principle is structurally incapable of generating a plausible and valid global skeptical argument. It is therefore a mistake to take the Closure Principle as central in discussions of skepticism. The paper concludes by examining the prospects for a plausible skeptical argument.Is there a plausible argument for external world skepticism? Robert Nozick’s well–known discussion focuses upon arguments which utilize the Sensitivity Requirement and the Closure Principle. Nozick claims, correctly, that no such argument succeeds. But he gets almost all the details wrong. The Sensitivity Requirement and the Closure Principle are compatible; the Sensitivity Requirement is incorrect; and even if true, the Closure Principle is structurally incapable of generating a plausible and valid global skeptical argument. It is therefore a mistake to take the Closure Principle as central in discussions of skepticism. The paper concludes by examining the prospects for a plausible skeptical argument.

The Closest Continuer View Revisited

Author(s): Marc Slors / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

Many theories of personal identity allow for the metaphysical possibility of fission. In 1981 Nozick proposed a theory of personal identity called ‘the closest continuer view’ (CCV) that denies fission in the case of persons but allows fisson in the case of human beings. CCV may thus appear to reduce ‘person’ to a nonmetaphysical, practical notion. Against this I argue that CCV is an externalist metaphysical theory that purports to solve a problem that is insurmountable within the confines of an internalist metaphysics of personal identity.

Nozickian Epistemology and the Question of Closure

Author(s): Jonathan Kvanvig / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

Nozick’s contribution to the epistemology of the last half of the twentieth century includes addressing the question of whether knowledge is closed under known implication. I argue that the question of closure provides a serious obstacle to Nozickian approaches to epistemology.

Rational Animals

Author(s): Ronald De Sousa / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

I begin with a rather unpromising dispute that Nozick once had with Ian Hacking in the pages of the London Review of Books, in which both vied with one another in their enthusiasm to repudiate the thesis that some human people or peoples are closer than others to animality. I shall attempt to show that one can build, on the basis of Nozick’s discussion of rationality, a defense of the view that the capacity for language places human rationality out of reach of a comparison with animals. The difference rests, paradoxi–cally, on the human capacity for irrationality. Irrationality depends on the capacity for language, which allows the detachment of explicit thoughts from their underlying dynamic implementation; these, in turn, condition the essential disputability of principles of rationality. That is what places every human potentially—if not actually—on the other side of an unbridge–able gulf that separates us from other animals.

Alan Bailey, Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism

Author(s): Filip Grgić / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2004

Problema identităţii la Aristotel

Author(s): Gheorghe Ştefanov / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

This paper is intended to provide a short analysis of the consistency between the definition of the identity and the use of the concept in some Aristotelian works (Metaphysics, Physics, Organon). It is shown that this kind of proceeding may reveal new interesting things about Aristotle's conception. Some local interpretations are proposed just in order to illustrate how the concept of identity, as defined by Aristotle himself, works in completely different topics (logical and ontological as well) whose treatment can be easily understood this way. An alternative manner of giving an account of Aristotle's conception about identity is suggested in the end of the paper.

Feminismul şi premisele lui

Author(s): Dan Suciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

Review of Mihaela MIROIU, "Gândul umbrei. Abordări feministe în filosofia contemporană". Editura Alternative, Bucureşti, 1995, 198p.

Aspecte ale problemei identităţii în filosofia lui Nietzsche

Author(s): Camil Ungureanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

Premièrement, l'article poursuit de près la révolte nietzschéenne contre une pensée essentiellement fondée sur les identités, pensée qui se développe dans une étroite liaison avec l'apparition du langage, qui est fixation arbitraire d'identités. Secondement, on a essayé de montrer que, selon la doctrine de „l'éternel retour de l'identique chez Nietzsche, ce qui revient n'est pas le même, l'identique, mais au contraire, c'est la diversité comme telle, la différence.

Pentru o altă istorie a gândirii greceşti

Author(s): Ilie Pintea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

Review of Jean-Pierre VERNANT, "Originile gândirii greceşti". Translation by Florica Bechet and Dan Stanciu after Les origines de la penseé grecque,Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1992. Editura Symposion, series Lux Perpetua, Bucureşti, 1995, 187 p., ISBN 973-96293-1-8.

Recenzii

Author(s): Doina Graur,Dan Suciu,Diana Păun,Ioan Lucian Muntean / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

Reviews of: “Palimpsest. Teologia negativã a triunghiului”. Translated by Petru Creţia. Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1995, 364 p., ISBN 973-28-0552-8. IOAN PAUL AL II-LEA (în colaborare cu Vittorio MESSORI), “Sã trecem pragul speranţei”, translated from Italian by Sorin Mărculescu, after “Varcare la soglia della speranza”, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano, 1994. Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1995, 286p. ISBN 973-28-0562-5. Gilles DELEUZE, “Diferenţã şi repetiţie”. Translated by Toader Saulea after “Différence et répétition”, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1968. Editura Babel, Bucureşti, 1995, 488p. ISBN 973-48-1020-0. Jacques LE RIDER, “Modernitatea vieneză şi crizele identităţii”, translated by Magda Jeanrenaud after the second edition of, “Modernité viennoise et crises de l'identité”, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1990. Published by Editura Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza“ , Iaşi, 1995, 455p. ISBN 973-9149-33-2.

Omul potenţial la Platon

Author(s): Cornelius Grupen / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

In this paper, I will show how Plato answers the ‘paradox of inquiry’ given in Meno 80d, using the concept of a theory of recollection. In the middle part, it is argued that the scope of what Plato means by recollection exceeds that of “logically primitive propositions” (Gregory Vlastos), viz. that complex matters such as the absolute truth about virtue are expected to be accessible to recollection, and what needs to be presupposed about the nature of our former knowledge to render this possible. Both on the way and in a concluding section I will demonstrate how this theory of gradual self-discovery makes Plato’s concept of the soul that of a potential person, and that this approach contains a genuine appeal to unveil the hidden parts of one’s self tirelessly.

Identitatea eului

Author(s): Florin Vlădoi / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

In this paper I will present Nozick's closest continuer theory of personal identity. In the first part, which can be considered as an introduction, I will discuss about his method and about his view on philosophy and I will explain why he thinks that we must prefer the philosophical goal of explanation instead of proof. In the second part, I will present the closest continuer theory, which is formulated by Nozick as a schema that rules our judgments about identity over time, holding that y at t2 is the same individual as x at t1 if and only if, firstly, y's proprieties at t2 stem from or are causally dependent on x's proprieties at t1 and, secondly, there is no other z at t2 that stands in a closer (or as close) relation to x at t1 than y at t2 does. For the closest continuer theory is merely a schema, we need a theory of the self to explain how this schema can be applied to the particular case of personal identity. I will discuss about this problem in the last part of my paper where I present the self-synthesizing view of the self.

Identitate şi identificare în Eneade

Author(s): Ioan Lucian Muntean / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 02/1995

La sélection des fragments d’Enneades traduits ci-dessous en roumain a eu pour critère les thèmes de l’identité, en tant que „catégorie“ de la matière et du „Nous“, de l'identification sujet/objet de la connaissance et de l'identification „âme de l’univers“/„âme individuelle“. Dans la première partie on prend en considération les degrés de l'identité et de l’altérité chez Plotin en y remarquant une dégradation progressive de l’identité: ainsi, la propriété de la matière „de ne pas sortir d’elle même“ est-elle le degré inférieur de l’identité; même si l’âme possède plus d’identité que la matière, seulement dans le „Nous“ se trouve une identité absolue. Une deuxième partie est réservée à l’analyse des hypothèses de F. Heinemann, G. Nebel, K.-H. Volkmann Schluck et O. Langer; de même, on discute ici l'interprétation avancée par K. Jaspers selon laquelle les catégories représentent des principes dont l’âme a besoin afin de connaître le „Nous“ et la nature. Dans la troisième partie on montre qu’il y a des similitudes entre l’identification sujet-connaissant/objet-connu dans les Enneades d'une part et d'autre part dans le système de l'idéalisme transcendantal. Finalement, on discute la position de Plotin en ce qui concerne l’identification „âme de l’univers“/„âme individuelle“, en faisant remarquer les difficultés de sa psychologie „hénophanique“. Le présent étude s'évertue à ponctuer l’importance exceptionnelle de la philosophie de Plotin pour l’édification d’une possible philosophie de l'identité et de l’identification.

Hobbesova kritika sveučilišta

Author(s): Ivana Knežić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 03/131/2013

The main aim of this text is to highlight the importance of the universities in the philosophical system of Thomas Hobbes. It will be done by analysing firstly his personal experience as an Oxford student, which was an important stimulus for the development of his later attitude towards universities. Then we shall present, by combining historical and problematical approach, Hobbes’ critique of universities as well as his proposal for the reform of the universities. Both will be placed in the historical context, as well as in the context of Hobbes’ political, anthropological, and epistemological thought. Lastly, in the conclusion we shall critically evaluate the actuality and objectivity of Hobbes’ critique, as well as the validity of his proposal for the reform of the universities.