Ne sutor ultra crepidam. Kazimierz Twardowski o filozofii i nauce

Author(s): Anna Brożek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 46/2010

Kazimierz Twardowski is the father of the modern Polish analytical philosophy. One of the most important stamp of this philosophical style is referring - in philosophical investigations - to achievements and methods of natural sciences. The article analyses this plot in Kazimierz Twardowski's philosophical works. It contains, in particular, a reconstruction of Twardowski's views concerning the classification of sciences, the methodological status of philosophy and psychology and the mind-body problem. Some not commonly known facts concerning the sources of Twardowski's interests in philosophy and science are mentioned.

Fakty i wartości w dyskusjach analityków

Author(s): Maciej Soin / Language(s): Polish Issue: 55/2010

The article presents the main threads of the dispute over fact/value dichotomy as discussed by analytic philosophers. The analysis aims to show the implicit assumptions of dichotomization of facts and values (Ayer, Hare), and attempts to undermining the dichotomy (Foot, Searle). Hypothetical results of the discussion are considered with particular reference to MacIntyre’s account of its origins and concentrate on the historical variability of the grammar of moral language. According to the arguments offered by MacIntyre, undichotomic account of facts and values requires unambiguity of rules connecting evaluations and factual criteria of their use. From this point of view the emotivization of moral language should be treated as a result of decomposition of grammar connected with the collapse of traditional communities of rules and values.

ДУША, ОБЛАЧАЮЩАЯСЯ В ТЕЛА, ДУША, ТКУЩАЯ ТЕЛА

Author(s): Valery V. Petroff / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The article discusses two traditions of representation of embodiment in antiquity and the Middle Ages: the soul’s putting on the body as a vestment and the soul’s weaving its body. With regard to the first tradition the texts of Seneca, Plutarch, Plotinus, Macrobius, Aristides Quintilianus are considered. It is shown that the topic of changing the bodies like garments had been discussed along with the theories of metempsychosis and (among the middle Platonists) the teaching on the soul’s descent from heaven to earth through the planetary spheres. It is pointed out that after Philo had liked the idea of the body as the soul’s robe with the biblical narrative of “leather garments” (Gen 3:21), this theory became widespread and can be found in Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, Origen and his followers, including John Scottus Eriugena. With regard to the problems of embodiment, we examine less common views according to which the soul itself makes its own body, weaving it like a tunic. The corresponding arguments by Plato, Porphyry, Origen, Macarius of Egypt / Symeon of Mesopotamia, Proclus of Constantinople are considered. As additional evidence, we discuss the relevant theories of Plotinus, Iamblichus, and John Scott.

САМООТРИЦАНИЕ, САМОПРЕДИКАЦИЯ, САМОРЕФЕРЕНТНОСТЬ В ФИЛОСОФИИ ПЛАТОНА

Author(s): Vsevolod Ladov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2018

The phenomenon of self-reference combines self-refutation (the principle of peritrope) in the case of Plato’s critics of Protagoras in “Theaetetus” and self predication in the case of a difficulty which Plato himself faces developing the theory of ideas in “Parmenides”. The author of the article asserts that self-predication does not produce a negative impact on Plato’s metaphysics and in no way destroys the integrality of Plato’s philosophy: It is logically correct as are both his criticism of Protagoras’ relativism (by means of the principle of peritrope) and the theory of ideas (in which the phenomenon of self-predication is also proposed).

ГРЕЧЕСКАЯ АРИФМОЛОГИЯ: ПИФАГОР ИЛИ ПЛАТОН?

Author(s): Leonid Zhmud / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2017

This essay considers the origins of the arithmological genre, the first specimen of which was an anonymous Neopythagorean treatise of the first century BCE. Arithmology as a special genre of philosophical writings dealing with the properties of the first ten numbers should be distinguished from number symbolism, which is a universal cultural phenomenon related to individual significant numbers (three, seven, etc.). As our analysis shows, the philosophical foundations of arithmology were laid down in the treatise of Plato’s successor Speusippus On Pythagorean Numbers, who relied on the Platonic doctrine of the ten ideal numbers, whereas in ancient Pythagoreanism arithmological notions, unlike number symbolism, are not attested. In the first century BCE, an epoch of revival of Platonism and Aristotelianism, Speusippus’ ideas received a second birth, thus marking the beginning of arithmology as a popular genre.

ТРЕХМЕРНОСТЬ ВМЕСТО ПЕРВОЙ МАТЕРИИ: СРАВНЕНИЕ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЙ О МАТЕРИИ У АРИСТОТЕЛЯ И ФИЛОПОНА

Author(s): M.N. VARLAMOVA / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2017

This paper considers a number of arguments in defense of the idea of matter's being created developed by John Philoponus in his treatise “De aeternitate mundi contra Proclum”. It is well known that the concept of matter was transformed by Philoponus as compared to the physics of Aristotle, and in the present occasion I aim to contribute to an ongoing scholarly discussion on how Philoponus’ concept of matter qua three-dimensionality helped him to substantiate the idea of creation ex nihilo.

Zastosowania filozofii analitycznej w prawoznawstwie: Wprowadzenie

Author(s): Paweł Banaś,Wojciech Ciszewski,Adam Dyrda,Bartosz Janik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

The Truth about Sherlock Holmes

Author(s): Fredrik Haraldsen / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2017

According to possibilism, or non-actualism, fictional characters are possible individuals. Possibilist accounts of fiction do not only assign the intuitively correct truth-conditions to sentences in a fiction, but has the potential to provide powerful explanatory models for a wide range of phenomena associated with fiction (though these two aspects of possibilism are, I argue, crucially distinct). Apart from the classic defense by David Lewis the idea of modeling fiction in terms of possible worlds have been widely criticized. In this article, I provide a defense of a possibilist account against some lines of criticism. To do so, I assume that names for fictional characters are directly referential and a possible-worlds model that accommodates transworld identity. On this background, I argue, it is possible to construct an elegant model of fictional discourse using familiar models of information exchange in ordinary discourse, and I sketch how this model can be used to i) make a natural distinction between fictional and counterfactual discourse, ii) account for creativity, and iii) sustain a natural definition of truth-in-fiction that avoids certain familiar objections to possibilism. Though I set aside questions about the metaphysical commitments of a possible-world interpretation here, there is accordingly reason to think that the battle over possibilist treatments of fiction will have to be fought over metaphysical foundations rather than technical shortcomings.

Quine and Quantified Modal Logic: Against the Received View

Author(s): Adam T. Tuboly / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2015

The textbook-like history of analytic philosophy is a history of myths, received views and dogmas. Though mainly the last few years have witnessed a huge amount of historical work that aimed to reconsider our narratives of the history of analytic philosophy there is still a lot to do. The present study is meant to present such a micro story which is still quite untouched by historians. According to the received view Kripke has defeated all the arguments of Quine against quantified modal logic and thus it became a respectful tool for philosophers. If we accept the historical interpretation of the network between Quine, Kripke and modal logic, which is to be presented here, we have to conclude that Quine’s real philosophical animadversions against the modalities are still on the table: though Kripke has provided some important (formallogical) answers, Quine’s animadversions are still viable and worthy of further consideration.

Barry Dainton – Howard Robinson (eds.): The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy

Author(s): Ivana Klimová / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

Review of: Barry Dainton – Howard Robinson (eds.): The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., London, 2014, 672 pages

Everything for Nothing

Author(s): Marco Simionato / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

In this paper I argue that the acceptance of an absolutely unrestricted quantification implies the existence of an absolutely empty possible world. This result could be relevant because David Lewis both admits an absolutely unrestricted quantification (for example in Parts of Classes) and rejects the existence of an absolutely empty possible world (in On the Plurality of Worlds). In order to vindicate my thesis, I propose two strategies. The first is based on the assumption that the phrase ‘nothing’ cannot be always reduced to a quantifier phrase, as Graham Priest and Alex Oliver with Timothy Smiley have argued. This strategy consists in a paraphrase of the notion of everything that constrains us to admit an empty possible world. The second strategy mainly consists in the use of an “idealistic” principle (say «every determination is negation») and its consequences.

Záměr Wittgensteinova Traktátu (2): Korespondence

Author(s): Petr Glombíček / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4/2014

The article presents a second part of an interpretation of the intention of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. The intention itself used to be considered a rather marginal topic until so called new-Wittgenteinian interpretations. The present article considers main sources to show what kind of content we can ascribe to the book. Its aim is to prove that Tractatus is not purely practical exercise, however, without stripping the book of its therapeutic side. This second part continues with interpretation of Wittgenstein’s correspondence with Russell, Frege, Ficker and comes to the conclusion for both parts considering mutual relation of all the sources.

Quantificational Accounts of Logical Consequence II: In the Footsteps of Bolzano

Author(s): Ladislav Koreň / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2014

Quantificational accounts of logical consequence account for it in terms of truth-preservation in all cases – be it admissible substitutional variants or interpretations with respect to non-logical terms. In this second of my three connected studies devoted to the quantificational tradition I set out to reconstruct the seminal contributions of Russell, Carnap, Tarski and Quine and evaluate them vis-à-vis some of the most pressing objections. This study also prepares the ground for my discussion of the standard model-theoretic account of consequence to be found in the concluding study.

Záměr Wittgensteinova Traktátu (1): Předmluva a motto

Author(s): Petr Glombíček / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3/2014

The article presents a first part of an interpretation of the intention of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. The intention itself used to be considered a rather marginal topic until so called new-Wittgensteinian interpretations. The present article considers main sources to show what kind of content we can ascribe to the book. Its aim is to prove that Tractatus is not purely practical exercise, however without stripping the book of its therapeutic side. The first part considers the preface and the motto of the book.

Enkrasia

Author(s): John Broome / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2013

Rationality requires you to intend to do what you believe you ought to do. This is a rough formulation of the requirement I call ‘Enkrasia’. This article presents a precise formulation. It turns out to be complicated, and the article also explains the need for each complication.

Je číslo vlastnost vnějších věcí? Mill – Frege – Kessler

Author(s): Prokop Sousedík,David Svoboda / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2014

In this paper we deal with the problem, whether number is a property of external things. It is divided into three parts. Firstly Mill’s empiristic concept of natural numbers is summarized, then Frege’s arguments against this conception are put forth and finally viewpoints of some contemporary analytical philosophers (first of all G. Kessler), who reject Frege’s critique, are set out. Kessler and his followers in fact revive the abandoned theory of Mill.

Millovo pojeti cisla

Author(s): David Svoboda / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2013

According to the positivists, all our knowledge is based on experience which is the foundation not only of every empirical science, but also of those disciplines that are usually considered to be a priori. The paper consists of two main parts. Firstly, a positivist concept of number defended by J. S. Mill is presented; secondly, it is shown how this conception can settle some objections coming from apriori-oriented philosophers. Mill’s theory of number is interesting for at least two historical reasons. It is developed in connection with a relatively rich scholastic logic which is why its methodology is similar to the contemporary philosophy of language; it is indispensable for an appropriate comprehension of the concept of number that was proposed by Mill’s most famous opponent G. Frege.

„Co je dosazitelne ze zebriku, me nezajima." Analyza a kritika resolutni interpretace Logicko-filozofickeho traktatu

Author(s): Tomáš Došek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2013

This paper surveys a new approach to interpretation of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - the resolute reading. The proponents of the resolute interpretation (especially Cora Diamond and James F. Conant) have argued that the central point of Tractatus is § 6.54. The reading of the section should be resolute, which means the sentences in Tractatus are simply nonsense (einfach Unsinn). Thus, the Tractatus’ aim is not a theory or doctrine of aspects of reality, language or their relation. On the other hand, the main point of the text should be elucidation of the reader’s points. The paper analyses two assumptions in the resolute reading and submits criticism of them. The basis of the criticism is to verily the validity of resolute reading’s assumptions by reference to Notebooks, Prototractatus, correspondence and some manuscripts and typescripts from the Tractatus period in Wittgenstein’s thinking.

Vojtéch Kolman: Ideo, čislo, pravidlo. Prolegómeno konolytické filosofa, která se nechce stát prísnou védou

Author(s): Marek Mikušiak / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2013

Review of: Vojtéch Kolman: Ideo, čislo, pravidlo. Prolegómeno konolytické filosofa, která se nechce stát prísnou védou Praha: Filosofía 2011, 474 strán

Funkce – Procedura – Konstrukce

Author(s): Pavel Materna / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3/2012

The purpose of this paper can be described as follows. The contemporary philosophical logic cannot work without using some terms well-known from mathematics and (mathematical) logic. Among such terms that play an important role in logical and philosophical analyses of language, meaning and the like we can find function, procedure and construction. One problem is that various authors use these terms in various ways, another problem consists in the well-known fact that many philosophers do not have any idea of what those and similar terms could mean. The present paper tries to explain why an exact explication of the three mentioned terms can contribute to understanding and even solving many problems with semantics of natural language, which a philosopher should be (and frequently is) interested in.