CATCH-22: ANTHROPOLOGY, AUTONOMY AND THE TRIAL

Author(s): Sean Leneghan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

This paper critically reflects on the process of pursuing autonomy through a doctorate in anthropology and the recurrent institutional obstacles in the form of bureaucratic oversight committees and departmental politics that are set against this project. I argue against these trends by drawing from my own experience by self-reflectively describing the corporate bureaucratic conformity within the discipline of anthropology and retain an ongoing commitment to the left-wing project within the discipline itself and the promise of human freedom contained within the traditions of critical knowledge.

LA PLACE DE L’EXCEPTION DANS LA MORALE DE BERGSON

Author(s): Jean-Jacques Sarfati / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2014

The Place of Exception in Bergson’s Ethics and Politics. This text is a summary of Bergson philosophy of exception in ethics and politics. It has for objective at the same time to show the diversity of the Bergson’s thought on these issue, but also it highlights the sacrificial aspects that it entails. This sacrificial logic had significant echoes in the European contemporary political and pedagogical practice. The thesis which we support here is that it is advisable to go out of this logic without falling in a Russellien type hyper-rationalism, but without ignoring the virtues of its pragmatism.

Tim Crane on the Internalism–Externalism Debate

Author(s): Ana Gavran Miloš / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

The subject of this paper is the debate between externalism and internalism about mental content presented by Tim Crane in Chapter 4 of his book Elements of Mind. Crane’s sympathies in this debate are with internalism. The paper attempts to show that Crane’s argumentation is not refuting the Twin Earth argument and externalism, and that in its basis it does not differ much from externalism itself. Crane’s version of the argument for externalism features two key premises: (1) The content of a thought determines what the thought is about/what it refers to (the Content Determines Reference Principle); and (2) Twins are referring to different things when they use the word “water”. From these, in a few simple steps, Crane’s externalist infers: Therefore, their thoughts are not “in their heads”. Crane suggests denying the Content Determines Reference Principle in the light of indexical thoughts. In the first stage, Crane reduces “content” to “some aspect of content”, although he needs all aspects of content to secure identity of thoughts. However, his view then comes close to something acceptable to externalists. In the second stage, Crane makes content relative to context, but then reference still determines content.

Some Epistemological Consequences of The Dual–Aspect Theory of Visual Perception

Author(s): Snježana Prijić-Samaržija / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

Seeking whether our perception produces knowledge which is not only relative or subjective perspective on things, is to be engaged in the realist/anti–realist debate regarding perception. In this article I pursue the naturalistic approach according to which the question whether perception delivers objective knowledge about the external world is inseparable from empirical investigation into mechanisms of perception. More precisely, I have focused on the dual aspect theory of perception, one of the most influential recent theories of perception which unifies two traditionally opposite approaches to perception: ecological and constructivist. I have tried to show that the dualistic model of human vision does not support the majority of realist theses aimed at non–relativism, but supports only pragmatic realism about observational reports (dorsal system) and the moderate realism about observational reports (ventral system).

Summary of Elements of Mind and Replies to Critics

Author(s): Tim Crane / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

Response–Intentionalism About Color: A Sketch

Author(s): Nenad Miščević / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

Building on Crane’s intentionalism, the paper proposes a variant of response–dependentist view of colors. To be of a color C is to have a disposition to cause in normal observers a response, namely, intentional phenomenal C–experience. The view is dubbed “response–intentionalism”. It follows from the following considerations, with the red of a tomato surface taken as an example of color C. Full phenomenal red is being visaged (intentionally experienced) as being on the surface of the tomato. Science tells us that full phenomenal red is not on the surface of the tomato. Equally, full phenomenal red is not a property of subjective state but its intentional object. Response–intentionalism follows by considerations of charity, i.e. minimizing and rationalizing the error of the cognizer, and of inference to the best explanation: being red in scientific sense is being such as to cause the response (intentionally) visaging phenomenal red in normal observers under normal circumstances.

On Wakker’s Critique of Allais–Preferences

Author(s): Jordan Howard Sobel / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

Peter Wakker impugns the rationality of Allais–preferences. He argues implicitly that otherwise perfectly reasonable subjects who have Allais–preferences will in some situations choose to bet on propositions before, rather than after, learning of their truth–values. After spelling out Wakker’s argument, and identifying and repairing a weak point, I turn it around to say that aversions to information, and preferring to bet on propositions without knowing their truth–values, can be reasonable on precisely the grounds that can make Allais–preferences reasonable. Lastly, to accommodate reasonable Allais–preferences, the normative principle of Utility Theory is restricted to pairwise preferences for lotteries the basic outcomes of which are ‘loaded up’, and, of course, to preferences for lotteries that are ‘comparable as alternatives’.

Pierre Jacob and Marc Jannerod, Ways of Seeing: The Scope and Limits of Visual Cognition

Author(s): Snježana Prijić-Samaržija / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

Crane on the Mind–Body Problem and Emergence

Author(s): Olga Markič / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

In his book Elements of Mind, Tim Crane gives us a very clear and interesting introduction to the main problems in the philosophy of mind. The central theme of his book is intentionality, but he also gives an account of the mind–body problem, consciousness, and perception, and then he suggests his own solutions to these problems. In this paper I will concentrate on a part in which he discusses the mind–body problem. My main aim will be to look at different physicalistic positions in relation to the mental causation problem, particularly at emergentism as Crane’s favourite position.

Rationality and the Emotions

Author(s): Daniel Farell / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

There are some seemingly clear cases of the use of the concepts of rationality and irrationality in talk about the emotions. Even in such contexts, it is argued here, while not entirely wrong-headed, the use is much less clearly appropriate, upon reflection, than many of us seem to believe. The paper starts with a conception of the emotions which emphasizes the way we construe the world (or some aspect of the world) while we experience them and because of what it is to experience them. According to this approach, an emotion’s appropriateness is simply a function of the features of the relevant part of the world actually being in the way specified by a proper analysis of that emotion. It is then argued that this analysis is not favorable to using the concept of rationality in the sorts of cases that interest us.v

The Knowledge Argument—Some Comments

Author(s): Dunja Jutronić / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

The paper discusses Crane’s analysis of Knowledge argument, and sets forth author’s disagreement with Crane. Surely Mary learns something new when she sees a color for the first time. The time for a physicalist to quarrel comes only when a qualia person says that this experience represents special phenomenal facts, and that such understanding should be identified with propositional knowledge. We should not confuse ‘having information’ with having the same information in the form of knowledge or belief. Mary knows everything there is to know about color vision. The only thing she has not done is practically experience what it is like to see a color. Thus her knowledge gap is practical and not propositional.

The Contingent A Priori: Much Ado about Nothing

Author(s): Isidora Stojanović / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

Since Saul Kripke’s Naming and Necessity, the view that there are contingent a priori truths has been surprisingly widespread. In this paper, I argue against that view. My first point is that in general, occurrences of predicates “a priori” and “contingent” are implicitly relativized to some circumstance, involving an agent, a time, a location. My second point is that apriority and necessity coincide when relativized to the same circumstance. That is to say, what is known a priori (by an agent in a circumstance) cannot fail to be the case (in the same circumstance), hence it is necessary.

Crane on Intentionality and Consciousness: A Few Questions

Author(s): Ksenija Puškarić / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2004

The paper concentrates on issues of intentionality subdivided into four particular sub-issues. First, is there an intentional object of depression and of states like depression? Second, according to the strong intentionalist view defended by T. Crane, what it is like to be in a mental state is fixed by the mental state’s mode and its content; but mode is not sufficiently well-defined in his analysis. Third, how can the intentionalist explain phenomenological richness of conscious mental states? Crane appeals to non-conceptual content. But in order to have such and such a content, e.g. such and such a pain, one has to recognize it on some later occasion, i.e. to be able to discriminate pains. But, discrimination brings us to concepts. It turns out that non-conceptual content is in fact just a non-linguistic or not yet lexicalized concept. Namely, in order to be re-identifiable, a pain must have a determinate and recognizable sharpness, continuity, and intensity. These are traditionally properties of a pain quale. A quale is also recognizable, it explains richness of experience, and it does not require language capability. The question is what is it that quale and non-conceptual content do not share? What sets one apart from the other? Fourth, what is the relation between the intentional object and content?

VERIFIKACIJA I FALSIFIKACIJA ZNANSTVENIH TEORIJA

Author(s): Antonio Poljak / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 4/2008

Logical positivists plead for the application of verifying criteria in science as principles which justify the statements of science and give sense to scientific notions and statements. However, such principle questions not only many philosophical terms but also natural-science terms. Principle of verifying, connected with the method of induction, does not guarantee necessity and generality of verified theory. Critical rationalism of Karl Popper reminded us of the problem of justifying values of incomplete inductive concluding and it pleads for the principle of refuting (falsifying) scientific theories by deductively made singular statements. Possibility of falsifying some theory is a criterion for determining boundaries between scientific statements and unscientific attitudes of mathematics, logics and metaphysics. With this paper the author tries to point to incompleteness of both mentioned theories in the case when they pretend to exclusiveness of their method, but also to their scientific importance, compatibility and mutuality.

PARADIGMA I KOMPLEKSNO MIŠLJENJE (1)

Author(s): Zoran Primorac,Andrej Ule / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 4/2008

This text represents a part of a wider project that concerns the role of prenotional complexes in creating paradigmatic theories, especially in the history of physics.After analyzing certain texts; Aristotle’s, Galileo’s, Newton’s and others, the existence of so called general complexes, which have the role of regulation of the theory, was noticed. General complexes function by the same mechanism as paradigms that Kuhn described in his works. This work has an assignment to show that his concept of paradigm is closely connected to general complex and complex thinking. Also, one deeper analysis of the idea of paradigm itself that Kuhn determines in his works has been done. We have come to the conclusion that he did not understand the essence of paradigm, i. e. general complex, which led to wandering both in defining of the concept and in application of the idea. Kuhn had tried to define paradigm as a general notion or a matrix, which is in fact impossible because of its nature, and as a consequence of that concept of paradigm in his theory appears as a meta-complex. Misunderstanding of the essence of paradigm will imply wrong interpretation of the mechanism of general complex itself which, at the end, leads to wrong conclusions which affect close concepts like revolutionary change of paradigm, incommensurability of theories etc.

Vaizdiškumo socialiniai pjūviai

Author(s): Tomas Kačerauskas / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2011

Politinės paslaugos ir jų vizualizacija politinėje komunikacijoje

Author(s): Valdas Pruskus / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2011

The article explains the conception of political service, its specific features, and provides the ways and means of achieving its visuality which is crucial for the acceptance of the consumer (the potential elector). There are discussed the possibilities of the medium and new image creation technologies to visualize political services and the image of a politician. It is shown that there are the following three ways of media to visualize the politician: iconological (through selected and provided photos of the politician), vocal (highlighting not what he says but how he does it), and kinetic (showing how he moves and communicates with the surrounding people). Thus, the media become not only the provider of the politician’s visual image, but also the co-author of the services offered by him to society which is capable, using the effective communication means, to distort or to fate the communicable message. The positive and negative consequences of visualization of political services are disclosed in the article as well.

Moteris utopinėje bendrijoje: vaizdinės kultūros kritika

Author(s): Tomas Kačerauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2011

The article deals with the roles of woman in an utopian society, as well as with the criticism of visual culture monopoly. By developing the theses of Irigaray and Butler, the woman’s role of a copula is analysed, while it turns culture into a masquerade. The roles of woman have been connected with the audio function that presupposes multicultural narration. According to the author, the roles of woman ensure both the existential transitions of an individual and the slips of utopian community. The author’s theses are as follows: 1) cultural phenomena obtain their forms by hiding one behind another and by pretending each other, i. e. during cultural masquerade; 2) development of culture as a masquerade presupposes transfer of reality fields while the discourses lose their borders; 3) the multiplicity of visual culture, which connects an individual and the community, has been ensured by audio transitions and transfers as the communicative channels between different visual levels; 4) the invisible role of woman in the community appeals to the visual rims in which the forms of latent beauty emerge; 5) the history of community is blind when it directs the tradition to a misleading way in which the strayed heroes “see” a new region of coexistence.

Vizualumo studijos Lietuvoje

Author(s): Ramojus Reimeris / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2011

Visuality and visual studies are an evermore increasing object in the still maturing context. The last decades’ wave of visual studies can be named as visual studies, visual culture studies or visual media studies. Inspired by the visual turn, the origins of visual studies are the history and theory of art, philosophy (cultural philosophy and aesthetics). The article examines Lithuanian authors’ experience in methods of and insights into visual studies, discourses of different approaches and applications of visuality.

Religinio įvaizdžio vizualizacija: europietiškas diskursas

Author(s): Basia Nikiforova / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2011

Summary The aim of the article is to challenge the problem of the actualization of religious image and its visualization in the public life. The author suggests considering religious image as a reflection of religious self-identification and specificity of the confessional style of life. The otherness of religious image, public demonstration of religious symbols became an object of restrictive and prohibitive acts in a number of European countries. The author examines the present-day situation in the context of European and Lithuanian historical analogues. The problem of cultural adaptation, its borders, and the possibilities of a dialogue and compromise among various cultural traditions is analyzed in the context of European discourse.