Safety, Virtue, Scepticism: Remarks on Sosa

Author(s): Peter Baumann / Language(s): English Issue: 45/2015

Ernest Sosa has made and continues to make major contributions to a wide variety of topics in epistemology. In this paper I discuss some of his core ideas about the nature of knowledge and scepticism. I start with a discussion of and objections against the safety account of knowledge—a view he has championed and further developed over the years. I continue with some questions concerning the role of the concept of an epistemic virtue for our understanding of knowledge. Safety and virtue hang very closely together for Sosa. All this easily leads to some thoughts on epistemic scepticism and on Sosa’s stance on this.

Czym jest „epistemologia znaturalizowana”?

Author(s): Jaegwon Kim,Marcin Garbowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2016

Jaegwon Kim in his article undertakes a critical analysis of W.V. Quine’s “Epistemology Naturalized.” He states that it is impossible to practice epistemology without taking into consideration the normative aspect, for without it, it becomes reduced to merely a psychological description of cognitive processes. In order to speak of the acquisition of undoubtable knowledge, it is necessary to avert to such categories as justification, which are of an axiological nature. Kim considers Quine’s concept difficult to accept in accordance with any epistemic theory which requires truth as the object of knowledge.

Husserl’s Theory of Noematic Sense

Author(s): Olga Nikolić / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

After Husserl’s transcendental turn and the discovery of the correlation between consciousness and the world the concept of the noema becomes one of the constant leitmotifs of Husserl’s philosophy. My paper will be devoted to the clarification of this concept and its implications for Husserl’s theory of sense. The leading question will be: How can the noema play the role of both the sense and the objective correlate of the intentional act? I will start with presenting the problematic of sense in Husserl’s phenomenology from the Logical Investigations to the Ideas I. The central part of my paper will be devoted to the influential debate regarding the interpretation of the noema. Finally, I intend to point out the most important ways in which the notion of the noema becomes enriched in later Husserl’s philosophy, as well as the difference between linguisitic and non-linguistic sense, based on the Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis. I hope to show that Husserl’s phenomenological theory of sense offers a valuable alternative to the exclusively language-oriented theories of sense.

Disappearing knowledge

Author(s): Ivan Nišavić / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

Following the exposition of the basic standpoints of contextualism in relation to invariantistic position, which takes the concept of knowledge in its rigorous and fixed meaning, the text continues to deal with the analysis of the concept of knowledge offered by David lewis, with a goal to solve common epistemological problems, one of those being the lottery paradox. Accepting fallibilism as the only plausible option regarding the possibility of acquiring knowledge, lewis claims that, with the postulated rules that allow us to properly eliminate alternative possibilities, it is possible to resolve the previously mentioned paradox. If we want to base knowledge on probability, and not on certainty, and to directly stipulate it with the context in which it is being imposed or expressed, than it is obvious that knowledge will depend on whether the requirements for knowledge are high or low. Thus, in one case it might occur that we have knowledge, and in the other that we do not, even though nothing is changed except the conversational conditions that are already ”in the game”. Such, elusive knowledge, that gets lost, De Rose labels ”now you know it, now you don’t” and considers it to be a direct consequence of Lewis’s analysis. As such, the analysis should not be accepted.

Može li se izbrisati filozofska svest?

Author(s): Snežana Grujić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2016

In an effort to adjust his theoretical comprehension to the existing natural–scientific paradigm, Searle develops neurobiological naturalism, an approach which should rely on basic facts obtained from the neuroscience researches of living organisms when solving basic philosophical problems. This paper briefly presents this view’s theory leading to the argumentation that Searle’s point of view is of metaphysical characteristics which is exactly what he was trying to avoid. The metaphysical character of Searle’s neurobiological naturalism has been seen through the problem of free will resulting from his understanding of consciousness. The argumentation is based on an analysis of the concepts, the gap and the self, as well as on possible solutions of the problem of free will (hypothesis 1 and 2).

Neznanje kao mnoštvo: feministički pristupi epistemologijama neznanja

Author(s): Nađa Bobičić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 20/2016

The paper focuses on critical consideration of the various categorizations of the concept of ignorance, with a specific reflection upon feminist categorizations of this concept. During the last ten years, an independent area of inquiry has been developed which goes by the name of agnotology or the epistemologies of ignorance. Its object of inquiry is the concept of ignorance, which was generally seen in the canonical epistemology as the negation of knowledge, deficient knowledge, or not-yet knowledge. Therefore, the primary challenge that agnotology faces is to try to define and categorize ignorance. The paper presents an analysis of ignorance as an autonomous concept, which is, like knowledge, socially situated, and which, besides maintaining the oppressive system, can also serve as a means of resistance.

Мировоззренческие основания историко-философских исследований Дмитрия Чижевского

Author(s): Wiaczesław Artiuch / Language(s): Russian Issue: 53/2016

This article considers the influence of notion of the world-view on understanding of Chizhevsky’s specifics of philosophical process in Ukraine. Herewith this world-view is tracked in connection with the notion of the “national nature”. Emphasized presence of moments hypothesis in using the notion of the “public world-view” and the “national nature” under the construction by the Chizhevsky’s continuity of philosophical process.

THE CONCEPT OF "KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY" IN THE CONTEXT OF INFORMATION ERA

Author(s): Sergiusz Terepishchyi / Language(s): English Issue: 53/2016

The article is devoted to the scientific analysis of the concept of "knowledge societies" in context for the possibility of its real use. Special attention is given to the opposition of positions on this theory, which is non-typical for research in this area. Based on the works of local and foreign academics, the author describes a society of knowledge model as a speculative ideal, which either conflict with modern informational capitalism, dissolved therein, without qualitative impact on the very social system. The analysis of concepts also revealed several fundamental reasons, which prevent the formation of knowledge society in our time.

ESEJ O IRONII FILOZOFICZNEJ TEODORA METOCHITY

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish,Greek, Modern (1453-) Issue: 24/2014

This is a translation of Theodore Metochites’s essay concerning philosophical irony from the Hypomnematismoi kai semeioseis gnomikai (Annotations and gnomic notes), an excellent collection of 120 texts on history, literature and thinking, containing the most extensive commentary on Aristotelian philosophy of the late Byzantine period. The essay on philosophical irony – never translated in Poland – is a commentary on the Dialogues of Plato, which had an important influence on the Platonic renaissance of the 15th century. Metochites, growing up in the cultural center of Constantinople, was a prolific writer, leaving behind works of rhetoric, poems, a literary testament, a collection of philosophical texts and two works on astronomy.

Dijaloška forma Platonovog mišljenja

Author(s): Hans J. Horn / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 07/1996

Pitanje dijaloške forme Platonovog mišljenja moglo bi se ubrojati u najtamnije zagonetke koje nam zadaje njegova filozofija i koje još uvijek iščekuju rješenja. Ali uprkos obimnim i raznovrsnim nastojanjima naučnika od ranga kao što su Hans von Arnim. Max Pohlenz i Paul Friedlander, teško da je razvijenije poznavanje one druge osobenosti platonskog dijaloga čijem rasvjetljavanju ovaj pokušaj želi dati svoj doprinos. Pri tome mislim na uvrštavanje dijalektičkog logosa u jednu scenu visoke životne neposrednosti.

FILOZOFIA ZMIANY — ZMIANA W FILOZOFII? UWAGI O NIE-DUALIZUJĄCEJ FILOZOFII JOSEFA MITTERERA

Author(s): Marzenna Cyzman-Eid / Language(s): Polish Issue: 28/2015

The present paper is aimed at a short presentation of the non-dualizing way of speaking formulated by Josef Mitterer, the Austrian philosopher. In the first part I focus on metaphilosophical conception of the non-dualism which is assumed as alternative for the dualizing way of speaking (dominating not only in the philosophical discourses but also in ordinary acts of speech). According to the from-object-cognition (which is understood as the option for traditional epistemology directed towards the object), there is no distinction between object and description. Thus, in the non-dualizing way of speaking, one speaks from the object, not about the object. This is impossible to present the object without a rudimentary description. As a consequence, the discourses are directed towards the change, not toward the truth (which is understood as the aim of the dualizng discourses). In the second part of the paper there is a short critique of Mitterer’s analyses, especially the notion of contingency and the notion of description. Assuming that one can formulate any kind of description from the object, Mitterer reaches the idea of anything goes which is unacceptable also from constructivist point of view (S. Fish’s notions, especially institutional nesting, are used in order to provide more acceptable solution: our conceptions are always based on pre-understandings and conventions). The notion of description, the central point of Mitterer’s deliberations, is involved in dualizing and this seems not to be the best way to present the different way of speaking.

Defense of Epistemic Reciprocalism

Author(s): Seungbae Park / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

Scientific realists and antirealists believe that a successful scientific theory is true and merely empirically adequate, respectively. In contrast, epistemic reciprocalists believe that realists’ positive theories are true, and that antirealists’ positive theories are merely empirically adequate, treating their target agents as their target agents treat other epistemic agents. Antirealists cannot convince reciprocalists that their positive theories are true, no matter how confident they might be that they are true. In addition, reciprocalists criticize antirealists’ positive theories exactly in the way that antirealists criticize their epistemic colleagues’ theories. Reciprocalism is a better epistemic policy than realism and antirealism in the epistemic battleground in which we strive to be epistemically safe vis-à-vis our epistemic colleagues’ theories and strive to convince our epistemic colleagues that our theories are true.

Self-deception and Selectivity: Reply to Jurjako

Author(s): José Luis Bermúdez / Language(s): English Issue: 49/2017

Marko Jurjako’s article “Self-deception and the selectivity problem” (Jurjako 2013) offers a very interesting discussion of intentionalist approaches to self-deception and in particular the selectivity objection to anti-intentionalism raised in Bermúdez 1997 and 2000. This note responds to Jurjako’s claim that intentionalist models of self-deception face their own version of the selectivity problem, offering an account of how intentions are formed that can explain the selectivity of self-deception, even in the “common or garden” cases that Jurjako emphasizes.

Bayesianism and the Idea of Scientific Rationality

Author(s): Jeremiah Joven Joaquin / Language(s): English Issue: 49/2017

Bayesianism has been dubbed as the most adequate and successful theory of scientific rationality. Its success mainly lies in its ability to combine two mutually exclusive elements involved in the process of theory selection in science, viz.: the subjective and objective elements. My aim in this paper is to explain and evaluate Bayesianism’s account of scientific rationality by contrasting it with two other accounts.

Maximization, Slotean Satisficing, and Theories of Sufficientarian Justice

Author(s): Alexandru Volacu / Language(s): English Issue: 49/2017

In this paper I seek to assess the responses provided by several theories of sufficientarian justice in cases where individuals hold different conceptions of rationality. Towards this purpose, I build two test cases and study the normative prescriptions which various sufficiency views offer in each of them. I maintain that resource sufficientarianism does not provide a normatively plausible response to the first case, since its distributive prescriptions would violate the principle of personal good and that subjective-threshold welfare sufficientarianism as well as objective threshold welfare sufficientarianism committed to the headcount claim do not provide normatively plausible responses to the second case, since their distributive prescriptions would violate the principle of equal importance. I then claim that an objective-threshold welfare sufficientarian view committed to prioritarianism under the threshold offers the normatively plausible response to both cases and therefore resists the challenge raised by scenarios that involve differential conceptions of rationality.

O vjeri, religiji, znanju i umu

Author(s): Friedrich Müller‐Reißmann / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 42-44/2014

Pitanja o smislu života, osnovi morala i nade zaokupljala su me već zarana. Odrastajući u “socijalističkoj” državi počeo sam shvaćati da religija ima neke veze s duhovnom slobodom individuuma (protiv njegova potčinjavanja kolektivu) uz istodobno vezanje po suosjećajnom i djelatnom sudjelovanjem u sudbini drugih. No, već tada me ljutio način na koji religiju prezentiraju uglavnom njezini “službeni” predstavnici, jer su tražili od mene isključivanje razuma. Jednostavno nisam mogao vjerovati da su se ondje stvarno dogodile tako neobične, bajkovite priče poput pretvaranja vode u vino te sam uz to smatrao da je sasvim nepotrebno vjerovati u takvo nešto. Ono što je posve izazivalo moje protivljenje bilo je uvriježeno označavanje vjere kao poslušne vjere, čime je prikriveno vršen pritisak kao da nekako postoji obaveza vjerovati ono nevjerodostojno.

Umetnost kao rad jezika i tehničko odnošenje

Author(s): Miroslav Prokopijević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 250/1979

Odnos umetnosti i rada, bića umetničkog dela i radnog sveta, nije svagda bio upitan, niti, pak, upitan na isti način. Direktno postavljanje pitanja o njihovom odnosu može doneti više nesporazuma nego što će pomoći razumevanju stvari. Opet, u okviru pitanja je jasno da je raspon mogućeg nesporazuma dosta širok: ništa nas ne obavezuje na uspostavlajnje direktnog odnosa, baš kao ni na konstatovanje beskrajnog razlikovanja, kako bi se to moglo učiniti na osnovu predrazumevanja u okviru prirodnog stava. Zato na početku ne bi bilo nekorisno setiti se jednog, vremena u kome je između ta dva sveta vladala harmonija ili barem privid harmonije. Privid utoliko što je time postao gledanjem iz teleologijske instance. To doba ne poznaje pogon tehnike, ne poznaje rad, koji i ako nije u funkciji visoko razvijene tehnike jest tehničko odnošenje. To doba u kome je biće umetničkog dela bilo ins Dasein versengt, a čije su prevladavanje nagoveštavale dolazeće epohe, Hegel je u Fenomenologiji duha okarakterisao sledećim rečima: Dieses ist der in sich gewisse Geist, der iiber den Verlust seiner Welt trauert und sein Wesen, iiber die Wirklichkeit arhoben, nun aus der Reinheit des Selbst hervorbringt.

The dispute between Gilson and Maritain over Thomist realism

Author(s): Stephen Chamberlain / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

This paper considers the proper location and function of critique in establishing a Thomist realism. The author begins by providing a brief explanation of Étienne Gilson’s understanding of critique and why he thinks a “critical realism” is incoherent. Next, the author considers the criticisms made by John Knasas who, from a Gilsonian perspective, argues that Jacques Maritain employs a version of the transcendental method of retorsion in order to justify his realism. Finally, the author offers a Maritainian response to Knasas in which it is argued that Maritain’s account provides a via media between the Transcendental Thomists, on the one hand, and the strict Aristotelian or a posteriori Thomists, on the other.

Wartość myślenia fragmentarycznego

Author(s): Zbigniew Kaźmierczak / Language(s): Polish Issue: XXIV/2012

Pejoratives and Testimonial Injustice: Precis

Author(s): Julija Perhat / Language(s): English Issue: 50/2017

Testimonial injustice is a hot topic in social epistemology. My own work is concerned with pejoratives (in particular, gender pejoratives for women), so in this paper I wish to connect them with such injustice. So, my present topic is testimonial injustice perpetrated by the serious use of pejoratives, in particular, gender pejoratives. It combines two strands: on the one hand, the work on testimonial injustice; and here I shall rely on Miranda Fricker’s work, and on the other hand, my own central area of interest, (gender) pejoratives.