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"De incerti aestimatione" ("On the estimation of uncertain things") by G.W. Leibniz in 1678 is an attempt to derive a general method for the problem of points, that is, the division of the stake in any round of the game. The explanatory section contains a number of definitions and ideas appearing in Leibniz's writings in earlier years. Among them is a definition of the concept of probability (probabilitas) associated at the time with the still unfinished debate over moral-theological probabilism. This association is justified in this case by the fact that in his correspondence and later writings Leibniz proposes to consider probability in a mathematical sense as opposed to the meaning used in moral theology. "De incerti aestimatione" is Leibniz's second work, in which he devotes attention to games, the issue of their justice and expected value, which he calls hope. The article discusses the legal, moral and metaphysical contexts of the concepts of probabilitas, jus (law) and ratio, as well as the limitations of the moral application of probability. Leibniz's solution to the problem of points is also presented, which, although flawed, is an independent proposal from Pascal for applying the recursive method to this problem.
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Two inferences correct in classical logic are controversial in cognitive science. The reason is that people do not always deem them as valid inferences. One of them is the rule to introduce a conditional. The other one is the rule to introduce a disjunction. The theory of mental models has an account for them. Their conclusions refer to models, and, in both cases, one of those models is inconsistent with the premise. When semantics modulates and removes the incoherent model, the inferences are accepted as correct. The present paper tries to describe those phenomena within the framework of first-order predicate logic. It proposes that the rule to introduce a conditional is not admitted when the conclusion is not a conditional, but a biconditional. It also claims that the rule to introduce a disjunction is not accepted when the disjunction is exclusive. These latter points are the novelty of the paper. People do not actually reject the two mentioned inferences correct in classical logic. What individuals reject is to introduce a biconditional taking as one of its clauses just a proposition already presented in the inference (which is also forbidden in classical logic) and to infer an exclusive disjunction from just a proposition, which is taken as one of the disjuncts (which is also forbidden in classical logic).
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With its strategic consideration of phenomenal consciousness illusorily seeming to us, illusionism claims to deny phenomenality and thereby obviate the hard problem of consciousness. The problem with illusionism, however, is that, although its thesis appears persuasively simple, it strikes as absurd insofar as the phenomenal illusions themselves also seem as much as phenomenality, keeping no fundamental differences between the two. In short, it reinforces the same phenomenon/issue, i.e., phenomenality, that it claims to deny/avoid. This single absurdity is reflective of its self-refuting nature, and it alone is enough for a rejection of illusionism. However, does illusionism have any reasonable justification to defend itself in the face of the experientially undeniable reality of phenomenal consciousness? This paper attempts to find out if there is any such illusionist justification.
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Introduction. The article explores the reasons for the lack of scientific consensus on critical thinking. Despite the fact that this concept has become one of the key ones for modern culture, it has not been properly defined, and organizational decisions remain controversial. In this article, we propose to focus not on the gaps in our knowledge of critical thinking, but on finding the reasons for what exactly prevents consensus on these issues. The purpose of the article is to establish fundamental uncertainties and theoretical conflicts in the science of critical thinking that prevent the solution of terminological and organizational aspects of the problem. Materials and Methods. The study is theoretical in nature and is based on an agnological approach to the analysis of expert ignorance (R. Proctor, S. Feirstein, etc.). This approach combines traditional methods of logical and philosophical analysis, but is used when the purpose of the study is not to fill the gap in knowledge, but to find explanations why exactly we do not know what we do not know. In order to achieve this goal, the subjects of scholarly debates regarding critical thinking were identified and the prerequisites on which conflicting concepts are based were analyzed. Results. The study found that the existing organizational debates about how critical thinking should be taught in educational institutions are derived from discussions at a fundamental level. The authors conclude that modern research on critical thinking, despite its apparent thematic proximity to each other, actually reflects different, yet incompatible approaches to nature, psychological mechanisms and standards of critical thinking. Conclusions. The research led to the conclusion that reaching consensus on practical issues, such as the way to organize critical thinking training, requires prior resolution of fundamental theoretical conflicts about the nature, psychological mechanisms and socio-cultural standards of critical thinking.
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This text on metaphilosophical issues is dedicated to Professor Stanisław Judycki. The article consists of two parts. In the first one, I do it characteristics of philosophy and from this perspective I analyze the issue of its relationship to specific disciplines, worldview and religion. The methodological specificity of philosophy argues for the need to distinguish it from each of these three spheres. In the second part, I address the problem of the role and importance of philosophy in the situation of ongoing cultural and technological changes. This raises questions about whether philosophical reflection will lose its position and role in culture in the future. In this context, I point out the reasons why the future position of philosophy may be no less important than the current one. At the same time, I analyze the features that such a philosophy of the future should have.
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The present work aims to sustain the idea that the man Wittgenstein can`t be separated from his work. Such that, the fascination he gives us, comes from how he succeeded in intertwining what he thinks with what he lives, and in this way living in the idea; the same idea which designed his life, and which gave him a sense, of an authentical one. Thus, any separation between life and creation, at Wittgenstein, became, more than at anyone, a void of meaning, an expulsion of understanding, a departure from the closest understanding of what he wanted to convey. Any separation between these perspectives leads us, for sure, to the misunderstanding of honesties, total implications, and full thinking as well as total belief affirmed by rationality and experience. Also, this work intends to highlight the few key moments, which can sustain the purpose of this paper, namely that the creation and the life, by default the ethics, at Wittgenstein, constitute a unitary whole of meaning sense undivided.
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In 1921-22, when Lugwig Wittgenstein was 33 years old, his work Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung appeared in the Annalen der Naturphilosophie, respectively Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, bilingual German-English edition, published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, translated by F.P. Ramsey and C.K. Ogden. This will be the only book published by the author during his lifetime and one hundred years after its publication it still provokes intense debate and unprecedented interpretations. In this article I aim to show where the perennial and seductive power of the Tractatus comes from. I consider the unity and coherence between the author's biography and his philosophical conception, the key objective and subjective moments that reflect on the work, the way in which the reader can be involved and my personal reading experience, the relationship between the surface structure of the book and its deep structure. Here I also shed light on the author's psychological profile, his inclinations, his connection with his family and his social and historical environment, Ludwig Wittgenstein's relationships with the most important people in his life and to whom he owes the decisions that led to the writing and eventual publication of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
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Logical Positivism stands out as one of the most remarkable and most controversial theories of twentieth century philosophy. Alfred Jules Ayer, one of the leading representatives of this theory, participated from the front line in the war against metaphysics waged by Logical Positivism, and his work Language, Truth and Logic became one of the most well-known manifestos of the theory. Although the theory has been subjected to intense criticism and largely abandoned since the second half of the twentieth century, the ideas at the core of Logical Positivism have taken on different forms and have survived to the present day. Therefore, Logical Positivism’s critique of metaphysics has not only historical but also contemporary significance. The aim of this study will be to present the arguments underlying Ayer's defense of the elimination of metaphysics and then to address the main criticisms directed to this theory.
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Criticisms of the understanding of science and philosophy put forward by logical positivism are varied. Some of them are philosophers who, with a radical objection, reject almost all the principles of positivism and claim that a philosophy that excludes metaphysics will cease to be philosophy. On the other hand, there have been philosophers who have not completely abandoned the ideal of scientific thought, but have proposed different criteria or perspectives, stating that the principles of Logical positivism are wrong. In this study, we will discuss the thoughts of Karl Popper, who offers alternative perspectives on the nature, validity and limits of scientific knowledge, and Thomas Kuhn, who criticized Popper as well as positivists, which we can include in the second group.
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İsmail Gelenbevi (1730-1790) was a scholar who not only wrote works on logic in the last period of the Ottomans, but also on mathematics, astronomy, theology and Sufism. Adab-ı Gelenbevi, translated by Abdünnafi İffet Efendi and the subject of this article, is considered to be one of the last works on logic in the Ottoman period. Since each work addresses its own period, it has become difficult for the next generation to understand. The need to translate Gelenbavi’s commentary stems from the importance of understanding him. This is because it is important in terms of revealing the differences of opinion on logic until his own time. In the introduction of the work, al-Gelenbevi establishes the relationship between the science of logic and grammar and religious sciences. He tells us the importance of language and that it is impossible to understand other sciences without logic. Thus, the necessity of translating this work on logic becomes apparent. Abdünnafi Efendi felt this need and translated it into Turkish to reach a wider audience. While the work explains the science of logic, it also gives information about the meaning of concepts and grammatical structure. This article discusses why Adab-ı Gelenbevi was written in Turkish and the value it adds to Turkish. İsmail Gelenbevi (1730-1790) was a scholar who not only wrote works on logic in the last period of the Ottomans, but also on mathematics, astronomy, theology and Sufism.
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The aim of this article is to produce a portrait of the relationship between being and thought in Hegel's Science of Logic, in conjunction with understanding this relationship as a necessary key in order to frame its ambitions as either transcendental or ontological in scope. In a transcendental thesis, the categories are determinative functions of the form of self-consciousness as thought, while in the latter they are forms of thought but also of being. Our thesis assumes the fact that the first movement of the system is not the dialectical movement of being into nothingness and vice versa as becoming, but rather a transcendental deduction contained within the privileged relationship between logic and ontology without which the system cannot move as a metaphysical deduction. We have also found fecund to our endeavor the framing of the earlier mentioned problem in the larger history of German idealism, especially Kant, proposing a destructuring of the portrait of the identity of being and thought as it appears in the critical system around three main actors: the-thing-in-itself, the categories and their deduction.
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This text exposes and analyses the refer- ences to the Eleatics starting from the hints to Gorgias and Zeno in the Phaedrus 261c–d and from the eristic arguments of Euthydemus which are evidently influ- enced by the way of arguing of the Eleatics. Naturally, the greatest attention is reserved for the dialectical dialogues: with a real coup de théâtre, the Eleatics pass from being (almost) unknown figures to becoming masters. First Parmenides and then the Stranger of Elea give Socrates important suggestions about method and content. This sequence is even more exceptional because it is the only case in which we find some internal references in Plato’s corpus, where the author usually never mentions his own writings. These analysis highlights, among other issues, the impor- tance of dialectics, the treatment of not being as dif- ferent, the denial of the so-called parricide by the Stranger of Elea.
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In the Parmenides, it is possible to identifyaffirmations that are clearly of Eleatic origin andwhich are re-elaborated by Plato who includes them adhoc when developing his arguments. The dialecticalcontribution on the question of the multiplicity of enti-ties given to the Parmenidean philosophy by Zeno isdiscussed not only in the first part of the dialogue (see127d–128d) but also in the second. In the latter, Par-menides adopts an ontological-metaphysical settingthrough which Plato gives an example of the varioususes of Zenonian dialectic. Here all the hypothesesconcerning the One are analysed (see 136a–c).
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Part 2 of the Parmenides is an obviousplace to examine Plato’s reception of Zeno; after all, itis a demonstration apparently based on Zeno’s methodand one of the main characters of the dialogue is Zeno.Nevertheless, it has received little attention as a sourcefor understanding Plato’s engagement with the histori-cal Zeno. Here, I show that Plato engages with Zeno’sparadox of place in the first deduction of Part 2 of theParmenides—and in sophisticated and interestingways.I begin by addressing some methodological issues.I then examine Eudemus’ account of Zeno’s paradoxof place as reported by Simplicius and Aristotle’saccount in his Physics 4.3 in order to reconstruct it. Iproceed to examine the arguments for the one’s beingnowhere, if it is, in the first deduction of the Parmen-ides. I argue that there are good reasons to suppose thatZeno’s paradox of place is at issue there. Finally, Ireflect on what these arguments reveal about Plato’sengagement with Zeno’s paradox of place.
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We offer an overview of the relation between formal logic and naturalism. In Section 2, examples are considered of empirically-motivated logics. In Section 3, an empirically-motivated interpretation of alethic modalities is outlined. Through both issues, we attempt to support the thesis that formal logic can be regarded as a quasi-empirical, or already naturalized discipline.
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We are living on a biased philosophy, and we limit ourselves to a simple choice between A and B, B being non-A. One crucial creational generative moment with nothing before, or nothing specified, or some metaphorical something. Either Big Bang, in an unspecified situation, or emergence from “physical logic.” Or some divine generating creator of universal and life. Any freedom, free choice, responsibility for man? In recent archaeological discoveries, some approaches were biased and destroyed a lot of what they should have discovered. Naledi’s small brain, several steps before Homo Sapiens, invented burials and the first symbolical scratches on the walls of these chambers. Only be produced by big-brained Hominins? What about Neanderthals and Denisovans. Any free choice in the evolution of a language? Is writing an invention around 4-3,000 BCE? Naledi proves it is wrong. The rotation of vowels and consonants increases lexical creativity connected with the brain machine-code that remembers what is useful for biological survival, writing is envisaged and experimented. From a set of limited calls (postgressively containing/producing human language) to a first batch of illimited vocal clusters (progressively produced from what was before), the road to articulated language is blazed. Yet diversification? The matrix of linguistic phylogeny?
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In an exceptional critique of the Frankfurt example, Kadri Vihvelin pointed out one unpleasant consequence that must be accepted by all those who believe that the example successfully problematizes the principle of alternative possibilities, namely that the subject can be responsible in a fatalistic scenario. Although counterintuitive, this paper offers an interpretation that makes this conclusion acceptable to representatives of Frankfurt-type compatibilism.
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