APPRAISING the PROBLEM of FOUNDATIONALISM in CARTESIAN EPISTEMOLOGY Linus Clifford Chinda Department of Educational Foundation
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Studia Philosophiae Religionis 21
STUDIA PHILOSOPHIAE RELIGIONIS 21 Editores: Catharina Stenqvist et Eberhard Herrmann Ulf Zackariasson Forces by Which We Live Religion and Religious Experience from the Perspective of a Pragmatic Philosophical Anthropology UPPSALA 2002 Doctoral Dissertation in Philosophy of Religion for the Degree of Doctor of Theology at Uppsala University 2002. ABSTRACT Zackariasson, Ulf. 2002. Forces by which We Live. Religion and Religious Experience from the Perspective of a Pragmatic Philosophical Anthropology. Studia Philosophiae Religionis 21. 254 pp. ISBN 91–628–5169–1. ISSN 0346–5446. This study argues that a pragmatic conception of religion would enable philosophers to make important contributions to our ability to handle concrete problems involving religion. The term ’philosophical anthropology’, referring to different interpretative frameworks, which philosophers draw on to develop conceptions of human phenomena, is introduced. It is argued that the classical pragmatists embraced a philosophical anthro- pology significantly different from that embraced by most philosophers of religion; accordingly, pragmatism offers an alternative conception of religion. It is suggested that a conception of religion is superior to another if it makes more promising contributions to our ability to handle extra-philosophical problems of religion. A pragmatic philosophical anthropology urges us to view human practices as taking shape as responses to shared experienced needs. Religious practices develop to resolve tensions in our views of life. The pictures of human flourishing they present reconstruct our views of life, thereby allowing more significant interaction with the environment, and a more significant life. A modified version of reflective equilibrium is developed to show how we, on a pragmatic conception of religion, are able to supply resources for criticism and reform of religious practices, so the extra-philosophical problems of religion can be handled. -
The Conversion of Skepticism in Augustine's Against the Academics the Conversion of Skepticism in Augustine"S Against the Academics
THE CONVERSION OF SKEPTICISM IN AUGUSTINE'S AGAINST THE ACADEMICS THE CONVERSION OF SKEPTICISM IN AUGUSTINE"S AGAINST THE ACADEMICS BY BERNARD NEWMAN WILLS, B.A., M.A. A THESIS Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor ofPhilosophy McMaster University C Copyright by Bernard Newman Wills DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2003) McMaster University (Religious Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Conversion of Skepticism in Augustine's Against the Academics AUTHOR: Bernard Newman Wills, B.A., M.A. SUPERVISOR: Dr. P. Travis Kroeker NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 322 ABSTRACT This thesis examines Augustine's relation to Academic Skepticism through a detailed commentary on the dialogue Against the Academics. In it is demonstrated the significance of epistemological themes for Augustine and their inseparability from practical and religious concerns. It is also shown how these issues unfold within the logic ofAugustine's trinitarianism, which informs the argument even ofhis earliest works. This, in turn, demonstrates the depth of the young Augustine's engagement with Christian categories in works often thought to be determined wholly, or almost wholly, by the logic of Plotinian Neo-Platonism. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Travis Kroeker for his advice and considerable patience: my readers Dr. Peter Widdicome and Dr. Zdravko Planinc: Dr. David Peddle for several useful suggestions and general encouragement: Dr. Dennis House for teaching me the art of reading dialogues: Mr. Danny Howlett for his editorial assistance: Grad Students and Colleagues at Memorial University of Newfoundland and, in a category all their own, my longsuffering wife Jean and three boisterous children Kristin, Jeremy and Thomas. -
Research Note Bourdieu and Leibniz: Mediated Dualisms
Research Note Bourdieu and Leibniz: Mediated Dualisms Abstract The research note discusses similarities in theory construction between Bourdieu and Leibniz. Instead of ‘overcoming’ the Cartesian dualisms, both authors find a way to mediate between the dualistic concepts by introducing a third concept. In Leibniz’ case, this is God, in Bourdieu’s case, history. Reading Bourdieu thus from a Leibnizian angle, the note seeks to clarify some issues in Bourdieu’s theory construction. Keywords: Bourdieu, Descartes, dualisms, Leibniz Author : Elke Weik University of Leicester School of Management Leicester LE1 7RH UK phone: 0044-116-252 5318 email: [email protected] 1 The present research note wants to show linkages and similarities in theory construction between Bourdieu and the 17th century philosopher Leibniz. The aim is to explore to which extent Bourdieu (most explicitly stated in Bourdieu, 1980/1990, Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1996) overcomes the traditional dualisms formed by Cartesian philosophy: subjective-objective, mind-body as well as the subsequently developed dichotomy of structure and agency1. Among the many concepts Bourdieu introduces for that purpose, I should like to focus on the special relationship of two: the habitus and the field. The habitus is Bourdieu’s major concept to portray how institutions, conventions and other practices influence and shape the individual human being with regard to its body, preferences, attitudes, etc. Through socialisation and biography, the habitus attains a historical dimension. Its hysteresis guarantees a certain stability as it retains the habitus malleable but only ‘reluctantly” and in a slow process of re-socialisation (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1996). The field, on the other hand, is the dynamic situation actors live in. -
René Descartes' Philosophy As a Forming
WORLD SCIENCE ISSN 2413-1032 PHILOSOPHY RENÉ DESCARTES’ PHILOSOPHY AS A FORMING ELEMENT OF GREGORY SKOVORODA’S WORLD- VIEW INTUITION Shuvalov V. S. Ukraine, Ternopil, Ternopil Higher Theology Seminary DOI: https://doi.org/10.31435/rsglobal_ws/30042020/7035 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Received: 17 February 2020 Skovoroda’s philosophy is considered through the prism of philosophical Accepted: 20 April 2020 ideas and features of the scientific discourse presented by the modern Published: 30 April 2020 philosophers, in particular René Descartes. Special attention is paid to the similarity of these philosophers’ views, who focus their attention of the KEYWORDS method of self-cognition. However, Descartes engages in the gnosiological Descartes, aspect and pays attention to the process of cognition and on the correctness Skovoroda, of conclusions. Whereas Skovoroda is concentrated on ontology or even on self-cognition, metaphysics speaking not so much about the process of cognition, but about intuition, the essence of existence. Besides this it is important that both thinkers have Cogito. the same world-view intuition, in particular Skovoroda, akin to Descartes, considers God to be the only source of final and absolute truth. Citation: Shuvalov V. S. (2020) René Descartes’ Philosophy as a Forming Element of Gregory Skovoroda’s World-View Intuition. World Science. 4(56), Vol.2. doi: 10.31435/rsglobal_ws/30042020/7035 Copyright: © 2020 Shuvalov V. S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. -
The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis
The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis: Descartes and the Modern Worldview By Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis: Descartes and the Modern Worldview By Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-0343-7 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0343-4 The time is coming when the struggle for dominion over the earth will be carried on. It will be carried on in the name of fundamental philosophical doctrines. —Friedrich Nietzsche We cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it in the first place. —Albert Einstein CONTENTS Preface ......................................................................................................... x Abbreviations ............................................................................................ xii Acknowledgements .................................................................................. xiii Introduction ................................................................................................ -
Theories of Justification: Foundationalism Versus Coherentism Part 3
Philosophy 5340 – Epistemology Topic 6: Theories of Justification: Foundationalism versus Coherentism Part 3: Foundationalism Versus Foundherentism Introductory Remarks Comparing foundationalism with Susan Haack’s ‘foundherentism’ is a slightly tricky matter. First of all, foundationalism comes in significantly different varieties. In particular, there are some very significant differences between the type of foundationalism associated with indirect realism, and the type of foundationalism that Mike Huemer advances in his defense of direct realism. Secondly, Haack’s account of foundherentism is not as clear and precise at crucial points as it could be. To handle the first problem, I shall compare foundherentism with both types of foundationalism whenever necessary. 1. Is there a Privileged Class of Beliefs that Can Be Non-Inferentially Justified? Foundherentism 1. Haack says that foundherentism does not involve any privileged class of beliefs that can be non-inferentially justified. 2. The reason for this denial is that certain states are part of a person’s experiential S- evidence – namely, one’s present perceptual experiences, introspective awareness of one’s own mental goings-on, and memory traces of one’s earlier perceptual and introspective states – and their being part of one’s experiential S-evidence does not depend upon one’s having any beliefs about those states. Because of this, any propositions that are sufficiently supported by such propositions to be justified will be non-inferentially justified, since there will be no justified beliefs at earlier stages in the causal process that leads to the beliefs in question. Foundationalism – Indirect Realist Version 1. There is a privileged class of beliefs that can be non-inferentially justified. -
Foundationalism and Non-Foundationalism in Entrepreneurship Research: Beyond the Quantitative/Qualitative Divide
AGSE 2009 FOUNDATIONALISM AND NON-FOUNDATIONALISM IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESEARCH: BEYOND THE QUANTITATIVE/QUALITATIVE DIVIDE Richard Harrison: Queen’S University Management School, Belfast, United Kingdom Claire Leitch: Queen’S University Management School, Belfast, United Kingdom Frances Hill: Queen’S University Management School, Belfast, United Kingdom ∼ Contact: Richard Harrison, Queen’s University Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, 25 University Square, BT7 1NN Belfast, UK, (T) +44-2890-973621, Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This article reviews the role of qualitative research in entrepreneurship. We argue that a strong commitment to non-foundationalist qualitative research, and the methodological pluralism this implies, should be a feature of the field as it matures. However, there are a number of widely reported problems with qualitative research in terms of the validity, reliability, rigor, robustness and communicability of its results that militate against more widespread adoption of these methods. We explain how these requisites can be assured by describing the research process followed in a recent qualitative study employing the critical incident technique (CIT). INTRODUCTION While Aldrich & Baker (1997) have recognised that entrepreneurship research may adopt multiple paradigms, reflecting competing interests and approaches and demonstrating a concern with practical relevance, from a normal science point of view progress has been limited. This is the case both in comparison with past research in the field and with more general high quality organizational research. Specifically, they have argued that convergence in entrepreneurship research, “the idea that as an intellectual field matures, it becomes increasingly characterized by a set of codified theories, models, methods, and/or measures” (Grégoire, Nöel, Déry & Béchard, 2006), should in part focus on the research designs, samples and methods used. -
Kant, Rawls, and the Moral Foundations of the Political Nythamar De Oliveira Porto Alegre, Brazil In
Kant, Rawls, and the Moral Foundations of the Political Nythamar de Oliveira Porto Alegre, Brazil In: Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung: Akten des IX Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, ed. Volker Gerhardt, Rolf-Peter Horstmann und Ralph Schumacher, Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2001, 286-295. Abstract: This paper recasts the problematic of the moral foundations of the political in light of John Rawls's critical appropriation of Immanuel Kant's practical philosophy (GMS, KpV, MdS, and political writings). It is shown to what extent one may succeed nowadays in preserving the normative principle of universalizability without falling back into moral foundationalism and in accounting for the stability of a "well-ordered society" in the very terms of an unsociable sociability combining morality and legality (articulation of the universal principle of justice and the categorical imperative). By recasting a theory of justice as fairness, starting from the "fact of pluralism" and from a conception of a "public political culture", Rawlsian contractarianism not only corrects its own inconsistencies but reiterates its Kantian-inspired proceduralism. Despite its shift from a comprehensive doctrine of justice in his 1971 masterpiece (A Theory of Justice), Rawls’s later political conception of justice (esp. Political Liberalism) recasts Kant’s procedural device of self-determination and autonomy insofar as social agency is inevitably caught in reflective equilibrium. In lieu of celebrating a shift from the moral foundations of the political towards a specifically political theory of justice, Rawls’s constructivism recasts some of the very problems inherent in a Kantian critique of moral realism and intuitionism in ethics and political philosophy. -
Thesis, J. J. Hardes
SPORT, POLITICS, AND THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES: SYNTHESIZING IDENTITY POLITICS AND GLOBAL EMANCIPATION THROUGH NEO-PRAGMATIC RADICAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jennifer J. Hardes, BA (Hons). The Ohio State University * * * * Master’s Thesis Committee: Dr Melvin L. Adelman, Advisor Approved by: Dr Sarah K. Fields ____________________________ Advisor College of Education ABSTRACT This thesis examines a shift in sport sociology toward post-structurally underpinned identity-based politics. As a result, sport sociologists fail to reflect on macro level political issues such as human rights, due in large measure to the epistemological rejection of metanarratives of post-structurally oriented scholars. Implicit in this thesis is a tension between foundationalism and anti-foundationalism, which I synthesize through a Hegelian dialectical argument. I use the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as an empirical example of the implications that rejecting metanarratives entails, and I argue that reconciliation of micro and macro level politics is essential through means of pragmatic radical democratic theory, in order to provide a moral purchase for scholars when dealing with issues requiring wide-scale emancipation, while, concomitantly, pertaining to sport sociology's calls for micro level identity-based work. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my advisor Dr Melvin Adelman for his support over the duration of my studies at Ohio State, and Dr Sarah Fields for her invaluable feedback on this work. It also goes without saying that I owe tremendous thanks to Dr Earle Zeigler for his patience and invaluable help, feedback, critique and advice. -
Spinoza on Extension Physical Not Mere Extension in Space, for Spinoza, but It Is Not Part of the Essence of Something Physical to Be Extended in Space at All
Philosophers’ volume 15, no. 14 §1 Introduction1 Imprint april 2015 Spinoza indicates in the Ethics that there is at least one “extended thing (res extensa)”, which is God, or nature (e. g., EIIp2), and that there are bodies, which are “modes of Extension (modi Extensionis)” (e. g., EIIp7). This is very naturally taken to mean that there are things — substances, modes, or both — that are extended in three dimensions, or that take up space. In this paper, however, I argue that this is not what Spinoza means. When Spinoza discusses the attribute of extension, he does not mean dimensionality, and by “an extended thing” he does not mean to describe something that takes up space. Not only is the essence of the Spinoza on Extension physical not mere extension in space, for Spinoza, but it is not part of the essence of something physical to be extended in space at all. The argument proceeds in two parts. First, in §2, I argue that when Spinoza writes that God, corporeal substance, or nature is “an Extended thing”, he does not mean that this substance is extended in length, breadth and depth. In other words, substance is neither space nor something that takes up space. I argue for this by showing that Spinoza allows that substance can be characterized by a certain conception of quantity, contrasts that with another conception of quantity that cannot be attributed to substance, and associates three-dimensional extension with the second kind of quantity, and not the first. I go on in §3 to make the more controversial case that finite Alison Peterman bodies, or modes of the “extended” substance, are also not properly University of Rochester 1. -
Wittgenstein, Gadamer and Bernstein
Eight HERMENEUTICS, PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY AND THE ONTOLOGY OF COMMUNITY: WITTGENSTEIN, GADAMER AND BERNSTEIN Núria Sara Miras Boronat 1. Introduction. How Modern Philosophy Became a House of Horrors A spectre has been haunting Modern European thought: the Spectre of “Cartesian Anxiety”. This spectre has multiple faces and reappears in unsuspected forms, often thought to have been left behind. Yet in all its disguises, Cartesian anxiety has always had the same effect. It paralyses philosophers, it blocks their creative resources and even the bravest of them feel imprisoned in their own philosophical system much like a frightened child would feel in a house of horrors. As Bernstein has pointed out, it was Descartes himself in Meditations who described the horrible emotions that accompanied his philosophical journey. There is a myriad of criticisms of Descartes’s strategy to seek the ultimate foundations of certainty. I think most critics would agree with Bernstein’s diagnosis that Cartesian anxiety is caused by the profound conviction held by modern philosophers that their main task must be “the search for an Archimedean point upon which we can ground our knowledge.”1 In my opinion, Bernstein offers us the most exquisite and precise description of this pathology: The terrifying quality of the journey is reflected in the allusions to madness, darkness, the dread of waking from a self-deceptive dream world, the fear of having “all of a sudden fallen into very deep water” where “I can neither make certain of setting my feet on the bottom, nor can I swim and so support myself on the surface”, and the anxiety of imagining that I may be nothing more than a plaything of an all- powerful evil demon.2 The diagnosis and therapy against the issues caused by modern epistemology can be found in what I consider to be Bernstein’s masterpiece, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism (1983). -
Cartesian Rationalism
Cartesian Dualism I am not my body • Dualism = two-ism • Concerning human beings, a (substance) dualist says that the mind and body are two different “substances” (things). • The brain is made of matter, and part of the body. The mind is a separate, non-material thing. Motivations for dualism It’s the simplest solution to the problem created by the mechanical philosophy, of which Descartes was one of the chief proponents. According to this view, the human body is just a collection of material particles – a machine. 1. Free will. The actions of a machine are all determined by the laws of physics, but a soul is free of those laws. 2. Life after death. The soul can survive the death of the body. This allows either a disembodied continued existence, reincarnation, or a future resurrection. 3. Sharp distinction between humans and animals. (The second of the two greatest errors is to say that “the soul of the brutes is of the same nature with our own”.) Where does the mind fit into a mechanical world? • According to the mechanical/corpuscular philosophy, the material world consists of particles in motion. The positions are fully describable using Cartesian coordinates, and the motions as functions from time to (x, y, z). • E.g. in a hot gas, the particles are simply moving faster than in a cold gas. • What about thoughts and sensory experiences? Are they describable in terms of particles in motion? Is the experience of red a certain configuration of atoms? What’s wrong with materialism? • If the mind is the brain, then we have the problem of qualia/secondary qualities.