Hasil untuk "Metaphysics"

Pascal Massie

The issue of prime matter divides Aristotle’s modern commentators on two questions: a) whether Aristotle was truly committed to it b) whether the notion is even coherent. Those who declare prime matter incoherent do so on the ground that what is deprived of characteristics or properties is simply nothing. Those who try to salvage the notion claim that it must have some characteristics focus on extension. As it stands, the debate turns on the possibility or impossibility of reifying prime matter. If we can, then it can be a coherent ontological category; if we cannot, then it is incoherent. This paper proposes a different path: indeed, prōtē hulē cannot be reified, but this does not make it incoherent. This, however, invites us to pursue ontology beyond substantialism and essentialism and takes us to the limits of Aristotelianism.

Alfredo Pereira Jr.

The aim of this paper is to dissociate Metaphysics and Theology. In Metaphysics, I propose a Neutral Monist foundation of the Being of Reality, which is, therefore, not material or ideal, but a cosmic field of possibilities that generate both domains. God is conceived as one possibility embedded in the Being of Reality that may or may not become actual, depending on conditions established by the evolution of the Cosmos. As far as we know, the conditions for actualization of God are satisfied by human consciousness. The relation between the Being of Reality and its outcomes, as the realization of God in human society, is one of actualization of potentialities, as in Aristotelian philosophy. This approach leads to a Feuerbachian view of God as emergent in social conscious experience, achieving embodied expression in human social practices, from the legitimate symbolic message of prophets, in sacred texts, rituals, images, buildings and social institutions implemented by religious organizations.

Bernard James Mauser

This article deals with Alvin Plantinga’s arguments against St. Thomas Aquinas’s third way to show that God exists. Although attacks on this argument have come from Christians and non-Christians, my contention is that these rebuttals of the third way arise because of a misunderstanding of the argument itself. Thus, the metaphysical background for understanding the third way is first explained, and then the arguments Plantinga raises against it are dealt with. After reading this article it should be clear that the third way to show God’s existence is plausible and that Plantinga’s attacks against it are based on a straw man rather than the substantive argument the third way actually is.

Lugovoy Sergey

The significance of the ethical concepts of Kant, developed in the critical period of his philosophy, goes far beyond the boundaries of the Enlightenment. In the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Practical Reason, The Metaphysics of Morals Kant criticises the most common doctrines of morality in the eighteenth century, including the philosophy of moral sense and the Wolffian ethics. However, almost all of Kant’s life took place in the “Age of Reason”, and his early works fit completely into the cultural context of the Enlightenment. True, a significant part of them is devoted to natural science problems that are not directly related to practical philosophy. In this material it is difficult to identify the ethical foundations which Kant, the natural philosopher, followed and to establish how typical they are for the German Enlightenment of the mideighteenth century. It is similarly difficult to see which of them would continue to be significant for Kant in his mature period. It is advisable to begin with an analysis of Kant’s Master’s thesis On Fire. As examples of Kant’s ethical attitudes, I can point out: observance of the etiquette norms of writing in the Gallant Century; trust in the geometric method; declaration of distrust of philosophical speculation in itself, combined with the construction of empirically verifiable hypotheses; the desire to establish the truth, synthesising speculative and experimental knowledge.

Maltsev Konstantin, Alaverdyan Artem, Maltseva Anni

The “ethnic paradox of modernity”, the explosive growth of fundamentalist nationalist ideologies and extremist nationalist political movements are increasingly regarded as a challenge to the modern global political order - the need for an adequate “response” to this “challenge” is recognized. The dominant economic paradigm in liberal social science (J. Agamben), which presents the reality of the global order, sets a perspective: the answer must demonstrate loyalty to the foundations of “liberal metaphysics”, and at the same time confirm their validity in the changed constellation of socio-historical circumstances. On the basis of a free public discussion (rational communicative action) and through the available institutions, on the basis of a liberal “value consensus” that is not subject to revision, a constant search for balances (K. Schmitt) regarding the interests through legal political compromises (F.R. Ankersmit) designed to remove the antagonisms of “national conflicts” shall be conducted. Revealing the conditions for the possibility and boundaries of the liberal strategy of removing antagonisms presupposes the interpretation of the concept of a civil nation, the political project of which is seen as a response to the challenge of “nationalist fundamentalism”.

David Martín Plaza

Zahra Zargar, Hanieh Gholamali, Homa Yazdani

Metaphysics of Gender is a branch of Feminist Philosophy in which the metaphysical issues about "Gender" are discussed. Charlotte Witt is a feminist philosopher, who analyzes gender from a particular point of view. Witt names her theory "Uni-Essentialism" which is an essentialist theory of gender, while differing deeply from customary essentialist theories. She avoids the current framework of debate between Realists and Nominalists, because her main question is about the role of gender in one's identity. She says that there are always some conflicts between norms of various social roles one occupies, and for this reason we all need a unifying normative principle. According to Witt, gender is that normative principle, which unifies and organizes all other roles. So, gender is essential for everyone, in an Aristotalian sense. In this paper the Uni-Essentialism thesis of Witt is analyzed and its weaknesses are discussed. Finally we will suggest some points for improvement and modification of the theory.

Veronica Cavedagna, Daniele Poccia

Following the mathematical use of isomorphism, which is a one-to-one correspondence between at least two structures or forms, the article extends and reconsiders the meaning of this notion in respect to three fundamental philosophical problems: the origin of meaning, the role of images in the formation of knowledge and the morphogenesis of the real. We argue that isomorphism could be understood as a heterotopian scale in which the overlapping of the maps with the territory it represents, results in a harmonic proliferation of realities which directly map onto the concepts they embody. As such, in order to describe it, we equal isomorphism to an ontopoietical method that allows for the transition from an analogical (and humanistic) metaphysics, to a pluralistic (and impersonal) ontology.

Viktor Kozlovskyi

The article reveals peculiarities of conceptual analysis of the “Critique of Pure Reason» by British philosopher Peter Strawson. The author claims that this analysis depends on the methodological assumptions and conceptual language of Strawson’s previously published large-scale study (“Individuals…”, 1959). The author confirms Barry Straud`s point that Strawson`s project depends, to some extent, on the descriptive metaphysics of “Critique of Pure Reason”. Strawson`s metaphysical doctrine is based not only on the Kant`s doctrine of subjective forms of space-time (this thesis, in fact, is the limit of Stroud’s approach), but also on some subjects of Kant`s transcendental logic. In particular, it relates to Strawson`s analysis of: (a) the intellectual structures, that actively shape our understanding of the world; (b) the functioning of logic-grammatical forms that provide predication of experience; (c) the transcendental unity of “I” and of the difference between personal and formally-analytical aspects of “I”. Based on “The Bounds of Sense...” (1966) and later Strawson’s articles dealing with the philosophy of Kant, the author proves that: (1) Strawson’s «analytical model» of transcendental argument is based on Kant's transcendental psychology; (2) the modalities of understanding of the transcendental idealism depend on understanding of relation between things in themselves and phenomena i.e. depend on the empirical realism according to Kant; (3) Kant’s sensual intuition suggests, as Strawson has shown, the possibility of other spatial-temporal forms of subjective intuition, which are constitutive for another kinds of experience.

A. Burgess, B. Sherman

O. Bueno

M. B. Willard

Скакун Ігор

Скакун Игорь. Концепция антропоцентризма в неклассической философии. В работе исследуется мировоззренческий и методологический потенциал антропоцентризма и его реализация в динамике парадигм человекомерности научного знания. Раскрывается суть идеи человекомерности и принципа антропоцентризма, формы их актуализации в постклассической парадигме знания. Ключевые слова: антропологизация, антропоцентризм, человек, методология, научная картина мира. Skakun Ihor. THE CONCEPT OF ANTHROPOCENTRISM IN THE NONCLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY. In the paper the ideological and methodological potential of anthropocentrism and its implementation in the dynamics of human dimensional paradigms of scientific knowledge is argued. The author reveals the essence of the idea of personality and principle of anthropocentrism, shapes their actualization in postclassical paradigms of knowledge. The concept of anthropocentrism became an independent philosophical concept, according to which man is the center and purpose of world creation. Anthropocentrism in non-classical philosophy outlined the importance of the qualitative change in the methodological approach of philosophical understanding of man. It should be emphasized that man-restructuring concept was only potential, as factors of its implementation (as it was in post-non-classical period) to the just formed. Thinkers’ ideas of the transition period (from classic to non-classic) and the ideas of thinkers formed a new era of post-non-classical objectivistic and subjectivist concepts of man. Awareness of the problem of man as the central philosophical subjects helped to change scientific understanding of human dimensional constants. An attempt was made to move from philosophical objectivism to subjectivism, from the outside, objectively caused to the subject, the real entity. In the controversy with speculative metaphysics and traditional philosophy of abstract rationalist objectivism became an emerging trend of Western thought in terms of anthropological orientation: phenomenology, personalism, existentialism, philosophical anthropology etc. Metaphysics and objectivistic conception of man were challenged and replaced with contemporary philosophical systems. The process of antropolohization acquired an open form in all senses. Keywords: anthropologization, anthropocentrism, man, methodology, science, scientific world picture.

Cinara Nahra

Neste ensaio literário/filosófico discutiremos o tema do amor e do tempo com uma abordagem mesclada entre a filosofia analítica e a filosofia continental. Inicialmente analisamos a proposta do <em>enhancement</em> do amor, de Julian Savulescu e Andre Sandberg e após utilizamos de textos literários e poesias para discutir os efeitos da passagem do tempo sobre os amores e sobre o amor. É possível que o amor sobreviva ao tempo? Existem amores que são para sempre? Estas são algumas das questões que trataremos aqui.

Krystle Ontong, Lesley Le Grange

As the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) draws to an end, one could pose the question: what might education’s response be to a deepening environmental crisis as we move beyond the decade? Sustainability as a frame of mind presents a different perspective to that of sustainable development as a policy (the focus of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development) and therefore cultivating it through education might be a response that could take us forward. In this article we argue for an expanded notion of sustainability as a frame of mind, viewed through the lens of place-based/place-conscious education and also informed by the metaphysics of ubuntu. The aim of the article is to introduce place-based education and sustainability as a frame of mind as conceptual avenues for challenging educators to rethink environmental education as we enter an era beyond the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. We do this by conceptually exploring the concepts of place-based and place-conscious education and how these fairly new educational notions might assist in developing sustainability as a frame of mind. We also discuss the educational implications of practising a pedagogy of place with specific reference to sustainability.

J Akbari Takhtameshlou, M Golshani

Hilary Putnam, who was once one of the representatives and proponents of scientific and metaphysical realism, became an unrelenting opponent of metaphysical realism during the mid-70s. Having argued against alethic and ontological dimensions of metaphysical realism, he proposed “internal realism” as an alternative to it. Putnam's major objection to the alethic dimension of metaphysical realism was that this philosophy brings about an unbridgeable gap between the truth of a proposition and our epistemic justifications for it. As to the ontological dimension of metaphysical realism, he proposed the criticism to the effect that according to this philosophical position the world consists of “ready-made” objects. Putnam poses these criticisms because, as he argues, firstly, truth cannot be considered anything but the ideal justification and secondly, the world is not made of ready-made objects, but rather it is we that cut up the world into different objects when we take a conceptual scheme. Indeed, according to Putnam assuming any "external perspective", whether about truth or about ontology, is meaningless. Having introduced and reviewed Putnam's arguments in rejecting metaphysical realism, this article explains and examines the basic elements of internal realism. The results of this article show that Putnam's objections against metaphysical realism lack the necessary credibility and strength and at the same time his proposed alternative (internal realism) has serious problems that made to be addressed. By his chosen conception of truth, internal realism, cannot touch its stated purpose i.e. the removal of a huge gap between the truth of a statement and our knowledge of it. The ontological claims of internal realism are not, indeed, the reliable and true consequences of the thesis of conceptual relativity, which is considered as Putnam’s main base in this regard, but rather it is more a consequence of mistaking the linguistic issues with ontological ones.

P. M. Ainsworth

M. Bunge

Antonio Manzatto

<p>A questão sobre a verdade, se não for bem colocada, pode dificultar o encontro e o diálogo entre teologia e literatura. A elaboração da ficção não é necessariamente distanciamento da verdade, nem o discurso teológico é o único verdadeiro. A metafísica tradicional já afirmava o belo e o verdadeiro como transcendentais. Hoje, mesmo em ciências, debate-se sobre a compreensão da verdade uma vez que tal conceito não é simples nem unívoco. Reconhecendo que há diversas ordens de verdade e diferentes caminhos para atingi-la, o texto enfoca as distintas maneiras de se colocar o problema da verdade em literatura e em teologia, mas de maneira a facilitar um real diálogo entre elas mostrando, por uma rápida referência aos estudos bíblicos, que tal diálogo é possível e mesmo desejável. Ali, não há que se opor, por exemplo, a verdade histórica à verdade literária, que é aquela apresentada pelo texto, mas busca-se alcançar a “verdade de salvação”, aquela que vai se relacionar de maneira mais direta com a fé.</p><p><strong>Palavras-Chave:</strong> Verdade. Teologia e Literatura. Narração. Estética. História.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The question about the truth becomes difficult the dialogue between theology and literature. The development of fiction does not mean a separation of the truth.  In turn, the theological discourse is not the only true. Traditional metaphysics has already affirmed the beautiful and the true as a transcendental. Nowadays, even in science, there is a debate about the understanding of the truth since this concept is not simple, nor univocal. The text recognizes that there are several orders of truth and also different ways to achieve it. In other words, the paper looks at different ways of putting the question of truth in literature and in theology, aiming to facilitate the dialogue between them.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong><strong>:</strong> Truth. Theology and Literature. Narration. Aesthetics. History.</p><p>- DOI: 10.5752/P.2175-5841.2012v10n25p12<strong><br /></strong></p>

M. Esfeld