Science

Uncorrected Insight: Metaphor and Transcendence "After Truth" in Qualitative Inquiry

by Timothy McGettigan

W. J. Korab-Karpowicz, Rethinking Philosophy: An Essay on Philosophy, Myth and Science, Philosophy Today (2002).

by W Julian Korab-Karpowicz

Philosophy defined as pursuit of wisdom can be understood as the desire to arrive at the ultimate knowledge - the... more Philosophy defined as pursuit of wisdom can be understood as the desire to arrive at the ultimate knowledge - the knowledge of the whole. But when it turns to be scientific and attempts to look at the world “objectively”, it arrives only at a knowledge of a part. What remains largely unquestioned about the world-view of modern science is its essence. The essence of scientific outlook is indifference. To place the world before us as an object of indifferent investigation is not an effective method of reaching truth about everything. Consequently, philosophy needs to follow its own path. Under the surface of illusion which results from scientific investigation there is a universal knowledge which arises from man’s devotional and affective engagement with the world. Philosophy can be regarded as a pursuit of the knowledge of the whole, but it is not the knowledge of the whole. The knowledge of the whole for which philosophy looks can be revealed in myth.

W. J. Korab-Karpowicz, Rethinking Philosophy: An Essay on Philosophy, Myth and Science, Philosophy Today (2002).

by W Julian Korab-Karpowicz

Philosophy defined as pursuit of wisdom can be understood as the desire to arrive at the ultimate knowledge - the... more Philosophy defined as pursuit of wisdom can be understood as the desire to arrive at the ultimate knowledge - the knowledge of the whole. But when it turns to be scientific and attempts to look at the world “objectively”, it arrives only at a knowledge of a part. What remains largely unquestioned about the world-view of modern science is its essence. The essence of scientific outlook is indifference. To place the world before us as an object of indifferent investigation is not an effective method of reaching truth about everything. Consequently, philosophy needs to follow its own path. Under the surface of illusion which results from scientific investigation there is a universal knowledge which arises from man’s devotional and affective engagement with the world. Philosophy can be regarded as a pursuit of the knowledge of the whole, but it is not the knowledge of the whole. The knowledge of the whole for which philosophy looks can be revealed in myth.

“Gold earrings, calico skirts”: images of women and their role in the project to civilize the Amazon, as observed by Elizabeth Agassiz in Viagem ao Brasil: 1865-1866.

by Fabiane SANTOS

The article analyzes the image of the
Amazonian woman as represented by
Elizabeth Agassiz in A Journey in... more The article analyzes the image of the
Amazonian woman as represented by
Elizabeth Agassiz in A Journey in Brazil: 1865-
1866, published in Europe in 1867 and based
on the diary of the Thayer scientific
expedition, led by the naturalist Louis
Agassiz. The study concentrates on records
of their passage through the Amazon, as
retold in chapters IV through XI. For the
purpose of this analysis, a few basic points in
the divergence between the chronicler’s
Western logic and the local population’s
lifestyle have been chosen, as evidenced in
the text: the clash with Agassiz’s viewpoints
on feminine autonomy, aesthetics,
temporality, and, lastly, the West’s
deterministic conceptions of miscegenation
as inherently negative and of the Amazon
itself, based on polygenism of creationist
inspiration. The article also discusses the era’s
outlook as far as the role the Amazon might
play in the project of the Brazilian nation.

"Science: A Greater Integer Function"

by Kristianne C. Anor

Published in Stance An International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal April 2012

The nature of scientific advancement and progression has always been a central topic of philosophical discussion... more The nature of scientific advancement and progression has always been a central topic of philosophical discussion amongst philosophers of science. Thomas Kuhn’s position on scientific development occurring via juxtaposed paradigm shifts in incommensurable theory, thought, and concepts will be challenged in this essay. Instead, I argue that the nature of scientific development is akin to a greatest integer function of punctuated equilibrium; thus, arguing against Kuhn in suggesting that science is an actively vigorous, cumulative discipline.

“Living Atoms, Hylomorphism and Spontaneous Generation in Daniel Sennert”, in Gideon Manning (ed.), "Matter and Form in Early Modern Science and Philosophy" (Boston-Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 77-98.

by Hiro Hirai

On the volume, see at http://bit.ly/IFdXO7

The work of Daniel Sennert (1572-1637), professor of medicine at the Lutheran University of Wittenberg, encompasses... more The work of Daniel Sennert (1572-1637), professor of medicine at the Lutheran University of Wittenberg, encompasses the cluster of issues raised by the early seventeenth-century intersection of matter theories and the life sciences, where the origin of life emerged as one of the most important questions. There the belief in spontaneous generation was particularly pertinent. Sennert wrote a treatise precisely on this subject, entitled "De spontaneo viventium ortu," published at the end of his masterpiece "Hypomnemata physica" (Frankfurt, 1636). There he developed a corpuscular interpretation of the origin of life to explain spontaneous generation, while biological generation provided the foundational model for his philosophical reflections in general. This article first analyzes Sennert’s discussions on the “normal” generation of living beings (plants, animals and human beings), the discussions which provide the basis of his doctrine on the origin of souls. Then his theory of spontaneous generation is examined on its own.


1. Introduction
2. The Origin of the Soul in Normal Generation
2.1. The Giver of Forms and Astral Causality
2.2. The Eduction of Forms
2.3. Jacob Schegk and Plastic Force
2.4. The Nature of the Seed and Its “Spiritus”
3. Spontaneous Generation in Sennert
3.1. The Soul, Seminal Principle and Corpuscles
3.2. The Atoms of Living Beings and Their Souls
4. Conclusions

„Adorno und Descartes, programmatisch versöhnt: Der wissenschaftliche Essay als Form“

by Anne Sophie Spann

published in: Merkur. Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken 63, 11, (2009), 1077-1081.

Magnetism and Microwaves: Religion as Radiation

by Deana Weibel

In David Cave and Rebecca Sachs Norris' volume Religion and the Body: Modern Science and the Construction of Religious Meaning, 2012

http://www.brillusa.com/religion-and-body?page=5&quicktabs_brill_product_tabs=0

When is Consensus Knowledge Based? Distinguishing Shared Knowledge from Mere Agreement

by Boaz Miller

Forthcoming in Synthese

Scientific consensus is widely deferred to in public debates as a social indicator of the ‎existence of knowledge.... more Scientific consensus is widely deferred to in public debates as a social indicator of the ‎existence of knowledge. However, it is far from clear that such deference to consensus is ‎always justified. The existence of agreement in a community of researchers is a contingent ‎fact, and researchers may reach a consensus for all kinds of reasons, such as fighting a ‎common foe or sharing a common bias. Scientific consensus, by itself, does not necessarily ‎indicate the existence of shared knowledge among the members of the consensus ‎community. I address the question of under what conditions it is likely that a consensus is in ‎fact knowledge based. I argue that a consensus is likely to be knowledge based when ‎knowledge is the best explanation of the consensus, and I identify three conditions – social ‎calibration, apparent consilience of evidence, and social diversity, for knowledge being the ‎best explanation of a consensus. ‎

On Perspectivism, Science, and the Affects in Nietzsche

by Jordan Adshead

Can Open Source projects succeed when the producers are not users? Lessons from the data processing field.

by Karine Roudaut

Co-authored with Nicolas Jullien; published in 'Management International' (accepted), 2012.

Free/Libre Open Sources Software (FLOSS) proposes an original way to solve the incentive dilemma for the production of... more Free/Libre Open Sources Software (FLOSS) proposes an original way to solve the incentive dilemma for the production of information goods, based on von Hippel (1988)'s user-as-innovator principle: as users benefit from innovation, they have incentive to produce it, and as they can expect cumulative innovation on their own proposition, they have incentive to share it. But what is the incentive for producers when they are not the users? We discuss this question via a qualitative study of FLOSS projects in "algorithm-based industries". We find that in that case producers hardly participate in such projects.

Sars:" Waterloo" of Chinese Science

by Cong Cao

China's" Brain Bank": Leadership and Elitism in Chinese Science and Engineering

by Cong Cao

The Chinese Academy of Sciences: the election of scientists into the elite group

by Cong Cao

A Reflexive Science of Consciousness

by Max Velmans

This paper is a clean PDF of my own contribution to a major conference on Consciousness hosted by the CIBA Foundation in London in 1992 that I helped to organise. This gathered together 25 leading scientists and philosophers then engaged in consciousness studies over a period of three days. The lively discussion following each presentation was recorded and after light editing for grammar and clarity of expression was included in the publication of the proceedings and consequently provides a vignette of how folk were thinking at that time. My own paper for example was followed by discussions with Tony Marcel, Thomas Nagel, Stevan Harnad, Jeffrey Gray, John Searle, Ben Libet, Nick Humprey, Pat Wall, Howard Shevrin, and Dan Dennett. The paper focused on various novel consequences of reflexive monism for how to think about public, intersubjective, repeatable evidence in science in a way that allowed for a convergence between physical science and the science of consciousness. However the discussion largely focused on a fundamental tenet of reflexive monism--that the phenomenal world we normally think of as the "physical world" results from a form of perceptual projection. Although this was quite widely accepted within psychological circles at the time, the philosophical consequences had not been followed through and puzzled many of the philosophers--as the discussion demonstrates.

Classical ways of viewing the relation of consciousness to the brain and physical world make it difficult to see how... more Classical ways of viewing the relation of consciousness to the brain and physical world make it difficult to see how consciousness can be a subject of scientific study. In contrast to physical events, it seems to be private, subjective, and viewable only from a subject's first-person perspective. But much of psychology does investigate human experience, which suggests that classical ways of viewing these relations must be wrong. An alternative, Reflexive model is outlined along with it's consequences for methodology. Within this model the external phenomenal world is viewed as part-of consciousness, rather than apart-from it. Observed events are only "public" in the sense of "private experience shared." Scientific observations are only "objective" in the sense of "intersubjective." Observed phenomena are only "repeatable" in the sense that they are sufficiently similar to be taken for "tokens" of the same event "type." This closes the gap between physical and psychological phenomena. Indeed, events out-there in the world can often be regarded as either physical or psychological depending on the network of relationships under consideration.

However, studying the experience of other human beings raises further complications. A subject (S) and an experimenter (E) may have symmetrical access to events out-there in the world, but their access to events within the subject's body or brain is asymmetrical (E's third-person perspective vs. S's first-person perspective). Insofar as E and S each have partial access to such events their perspectives are complementary. Access to S's experience is also asymmetrical, but in this case S has exclusive access whereas E can only infer its existence. This has not prevented the systematic investigation of experience, including quantification within psychophysics, psychometrics, and so on. Systematic investigation merely requires that experiences be potentially shared, intersubjective and repeatable. In this the conditions for a science of consciousness are no different to a science of physics.

The Relationships between Pupils’ Learning Styles and Their Performance in Mini Science Projects

by Halil Eksi

Mehmet BAHAR
Educational Sciences: Th eory & Practice
9 (1) • Winter 2009 • 31-49

Th is study aimed to investigate (i) the relationship between pupils’ learning styles and
their performance in... more Th is study aimed to investigate (i) the relationship between pupils’ learning styles and
their performance in mini science projects and (ii) the degree of enjoyment of pupils with
diff erent learning styles towards mini projects. A total of 80 pupils (7th grade-14 years of
age) from two diff erent primary schools participated in the study. Th e Grasha-Riechmann
Learning Style Scale was used to determine the pupils’ learning styles. Results showed
that all categories of pupils except avoidant were stimulated to varying degrees by the
mini projects. However, the pupils who were in the “independent,” “competitive,” and
“participant” groups had relatively higher achievement scores in the mini projects than
the pupils in the “avoidant,” “dependent,” and “collaborative” groups. Similar results also
appeared for the degree of enjoyment. Th e implications of the results for teaching and
learning science are discussed.

Ipomoea et latex, des ingrédients hallucinogènes et sacrés révélateurs du caractère sacré du jeu de balle mesoaméricain

by Cécile Petit

Cauces-revue d’étude hispanique, nº6, Valenciennes : Presses Universitaires de Valenciennes, 2005, p. 211-220.

Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Learning In the Sciences

by Sarah Elaine Eaton

Ciência e tecnologia para a Arquitetura e o Urbanismo: considerações preliminares sobre o quadro no Brasil

by Leonardo Castriota

CASTRIOTA, L. B. . Ciência e tecnologia para a Arquitetura e o Urbanismo: considerações preliminares sobre o quadro no Brasil. In: Maria Dolores Muñoz R.; Rodrigo Garcia A.. (Org.). INvestigación en Arquitectura y Urbanismo. 1a ed. Concepción, Chile: Facultad de ARquitectura, Construcción y Diseño / Universidad del Bío-Bío, 2007, v. , p. 30-35.

Life Responsibility Versus Mechanical Reductionism

by Giorgio Baruchello

Co-authored with Dr R.T. Allen, published (& copyright by) UNESCO's Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS): http://www.eolss.net

All modern Western world-views incorporate the idea of the natural world, distinct from both the artificial world of... more All modern Western world-views incorporate the idea of the natural world, distinct from both the artificial world of human creation and the trans-natural creative activity of God. That view of the natural world comprises the presuppositions of modern natural science, distinct from ‘magical’, polytheistic and world-denying cosmologies. It is the idea of a contingent yet rationally ordered universe, which the human mind can understand by way of observation and experiment, and which is good for the human mind to know and understand. Its origins are twofold, both of which are breaks with the old inclusive and polytheistic cosmologies: the Biblical idea of creation, and Greek natural philosophy and science. They were brought together in the new Christian civilization of Europe. The scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries replaced the specifically Greek elements in the mediaeval picture of the world with a mechanistic picture of the world, largely adequate for physics and later chemistry, but lacking provision for living beings and biology. It gave rise to ‘reductionism’, the belief that the methods of physics and chemistry should be applied to all knowledge or that higher levels of existence are ‘nothing but’ lower ones. The world in this perspective was held to lack meaning and purpose, whilst its life-support systems were being either underplayed, silently presupposed, or obliterated from view. This modern mechanistic picture made it possible for novel forms of world- and life-negation to emerge. Its emphasis on the abstract, synchronic and immutable representation by means of physical-mathematical expressions led to ‘otherness’ from the represented living world, which is embodied, diachronic and mutable.  Revealingly, the idea of mastery over the natural world, to be aided by new technologies, replaced that of stewardship, a mastery often unconstrained by any law. Reductionism also provoked reactions such as Romanticism, pantheism, and rejections of science and technology. Today significant changes in natural science itself offer prospects for more adequate pictures of the natural world, while the rise of ‘environmental ethics’ manifests a new sense of human responsibility and a lessening of the idea of unconstrained mastery over nature, as the environmental damages caused by humankind’s life-blindness can no longer be ignored.