Epistemology & Philosophy of Science

2014, Volume 39, Number 1

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

 
Ilya Kasavin. STS: ANTICIPATORY NATURALIZATION OR CATCHING UP MODERNIZATION?
Science and Technology Studies (STS) is one of the world's leading trends in philosophical and interdisciplinary research that reveals the obvious parallels with the Russian tradition of the philosophy of science and the science of science. Analysis of this subject area shows that STS faces today at least two challenges: to avoid theoretical stagnation and to make a practical contribution to the relationship between science and society. The first one is principally solvable through interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophy and other disciplines studying science. The second challenge needs to maintain a balance between the cultural autonomy of scientific research, on the one hand, and the actual existence of science as a social institution, on the other. Both of these tasks are already inherently imply an emphasis on philosophical point of view and some decrease of technocratism characteristic to STS. The understanding of empirical existence of science has to be put in dependence on the initial task of philosophical reflection: to adjust the diversity of reality to the cultural and historical diversity of the mind.
Keywords: science, technology, STS, philosophy of science, history of science, sociology of science, naturalism, case studies, Big Questions

PANEL DISCUSSION

Elena Zolotukhiva-Abolina. ON OUR INNER WORLD AND HOWIT APPEARS TO US
The Panel Discussion is triggered by the Elena Zolotuhina_Abolina’s reflections on the nature of the human “inner world”. She argues that feature of the human mind is not to be investigated with the standard methods of contemporary philosophy of mind because the question at issue is not its relation to the body but the inner world per se: what constitutes it and how it appears to us. Dr. Zolotuhina-Abolina argues that this domain is not dominated by logic and rationality and is not fully presented by graphic images, the realm of thoughts and senses is a continuum with the I as a nucleus within this flow which can appear or not appear.
Keywords: inner world, consciousness, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, constructivism, cognition.
 
Vladimir Przhilenskiy. “Inner world” from the constructivism perspective.

Michael Belousov. Phenomenological concepts of consciousness and the problem of the “inner world”.

Sergei Merzliakov. What language does subjectivity speaks itself?

Petr Kusliy. The aspects of the “inner world” and semantics of the natural language.

Elena Zolotukhina – Abolina. Reply to critics

EPISTEMOLOGY AND COGNITION

Tom Rockmore. A PROGRESS REPORT ON COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONALISM AND METAPHYSICAL REALISM
Metaphysical realism, though not under that name, runs throughout the entire Western tradition at least since Parmenides. His basic ontological claim, that is, that what is is and cannot not be, hence cannot change, influentially creates a central philosophical task. Cognitive foundationalism, whose exemplar is Descartes, is a cognitive strategy intended to respond to metaphysical realism. Plato rejects any form of a representational approach to knowledge in rejecting the backward causal inference from ideas in the mind to the world. The Cartesian strategy is based on a justified inference from the idea in the mind to the world, which reverses the Platonic criticism. Criticism of the Cartesian inference from the idea in the mind to the world supports Plato's rejection of representationalism in all its forms.
Keywords: realism, foundationalism,, Parmenides, Plato, Descartes

 
Lyudmila Mikeshina. ECLECTICISM AND SYNCRETISM: ON SYSTEMACY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
The paper examines how eclecticism and syncretism got their various assessments in the history of natural sciences and the humanities. For instance, R. Boyle “collected ideas and facts all over the world”, and I. Newton was not only a creator of mechanics, but also a theologian and an alchemist. This is an example of large  scale syncretism, not of a mixture of the heterogeneous, but of coexistence of scientific texts and other texts which have no relation to science or made contrary to its principles. Sebastian Franck’s eclectic writings (the 16th century) induced W.Dilthey’s ideas about this historian, “the first person of the New times”, and A.Koyre’ґ s reflections on the formation of historical studies, their eclecticism as a combination of philosophical, scientific and theological thoughts. J. Donne’s eclectic “metaphysical poetry” (17th  century, England) was highly esteemed by Th.Elliot and J. Brodsky, its history is also considered. U. Eco is treated as the author of the “opera aperta” concept, a form of syncretism and eclecticism that transfers his interpretation of syncretism to the level of transcendentality, an infinite variety of communicating meanings represented in knowledge of the humanities. All in all, it is shown how assessments of syncretism and eclecticism were changing in the history of European culture, where demands of theology, philosophical systems, classical sciences, and mainly of European logocentrism dominated. This is connected with rethinking of cause and effect, structural dynamism, “rejection of static and syllogistic perception of the world order”, with understanding that values are historical. Instead the “true-false” binary relation there finally came uncertainty, relativity, discontinuity, the variety of concepts, the overcoming of philosophical systems’ and the very systemasy’s domination in philosophy. It happened in the period of modernity and postmodernity, when assessments of syncretism and eclecticism were rethought.
Keywords: syncretism, eclecticism, natural sciences, I. Newton, the humanities, A. Koyreґ, W. Dilthey, U. Eco, the modern, the postmodern

 
Alexander Krushanov. ON THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL ORIGINALITY OF THE COLLECTIVE COGNITIVE PROCESSES
There is no definite tradition to separate an epistemology of the collective cognitive processes as the specific field of the gnoceology. But there is a real foundation for selfdetermination of the field – existence of the “collective cognitive phenomena”. They manifest themselves only in nonindividual cognitive processes. Till nowadays in professional publications such phenomena were fixed, represented and discussed in the framework of such new themes as communicative rationality, problem of the conventions, problem of the testimonial knowledge. The author makes attempt to show that family of the collective cognitive phenomena is wider then it is traditionally discussed and perceived. And it is not clear at all how many other new phenomena can be discovered. That is why it is useful and important (as author think) to fix clear and specially that epistemology of the collective cognitive processes is specific and independent new dimension of the epistemological work. In this connection content of the article includes representation and analysis of the phenomena, which are not in the focus of the philosophical community yet.
Keywords: collective subject, epistemology of the collective cognitive processes, collective cognitive phenomenon, prestandard situations, knowledge in the fragment and in the connected state (as “cristalloids” of the scientific knowledge), scientific works

 
Georgy Levin. THE PROBLEM OF THE “THIRD WORLD” IN CONTEMPORARY EPISTEMOLOGY
K.Popper names the first the natural world existing behind borders of human consciousness, the second - the world of most this consciousness, and the third - the world of spiritual and material products of human activity, i.e. that E.V.Ilenkov includes in sphere of the ideal world. Popper considers as the pioneer of the third world Platon. Its doctrine about eidoses means. In article this hypothesis is tested. It is with that end in view shown, that Platon in the doctrine about eidoses answers three questions: 1) what is a subject of theoretical knowledge? 2) where is it? 3) how the knowledge of it gets into our consciousness? The thesis is proved, that the modern doctrine about ontology of knowledge, distinguished, on the one hand, from most this knowledge, and, with another, from the objective reality reflected in it, is the lineal descendant doctrines about eidoses, and that Popper names the third world or the world of objective knowledge, represents real sphere of life, but essentially distinct from ontology theoretical knowledge and only connected with it. This communication is analyzed.
Keywords: Ideal object, intentionalitat, ontology, theoretical object, the theory, the third world, a clever place, the eidos, empirical object

LANGUAGE AND MIND
 
Alexander Emelyanov. PHENOMENOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE "PLEASURE PRINCIPLE"
The article deals with the application of the «pleasure principle» to borders and categories of phenomenology of the man’s life world. Experience of pleasure is considered as an event of "world’s opening", as a way of a man being and kind of emotions having phenomenal nature. Language interpretations, through which the hedonistic experience reveals, are studied. Phenomenological approach to the analysis of the «pleasure principle» is compared and contrasted with the psychoanalytic approach. The reference to the phenomenological interpretation could be explained by the need to study this phenomenon in the broader philosophical, metaphysical, linguistic approaches. Pleasure experience in this regard is presented as an event of «world’s opening», «involvement to the world»; it presents a wide range of subject intentionality. The article emphasizes that the experience of pleasure is not a single thing, but it varies depending on the configuration of the living world. A man knows the “pleasure principle” owing to experiences of fun, joy, lust, happiness; all these states transmit various shades of hedonic experiences.
Phenomenological approach to the analysis of pleasure operates in line with the approaches, which reveal the influence of emotions on human knowledge and understanding of the world, the interdependence of cognitive acts and bodily-sensual nature of man. The article considers phenomenological interpretations of pleasure by H.-G.Gadamer, J.-P. Sartre, R. Barthes, etc.
Keywords: pleasure experience, life world, human consciousness and its configurations, the phenomenal nature of emotions, values of society, the role of emotions in the learning process

 
Vyacheslav Faritov. ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF THE PHENOMENON OF DISCOURSE
The aim of this article is an ontological analysis of one of the most important concepts in the modern philosophical and scientific thought – concept of discourse. The problem of relations between discourse and reality, discourse and language is considered. From the standpoint of modern ontological approaches discourse is treated as a phenomenon that combines the basic oppositions of classical ontology, such as being and consciousness, reality and language. The discourse is not the product of any being as such, neither the language itself. It occurs at the intersection of these phenomena in the problem field created by their mutual attraction and mutual repulsion. So understood discourse is one of the main units of analysis of non-classical ontology, characterized by a tendency to overcome the schemes and models of classical metaphysics. Inclusion of the concept of discourse in the scope of ontological research allows implementing a new approach to the solution of the basic problems of ontology: the problem of correlation between being and thinking, language and reality, ideal, meaningful and material, corporeal. Discourse is a phenomenon wherein the abovementioned oppositions come to the identity, which simultaneously contains the difference. The opposites, on which basis the ontological teachings of classical type are built, are contained in discourse in repealed form.  Therefore, discourse can be used as one of the basic concepts in modern non-classical ontology.
Keywords: discourse, way of being, ontology, consciousness, language, reality

VISTA
 
Juan J. Acero. THE ARRIVAL AND ESTABLISHMENT OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY IN SPAIN
This article summarily describes the arrival and establishment of Analytic Philosophy [= AP]  in Spain. It first expounds the role played in that process by philosophers such José Ferrater Mora, exiled alter the Spanish Civil War, and by Manuel Garrido, Jesús Mosterín, Javier Muguerza, Josep Blasco y José Hierro, the proper introducers of AP in the Spanish university. Secondly, the article refers to the work developed by the introducers’ former students and disciples, and holds that this second wave of AP in Spain largely helped to its consolidation. Finally, the current situation—a third wave of analytic philosophers in action—is reviewed. Its most actives centres are identified, the main changes in the national scientific policy, its profound effects on academic activities for the last twenty years, and the high degree of internationalization reached by Spanish AP from the 1990s, after the founding of the Sociedad Española de Filosofía Analítica (S.E.F.A.), are concisely pointed out.
Keywords: Analytic Philosophy, Spanish Philosophy, Josep Blasco, José Ferrater Mora, Manuel Garrido, José Hierro, Jesús Mosterín, Javier Muguerza

CASE STUDIES – SCIENCE STUDIES
 
Alexey Konopkin. ON THE QUESTION OF STRUCTURE OF PSEUDOSCIENCE: PSEUDOSCIENCE AS DEVIANT INTERPRETATION
The article focuses on the structure of pseudoscience as deviant interpretation of the data that has specific cognitive symptoms: undefined scope, the limited evidence base, self-contradictory, unreliable assumptions, etc. Discusses the differences and similarities of pseudoscience and hypotheses as forms of knowledge (rationality, consistency, the possibility of a critical revision, etc.). Proposes criteria for delineation of pseudoscience and false-science, anti-science, para-science, quasi-science, folk science. The property of systematic of scientific knowledge analyzes in article, where theories and hypotheses support each other, the isolation of a recognized theory is seen as a sign of pseudoscience. Argued the possibility of determining the validity of the hypothesis of «here and now» in a mature science and incorrect analysis of pseudoscience as developing «research programs» (I. Lakatos) using complex analysis not only of the hypothesis itself , but also its subsidiary assumptions consequences. Ambiguous examples, such as the cosmological and psychological theories, “dark matter”, theory of "torsion fields"  are analyzed in the context of the proposed approach to the definition of pseudoscience as a transitional form of knowledge as deviant interpretation necessarily false.
Keywords: pseudoscience, hypothesis, scientific criteria, systematic, astrology, biorhythms theory, «research programs», I. Lakatos

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

Andrey Stochnik, Sergey Zatravkin. MECHANISMS OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS IN MEDICINE OF THE XVIIITH CENTURY
The article presents the results of the studies based on the application of the concept of the structure and dynamics of scientific knowledge developed by V. S. Stepin to the analysis of the history of the 17th-century medicine. The scientific revolution in the 18th-century medicine was of a locally-disciplinary nature and involved changing the picture of reality. Its mechanism was  the negotiation of the intradisciplinary crisis which prevailed in the medicine of the 90s of the XVIIth century and  associated with the realization of the impossibility to explain all life processes of a healthy and diseased human body solely on the basis of Cartesian notions of "collisions" of particles devoid of any specific property.
The recovery was found by supplementing the Cartesian picture of reality with the ideas of the existence of "internal living forces" specific to the human organism. With regard to natural bodies in general these ideas were introduced in the European science of modern times by Leibniz and Newton. The introduction of the ideas of dynamism in medicine is associated mainly with the activity of A. Pitcairne, F. Hoffmann, E. Stahl, G. Baglivi, H. Boerhaave and A. Haller who presented experimental evidence of the existence of powers inherent only in living organisms.
In the second half of the 18th century there appeared and became widespread new medical teachings (Th.Bordeu, P.Barthez, Ch. Hufeland, F.Medicus, J.Brown, J.Blumenbach, A.Mesmer) that determined the vital functions of a human body in its healthy and sick condition as a result of the cumulative effects of various forces. The recognition of the ideas of dynamism by the majority of the medical community led to a fundamental revision of ideas about the disease, the emergence of new approaches to the study, the diagnosis, the treatment and prevention of human diseases and marked in medicine the final approval of a new picture of reality, which cannot be reduced to a mechanical one.
Keywords: scientific revolution, the picture of reality, medicine, Descartes, Leibniz, Newton, Stahl, Haller

 
Alexader Poznyakov. THE STYLE OF SCIENTIFIC THINKING: AN EPOCHAL OR A DISCIPLINARY CONCEPT?
The two concepts of the style of scientific thinking compares in the article. With the epochal point of view style of thinking reflects the phases in the development of science, the nature of it’s induced by scientific methodology of epoch, and respectively styles come and go over time. With the disciplinary point of view style of thinking associated with a specific scientific discipline, the nature of it’s induced by the subject and methodology the discipline, respectively different styles coexist in the same time. The relation of style of thinking to the scientific picture of the world is discussed. There are the two different models of the world pattern. In one model, all things are treated as derivatives of the space, in the other one, the world is presented as a set of hierarchically organized systems. From this viewpoint the classical and non-classical styles of thinking can be combined in the space-atomistic metastyle. The demonstrations of this metastyle are observed not only in the natural sciences, but also in linguistics, history, and sociology. The problem of relations of style of scientific thinking and other ways of describing the world is discussed. A sociocultural component of scientific activity lies in the center of paradigms and research programs. The typological correspondence between them and style of thinking is not revealed because of focusing on different aspects of scientific activity. A relatively complete correspondence between styles and basic cognitive models is revealed.
Keywords: style of scientific thinking, phase of scientific development, scientific discipline, worldview, space

 
Elena Muzrukova, Roman Fando. REDUCTIONISM AND HOLISM IN THE PROCESS OF COGNITION OF THE LIVING: A METHODOLOGICAL DIALOGUE
The article analyzes how different methodological approaches (reductionism and holism) allowed one to study the cognitive model - a cell of a living organism. It is shown how the study of this model by various scientists have led to modern concepts of molecular biology and genetics. These examples from the history of science clearly show that in the biological sciences the interpenetration of natural methodologies and heuristic hypotheses is. This is due to the complexity of the biological system, since different levels of the elementary structures and processes have a definite meaning only within the context of integral, which in itself is a multi-dimensional form.
Keywords: methodology of biological cognition, interdisciplinary, history of science, philosophy of science, cognitive models, the development of the fundamental areas of physico-chemical biology, place a subject in a research study

ARCHIVE

Vitaly Bolataev. OTTO NEURATH AND THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE UNITY OF SCIENCE
 

Otto Neurath. The new encyclopaedia of scientific empiricism

BOOK REVIEWS

Petr Kusliy. PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF MEANING AT THE INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY, RAS
Review of Lingvistika, kommunikacija i istorija: semantičeskij analiz. M., 2013. (Antonovski, A.; Nikiforov A. (eds.). Linguistics, communication and history: semantic analysis. Institute of Philosophy, RAS. Moscow, 2013.)

Vitaly Bolataev. RATIONALITY AND CULTURE
Review of: Racional’nost’ i kul’tura. Otv. red. E.G.Dragalina-Chernaya, V.V.Dolgorukov. SPb., 2013. – Rationality and Culture, Moscow, 2013.