Epistemological issues of research of the subject and object of legal protection in genomic relations

The relevance of the research topic is justified by the rapid technological development of genetics and genomics and introduction of genetic technologies and inventions in scientific and medical practice, which is not provided with a proper systematized legal protection in national and international legislation. The legislators problems are caused by the uniqueness and complexity of the genomic legal relationship. The subjects of knowledge in the framework of post-non-classical scientific rationality need to focus on the epistemological philosophical foundations of the knowledge of genomic legal relations. The purpose of the study is to identify and reflect the features of knowledge of the legal protection of genomic legal relations. Research tasks suggest defining the concept and composition of genomic legal relations, identifying the object and subject of legal protection of genomic legal relations, distinguishing between the concepts of "legal safeguard" and "legal protection" of genomic legal relations. The methodology of scientific research includes the dialectical method, general scientific logical operations (deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis), and private scientific methods (formal legal and comparative legal methods). Within the framework of the methodology of post-non-classical scientific rationality, a systematic approach to the study of the object of knowledge is used - the study of the structure, functional and instrumental aspects of the protective genomic legal relationship.

Scientific Rationality and Causal Explanation

This chapter examines the work of Donald Wiebe and the Scientific-Explanatory Method. Otherwise known as the naturalistic paradigm, the Scientific-Explanatory Method insists that the study of religion should operate within a value-free, disinterested, and empirical set of parameters. The chapter examines Wiebe’s ideas and then enlists and expands on insights offered in the previous chapter to show how Wiebe’s naturalism rules out valid sources of knowledge about human experience. Drawing on the philosophical anthropology and hermeneutical ideas of Charles Taylor, it shows how naturalism drapes human conduct under the banner of behaviorism and excludes from consideration the idea that human beings are agents who act according to intersubjective reasons. The chapter concludes by arguing that the naturalistic paradigm relies on a fact-value distinction that reflects and reinforces the commitments to value-neutrality that the book identifies as afflicting the field.

Modern trends of the psychology sphere development in the optics of vitacultural methodology

The content of the program research is the latest material developed in recent years and announced on June 10, 2021 at the beginning of the Fifteenth meeting of the author’s scientific school. Its meaningfully-semantic mosaic is reflexively organized around two interdependent worldview concenters. The first comprehensively argues the nation-building orientation of collective thought-activity and vitacultural achievements of the representatives of this school during almost three decades of its modern history. Essentially, it is talked that a balanced usage of refined native language (perfect texts) and live speech (productive communication), symbolic means and graphic images, which in localized oases of artificial actualization of higher mental and spiritual values affirm the true Ukrainian heritage - the center of nourishing, covital and at the same time responsible national spirit. The second worldview concenter concerns radically to a broader, more meaningful and ontologically more adequate and covitally comprehensive understanding of psychology as a ubiquitous sphere of conscious human life activity. Against the background of the fact that psychology today is developing extensively on a civilized scale, ie within a purely scientific approach, continuously multiplying its own subjects in the general context of natural phenomena and appropriate methods of implementing various types of scientific rationality, it is proposed to radically change the methodological toolkit of its comprehensible elaboration, namely to make different a system of coordinates and a set of expedient lenses-means to the semantic comprehension, interpretation and creation of this flowing intangible reality. In this analytical context, one global and four derived trends in the interpenetrating development of modern psychology in Ukraine and the world are singled out and reflected. The quintessence of the global tendency is its intensive, heuristic way of progress into the boundless spherical horizons of actual human existence in the existential current of psycho-spiritual practice of persons, groups, societies as ontically rooted, universal, original sphere of thought-activity and its development as a special worldview, covital experience of everyday life and even lifestyle. The idea of such an alternative development belongs to G.P. Shchedrovitsky (1980), while its implementation has been carried out by us in the last decade in two basic aspects: a) within the application of the latest methodological optics – cyclical-deed approach to understanding psychology as a sphere of interpenetrating spheres of consciousness and activity, thinking and doing and b) in format of development, testing and implementation into the space of modern HEI (higher education institution) the author’s program in the discipline “Psychology as a sphere of thought-activity”, designed for professional training of applicants of the third (Doctor of Philosophy) level of training in the specialty 053 Psychology. As a result, for the first time situational, motivational, deed-action and post-action strategems of perfect thought-activity which substantiate the methodological organization of the psychology sphere are argued and described in detail. At the same time, the following important tendencies in the developmental course of psychology as anthropological science are highlighted: 1) a significant expansion of its subject field horizontally and vertically of new settings, including the full-fledged emergence of theoretical psychology; 2) the transition of research strategies and procedures from classical and non-classical ideals-types of scientific rationality to post-non-classical; 3) enrichment and disciplinary affirmation of canonical psychology and psychosophy of academician Volodymyr Romenets; 4) development of metamethodological means and tools for understanding-cognition-creation of metaphysical by ontological definition of images-substances-essences (thinking, freedom, creativity, faith, love, spirituality, etc.), firstly, creation of the most perfect methodological optics of meaningful comprehension of metatheoretical mosaic of life consciousness.

Utopian universals in the context of the concept of “information society”

This article explores the problem of utopian universals applicable to the concept of “information society”. The author interprets utopian universals as most general representations on the best social structure that became widespread within a particular epistemological tradition. The subject of this research is the determination and evolution of the universal social attributes characteristic to projects of best social structure within the epistemological tradition of scientific rationality developed throughout the XVI – XXI centuries. From T. Mohr's "Utopia" to D. Bell's "post-industrial Society" and M. Castells '"Information Age", the author traces the universal features of social attribution. The researcher comes to the conclusion that projects of an optimal or ideal social structure, changing their concrete form of expression, retain a utopian character throughout the entire line of development of the epistemological tradition of scientific rationality. Utopian universals of aggregation and codification of theoretical knowledge, transformation of science into the major driving force of political and economic development, transition of power to the wisemen-philosophers, collective maximally egalitarian and democratic participation in decision-making is the attributes that to greater or lesser degree are inherent to the utopias of Western civilization, beginning with the work of T. More. These same attributes retain in the concept of information society, which allows raising the question of the need for critical revision as a theoretical scientific concept and practical political project of the information society.

Exploring Scientific Inquiry via Agent-Based Modelling

In this paper I examine the epistemic function of agent-based models (ABMs) of scientific inquiry, proposed in the recent philosophical literature. In view of Boero and Squazzoni’s (2005) classification of ABMs into case-based models, typifications and theoretical abstractions, I argue that proposed ABMs of scientific inquiry largely belong to the last category. While this means that their function is primarily exploratory, I suggest that they are epistemically valuable not only as a temporary stage in the development of ABMs of science, but by providing insights into theoretical aspects of scientific rationality. I illustrate my point with two examples of highly idealized ABMs of science, which perform two exploratory functions: Zollman’s (2010) ABM which provides a proof-of-possibility in the realm of theoretical discussions on scientific rationality, and an argumentation-based ABM (Borg et al. 2019, 2017b, 2018), which provides insights into potential mechanisms underlying the efficiency of scientific inquiry.

Secularist Humanism, Law and Religion in Ian McEwan’s The Children Act

Ian McEwan’s The Children Act focuses on a real-life conflict between religion and children’s rights in a pluralist society. By drawing on Charles Taylor’s work on religion in the “secular age”, I argue that McEwan’s narrative is ultimately built on secularist assumptions that devalue religious experience. McEwan’s approach aims to build a bridge between literary imagination and scientific rationality: religion is, from this perspective, reducible to a “fable” and an authority structure incongruous with legal rationality and the quest for meaning in the modern-secular society. In The Children Act, art substitutes religion and its aspiration to transcendence: music in particular is a universal idiom that can overcome barriers of communication and provides “ecstatic” experiences in a godless world.

Historical Legal Science Challenged by Postnonclassical Scientific Rationality

The article shows the methodological problems that face the history of state and law at the present stage of development of scientific rationality. As one of the possible answers to the challenges of new methodological approaches, it is proposed to use the historical and anthropological theory of law, which combines the best achievements of the German historical school of law with anthropocentrism as a direction of the post-classical sociological school of law. It is concluded that this theory is quite applicable for the reconstruction of legal life and identifying patterns of its historical dynamics.

SCIENTIFIC RATIONALITY, ADOPTION AND PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OF ETHNOMEDICAL PRACTICES ON BITE REMEDIES IN IDUKKI, KERALA

The study was carried out among tribal farmers of Idukki district, Kerala. Forty gramapanchayats were selected for the study. A total of 90 tribal healers cum age-old farmers and 452 tribal farmers were the respondents of this study. The study recorded sixty eight EMPs on bite remedies. The prevalent categories of EMPs expertise were on poisonous bites (48.55%), snake bites (22.05%), scorpion bites (16.17%), spider bites (10.29%), and dog bites (2.94%). Of the sixty eight EMPs, seventeen were assessed for their scientific rationality and adoptions of which sixteen were studied for their perceived effectiveness among tribal farmers. Of the seventeen practices, fourteen were found to be rational, while the rest three were irrational. In this study, the scientific rationale behind fourteen rational EMPs was also explained. Sixteen practices were adopted by 51.32 to 83.18 percent of the respondents. Of the sixteen EMPs studied for effectiveness, all were perceived as effective by the tribal farmers, and this revealed that many EMPs on bite remedies were both rational and effective. This requires more clinical and pharmacological interference to validate and standardize EMPs, which will consecutively pave way for the development of low cost and effective alternative health care system.