The Epistemology of Reading and Interpretation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
René van Woudenberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Meaning Interpretation ◽  
The Way

Reading and textual interpretation are ordinary human activities, performed inside as well as outside academia, but precisely how they function as unique sources of knowledge is not well understood. In this book, René van Woudenberg explores the nature of reading and how it is distinct from perception and (attending to) testimony, which are two widely acknowledged knowledge sources. After distinguishing seven accounts of interpretation, van Woudenberg discusses the question of whether all reading inevitably involves interpretation, and shows that although reading and interpretation often go together, they are distinct activities. He goes on to argue that both reading and interpretation can be paths to realistically conceived truth, and explains the conditions under which we are justified in believing that they do indeed lead us to the truth. Along the way, he offers clear and novel analyses of reading, meaning, interpretation, and interpretative knowledge.

Towards the necessity of a new interactive approach integrating ethnology, ecology and ethology in the study of the relationship between Kyrgyz stockbreeders and wolves

2006 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Lescureux
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Relational System ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Reciprocal Influences ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Scientific Questions ◽  
The Way

The cohabitation between men and wolves arouses passions but also scientific questions. Recent ecological studies show that human activities have an unquestionable influence on wolves’ behavior. In the same way, if one refers to various ethnological works, it is undeniable that human populations are sensitive to this neighbor whose presence is marked both materially and symbolically. However, in spite of the apparent reciprocity of the relationship between these two species, they were studied up to now only in a unilateral way by ecology, ethology and ethnology. Now, the analysis of data resulting from my fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan shows a more complex reality to the relationship, which compels us to reconsider the way of treating it. The cohabitation between wolves and men, as experienced by Kyrgyz for centuries, is indeed assimilated to a real inter-relationship made up of reciprocal influences. Kyrgyz and wolves seem thus to be involved in an interactive and dynamic relational system. The latter imposes for its study a new approach, one that is more global and dialectical, concerned with the interspecific character of the relationship. However, such an approach inevitably raises methodological if not epistemological problems this article wishes to highlight.

Modes of survival

Geophysics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1845-1846
Author(s):  
John A. Scales ◽  
Roel Snieder
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Successful Completion ◽  
Abraham Maslow ◽  
Routine Basis ◽  
The Way

Scientific progress is fundamentally different from other human activities in that it involves both a venture into the unknown and a desire to change the environment. This type of work cannot be carried out on a routine basis and it requires a certain amount of mental health for its successful completion. The mental state of a researcher is to a large extent influenced by his or her environment; the environment is a crucial factor in the way people react and in a broader context on the development of one’s personality. One of the best‐known writers on personality development is Abraham Maslow (1954), who describes the various levels at which human beings actually function. His view is succinctly formulated by Takacs (1986).

An AI-Based Approach for the Integration of Multiple Sources of Knowledge to Aid Engineering Design

1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Mayer ◽  
S. C.-Y. Lu
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Knowledge Engineer ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
System User ◽  
Basic Ideas

A model for integrating multiple sources of knowledge within engineering expert systems is presented. It allows possible conflicts between multiple knowledge sources to be logically resolved at run-time rather than during the knowledge acquisition stage. Unlike the traditional approach in which the knowledge engineer is responsible for resolving conflicting views, resolutions are dynamically accomplished by the knowledge sources themselves and/or by system users. The system user is included as a problem-solving colleague to select a proper strategy from those offered by different experts. Both qualitative and quantitative constraints are traced during problem solving and can be retracted if necessary. The model has been successfully implemented in an engineering design domain to demonstrate the basic ideas. This research is our first step in a long-term effort to develop a cooperative problem-solving paradigm for knowledge-based engineering systems.

scholarly journals What counts? Sources of knowledge in children’s acquisition of the successor function

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose M. Schneider ◽  
Jess Sullivan ◽  
Kaiqi Guo ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Successor Function ◽  
Arithmetic Expression ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Math Facts ◽  
Us Children

Although many US children can count sets by 4 years, it is not until 5½-6 years that they understand how counting relates to number - i.e., that adding 1 to a set necessitates counting up one number. This study examined two knowledge sources that 3½-6-year-olds (N = 136) may leverage to acquire this “successor function”: (1) mastery of productive rules governing count list generation; and (2) training with “+1” math facts. Both productive counting and “+1” math facts were related to understanding that adding 1 to sets entails counting up one number in the count list; however, even children with robust successor knowledge struggled with its arithmetic expression, suggesting they do not generalize the successor function from “+1” math facts.

scholarly journals Muslim Women's Studies

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-570
Author(s):  
Mohja Kahf
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Women's Studies ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Proper Place ◽  
Women’S Studies ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
The Way

Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of Aisha hint Abi Bakr.By D. A. Spellberg. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, 243 pp.Qur'an and Woman. By Amina Wadud-Muhsin. Kuala Lumpur: FajarBakti, 1992, 118 pp.Denise Spellberg's survey of the legacy of 'A'ishah and AminaWadud-Muhsin's exegesis of the Qur'anic exposition of gender are foraysin the field of Muslim women's studies. Both works study the place ofMuslim women in the textual heritage of the community, but their pointsof departure are different. Spellberg proposes that 'A'ishah's legacy, aproduct of exclusively male writings in texts from the classical Islamiccenturies, is a reflection of Muslim men's interpretations of early Islamichistory and their opinions about the proper place of women in their owntime. Such interpretations, Spellberg shows, are charged with the politicaltensions of their contemporary societies. Yet 'A'ishah 's "legacy alonedefied idealization as completely as it denied comfortable categorization"by the Muslim men whose texts represent and construct her, Spellbergasserts (p. 190).Wadud-Muhsin acknowledges the way in which another copiousIslamic scholarship emerged, motivated by the need to understand theQur'anic utterances about women. Her focus is not, however, on thoseinterpretive texts of men that form an authoritative tradition explaining themeaning of the Qur'an. Wadud-Muhsin argues that the question ofwoman in the Qur'an must be reconnected directly to the primary text.She proposes approaching the Qur'anic text without the assumptions aboutgender of the classical interpreters, whose work constitutes the Islamic traditionof exegesis, but also without the assumptions that undergird contemporaryfeminist readings of the Qur'an. She offers a herrneneuticalmethod for understanding the place and meaning of gender in the Qur'an,based on the consistencies of the Qur'an itself: its contexts, language, andthe worldview of its texts as a whole. The effect of this, Wadud-Muhsinsuggests, would be to transcend the gender biases of narrower readingmethods and arrive at a fuller appreciation of the text's guidance for menand women.Both works began as dissertations, Spellberg's in history, WadudMuhsin'sin religious studies. Each brings to Muslim women's studies anode of questions about the process of textual interpretation. The ...

scholarly journals EPISTEMOLOGI PENDIDIKAN ISLAM

At-Tuhfah ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-135
Author(s):  
Yogi Prana Izza
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Education ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Epistemological Foundation ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Education Today ◽  
Five Senses

“One of the problems of Islamic education today is the issue of dichotomy between “the relegious science” oriented to the hereafter happiness and “the non relegious science” oriented to worldly happiness. In fact, Islam does not distinguish between the two. This problem is directed from the formulation of an inaccurate Islamic education epistemology. Therefore, this paper seeks to unravel the epistemological foundation of Islamic education by discussing the essence of Islamic education, knowledge sources of Islamic education, the methodology of Islamic education and the alternative paradigm of integralism in religious sciences with non-religious sciences. The conclusion of this discussion explains that the essence of Islamic education is the process of adab cultivation, the process of transferring knowledge and the process of purification of the soul. These processes are actually related to the sources of knowledge in Islamic education, namely the five senses, ratios, intuition, and revelation (wahyu). The functions of these sources are complementary or integral. But in reality, the source of intuition, for example, has not yet gotten an adequate portion in Islamic education”.

scholarly journals A linguagem simbólica da igreja barroca

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Ramon S. S. da Fonseca e Eunice Simões Lins Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Way

Resumo: Este artigo analisa o conjunto de imagens presentes na igreja barroca de São Francisco, em João Pessoa, e buscamos uma compreensão por meio de uma hermenêutica simbólica das atividades humanas expressas em seu patrimônio simbólico, pelo qual o homem exprime seu desejo por um sentido maior que si e a sua maneira de enfrentar a angústia existencial diante de finitude da vida. Adotamos como pressuposto que as imagens podem ser um veículo de conhecimento da verdade que norteia o comportamento individual ou social do homem. Ressaltamos a relevância do símbolo e do imaginário para o equilíbrio psíquico-fisico-biológico do ser humano, bem como as configurações de imagens existentes naquele templo. Palavras-chaves: Símbolo. Imagens. Barroco. Angústia existencial. Abstract: This paper analyzes some images of São Francisco Baroque Church, in João Pessoa. We sought to understand them through a symbolic hermeneutics of human activities expressed in their symbolic heritage, by which man expresses his desire for a greater sense than himself and the way he faces existential anguish before the finitude of life. We based on the assumption that images can be a vehicle for knowledge of the truth that guides the man's individual or social behavior. We emphasized the importance of symbol and imagery for the psycho-physical-biological balance of human being, as well as the configuration of images existing in that temple. Keywords: Symbol. Images. Baroque. Existential anguish.

scholarly journals Thinking with Robert Sokolowski about phenomenology and personalism

XLinguae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Lyudmila S. Chikileva ◽  
Elena L. Avdeeva ◽  
Rimma G. Gorbatenko ◽  
Vladimir N. Drozdov ◽  
Oxana A. Zorina
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Person ◽  
The Other ◽  
Epistemic Modesty ◽  
Robert Sokolowski ◽  
Human Rationality ◽  
The Way

Robert Sokolowski wishes to provide what he calls “glimpses” that provide essential philosophical clarifications regarding the nature of the human person, whom the author also calls “the agent of truth.” He claims that our rationality constitutes us as human persons and wishes to explain such rationality in action to reveal its existing manifestations. He calls for epistemic modesty, pointing out our inability to fully understand the mystery of human personhood. Our article reflects on the way Sokolowski approaches the study of what constitutes the human person, underlining his preference for basing his ideas on dissecting distinct human activities, which helps us identify how human rationality and personhood manifest themselves. We further reflect on what Sokolowski means by emphasizing that human rationality is “essentially a disclosure of things” as opposed to the ability to note, describe, evaluate and/or infer ideas in your brains. Finally, we argue that to understand what constitutes the human person, we must take into account the human essential relationality and openness to the other/Other

Kant’s Ethics

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
General Account ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Reason And Faith ◽  
Kant's Ethics ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines Immanuel Kant's ethics, and particularly his views on reason and faith. According to Thomas Aquinas, there were two avenues whereby men could come to possess knowledge: the way of reason and the way of faith, of faith in revelation. Unlike Aquinas, Kant entertains not two faculties, but a single faculty in two employments. The chapter considers Kant's motives, and what he advanced as justifications, for treating the sources of knowledge and of moral behavior not as two separate faculties, but as different employments of a single faculty, reason. It offers a general account of Kant's moral philosophy, and more specifically his account of reason and his argument that men are obliged to obey the moral law. It also suggests that the duality of obligation and motivation is present in Kant's ethics and compares Kant's ideas with those of Richard Peters regarding human behavior.

Marxist Historiography Today

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Hobsbawm
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Methodology Of Science ◽  
The Way

This chapter discusses Marxist historiography in the present times. In the interpretation of the world nowadays, there has been a rise in the so-called anti-Rankean reaction in history, of which Marxism is an important but not always fully acknowledged element. This movement challenged the positivist belief that the objective structure of reality was self-explanatory, and that all that was needed was to apply the methodology of science to it and explain why things happened the way they did. This movement also brought together history with the social sciences, therefore turning it into part of a generalizing discipline capable of explaining transformations of human society in the course of its past. This new perspective on the past is a return to ‘total history’, in which the focus is not merely on the ‘history of everything’ but history as an indivisible web wherein all human activities are interconnected.

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