Illuminating the Mind

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Stoltz
Keyword(s):  
Previous Exposure ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Buddhist Epistemology ◽  
Testimonial Knowledge ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Contemporary Epistemology

This book provides readers with an introduction to epistemology within the Buddhist intellectual tradition. It is designed to be accessible to those whose primary background is in the “Western” tradition of philosophy and who have little or no previous exposure to Buddhist philosophical writings. The book examines many of the most important topics in the field of epistemology, topics that are central both to contemporary discussions of epistemology and to the classical Buddhist tradition of epistemology in India and Tibet. Among the topics discussed are Buddhist accounts of the nature of knowledge episodes, the defining conditions of perceptual knowledge and of inferential knowledge, the status of testimonial knowledge, and skeptical criticisms of the entire project of epistemology. The book seeks to put the field of Buddhist epistemology in conversation with contemporary debates in philosophy. It shows that many of the arguments and debates occurring within classical Buddhist epistemological treatises coincide with the arguments and disagreements found in contemporary epistemology. The book shows, for example, how Buddhist epistemologists developed an anti-luck epistemology—one that is linked to a sensitivity requirement for knowledge. Likewise, the book explores the question of how the study of Buddhist epistemology can be of relevance to contemporary debates about the value of contributions from experimental epistemology, and to broader debates concerning the use of philosophical intuitions about knowledge.

scholarly journals An Open and Shut Case: Epistemic Closure in the Manifest Image

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Turri
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Closure ◽  
Closure Principle ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Inferential Knowledge ◽  
The Status ◽  
Relative Version ◽  
Contemporary Epistemology ◽  
Manifest Image

The epistemic closure principle says that knowledge is closed under known entailment. The closure principle is deeply implicated in numerous core debates in contemporary epistemology. Closure’s opponents claim that there are good theoretical reasons to abandon it. Closure’s proponents claim that it is a defining feature of ordinary thought and talk and, thus, abandoning it is radically revisionary. But evidence for these claims about ordinary practice has thus far been anecdotal. In this paper, I report five studies on the status of epistemic closure in ordinary practice. Despite decades of widespread assumptions to the contrary in philosophy, ordinary practice is ambivalent about closure. Ordinary practice does not endorse an unqualified version of the epistemic closure principle, although it might endorse a source-relative version of the principle. In particular, whereas inferential knowledge is not viewed as closed under known entailment, perceptual knowledge might be.

COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-510
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Consumer Good ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Promotional Material ◽  
Executive Board ◽  
American Academy Of Pediatrics ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind

THE Committee on Nutrition has been designated by the Executive Board of the American Academy of Pediatrics to serve in a consultative capacity in determining the suitability of advertisements of nutritional products in the official publications of the Academy. Understanding between industry and the medical profession will be fostered by a readily available statement of the basis upon which judgment of advertisements of nutritional products will be made. Assurance can be given that this will be applied objectively, fairly and with sympathetic understanding of the position of industry. It is hoped that thereby this statement can assume the status of a Code of Ethics and Etiquette in the promotion of products intended for maintenance of optimal nutrition or treatment of disorders of nutrition in infancy, childhood and adolescence. The Committee on Nutrition will remain receptive to counsel from all sources, and sensitive to the implications of its own statements and actions. The following principles will be continuously re-examined in the light of experience and pertinent evidence. Good Advertising Good advertising serves the interest of both merchant and consumer. Good advertising begins with a reliable product. Good advertising achieves a pleasant informative memory of the product and its usefulness in the mind of the consumer. In short, this implies an honest product, truthfully and artistically advertised. Honesty is the best cornerstone upon which to build the type of promotion that will serve the mutual interest of industry, the consumer, and the medical profession. Quality of the Product Proof of quality of the product must at all times be available to those who must evaluate promotional material. This applies to foods and to individual ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, etc.

Virtue Epistemology as Anti-luck Epistemology

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Alexey Z. Chernyak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Virtue Epistemology ◽  
Propositional Knowledge ◽  
General Study ◽  
Intellectual Virtues ◽  
Mental Attitude ◽  
Justified Belief ◽  
The Status ◽  
Veritic Luck ◽  
Contemporary Epistemology

The idea that knowledge as an individual mental attitude with certain propositional content is not only true justified belief but a belief the truth of which does not result from any kind of luck, is widely spread in contemporary epistemology. This account is known as anti-luck epistemology. A very popular explanation of the inconsistency of that concept of knowledge with the luck-dependent nature of truth (so called veritic luck taking place when a subject’s belief could not be true if not by mere coincidence) presumes that the status of propositional knowledge crucially depends on the qualities of actions that result in the corresponding belief, or processes backing them, which reflect the socalled intellectual virtues mainly responsible for subject’s relevant competences. This account known as Virtue Epistemology presumes that if a belief is true exclusively or mainly due to its dependence on intellectual virtues, it just cannot be true by luck, hence no place for lucky knowledge. But this thesis is hard to prove given the existence of true virtuous beliefs which could nevertheless be false if not for some lucky (for the knower) accident. This led to an appearance of virtue epistemological theories aimed specifically at an assimilation of such cases. Their authors try to represent the relevant situations as such where the contribution of luck is not crucial whereas the contribution of virtues is crucial. This article provides a critical analysis of the corresponding arguments as part of a more general study of the ability of Virtue Epistemology to provide justification for the thesis of incompatibility of propositional knowledge with veritic luck. It is shown that there are good reasons to doubt that Virtue Epistemology can do this.

PHOTOGRAPHICALLY BASED KNOWLEDGE

Episteme ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Cavedon-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Testimonial Knowledge ◽  
Epistemic Utility ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Aesthetic Pleasure ◽  
Foundational Issue ◽  
Do So

AbstractPictures are a quintessential source of aesthetic pleasure. This makes it easy to forget that they are epistemically valuable no less than they are aesthetically so. Pictures are representations. As such, they may furnish us with knowledge of the objects they represent. In this article I provide an account of why photographs are of greater epistemic utility than handmade pictures. To do so, I use a novel approach: I seek to illuminate the epistemic utility of photographs by situating both photographs and handmade pictures among the sources of knowledge. This method yields an account of photography's epistemic utility that better connects the issue with related issues in epistemology and is relatively superior to other accounts. Moreover, it answers a foundational issue in the epistemology of pictorial representation: ‘What kinds of knowledge do pictures furnish?’ I argue that photographs have greater epistemic utility than handmade pictures because photographs are sources of perceptual knowledge, while handmade pictures are sources of testimonial knowledge.

Religious Knowledge and the Virtues of the Mind

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-227
Author(s):  
Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski
Keyword(s):  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
Reformed Epistemology ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Contemporary Epistemology

This chapter objects to three features of Reformed Epistemology, two of which are connected with its Calvinist inspiration and one of which was a feature of most contemporary epistemology at the time. First, like almost all contemporary American epistemology, Reformed Epistemology focuses on individual beliefs—where by a “belief” is meant a particular state of believing, not the proposition believed—and it searches for the properties of a belief that convert it into knowledge. Second, Reformed Epistemology is largely externalist. Third, an important motivation driving externalist theories is the desire to avoid skepticism; in fact, this is one of its most attractive features. Reformed epistemology is externalist and nonvoluntarist; it is individualistic rather than communally based; and it makes the element of belief that converts it into knowledge a property of the belief rather than of the believer. The approach here is Aristotelian in spirit and differs from the Reformers in all three respects.

Celebrity and Presidential Targets

Stalking ◽  
2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert T. M. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Celebrity Status ◽  
The Status ◽  
Unique Factor ◽  
The Mind

Celebrities have become targets of potentially violent stalkers who instill fear by their relentless pursuit and, in some reported cases, threatened risk of violence. Celebrity stalking may evolve to planned, often violent attacks on intentionally selected targets. The causes of these incidents are complex, and frequently involve delusional obsessions concerning a contrived relationship between the target and stalker. Similar dynamics can be at play for presidential stalkers. Becoming the focus of someone’s delusional obsession is a risk for anyone living in the public eye. Planned attacks by stalkers, however, are not confined to internationally prominent public officials and celebrities. Some of the same themes emerge on a more local level when public figures become the object of pursuit. Celebrity and presidential stalkers often do not neatly fit any of the typologies that have evolved to codify our understanding of the motivation and special characteristics of stalking. Clinicians are often unaware of a “zone of risk” that extends beyond the delusional love object and can lead to the injury of others in addition to the attempted or accomplished homicide of a celebrity or presidential target. Most people can resist the temptation to intrude on a celebrity’s privacy—celebrity stalkers do not. This chapter explores celebrity status, as seen by the public and in the mind of the would-be assailant, as a unique factor in stalking cases that raises issues of clinical relevance and unique typologies. Special attention is given to the behaviors and motivations of individuals who have stalked the presidents of the United States. Many celebrities become targets of stalkers who relentlessly pursue and frighten them and who, in some cases, threaten violence. Though each case of celebrity stalking is unique and complex, such incidents frequently involve delusional obsessions concerning the contrived relationship between the stalker and victim. Stalking is not confined solely to well-known figures, of course. However, it is the very nature of celebrity—the status and the visibility—that attracts the benign (if voyeuristic) attention of an adoring public and the ominous interest of the stalker. Obsessional following of celebrities is not a new phenomenon in the United States.

Reading Ngũgĩ Reading Conrad

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
Mark Wollaeger
Keyword(s):  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Postcolonial Criticism ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Center Periphery

This chapter considers points of intersection between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Joseph Conrad. By Ngũgĩ’s own account, his rewriting of Conrad’s Under Western Eyes (1911) as A Grain of Wheat (1967) triggered a crisis of audience that ultimately led him to abandon English for his native Gikuyu. To further complicate the question of influence, Wollaeger also examines the relationship between two works of nonfiction: Conrad’s A Personal Record (1912) and Ngũgĩ’s Decolonizing the Mind (1986). At the heart of Ngũgĩ’s attempt to fashion premodern tribalism into a utopian space are two problems that still animate critical discussion. What is the status of the local and the indigenous? Does attention to influence reinstate a center-periphery model in postcolonial criticism? This chapter shows the extent to which Conrad and Ngũgĩ both anticipate and generate theoretical models later used to articulate modernism and postcolonialism as fields of inquiry.

Why Thomas Reid Matters to the Epistemology of the Social Sciences

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (279) ◽  
pp. 282-301
Author(s):  
Laurent Jaffro ◽  
Vinícius França Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Action ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Reasoning ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind

Abstract Little attention has been paid to the fact that Thomas Reid's epistemology applies to ‘political reasoning’ as well as to various operations of the mind. Reid was interested in identifying the ‘first principles’ of political science as he did with other domains of human knowledge. This raises the question of the extent to which the study of human action falls within the competence of ‘common sense’. Our aim is to reconstruct and assess Reid's epistemology of the sciences of social action and to determine how it connects with the fundamental tenets of his general epistemology. In the first part, we portray Reid as a methodological individualist and focus on the status of the first principles of political reasoning. The second part examines Reid's views on the explanatory power of the principles of human action. Finally, we draw a parallel between Reid's epistemology and the methodology of Weberian sociology.

Unanimous Consent in International Organization

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobman L. Hill
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Central American ◽  
Concerted Action ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Unanimous Consent ◽  
Opening Address

The decisions of international bodies may be based either on the rigid principle of unanimity or on the more convenient doctrine that the majority shall govern. In a world where national sovereignty is so widely stressed, the former method has a natural appeal. The rule of unanimity has, in fact, been treated by many persons as an inevitable corollary of the theory of sovereignty, which, as it is generally understood, would subject no state to any limitation against its will. Such an idea was very probably in the mind of former Secretary of State Hughes when he stated in the opening address of the Conference on Central American Affairs in December, 1922, “ Unanimity is a part of the consequence of the status of states in international law.” Writers on internationallaw have often so defined sovereignty and independence that the requirement of unanimity for any concerted action of a group of nations would follow.

scholarly journals Modernism suited to the (traditional and contemporary) doll and the child as its alter ego

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-188
Author(s):  
Tatjana Marković
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Inorganic Materials ◽  
The Other ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Digital World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Important Means ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Alter Ego

This paper looks at the doll through the uneasy relationship between "tradition" and "contemporaneity". The traditional doll, both as a concept and as an artefact, belongs to the real world. It is defined as an object, an immobile figure controlled by a child. The traditional doll has no pretensions to be alive, and thus bears little resemblance to a human being. It is simple, unobtrusive, direct, mysterious, dependent on the child that gives it life during play. It has two fundamental virtues: silence, which is at the same time its most important means of communication, and submissiveness, which is based on fellowship and which implies the leaving of space to the "other", more precisely, to the child who is in fact "the first" and whom the doll "follows". Contemporary dolls can be material and non-material. Material dolls are most commonly made of inorganic materials, while non-material dolls are made of shadows, reflections, projections of symbolic form. Both have convincing human characteristics that they achieve thanks to various programs and "mechanisms". Contemporary dolls are seductive, talkative and ready to build "parasocial" and "postbiological" relationships in the digital world. Their supreme values are entertainment, noise, surprise, saturation of the senses, few demands on the mind. They aspire to be "first", and "demand" that the child should be in "second" position. A comparative study of these two dolls through a circle of ontological questions situated within the animate-inanimate opposition contributes to a better understanding of the status of the traditional/contemporary doll, the boundaries between man/the child and the doll, and relationships between people. The triumph of contemporary dolls threatens the status and the continued existence of the traditional doll. Due to the "humanization" of dolls and the "dollization" of people, the boundaries between people and dolls have been blurred. Increased intimacy with contemporary dolls leads to changes in social patterns based on greater distance between people.

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