Toward a Theory of the A Priori

2020 ◽  
pp. 118-143
Author(s):  
Robert Audi
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cognitive Variables ◽  
Adequate Understanding

Self-evident propositions are important in their own right and crucial for the a priori in general. They are here shown to be justifiedly believable and knowable on the basis of adequately understanding them. Such understanding is multidimensional, and its adequacy in relation to a self-evident proposition, p, is explicable only on the basis of at least these cognitive variables, each of which is illustrated in appropriate relations to p: recognitional range regarding applications of p; the sense of rejectability of purported equivalents; explicative capacity; logical comprehension; confirmational sensitivity; discriminative acuity; translational capacity; readiness to meet objections to p; and, considerability (a kind of contemplatability needed to get p appropriately “in mind”). The account of adequate understanding also helps in explicating understanding in empirical cases, even propositions perceptually believed. The self-evident is shown to differ from the obvious, and thereby as neither necessarily compelling conviction nor limited to formal or other non-substantive truths.

scholarly journals Communities and the individual: Beyond the liberal–communitarian divide

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-401
Author(s):  
Volker Kaul
Keyword(s):  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
The Self ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Self And Identity ◽  
Default Position ◽  
The Individual

Liberalism believes that individuals are endowed a priori with reason or at least agency and it is up to that reason and agency to make choices, commitments and so on. Communitarianism criticizes liberalism’s explicit and deliberate neglect of the self and insists that we attain a self and identity only through the effective recognition of significant others. However, personal autonomy does not seem to be a default position, neither reason nor community is going to provide it inevitably. Therefore, it is so important to go beyond the liberal–communitarian divide. This article is analysing various proposals in this direction, asks about the place of communities and the individual in times of populism and the pandemic and provides a global perspective on the liberal–communitarian debate.

Phenomenology of Interior Life and the Trinity

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-88
Author(s):  
Robert Farrugia
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Experience ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Self ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The World ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Michel Henry ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Static Nature

Michel Henry radicalises phenomenology by putting forward the idea of a double manifestation: the “Truth of Life” and “truth of the world.” For Henry, the world turns out to be empty of Life. To find its essence, the self must dive completely inward, away from the exterior movements of intentionality. Hence, Life, or God, for Henry, lies in non‑intentional, immanent self-experience, which is felt and yet remains invisible, in an absolutist sense, as an a priori condition of all conscious experience. In Christian theology, the doctrine of the Trinity illuminates the distinction between the immanent Trinity (God’s self‑relation) and the economic workings of the Trinity (God‑world relation). However, the mystery of God’s inmost being and the economy of salvation are here understood as inseparable. In light of this, the paper aims to: 1) elucidate the significance of Henry’s engagement with the phenomenological tradition and his proposal of a phenomenology of Life which advocates an immanent auto‑affection, radically separate from the ek‑static nature of intentionality, and 2) confront the division between Life and world in Henry’s Christian phenomenology and its discordancy with the doctrine of the Trinity, as the latter attests to the harmonious unity that subsists between inner life and the world.

The Sharing of Radio Frequencies between Canada and the United States: the Case of AM Broadcasting

1982 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 123-160
Author(s):  
Sylvie J. Gravel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Physical Nature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Radio Spectrum ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Broadcasting System ◽  
Radio Frequencies

SummaryBecause of the physical nature of the radio spectrum, the sharing of radio frequencies between Canada and the United States is a necessary but delicate process. Using the example of AM broadcasting, the purpose of this article is to give an overview of the bilateral agreements concluded between the two countries during the last sixty years. Multilateral conventions, as well as agreements and arrangements, are also reviewed in order to permit an adequate understanding of the evolution of the bilateral relation. The review of those conventions also indicates the legal principles applicable to the sharing of frequencies for broadcasting purposes.From the initial chaos to “first come, first served” and, finally, to the “a priori” planning of the spectrum, the relative situation of Canada vis-à-vis the United States gradually improves. It is through the negotiation of technical agreements that Canada can obtain access to a natural resource necessary for the expression of its national identity and using a broadcasting system of its own.

scholarly journals The face-to-face encounter in indigenous health care: a perspective in Lévinas

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (suppl 6) ◽  
pp. 2848-2853
Author(s):  
Diomedia Zacarias Teixeira ◽  
Nelson dos Santos Nunes ◽  
Rose Mary Costa Rosa Andrade Silva ◽  
Eliane Ramos Pereira ◽  
Vilza Handan
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Health ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Radical Alterity ◽  
The Face ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Reflective Study ◽  
Outpatient Settings

ABSTRACT Objective: To reflect on the sensitive behaviors of indigenous healthcare professionals based on the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas, to ratify completeness, equity, and humanity. Method: reflective study. Reflection: Studies have identified inadequacies in meeting the indigenous singularities. In the hospital and outpatient settings, they are diluted in the search for care. The difficulty of the professionals to admit them generates conflicts and non-adherence of indigenous individuals to treatments that disregard their care practices. In Lévinas, consciousness requires, "a priori," sensitivity to access the Infinity on the Face of the Other, which in the face-to-face encounters is presented to the Self as radical Alterity, proposing an Ethical relationship through transcendence. The freedom of the Self as to the Other is finite, as the Self cannot possess the Other, and infinite for its responsibility for the Other. Final considerations: The Self builds essence and existence in responsibility. In the Ethics of Alterity, in Lévinas, reflections are proposed that influence sensitive behaviors.

A Defence of Lichtenberg

Episteme ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Giovanni Merlo
Keyword(s):  
Thought Experiment ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
The Self ◽  
Conscious Thinking

Abstract Cartesians and Lichtenbergians have diverging views of the deliverances of introspection. According to the Cartesians, a rational subject, competent with the relevant concepts, can come to know that he or she thinks – hence, that he or she exists – on the sole basis of his or her introspective awareness of his or her conscious thinking. According to the Lichtenbergians, this is not possible. This paper offers a defence of the Lichtenbergian position using Peacocke and Campbell's recent exchange on Descartes's cogito as a framework for discussion. A thought-experiment will be presented involving two communities with radically different conceptions of the metaphysics of the self. The purpose of the thought-experiment is to suggest that a substantive metaphysical thesis, whose truth cannot be a priori known, is presupposed by any justified transition from one's introspective awareness of a certain mental activity to the self-ascription of that activity.

All Natural Right Is Changeable: Aristotelian Natural Right, Prudence, and the Specter of Exceptionalism

2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Clare Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Self ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Extreme Situation ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Just Cause ◽  
The Public ◽  
Decent Society ◽  
Political Decisions

In his recent book on Strauss, Steven B. Smith has called attention to “a curiously neglected passage from the very center of Natural Right and History,” a passage in which Strauss “acknowledges the way political decisions grow out of concrete situations and cannot be deduced from a priori rules.” The passage reads: Let us call an extreme situation a situation in which the very existence or independence of a society is at stake. In extreme situations there may be conflicts between what the self-preservation of society requires and the requirements of commutative and distributive justice. In such situations, and only in such situations, it can justly be said that the public safety is the highest law. A decent society will not go to war except for a just cause. But what it will do during a war will depend to a certain extent on what the enemy—possibly an absolutely unscrupulous and savage enemy—forces it to do. There are no limits which can be defined in advance, there are no assignable limits to what might become just reprisals.

Damage Mechanisms Identification in FRP Using Acoustic Emission and Artificial Neural Networks

2006 ◽  
Vol 514-516 ◽  
pp. 789-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui de Oliveira ◽  
António Torres Marques
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Acoustic Emission ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
Tensile Test ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Self ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Self Organizing Maps ◽  
Damage Mechanisms ◽  
Artificial Neural

In this study is proposed a procedure for damage discrimination based on acoustic emission signals clustering using artificial neural networks. An unsupervised methodology based on the self-organizing maps of Kohonen is developed considering the lack of a priori knowledge of the different signal classes. The methodology is described and applied to a cross-ply glassfibre/ polyester laminate submitted to a tensile test. In this case, six different AE waveforms were identified. The damage sequence could so be identified from the modal nature of those waves.

FREE-BOUNDARY PROBLEM OF THE ONE-DIMENSIONAL EQUATIONS FOR A VISCOUS AND HEAT-CONDUCTIVE GASEOUS FLOW UNDER THE SELF-GRAVITATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (08) ◽  
pp. 1377-1419 ◽  
Author(s):  
MORIMICHI UMEHARA ◽  
ATUSI TANI
Keyword(s):  
Blow Up ◽  
A Priori Estimates ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Global Solvability ◽  
The Self ◽  
Fundamental Result ◽  
System Of Equations ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Unique Existence ◽  
The One

In this paper we consider a system of equations describing the one-dimensional motion of a viscous and heat-conductive gas bounded by the free-surface. The motion is driven by the self-gravitation of the gas. This system of equations, originally formulated in the Eulerian coordinate, is reduced to the one in a fixed domain by the Lagrangian-mass transformation. For smooth initial data we first establish the temporally global solvability of the problem based on both the fundamental result for local in time and unique existence of the classical solution and a priori estimates of its solution. Second it is proved that some estimates of the global solution are independent of time under a certain restricted, but physically plausible situation. This gives the fact that the solution does not blow up even if time goes to infinity under such a situation. Simultaneously, a temporally asymptotic behavior of the solution is established.

Expressing the selves

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Zeman
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Mental Content ◽  
The Self ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Hierarchical Relations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Self Reference

By drawing parallels to neuro-philosophical approaches to self-consciousness that give up the notion of an a priori psychological self, Zeman argues that linguistic self-reference does not reflect the self as a holistic subject of consciousness, but as a set of different ‘selves’ that are commonly neutralized behind the personal pronoun ‘I’. The argument is grounded in an investigation of ‘multiple-perspective constructions’ (MPC) like the epistemic use of modal verbs, Free Indirect Discourse, and the ‘Future of Fate’ constructions where the subject is split in more than one dimension. The analysis shows that the impression of a holistic self emerges as a discourse effect based on the integration of the hierarchical relations between (i) an ‘internal’ and ‘external’ self with respect to the mental content, and (ii) ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ perspectives with respect to the communicative roles.

Li and Change

1998 ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
Wong Yew Leong
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
The Face ◽  
Conservative Attitude ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

In this paper I ask the question of how change is effected in the li practices of a fundamentally conservative society. I begin with a description of how li functions in society ideally and actually, arguing that they play a crucial role in society as the medium through which the Confucian objectives (the perfection of the self, the establishment of order within one’s family, and the restoration and preservation of social order) are realized. The character of li suggests that li practices be evaluated in terms of their efficacy in realizing the Confucian objectives, for which participation in li is both necessary and sufficient. Yet, these objectives transcend li practices, allowing individuals to evaluate li practices in terms of their efficacy in realizing Confucian objectives in the face of changing concerns and circumstances, and thereby affect the relevant changes in li practices. It is an adequate understanding of what the Confucian objectives entail and the structure of the situations one finds oneself in that inform evaluation of existing li practices. However, changes in li practices take place vis-a-vis a conservative attitude towards inherited social conventions, and it is this conservative attitude that provides stability and continuity despite flux. Changes in li practices are therefore gradual, and do not disrupt social order.

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