How Reality is Reasonable

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Williams
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Dimensional Manifold ◽  
The World ◽  
Being There ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Fundamental Entity ◽  
Spatiotemporal Relations ◽  
Priori Knowledge

This chapter begins with a systematic presentation of the doctrine of actualism. According to actualism, all that exists is actual, determinate, and of one way of being. There are no possible objects, nor is there any indeterminacy in the world. In addition, there are no ways of being. It is proposed that actual entities stand in three fundamental relations: mereological, spatiotemporal, and resemblance relations. These relations govern the fundamental entities. Each fundamental entity stands in parthood relations, spatiotemporal relations, and resemblance relations to other entities. The resulting picture is one that represents the world as a four-dimensional manifold of actual ‘qualitied contents’—upon which all else supervenes. It is then explained how actualism accounts for classes, quantity, number, causation, laws, a priori knowledge, necessity, and induction.

Inferential Anti-skepticism about Perception

2021 ◽  
pp. 35-56
Author(s):  
Michael Bergmann
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Skeptical Hypothesis ◽  
The World ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Priori Knowledge

This chapter examines multiple kinds of deductive and nondeductive anti-skeptical arguments from our sensory experience to the likely truth of our perceptual beliefs based on that evidence and finds them all wanting. In the first two sections, it briefly considers deductive anti-skeptical arguments (of the theological and transcendental variety), inductive anti-skeptical arguments from past correlations of sensory experience with true perceptual beliefs based on it, and anti-skeptical arguments based on a priori knowledge of probabilistic principles saying that our sensory evidence for our perceptual beliefs makes probable the truth of those beliefs. In the final three sections, the focus turns to abductive or inference to the best explanation (IBE) arguments, which are currently the most popular anti-skeptical arguments. IBE anti-skeptical arguments conclude that our sensory experience, or some feature of it, is best explained by the truth of our perceptual beliefs. These three sections argue that we lack good reasons for thinking that our sensory experience is better explained by a Standard Hypothesis (saying that the world is approximately as it seems) than by a skeptical hypothesis, such as the hypothesis that a deceptive demon wants to mislead us into falsely believing the world is as it seems.

scholarly journals Kataphysical inquiry, onto-relationality and elemental forms in T.F. Torrance’s doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
Priori Knowledge

The doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T.F. Torrance rests on the fundamental methodological axiom that knowledge is developed according to the nature (kata physin) of the object of scientific inquiry. To know God through the incarnate Son, who is ‘of one nature with the Father’, is to know God in strict accordance with God’s nature and hence in a theologically scientific way. In Torrance’s kataphysical method, a priori knowledge of God is excluded, for epistemology follows ontology. Because the fundamental aspects of reality are relational rather than atomistic, a scientific theological approach to the doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ requires that he be investigated within the nexuses of ‘being-constituting’ interrelations, or ‘onto-relations’, which disclose his identity as incarnate Saviour of the world. Following the principle of logical simplicity, the vast and scattered array of Torrance’s thought can be reduced to a minimal number of elemental forms that succinctly describe in a unitary, non-dualist manner the onto-relations that constitute the identity of the incarnate Son. The primary elemental forms of Torrance’s doctrine of mediation are the Nicene homoousion and the Chalcedonian doctrine of the hypostatic union. Two additional elemental forms that readily arise as corollaries of the doctrine of the hypostatic union are the doctrines of incarnational redemption and the ‘vicarious humanity’ of Jesus Christ. These elemental forms provide a conceptual lens for a theologically holistic view of the mediation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T.F. Torrance.Die leer van die versoening van Christus in die wetenskaplike teologie van T.F. Torrance berus op die fundamentele metodologiese aanname dat kennis volgens die aard(kataphysin) van die voorwerp van wetenskaplike ondersoek verwerf word. Om God deur die vleesgeworde Seun (wat een in wese met die Vader is) te ken, is om Hom in noue ooreenstemming met sy wese en daarom op ’n teologies-wetenskaplike wyse te ken. Volgens Torrance se katafisiese metode is aprioriese kennis van God nie moontlik nie, omdat die ontologie aan die epistemologie voorafgaan. Aangesien die fundamentele kenmerke van die werklikheid relasioneel eerder as atomisties is, vereis ’n wetenskaplik-teologiese benadering tot die leer van die versoening van Christus dat die ondersoek binne die kader van ‘wesensbepalende’ verhoudings of ‘onto-verhoudings’ plaasvind. Dit is immers laasgenoemde wat Christus se identiteit as vleesgeworde Verlosser van die wêreld blootlê. Deur die beginsel van logiese eenvoud toe te pas, kan die omvangryke en sporadiese idees van Torrance gereduseer word tot ’n kleiner aantal kernelemente wat op ’n unitêre, ondubbelsinnige wyse die ‘onto-verhoudings’ wat die identiteit van die vleesgeworde Seun verteenwoordig, duidelik beskryf. Die vernaamste kernelemente van Torrance se leer oor die middelaarskap is die Niceaanse homoousion en die Chalcedoniese leer van die wesenseenheid. Twee opvallende, parallelle kernelemente by die leer van die wesenseenheid is die leer van die verlossing op grond van die vleeswording en die plaasvervangende mensheid van Jesus Christus. Hierdie kernelemente verskaf ’n konsepsuele lens waardeur ’n teologiese, holistiese beskouing van die middelaarskap van Jesus Christus in die wetenskaplike teologie van T.F. Torrance ondersoek kan word. 

What Anti-Individualists Cannot Know A Priori

1998 ◽  
pp. 204-210
Author(s):  
Susana Nuccetelli
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Closure Principle ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Fallacy Of Equivocation ◽  
Priori Knowledge

The attempt to hold both anti-individualism and privileged self-knowledge may have the absurd consequence that someone could know a priori propositions that are knowable only empirically. This would be so if such an attempt entailed that one could know a priori both the contents of one’s own thoughts and the anti-individualistic entailments from those thought-contents to the world. For then one could also come to know a priori (by simple deduction) the empirical conditions entailed by one’s thoughts. But I argue that there is no construal of a priori knowledge that could be used to raise an incompatibility problem of this sort. First, I suggest that the incompatibilist a priori must be a stipulative one, since in none of the main philosophical traditions does knowledge of the contents of one’s thoughts count as a priori. Then, I show that under various possible construals of a priori, the incompatibilist argument would be invalid: either a fallacy of equivocation or an argument without a plausible closure principle guaranteeing transmission of epistemic status from premises to conclusion. Finally, I maintain that the only possible construal of the property of being knowable a priori that avoids invalidity is one that fails to generate the intended reductio.

Logic: An Empirical Study of A Priori Truths

1998 ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
John Kearns
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Correct Reasoning ◽  
Priori Knowledge

I distinguish a priori knowledge from a priori truths or statements. A priori knowledge either is evident or is derived from evident premisses by means of correct reasoning. An a priori statement is one that reflects features of the conceptual framework within which it is placed. The statement either describes semantic relations between concepts of the framework or it characterizes the application of the framework to experience and the world. An a priori statement is not necessarily part of anyone’s a priori knowledge. I also distinguish empirical knowledge from empirical statements. Both statements and theories are empirical if they are designed to characterize features of experience and the world. Knowledge is empirical if it fits experience; thus, one must check to see whether it fits. We do not obtain knowledge of logical systems by rational insight of evident truths and careful deductions from evident truths. Adequate logical systems are developed by trial and error. Logical knowledge is empirical knowledge that is not generally a priori. It is empirical knowledge of (some) a priori truths and principles of our conceptual systems. Logical systems are empirical theories of these truths and principles.

Kreines on the Problem of Metaphysics in Kant and Hegel

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-120
Author(s):  
Robert Stern
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Transcendental Idealism ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Synthetic A Priori ◽  
Priori Knowledge

AbstractThis article offers a discussion of James Kreines’s book Reason in the World: Hegel’s Metaphysics and Its Philosophical Appeal. While broadly sympathetic to Kreines’s ‘concept thesis’ as a conceptual realist account of Hegel, the article contrasts two Kantian arguments for transcendental idealism to which Hegel’s position may be seen as a response—the argument from synthetic a priori knowledge and the argument from the dialectic of reason—and explores the implications of Kreines’s commitment to the latter over the former.

scholarly journals Kant’s critique of pure reason and the dogmatism of metaphysics

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Lukic
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Pure Reason ◽  
Critique Of Pure Reason ◽  
Copernican Revolution ◽  
The World ◽  
Priori Knowledge

In this paper, the author explores Kant?s Copernican revolution that departs from philosophical tradition. Kant challenges a view that the existence of the world (with the totality of all laws that hold in it) is independent of the knower. In view of that, the main focus is on Kant?s analysis of the meaning of a priori knowledge and the critique of old (dogmatic) metaphysics. The aim of this critique, however, was not the dismissal of metaphysics as such, but rather the transcendental foundation of a new one.

Semantic Video Analysis and Understanding

2011 ◽  
pp. 3419-3425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Mezaris ◽  
Georgios Th. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Video Analysis ◽  
Digital Video ◽  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
The World ◽  
Video Material ◽  
Priori Knowledge

Access to video content, either amateur or professional, is nowadays a key element in business environments, as well as everyday practice for individuals all over the world. The widespread availability of inexpensive video capturing devices, the significant proliferation of broadband Internet connections and the development of innovative video sharing services over the World Wide Web have contributed the most to the establishment of digital video as a necessary part of our lives. However, these developments have also inevitably resulted in a tremendous increase in the amount of video material created every day. This presents new possibilities for businesses and individuals alike. Business opportunities in particular include the development of applications for semantics-based retrieval of video content from the Internet, video stock agencies or personal collections; semantics-aware delivery of video content in desktop and mobile devices; and semantics-based video coding and transmission. Evidently, the above opportunities also reflect to the video manipulation possibilities offered to individual users. Besides opportunities, though, the abundance of digital video content also presents new and important technological challenges, which are crucial for the further development of the aforementioned innovative services. The cornerstone of the efficient manipulation of video material is the understanding of its underlying semantics, a goal that has long been identified as the “Holy grail of content-based media analysis research” (Chang, 2002). Efforts to understand the semantics of video content typically build on algorithms that operate at the signal level, such as temporal and spatiotemporal video segmentation algorithms that aim at partitioning a video stream into semantically meaningful parts. To support the goal of semantic analysis, these signal-level algorithms are augmented with a priori knowledge regarding the different semantic objects and events of interest that may appear in the video and their signal-level properties. The introduction of a priori knowledge serves the purpose of facilitating the detection and exploitation of the hidden associations between the signal and semantic levels, resulting in the generation of semantically meaningful metadata for the video content. In this article, existing state-of-the-art semantic video analysis and understanding techniques are reviewed, including a hybrid approach to semantic video analysis that is outlined in some more detail, and the future trends in this research area are identified. The literature presentation starts in the following section with signal level algorithms for processing video content, a necessary prerequisite for the subsequent application of knowledge-based techniques.

A priori knowledge of the way the world works

Metascience ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bishop
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
A Priori Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way ◽  
Priori Knowledge
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