scholarly journals Speculative Empiricism, Nature and the Question of Predatory Abstractions: A Conversation with Didier Debaise

2021 ◽  
pp. 026327642110520
Author(s):  
Didier Debaise ◽  
Thomas P. Keating

In conversation 1 with Didier Debaise, this piece thinks transversally across Nature as Event (2017a) and Speculative Empiricism (2017b) to explore some of the key stakes in his philosophy, namely: the relationship between the task of thinking a speculative empiricism and the problem of the bifurcation of nature. Engaging with the themes of nature, abstraction, dualism, pragmatism, and the role of stories in dramatizing our sensitivity to the world, the conversation develops Debaise’s contribution to theorising alternative modes of knowledge and experience capable of admitting those infra-sensible, inaudible, or imperceptible qualities of events. Distinctly, Debaise introduces here the problem of ‘predatory abstractions’ as one way to understand the problem of bifurcation. Ethically, the question of predatory abstractions makes new demands on the social sciences: to story new abstractions capable of deepening our experience of nature.

2014 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Radder

The article consists of three main sections, in which I successively discuss the nature and role of realization, interpretation and abstraction in experimental and observational processes. In this way, these sections address several fundamental problems in philosophy of science, ontology and epistemology, and philosophy of language. Section 1 introduces the notion of realization processes, and argues that successful realization requires causal judgments. The second section discusses the role of conceptual interpretation in experiments and observations, explains how realization and interpretation can be distinguished, and emphasizes the significance of different types and ranges of experimental and observational reproducibility. It also includes a subsection on the issue of reproducibility in contemporary social sciences and psychology. Section 3 explains how concepts are abstracted from existing realization processes, and concludes that abstraction bestows a nonlocal meaning on these extensible concepts. In addition, I discuss and criticize some rival views of abstraction and concept meaning (to wit, mentalism and localism). The article concludes with some observations on the notion of a (cognitive) trinity.In my reply, I respond to the points raised in the six commentary papers. The following issues are addressed: the place of causality in physics (Steffen Ducheyne), perception in ordinary life (Monica Meijsing), the role of reproducibility in psychology and the social sciences (Daniël Lakens, Ruud Abma), the significance and implications of conceptual innovation (Lieven Decock), and the relationship between meaning, communication and ontology (Martin Stokhof and Michiel van Lambalgen).


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-207
Author(s):  
Kenioua Mouloud ◽  
Krine Nawal

Background and Study Aim. The study aimed to know the level of social responsibility and job performance among the physical education professors and examine the relationship between the social responsibility and the job performance. Material and Methods. The participants were 29 physical educations professors (male) from Institute of Physical Education and Sport University of Ouargla. The social responsibility and the job performance scales were used as search tools. Data analyses were carried out by means of statistical packet for social sciences (SPSS) 26.00 software program. The Mean, Std. Deviation and Pearson Correlation were used in the main study. In addition, alpha-Cronbach was used in the exploratory study Results. The level of social responsibility and job performance is high among physical education professors, and there is a positive correlation between social responsibility and job performance. Conclusions. Given the importance of the role of social responsibility and job performance and the lack of enough studies in this specialization, it is necessary to conduct more additional studies that would serve knowledge in this specialization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
Niccolò Martini

Voluntary death is a morally and legally grey area in many countries around the world. In my research I studied the topic of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Italy. Specifically, I analyzed the relationship between collective law and individual morality using as case study the phenomenon of voluntary death, which has been making people talk about itself in recent years precisely because of its as yet undefined nature. Using a qualitative approach i.e., semi-structured interview, I listened the voices of a representative sample of Italian doctors in order to collect the opinion of the medical class i.e., the social group that would be most affected by the possible legalization of euthanasia. It has emerged, among other things, that Italy lacks a real education to death. The research has opened a reflection on the range of voluntary death within a Nation where it is illegal. Numerous studies have determined the enormous symbolic baggage present within the concept of death, but in the study of the legalization of voluntary death a new factor has emerged: a legalization is not desired until the population receives a real education on the idea of having to die. Like sex, death is still a taboo in many societies around the world. Is it therefore necessary to fulfill a death education before even start to talk about creating a general law. This research has exalted not only a cultural deficiency but also the desire to remedy it through education, in order to exorcise the fear of an event that sooner or later everyone has to face.


2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia I. Lohr ◽  
Paula Diane Relf

Throughout history, plants have been used to benefit people. In the United States, formal research to document the impacts of plants on people was not published until the 1970s, when papers from social and medical scientists began to appear. In the 1990s, symposia, including the first on “The Role of Horticulture in Human Well-being and Social Development,” brought people together from around the world to share and expand their knowledge in this emerging field. Symposium participants have included researchers in the social sciences and plant sciences, practitioners in horticultural therapy, teachers in colleges and public gardens, industry representatives applying the knowledge, and more. This has formed the basis for current activities in research, teaching, and practice throughout the United States. Examples from research that now documents a variety of beneficial impacts of plants on people are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Iqraa Runi Aprilia ◽  
Ruth Indiah Rahayu

<p>Contemporary feminists in Indonesia do not yet have questions about nationalism, since the conversation about nationalism has been considered final at the beginning of Indonesian independence. In fact, in terms of contemporary analysis, women have problems with nationalism, when the definition of nationalism is dominated by the study of political science that is male-view biased. By tracing history to contemporary time, the relationship between women and nationalism is dominated by patriarchal interests for the mobilization of power, even if women have an independent political interest. That is why political interests of women are situated marginally in nationalism. But if we use the perspective of the social sciences, as feminist theories, then the notion of nationalism is broader than that of women and the state. We are still less productive in abstracting the relationship between women and citizens in nationalism, while it is a daily practice of women’s struggles both personally and organically. Women have proven to be an active agency to become citizens beyond the mobilization of the state. This paper seeks to arouse feminist questions about nationalism, in order to reveal the role of women who are hidden in nationalism.  </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 107-128
Author(s):  
Hanna Mamzer

The relationship between the homeless and their animals is treated as marginal, as an issue of little social importance. The most probable cause are “common sense” approaches that focus on the more urgent challenges that need to be addressed to increase the well-being of the homeless such as providing health care, financial support and employment. Contrary to these needs, relations with animals appear as a kind of a whim that creates problems and is not crucial. Indeed, in the social sciences in general, the value of human and animal companionship, as an important source of positive emotions, is being increasingly analysed. The role of animals in human societies increases as social consciousness changes. The role of animals in the lives of socially marginalized people is still being questioned. In this work I identify the emotional significance of the relationship with animals for the homeless people.


This edited volume examines how the growth of social media and ancillary computer systems is affecting the relationship between journalism and the pursuit of truth. Experts explore how news is perceived and identified, presented to the public, and how the public responds to news. They consider social media’s effect on the craft of journalism as well as the growing role of algorithms, big data, and automatic content production regimes. The volume’s aim is to confront these issues in a way that will be of enduring relevance; the discussions about contemporary journalism inform current students and help scholars in the future. Chapters reflect on questions such as what is different and what remains the same in journalism’s pursuit of truth now that social media has become such a prominent force in news gathering, dissemination, and reinterpretation? How has reader participation and responses changed? What are the implications for journalistic information gathering and truth claims? What is different now about the social roles of journalists and media institutions? How does interaction between journalists and social media affect democratic practices? The chapters offer a mix of empirical and critical work that reflects on journalism’s past, present, and future roles in our lives and in society. An interdisciplinary work, this volume brings together leading scholars in the fields of journalism and communication studies, philosophy, and the social sciences to explore how we should understand journalism’s changing landscape as it relates to fundamental questions about the role of truth and information in society.


2018 ◽  
pp. 127-147
Author(s):  
Carsten Bagge Laustsen

The article is an investigation of the relation between social studies and movies and in turn the relevance of movies to the social sciences. The relationship between the world of movies and reality is analyzed through the movies Being there and Storytelling. Three different approaches are presented: The movie society, socio-fiction and movies as ambiguos cultural products.


Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 797-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas J. M. van Vliet ◽  
Gert Spaargaren ◽  
Peter Oosterveer

This paper reviews the contribution the social sciences can make to the challenge of providing access to sustainable sanitation services and infrastructures for billions of people, in both the over- and underdeveloped parts of the world. The paper reviews and discusses three particular social scientific topics relevant for the sanitation challenge: the nature of socio-technical change, the issue of multilevel governance, and the role of the citizen-consumer. It is argued that sanitation is as much a social as it is a technical issue, and that the role of social scientific knowledge needs to be strengthened and given more attention in this context. The key contribution from the social sciences is to be found in its capacity to help widen the narrow, technical definitions of sanitation by including actors and their needs and belief systems, and by highlighting the alternative socio-technical tools and governance arrangements that are instrumental in moving beyond some of the dead-end roads of traditional water engineering and sanitation provision.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Roy Weintraub

This essay reviews new histories of the role of game theory and rational decision making in shaping the social sciences, economics among them, in the postwar period. The recent books The World the Game Theorists Made by Paul Erickson and How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality by Paul Erickson, Judy Klein, Lorraine Daston, Rebecca Lemov, Thomas Sturm, and Michael Gordin raise a number of complex historical questions about the interconnections among game theory, utility theory, decision theory, optimization theory, information theory, and theories of rational choice. Moreover, the contingencies of time, place, and person call into question the usefulness of economists' linear narratives about the autonomous and progressive development of modern economics. The essay finally reflects on the challenges that these issues present for historians of recent economics. (JEL B23, C70, D74, N42)


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