scholarly journals Jean Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology as a Theory of Knowledge Based on Epigenesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-230
Author(s):  
Zelia Ramozzi-Chiarottino
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Exchange Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
Limnaea Stagnalis ◽  
Core Idea ◽  
Intelligible World ◽  
The Brain

This article aims to highlight Jean Piaget’s theory of knowledge and situate it in this context since its beginnings in Ancient Greece where, in Plato, we already find this seminal idea: knowledge is acquired in successive and upward moments (dialektikê), starting from an opinion on the sensible world (doxa) towards the épistêmê of the intelligible world, the world of Ideas or concepts. Piaget’s Theory of Knowledge, we believe, was determined by four moments: 1) his research as a malacologist under the guidance of Godet and Raymond, 2) the acquaintance with Kant’s philosophy at age of 21, 3) his internship at the Binet/Simon laboratory, 4) his studies on the Limnaea Stagnalis. His core idea: it is possible for human beings to attain the necessary and universal knowledge due to the exchange processes of their organisms with the environment, which give rise to the epigenetic ontogenesis of their specific organic mental structures, framed for the specific act of knowing. Epigenetic ontogenesis begins with the infans first actions in the world, from the very moment of birth. Around two years of age, these actions will be represented and organized in groups linked to empirical experience, until the brain be able to perform the operations of the Abelian Group. The physiological development ends here, and the logico-mathematical knowledge becomes possible.

scholarly journals Intellection and Intuition: On the Epistemology of S.R. Ranganathan

NASKO ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Dousa
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Knowledge Organization ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Classification Theory ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Sense Data ◽  
The World ◽  
Facet Analysis ◽  
Fundamental Categories ◽  
In Virtue Of

The Indian librarian and library theorist S.R. Ranganathan (1892-1970) is generally recognized as a seminal figure in the development of facet analysis and its application to classification theory. In recent years, commentators on the epistemology of knowledge organization have claimed that the methods of facet analysis reflect a fundamentally rationalist approach to classification. Yet, for all the interest in the epistemological bases of Ranganathan’s classification theory, little attention has been paid to his theory of how human beings acquire knowledge of the world – i.e., his epistemology proper – or to the question whether this theory reflects a rationalist outlook. This paper examines Ranganathan’s statements on the origins of knowledge to assess if they are congruent with rationalist epistemology. Ranganathan recognized two different modes of knowledge – intellection (i.e., intellectual operations on sense data) and intuition (i.e., direct cognition of things-in-themselves) -- and it is in virtue of the latter that his epistemology can be considered to fall within the ambit of rationalism. Intuition as a source of knowledge plays a role in Ranganathan’s classification theory, most notably in his model of scientific method underlying classification development, his vision of the organization of classification design, and his conceptualization of seminal mnemonics and a reduced number of fundamental categories as important elements in the design of classification notation. Not only does intuition subtend the rationalism of Ranganathan’s epistemology but it also serves as a bridge to another often-neglected aspect of his thought, namely his valorization of mysticism. Indeed, Ranganathan’s theory of knowledge is best characterized as mystical rationalism

scholarly journals Storytelling and Asperger Syndrome: A Key for Social Integration

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Alain N. Sahin
Keyword(s):  
Asperger Syndrome ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Body Language ◽  
Social Impairment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
The World ◽  
The Brain

Storytelling is a universal way of communication between human beings. It is inhibited when neurodevelopmental disorders hinder human reciprocity, the understanding of body language, and nuances of language. Asperger Syndrome (AS), one of these disorders, is characterized by social impairment and repetitive patterns of behaviour. Messages cannot be conveyed through storytelling, which causes social isolation and withdrawal of individuals with AS from society. The development of the mirror neuron system in the brain, which incites imitation of peers, might be altered in AS by a mechanism that is not entirely understood. Because mirroring the emotions of others is key to understanding their feelings and perceptions of the world, the “theory of mind” is not formed in individuals with AS as it normally would be. While studies have suggested this impediment, current views and evidence show that people with AS may use storytelling as a powerful tool to integrate themselves into society. Future research should investigate storytelling as an intervention to increase social interaction of individuals with AS.

Essential Education

2030 ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rutger van Santen ◽  
Djan Khoe ◽  
Bram Vermeer
Keyword(s):  
First Year ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The People ◽  
Equal Chance ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Moment ◽  
First Year Of Life ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Way

The helplessness of newborn babies is very endearing. They can just about breathe unaided, but they are otherwise entirely unadapted and dependent. Babies can barely see, let alone walk or talk. Few animals come into the world so unprepared, and no other species is as dependent on learning as human beings are. Elephant calves, for instance, can stand up by themselves within a few minutes of being born. Most animals are similarly “preprogrammed.” Female elephants carry their young for no fewer than 22 months, whereas we humans have to go on investing in our offspring long after they are born. Children need years of adult protection. They guzzle fuel, too; their brains consume fully 60 percent of the newborn’s total energy intake. In the first year of life, the infant’s head buzzes with activity as neurons grow in size and complexity and form their innumerable interconnections. The way the brain develops is the subject of the next chapter (chapter 5.2). Here we concentrate on the way we are educated from the first day on. There is virtually no difference between Inuits and Australian aborigines in terms of their ability—at opposite ends of the earth and in climates that are utterly different—to bear children successfully. Other animal species are far more closely interrelated with their environment. Other primates have evolved to occupy a limited biotope determined by food and climate. Humans are much more universal. Every human child has an equal chance of survival wherever they are born. As a species, we delay our maturation and adaptation until after birth, which makes the inequality of subsequent human development all the more acute. Someone who is born in Mali or Burkina Faso is unlikely ever to learn to read. A person whose father lives in Oxford, by contrast, might have spoken his or her first words of Latin at an early age. Inuit and aboriginal babies may be born equally, but their chances begin to diverge the moment they start learning how to live. We are not shaped by our inborn nature but by the culture that is impressed upon us by the people with whom we grow up.

Technology, Dao-Technē and Home

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang Xianglong
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Fixed Frame ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Fundamental Reason ◽  
Organic Community ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lao Zi

AbstractHeidegger maintains that the root of modern technology, like that of all other technologies, lies in technē. However, because the art dimension of technē is suppressed in modern technology, the essence of this technology becomes a Gestell (fixed frame) that enforces product-making, and thus drives technology beyond the control of human beings. The more fundamental reason underlying this “frame-becoming” nature is “the mathematical” that emerges in ancient Greece, which, through the Cartesian subject-object dichotomy, turns the world into the images represented by the subject, and things into definite objects. To escape the dictatorship of the Gestell, it is necessary to re-realize the art-dimension of technē in modern technology, i. e. to let the gentle granting nature of the enowning (Ereignis, event) re-master technology. In this respect, both Heidegger and Heisenberg were inspired by or at least resonated with Lao Zi or Zhuang Zi’s Dao. Confucians will greatly appreciate the critique of modern technology by Heidegger, and especially his view of returning “home” to overcome the possible dangers brought about by technology. However, from the perspective of Confucianism, Heidegger’s critique contains some shortcomings: for example, his ignorance of the individualistic impact in the Gestell and his unidirectional “ontological difference,” which leads him to a view of “home” that lacks “family” and therefore renders his solution loose and rootless. Only an organic community originated in the family, be it Confucian or Amish, can effectively reduce the control of modern technology over the human being.

Real Brains and Model Brains

1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Penrose ◽  
Martin Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Grey Matter ◽  
Cerebral Hemispheres ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Surface Layers ◽  
Alan Turing ◽  
The World ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Brain

Inside our heads is a magnificent structure that controls our actions and somehow evokes an awareness of the world around. Yet, as Alan Turing once put it, it resembles nothing so much as a bowl of cold porridge! It is hard to see how an object of such unpromising appearance can achieve the miracles that we know it to be capable of. Closer examination, however, begins to reveal the brain as having a much more intricate structure and sophisticated organization. The large convoluted (and most porridge-like) portion on top is referred to as the cerebrum. It is divided cleanly down the middle into left and right cerebral hemispheres, and considerably less cleanly front and back into the frontal lobe and three other lobes: the parietal, temporal and occipital. Further down, and at the back lies a rather smaller, somewhat spherical portion of the brain - perhaps resembling two balls of wool - the cerebellum. Deep inside, and somewhat hidden under the cerebrum, lie a number of curious and complicated-looking different structures: the pons and medulla (including the reticular formation, a region that will concern us later) which constitute the brain-stem, the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, corpus callosum, and many other strange and oddly named constructions. The part that human beings feel that they should be proudest of is the cerebrum - for that is not only the largest part of the human brain, but it is also larger, in its proportion of the brain as a whole, in man than in other animals. (The cerebellum is also larger in man than in most other animals.) The cerebrum and cerebellum have comparatively thin outer surface layers of grey matter and larger inner regions of white matter. These regions of grey matter are referred to as, respectively, the cerebral cortex and the cerebellar cortex. The grey matter is where various kinds of computational task appear to be performed, while the white matter consists of long nerve fibres carrying signals from one part of the brain to another. Various parts of the cerebral cortex are associated with very specific functions.

scholarly journals The ancient poet and philosopher in M. Arnold’s dramatic poem “Empedocles on Etna”

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Natalia I. Sokolova
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Predominant Role ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Universe

„Empedocles on Etna”, called by Arnold „dramatic poem”, was not meant to be staged. In a work with three actors (Empedocles, his pupil Pausanias and the poet Callicles) there is almost no action, the predominant role is given to the monologues of the famous philosopher. The article analyzes the image of the main character of the poem. The state of the man of transition era in Ancient Greece, suffering from disappointments, doubts, loneliness, Arnold considered consonant with modernity. Lonely, disillusioned in the world Empedocles is contrasted in the poem with Callicles, who joyfully accepts life. Episodes of Ancient Greece mythology are interwoven into the text of the poem, contributing to the understanding of the image of Empedocles, the nature of the relationship between the characters. Empedocles’ monologues touch upon the problems relevant to the Victorian era, connected with the new attitude to the universe, to nature, to the problems of faith. Empedocles with his “congestion of the brain” is close to the author (according to Arnold himself). Thus, without deviating from the facts of the biography of the ancient poet and philosopher, Arnold, in essence, creates a portrait of his contemporary.

scholarly journals Special Article: From Birdsong to Babel: the canine connection in the origin of human language

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Graham Pont
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Europe

Whistled languages are still found today in many parts of the world, the most celebrated being Silbo, in the Canary Islands. According to Australian Aboriginal legends, it was the birds who taught human beings how to speak. Similar traditions are found in Ancient Greece and Rome and modern Europe. This article explores the hypothesis that around 100 000 years BP there was an interaction of whistling sounds among birds, humans and dogs that eventually led to the development of the first natural languages, from birdsong to whistling to articulate speech.KEY WORDS evolution of natural languages, birdsong, whistling, dogs  

Medieval Optics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dallas G. Denery
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Jean De Meun ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Faculty Psychology ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
The World ◽  
The Brain

Medieval optics, also known as perspectivist optics from the mid-13th century on, offered a complete theory of human cognition. Whereas modern optics limits itself to the study of the behavior and properties of light, perspectivist optics sought to explain how human beings perceive and then understand the world around them. The perspectivists contended that vision proceeds through a process of intromission, in other words, we see objects in the world because information from those objects, called “species,” reach and then reproduce themselves within the eye and then throughout the various faculties of human the brain. Prior to the 13th-century popularization of perspectivist optics, most European and Christian thinkers believed vision occurred through a process of extramission, in which vision depended on visual rays extending out from the eyes to the things in the world. Medieval optics derives largely from the work of Alhacen (b. c. 965–d. c. 1040), the 12th-century Arabic thinker. In The Book of Optics, translated into Latin in 1200 as De aspectibus, Alhacen (Ibn al-Haytham) wove together the mathematical and geometrical aspects of Ptolemy’s extramission account of vision, Galen’s physiological account of the eye, and ideas about light from such Arabic thinkers as Alkindi (b. c. 801–d. c. 873), to create a sophisticated intromissionist account of vision. The Franciscan Roger Bacon (b. c. 1219–d. c. 1292), working from the Latin translation, borrowed all of these ideas for his own treatise, Perspectiva, and combined them with Avicenna’s Aristotelian-influenced faculty psychology. If not terribly original, Bacon’s treatise, along with works by his fellow Franciscan John Pecham (b. c. 1230–d. c. 1292), and the Silesian cleric Witelo (b. c. 1230–d. c. 1300), proved tremendously influential. Perspectivist ideas filtered into scholastic debates about natural causation and physics, cognition, epistemology, the Eucharist, and, even, the beatific vision. Various religious and pastoral treatises bear the imprint of perspectivist ideas, as do works by such renowned medieval authors as Jean de Meun (b. c. 1240–d. c. 1305), Dante (b. c. 1265–d. c. 1321), and Chaucer (b. c. 1343–d. c. 1400). Perspectivist ideas may even have played a part in the development of illusionistic painting in Italy, beginning with Giotto’s early-14th-century frescos at the Arena Chapel in Padua and culminating with Alberti’s 1435 treatise, On Painting. It was only in the early 17th century, with the publication of Johannes Kepler’s Emendations to Witelo, that the tradition of medieval optics as a comprehensive account of human cognition came to an end. Kepler (b. 1571–d. 1630) reimagined the eye as a camera obscura with a lens to focus light on the retina, effectively separating the study of optics from the study of cognition. The modern science of optics was born.

scholarly journals How Can Ibn Khaldun’s Economic Philosophy Revive the Intellectual Capital of Entrepreneurs

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Sakinah Mat Zin ◽  
Ahmad Azrin Adnan ◽  
Iskandar Hasan Tan Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Medium Enterprise ◽  
Economic Philosophy

Ibn Khaldun’s magnificent reflections on the economic growth and philosophical insights into the behavior of human beings and society, as well as interrelationships among various disciplines such as politics, economics, sociology and education have reckoned him the outstanding figure in the social sciences and one of the greatest philosophers in the world. A comprehending to Ibn Khaldun’s Economic Philosophy and its outcomes for outstanding business performance assists entrepreneurs in managing intellectual capital (IC) purposefully. IC is deliberated as an indispensable factor in an organizational exertion to accentuate on bringing about competitive gains and augmenting value creations in knowledge-based economy. Instead of engaging merely on innovativeness of new products, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs must also concentrate on administering IC in accordance to Ibn Khaldun’s Economic Philosophy. This paper targets to appreciate and re-examine contributions in Ibn Khaldun’s Economic Philosophy and IC in entrepreneurial researches and indicate how Ibn Khaldun’s Theory of Development is pertinent to research in the expanse of IC.

scholarly journals Konsep Being Perspektif Filsafat dan Islam

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Suhermanto Jakfar
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Mulla Sadra ◽  
The World

This article discuss the concept of being in the perspective of existentialism and Islam. The closest similarity to the word “being” is to on (Ancient Greece), as the word of einai, to be (on, onta). For Parmenides, “being” (to on) is one, eternal and unchanging. Gabriel Marcel calls the way the human being with the term être-au-monde, etre in carne, geist-in-welt.  Martin Heidegger uses a formula being in the world to characterize human life. Being in the world as a feature of human life, human beings are in the situation. Living in a world of concrete means that there are human relationships with the situation. Sartre said that the real one where there are two, namely: I’etre en soi and I’etre pour Soi. For Sartre, I’etre en soi is the idea that only a concrete phenomenon has ontological status; only something concrete is real. Unlike the being-in-itself, for Sartre the concept of being-for-itself is a state of being that comes with the awareness and self-control. The concept of being (wujûd) by Suhrawardî is a mental concepts (mahfûm) that do not have the type and diferensia. In the illumination philosophy of Suhrawardî, the idea of ​​wujûd can not be separated from nature and depiction of light. The philosophy of wujûd by Mulla Sadrâ stands on three basic principles of fundamental importance. These three principles are as follows: wahdat al-wujûd, tashkîk al-wujûd, and tashkîk. While Mohammad Iqbal emphasis on metaphysics and anthropological philosophy. Iqbal gives greater emphasis on more concrete dimensions, namely khudi (ego).

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