scholarly journals An Analysis of Alvin Goldman’s Naturalized Epistemology

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Elias Ifeanyi E. Uzoigwe

This work, “An Analysis of Alvin Goldman’s Naturalistic Epistemology,” aims at presenting the contributions of Alvin Goldman in am epistemic bent. As a branch of philosophy, epistemology has significantly advanced right from the classic, medieval, modern, and contemporary epochs. The effects of postmodernist thinkers’ radical approach to philosophy are evident in almost all philosophy branches. With the notion of doing epistemology through science championed by W.V.O. Quine, Alvin Goldman, John Kuhn, and some other scholars have raised objections and counter objections to such a deconstructionist mindset within the epistemic circle. Expectedly, these naturalistic epistemologists had discontinuity with one another in their positions. Goldman is concerned with such traditional epistemological problems as developing an adequate theoretical understanding of knowledge and justified believing. This paper shows that in his naturalistic discontinuity with Quine, Alvin Goldman did not conceive epistemology as part of science the same way Quine conceived it. Goldman’s view that answering traditional epistemological questions requires both a priori philosophy and the application of scientific results. Goldman’s naturalism is the view that epistemology “needs help” from science. His primary concern is in the area of traditional epistemological problems, including developing an adequate theoretical understanding of knowledge and justified believing. In this paper, I see Goldman’s divergence in the opinion of his naturalistic epistemology with Quine and other naturalistic epistemologists not as a problem but indeed part of epistemic consolidation. In the course of this work, analytic, evaluation, library research, and descriptive methods as well as internet materials, were employed.

Oxford Studies in Epistemology is a biennial publication offering a regular snapshot of state-of-the-art work in this important field. Under the guidance of a distinguished editorial board composed of leading epistemologists in North America, Europe and Australasia, it publishes exemplary papers in epistemology, broadly construed. Topics within its purview include: (a) traditional epistemological questions concerning the nature of belief, justification, and knowledge, the status of skepticism, the nature of the a priori, etc.; (b) new developments in epistemology, including movements such as naturalized epistemology, feminist epistemology, social epistemology, and virtue epistemology, and approaches such as contextualism; (c) foundational questions in decision-theory; (d) confirmation theory and other branches of philosophy of science that bear on traditional issues in epistemology; (e) topics in the philosophy of perception relevant to epistemology; (f) topics in cognitive science, computer science, developmental, cognitive, and social psychology that bear directly on traditional epistemological questions; and (g) work that examines connections between epistemology and other branches of philosophy, including work on testimony, the ethics of belief, etc. Topics addressed in volume 6 include the nature of perceptual justification, intentionality, modal knowledge, credences, epistemic supererogation, epistemic and rational norms, expressivism, skepticism, and pragmatic encroachment. The various writers make use of a variety of different tools and insights, including those of formal epistemology and decision theory, as well as traditional philosophical analysis and argumentation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Božidar Forca ◽  
Dragoljub Sekulović ◽  
Igor Vukonjanski

Security is one of the most common terms in the modern world. This statement is supported by the fact that the term security is used in a wide range of areas. The subject of this paper is national security and the challenges, risks and threats to that security in contemporary international relations. The purpose of the work is twofold. First, to show the diversity of theoretical understanding of the term challenge, risk and threat by various authors. On the other hand, the overriding goal is to analyze the relationship to the challenges, risks and threats in different countries. When it comes to national security, challenges, risks and threats, most often, are identified in a document called the national security strategy. This document, as one of the highest in the hierarchy of political acts of every state, when it comes to security, is passed by almost all modern states of the world. The analysis of numerous national security strategies has revealed that it is possible to identify: 1) the challenges, risks and threats that appear in all strategies, 2) the challenges, risks and threats of security that appear in most strategies, and 3) the challenges, risks and threats of security which are country specific.


2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (01) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Markus Kiderlen

We discuss the determination of the mean normal measure of a stationary random set Z ⊂ ℝ d by taking measurements at the intersections of Z with k-dimensional planes. We show that mean normal measures of sections with vertical planes determine the mean normal measure of Z if k ≥ 3 or if k = 2 and an additional mild assumption holds. The mean normal measures of finitely many flat sections are not sufficient for this purpose. On the other hand, a discrete mean normal measure can be verified (i.e. an a priori guess can be confirmed or discarded) using mean normal measures of intersections with m suitably chosen planes when m ≥ ⌊d / k⌋ + 1. This even holds for almost all m-tuples of k-dimensional planes are viable for verification. A consistent estimator for the mean normal measure of Z, based on stereological measurements in vertical sections, is also presented.


Author(s):  
Iryna Batiuk ◽  

The aim of the article. Based on a comprehensive analysis of archives, published documents, and materials, as well as current historical studies, the phenomenon of mass child homelessness in Ukraine during the Holodomor-Genocide which organized by the Russian communist regime in 1932–1933s is highlighted. The aim of the article is to analyze the activities of state authorities and their commissions in assisting homeless children in the process of overcoming this tragic social phenomenon. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis and synthesis), special and historical (problem-chronological, historical-systematic) methods and principles of scientificity and historicism. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the author first attempted a systematic analysis of the mass child homelessness and death caused by the authorities for the first time in the history of Ukraine during the Holodomor-Genocide. Conclusions. We can state that almost all of the activities of state authorities to overcome mass starvation and homelessness of children and adolescents during the Holodomor-Genocide of 1932–1933s consisted in overcoming street homelessness as a social phenomenon by removing children from the streets, placing them in unsuitable premises due to a lack of residential care facilities, returning them to families or placing them under collective and individual foster care. Such measures only partially served to improve the situation of a tiny proportion of children, but could not address the issue fundamentally, since it was not a primary concern of the Stalin’s regime itself. After all, the main reason for the growth of homelessness was the mass starvation of the Ukrainian peasants caused by his anti-human policy of liquidating the Ukrainian peasantry through mass repression and terror and plundering food by the so-called “dekulakization”, which implied the physical destruction of the peasant and his descendants and further enslavement of those who remained, and driving them into collective farms.


Author(s):  
Debasish Batabyal

Pricing an alpine tourism is unlike pricing a tangible product. As a part of overall marketing strategy pricing a destination has lot of intricate issues that starts from the basic characteristics of the destination elements to the changing demand aspects. At the time of packaging, an alpine destination by a tour operator or destination promotion organization (DPO), a simplified model, is used that is not essentially limited to an absurd analysis of attraction features through FAM trips a priori. In almost all Indian leisure destinations, tourists are found to be price sensitive and per capita spending is not so high. So, an Indian alpine destination-specific model, based on simple linear regression equation, largely explaining the spending of tourists and thereby implying a modified landscape value has been explained here.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier García-Corral ◽  
Jaime de de Pablo-Valenciano ◽  
Juan Milán-García ◽  
José Antonio Cordero-García

Complementary currencies are a reality and are being applied both globally and locally. The aim of this article is to explain the viability of this type of currency and its application in local development, in this case, in a rural mountain municipality in the province of Almería (Spain) called Almócita. The Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI); “Flying Balloon”; and Strength, Weakness, Opportunity (SWOT) analysis methodologies will be used to carry out the study. Finally, a ranking of success factors will be carried out with a brainstorming exercise. As to the results, there are, a priori, more advantages than disadvantages of implementing these currencies, but the local population has clarified that their main concern is depopulation along with a lack of varied work. As a counterpart to this and strengths or advantages, almost all the participants mention the support from the Almócita city council and the initiatives that are constantly being promoted.


Author(s):  
Aumyo Hassan ◽  
Sarah J. Barber

AbstractRepeated information is often perceived as more truthful than new information. This finding is known as the illusory truth effect, and it is typically thought to occur because repetition increases processing fluency. Because fluency and truth are frequently correlated in the real world, people learn to use processing fluency as a marker for truthfulness. Although the illusory truth effect is a robust phenomenon, almost all studies examining it have used three or fewer repetitions. To address this limitation, we conducted two experiments using a larger number of repetitions. In Experiment 1, we showed participants trivia statements up to 9 times and in Experiment 2 statements were shown up to 27 times. Later, participants rated the truthfulness of the previously seen statements and of new statements. In both experiments, we found that perceived truthfulness increased as the number of repetitions increased. However, these truth rating increases were logarithmic in shape. The largest increase in perceived truth came from encountering a statement for the second time, and beyond this were incrementally smaller increases in perceived truth for each additional repetition. These findings add to our theoretical understanding of the illusory truth effect and have applications for advertising, politics, and the propagation of “fake news.”


2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 86-103
Author(s):  
Dieter Wandschneider

AbstractThe Cartesian concept of nature, which has determined modem thinking until the present time, has become obsolete. It shall be shown that Hegel's objective-idealistic conception of nature discloses, in comparison to that of Descartes, new perspectives for the comprehension of nature and that this, in turn, results in possibilities of actualizing Hegel's philosophy of nature.If the argumentation concerning philosophy of nature is intended to catch up with the concrete Being-of-nature and to meet it in its concretion, then this is impossible for the finite spirit in a strictly a priori sense — this is the thesis supported here which is not at all close to Hegel. As the argumentation rather has to consider the conditions of realization concerning the Being-of-nature, too, it is compelled to take up empirical elements — concerning the organism, for instance, system-theoretical aspects, physical and chemical features of the nervous system, etc. With that, on the one hand, empirical-scientific premises are assumed (e.g. the lawlikeness of nature), which on the other hand become (now close to Hegel) possibly able to be founded in the frame of a Hegelian-idealistic conception. In this sense, a double strategy of empirical-scientific concretization and objective-idealistic foundation is followed up, which represents the methodical basic principle of the developed considerations.In the course of the undertaking, the main aspects of the whole Hegelian design concerning the philosophy of nature are considered — space and time, mass and motion, force and law of nature, the organism, the problem of evolution, psychic being — as well as Hegel's basic thesis concerning the philosophy of nature, that therein a tendency towards coherence and idealization manifests itself in the sense of a (categorically) gradually rising succession of nature: from the separateness of space to the ideality of sensation. In the sense of the double strategy of concretization and foundation it is shown that on the one hand possibilities of philosophical penetration concerning actual empirical-scientific results are opened, and on the other hand — in tum — a re-interpretation of Hegel's theorem on the basis of physical, evolution-theoretical and system-theoretical argumentation also becomes possible. In this mutual crossing-over and elucidation of empirical and Hegelian argumentation not only do perspectives of a new comprehension of nature become visible, but also, at the same time — as an essential consequence of this methodical principle — thoughts on the possibilities of actualizing Hegel's philosophy of nature.


1993 ◽  
Vol 07 (04) ◽  
pp. 1031-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.J. CHABAL ◽  
A.L. HARRIS ◽  
KRISHNAN RAGHAVACHARI ◽  
J.C. TULLY

In this review, the present level of infrared spectroscopy at surfaces is described by using hydrogen-terminated silicon surfaces as model systems. The electronic structure of the adsorbate, H, and the large mass difference between H and Si simplify the interpretation of the data and make it possible for the theories to give reliable quantitative information. In particular, ab initio cluster calculations provide an accurate structural description and precise vibrational frequencies for various surface configurations, and are used as the basis of a priori simulations of the line shape of H on silicon. A special emphasis is given to the recent discovery of chemical etching to prepare H-terminated silicon surfaces because it has greatly helped in understanding structural and dynamical properties of H-terminated silicon surfaces. In particular, both the energy and phase relaxation of the Si-H stretching vibration on the flat, ideally hydrogen terminated Si(111) surface have been measured directly and evidence for vibrational energy diffusion has been obtained on vicinal, H-terminated Si(111) surfaces. The data and current theoretical understanding of the chemically prepared Si(111) surfaces are presented and discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-69
Author(s):  
Algimantas Valantiejus

Santrauka. Antroje straipsnio dalyje konkretinamos ir analizuojamos paralelės 1) tarp postempiristinės mokslo filosofijos ir postanalitinės sociologijos, 2) tarp epistemologijos sampratos natūralizavimo filosofijoje ir racionalumo sampratos pragmatizavimo sociologijoje. Teigiama, kad metodologinė racionalumo problema sociologijoje yra siauresnė epistemologinio santykio tarp filosofijos ir mokslo dalis. Analizuojant filosofinės nuostatos natūralizavimo šiuolaikinėje sociologijoje tendencijas skiriamos dvi – analitinė ir postanalitinė – pozicijos. Nagrinėjama normatyvinė santykio tarp racionalumo normų ir mokslinių objektyvumo kriterijų problema abiejose pozicijose. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: racionalumas, normatyvumas, natūralizmas, a priori problema, reliatyvizmas. Key words: rationality, normativity, naturalism, the problem of the a priori, relativism. ABSTRACT THE PROBLEM OF RATIONALITY IN SOCIOLOGY (II) The second part of the article aims to articulate and explicate the parallels between post-empiricist scientific philosophy and post-analytical sociology, and between the conception of naturalistic epistemology in philosophy and the conception of pragmatic rationality in sociology. The article argues that the methodological problem of rationality in sociology is the part of the larger epistemological relationship between philosophy and science. Normative relationship between the norms of rationality and the criteria of scientific objectivity is analyzed in two main perspectives of contemporary sociology – analytical and post-analytical.


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