scholarly journals The Quest for a Sure Foundation of Cognitive Beliefs: Karl Popper’s Fallibilist Critique of Rationalism and Empirisism

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Ndianefo
Keyword(s):  
External World ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Fundamental Assumption ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Cognitive Beliefs ◽  
The World

The question of sure foundation of cognitive beliefs is a problem in epistemology and has defied solution. Both rationalism and empiricism lead to a common philosophical dead end: all we know is idea so that the existence of the external world remains an unjustifiable posit. This realization unleashed epistemology from its foundationalist moorings and occasioned theoretical renunciations. Karl Popper is one of the formidable contemporary thinkers to break ranks with foundationalism. He abandoned the search for proof which is a fundamental assumption of foundationalism and asserted that such rejection is necessitated by virtue of the fallibility of human knowledge. He therefore held that our problem is to find better and bolder theories; and that critical preference counts, but not belief. The upshot is that the search for a sure foundation or certainty of our cognitive belief is a philosophical will o’ the wisp. All we need is a pragmatic choice of methods and theories to get on in the world.

scholarly journals Verifiability and Falsifiability as Parameters for Scientific Methodology

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Sandhya Shankar
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Sense Experience ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mind

The question of „how do we come to know‟ has been the search of mankind since time immemorial. Neither has there been a consensus for that question nor there will be. Many a great minds have looked into this, coming up with various perspectives. Two such varying perspectives in this field are empiricism and rationalism. While the former emphasizes that experience (through senses) is the only source of knowledge the latter upholds that there is something beyond the sense experience, the mind that is the source of knowledge. The shift towards a scientific phase from that of the earlier theological and metaphysical phase gained popularity with positivism, where progress of human knowledge was considered in identifying truths through scientific methods. In this scientific journey towards knowing the world emphasis was on empirically observable things. It was believed that there are no ideas which come into our head without being dependent on our perceptions, thereby on our experience. The basis of classical science was considered getting empirical observations. It had to be a systematic way of studying what is out there. Purpose of science was considered to be limited to things which can be observed, thus being connected to a means of being verified. This paper thus looks into the notion of verifiability as an important parameter of scientific methodology and its importance as asserted by logical positivists. But this criteria of scientific method was challenged by another criteria, that of falsifiability. The next section will look into falsifiability as another parameter of scientific methodology. Since these parameters have been discussed widely among philosophers, this paper shall be focusing on the views of A. J. Ayer and Sir Karl Popper regarding the same. Furthermore, its application and relevance to the field of linguistics will also be discussed.

scholarly journals The Role of Theory in Empirical Second Language Acquisition Research: An Introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Beccia ◽  
Paige Yi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Empirical Testing ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Critical Rationalism ◽  
The World

Theory plays a central role in the development of human knowledge. In essence, theory solves puzzles, or questions about observable phenomena that need to be answered, (Kuhn, 1996). Theorizing about solutions to these puzzles requires working at the edge of uncertainty, making bold postulations, and engaging in what renowned philosopher of science Karl Popper terms critical rationalism; it is through the development of theories that are falsifiable and the subsequent empirical testing of those theories that our knowledge about the world (i.e., of natural phenomena) will progress (Popper, 1968).

Stroud's Dream Argument Critique

Philosophy ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 68 (266) ◽  
pp. 473-482
Author(s):  
John O. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
External World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Significant Feature ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Traditional Assumption ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The One ◽  
Philosophical Scepticism

In his recent work, The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism, Barry Stroud proposes to carry out an in-depth critique of the attempt by philosophers to invalidate all knowledge of an external world on the basis of Descartes' dream argument. His more particular aims in this endeavour are to uncover significant features of any such scepticism and to disclose in the process fundamental aspects of ‘human knowledge’ itself. Thus, among other features of knowledge that his study discloses, he thinks, is, echoing Kant, the idea ‘that a completely general distinction between everything we get through the senses, on the one hand, and what is true or not true of the external world, on the other, would cut us off forever from knowledge of the world around us.’ And a significant feature of Cartesian dream scepticism he believes to have uncovered is that its ‘effectiveness’ rests upon the philosopher's traditional assumption of an objectively existent world that is understandable ‘from a detached “external” viewpoint.’

scholarly journals Nationalism as a Mental Construct: The Linguistic Basis of the Sinhala-Tamil Conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhilesh Pathak
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
External World ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Mental Construct ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Linguistic Basis ◽  
Highly Evolved

Nationalism as a concept could be the concern of political scientists, but is it purely political in nature? Are there neurological connections that revolve around one of the highly evolved capacities of human beings as compared to other species; that is the ability to use language for communication? It is only because we are endowed with a machinery of cognition that receives and analyzes information from the external world and initiates us into identifying and assigning a set of characteristics to the objects and ideas we encounter in our everyday encounters with the multitude of events of the world. Karl Popper hinted towards the dichotomous relationship between ‘nominalism’ and ‘essentialism’, with the aid of which we classify and label the entities around us. While the debate between ‘reason’ and ’emotion’ has stayed alive for thousands of years tracing its origin to the antiquity coinciding with the heydays of the Hellenic glory or the ancient times of the Nyaya-Mimansa school of Indian philosophy, scholars and thinkers have shown a strong tendency to separate out the ‘objective’ from the ‘subjective’, a necessary corollary of the distinction between ‘reason’ and ’emotion’. The difference could be very well transposed upon the difference between ‘objects’ and ‘ideas’. Hence, one needs to attempt at unravelling the emotional-psychological basis of nationalism.

Kant’s ‘Transcendental Deduction’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Stroud
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Structural Description ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Transcendental Deduction ◽  
The World ◽  
Empirical Realism

This chapter presents a straightforward structural description of Immanuel Kant’s conception of what the transcendental deduction is supposed to do, and how it is supposed to do it. The ‘deduction’ Kant thinks is needed for understanding the human mind would establish and explain our ‘right’ or ‘entitlement’ to something we seem to possess and employ in ‘the highly complicated web of human knowledge’. This is: experience, concepts, and principles. The chapter explains the point and strategy of the ‘deduction’ as Kant understands it, as well as the demanding conditions of its success, without entering into complexities of interpretation or critical assessment of the degree of success actually achieved. It also analyses Kant’s arguments regarding a priori concepts as well as a posteriori knowledge of the world around us, along with his claim that our position in the world must be understood as ‘empirical realism’.

Montaigne on Monsters and Monstrosity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Long
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Divine Omnipotence ◽  
Human Creativity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face

Monsters take on many roles in Montaigne’s Essays, almost always in novel ways. They do not take on their usual roles as markers of other races, genders, or bodies, as threats or objects of repulsion. Rather, the authorial self and his work are seen as monstrous; Europeans and their culture are seen as monstrous; the knowledge systems that create monsters are themselves monstrous; man’s vanity is monstrous. But most of all, the monster is the provocation to meditation on man’s presumption, and on the limitations of human knowledge and power in the face of the world and the divine. As the sign of the diversity and mutability of the natural world and thus of divine omnipotence, the monstrous and unusual is valued by Montaigne over the normal or usual. It is also the mark of human creativity, dependent as it is on the vagaries of the imagination, new and radically different from the rhetorical, literary, and artistic norms. This is why the Essays themselves can be considered a monstrous work.

scholarly journals Islands and the world from an anthropological perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoqing Ma
Keyword(s):  
External World ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
The World ◽  
Marine Culture ◽  
External Transformation

Abstract Island studies play an important role in the development of anthropology. It is of academic value and practical significance to understand the island world as the field where multiple modernization forces and globalization interwine. This paper explores the intricate and diverse connections between continental and marine culture from a perspective of “viewing the world through the island”. In terms of overall diversity and exoteric mobility, this paper reviews the various aspects of island studies, examines the internal and external transformation of islands within land-sea interaction, and analyzes the dynamic historical process of the island world’s involvement in the global network, which blends and integrates various cultural elements of the external world. In the context of globalization, the island world is undergoing dramatic changes and in coping with them generating its new features.

A GRASP ON THE NATURE OF LUNDAYEH THROUGH THEIR TRADITIONAL DANCE CULTURE

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
LEE SUAN CHONG
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Dance Music ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The West ◽  
Dance Culture ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Aspects ◽  
Life Philosophies

AbstrakPenduduk Lundayeh terdapat di Tenom, Sipitang dan Long Pa Sia, di sepanjang pantai barat Sabah, Malaysia. Bentuk dan sistem tarian Lundayeh telah melalui perubahan dan variasi sejak kewujudan mereka di Borneo. Artikel ini mengkaji dalam pelbagai aspek, termasuk muzik, pakaian, pergerakan, fungsi dancerita-cerita daripada tarian tradisional yang diamalkan dalam masyarakat Lundayeh hari ini di Kemabong, Sabah. Tarian tradisional Lundayeh yang masih diamalkan berdasar terutamanya kepada aspek budaya, sosial dan agama hidup Lundayeh. Kajian ini membawa kepada penemuan corak pemikiran, falsafahhidup dan perspektif dunia Lundayeh yang dipengaruhi oleh agama dan budaya purba mereka. Tarian tradisional Lundayeh berfungsi sebagai satu saluran untuk memahami sifat orang Lundayeh sebagai salah satu kumpulan etnik kecil di dunia. Pemahaman tentang sifat orang Lundayeh akan terus menyumbang ke arah perkongsian dan penemuan dalam dimensi ilmu kemanusiaan yang baru.   AbstractLundayeh populations are found in the areas of Tenom, Sipitang and Long Pa Sia, along the west coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Lundayeh dance forms and systems have gone through changes and variations since their existence in Borneo. This paper looks into a variety of aspects, including music, costumes, movements, functions and stories of the traditional dances practiced in today’s Lundayeh communities in Kemabong, Sabah. The surviving traditional dances found to have stemmed from the core of Lundayeh cultural, social and religious aspects of life. The study leads to the discovery of the thinking patterns, life philosophies and world perspectives of Lundayeh that are strongly influenced by their religion and ancient culture. Dance music ultimately serves as a tool to understand the nature of Lundayeh people as one of the minor ethnic groups in the world. The understanding of the nature of Lundayeh would further contribute toward sharing and discovering another dimension of human knowledge and wisdom.

TÜRKÇE “GİBİ”, KIRGIZCA “SIYAKTUU” EDATIYLA YAPILAN BAZI BENZETMELERİN KÜLTÜRDİLBİLİM AÇISINDAN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
Muhittin Gümüş
Keyword(s):  
Shape Function ◽  
External World ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Value Judgments ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Turkish Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cultural Linguistics

ÖZET. Milletlerin çok eski zamanlardan bugüne kadar yaşayarak edinmiş oldukları tecrübeler, bilgiler, kazanımlar ve değerler o milletin kültürünü oluşturur. Edinilen değerlerin dil aracılığıyla hayat bulması kültürdilbilim alanı çerçevesinde kültür-dil-insan arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemeye değer bulmuştur. Herhangi bir varlığın şekline, işlevine, görevine, görüntüsüne her toplumda farklı anlam veya dilsel dünya görüşünü yansıtan adlar verilir. Kültür-dil-insan çerçevesinde dil ve kültür ilişkilerinin belli bir disiplin altında incelenmesi ancak kültürdilbilim yoluyla mümkündür. Dilbilim alanına ait kültürdilbilim çalışmalarında ele alınan dilsel dünya görüşü kavramı her bir dilin dolayısıyla toplumun ya da ortak değerlere sahip toplumlarının oluşturduğu milletlerin dünyayı nasıl algılayıp yansıttığını, çevresindeki varlıkların ve kavramların hangi niteliklerini ayırt ettiğini, insanın duygu ve düşüncelerini, değer yargılarını nasıl betimledikleri incelenmektedir. Bu makalede kültürdilbilim çerçevesinde Türkçede “gibi”, Kırgızcada -DAy eki ve “sıyaktuu”, “öndüü” bağlacıyla yapılan benzetmeler ve deyimler Türkçe ile karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmekte, böylelikle iki toplum arasındaki dış dünya algısı arasındaki farklılıklar veya benzerlikler tespit edilecektir. Адам баласы алмустактан бери топтогон маалыматы, турмуштан топтогон тажрыйбасы жана баалуулуктары менен улуттук маданиятын түзгөн. Тилдик каражаттар аркылуу чагылдырылган турмуштук тажрыйбалар улуттук маданият чөлкөмүндө маданият-тил-адам баласы деген чөйрөдө изилдөөгө алынат. Сөз, форма, иш аракет, көрүнүштөр ар бир коомдо ар кандай маанини туюндурган лексикалар менен берилген. Маданият-тил-адам баласы аттуу чөйрөдө тилдик жана маданий байланыштар белгилүү бир тартипте изилдениши бир гана маданияттаануу жолу менен ишке ашат. Тил илимине тиешелүү маданияттаануу илиминде каралган тилдик дүйнө тааным түшүнүгү ар бир тилдин, ошол эле учурда орток баалуулуктарга ээ болгон коомдун дүйнөнү кабыл алышы жана аны чагылдырышы, анын чөйрөнү жана түшүнүктөрдү айырмалаган сапаттарын, адамдын ички уйгу-туйгусун жана түшүнүктөрүн кандай сүрөттөгөнүн изилденет. Бул макалада маданияттаанууда Түрк тилиндеги “gibi” Кыргыз тилиндеги –ДАй мүчөсү, сыяктуу жана өндүү жандоочтор менен бе-рилиши, фразеологиялык каражаттар Түрк тили менен салыштырылып, эки тилдин ортосундагы сырткы дүйнө тааным менен болгон айырмасы жана окшоштуктары аныкталат. The experiences, knowledge, achievements and values that have been gained by nations starting from ancient times and up today constitute the culture of that nation. It has become worthy of examining the relationship between culture-language-human within the frameworks of cultural linguistics. Names are attached to any entity in accordance with its shape, function, tasks, and appearance that reflect different meanings in each society or their linguistic worldview. Analyzing language and culture relations within the scope of a certain discipline in the frameworks of culture-language-human is only possible by means of Cultural Linguistics. The concept of linguistic worldview, which is discussed in cultural-linguistics studies in the field of linguistics, deals with studying how each language and therefore the societies or societies with common values perceive the world and reflect it through the language they use, what qualities of entities and concepts surrounding them they distinguish, how they describe feelings and thoughts of a human being and their value judgments. This paper studies analogies and idioms that are formed by means of preposition “gibi” in the Turkish language and “sıyaktuu” with the suffix –Day in the Kyrgyz language, which are examined in the context of comparative cultural linguistics. Thus, the differences and/or similarities between the perception of external world between the two societies are revealed.

Teilhard De Chardin's Spirituality of the Cross

Horizons ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Robert Faricy
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Theology Of The Cross ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Spiritual Theology ◽  
The World ◽  
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin ◽  
The Cross

AbstractThis article studies the spiritual theology of the cross in the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In Teilhard's books and articles the accent falls on the cross as a symbol of progress. The cross stands for Jesus' positive act of saving the world through his death; it represents, too, Christian life as a sharing in the cross of Jesus through the labor and pain of human progress. In his spiritual notes, however, Teilhard takes a different perspective. His own meditations on the cross center not on the cross as a positive symbol of personal and collective progress through struggle, but rather on death as the ultimate fragmentation, and as an apparent dead end that is the final passage to Jesus Christ.

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