Alexius Meinong's Extraontology

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-234
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Seliverstov ◽  

The notion of Ausersein/outbeing, proposed by Alexius Meinong, was for a long time in the shadow of the principle of the Ausersein of a pure object, which made it possible to make non-existent objects part of a judgment. This principle was adopted by many followers of Meinong within the framework of analytical philosophy, but the very concept of Ausersein was almost totally ignored. When it’s become an object of research, there appeared several interpretations of it. It was interpreted either as a way of describing the ontological status of non-existent objects, or as a basic property of all objects without exception. Dale Jacquette suggests interpreting Ausersein as extraontology, i.e. a metasemantic category that includes all items. In this article, we will analyse the arguments of modern interpreters of this notion and try to find out which interpretation is most correct.

Author(s):  
Ekaterina V. Uskova ◽  

The article analyzes naturalistic theories of consciousness in the framework of analytical philosophy. The choice of these theories is due to the monistic interpretation of consciousness in them. This position seems, on the one hand, to be logically sound, and, on the other hand, to have sufficient explanatory power. However, there are weaknesses in this position, some of which are considered in the article. One of the obvious difficulties for any theory of consciousness, especially the naturalistic one, is the interpretation of qualia or the qualitative scope of our mental states. Scientists are faced with such questions as: «Why does it even exist?» and «What is its practical meaning?» We find possible answers to them in the theories of J. Searle, N. Humphrey, and F. Peters. Each of them agrees that consciousness is generated by the brain, but they differ in the interpretation of its ontological status. Nevertheless, their understanding of the epistemic status of consciousness is similar: correlation of views on consciousness from the position of the 3rd and 1st person is always problematic. At the same time, both consciousness itself and its qualitative scope can and should be explained within the framework of the evolutionary approach. It is obvious that none of the naturalistic theories of consciousness has yet given answers to all questions (if it is even possible), but the search for these answers, in our opinion, should be carried out precisely within this approach.


Author(s):  
Ian Botti

Este artigo aborda o problema da existência de objetos abstratos. O que são objetos tais como números? Eles existem, de fato? Uma terceira questão que surge a partir da lógica moderna é sobre a relação entre quantificação e existência. São apresentadas duas teorias historicamente importantes sobre a ontologia de objetos abstratos e o status ontológico do quantificador, a saber, a concepção quantificacional de existência predominante na filosofia analítica do século 20, e o meinongianismo, a qual ela pretendia responder. Em seguida, apresento as críticas de Branquinho (2015) as duas teorias, bem como o resultado da avaliação de ambas. Por fim, a concepção ficcionista de Mario Bunge (1981; 2010a; 2010b) é proposta como uma alternativa plausível, que concilia aspectos das teorias quantificacional e meinongiana que sobrevivem à crítica de Branquinho com uma visão de mundo materialista e informada pela ciência.   What are concepts? The nature and existence of abstract entities from a materialist point of view Abstract: This article deals with the problem of the existence of abstract objects. What are objects such as numbers? Do they actually exist? A third question that arises from modern logic is about the relation between quantification and existence. Two historically important theories concerning the ontology of abstract objects and the ontological status of the quantifier are presented: first, the quantificational conception of existence, that was predominant in twentieth century analytical philosophy; second, the Meinongian conception, that analytical philosophers stood against. Then, Branquinho’s critical evaluation of both theories is presented, as well as the upshot of it (BRANQUINHO, 2015). Finally, Mario Bunge’s ficcionist conception is proposed as a plausible alternative, which conciliates the aspects of both already mentioned theories that survive Branquinho’s critique with a materialistic and scientifically informed worldview (1981; 2010a; 2010b).


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Nikolai S. Rozov

For a long time discoveries were recognized only in natural sciences. We can talk about “discoveries” in the social sciences only in some other sense. At the same time the accumulation of general theoretical knowledge in economics and sociology is not in doubt. Eleven criteria of “positive knowledge” (respectively, “discoveries” when such knowledge is first acquired) are formulated. Three groups of scientific and philosophical disciplines with similar indicators according to these criteria are distinguished. In philosophy (with the exception of logic and analytical philosophy) it is difficultto talk about discoveries and knowledge due to the lack of agreement regarding any non-trivial judgments with a philosophical level of generality and abstractness. At the same time the development of philosophy is more than the accumulation of ideas as optional opinions. To solve this difficulty the metaphor of “a lock” (obstacles to cognition), “a key” (intellectual means selected and created to obtain reliable knowledge) and “a view” (holistic meaningful image on “opening different doors”) was used. Even if philosophy does not produce full-fledged discoveries and generally accepted knowledge it progressively develops its ideas as heuristic “keys” for scientific research and as “views” that generalize heterogeneous, accumulated scientific knowledge connecting them with changing self-consciousness and values in human generations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-177
Author(s):  
Olga Ramírez Calle ◽  

The present paper deals with the ontological status of numbers and considers Frege´s proposal in Grundlagen upon the background of the Post-Kantian semantic turn in analytical philosophy. Through a more systematic study of his philosophical premises, it comes to unearth a first level paradox that would unset earlier still than it was exposed by Russell. It then studies an alternative path that, departing from Frege’s initial premises, drives to a conception of numbers as synthetic a priori in a more Kantian sense. On this basis, it tentatively explores a possible derivation of basic logical rules on their behalf, suggesting a more rudimentary basis to inferential thinking, which supports reconsidering the difference between logical thinking and AI. Finally, it reflects upon the contributions of this approach to the problem of the a priori.


Author(s):  
M. Iwatsuki ◽  
Y. Kokubo ◽  
Y. Harada ◽  
J. Lehman

In recent years, the electron microscope has been significantly improved in resolution and we can obtain routinely atomic-level high resolution images without any special skill. With this improvement, the structure analysis of organic materials has become one of the interesting targets in the biological and polymer crystal fields.Up to now, X-ray structure analysis has been mainly used for such materials. With this method, however, great effort and a long time are required for specimen preparation because of the need for larger crystals. This method can analyze average crystal structure but is insufficient for interpreting it on the atomic or molecular level. The electron microscopic method for organic materials has not only the advantage of specimen preparation but also the capability of providing various information from extremely small specimen regions, using strong interactions between electrons and the substance. On the other hand, however, this strong interaction has a big disadvantage in high radiation damage.


Author(s):  
YIQUN MA

For a long time, the development of dynamical theory for HEER has been stagnated for several reasons. Although the Bloch wave method is powerful for the understanding of physical insights of electron diffraction, particularly electron transmission diffraction, it is not readily available for the simulation of various surface imperfection in electron reflection diffraction since it is basically a method for bulk materials and perfect surface. When the multislice method due to Cowley & Moodie is used for electron reflection, the “edge effects” stand firmly in the way of reaching a stationary solution for HEER. The multislice method due to Maksym & Beeby is valid only for an 2-D periodic surface.Now, a method for solving stationary solution of HEER for an arbitrary surface is available, which is called the Edge Patching method in Multislice-Only mode (the EPMO method). The analytical basis for this method can be attributed to two important characters of HEER: 1) 2-D dependence of the wave fields and 2) the Picard iteractionlike character of multislice calculation due to Cowley and Moodie in the Bragg case.


Author(s):  
Yimei Zhu ◽  
J. Tafto

The electron holes confined to the CuO2-plane are the charge carriers in high-temperature superconductors, and thus, the distribution of charge plays a key role in determining their superconducting properties. While it has been known for a long time that in principle, electron diffraction at low angles is very sensitive to charge transfer, we, for the first time, show that under a proper TEM imaging condition, it is possible to directly image charge in crystals with a large unit cell. We apply this new way of studying charge distribution to the technologically important Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8+δ superconductors.Charged particles interact with the electrostatic potential, and thus, for small scattering angles, the incident particle sees a nuclei that is screened by the electron cloud. Hence, the scattering amplitude mainly is determined by the net charge of the ion. Comparing with the high Z neutral Bi atom, we note that the scattering amplitude of the hole or an electron is larger at small scattering angles. This is in stark contrast to the displacements which contribute negligibly to the electron diffraction pattern at small angles because of the short g-vectors.


Author(s):  
M. G. Burke ◽  
M. N. Gungor ◽  
M. A. Burke

Intermetallic matrix composites are candidates for ultrahigh temperature service when light weight and high temperature strength and stiffness are required. Recent efforts to produce intermetallic matrix composites have focused on the titanium aluminide (TiAl) system with various ceramic reinforcements. In order to optimize the composition and processing of these composites it is necessary to evaluate the range of structures that can be produced in these materials and to identify the characteristics of the optimum structures. Normally, TiAl materials are difficult to process and, thus, examination of a suitable range of structures would not be feasible. However, plasma processing offers a novel method for producing composites from difficult to process component materials. By melting one or more of the component materials in a plasma and controlling deposition onto a cooled substrate, a range of structures can be produced and the method is highly suited to examining experimental composite systems. Moreover, because plasma processing involves rapid melting and very rapid cooling can be induced in the deposited composite, it is expected that processing method can avoid some of the problems, such as interfacial degradation, that are associated with the relatively long time, high temperature exposures that are induced by conventional processing methods.


Author(s):  
Shailesh R. Sheth ◽  
Jayesh R. Bellare

Specimen support and astigmatism correction in Electron Microscopy are at least two areas in which lacey polymer films find extensive applications. Although their preparation has been studied for a very long time, present techniques still suffer from incomplete release of the film from its substrate and presence of a large number of pseudo holes in the film. Our method ensures complete removal of the entire lacey film from the substrate and fewer pseudo holes by pre-treating the substrate with Gum Arabic, which acts as a film release agent.The method is based on the classical condensation technique for preparing lacey films which is essentially deposition of minute water or ice droplets on the substrate and laying the polymer film over it, so that micro holes are formed corresponding to the droplets. A microscope glass slide (the substrate) is immersed in 2.0% (w/v) aq. CTAB (cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide)-0.22% (w/v) aq.


Author(s):  
K.-H. Herrmann ◽  
W. D. Rau ◽  
R. Sikeler

Quantitative recording of electron patterns and their rapid conversion into digital information is an outstanding goal which the photoplate fails to solve satisfactorily. For a long time, LLL-TV cameras have been used for EM adjustment but due to their inferior pixel number they were never a real alternative to the photoplate. This situation has changed with the availability of scientific grade slow-scan charged coupled devices (CCD) with pixel numbers exceeding 106, photometric accuracy and, by Peltier cooling, both excellent storage and noise figures previously inaccessible in image detection technology. Again the electron image is converted into a photon image fed to the CCD by some light optical transfer link. Subsequently, some technical solutions are discussed using the detection quantum efficiency (DQE), resolution, pixel number and exposure range as figures of merit.A key quantity is the number of electron-hole pairs released in the CCD sensor by a single primary electron (PE) which can be estimated from the energy deposit ΔE in the scintillator,


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