scholarly journals The importance of thought experiments

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Dragana Ćorić
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Human Response ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

Living in the world of legal norms seems to be easy: you have rules of conduct guiding you how to behave in a lot of life situations including the fact what will happen to you if you do not obey these rules. In a way, legal norms are predicting the future giving us the guidelines for living. Although the legal system together with its rules tend to cover all areas of social life, there are situations that couldn't be foreseen at the time of making a particular regulation. These gaps could be spanned by adopting subsequent rules of conduct. In order to predict an event that may occur, and to predict human behavior in these situations as well as a human response to punishment when someone violates a rule, it is good to conduct a thought experiment. The basis of a thought experiment can be a completely fictitious and even currently impossible event, or a variation of some of the known and possible events. The key question when formulating a thought experiment is "what if ". The answers to this question may start with "then it is possible", "then it will be", "it could be" or something similar. The answers will differ in terms of content only on the basis of the values, beliefs and attitudes of the one who answers the "what if" question. In our paper, we will briefly present the concept of a thought experiment, its internal structure, types and, by giving some examples, encourage readers to be more informed about this topic.

scholarly journals BANS IN FUNERAL AND MEMOTIAL CUSTOMS AND RITUALS OF THE CHUVASHS

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-167
Author(s):  
Игорь Георгиевич Петров
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Other World ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
The One ◽  
Ceremonial Life ◽  
Religious Nature

Одним из интересных и мало изученных источников для изучения традиционных представлений чувашского народа являются запреты (табу). По мнению чувашских лингвистов и фольклористов, они относятся к малым жанрам чувашского фольклора и являют собой отдельный вид афористических устно-поэтических произведений. Им свойственны четкая языковая форма построения, логичность, поучительная направленность, неукоснительность исполнения. Зародившись в глубокой древности, запреты служили одной из форм регулирования поведения человека в обществе. Они регламентировали повседневную жизнь, хозяйственные занятия, промыслы и ремесла, пищу, религиозные верования, поведение, этикет, язык, культуру речи и т. д. Особое место они занимали в обрядовой жизни, в том числе в обычаях и обрядах, связанных с проводами человека в последний путь. Целью настоящего исследования является определение роли и значения запретов в регулировании поведения людей и членов общины в рамках похоронно-поминальных обычаев и обрядов чувашей Урало-Поволжья. В исследовании запреты рассмотрены в соответствии с основными этапами похоронно-поминального обряда (подготовка к похоронам и охрана покойника; обмывание; проводы в последний путь; погребение; поминки). Работа основана на литературных, архивных и полевых материалах автора. При разработке указанной темы автор руководствовался одним из методологических принципов, в соответствии с которым система запретов понимается как часть социо-нормативной культуры народа, регулирующая поведение человека в повседневности и в религиозно-обрядовых практиках. В обоих случаях запреты имеют религиозную природу и выступают своеобразным императивом в процессе социальной жизни человека. Исследование показало, что запреты в контексте похоронно-поминальных обрядов определяли место, время, порядок проведения ритуала и регламентировали поведение участников. В запретах и предписаниях данного вида обряда проявляется двойственное отношение к умершему. С одной стороны, в них просматривается суеверный страх членов социума перед покойником и смертью, с другой — стремление умилостивить его и как можно скорее проводить в потусторонний мир. Благодаря соблюдению этих запретов происходило поэтапное вычленение покойника из мира культуры и социума, а также «перемещение» в мир предков. One of the interesting and little-studied sources for studying the traditional ideas of the Chuvash people are prohibitions (taboos). According to Chuvash linguists and folklorists, they belong to small genres of Chuvash folklore and are a separate type of aphoristic oral-poetic works. They are characterized by a clear linguistic form of construction, logic, instructive orientation, rigor of execution. Originating in ancient times, prohibitions served as one of the forms of regulating human behavior in society. They regulated daily life, household occupations, crafts and crafts, food, religious beliefs, behavior, etiquette, language, culture of speech, etc. They occupied a special place in ceremonial life, including in customs and rituals associated with sending a person on his last journey. The purpose of this study is to determine the role and significance of prohibitions in regulating the behavior of people and members of the community within the framework of funeral and memorial customs and rituals of the Chuvash of the Ural-Volga region. In the study, the prohibitions are considered in accordance with the main stages of the funeral and memorial rite (preparation for the funeral and protection of the deceased; washing; seeing off on the last journey; burial; wake). The work is based on the author's literary, archival and field materials. When developing this topic, the author was guided by one of the methodological principles, according to which the system of prohibitions is understood as part of the socio-normative culture of the people, regulating human behavior in everyday life and in religious and ceremonial practices. In both cases, prohibitions have a religious nature and act as a kind of imperative in the process of human social life. The study showed that prohibitions in the context of funeral and memorial rites determined the place, time, order of the ritual and regulated the behavior of participants. In the prohibitions and prescriptions of this type of rite, an ambivalent attitude towards the deceased is manifested. On the one hand, they show the superstitious fear of the members of society before the deceased and death, on the other — the desire to propitiate him and as soon as possible to conduct him to the other world. Due to the observance of these prohibitions, the deceased was gradually isolated from the world of culture and society, as well as “moving” into the world of ancestors.

Thought Experiments

Philosophy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Robert Brown ◽  
Michael T. Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Thought Experiment ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Widespread Agreement ◽  
The World ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Insight Into

Thought experiments are performed in the imagination. We set up some situation, we observe what happens, then we try to draw appropriate conclusions. In this way, thought experiments resemble real experiments, except that they are experiments in the mind. The terms “thought experiment,” “imaginary experiment,” and “Gedankenexperiment” are used interchangeably. There is no consensus on a definition, but there is widespread agreement on which are standard examples. It is also widely agreed that they play a central role in a number of fields, especially physics and philosophy. There are several important questions about thought experiments that naturally arise, including what kinds of thought experiments there are, what roles they play, and how, if at all, they work. This last question has been the focus of much of the literature: How can we learn something new about the world just by thinking? Answers range from “We don’t really learn anything new” to “We have some sort of a priori insight into how nature works.” In between there are a great variety of rival alternative accounts. There is still no consensus; debate is wide open on almost every question pertaining to thought experiments.

Are Thought Experiments Just What You Thought?

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Norton
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Original Intent ◽  
The World

Whatever the original intent, the introduction of the term ‘thought experiment’ has proved to be one of the great public relations coups of science writing. For generations of readers of scientific literature, the term has planted the seed of hope that the fragment of text they have just read is more than mundane. Because it was a thought experiment, does it not tap into that infallible font of all wisdom in empiricist science, the experiment? And because it was conducted in thought, does it not miraculously escape the need for the elaborate laboratories and bloated budgets of experimental science?These questions in effect pose the epistemological problem of thought experiments in the sciences:Thought experiments are supposed to give us information about our physical world. From where can this information come?One enticing response to the problem is to imagine that thought experiments draw from some special source of knowledge of the world that transcends our ordinary epistemic resources.

scholarly journals ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Eleonora Melnik
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Environmental Knowledge ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Nature Preservation ◽  
The One

Realizing existing environmental problems the contemporary humanity is seeking new ways of interaction with environment. On the one hand it lies in development of innovative technologies in manufacturing process which reserve natural resources and focus on en-hancement of environment. On the other hand it implies introduction of environmental knowledge into all spheres of education. Psychological science claims that a person of postindustrial society is spiritually distanced from nature and the increasing formal religiosity doesn’t prevent them from developing a pragmatic view on their being. Striving to take every-thing from life “right now and right here” has made an impact on development of values. They have changed for the worse. The process of human mentality change is long-term. It requires organization of special institutions which would study these issues from the early childhood to make a child understand the role of environment as the most important value needed for preserving the life on the Earth. That is why it is very important for children to want and for teachers to able to carry out this process jointly. World viewing component of environmental education is intended to find out human’s belonging to the world – whether a person is “in” the world, “out” of world or “above” the world – and to organize the system of knowledge which would correspond to this understanding of human’s place in the world where environment would act as the main value of life and work. It is significant to change the character of relationships between the contemporary society and the environment; it should be developed on the basis of such principles as subordination, coordination and corre-lation. It is necessary to research the order of interrelations, the character of interrelation of elements and transformation of elements in the environment. Supporting the statement that knowledge is the basis of any education we claim that the content of environmental educa-tion being a part of general education with its complex and integrated character can provide comprehensive study of the environment to students. Nature, human being and society - bio-logical and social – genetic unity of existence should be reflected in education standards: pro-grammes, study-books, methodological literature, etc. The content of education determines the form of training: traditional lessons, outdoor training, excursions, research and project activity of students. Environmental education should have lifelong character: from childhood till elderly. Continuity of education – from the past to the present and future- should be im-plemented in the sphere of knowledge as well as in the sphere of traditional relationships with nature and people. It is also reasonable to consider such characteristics as direct results of educational activity – knowledge, skills, experience, kinds of activity and achievements; and indirect results – changes in social life of humans, their behavior and relationships with nature and people. On the whole the analysis of the problem of environmental education in Russia shows that the interest of young people to natural science is on the same level of that in other Euro-pean countries and it is not high. However as a result of reforms of secondary and higher edu-cation the natural science subjects have become electives. It can be expected that low level of interest to such subjects as physics, chemistry and biology will turn into decrease of number of those who would like to get knowledge of these subjects. Considering the demographic sit-uation in the country we can predict decline of teaching load, absence of demand for such teachers and, at the end, loss of pedagogical staff in schools and universities. That is why mentioned above projects on upgrading environmental education with the goal to improve the environmental situation in the country and nature preservation remain in the status of scientific projects. That is to say that there is an understanding of the necessity to improve education for better life in the country but now it is still on the stage of formal declaration. Key words: environmental education, environmental knowledge, values of life.

scholarly journals Modernitetens modsigelser. Konfigurationskonflikter og samfundstænkning i Grundtvigs »Om Mennesket i Verden«

1998 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
Henning Eichberg
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Contradictions of Modernity. Conflicting Configurations and Societal Thinking in Grundtvig's »The Human Being in the World«A Worm - a God. About the Human Being in the World. Ove Korsgaard (ed.). With contributions of Niels Buur Hansen, Hans Hauge, Bosse Bergstedt, Uffe Jonas and Knud Bjarne Gjesing. Odense Universitetsforlag 1997.By Henning EichbergIn 1817, Grundtvig wrote »Om Mennesket i Verden« which can be regarded as a key to the understanding of his philosophy and psychology, but which is difficult to place in relation to his later folkelig, societal engagement. A recent reedition of this text together with some actual comments by Grundtvig researchers is an occasion to quest deeper about this relation.However, it is not enough to ask - as Grundtvig research has done for a long time - what Grundtvig wanted to say, but his text can be regarded as a document of how modem orientation in the world is characterized by conflicting linguistic and metaphorical patterns, which sometimes may tell another story than intended.On the one hand, Grundtvig's text speaks of a lot of dualistic contradictions such as life vs. death, light vs. darkness, truth vs. lie, God vs. devil, human fall vs. resurrection, body vs. spirit, nature vs. history and time vs. eternity. In contrast to the author's intention to produce clarity and lucidity - whether in the spirit of Christianity or of modem rationality - the binary constructions give rather a confusing picture of systematical disorder where polarity and polemics are mixed, antagonism and gradual order, dichotomy and exclusive either-or, paradoxes and dialectical contradictions. On the other hand,Grundtvig tries again and again to build up three-pole imaginations as for instance the threefold human relation to time, space and truth and the three ages of spiritual seeing, feeling and conceptualization resp. of mythology (childhood), theology (youth) and history (adult age). The main history, Grundtvig wants to tell in his text, is built up around the trialectic relation of the human being to the body, to the spirit and to itself, to the living soul.The most difficult to understand in this relation seems to be what Grundtvig calls the spirit, Aanden. Grundtvig describes it as Aandigt Samfund mellem Menneske og Sandhed, »the spiritual community between the human being and the truth«, and this may direct our attention towards samfund, meaning at the same time association, togetherness and society. Aanden is described by threefold effects - will, conscience and faith, all of them describing social relations between human beings resp. their psychological correlate. The same social undertone is true when Grundtvig characterizes three Aande-Livets Spor (»traces of spiritual life«): the word, the history and love. If »the spirit« represents what is larger or »higher« than the single human being and what cannot be touched by his or her hand, then this definition fits exactly to society or the sociality of the human being. Social life - whether understood as culture, social identity or folk (people) - is not only a quantitative sum of human individuals, but represents another quality of natural order. Thus it has its logic that Grundtvig places the human being in between the realms of minerals, plant and animal life on the one hand and the »higher« order on the other, which can be understood as the social existence.In this respect, the societal dimension is not at all absent in his philosophy of 1817. However, it is not enough to state the implicite presence of sociality as such in the earlier Grundtvigian thinking before his folkelig break-through. What was the sociality, more concretely, which Grundtvig experienced during the early modernity? In general, highly dichotomous concepts are dominating the modem discourse as capitalism vs. feudalism, materialism vs. idealism, modernity vs. premodemity, democracy vs. absolutism or revolution vs. restoration; Grundtvig was always difficult to place into these patterns. Again, it might be helpful to try a trialectical approach, transcending the dualism of state and market by civil society as a third field of social action. Indeed, it was civil society with its farmers' anarchist undertones which became the contents of Grundtvig's later folk engagement.

scholarly journals SOSIAL CONTROL : SIFAT DAN SANKSI SEBAGAI SARANA KONTROL SOSIAL

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Bagus Sudharma Putra
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Norms And Values

<p>Society in social life always there is a means in the form of control or control to regulate the various behavior or behavior anngota social group, It means that human behavior should be limited by the rules so that humans can know what to do and actions that should not be done. Behavior that is governed means a limit of values ??and norms deviant and antisocial. Con- versely, the behaviors that are ordered mean that they contain values ??and norms that are komformis. Prevention or handling efforts for the community not to violate the rules, then within the community group must have a set of values ??and norms is none other than to prevent or reduce the violation of the rules. This is called the form of social control. When looking at the function of social control that applies to the life of the community, is to develop a fear that someone not to do acts that are not in accordance with the values ??and norms that apply, and provide compensation for people who comply with the values ??and norms -the prevailing norms so as to reinforce a sense of confidence in society that the value is supposed to be adhered to for the life of society towards the better. And able to create a legal system (the rules are formally formulated with the sanctions contained in it). From these limitations, it can be interpreted that social control is a designed or not designed and controlled means and process aimed at engag- ing, educating, and even forcing citizens to comply with prevailing social norms and values.</p>

scholarly journals Thought Experiments in Philosophy of Religion: The Virtues of Phenomenological Realism and Values

Open Theology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Taliaferro ◽  
Elliot Knuths
Keyword(s):  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Iris Murdoch ◽  
Van Inwagen ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Peter Van Inwagen ◽  
The World ◽  
Phenomenological Realism

AbstractWe present a criterion for the use of thought experiments as a guide to possibilia that bear on important arguments in philosophy of religion. We propose that the more successful thought experiments are closer to the world in terms of phenomenological realism and the values they are intended to track. This proposal is filled out by comparing thought experiments of life after death by Peter van Inwagen and Dean Zimmerman with an idealist thought experiment. In terms of realism and values we contrast an exemplary thought experiment by Iris Murdoch with one we find problematic by William Irwin.

scholarly journals Earthlearningidea: promoting deep questioning in lab and field

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-270
Author(s):  
Chris King ◽  
Peter Kennett ◽  
Elizabeth Devon
Keyword(s):  
Solid Rock ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Physical Models ◽  
Outdoor Activities ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Teaching Ideas ◽  
Powerful Strategy

The Earthlearningidea website (www.earthlearningidea.com) launched in 2008 as part of the International Year of Planet Earth, publishes geoscience teaching ideas online as free-to-download pdfs. The website publishes a new idea every two weeks, so that more than 280 ideas have now appeared in English. Translators around the world kindly offered to translate the ideas into their own languages and more than 900 translations can now be accessed through the website. So far, nearly 3.5 million pdfs of the ideas have been downloaded across the world at a mean rate of more than 40,000 per month. The activi-ties have been used in teacher training in a number of countries, as recorded in the Earthlearningidea blog at http://earthlearningidea.blogspot.co.uk/. An analysis was published in 2016 of the different approaches used in the ideas pub-lished to that date. The analysis (n=250) showed that some ideas covered several of categories, and that overall coverage was: basic skills, 4%; observation, 16%; illustration 39%; investigation, 10%; diagrammatic models, 5%; physical models, 44%; thought experiments, 13% and unattributed, 12%. The thought experiments were deliberately focused on promoting deep un-derstanding through deep questioning in the lab and field. They include examples such as: ‘Earthquake through the window - what would you see, what would you feel?: asking pupils to picture for themselves what an earthquake through the window might look like’; ‘Sand on a sill: What will happen to a sand grain left on a window sill? – a rock cycle discussion’; ‘From clay balls to the structure of the Earth: a discussion of how physics can be used to probe Earth’s structure’; ‘Is there life in this soil sample? - questions to consolidate pupil understanding of soil-formation’; ‘The ‘What could hurt you here?’ ap-proach to field safety - teaching how to keep safe during fieldwork and other outdoor activities’; ‘What was it like to be there – in the rocky world? – bringing the formation of solid rock to life by imagining yourself there when it formed’; ‘Fieldwork: the ‘All powerful’ strategy – discussing geological histories in imaginative ways’ and ‘Fieldwork – interactive re-creation: ac-tivities using simple transportable apparatus to simulate features in the field’. Two of these Earthlearningidea activities are given in full, as examples of the Earthlearningidea approach in general, and the use of the ‘thought experiment’ ideas to gen-erate deep questioning and discussion in the lab and field, in particular.

scholarly journals (Black) Non-Analysis: From the Restrained Unconscious to the Generalized Unconscious

Labyrinth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Nicholas Eppert
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Social Death ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Opening Up

This paper is a contribution to the ongoing studies revolving around the fields of Afro-Pessimism and Non-Philosophy. It is focused mostly on a short essay that Francois Laruelle wrote in 1989 called "The Concept of Generalized Analysis or 'Non-Analysis" that eventually became part of a larger work called Theorie des Etrangers, while also drawing on the latter for support. The focus is set not in terms of exegesis or commentary but in tandem with the work of Frank Wilderson III to borrow from both of their works and formulate a move from the "White restrained Unconscious" to the "(Black) generalized Unconscious". In the first section I articulate Laruelle and Wilderson's critiques of the common-sense image of the Unconscious. And in the second section I make the move from the White restrained Unconscious to the (Black) generalized Unconscious by arguing that the former is embedded within a metaphysical sovereignty of desires that excludes (Black) desires. The "White restrained Unconscious" is constituted by what Laruelle calls a "half loss" or a loss which loses itself. For this reason the (Black) generalized Unconscious cannot appear within it, for it is an absolute loss, or what Laruelle calls the Joui-sans-Jouissance. The White generalized Unconsicous blocks (Black) loss out by a transference mechanism. The opening up of the White restrained Unconscious to the (Black) generalized Unconscious which is its Identity in the last instance can only be done by "ending the World". Using Jared Sexton's notion of the "social life of social death" I show that this desire to end the world allows for a seeing from perspective of the "One" which is the subject position of the (Black) Non-Analyst and allows for a dualysis of the desires of the White restrained Unconscious.  

scholarly journals MEMILIH PEMIMPIN DALAM PRAKTIK KEPEMIMPINAN ORGANISASI SEKOLAH DI ERA GLOBAL

INFORMASI ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunarta Sunarta
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Social Life ◽  
School Organization ◽  
School Management ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

The leader and leadership courses have produced many hypotheses which haven’t been solved from time to time. With regard to the demands of the globalization era recently, the successful organizations are those which are ruled by figures who have comparative and competitiveness strengths in many fields. In educational context, a leadership can be seen from the practice of school management starting from the basic educational level to the higher one. Educational leadership in the practice of school management expects that the one who plays roles and mandated as a leader must have specific requirements of a leader. Social life in the globalization era has changed the mindsets and views of the people in the world at any level. This influences the awareness of striking for their personal and social rights in the organization. A leader is someone or subject that leads as leadership manifestation such as authority, responsibility, commands, and delegation to the subordinates in an organization. Meanwhile a leadership is an art of persuading, directing people through obedience, belief, respect, and cooperation based on enthusiasm to meet the goals, A Dale Timpe, (1987). In order to give influence to the development of the organization, there are four leadership aspects that should be developed, such as (1) follower, (2) situation (3) communication and (4) leader.   Key words: leader, leadership, school organization, globalization era.

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