Love as Origin of Science

Summary The approaches to the possibility of theology as science are divided roughly into three types: first, the internalist approach which rejects any attempt to verify the objective validity of revelation under the general concept of science. Second, the externalist approach which demands the verification of objective validity of revelatory truth. Third, the inclusivist approach which seeks the scientificity of theology from a hermeneutic perspective. Outlining the crucial points and limits of these approaches and replacing the question about theology as science with a theological reexamination of the possibility of science in general, this paper tries to suggest an alternative approach by establishing the possibility of scientific knowledge in general from the trinitarian perspective. Under this reformulation of the question, the philosophy of science set forth by Fichte as the most rigorous model of theory of science is critically explored. In conclusion, it is argued that the ultimate ground of all human knowledge and science consists in the eternal divine love and trust in it.

Kuhn and Wittgenstein: The Paradigm Priority Problem, Relativism and Incommensurability

For dropping the incommensurability idea elaborated at the time of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn dismisses the concept of “revolution”. The incommensurability involved the incomparability of theories. In this new environment, the revolution is replaced by conceptual reformulation and the incommensurability becomes occasional. The linguistic turn in Kuhn’s thought involves conceptual changes whose aim is to get around the accusation of relativism that the former notion of incommensurability arouses. The most fundamental effect of these conceptual reformulations is the commitment to a traditional conception of semantics. It changes the comprehension of the historical and social nature of the foundations of the changes that scientific knowledge goes through. The comparison between the answer to the problem of paradigm priority attributed by Kuhn to Wittgenstein and Wittgenstein by himself shows that the basis of the normative nature of paradigm commitment is an essentialist concern. In the second half of this paper, I will evaluate Kuhn’s manner of getting around the problems of incommensurability in contrast to Wittgenstein’s view of philosophy dealing with similar issues in On Certainty. This enables one to essay answers to the problems of incommensurability without relativism or any commitment to a traditional conception of semantics. These contrasts show how far Kuhn’s new theory of science departs from the Wittgensteinian inspiration and abandons the point of view of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The development of these two halves makes it possible to indicate reasons to believe that questions concerning the theory and history of science can benefit largely from a grammatical exploration, which gives rise to a theory of science inspired by Wittgenstein’s thought, as Mauro Condé suggests.

Science and its Grammar: Writing the History of Science through the Lens of the later Wittgenstein

The article aims to demonstrate the possibility of writing the history of science from the later Wittgenstein viewpoint. To accomplish this purpose, it exposes the “theory of history” of Wittgensteinian inspiration, called “grammar of history”. Then it discusses the idea of a Wittgensteinian-inspired “theory of science”, here called “grammar of science”. Finally, based on the interconnections between the grammar of history and the grammar of science previously exposed, some guidelines for writing the history of science from a Wittgensteinian perspective are outlined.

Stimmung/Nastrój as Content of Modern Science: On Musical Metaphors in Ludwik Fleck’s Theory of Thought Styles and Thought Collectives

Thought style and thought collective are two well-known concepts from Ludwik Fleck’s theory of science, which he originally formulated in Polish and German. This paper contends that these two concepts cannot be fully understood without a third—Stimmung/nastrój, which is one of the musical metaphors that play an important role in Fleck’s thinking. Because it is most often translated into English as “mood”, Fleck’s musical metaphors are mostly lost in translation, appearing as mere rhetoric. Only if and when we understand Stimmung/nastrój in the musical meaning of attunement, we can fully understand thought collectives, for which Stimmung/nastrój is sine qua non, and thought style, which appears if and when a collective turns out to be an enduring and not a momentary one.

Research Project Preparation within Education and Special Needs Education: Introduction to Theory of Science, Project Planning and Research Plans

Careful planning is a key to quality research. This anthology is addressed to anyone who is in the planning phase of a major study – individually or in national or international cooperation. The examples discussed concern critical analysis of individually tailored inclusive practices in the community of the class, with a critical view of their successes, shortcomings and obstacles. The book is divided into four parts: Part One contains a discussion of the international concept of the inclusive school and articles on theory of science. Part Two contains historical and empirical discussions of the emergence, development and current state of doctoral programs. Part Three describes development of research plans, while Part Four consists of research plans in a joint international comparative classroom studies project towards inclusion. This is the first of three anthologies related to the international comparative research cooperation project WB 04/06: Development towards the Inclusive School: Practices – Research – Capacity Building.

La noción de ciencia de la cultura en Alfred Schutz según la visión de Lester Embree

El artículo expone la interpretación y ampliación realizada por Embree respecto de las ideas de Schutz sobre las ciencias de la cultura. Se ocupa en primer lugar de las características generales de todas las ciencias de la cultura en su tarea de analizar el mundo de la vida como un mundo intersubjetivo e histórico estructurado de acuerdo con coasociados, contemporáneos, predecesores y sucesores. Luego examina los tres partes constituyentes principales que Embree destaca en cada una de ellas: la definición de la disciplina, sus conceptos básicos y sus reglas de procedimiento. Por último, se consideran los puntos de vista de Embree sobre la relación entre metodología y filosofía. Su tesis es que científicos y filósofos pueden encontrarse en una interacción mutua en el ámbito de la teoría de la ciencia que puede ser a la vez filosófica y científica.The article is a presentation of Embree’s interpretation and development of Alfred ideas on the cultural sciences. It deals first with the general characteristics of all cultural sciences in their task of analyzing the lifeworld as an intersubjective and historical world structured according to consociates, contemporaries, predecessors, and successors. Then it examines the three main constituent parts that Embree highlights in each of them: the definition of the discipline, its basic concepts, and its rules of procedure. Finally, Embree’s views on the relationship between methodology and philosophy are considered. His thesis is that scientists and philosophers can meet in a mutual interplay in the realm of a theory of science that can be both philosophic and scientific.

Bohm`s Quantum Potential Approach to Consciousness from the Perspective of a Four-Valued Logic

Parallel to David Bohm´s development of a realistic interpretation of quantum physics, German philosopher and logician Gotthard Günther worked on a generalization of the classical two-valued logic to satisfy the ontological requirements of quantum physics as well as of cybernetics. Both of these new disciplines introduced information and consciousness into the terminology of science. These terms and concepts need to be reflected in logic, ontology and the theory of science. David Bohm suggested an expansion of his own model by generalization and iteration of the quantum potential to include consciousness and mental states into a new psycho-physical theory. This article proposes Günther´s four-valued logical system of meaning/reflection as a theoretical scientific frame for this expansion of Bohm´s theory and discusses its ontological implications.