The Ethical – A Priori Metaphysics Versus Pragmatism

This paper examines the constant aspiration of special sciences to appropriate abstract categorical concepts in order to break and mould them, so that they become suitable for their theories and analyses of the subject they study. Such pragmatism cannot be ignored as it inevitably accompanies the encounter with any knowledge. But to what extent does it develop such knowledge?!

New functionalism and the social and behavioral sciences

Functionalism about kinds is still the dominant style of thought in the special sciences, like economics, psychology, and biology. Generally construed, functionalism is the view that states or processes can be individuated based on what role they play rather than what they are constituted of or realized by. Recently, Weiskopf (2011a, 2011b) has posited a reformulation of functionalism on the model-based approach to explanation. We refer to this reformulation as ‘new functionalism’. In this paper, we seek to defend new functionalism and to recast it in light of the concrete explanatory aims of the special sciences. In particular, we argue that the assessment of the explanatory legitimacy of a functional kind needs to take into account the explanatory purpose of the model in which the functional kind is employed. We aim at demonstrating this by appealing to model-based explanations from the social and behavioral sciences. Specifically, we focus on preferences and signals as functional kinds. Our argument is intended to have the double impact of deflecting criticisms against new functionalism from the perspective of mechanistic decomposition while also expanding the scope of new functionalism to encompass the social and behavioral sciences.

Smart Toys in Early Childhood and Primary Education: A Systematic Review of Technological and Educational Affordances

The present paper presents a systematic review of the last 30 years that concerns records on Smart Toys and focuses on toys regarding early childhood and primary education children (3–12 years old). This paper aims to analyse and categorise smart toys (50 articles) in terms of their technological and educational affordances. The results show that the toys are designed based on four main technological affordances and their combinations. The educational affordances of smart toys are studied in terms of different use modes and their learning objectives aimed to identify specific objectives in different subjects and objectives based on transversal competencies such as problem solving, spatial thinking, computational thinking, collaboration and symbolic thinking. Finally, with the multiple correspondence analysis, the correlations between smart toys’ individual technological and educational affordances are grouped with the evolution of affordances related to their development date. In conclusion, in recent years, smart toys concern special sciences (programming) and some 21st-century skills (STEM and computational thinking). In contrast, in the first 20 years, the interest focused more on transverse skills, such as collaboration, emotional thinking, symbolic thinking, story-telling and problem solving.

ON THE NEED FOR STRENGTHENING THE PHILOSOPHICAL TRAINING OF YOUNG SCIENTISTS AT A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Изучение философии и методологии науки, философских проблем специальных наук магистрантами, аспирантами, молодыми учеными в техническом вузе - важная часть их теоретико-методологической, общенаучной подготовки. Специальные научные знания, получаемые студентами в техническом вузе, исследования, проводимые учеными, в том числе и молодыми, должны осмысливаться как в контексте широкого социокультурного, так и в конкретно-научном диапазоне. Очень важно, чтобы в этом контексте молодой ученый - аспирант, ассистент, избравший научный путь развития, освоил рациональные и эмпирические способы, методы исследования. Это возможно в том случае, если повысить уровень теоретико-методологической подготовки будущих специалистов, инженеров, молодых ученых. The study of philosophy and methodology of science, philosophical problems of special sciences by undergraduates, graduate students, and young scientists at a technical university is an important part of their theoretical, methodological, general scientific training. Special scientific knowledge obtained by students in a technical university, research carried out by scientists, including young people, should be comprehended both in the context of a wide socio-cultural and in a specific scientific range. It is very important that in this context a young scientist - graduate student, assistant, who has chosen the scientific path of development, mastered rational and empirical methods, research methods. This is possible if the level of theoretical and methodological training of future specialists, engineers, and young scientists is raised.

About the Status of Law Norms

This article analyzes the problem of recommendatory norms in Russian literature, both Soviet and modern, which is solved ambiguously. As for Soviet theoretical scientists, recommendation norms were the subject of study by such authors as Nikolai Grigorievich Alexandrov, Alexander Filippovich Shebanov, Peter Yemelyanovich Nedbailo, Vladimir Srgeevich Petrov, Valery Evaldovich Krasnyansky. Viktor Mikhailovich Gorshenev, Cecilia Abramovna Yampolskaya, Vladimir Matveevich Solyanik, Viktor Lavrenievich Kulapov, whose scientific works are given below. Regarding modern legal literature, unfortunately, we have to state that, basically, with rare exceptions (scientific articles by Vladimir Valentinovich Kozhevnikov, Alexander Evgenievich Kondratyev, Sadri Salikhovich Kuzakbirdiev), this problem is considered only in educational literature. When preparing a scientific article, the following methods were used: general philosophical (dialectical-materialistic), which is used in all social sciences; general scientific (analysis and synthesis, logical and historical, comparisons, abstractions, etc.), which are used not only by the theory of state and law, but also by other social sciences; special methods (philological, cybernetic, psychological, etc.), developed by special sciences and widely used for the knowledge of state and legal phenomena; private scientific (formal legal, interpretation of law, etc.), which are developed by the theory of state and law. Soviet scientists - legal theorists: supporters and opponents of the recognition of recommendatory norms of law. From the point of view of scientists, a "recommendatory" -containing recommendation, i.e. advice, wish [1], instruction [2].

Posidonius

Posidonius of Apamea (135–c. 51 bce), Stoic philosopher, scientist, and historian, was one of the foremost intellectuals of his day. Born in Apamea, a Greek city in northwestern Syria, he came to Athens as a young man to study with Panaetius of Rhodes, then head of the Stoa. After his studies Posidonius took up residence in Rhodes, where he taught philosophy, wrote a large number of treatises, and was visited by prominent Romans, notably Cicero and Pompey. Having acquired Rhodian citizenship, he held high public office and took part in at least one embassy to Rome (87–86 bce). In the 90s he traveled extensively in the Mediterranean world, studying the geography of its various regions and the habits and customs of its peoples. Of his many treatises none has survived. Until well into the last century the fragmentary and indirect state of the evidence led to divergent reconstructions of his thought, giving rise to the “Posidonian question” (see further commentary section under Fragment Collections). Today, there is a growing consensus that Posidonius by and large stayed within the philosophical framework he had inherited from his predecessors in the Stoic school: Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and Panaetius. Even so, Panaetius and Posidonius are often referred to as the two main representatives of a phase in the history of Stoicism called Middle Stoicism, a term coined by the 19th-century German scholar Schmekel (Schmekel 1892, cited under Comprehensive Accounts). The underlying assumption is that they made significant adaptations to Stoicism, in particular by introducing Platonic and Aristotelian notions, e.g., in moral psychology. The extent to which they did has often been exaggerated and the motivation behind their references to Plato misunderstood. At the same time there is much that remains uncertain and controversial. What does seem certain is that Posidonius, in psychological analysis as elsewhere, insisted on the exploration of causes, going beyond the point where predecessors like Chrysippus believed this was needed or possible. Another feature that sets him apart from his fellow Stoics is that he undertook the study of history, geography, ethnography, geology, meteorology, astronomy, medicine and, not least, mathematics. He saw these “special sciences” as instrumental and subordinate but also indispensable to philosophy. His wide-ranging interests provided him with many opportunities to elaborate upon Stoic concepts and doctrines. He was one of the most important Stoics of antiquity.

The Role Of Integration In Teaching Foreign Languages In Medical Institutes

This article presents examples and suggestions for the integration of foreign language science taught in medical universities, along with special sciences and Latin classes, which will help medical students in the future to become mature and comprehensively educated. Integrating the disciplines, it opens up a wide path for students to understand the meaning of terms widely used in medicine in foreign languages, as well as to discuss with employees of mature medical institutions around the world the symptoms of diseases, methods of their treatment, books published in foreign languages, articles in the field of medicine without difficulties.

On the Category of “Vital Activity” of a Person

According to their content, the substantive concepts of “nature” and “essence” in relation to a person in the functional aspect are revealed in the categories of “vital activity”, which has operational capabilities, that is, the ability to become a tool for a specific study of the process of human existence. It is shown that the restriction of the study of human life activity only by the sociological approach prevents the creation of a general theory of the human way of life, which, in turn, makes it possible to synthesize conceptual schemes of various aspects of life activity developed by special sciences. It is emphasized that it is not enough to analyze the ratio of social and physiological factors of a person, to refer only to his biological nature as a prerequisite for social, since this overlooks the relationship and interdependence of the natural and social aspects of the process of human existence. This connection can be revealed only by examining the process of functioning of the universal nature of man, that is, his vital activity.

Key issues and questions

Both the special sciences and ordinary experience suggest that there is metaphysical emergence, whereby there are macro-entities which materially depend on lower-level configurations, but which are also distinct from and distinctively efficacious as compared to these configurations. Such appearances give rise to two key questions. First, what is metaphysical emergence, more precisely? Second, is there actually any metaphysical emergence? Wilson registers the aim of providing clear, compelling, systematic answers to these questions; she discusses the overall strategy and associated plan for the book; and she surveys certain operative notions, including those of the physical, levels, the fundamental, causes and powers, and methodology.

Metaphysical Emergence

The special sciences and ordinary experience present us with a world of macro-entities trees, birds, lakes, mountains, humans, houses, and sculptures, to name a few which materially depend on lower-level configurations, but which are also distinct from and distinctively efficacious as compared to these configurations. Such appearances give rise to two key questions. First, what is metaphysical emergence, more precisely? Second, is there actually any metaphysical emergence? In Metaphysical Emergence, Jessica Wilson provides clear, compelling, and systematic answers to these questions. Wilson argues that there are two and only two forms of metaphysical emergence making sense of the target cases: ‘Weak’ emergence, whereby a macro-entity or feature has a proper subset of the powers of its base-level configuration, and ‘Strong’ emergence, whereby a macro-entity or feature has a new power as compared to its base-level configuration. Weak emergence unifies and accommodates diverse accounts of realization (e.g., in terms of functional roles, constitutive mechanisms, and parthood) associated with varieties of nonreductive physicalism, whereas Strong emergence unifies and accommodates anti-physicalist views according to which there may be fundamentally novel features, forces, interactions, or laws at higher levels of compositional complexity. After defending each form of emergence against various objections, Wilson considers whether complex systems, ordinary objects, consciousness, and free will are actually either Weakly or Strongly metaphysically emergent. She argues that Weak emergence is quite common, and that Strong emergence, while in most cases at best an open empirical possibility, is instantiated for the important case of free will.