Guarding Thought against Self-Destruction. Contradiction and Identity in Cohen and Hegel

Hermann Cohen's Logic of Pure Knowledge and G. W. F. Hegel's Science of Logic each use in their way the means of thought of negation and contradiction to unfold the philosophical dynamic: a fragile interplay between self-endangerment and self-preservation of thought. Here, the proximity and difference of the two authors are extended. The proximity lies in methodological negativism. The difference is in the significance of the principle of continuity. According to Cohen and Hegel as well, thinking proceeds exclusively, as Kant called it, synthetically. The exclusion of contradiction, limited to analytical judgments, has only marginal significance. But the commonality does not eliminate the differences. As Hegel puts it, contradiction is a principle of mediation and finally results in "self-dissolution"; it carries within itself a direction of logical "reconciliation." Per Cohen, contradiction is a principle of "annihilation" (annihilatio) of approaches to a determination that threatens any form of "identity." The turn Hegel put in contradiction itself, regarding in it a unity of positivity and negativity, has no direct counterpart in Cohen. Nevertheless, for him, too, the "judgment of contradiction" becomes the active basis of all cognitive thought. By exercising a contradiction-destroying "activity," the judgment of contradiction "protects," indeed "generates," the real possibility of cognition. The annihilation of the non-identical sets free the fundamental "judgment of origin" with which cognition finds its beginning. The principle of continuity taken over from Leibniz corresponds to it. Just this principle has now again no direct correspondence with Hegel.

Breadth, ‘National Needs’, and Reimagining the Role of the University in Society

A persistent critique of university histories is their lack of consideration for the influence of external forces. How did the political and societal pressures of the 1960s inform understandings of the contributions that students and universities should make to society? This article investigates how pressures that the universities contribute to the ‘national need’ informed the design of studies and the built environment at the University of Warwick. Vice-Chancellor of Warwick ‘Jack’ Butterworth in 1970 found himself and his university criticised for permitting an ‘oligarchy of industrialists,’ to subjugate the university and force it to mass-produce ‘capitalistic,’ managers. For Butterworth this was no coup but a reorientation of the purpose of a university towards public needs. At Warwick, a new university was imagined. Its environment and teaching programme stressed ‘breadth’ and spontaneity so that it might produce students armed with ‘pure’ knowledge to be ‘applied’ to practical issues of the day, particularly those found in industry. The nation needed such broad-minded, productive graduates in order to engender the prosperous liberal society. This educational philosophy is identifiable in Butterworth’s proposals for his business school, Warwick’s foiled attempt to merge with the local college of technology, and its unsuccessful early designs for halls of residence.

Brahma Sutra and Vedadikara Nirupanam (Authoritarian Critique of Vedas)

The Vedas are one of the oldest manuscripts in the world literature. The word Veda is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘vid’ which means knowledge, but it could be attributed as a bundle of knowledge of the Vedic period. All the Indian chronicles and myths extol the Vedas. There is not even a single mantra anywhere in the sacred text repudiating anyone the right to become versed in Vedas but the authority to study and teach the Vedas abounding with knowledge, has been interpreted as the right of a monopolized community gradually. Prominent social reformers like Dayananda Saraswati and Swami Vivekananda who visited India in the late 19th century argued that everyone has the right to study the Vedas. Meanwhile, Chattambi Swami wrote Vedadhikara Nirupanam, proclaiming that the right to study Veda belongs to everyone in Kerala. In this book, Chattambi Swami analyses extensively the question of who is qualified to study the Vedas and has explicitly established that everyone who has the desire to study the Vedas and the customs in rapport with it are eligible for the study. The dissension created by this work was tremendous during the time when the elite castes and scholars of the society strongly believed and argued that only Brahmins had the dominion to study the Vedas. Vyaptheshcha Samajasam is elaborated in the Brahma Sutras as follows. Para brahma swaroopi, Parameswaran (Lord Shiva) is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient and absolute. On account of this, it is equitable to say that even if there is a disparity in the name or context of the theosophical form of knowledge, the objective serves as the same. The purpose of all techniques is to illustrate the essence of God in copious ways. They all have similarities in it. Therefore every theosophy is analogous. After reflecting the Vedic forms and significance of the Vedas, Chattambi Swami encompasses the principles of Shruti(what is heard), Yukti(logic) and Anubhavam (experience) and depicts his own perceptions. Similarly, Swami meticulously discusses who is a Brahmin. For instance, Swami examines whether any of these qualities like pure knowledge, birth, noble action and self knowledge make a person a Brahmin or a combination of all these. From this discussion it is implicit that a Brahmin is only one who has wisdom and associated noble deeds. The dogma that the Shudrascannot be educated ‘nasthrishudrau vedamathiyatham’, this verse is neither a Veda nor a Smriti, it is just a sutra (aphorism).It is not accepted or studied anywhere in Shruti (what is heard) Smriti (what is recollected) mythological texts. Therefore, it does not have to be accepted as a doctrine. The verse means that women and Shudras need not have to study but it cannot be interpreted that they are incapable to learn. Even if it is argued that Shudras (lowest ranked of the four varnas of Hindu caste system) have no authority to study the Puranas, many of the authors of the Puranas are Shudras. The veracity of the matter cannot be denied. Most people know that the author of the Suta Samhita is also a Shudra. Ergo, the eminence of that book cannot be deemed as inferior. Parasaran, the son of Odakkari, and Vyasa, the son of Mukuvathi (fisherwoman) compiled the Vedas and were also Brahmins.

Knowing as Holistic Experience: A Challenge to Plato from Jungian Sandplay

Plato’s suggestion that pure knowledge, described in his theory of Forms as the archetypal basis of reality, is questioned using the sequence from the key session of a Jungian Sandplay therapy case as an example of direct human experience of the archetype. As was recognized by Jung, a parallel may be drawn between Jungian archetypes and Platonic Forms in that both are primary structures contained and manifested in the phenomenal world. In Sandplay, a patient unable to transcend her quandary through reason is able to find relief from the tension of the arguing opposites within her when she creates an image with her hands, in a state of reverie, responding to an internal impetus governed not by reason alone but by spontaneous, nonverbal sensory experience. The image she creates in this way brings her into a deep relationship with herself and marks the beginning of a newly forming selfconfidence that guides her. This example illustrates the holistic nature of human experience and change processes, in therapy or in any learning context.

Cohen’s Logik der reinen Erkenntnis and Cassirer’s Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff

This paper compares Cohen’s Logic of Pure Knowledge and Cassirer’s Substance and Function in order to evaluate how in these works Cohen and Cassirer go beyond the limits established by Kantian philosophy. In his Logic, Cohen seeks to ground in pure thought all the elements which Kant distinguishes in empirical intuition: its matter (sensation) as well as its form (time and space). In this way, Cohen tries to provide an account of knowledge without appealing to any receptivity. In accordance with Cohen’s project of reformulating the Kantian theory of sensibility, Cassirer undertakes in Substance and Function the task of developing an alternative doctrine of pure and empirical manifolds. But whereas Cohen analyzes the laws of pure thought, Cassirer aims to highlight the functional character of concepts in the development of modern mathematics and physics. I will discuss these two different approaches to the problems raised by Kantian philosophy and I will argue that Cassirer went further than Cohen in the project of critical idealism.

A lógica do conteúdo no reino das sombras: o início e o princípio da Ciência da Lógica de Hegel

Resumo O trabalho examina a conexão existente entre a concepção hegeliana de “início” e “princípio” e a função que esses conceitos cumprem no interior da Ciência da Lógica de Hegel. Partindo da análise dos conceitos de “saber puro” e “ser simples” e de sua relação com as concepções de início e princípio, demostramos em que sentido a Ciência da Lógica deve ser compreendida como lógica objetiva. Nesse sentido, defendemos que a lógica de Hegel é essencialmente uma lógica do conteúdo [Gehalt] e de conteúdo [Inhalt]. Palavras-chave: Hegel – Ciência da Lógica – Início – Princípio Abstract The work examines the connection between the Hegelian conception of ‘beginning’ and ‘principle’ and the function that these concepts fulfill within Hegel's Science of Logic. Starting from the analysis of the concepts of ‘pure knowledge’ and ‘being simple’ and its relationship with the conceptions of beginning and principle, we demonstrate in which sense the Science of Logic must be understood as objective logic. In this sense, we argue that Hegel's logic is essentially a logic of content [Gehalt] and of content [Inhalt]. Key words: Hegel - Science of Logic - Beginning - Principle

No Luck, no Success, but Pure Knowledge: on the Ideals of Virtue Epistemology

The author relies on the ideas expressed by I.T. Kasavin in his work Paradigm as an Ethics of Humility, in particular – on the proposed concept of the “paradigm of humility”. This article suggests that Scientific activity is based on the ideals of rationality. Herewith, the main measure of accomplishments is success. A num­ber of scientists acknowledge contingency of the process, where‘lucky coinci­dences’ factor in significantly. This leads to a number of questions about stability of scientific processes as well as their results. Moreover, it questions the role of a scientist as cognitive agent. The author emphasizes that virtue epistemology is one of multiple scientific areas, which makes an attempt to cover these issues. The field of research combines epistemology and ethics in the effort of generat­ing new solutions to the given problems. Operating with ethical categories along with improving normative basis of epistemology are the main two driving forces of the process. Based on the issues highlighted above, the article presents an at­tempt of in-depth examination of the views on scientific and testimonial knowl­edge (seeing the latter as a case of the former) and success given by such re­searchers as J. Greco, L. Zagzebski, N. Sherman.

Pure Consciousness in the Context of Formal Logic

The subject of the research is the dynamics of noesis of pure consciousness and the rules of formal logic. The goal was to establish the foundations for the synthesis of pure consciousness and ordinary reason. The methodological basis was the theory of pure consciousness postulated by E. Husserl in his "Ideas for pure phenomenology and phenomenological philosophy. Book one. A general introduction to pure phenomenology". The research also featured I. Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason", in particular his reflections on the "foundations of pure reason" and the formal logic of Aristotle. Results. If we split the emerging experience of pure consciousness into interoceptive and exteroceptive, it means that the pure contemplation of things is not as pure as E. Husserl believed it to be, since the reason with its invariable logical operations is always added to the noesis procedure. This leads us to a less idealized understanding of phenomenology as a philosophical trend, even though Husserl’s work used classical laws of "contemplative intuition". The results can be applied in the field of epistemology and the theory of phenomenological knowledge. Findings. The subject of knowledge, even after the phenomenological reduction is completed, is still connected with rational activity. Such a vision of the phenomenological layer could eliminate the very possibility of the appearance of "pure entities" since we do not completely abandon our everyday "natural setting". However, we believe that in order to encounter anything at all in the "epoch" state, it is necessary to continue to keep in touch with reason, since otherwise there is a risk of falling into somnambulism. Reason, although it enters the layer of pure knowledge, does not lose its formal logical abilities. Logical laws are connected with the operation of noesis, thereby creating a general experience of things of an interoceptive or exteroceptive nature.