Was ist Intuition? Gibt es intuitive Erkenntnis? Intuition beschäftigt Philosophie, Psychologie und Alltagsdenken. Einschätzungen reichen dabei von "höchste Erkenntnisart" bis "höchst unzuverlässig." Cyrill Mamin zeichnet zentrale Bestimmungen der Intuition in Philosophie und Psychologie nach. Wesentliche Fragen sind dabei: Wie ist es, eine Intuition zu haben? Wie kommt eine Intuition zustande? Auf dieser Grundlage bestimmt Mamin Intuition als massgeblich nicht-propositionale Erkenntnisart, welche unsere intuitiven Überzeugungen rechtfertigen kann. Im Zentrum steht ein neuartiges Modell der intuitiven Rechtfertigung, das psychologische mit erkenntnistheoretischen Elementen verbindet. (...) Dadurch lässt sich Intuition im Verhältnis zu anderen mentalen Akten (u.a. Wahrnehmung, Imagination, Delusion) näher bestimmen sowie ein kritischer Blick auf die philosophische Intuitionsdebatte werfen. (shrink)

Two approaches to the study of diagnostic thinking are compared, one mainly propositional, namely that of Patel and Groen (1986), the other mainly semantic, that of Lemieux and Bordage (1986). Patel and Groen analyzed the linear dimension of cardiologists' discourses while solving a case of acute bacterial endocarditis, that is, the before and after propositional rules. A secondary analysis of two of their pothophysiological protocols is done using structural semantic techniques from Lemieux and Bordage where the vertical dimension (...) of the discourses is analyzed, that is, the levels of meaning or semantic axes. Contrary to Patel and Groen's position, making an accurate diagnosis is not explained in terms of pure forward reasoning through networks of causal rules, but by means of networks of semantic qualities abstracted from the symptoms and signs. The semantic qualities operate in the clinician's mind in terms of binary oppositions (e.g., sudden-gradual, unilateral-bilateral) whereby each pair of properties constitutes a semantic axis (e.g., sudden-gradual). The successful diagnosticians are those who use the most diversified and pertinent set of semantic axes and, therefore, have a deeper representation of the problem. (shrink)

This paper shows that, under certain reasonable conditions, if the investigation of the behavior of a physical system is difficult, no scientific change can make it significantly easier. This impossibility result implies that complexity is then a necessary feature of models which truly represent the target system and of all models which are rich enough to catch its behavior and therefore that it is an inevitable element of any possible science in which this behavior is accounted for. I finally argue (...) that complexity can then be seen as representing an intrinsic feature of the system itself. (shrink)

Laziness is a borderline phenomenon. It may cause the withdrawal from any commitment or allow the human being a space and a time for reflexing the conditions of his actions. If it is undoubtedly a capital sin when source of mindless, could not it be also a tool for the self-construction of life and identity? Then how could it play such a role? The paper intends to clarify the possible misunderstanding hidden under this dilemma. For this purpose, it proposes a (...) survey of the heroic conditions of modern life in which social ideals are more and more demanding and, consequently, force to choose between enactment and truth, conformist or genuine achievements. It stresses then the question of authenticity as a stake for desire. (shrink)

I argue that one can be responsible for a certain state of affairs, one has brought about, or one has let happen, only if one could have avoided it, by omitting or by performing a certain action. I limit my argument to the consequences of actions and omissions, and to the conditional ability of avoiding the consequences by an alternative behaviour. Even within those limits, the argument challenges the Causal Conception of Moral Responsibility and the strategy mounted by Frankfurt against (...) the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. It is a step in favor of the idea that the ability to do otherwise is a necessary condition for moral responsibility. (shrink)

Social scientists who conduct qualitative research frequently use emotional engagement to gather information about participants’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in relation to a particularly research question. When the subject under investigation is related to trauma, listening to, or being exposed to personal accounts of participants’ traumatic experiences can carry a significant emotional cost for researchers. This may place them at risk of secondary trauma. In this article, I examine these issues from the context of my doctoral field research in South (...) Africa, which focused on intergenerational trauma amongst descendants of victims of apartheid-era gross human rights violations. I reflect on my positionality as both an insider and outsider and feelings of guilt that emanated from my sense of being privileged and an imposter. I also reflect on the emotional turmoil brought about by my engagement with the trauma of participants and their families. I conclude by sharing the lessons I have learnt, and that have enabled me to sustain my scholarly engagement with intergenerational trauma. Ultimately, this article gives insight into, and raises awareness about, the emotional consequences of conducting trauma research. It offers practical suggestions to help researchers navigate the emotional minefield involved in conducting trauma research. (shrink)

Un État idéal pourrait intervenir efficacement pour articuler l’interface entre les médias classiques et les médias sociaux. L’État réel, par contre, ne dispose pas de l’information nécessaire et ses acteurs ne sont pas soumis aux incitations requises. De plus, il n’existe pas d’intérêt public dont l’État puisse se réclamer. Il faut se demander si découlerait du laissez-faire une situation meilleure que celle que produit la coercition des processus politiques et bureaucratiques.

Résumé Au point de départ, l’acte théologique se constitue par la lecture des Écritures. Mais cette lecture, par laquelle se produit un sujet théologien, ne peut elle-même se résoudre que dans une écriture par laquelle ce sujet fait trace, à son tour, de son expérience. Le présent article investigue ces rapports complexes de la théologie aux Écritures et à l’écriture pour tenter d’en définir l’acte théologique comme traversée des textes et production d’un sens. La théologie, argumente-t-il, suppose que le lecteur-écrivain (...) se situe dans l’axe de l’Autre, c’est-à-dire dans un rapport au texte et à l’ordre symbolique du monde qui consiste à ne pas se laisser arrêter par leurs valeurs acquises, à continuer sans relâche à interroger ce qu’ils laissent à désirer. Cet acte, dès lors, ne peut se réaliser que dans le lieu de son impossibilité même : donner figure à l’Autre en sachant que cet Autre lui échappe.The theological work starts by reading Scriptures. This reading, which produces the theological subject, yet needs a writing by which this subject traces his own experience. The present paper investigates the complex relations that the theologian must keep up with reading and writing in order to define the specific locus of his work. Theology, it argues, supposes that the reader-writer places himself in the axis of the Other, that means, in such a relation with texts and symbolic order of the word as he will not be stopped by actual value systems and he will keep inquiring what is left open to desire by them. This act, therefore, can take place only in the context of its own impossibility : it gives a representation of the Other while knowing that the Other cannot be represented. (shrink)

This essay explores the possible justification that liberal perfectionism may provide to an epistocratic regime. I suggest that epistocratic mechanisms and rules can maintain and improve epistemic autonomy, which itself contributes to the form of personal autonomy to which perfectionists grant a moral priority. Though not decisive, I claim that the Perfectionist Argument for Epistocracy partially justifies epistocracy. Because this argument is developed in the context of liberal social forms, this indicates the conceptual possibility of liberal epistocracy.

This paper is concerned with the relationship between paradigms of explication and the practice of conceptual engineering. It defends three interrelated claims: First, the predominant functionalist attitude in the present debate on conceptual engineering is due to its roots in Carnapian explication, which identifies the explicandum with a precursor concept. Second, alternative metaphysical paradigms of explication locate the explicandum in a part of a concept-independent reality (‘field explication‘, as I will call it). Third, field explication may be a better paradigm (...) than Carnapian functionalism for certain instances of socio-political conceptual engineering. In these instances, we adjust our concepts to more adequately capture differences in our concept-independent (felt) reality. To demonstrate this, I will contrast the metaphysical to the functionalist paradigm concerning the example of Heimat. [in German]. (shrink)

Une sourde appréhension hante aujourd’hui les consciences : « Le christianisme survivra-t-il à la modernité ? ». S’il a été un facteur historique de civilisation, sa pertinence est-elle caduque quand cette civilisation se transforme, comme cela est le cas dans le monde contemporain ? De quelles quêtes, de quelles souffrances, les regards portés sur lui, de l’intérieur comme de l’extérieur, sont-ils symptômes ? Quels en sont les dynamismes fondamentaux ? À quelles conversions l’expérience chrétienne est-elle appelée ?Pour baliser des pistes (...) de réponses à ces questions, nous questionnerons ici l’institution culturelle du christianisme, c’est-à-dire les modes selon lesquels, dans son histoire, il a soutenu du sens et se trouve, aujourd’hui, confronté à une conjoncture inédite. Cette institution culturelle comprend davantage que la vie interne et l’action des Églises qui à la fois la débordent et en dépendent. Des actes de foi l’animent, certes, sans s’y confiner non plus. Par christianisme, nous entendons donc saisir les modes variés par lesquels se sont inscrites, historiquement, « des nappes de produit relatives à des systèmes de production » en transactions constantes avec le « monde ». A vague apprehension haunts many minds today: “Will Christianity outlive modernity?” Although Christianity was a historical factor in the development of civilisation, will its pertinence be bypassed when this civilisation is transformed, as seems to be the case in the contemporary world? What is the re-examination applied to it from inside and out symptomatic of – of what searching and what suffering? What are the fundamental dynamics underlying this? What sorts of conversion is the Christian experience called upon to undertake?In order to outline some approached to responding to these questions, we shall examine the cultural institution of Christianity, that is, the ways in which it underwrote meaning and today stands at a new crossroads in its history. This cultural institution comprises more than its internal life and the action of the Churches, which both go beyond it and depend upon it. Acts of faith are vital to this process, obviously, but also reach beyond it. By “Christianity”, we mean discerning the various modes through which “the layers of products related to systems of production” in constant interplay with the “world” are inscribed in a historical process. (shrink)

This paper analyses Heidegger’s controversial advancement of Husserl’s idea of philosophy and phenomenological research towards ‘the Being-Question’ and its relation to ‘Dasein’. It concentrates on Heidegger’s elision of Dilthey and Husserl’s different concepts of ‘Descriptive Psychology’ in his 1925 Summer Semester lecture-course, with Husserl’s concept losing out in the competition, as background to the formulation of ‘the Being-Question’ in Being and Time (1927). It argues that Heidegger establishes his own position within phenomenology on the basis of a partial appropriation of (...) Dilthey’s hermeneutical manner of thinking, an appropriation that was later radically called into question by Levinas on Diltheyean-hermeneutical-philosophical grounds. (shrink)

Many of the philosophers of African politics who have argued that the political challenges of Nigeria, and of Africa as a whole are as a result of the impunity and corruption of post-independence Nigeria leaders also give the impression that the people of Nigeria are mere innocent victims because in their arguments all the ills of the Nigerian state exist only because the country have not experienced or discovered an honest and capable political leader. The scholars argue to the effect (...) that all that Nigeria can do is simply to hope for the ascendance of a Messiah, who being an honest, capable and patriotic leader will on his own volition become committed to the cause of reversing the situation in order to turn around all the ills of the nation. Employing the examples of two prominent scholars of African politics the paper employs the epistemological rigor of analysis and logic to examine and make a critique of the underlying assumptions of the scholars and identifies the theoretical flaws of believing that political representatives are substantively political leaders, that Nigerians are helpless victims who on their own are incapable of reversing the situation and that Nigeria should hope for a political saviour who will turn around all the social and political ills of Nigeria on his own accord. Keywords : Ignocence, Messianism, Epistemology, Democracy, Nigeria. (shrink)

Traditionally, such a statement as ‘I was misled’ is intended to be taken seriously by the addressee and considered an expression of the true state of affairs. Unfortunately, the statement has many logical implications that often go unnoticed by both the one who utters it and the addressee. The paper critically explores the instrumentality of logical and epistemological analyses in its attempt to lay bare the implications of the statement being true and of entertaining the underlying belief in the first (...) place that ‘I was misled’. By so doing, the paper attempts to show that even if the function of philosophy is merely to analyse language, it would still have contributed indispensably and significantly to human society by clarifying ambiguous concepts. It also attempts to demonstrate the relevance of critical thinking in human society. (shrink)

I wish to correlate Bernard Lonergan’s functional specialty Communications with Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of novelistic discourse with the goal of teasing out how the Bakhtinian notion of discourse furthers on-going reflection on inculturation. Theology as a highly differentiated and specialized reflection on religion bears fruit in the final stage (Communications) of theological reflection. This fruit – inculturation – can be explained using different constructs. This paper privileges the Bakhtinian construct in that it addresses “the life and behavior of discourse in (...) a contradictory and multi-languaged world” in ways that Lonergan’s differentiated and specialized reflection on theology accounts for multiplicity of cultural traditions in an ever-changing world church. (shrink)

For a quarter of a century the industrial Western world has been living in the euphoria of continuous improvements in welfare, based on economic programming, increasing integration and terms of trade which favor indus trial countries and discriminate against agricultural regions. It is true that recessions have periodically recurred during these years : time and again, however, government intervention succeeded in reducing them to mere "in ventory cycles". In contrast with the twenties and thirties, when economic policy in the West (...) focused on fighting unemployment and stimulating investment, the postwar period has been characterized by a permanent concern to curb inflationary pressure, which was partly due to full-employ ment. The present welfare economy has given rise to a growth of the pro pensity to consume such that public policy has often been constrained to limit consumption and stimulate saving. In this new framework it has perhaps been forgotten that today's welfare owes much to the lessons from the past. The bitter world crisis experience of the thirties in particular has exerted a fruitful and decisive influence upon the search for means to prevent, eliminate or soften the cyclical fluctuations which the process of economic growth involves. Forty years after the out break of the greatest economic crisis ever, it seems useful to draw up the balancesheet of the lessons learned from it. There exists a large literature about the depression of the thirties. (shrink)

A philosopher and a cognitive neuroscientist conversed with Buddhist lama Tilmann Lhündrup Borghardt (TLB) about the unresolved phenomenological concerns and logical questions surrounding “pure” consciousness or minimal phenomenal experience (MPE), a quasi-contentless, non-dual state whose phenomenology of “emptiness” is often described in terms of the phenomenal quality of luminosity that experienced meditators have reported occurs in deep meditative states. Here, we present the excerpts of the conversation that relate to the question of how it is possible to first have and (...) later retrieve such non-dual states of selflessness and timelessness that are unrelated to sensory input. According to TLB, a “pure” experience of consciousness contains the phenomenal quality of luminous clarity, which is experienced solely in the transitional phase from the non-dual state of absolute emptiness to the state of minimal emptiness, when the person gradually returns to duality. However, this quality of luminous clarity can also be experienced in non-minimal states as in the experiential mode of being awakened. TLB describes this transition as a kind of ephemeral afterglow in the form of a maximally abstract phenomenal quality, i.e., luminosity, which justifies the conclusion of having been in a state of “pure” consciousness. (shrink)

Cyril Smith shows that Marx developed a far richer and liberatory vision of humanity and the alternative to capital than that which has characterized his followers, and he makes a powerful argument that it is essential to return to Marx's original body of thought in order to reconstitute a viable critique of existing capitalist society.