Tomos II. Koinōnikes epistēmes kai epistēmes tou anthrōpou: ho gallikos dromos tēs ennoias.

In this article, I try to present some effects of the acceptance of nonconceptual content of perception in the realism problem. After having enhancement as main the problem of discrimination observable - unobservable into the conflict of realism with the constructive empiricism, I criticize a particular aspect, that nonconceptual content of perception strengthens the realistic position. Arguing that, while the starting point of the realist position is the existence of entities of common sense, there is nothing that assures us that (...) the world of our daily life consists of objective, specific, unambiguous entities, that is made up the deep structure of the world - as realists believes - and entities are not just "relevant" objects, which are meant only for our own biological species. These “subjective for species” entities we are obliged, as a particular species, to percept with particular perceptual organs in order to satisfy specific needs, and manage to survive ourselves in a particular environment. (shrink)

(1997). A rudimentary theory of information: Consequences for information science and information systems. World Futures: Vol. 49, The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information, pp. 275-286.

I have three types of interrelated comments. First, on the choice of the proposed criteria, I argue against any list and for a system of criteria. Second, on grading, I suggest modifications with respect to consciousness and development. Finally, on the choice of “theories” for evaluation, I argue for Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection instead of connectionism (classical or not).

Every religion in its origins and in Genesis is identified with a particular culture. Adequate understanding of the nature and nature of any religion is possible only through the prism of the cultural area in which it was formed and under the influence of its peculiarities. This can be traced to the history of the origin, formation and development of all religions - ethno-national and world, polytheistic and monotheistic.

Modern theologians give the Sermon on the Mount such definitions: "the pearl of the gospel teachings," "the lecture of Christ's morality, ethics, asceticism," "a brief summary of the whole New Testament," "one of the most prominent places in the Bible." In the end, "The sermon on the other hand uplifts, by its content, ideas, character and spirit, all the teachings of the most outstanding philosophers, humanists, prophets, and moralists to this day." Of course, these definitions are perceived primarily as being (...) related to the apologetic theology to which we are treated with respect. (shrink)

The 500th anniversary of theReformation, which is celebrated in Ukraine at the state level, gives an opportunity to evaluate this event in various dimensions of its foundation, development and transformation in the context of the European transition from feudal relations and their citadel - the Catholic Church to the establishment of protestantism as an innovation faith and ideologiy of a new social formation. The process of the spread of early protestantism in Ukraine an its perception by the Ukrainian mentality and (...) modern functionality in independent Ukraine are researched. (shrink)

In 2010-2012, on the pages of Catholic publications, there was literally an avalanche of articles entitled "The New Evangelization of Europe"; "Through the evangelization to overcome social and cultural inequalities in a globalized world"; "The Church must continuously renew its gospel mission"; "We need to look for new means of proclaiming the Gospel"; "The Gospel is the greatest power of the change of the world", etc. A special "Pontifical Council for New Evangelization" was created. In October 2012, a meeting of (...) the Synod of Catholic Bishops took place in Rome to discuss the topic "New evangelization for the spread of the Christian faith". (shrink)

Following the argument of Pusey et al. (in Nature Phys. 8:476, 2012), new interest has been raised on whether one can interpret state-vectors (pure states) in a statistical way (ψ-epistemic theories), or if each one of them corresponds to a different ontological entity. Each interpretation of quantum theory assumes different ontology and one could ask if the PBR argument carries over. Here we examine this question for histories formulations in general with particular attention to the co-event formulation. State-vectors appear as (...) the initial state that enters into the quantum measure. While the PBR argument goes through up to a point, the failure to meet some of the assumptions they made does not allow one to reach their conclusion. However, the author believes that the “statistical interpretation” is still impossible for co-events even if this is not proven by the PBR argument. (shrink)

The patient’s autonomy and well-being are sometimes seen as central to the ethical justification of voluntary euthanasia (VE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). While respecting the patient’s wish to die plausibly promotes the patient’s autonomy, it is less obvious how alleviating the patient’s suffering through death benefits the patient. Death eliminates the subject, so how can we intelligibly maintain that the patient’s well-being is promoted when she/he no longer exists? This article interrogates two typical answers given by philosophers: (a) that death (...) confers a well-being benefit in the sense that it actualises a comparatively better life course for the patient (ie, a shorter life with less net suffering), and (b) that death is beneficial because non-existence which entails no suffering is superior to an existence filled with suffering. A close examination of the two senses in which the patient might incur a well-being benefit reveals problems that preclude physicians delivering VE/PAS in the name of beneficence. (shrink)

This article is concerned with the concept of ambiguity in argumentation. Ambiguity in linguistics lies on the coexistence of two possibly interpretations of an utterance, while the role of contextual factors and background/encyclopedic knowledge within a specific society seems to be crucial. From a systemic point of view, Halliday has proposed three main language functions (meta-functions): a) ideational function, b) interpersonal function, c) textual function. Language could reflect speaker’s experience of his external and internal world, interpersonal relationships and organization of (...) text, respectively. Lexico-grammatical choices under a micro-level perspective and context (the environment of language) may lead to inconsistent interpretations through semantic or syntactic ambiguities. In philosophy and argumentation logic, strategies of ambiguity have been investigated by Aristotle, since the first sophistic movement. In his Topics, Metaphysics and Rhetoric, has pointed out the notion of “τὸ διττῶς / διχῶς λεγόμενον”, meaning that a term can have different senses and double interpretation. In this paper we discuss how we reconstruct the meaning of an utterance in dialogue through the mechanism of interpretation and how we analyze and construe ambiguities, combining the insights of argumentation theory and text linguistics. Research results show that in case of misunderstanding, the “best interpretation” is the less defeasible one according to contextual presumptions. (shrink)

I propose a physicalist theory of consciousness that is an extension of the theory of noémona species. The proposed theory covers the full consciousness spectrum from animal to machine and its huma...

This is the first of a two-volume monograph on the Unification of Artificial Intelligence and Psychology. It unifies the topics of representation, meaning, thinking, communication, and understanding. Such a unification requires the establishment of a novel, fully explicated, theoretical construct —noémon system— that replaces all the inadequately developed concepts that historically have been used as constitutive notions of cognitive science. The space of noémon systems encompasses an awe-inspiring variety of noémon species and an increasing variety of artificially noémon entities and (...) hybrid noémon systems. As such, it is a superspace of the space of phenomena addressed by cognitive science. The theory of noémon systems (TNS) described in this two-volume monograph is envisaged as the first step towards an emerging science of noémon systems. (shrink)

The article deals with etymological hermeneutics of proper names as method of determining of approximate dating of a text, as well as of its content and intention of its authors or editors. The author of the article illustrates this method on example of an etymological analysis of proper names of personnages of the legend about Shem, Ham and Japheth, and draws the conclusion, that their etymology is Greek, therefore one needs to date this legend with Hellenistic periode, and it was (...) created in order to give a legal basing for dwelling of Israel on the territories of conquered peoples of Canaan. At the same time, the author is ready to admit, that the Greek etymology of the mentioned proper names is secondary and derived, if the specialists in the brances of the Old Hebrew and the Old Testament Bible Science would prove, that a Semitic etymology of the mentioned proper names is more ancient, than the Greek one. (shrink)

The article contains general definition of the phenomenon of hypertext and the Internet in a virtual consciousness philosophy of post-modernism. Describes the phenomenon of hypertext as nonlinear forms of computer and literary texts, its structural units and the main aspects of the organization of hypertext. The article contains the detailed analysis of publications on the issue of hypertext and the history of investigation of this problem. The specific features which allow defining of hypertext as the brand new phenomenon are analyzed (...) in the article. Among them we can mention the following points: - Hypertext is constantly updateable, amendable, editable; - Hypertext has neither any set beginning or the end nor any hierarchical structure; - Hypertext has decentralized nature; - The specific features of hypertext are manifested in text transformations. If an "ordinary" text has linear character, and one can move in its "area" only in the directions limited by one and the same space, then rhizomorphic hypertext opens new "transverse" changes in the text Universe. The way of organizing of text in Internet corresponds to the major ideas of "nomadology" and "Rhizome" developed by Gilles Deleuze and F?lix Guattari in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project. Postmodernist electronic hypertext is a phenomenon by its nature opposite to modernist printed text. This allows us to consider hypertext as one of the features of coming of "post- Gutenberg era". Hypertext fundamentally changes the way of construction of text environment - to replace the one-dimensional text comes multi-dimensional. In the phenomenon of the global information network, created on the basis of hypertext technology, - intertextual fiber, series of texts, which intercross with other texts, produce new texts. In conclusions of the article - the characterization of hypertext as postmodernist phenomenon is given and the major views of postmodernism which are represented in hypertext - plurality, decentration, fragmentariness, intertextuality - are provided. (shrink)

In November of 1997, a letter from my professor AM came to my name. Hoodies from Ternopil Medical Academy named after. V.Ya. Gorbachevsky The letter mentioned that Arsen Richinsky was born in Kremenets'kyi, therefore the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy named after GS Pots of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine want to hold a scientific conference, whose participants should be taken immediately. [Mazur P., The immortalism of Arsen Rychinsky's memory on his native land // (...) Arsen Rychinsky - prominent Ukrainian public figure and scholar and religious scholar. Science collection. - Kyiv-Kremenets, 2007. - P. 27-32]. Motivating that the conference should be carefully prepared, we agreed with scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to hold the first Rychinsky readings on the basis of the school in the spring of 1998. (shrink)

This book explores the overlooked but vital theoretical relationships between R. M. Hare, Alan Gewirth, and Jürgen Habermas. The author claims their accounts of value, while failing to address classic virtue-theoretical critiques, bear the seeds of a resolution to the ultimate question "What is most valuable?" These dialectical approaches, as claimed, justify a reinterpretation of value and value judgment according to the Carnapian conception of an empirical-linguistic framework or grammar. Through a further synthesis with the work of Philippa Foot and (...) Thomas Magnell, the author shows that "value" would be literally meaningless without four fundamental phenomena which constitute such a framework: Logical Judgment, Conceptual Synthesis, Conceptual Abstraction, and Freedom. As part of the 'grammar of goodness,' the excellence of these phenomena, in a highly concrete way, constitute the essence of the greatest good, as this book explains.. (shrink)

Based on the philosophical and scientific analysis of the conflict between the Catholic ecclesiastic doctrine and wisdom of «living faith» the article discovers the algorithm of counteractions of philosophy of conformity and non-conformism in response to the pressure of modern civilization changes. It is proved that the cost of these two paths for the Catholic Church is about the same, because none of them is effective in establishing an overall upgrade strategy and outlining general perspectives. Truly constructive for the Catholic (...) Church, in this situation, may be the «Middle Way», renewal without a «surrender» in the eye of the world. (shrink)

The world in which we live for millennia is a breakthrough, entering into a lane of profound changes, in which the whole of our life is rebuilt and rebuilt. Untwisted to the maximum turns the flywheel of transformations has touched and is ready to deform various spheres of existence of man and humanity: the relation between humanity and the planet in which it lives; the interaction between the states, each of which is looking for its own ways to the future (...) and, at the same time, can not but reckon with the interests of other nations and states; the struggle of social groups and the confrontation of religions, in the interrelationships of which they are struggling to realize that humanity has a common destiny and that universal values ​​and ideals must come first, become the main ones in the interaction between people; high pace of scientific and technological progress, which far from unequivocally affect both the knowledge of our lives, and on ourselves. In other words: we are faced with a new world - both in the latest technologies, in new forms of life, in new ways of worldview and world outlook, and most importantly in those global threats, in which the contradiction between the new realities of our existence and the established forms and methods unfolds. an attitude to this world. It is no coincidence that society and the church face an acute problem of adaptation to global change, the formation of a new worldview that corresponds to a new era. (shrink)

A short response from an Orthodox perspective to Prof. Dana Robert’s paper. It contains some specific information and focuses, not fully highlighted in her keynote address. The present situation in global mission is what the Orthodox expected as the very first step the ecumenical movement should take, as it was requested by the Orthodox even before the 1910 Edinburgh mission conference. The social and economic nuances of the new mission statement are underlined, together with the ecclesial dimension of mission, the (...) implicit liturgical aspect, the explicit environmental and inter-faith consequences of an authentic Christian witness, and the clear connection between mission and unity. A plea is finally made that the missiological consequences of the deification theology of the Orthodox become an integral part of today’s world mission. (shrink)

The article analyzes the impact of modern digital technologies used in the information society on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in general. Both positive and negative aspects of such impact are considered. The importance of this topic is due to the need for further deepening of scientific knowledge related to the development of the rule of law in the information society and insufficient research from the legal point of view of current theoretical problems of the rule of (...) law in the digital era. The purpose of this article is to study the rule of law as a principle of the modern state of the 21st century and to study the problems in matters of human rights that have arisen with the development of modern digital technologies. The study of this issue is quite relevant, considering the conclusions, made as a result of our work, can be taken into account in further theoretical developments of international and national human rights protection aimed at improving the effectiveness of human rights judicial protection and improving current legislation. (shrink)

Recent developments in economics and the science of law emphasize their cooperation for a better understanding of social structures and interactions, an effective application of social scientific knowledge and a rational evaluation and implementation of social norms. There are, however, difficult methodological problems in this endeavor: Whereas economics is mainly (with the exception of welfare economics) an empirical science which collects information about economic activities and the functioning of the economic system, the science of law is a normative discipline aiming (...) at solving social conflicts and establishing rational principles for judicial decisions. In this paper, we suggest a three-level scheme for the interdisciplinary cooperation of law and economics, addressing the different problems that positive and normative economics face as they apply economic knowledge to legal matters. Economic analysis of law is proposed as a model for a general transformation of the traditionally hermeneutical jurisprudence into an analytic-normative science of law based on theoretical expectation (explanation) and the rational evaluation of the consequences of legal rules and principles. (shrink)

У статті з філософсько-антропологічної точки зору автор розглядає Інтернет-субкультури, звертаючи увагу на особливості їх прояву та діяльності, ґрунтовно характеристиризучи геймерську, хакерську субкультури, наводячи їх класифікацію та приклади функціонування. На думку автора, Інтернет-субкультура може бути визначена як набір технологій, практик, позицій, режимів мислення та цінностей, які розвинулись із розвитком кіберпростору й дали можливість для формування різних варіантів життєвої поведінки особи - від творення нових особистісних і соціальних стратегій до побудови віртуальних симулякрів масової культури, заснованих на моді й поп-арті.

Events that preceded the Brest Union in 1596 followed by her has long been the subject of numerical research. Little is a historical event like The Berne Union has found such a wide coverage in history.

The best developed formulation of closed system quantum theory that handles multiple-time statements, is the consistent (or decoherent) histories approach. The most important weaknesses of the approach is that it gives rise to many different consistent sets, and it has been argued that a complete interpretation should be accompanied with a natural mechanism leading to a (possibly) unique preferred consistent set. The existence of multiple consistent sets becomes more problematic because it allows the existence of contrary inferences [1]. We analyse (...) the conceptual difficulties that arise from the existence of multiple consistent sets and provide a suggestion for a natural set selection criterion. This criterion does not lead to a unique physical consistent set, however it evades the existence of consistent sets with contrary inferences. The criterion is based on the concept of preclusion and the requirement that probability one propositions and their inferences should be non-contextual. The allowed consistent sets turn-out to be compatible with coevents which are the ontology of an alternative, histories based, formulation [2–4]. (shrink)

Cathedrals of the Catholic Church, as a rule, are gathering at the turning points of the development of the world and the life of the Church. II Vatican Council took place after the curves of the second drama of humanity in the Second World War, in the conditions of the post-war split of the world, first of all in Europe, in two opposing camps and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, the collapse of (...) the colonial system and the appearance on the political map of the world of young independent countries. At the same time, the world was once again faced with the threat of a new, already thermonuclear war, which, like the Damocles sword, hangs over humanity. The problems of the post-war world development in the conditions of the growing scientific and technological revolution, the launch of the space era, as well as the uneven economic and social development of the world in the coordinates of the North-South, arose. (shrink)

Traditional sacral function of religion in the modern globalized and secular era is undergoing increasing transformation, that research in this article the following issues shows: human dignity as the highest value – anthropocentric and theistic dimension; development of secular Europe: Catholic and Orthodox opinion; the conception of permanent worlds’ development and «ecological spirituality» instead of theology of individual salvation.

The Web may critically transform the way we understand the activity of proving. The Web as a collaborative medium allows the active participation of people with different backgrounds, interests, viewpoints, and styles. Mathematical formal proofs are inadequate for capturing Web-based proofs. This article claims that Web provings can be studied as a particular type of Goguen's proof-events. Web-based proof-events have a social component, communication medium, prover-interpreter interaction, interpretation process, understanding and validation, historical component, and styles. To demonstrate its claim, the (...) article discusses the Kumo and Polymath projects, both of which employ Web-based communication as part of proving. Web proving is a novel type of proving activity that may have a serious impact on the change in mathematical practices, despite the fact that it is not currently a universally acceptable methodology. (shrink)

Religion is an important element of end-of-life care on the paediatric intensive care unit with religious belief providing support for many families and for some staff. However, religious claims used by families to challenge cessation of aggressive therapies considered futile and burdensome by a wide range of medical and lay people can cause considerable problems and be very difficult to resolve. While it is vital to support families in such difficult times, we are increasingly concerned that deeply held belief in (...) religion can lead to children being potentially subjected to burdensome care in expectation of ‘miraculous’ intervention. We reviewed cases involving end-of-life decisions over a 3-year period. In 186 of 203 cases in which withdrawal or limitation of invasive therapy was recommended, agreement was achieved. However, in the 17 remaining cases extended discussions with medical teams and local support mechanisms did not lead to resolution. Of these cases, 11 (65%) involved explicit religious claims that intensive care should not be stopped due to expectation of divine intervention and complete cure together with conviction that overly pessimistic medical predictions were wrong. The distribution of the religions included Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and Roman Catholic groups. Five of the 11 cases were resolved after meeting religious community leaders; one child had intensive care withdrawn following a High Court order, and in the remaining five, all Christian, no resolution was possible due to expressed expectations that a ‘miracle’ would happen. (shrink)

Absolut-realistisch und als solche idealistisch ist die Marxsche Geschichtsphilosophie a) insofern, als derer «Kategorien... nicht mehr oder minder reflexive Aussagen über etwas Seiendes oder Werdendes, sondern bewegende Formen der Materie selbst», ja sogar vielmehr, logisch-historische dialektische Realstrukturen des als real vorkonzipierten weltgeschichtlichen dialektischen Gesamtprozesses selbst sind; und b) insofern, als sie ihren Erkenntnisstandpunkt nicht kritisch hinterfragt, sondern die Sinnerkenntnis des weltgeschicht- lichen Prozesses auf definitive und damit dogmatisch-metaphysische Weise sich erschlossen zu haben vorgibt.