Volume 11, Issue 1-2, January–December 2024.

This article aims at exploring the existing ideas of Angkola’s local wisdom with relevance to the roles of philosophy, culture, language, and Islam. This research employed the ethnographic method which utilised the data from figurative peoples in Angkola culture, Angkola’s cultural ceremonies, documents, and related media. The collected data were then reduced and analysed from philosophical, cultural, linguistic, and religious point of views to find the relevance. This research found that Dalihan Na Tolu covers triangle family members for Mora, (...) Kahanggi, and Anak Boru. Dalihan Na Tolu consistently enhances humanity in harmony and it keeps warm in touch with the social profile. Angkola language has unique variations in the structure, coda sound, accent, and intonation to avoid saying subject as respect and the symbol of politeness. Dalihan Na Tolu creates and maintains norms in brotherhood and togetherness as an ingrained belief. The devotion poured in a sense of justice for triangle family members. The taste of brotherhood and togetherness is a fact that only humans have to think about expressing responsibility to unite humanity. The manifestation of Dalihan Na Tolu as a local, national, and perhaps international wisdom has faith, charity, and responsibility as the main point of view for humanity in harmony. The human faith in God has to be perfect with relevance for love, humanity and harmony. Charity humanises people. The responsibility unites humanity. Dalihan Na Tolu reflects many important values to learn from living in the society with particular philosophy, culture, langauge, and religion. Contribution: This research describe about roles of philosophy, culture, language, and Islam in Angkola’s local wisdom of “dalihan natolu” in South Tapanuli, Indonesia. This research contributes to providing a comprehensive understanding of how the values in the local wisdom “dalihan natolu” can create social harmonisation. (shrink)

Interference phenomena are a well-known and crucial feature of quantum mechanics, the two-slit experiment providing a standard example. There are situations, however, in which interference effects are (artificially or spontaneously) suppressed. We shall need to make precise what this means, but the theory of decoherence is the study of (spontaneous) interactions between a system and its environment that lead to such suppression of interference. This study includes detailed modelling of system-environment interactions, derivation of equations (‘master equations’) for the (reduced) state (...) of the system, discussion of time-scales etc. A discussion of the concept of suppression of interference and a simplified survey of the theory is given in Section 2, emphasising features that will be relevant to the following discussion (and restricted to standard non-relativistic particle quantum mechanics.[1] A partially overlapping field is that of decoherent histories, which proceeds from an abstract definition of loss of interference, but which we shall not be considering in any detail. (shrink)

Philosophical reflection is a constitutive element of Schiller’s dramatic production from its very beginning. This chapter reconstructs the different stages of the interaction between Schiller’s tragedies and philosophy, the turning point of which can be seen in his theoretical work inspired by Kant. In his early tragedies, philosophical themes enter directly into the dramatic construction: in Die Räuber, we find a philosophical anthropology and critique of materialism, whereas in Fiesco and in Don Karlos echoes of the thought of Shaftesbury, (...) Montesquieu and Ferguson bring out the relationship between moral principles and political action. Instead, the late tragedies, beginning with Wallenstein, show a more complex and critical attitude towards philosophical thought, and are partly conceived as a response to questions left open in his theoretical writings. (shrink)

Abstract The role accorded to the public by scientists and philosophers of science has undergone an essential historical change in the last three centuries. Public participation in (witnessing of) scientific experiments was considered an important requirement for 17th century experimenters (e.g. for Boyle or Pascal). The cognitive role played by lay persons was later substantially downgraded; witnessing went out of fashion, while science became more and more esoteric and a matter for experts only. Part of this process was (...) that all scientific disciplines became intensively compartmentalized and in consequence a rather puzzling or even paradoxical situation appeared: that the scientists themselves were and are being reduced epistemically to the status of lay persons, outside of their proper field of expertise (as was pointed out by J. Hardwig). The paper deals with some cognitive aspects of this historical process. (shrink)

Background The edge metaphor is ubiquitous in describing the present situation in the world, and nowhere is this as clearly visible as in medicine. “The edge of medicine” has become the title of books, scholarly articles, media headlines, and lecture series and seems to be imbued with hype, hope, and aversion. In order better to understand what is at stake at “the edge of medicine” this article addresses three questions: What does “the edge of medicine” mean in contemporary debates on (...) modern medicine? What are the challenges “on the edge of medicine” (in these various meanings of “on the edge”)? How can philosophy and ethics contribute with addressing these challenges? Methods Literature searches in PubMed and Google Scholar are used to identify uses of the phrase “the edge of medicine” while conventional content analysis is used to analyze meanings of and challenges with “the edge of medicine.” These results are then investigated with respect to how philosophy and ethics can address the identified challenges. Results The literature reveals that “the edge of medicine” has many meanings, such as: Border; Margin (of life); Frontier; Forefront; Fringes; Plunge (abyss); Brink (verge); Conflict; and Balancing. In general, the various meanings address four basic challenges: setting limits, keeping control, make meaning, and handling conflicts or aporias. The analysis of each of the meanings of “the edge of medicine” identifies a wide range of important and urgent tasks for the humanities in general, and for philosophy and ethics in particular: 1) clarifying concepts; 2) clarifying assumptions and premises of arguments, methods, advice, and decisions; 3) elaborate new concepts and new theories; 4) conceptualize and handle uncertainty, moral regret, and residue; 5) reveal “the emperor’s new clothes;” 6) identify trends and reflect on their implications; 7) demarcation; and 8) reflecting on goodness in medicine. Conclusion The phrase “the edge of medicine” expresses a wide range of challenges for modern health care. Together with other disciplines philosophy and ethics can and should make crucial contributions at “the edge of medicine,” which is where the future of human beings and societies is created and formed. (shrink)

In Selbstgefühl, Manfred Frank provides a detailed study of the eighteenth century origins and contemporary philosophical implications of a unique kind of direct selfawareness. The growing significance of this phenomenon is closely related to three interconnected developments in modern philosophy, which I describe as the 'subjective turn', the 'aesthetic turn', and the 'historical turn'. While following Frank in emphasising key concepts in the first of these two turns, I add a stress on the historical turn in post-Kantian philosophical writing.

This paper aims to clarify the role the double plays in the constitution of identity, focusing on the movement between the individual and the collective level. Notably, the latter today is often considered through the lens of identity politics. The double, I argue, poses an alternative to this type of politics, by showing the interdependence of groups. As a case study, this paper focuses on the complex relationship between the anti-Semite and the Jew as depicted by Sartre. I begin (...) with a psychoanalytical examination of the figure of the double,follow on with an analysis of Sartre's work in the light of the double, and conclude with Girard's theory of mimetic desire. (shrink)

One of the causes of poor human-environment relations is the separation of the study of natural philosophy and human philosophy. The awareness to combine natural and human philosophy has been sparked by thinkers such as Henryk Skolimowski and Fritjof Capra. However, both are seen as not showing clear root values. Meanwhile, Sayyed Hossein Nasr has brought the concept of value in the combination of natural philosophy with human philosophy. However, he describes it as a mystical (...) concept that is too complex for many people to understand. Buya Hamka, with his monumental work on Al-Azhar commentary, has succeeded in combining natural and human philosophy based on clear values. Hamka is a multidimensional thinker with thinking characteristics that grow and blend into socio-cultural and religious so that many groups see it as more populist and can understand it. Hamka’s thinking way can be an alternative frame of reference for environmental problems. The Hamka concept constructs three main pillars: transcendent consciousness, caliphate and qana’ah. Transcendent consciousness is human appreciation based on religiosity. Caliphate is the role of humans to become mushlih (nature sustainer), preservers and guardians in efforts to beautify nature, and qana’ah encourages humans to take advantage of nature without exploiting it. Contribution: This research’s main contribution is offering an alternative concept of environmental philosophy construction based on religiosity. This concept is seen as a very accessible paradigm in most people’s minds and is not complicated. This paradigm can be disseminated and applied to many people, including in the junior high school environment, as a form of concern for the natural environment and sustainable life. (shrink)

본 논문은 지식과 권력의 효과로서 인간의 죽음을 다루었던 미셸 푸코의 중심적 입장과는 달리 푸코의 후기라 구분되는 윤리적 전환, 그 중에서도 고대의 ‘자기 배려’의 논의에 집중함으로써 과연 푸코가 주장하고자 하는 철학의 실용성이 무엇인지 재사유하고 그에 대한 답을 푸코의 후기 논의 속에서 발견하고자 한다. 즉, 푸코의 작업이 권력과 지식의 분석을 통해 근대적 주체를 해체했던 비판의 작업과 이후 전환된 후기 사상에서 자기 배려의 전통을 통해 새로운 주체화 가능성을 타진하는 시학적 작업이라는 두 축을 통해 전개된다고 했을 때 이러한 비판과 시학, 근대적 주체의 거부와 새로운 (...) 주체화의 추동이야말로 실존을 중심에 두고 벌어지는 그의 철학적 실용성이라고 보기 때문이다. 그러한 의미에서 본 논의는 근대의 주체 방식에 대항하여 이렇게 사는 것을 ‘더 이상 참을 수 없을 때’ 어떻게 살아야 하는가를 고민하는 이들-지금, 어딘가에서 경계적인 존재자로서의 살고 있는 그 어떤 삶이-그것이 탈북 여성이건, 성적 소수자이건, 환경과 빈곤으로 버려진 자들이건-의 질문을 통해 그의 철학적 실용성을 검토하는 작업, 혹은 그러한 시도로서 이해될 수 있을 것이다. (shrink)

In this paper I show how Michèle Le Dœuff’s conception of philosophy as work is central to her articulation of a fresh conception of women’s role in philosophy and philosophy’s relation to other work. In Hipparchia’s Choice (1991, 168) she writes that ‘There is at least a third way of conceiving of philosophy and the history of philosophy: we can regard both as work, and thus as a dynamic, which can lead to and from (...) each other.’ My objective is to clarify this concept of philosophy as work and to show its significance and implications for understanding women’s relation to philosophy and the complexity of Le Dœuff’s thought concerning the nature of freedom and oppression. (shrink)

Americans have been obsessed about the mechanics of perfectibility. Perfectibility is built into the constitutive documents of the American Republic. The expression of that perfection is Law, and Government provides the means. The mechanics of perfectibility lies in philosophy and theology. Through these mechanics Americans can discern the spirit of perfection - as God or as the genius of the American community made manifest. The essay considers these notions in the context of two cases, Swift v. Tyson (1842) and (...) Erie Railroad Co. v. Tomkins (1938), which provide both the antipodes of American conceptions of the sources and hierarchy of law, and also suggest the mechanics of a mandatory perfectibility in American. But the judge is not the only intermediary between perfection and its expression in law. The essay suggests the way the political branches also seek the role of privileged (and uniquely privileged) intermediaries between the people and perfection. The essay ends with a consideration of the value of the theology of faith and reason in the elaboration of American jurisprudence. (shrink)

A common view in both philosophy and the vision sciences is that, in human vision, wavelength information is primarily ‘for’ colouring: for seeing surfaces and various media as having colours. In this article we examine this assumption of ‘colour-for-colouring’. To motivate the need for an alternative theory, we begin with three major puzzles from neurophysiology, puzzles that are not explained by the standard theory. We then ask about the role of wavelength information in vision writ large. How might (...) wavelength information be used by any monochromat or dichromat and, finally, by a trichromatic primate with object vision? We suggest that there is no single ‘advantage’ to trichromaticity but a multiplicity, only one of which is the ability to see surfaces and so on as having categorical colours. Instead, the human trichromatic retina exemplifies a scheme for a general encoding of wavelength information given the constraints imposed by high spatial resolution object vision. Chromatic vision, like its partner, luminance vision, is primarily for seeing. Viewed this way, the ‘puzzles’ presented at the outset make perfect sense. 1 Reframing the Problem1.1 Introduction1.2 Three puzzles1.2.1 Why is trichromatic vision an anomaly in diurnal mammals?1.2.2 Why does the colour system occupy such a large and central part in human vision?1.2.3 Why are the blue cones so rare?1.3 Recasting the question2 The Costs and Benefits of Spectral Vision2.1 Spectral information and object vision2.2 Encoding the spectral dimension of light2.2.1 ‘General’ versus ‘specific’ encoding2.2.2 Spectral encoding and the monochromat2.2.3 Spectral encoding and the dichromat2.2.4 Spectral encoding and the human trichromat2.3 Three puzzles revisited2.3.1 Why is trichromatic vision an anomaly in diurnal mammals?2.3.2 Why does the colour system occupy such a large and central part in human vision?2.3.3 Why are the blue cones so rare3 Conclusion. (shrink)

This article sheds light on the European Union’s policy on citizenship; on the collective dimension of this policy, its ‘we’. It is argued that the inclusive, identity-constituting forces prominent in EU policy on European citizenship serve as a basis for the exclusion of people, which is illustrated by the recent expulsion of Romani from France. Based on a reading of Derrida, the twofold aim of this article is to reformulate the concept of a European citizenship ‘we’ and secondly, to outline (...) some implications of this reframing as concerns the role of education in the formation of citizens. (shrink)

What role should a motivation to do the right thing, read de dicto, play in the life of a virtuous agent? According to a prominent argument from Michael Smith, those who are only motivated by such a desire are moral fetishists. Since Smith’s argument, a number of philosophers have examined what role this desire would play in the life of the morally virtuous agent. My primary aim in this paper is an historical one. I will show that much (...) of this discussion can be found in Adam Smith’s The Theory of the Moral Sentiments (1764), published over two hundred years before Michael Smith’s The Moral Problem. I will then argue that there is an important insight to be found in Adam Smith’s book that is missing from the contemporary discussion. According to Adam Smith, while a de dicto desire to do the right thing can play an important role in the life of a virtuous agent, the person who is only ever motivated by this desire will often be epistemically disadvantaged compared to the person who possesses the appropriate sentiments. I will argue that Adam Smith’s claim is plausible given his own view of the moral sentiments as providing the foundation of morality. In addition, there is good reason to accept Smith’s claim even for those who do not accept his view of the foundational role of the moral sentiments. (shrink)

Predicated on a one-sided focus on political ‘voice’, analyses of political silences traditionally focused almost exclusively on their negative role as the harmful absence of participation or responsibility. More recently, a new appreciation for the wide spectrum of political functions of silence has gained ground, including forms of willful renitence and even active resistance. Yet this thematic expansion has also resulted in a loss of focus. Lacking a common analytical framework, research on political silences risks limiting itself to the (...) purely additive: finding and filling in ever more minute ‘blank spots’ on the periphery of the map of political research. Building on the work of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, this paper proposes a solution to this dilemma by means of a reconsideration of the political role of expectations. In political discourse, the expected distribution of moments of silence and articulation expresses established power structures, while unexpected silences and the breaking of expected silences conversely present a powerful means of calling these into question. Focusing on this ambivalence paves the way to a new systematic typology of political silences as a distinct mode of political communication. But above all, it points to the value of silence as an analytical probe, an instrument to fathom the expectations and constraints structuring political discourse in various contexts and spaces. Besides providing the study of silence with an overarching research focus, such an approach would thus build a bridge between the issue of political silence and wider debates on the structures of the political field as a whole. (shrink)

To express concern for our "relationship" with our environment is immediately to raise the questions of what our environment is and what sort of relationship we do--or ought to--have with it. While environmental thinkers frequently make broad factual and normative claims about our environment, I argue that these claims are usually based on a profound misunderstanding of the scope and limits of human knowledge; specifically, they overlook the ambiguity of our knowledge of our environment in favor of the apparent certainty (...) of speculative philosophy. I take as an important symptom of this the pronounced ambivalence of environmental thinkers toward the sciences, in consequence of which environmental thought cannot adequately integrate detailed, scientific knowledge of the material relationships that constitute our environment and bind us to it. ;Drawing from sources in the history of philosophy, the history and philosophy of science, and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, I re-evaluate the conceptual and theoretical bases of environmental thought, assess the possibilities and limits of our knowledge of material relationships as studied by ecology and the other environmental sciences, and discuss relevance of that knowledge for practical decision-making. James Lovelock's "Gaia" hypothesis serves as the key example throughout. ;Finally, I establish that an emphasis on scientific knowledge, properly understood, results in a radical revision of the meaning and the prospects of environmental thought. I identify three aspects of this revision: from theories of "relatedness" to an appropriate attention to material, particularly biological, relationships; from "biocentrism" to a newly constituted "anthropocentrism"; and from intellectualism to a more broadly based "environmental pragmatics," in which philosophy and the sciences each play a vital though narrowly circumscribed role. (shrink)

Where does theory come from in educational research - and how is it operationalized in diverse, interdisciplinary contexts and professional settings? This volume examines the places and spaces of theory in the work of nine pre- to post-doctoral scholars, whose narratives transport us across a wide range of interdisciplinary themes and fields of inquiry from Irigaray on mothering in higher education to Jamison among Danish engineering undergraduates; from Te Whariki in a New Zealand kindergarten to ren wen in contemporary China. (...) Drawing on a range of theorists such as Butler, Bhabah, Bourdieu, Freire, Foucault, Levi-Strauss and Žižek, the book provides numerous opportunities for debate and discussion on theory and the doctoral thesis and their interrelations with pedagogy and methodology in times of great insecurity across the globe. In doing so it develops new possibilities for pedagogies of change in and beyond our current educational systems and structures. (shrink)

In this article the paradoxical role of legal science in legal practice is discussed. On the one hand, legal scientists do not agree on the criterions of the scientific character of legal science. On the other hand, even in the legal cases that are especially complicated it is possible to arrive at theoretically unquestionable decisions. The author of the article concludes that legal practice is based on fundamental theoretical insights; however, in legal practice these insights are used more intuitively (...) than reflectively. Therefore, the aim of the article is to rationally reconstruct these theoretical insights with reference to the ideas of modern schools of legal philosophy. For this purpose the ideas of the theory of natural law are discussed. It is concluded that in legal practice two provisions of natural law are applied: legal decisions ought to be reasonable and must include existential ends (basic values). The evolution of the legal positivism is discussed in the article and it is concluded that legal positivism offers the criterions of the scientific character of legal science by framing the procedural rules of the democratic process of lawmaking. These rules anticipate such conditions: consensus concerning decision making; equal participation of all members of legal discourse confirming normative decisions; the acceptability of consequences after the realisation of normative decisions; the possibility to reaffirm normative decisions, if necessary. The ideas of virtue jurisprudence are discussed and it is claimed that virtue jurisprudence as a criterion of the scientific character of law proposes such theoretical position: the decisions concerning human rights must supply the value system (hierarchy) and the virtues which are formed and justified in the long legal tradition. The article represents the use of these criterions of the scientific character of legal science by Jurgen Habermas to debate about legal prohibition of the improvement of the human genome by using modern technologies of genome engineering in the Convention of Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo, 1997). (shrink)

Although the scholars of the Tibetan plateau were not philosophers in a European sense, the Tibetan academies have spent a millennium addressing ways in which formal analytic methods can assist epistemological investigation and best be applied to understanding the nature of existence. Throughout this time sharp debates were sustained over the proper role and function of critical analysis, during which they identified and described the many benefits and limitations of analytic thinking. Contemporary European philosophers studying the nature of formal (...) analytic reason can gain insight by considering these Tibetan inquiries into the hermeneutics of analytic thinking. (shrink)

This work contrasts conservative or minimally mutilating revisions of empirical theories as they are identified in the presently dominant AGM model of formal belief revision and the structuralist program for the reconstruction of empirical theories. The aim is to make understandable why both approaches only partly succeed in substantially informing and formally restraining the issue. With respect to the rationality of minimal change, the overall result is negative. Readers with an interest in formal epistemology are provided with application cases (mercury (...) anomaly, revision of early thermo-dynamics, introduction of the neutrino), the historically inclined reader is offered a systematic perspective. The discussion can largely be followed without a background in formal logic. (shrink)

This book, written by some of pragmatism’s leading scholars, explores the range of pragmatism and its resources for treating crucial contemporary issues. An exploration of the range of pragmatism and the limits of philosophy. Probes the range of pragmatism in terms of its international impact. Considers thinkers such as Emerson and Du Bois whose identity as pragmatists is contested. Extends pragmatism’s resources for dealing with crucial contemporary questions. Addresses pressing questions such as globalization, multiculturalism, race and ethnicity, the uses (...) of law and education, and the role of violence and war. Charts the ways in which pragmatism contributes to disciplines beyond philosophy, including law, history, psychology, American Studies, ethnic and cultural studies. (shrink)

Ancient Chinese logicians presupposed no fixed order in the world. Things are changing all the time. Time, then, plays a crucial role in the structure of Chinese logic. This article uses the concept of "subjective time" and the Leibnizian concept of "possible worlds" to analyze the structure of logic in the Later Mohist Canon and in the logical reasoning of other early Chinese philosophers. The author argues that Chinese logic is structured in the time of the now. This time (...) is subjective and "spreads out" to more than one possible world. Chinese logicians had to deal with relationships in not only a single world but also more than one "possible world." The aim of Chinese logical reasoning is not to represent any universal truth but to point out (zhi ) a particular-world-related truth, or, in other words, the harmony of relations among particulars in a particular field at a single moment. Therefore, a valid Chinese logical argument represents only the beauty of harmony among possible worlds at a given moment. The harmony represented by Chinese logic brings to light a high level of aesthetic order in a world that is always changing. (shrink)

This article investigates the distribution of power in Poland’s drug reimbursement policy in the early 2000s. We examine competing theoretical expectations suggested by neopluralism, historical institutionalism, corporate domination, and clique theory of the post-communist state, using data from a purposive sample of 109 semi-structured interviews and documentary sources. We have four concrete findings. First, we uncovered rapid growth in budgetary spending on expensive drugs for narrow groups of patients. Second, to achieve these favorable policy outcomes drug companies employed two prevalent (...) methods of lobbying: informal persuasion of key members of local cliques and endorsements expressed by patient organizations acting as seemingly independent “third parties.” Third, medical experts were co-opted by multinational drug companies because they relied on these firms for scientific and financial resources that were crucial for their professional success. Finally, there was one-way social mobility from the state to the pharmaceutical sector, not the “revolving door” pattern familiar from advanced capitalist countries, with deleterious consequences for state capacity. Overall, the data best supported a combination of corporate domination and clique theory: drug reimbursement in Poland was dominated by Western multinationals in collaboration with domestically based cliques. (shrink)

The professionalization of British philosophy was not completed until the mid-twentieth century. But the fundamental changes in society and in the universities in the late nineteenth century prepared the way for the professionalization of university teaching and of particular academic subjects. This process was slower in philosophy partly because of the prominent role played by amateurs in philosophical institutions and partly because of the historic interconnection of philosophy with other subjects such as classics and psychology.