Scientific Philosophy,Mathematical Philosophy,and All That

This article suggests that scientific philosophy, especially mathematical philosophy, might be one important way of doing philosophy in the future. Along the way, the article distinguishes between different types of scientific philosophy; it mentions some of the scientific methods that can serve philosophers; it aims to undermine some worries about mathematical philosophy; and it tries to make clear why in certain cases the application of mathematical methods is necessary for philosophical progress.     

会通与融合--马克思主义哲学、中国传统哲学与西方哲学的互动

马克思主义哲学、中国传统哲学与西方哲学的会通与融合,正在成为当前中国哲学界关注的热点问题。对此,我谈谈三点看法,抛砖引玉,以就教于方家。一问题的背景从1840年“鸦片战争”以后,中国逐步融入世界,开始启动现代化的进程。在思想界,介绍传播西方思想与哲学成为时尚,首先是达尔文的进化论,进而是培根、笛卡尔以来的近代西方经验主义和理性主义,然后是追本溯源,从古希腊苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德到德国古典哲学家康德、黑格尔等人的整个西方哲学思想经典,在中国都得到介绍与研究。1917年俄国“十月革命”胜利以后,马克思主义哲学作为…     

Philosophy,Early Modern Intellectual History,and the History of Philosophy

Historians of philosophy are increasingly likely to emphasize the extent to which their work offers a pay‐off for philosophers of un‐historical or anti‐historical inclinations; but this defence is less familiar, and often seems less than self‐evident, to intellectual historians. This article examines this tendency, arguing that such arguments for the instrumental value of historical scholarship in philosophy are often more problematic than they at first appear. Using the relatively familiar case study of René Descartes' reading of his scholastic and Aristotelian contemporaries, the article attempts to problematize this notion of pay‐off from an historian's perspective.     

Modeling,Truth, and Philosophy

Knowledge requires truth, and truth, we suppose, involves unflawed representation. Science does not provide knowledge in this sense but rather provides models, representations that are limited in their accuracy, precision, or, most often, both. Truth as we usually think of it is an idealization, one that serves wonderfully in most ordinary applications, but one that can terribly mislead for certain issues in philosophy. This article sketches how this happens for five important issues, thereby showing how philosophical method must take into account the idealized nature of our familiar conception of truth.     

Philosophy,writing, and liberation

In responding to the three creative interpretive discussions in the symposium on my book Philosophy and the Art of Writing, this paper explores the different styles of philosophical discourse and their role in the practice of philosophy as a way of life that extends beyond the discursive and that combines self-cultivation with care for others in the ethical-aesthetic pursuit of living beauty. In advocating this aesthetic model of philosophical life over a purely therapeutic model, I suggest how the former can incorporate the latter's concerns for spiritual health and liberation. In developing my response to the symposiasts while elaborating on the themes of my book, I consider issues of ineffability, creative performance, embodiment, truth, heroism, vulnerability, possession, art, spirituality, love, and liberation.     

Growth,Experience and Nature in Dewey's Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy

Growth is an important concept in Dewey's philosophy,and,indeed,its ultimate focus.It is not,however,an easy task to posit growth as an ethical ideal,for here Dewey immediately faces a metaphysical dilemma:whether to offer us an objective standard of growth,which becomes a type of absolutism,or to inevitably fall into relativism.This paper explores how Dewey avoids this dilemma with his concept of experience,which is interrogated through the relationship between human beings and nature.Still,human growth in nature involves the cultivation of virtuosities (de德) in accordance with the rhythm of nature,and requires a completely different way of life other than our technological one.For this reason,I use Chinese philosophy,specifically ideas from the Yijing,to show how growth can be illustrated through the interaction between humans and the natural world.     

Philosophy, Solipsism and Thought

Wittgenstein's view of philosophy in the Tractatus presupposes that thought may be revealed without remainder in the use of signs. It is commonly held, however, that in the Tractatus he treated thought as logically prior to language. If this view, expressed most lucidly by Norman Malcolm, were correct, Wittgenstein would be inconsistent in holding that thought can be revealed without remainder in the use of signs. I argue that this is not correct. Thought may be prior to language in time but not in logic , for non-verbal symbols must have a logical structure in common with verbal ones. A view comparable with Malcolm's holds that Wittgenstein, under the influence of Schopenhauer, is committed to some form of solipsism. I argue that neither Schopenhauer nor Wittgenstein held any version of solipsism. For both philosophers, subject and object are correlative, so that it is incoherent to affirm the existence of the one without presupposing the existence of the other.     

Wittgenstein,Aesthetics and Philosophy

Books reviewed: Peter B. Lewis (ed.), Wittgenstein, Aesthetics and Philosophy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004). 255 pp., price £49.50.
Reviewed by Ole Martin Skilleås, University of Bergen, Norway
Department of Philosophy
University of Bergen
Sydnesplassen 7
NO‐5007 Bergen
Ole.skilleas@fil.uib.no     

Cinema,Philosophy and Education

Studies in Philosophy and Education - This special issue responds to the current discourse on cinema and education from a philosophical point of view. Considering the fact that young people...     

Philosophy,Addiction and Inquiry

ABSTRACT

This introductory paper raises, partly as a preparation for the other papers in this issue, questions about how philosophy ought to proceed in the light of knowledge we have in surrounding disciplines, with a focus on the case of addiction. It also raises issues about how addiction research might be enlightened by philosophical work. In the background for the paper are two competing approaches to the evidential grounding of philosophical insight. According to a widespread view, philosophical knowledge rests on a set of intuitions. According to another, philosophy has no special evidential grounding. This paper resists the attractions of the first picture, and argues against the separateness of philosophy that it lends support. I try to make plausible that such a picture is harmful both for philosophy and for empirical science. We should replace it with a mild form of unity of science or unity of inquiry, in the spirit of the founder of this journal.     

时代·传统·中国哲学——时代课题与中国哲学史研究三十年来的演进逻辑

对新时期以来中国哲学史研究的追溯,如果说在盘点三十年积累的研究成果之余,还应该自觉承担一个反思和总结的任务的话,那么,追溯的本意,应该是去追问三十年来中国哲学史研究所遵循的观念和方法的背景,去探讨推动新时期以来中国哲学史研究展开的学科动力和问题意识,更为重要的是,去"如其本来"地重构中国哲学史研究展开中的时代逻辑与知识逻辑之间的互动关联.这样一种"还原重构"工作的重要性在于,可以促使我们理智地认识当前中国哲学史研究所处位置的来龙去脉,历史地理解当前中国哲学史研究的处境.而这一点,要远比立足于某一立场之上评点过往,更具建设性意义.     

Philosophy,mathematics, science and computation

Attempts to lay a foundation for the sciences based on modern mathematics are questioned. In particular, it is not clear that computer science should be based on set-theoretic mathematics. Set-theoretic mathematics has difficulties with its own foundations, making it reasonable to explore alternative foundations for the sciences. The role of computation within an alternative framework may prove to be of great potential in establishing a direction for the new field of computer science.Whitehead's theory of reality is re-examined as a foundation for the sciences. His theory does not simply attempt to add formal rigor to the sciences, but instead relies on the methods of the biological and social sciences to construct his world-view. Whitehead's theory is a rich source of notions that are intended to explain every element of experience. It is a product of Whitehead's earlier attempt to provide a mathematical foundation for the physical sciences and is still consistent with modern physics.A computer simulation language is, in fact, a theory of reality; one that is often based on extremely simplistic notions. Simulation languages have evolved from the various programming languages and not from the development of their underlying world-view. The use of an established theory of reality, such as Whitehead's, as the basis of a simulation language is proposed as a way of extending the usefulness of computer simulation as an experimental tool for the theory.The simulation language is a first step in this direction. Based on Whitehead's notion of concrescence and a formalization in the typed -calculus, provides a notation and method for the construction and simulation of real-world phenomena. Both philosophy and computer science stand to benefit from such an attempt. Whitehead's theory gains a testing tool, while computer science gains a significantly more advanced simulation language. In philosophical discussion, the merest hint of dogmatic certainty as to the finality of statement is an exhibition of folly. A. N. Whitehead,Process and Reality.     

Theory,Philosophy, and Descriptive Research

Abstract

With its international constituency, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a large a membership that primarily comprises non-native English speakers. Students have had challenges in understanding and appreciating the writings of one of the church’s co-founders, Ellen White. The purpose of this study was to analyze the Testimonies for the Church and to quantitatively identify the difficulties with comprehending White’s writing. The results reveal that the readability is consistent with a middle school reading level; the text is moderately formal in nature; the sentiment of the text is neutral; and White’s writing style varies little over time.