H. G. Gadamer’s “philosophical hermeneutics” elicited a controversial response in contemporary philosophy. R. Rorty and G. Vattimo tried to impart a more relativistic shade to H. G. Gadamer’s hermeneutics. In contrast, J. Derrida was inclined to consider H. G. Gadamer hermeneutics more dependent on the previous epoch of “metaphysics of presence”. This article purposes to reveal the points of contact and division between the thinking strategies employed by hermeneutics and deconstruction, providing theoretical arguments why H. G. Gadamer hermeneutics should not (...) be reduced to the so-called “metaphysics of presence”. The question whether H. G. Gadamer’s hermeneutics belongs to “metaphysics of presence” or not is closely intertwined with the problem of dogmatism of meaning and relativism of meaning. J. Derrida was inclined to regard H. G. Gadamer’s hermeneutic as a theory of a search for and discovery of a pre-existing or objective meaning which accounts for the theory’s persistent belonging with metaphysical dogmatism. In opposition to such judgement, this article seeks to substantiate the following thesis: in H. G. Gadamer’s hermeneutics which is based on the “good will” to understand, the problem of dogmatism of meaning (there is one universal objective meaning or truth) and relativism of meaning (there is a multitude of meanings open to interpretation without reference to the primary signified) can be solved by taking into consideration the way offered by E. Husserl phenomenology, i.e. by understanding any possible “thing” (die Sache) as a “thing-in-itself” only in different perceptual perspectives (die perspektivischen Abschattungen). (shrink)

Remiantis F. Nietzsche’s ir G. Deleuze’o tekstų analize, siekiama parodyti, kad pagal klasikinio mąstymo kanonus ypač problemišku dalyku tampa naujos minties pasirodymo galimybė. Klasikinis mąstymas traktuojamas kaip sėslios egzistencijos tipas ir jam priešinamas klajokliškas, nomadiškas mąstymas. Pasitelkiant Deleuze’s išskirtus atpažinimo ir susitikimo modelius, pirma, siekiama pagrįsti požiūrį, kad ir Nietzsche’s filosofiją galime vadinti nomadišku mąstymu ir atitinkančią susitikimo modelį ir antra, siekiama išryškinti naujybės specifiką ir jos steigties transcendentalines sąlygas. Reikšminiai žodžiai: valia siekti galios, interpretacija, simptomatika, sėslusis mąstymas, nomadizmas, atpažinimo (...) modelis, susitikimo modelis. F. NIETZSCHE AND G. DELEUZE: THE SEDENTARY LIFE SYMPTOMATICS AND NOMADIC THINKING CONFRONTATIONS Arūnas Mickevičius Summary The article deals with F. Nietzsche’s and G. Deleuze’s attitude to classical thought. Nietzsche’s theoretical constructs are based on the principle Wille zur Macht, where he emphatically praised active forces and accused all classical thinking of turning away from life and associating it with reactive, negative forces. Nietzsche’s philosophy denies the exceptionally unique true opinion of the world and offers, instead, a variety of interpretations, i. e. a perspectivist approach to the world. In describing architectural metaphors of classical thinking he shows that it is reactive, life-denying, that its assumed grandeur in fact hides the poverty of life. On the other hand, Nietzsche attempts to release the metaphoric power from the single axiom of Truth, to release creativity, to legitimize a perspective, interpretative view of the world, based on the mentioned “will-to-power” principle and related to assertive powers of active life. Also, there are analyzed two models of knowledge, recognition and encounter, proposed by G. Deleuze. The main aims of the article is to demonstrate first, that Nietzsche’s philosophy can be named as nomadic thinking which corresponds to the model of encounter and, second, reveal the transcendental conditions of innovation. Keywords: will to power, interpretation, symptomatics, sedentary life, nomadism, encounter model, recognition model. (shrink)

Much recent work on Aristotle's Categories assumes that there is an ontological theory presented in that work and tries to reconstruct it on the basis of the slender evidence in the book. I claim that this is misguided. Using a distinction made by G.E.L. Owen between theory and the "phaenomena", I argue that the Categories is mainly concerned with setting out the phenomena -- the intuitions that any ontology must explain. This thesis has consequences for the interpretation of Aristotle's ontological (...) writings. I explore some of these. (shrink)

This volume is about the many ways we perceive. Contributors explore the nature of the individual senses, how and what they tell us about the world, and how they interrelate. They consider how the senses extract perceptual content from receptoral information. They consider what kinds of objects we perceive and whether multiple senses ever perceive a single event. They consider how many senses we have, what makes one sense distinct from another, and whether and why distinguishing senses may be useful. (...) They consider the extent to which the senses act in concert, rather than as discrete modalities, and whether this influence is epistemically pernicious, neutral, or beneficial. They explore both the familiar five sense modalities and other candidate sense modalities, including a sense for flavour, inner senses (e.g., a sense for pain), and various senses that may result from using sensory substitution devices. Contributors often represent competing views, and the methods they deploy sometimes differ from one essay to the next—with some drawing upon the sciences and engineering and others relying upon conceptual analysis. All contributors agree, nonetheless, that traditional theorizing about the senses is hampered by a neglect of the senses other than vision, and by the misconception that vision is a passive receptacle for an image thrown by a lens. And many contributors believe that it is unduly restrictive to think of perception as a collation of contents provided by individual sense modalities; they think that to understand perception properly, we need to build into our accounts the idea that the senses work together. The ambition of the volume is to begin to develop better paradigms for understanding the senses, and thereby to move toward a better understanding of perception. (shrink)

In common with many other "virtue epistemologists," Abrol Fairweather and Carlos Montemayor contend that in order to count as knowledge, a mental state must be the product of truth-apt dispositions. I question their theoretical motivations. First, I note that unlike virtue ethics, affect is irrelevant to knowledge. A generous act is arguably better if it is performed warm-heartedly, but a belief is no more creditable if it is performed with the right affect. Second, I argue that non-discursive skills are better (...) cases for virtue epistemologists than cognitive reliability—but because it is hard to know how skills work in individual instances of belief-formation, they cannot figure in the accreditation of knowledge. Finally, I argue that the oughts that attend inquiry (e.g., "you ought to look into this carefully") come from outside the context of inquiry. (shrink)

Arūnas Sverdiolas’s way of reading Deleuze raises questions about the compatibility of two traditions: how and to what extent can a philosopher of Culture understand a philosopher of Nature and Life? Deleuze, formed in the rationalist tradition, resists the philosophy of Consciousness and Meaning, in which universality is held higher than empirical particularity. thinking – a cause of allergy for a Frenchman – is on the contrary an aspiration for a Lithuanian. Sverdiolas’s formation has its roots in resistance against Marxist-materialist (...) thinking, with the help of philosophy of culture. He considers the whole philosophy of the 20th century as an anthropological philosophy of Culture. This does not facilitate understanding Deleuze’s thought. His vitalist philosophy is deemed paramaterialist and considered to be reductionist. Hence a contradiction: Deleuze is recognized as a gifted historian of philosophy, but his own thinking is viewed with scepticism, without seeing its roots in the history of philosophy. The reason why Deleuze’s philosophy rejects the anthropocentric perspective – that of the ego and of consciousness – is not considered. (shrink)

Philosophy of perception has recently become one of the most important and most central sub-fields of philosophical research. The aim of this volume is to give a representative sample of the new approaches in philosophy of perception that are responsible for this explosion of philosophical interest. Perceiving the World contains eleven original essays, written specially for this book by some of the leading contemporary philosophers of perception: Jonathan Cohen, JTr(me Dokic, Fred Dretske, Andy Egan, Benj Hellie, Sean D. Kelly, M.G.F. (...) Martin, Mohan Matthen, Adam Pautz, Jesse J. Prinz, and Susanna Siegel." "Bence Nanay is BOF Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. He received his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006. He has published articles in various journals on philosophy of mind, philosophy of biology, and aesthetics."--BOOK JACKET. (shrink)

The article seeks to highlight and thus draw attention to some important features of A. Sverdiolas’s thinking and his hermeneutic research. The article discusses three models of cultural hermeneutics: “weak hermeneutics,” “strong hermeneutics,” and “deep hermeneutics.” The aim of the article is to substantiate the thesis that A. Sverdiolas’s hermeneutics can be assigned to the so-called “strong hermeneutics,” but with elements that are also characteristic of the so-called “deep hermeneutics.” The article emphasizes that A. Sverdiolas considers and discusses in his (...) texts the conceptual approaches of the so-called “weak hermeneutics,” but does not theoretically engage in it. It should be emphasized that A. Sverdiolas considers and discusses the conceptual approaches of the so-called “weak hermeneutics,” but does not theoretically engage in it. Also, based on the metaphorical image of “urbanization,” the article seeks to draw attention to A. Sverdiolas’s contribution to expanding and deepening research in the field of culture in Lithuania. (shrink)

Evolutionary theory is formulated in terms of individuals that carry heritable information and are subject to selective pressures. However, individuality itself is a trait that had to evolve - an individual is not an indivisible entity, but a result of evolutionary processes that necessarily begin at the lower level of hierarchical organisation. Traditional approaches to biological individuality focus on cooperation and relatedness within a group, division of labour, policing mechanisms and strong selection at the higher level. Nevertheless, despite considerable theoretical (...) progress in these areas, a full dynamical first-principles account of how new types of individuals arise is missing. To the extent that individuality is an emergent trait, the problem can be approached by recognising the importance of individuating mechanisms that are present from the very beginning of the transition, when only lower-level selection is acting. Here we review some of the most influential theoretical work on the role of individuating mechanisms in these transitions, and demonstrate how a lower-level, bottom-up evolutionary framework can be used to understand biological complexity involved in the origin of cellular life, early eukaryotic evolution, sexual life cycles and multicellular development. Some of these mechanisms inevitably stem from environmental constraints, population structure and ancestral life cycles. Others are unique to specific transitions - features of the natural history and biochemistry that are co-opted into conflict mediation. Identifying mechanisms of individuation that provide a coarse-grained description of the system's evolutionary dynamics is an important step towards understanding how biological complexity and hierarchical organisation evolves. In this way, individuality can be reconceptualised as an approximate model that with varying degrees of precision applies to a wide range of biological systems. (shrink)

Seeing, Doing, and Knowing is an original and comprehensive philosophical treatment of sense perception as it is currently investigated by cognitive neuroscientists. Its central theme is the task-oriented specialization of sensory systems across the biological domain. Sensory systems are automatic sorting machines; they engage in a process of classification. Human vision sorts and orders external objects in terms of a specialized, proprietary scheme of categories - colours, shapes, speeds and directions of movement, etc. This 'Sensory Classification Thesis' implies that sensation (...) is not a naturally caused image from which an organism must infer the state of the world beyond; it is more like an internal communication, a signal concerning the state of the world issued by a sensory system, in accordance with internal conventions, for the use of an organism's other systems. This is why sensory states are both easily understood and persuasive.Sensory classification schemes are purpose-built to serve the knowledge-gathering and pragmatic needs of particular types of organisms. They are specialized: a bee or a bird does not see exactly what a human does. The Sensory Classification Thesis helps clarify this specialization in perceptual content and supports a new form of realism about the deliverances of sensation: 'Pluralistic Realism' is based on the idea that sensory systems coevolve with an organism's other systems; they are not simply moulded to the external world. The last part of the book deals with reference in vision. Cognitive scientists now believe that vision guides the limbs by means of a subsystem that links up with the objects of physical manipulation in ways that bypass sensory categories. In a novel extension of this theory, Matthen argues that 'motion-guiding vision' is integrated with sensory classification in conscious vision. This accounts for the quasi-demonstrative form of visual states: 'This particular object is red', and so on. He uses this idea to cast new light on the nature of perceptual objects, pictorial representation, and the visual representation of space. (shrink)

How do fitness and natural selection relate to other evolutionary factors like architectural constraint, mode of reproduction, and drift? In one way of thinking, drawn from Newtonian dynamics, fitness is one force driving evolutionary change and added to other factors. In another, drawn from statistical thermodynamics, it is a statistical trend that manifests itself in natural selection histories. It is argued that the first model is incoherent, the second appropriate; a hierarchical realization model is proposed as a basis for a (...) statistical treatment. It emerges that natural selection does not cause evolution; it just is evolution. The theory incorporates relations of statistical correlation, but not the kind of causation found in fundamental physical processes. (shrink)

A hitherto neglected form of explanation is explored, especially its role in population genetics. “Statistically abstractive explanation” (SA explanation) mandates the suppression of factors probabilistically relevant to an explanandum when these factors are extraneous to the theoretical project being pursued. When these factors are suppressed, the explanandum is rendered uncertain. But this uncertainty traces to the theoretically constrained character of SA explanation, not to any real indeterminacy. Random genetic drift is an artifact of such uncertainty, and it is therefore wrong (...) to reify it as a cause of evolution or as a process in its own right. *Received July 2009. †To contact the author, please write to: Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, 170 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5R 2M8, Canada; e‐mail: mohan[email protected]. (shrink)

This paper presents a new account of aesthetic pleasure, according to which it is a distinct psychological structure marked by a characteristic self-reinforcing motivation. Pleasure figures in the appreciation of an object in two ways: In the short run, when we are in contact with particular artefacts on particular occasions, aesthetic pleasure motivates engagement and keeps it running smoothly—it may do this despite the fact that the object we engagement is aversive in some ways. Over longer periods, it plays a (...) critical role in shaping how we engage with objects to get this kind of pleasure from them. This account is yoked to a broadly functional understanding of art: it is not the nature of the object that makes it art, but the nature of the response that it is designed to elicit. The view does not, however, rest on individual psychology alone, as some other functional accounts do. Crucially, it is argued that shared cultural context is a key determinant of the pleasure we derive from aesthetic artefacts. The pleasure of art is always communal and communicative. (shrink)

Comparative study of the Yoga of Patañjali and Jaina Yoga.

Straipsnyje aptariami pagrindinių fizinio ugdymo koncepcijų filosofiniai aspektai pabrėžiant filosofijos kaip temiškai neredukuoto mokslo tarpdalykinę reikšmę. Fizinio ugdymo tikslų ir metodų konceptualizavimas neišvengiamai suponuoja vienokią ar kitokią kūno sampratą. Straipsnio autoriai remiasi principine nuostata, kad filosofinei refleksijai sportas ir fizinis aktyvumas atsiskleidžia kaip tam tikros žmogaus saviaktualizacijos formos. Straipsnyje atskleidžiama fizinio ugdymo koncepcijų kaitos sąsaja su filosofinio požiūrio į kūną pokyčiais, išryškinami holistinio požiūrio į individą ir jo ugdymą formavimosi esminiai etapai.

The Theragatha of the Khuddakanikaya has only ten stanzas uttered by the Elder Kaludayi. However, the Madhuratthavilasini, the commentary to the Buddhavamsa preserves 64 stanzas ascribed to the Elder while the Visuddhajanavilasini, the commentary to the Apad?na quotes a different series consisting of 48 stanzas ascribed to him. It is probable that these two series contain ancient verses which could not be accommodated within the Pali canon and then continued to be preserved in the commentaries as extra-canonical texts. Yet some (...) of the verses in these two series appear to be later compositions. The present article offers a literal translation of the Bv-a and the Ap-a verses, which have so far received no scholarly attention. (shrink)

Besides Giving An Account Of The Origin And Development Of Buddhism As Well As The Works Of Vasubandhu And Reviewing The Abhidarwa Literature Of Buddhism, Written In Sanskrit And Pali This Book Thoroughly Analyses The Doctrine Of Sarvastivada And The Buddhist Conceptions Of Feeling, Perception, Consciousness And Impression.

Several modern commentators of Dignaga have puzzled over the 5th century Buddhist philosopher1s theory of the triple condition of the inferential sign. Th. Stcherbatsky (1932), Richard Hayes (1988) and Bimal K. Matilal (1986) have wondered at the reasons for Dignaga’s insistence on the inclusion of the secondcondition, which seems to be the logical equivalent of the third condition. Do the three criteria together furnish patterns of valid inference which differ from those patterns furnished by criteria one and three alone? In (...) this paper, I detail three types of cases which underline the importance of the inclusion of the second criterion. (shrink)

Straipsniu siekiama įvertinti gydytojų integracijos darbo rinkoje būklę bei tendencijų raidą; pastarosios yra vertinamos ekonomikos pakilimo / nuosmukio sąlygų kontekste. Vienas svarbesnių šios publikacijos prioritetų – gydytojų darbinis mobilumas (migracijos tendencijos) darbo rinkoje vykstančių pokyčių fone. Nemažai dėmesio šioje publikacijoje skiriama tyrimo autorių atliktos gydytojų kokybinės apklausos duomenųanalizei, kurią atliekant buvo panaudoti Lietuvos statistikos departamento kaupiami darbo jėgos (užimtumo) tyrimų ir darbo statistikos duomenys. Straipsnyje aptariamos šalies ūkio apsirūpinimo žmogiškaisiais ištekliais Lietuvos sveikatos priežiūros sektoriuje problemos, įvertinamos medikų karjeros galimybės. Atsižvelgiant (...) į esamą padėtį ir stebimų pokyčių analizę, buvo suformuluotos aktualias mūsų šalies gydytojų integracijosį darbo rinką problemas atspindinčios išvados. (shrink)

Socialinio darbo teoretikai sutinka, kad Pierre’o Bourdieu sociologijos įtaka sociali­ niam darbui plečiasi ir gilėja. Kita vertus, kai kalbama apie socialinio darbo profesiją, tie patys teoretikai ignoruoja P. Bourdieu nuostatą nuo profesijos tyrimų pereiti prie profesinio lauko analizės. P. Bourdieu profesijos fenomeną laikė biurokratinės pri­ gimties konceptualizacija, kuri įtvirtina mokslinio mąstymo logikai prieštaraujančias heteronomijos apraiškas. Straipsnyje siekiama įgyvendinti P. Bourdieu reikalavimą ir, pritaikius jį socialiniam darbui, nuo socialinio darbo profesijos analizės pereiti prie socialinio darbo profesinio lauko tyrimų. Straipsnyje ieškome atsakymo (...) į klausimą, kaip keičiasi su socialiniu darbu siejamų veiklos formų arba praktikų traktavimas, kai socialinio darbo profesijos analizę keičia socialinio darbo lauko tyrimas. Palyginę trijų skirtingų šalių – JAV, Japonijos ir Lietuvos – socialinio darbo profesinės veiklos lau­ kus, priėjome prie išvados, kad profesinio lauko, kitaip nei profesijos, požiūris sudaro prielaidas įtraukti į socialinio darbo lauką tas socialinio įgalinimo praktikas, kurios, socialinio darbo profesijos požiūriu, lieka anapus biurokratinio socialinio darbo reg­ lamento. (shrink)

Abstract“Selfish” gene theories have offered invaluable insight into eukaryotic genome evolution, but they can also be misleading. The “selfish mitochondrion” hypothesis, developed in the 90s explained uniparental organelle inheritance as a mechanism of conflict resolution, improving cooperation between genetically distinct compartments of the cell. But modern population genetic models provided a more general explanation for uniparental inheritance based on mutational variance redistribution, modulating the efficiency of both purifying and adaptive selection. Nevertheless, as reviewed here, “selfish” conflict theories still dominate the (...) literature. While these hypotheses are rich in metaphor and highly intuitive, selective focus on only one type of mitochondrial mutation limits the generality of our understanding and hinders progress in mito‐nuclear evolution theory. Recognizing that uniparental inheritance may have evolved—and is maintained across the eukaryotic tree of life—because of its influence on mutational variance and improved selection will only increase the generality of our evolutionary reasoning, retaining “selfish” conflict explanations as a special case of a much broader theory. (shrink)

Perceptions "present" objects as red, as round, etc.-- in general as possessing some property. This is the "perceptual content" of the title, And the article attempts to answer the following question: what is a materialistically adequate basis for assigning content to what are, after all, neurophysiological states of biological organisms? The thesis is that a state is a perception that presents its object as "F" if the "biological function" of the state is to detect the presence of objects that are (...) "F". The theory contrasts with causal/informational theories, and with internalist theories, for example those which assign content on the basis of introspected feel. Its advantages are that it permits perceptual error while at the same time allowing content to be expressed in terms of external properties. The argument of the paper is illustrated throughout by examples from biology and computational psychology. (shrink)

Throughout this research, imposing the training of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to play tic-tac-toe bored game, by training the ANN to play the tic-tac-toe logic using the set of mathematical combination of the sequences that could be played by the system and using both the Gradient Descent Algorithm explicitly and the Elimination theory rules implicitly. And so on the system should be able to produce imunate amalgamations to solve every state within the game course to make better of results (...) of winnings or getting draw. (shrink)

Memory seems intuitively to consist in the preservation of some proposition (in the case of semantic memory) or sensory image (in the case of episodic memory). However, this intuition faces fatal difficulties. Semantic memory has to be updated to reflect the passage of time: it is not just preservation. And episodic memory can occur in a format (the observer perspective) in which the remembered image is different from the original sensory image. These difficulties indicate that memory cannot be preserved content. (...) It is proposed that what is preserved in memory isan underlying "trace", and that in every act of remembering, memorial content is reconstructed from the preserved trace. (shrink)