Filosofija. Sociologija

Title

Lietuvos mokslų akademija — 2024-08-26

Between Philosophia Perennis and Contemporary Research

Tomas Nemunas Mickevičius — 2024-08-26

The overview of this issue of Philosophy/Sociology presents the main themes through the lens of basic introduction to philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology and practical philosophy. The interrelationship between the three is shown. In this issue, among other themes, John Dewey’s concept of experience of nature is presented, some topics of skepticism and ethical aspects of war, progress of technology and business are discussed.

Nature as Event: A Study on John Dewey’s Naturalism

Chengbing Wang — 2024-08-26

John Dewey’s naturalism requires viewing nature and experience from the perspective of holism, emphasising the continuity between these two. To Dewey, nature is not a fixed entity, but an event in an ongoing process of unfolding. The temporality of an event can meet Dewey’s requirement of constructing a philosophical notion about change and development. The event has a relatively stable structure. The continuity between living things and non-living things becomes possible because of the characteristic transactions of events, and experience thus becomes something emergent in nature and actively intervenes in its unfolding. The emergence of human intelligence and the application of language has lifted nature to a controllable and operable plane, making experience a crucial guide for the unfolding of nature.

Experiencing Animals from Corporeal Perspective in Contemporary World

Justina Šumilova — 2024-08-26

The research hypothesis is that language impacts the way we understand and define animal body. The article analyses the relationship between language, body and signification. The second hypothesis is that a gaze and a phenomenological relationship with animals can open up a dialogical relationship with animals. Later, the article investigates certain case studies of animal bodily experience starting from animal representations in our world, zoo animals, animal cloning to human bodily relationship with pets which is impacted by the capitalist system. The article is using the phenomenological approach of M. Merleau-Ponty as a research method which emphasises the importance of the experience of animals and their representations from a corporeal perspective. M. Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological method focuses on the lived experience of the body as central to our understanding of the world. The hypothesis of the research is that animals are viewed from a corporeal perspective from the human point of view and that humans humanise the animals. The research’s results prove that language forms the way we understand animals from bodily experience because it creates a narrative and a way of prehension of the animal body. Secondly, representations of animals in our daily life create a humanised view of animals which is a non-realistic depiction of animals. Finally, the article reveals that M. Merleau-Ponto phenomenology helps to create a connection between animals and humans, creating a realistic relationship between humans and animals.

Analogy and Aquinas’s ‘Ontotheology’

John F. X. Knasas — 2024-08-26

My article explains Aquinas’s ecstatic reaction to his metaphysical conclusions in contrast to Heidegger’s dower reactions to ontotheology. I take advantage of some scholarship in my recently published monograph, ‘Thomistic Existentialism and Cosmological Reasoning’. Aquinas’s philosophical joy is rooted in the mind’s ability to discover sameness-in-difference, in other words, analogical conception. The discovery of analogy places the human mind in contact with an intelligible object, or commonality, that is far richer than portrayed in the different instances, as stunning as those different instances can be. Esse commune is one such commonality in different particular esses. Aquinas employs the analogon of esse commune to craft a representation of his metaphysical conclusion of esse subsistens. Consequently, Aquinas’ metaphysics and its proof of God as subsistent esse confronts the philosopher not only with a stunning intelligible object but a stunning intelligible object that is also a reality. This conclusion evokes all of the emotions of analogical conceptualisation and presents the possibility of a direct encounter with an analogical object.

A Difference between Ecstatic Time and Pure Duration

Nerijus Stasiulis — 2024-08-26

The article offers a speculative comparison of two approaches to modern materialist science – that of Heidegger based on the understanding of ecstatic time and that of Bergson based on the notion of vital momentum, or pure duration. Bergson’s notion of vital momentum can be derived from the Heideggerian ecstasy of the future. The notion of fundamental material elements as well as the notion of their lawful movement can be derived from the Heideggerian ecstasies of the past and the present. Bergson also sees modern science as based on the concept of what is finished (past) and of what is present (given). While Bergson opposes his vital momentum to the notion of matter which underlies modern materialist science, Heidegger shows the historical origin of these notions in the Greek understanding of Presence and also the ontological origin in Presence as ecstatic time. Bergson’s pure duration is a mode of the inauthentic understanding of temporality. The analysis and comparison draw on phenomenological-hermeneutical approach, fundamental ontology as well as ‘philosophy of life’.

The Meaning of Causality and the Premise and Root of Its Existence

Sherman Xie — 2024-08-26

This article aims to understand the most fundamental operating principles of the phenomenal world and figure out how phenomena within the phenomenal world are interconnected. Causality is the most basic connection, rule, logic and fact of the phenomenal world, since everything in the phenomenal world is originally in the interconnection of three elements: cause, condition and effect. Finding the causal connection between things and utilising it to achieve the goal of avoiding harm and ultimately attaining happiness is the fundamental motivation for all human intellectual activities, including scientific research, philosophical discernment, and religious beliefs. The article gives a universal definition of causation as the primordial, underlying, transcendental, inherent, intrinsic, ultimate, essential, fundamental, inevitable, invariable, timeless, universal, complex, multidimensional, dynamic connection, law, logic, and fact among the three elements of cause, condition and result in the phenomenal world. The article explains in detail why the foregoing definition is universal from both ontological and epistemological perspectives.

An Overview of Skeptical Worries: The Gettier Problem, Agrippa’s Trilemma, and the Brain-in-a-Vat

Andrew Nesseler — 2024-08-26

Here I will explore through a literature review three important but different ways in which skepticism has been developed. The first is that of the Gettier problem and its potentially skeptical implications for knowledge. The second is Agrippa’s Trilemma, in which the non-skeptic ostensibly struggles to develop a satisfactory account of epistemic justification. Third and lastly, there are brain-in-a-vat scenarios, as one attempts to meet the skeptic’s challenge of having knowledge of the external world. I conclude that the above are important challenges while still maintaining that the non-skeptic has formulated responses worth our consideration.

Explanation to Intellectual Action and Regress Argument

Lei Chen — 2024-08-26

In this article, we point out the problem on Stanley and Williamson’s reconstruction of Ryle’s regress argument to refute their critique toward Ryle’s argument. We identify the object of Ryle’s criticism through analysing some intellectualisms which try to solve the regress argument. To reconcile the contradiction of intellectualism and anti-intellectualism, we propose a moderate version of intellectualism – Intellectual Explanation Thesis – which does not lead to infinite regress while maintains the necessary connection between knowledge-how and knowledge-that. This alternative thesis introduces a criterion for judging whether an action is intellectual or not, therefore offers a new perspective on the complex relationship between intellectual action and knowledge.

Communicative Philosophy of Science: Genesis and Contemporary Trends of Development

Olexander Martynenko — 2024-08-26

The study is dedicated to modelling the contemporary portrayal of the philosophy of science. The essence of its theses is elucidated through the following assertions: a) right from its beginning, a communicative potential was embedded within the philosophy of science; b) its origin arises from a culmination of predecessors’ accomplishments; c) the value of the communicative approach in the philosophy of science lies in its acceptance rather than opposition to the formal direction. The analysis is conducted retrospectively. The emergence of ideas within communicative philosophy of science is noticeable in its relevant relationship with the evolution of theories in logical positivism, rhetoric, pragmatism, linguistics, philosophy of language, and sociology of science. Analytical, synthetic, historical, rhetorical and structural-functional methodologies were used in the investigation. The findings of the study confirmed the hypothesis: communicative philosophy of science represents a historical combination of the field’s achievements, incorporating rhetorical, universalistic and particularistic developmental perspectives.

Chanting and Enchantment: A Philosophical Communicology of Idolic Submission and Emotional Intoxication Part I: Foundation

Eric Mark Kramer — 2024-08-26

In this first of two articles on chanting and enchantment we introduce the problem of mass synchronisation via collective communicative action that works to eliminate or lessen independent and critical assessment. Chanting forges a singular ‘collective’ identity with little to no structure that would allow for logical tests such as falsifiability. We argue that this problem can be a fundamental threat to democratic polity, and we offer the Neo-Kantian theory of dimensional accrual and dissociation as an explanation. In Part 2, we will continue with examples and a discussion of the confluence of philosophical examination and social scientific explanations.

The Meaning of the Russian-Ukrainian War from the Perspective of Stefan Baley’s Intentionalism

Olha Honcharenko — 2024-08-26

The article is devoted to the search for the meaning of the Russian-Ukrainian war from the perspective of intentionalism of the Ukrainian philosopher Stefan Baley. This article attempts to actualise Baley’s intentionalist approach to war in the context of the philosophy of war, especially the ethics of warfare. The article analyses from a philosophical point Baley’s views on the meaning of war, attempts to find the meaning of the Russian-Ukrainian war by method of analogy, and formulates several inductive conclusions on the lessons from this war for the future. In conclusion, the article argues that the Russians’ justification of their armed invasion of Ukraine by a common history and the need for self-defense is hypocritical and self-deceptive. The article also suggests that such ‘morality’ of the Russians requires attention from the international community so that everyone in it does not mistake good for evil.

On the Discourse of the Victim in the Context of Biopolitics

Inna Kovalenko — 2024-08-26

The victim is a universal cultural phenomenon. It consolidates the community, causes a powerful affect that allows the community to experience itself as a collective body. The main hypothesis of the article is that on the basis of understanding the specifics of the victim in modern culture, trauma can be understood as a biopolitical concept. The authors assume that in the modern cultural space the meaning of sacrifice is pushed to marginal positions by the meaning of victim, and show that the talk about the victim takes place within the narrative of trauma. Such semantic transformations vividly illustrate the logic of changing power dispositions. A clear marker of trauma is not so much the painful sense of loss caused by catastrophic events, but the breakdown and identity crisis that accompany the trauma. The victim appears as a protest of a unique collective body-topos opposed to a society of unified consumption. Arguments are given for understanding trauma as a biopolitical concept: it is a compromise between biopolitical ethics, which emphasises the sanctity of life, and the basis of biopolitics, which is connected with the reproduction of the figure of the victim as the embodiment of ‘bare life’. It is concluded that cultural trauma with its collective affectation can be regarded as the main nerve of modern biopolitics. Further reflection on trauma in the biopolitical context will make it possible to actualise the issue of transformation of the role of the victim in culture, to show a new perspective of trauma in the dramatic play of knowledge and power.

Automation and Workplace Democracy: Autonomy, Recognition, and Meaningful Work

Egidijus Mardosas — 2024-08-26

Building on the philosophical literature on the importance of workplace democracy, the article proposes a tripartite framework to conceptualise an ethically desirable course of automation. Three groups of argument are invoked: arguments from autonomy, interpersonal recognition, and meaningful work. These three groups of arguments are applied to analyse automation: whether automation extends or limits workers’ autonomy, interpersonal recognition, and meaningfulness of work. The last section of the article illustrates the tripartite framework with contemporary literature on automation and technological change.

Business-based and Ethical Assessments of CSR Efficiency

Dalia Štreimikienė — 2024-08-26

The paper aims to assess the effect of CSR on the performance of transnational corporations. The theoretical aspects of social responsibility and its relationship with the results of the activities of transnational corporations were highlighted based on the literature review. The empirical studies aimed at assessing the effect of social responsibility on the performance results of enterprises were analysed and systematised. The findings of the empirical studies showed that CSR has an impact on the operational and financial results of transnational corporations. Ethical considerations are also discussed, especially with respect to the issue of genuine social contribution versus greenwashing.

Ethical Aspects of Content Creation

Emilija Patalauskaitė — 2024-08-26

In the digital age, technology is integral to daily life, significantly impacting areas such as art, entertainment, healthcare and education. This paper explores the ethical aspects of digital content creation, focusing on the responsibilities of creators in shaping public opinion and behaviour. Key issues addressed include misinformation, digital harassment, privacy breaches, and the commercialisation of personal experiences. By reviewing existing literature and emphasising the importance of ethical digital practices, this study aims to contribute to a more responsible and ethical digital landscape. The main research question investigates whether ethical principles should guide digital content creation and dissemination.

Rawls’s Theory of Justice and Affirmative Action in Science

Seungbae Park — 2024-08-26

Rival applied ethicists have constructed arguments for and against affirmative action independently of Rawls’s theory of justice. Those arguments do not resolve the dispute about affirmative action. I reformulate them with the use of Rawls’s theory of justice and conclude that the reformulated arguments do not resolve the dispute about affirmative action either. Therefore, Rawls’s theory of justice is not useful in resolving the dispute about affirmative action. This point applies to affirmative action in science, contrary to what some writers suggest.

Evaldas Nekrašas (1945 05 29–2023 09 19)

Tomas Kačerauskas — 2024-08-26