PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Year:2009 | Volume:4 | Issue:14|Papers Count:7

What is the difference of physical concepts in physicians’ usage and in ordinary people’s one? One possible answer could be that in physicians’ usage of physical concepts every concept is its operational measurement. But, for every concept there are different operational measurements. Which one has to be proffered? The defenders of operationalism tell us that there is not a priori criterion for this judgment. In this article, after interdicting Bridgman’s operationalism some of its advantages and disadvantages will be discussed.

Recently feminist epistemology became a specific domain and in which are privileged certain research programs and some various orientations in them. M. Alcoff is a feminist epistemologist who has focused on continental philosophy, feminism, politics, race-theory, and sexuality. Considering relation between knowledge and its historical-social context is special remark of her works and researches. In many of her writings, specially, Real Knowing, she maintains, in contrast with poststructuralists and pragmatists, that “truth” is a concept non-separable of, referential to, and dependent on content. She also argues for “normative subjectivity” as a fundamental, context-dependent, and non-universal, idea. Completion of an ontological, coherent account of truth-theory is her ambitious claim. Phenomenology and hermeneutics make up her philosophic method for that ambition and her critique of traditional issues as well. It seems to her that phenomenology let us to see how every idea relates to some experience and hermeneutics teaches us to consider the influence of historical-cultural context in comprehending it.

Reason (knowledge) and will are two of more significance God’s attribute. The philosophical problem rises here is that which one has priority in the creation of the world. A few philosopher and theologian proclaim that the reason (knowledge) has priority to will. Among western philosopher, Schaupenhauer, is one of the most famous one who explicitly give priority to will, this study attempts to compare and conformity of Schopenhauer view for voluntary with Islamic scholars outlooks and finding out also its similarity and differences. Ibn’sina, on the contrary, argues that the nature of power and/or will is knowledge; Gazzali, on the other hand, maintains approximately, as Schaupenhauer that will has priority.

The disagreements between Mulla Sadra and Ibn-Sina concerning the issue of the union of the intellect and the intelligible represent an example of the difference between the conceptions of two prominent islamic philosophers of an important philosophical problem.Two completely contrasting theories have been ascribed to Ibn-Sina in this regard. Some of his words indicate his rejection of the union of the intellect and the intelligible. While some of his other words indicate his confirmation of this theory. Conversely, Mulla Sadra is a great supporter of this theory and has adduced various arguments to demonstrate it. The theory of the union of the intellect and the intelligible, which is either denied or accepted by Ibn-Sina, is not in harmony with the one supported by Mulla Sadra, and the views of these two philosophers concerning this theory are totally different from each other. Their disagreements can be summarized in two points: 1. Reality of intellection, 2. Reality of the unionConsidering the above two points of difference, we can say that their conceptions of the union of the intellect and the intelligible are so different from each other that they represent the intellectual confrontation between them deeper than what it really is.

Darwin’s view on science was different from his inductivist contemporaries. After a glimpse to this difference, in section one his first three geological hypotheses will be refered. We could see there that how did he understand that analoy cannot provide any proof for a theory. Section two is devoted to Darwin’s argument (s) in the origin of species. We find there that his scientific method is in accordance with critical rationalism.

Certain method of demonstrating theological and exegetical claims is one of the heritages of Mutazilite Muslim theologians. One of the main characteristics of this method is that there is a considerable attention to reason as the permission to use rhetorician figures like metaphor and allegoric exegesis in describing theological doctrines as well as in interpreting of the Quran. Assuming that using this method was not confined to Muslim Mutazilite theologians and, before and after them, some of the Jewish Christian theologians have used this method, the paper focusing on the divine attributes and relying on some instances of the interpretations of the Bible, will try to show that Saadia Gaon, a Jewish theologian (d. 942), had a method similar to that of Muslim Mutazilte theologians and, therefore, it might be called him "Mutazilite Jew". Using a method like Mutazilite theologians, he interpreted intricate concepts in the Old Testament by concentrating on rhetorical aspects of the text, and defended Jewish theology against the objections from his theological opponents, that is Christians.

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was philosopher and cultural and literary critic. In 1936, he wrote the essay titled "The Work of Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction". This essay has had a profound influence on the approaches to art. His main concern was the change in the nature of the art in virtue of its technical reproducibility. Mass reproducibility transformed both of the art reception and the impact of artworks. The change in the impact of artworks on the audiences is due to the substitution of the ritual function with exhibitional function. Benjamin believes that, which disappears in the age of mechanical reproduction is the "aura" of the artwork. Mechanical reproduction in photography and film has completed this process in which the aura slowly disappears. He maintains that, this new experience alters the concept of art itself and recoils the function in favor of political and social behaviors; to say exactly, social function of art has changed from ritual to political one. He believed that, there is a hidden force in reproductive artwork in present age which can function against tradition.