journal of Philosophical Investigations

1-16

Authors: Maryam Poostforush; Mostafa Taqavi

Scientificprogress is one of the topics that has always been considered in the philosophy of science and various accounts have been presented as regards the occurrence of progress.One of the most important challenges in progress is the radical changes in scientific theories, i.e. scientific revolutions.Kuhn considers these revolutions to be discontinuities in the history of science. Although he acknowledges progress in the normal science period by referring to the puzzle solving, he fails to explain the progress in scientific revolutions by proposing the incommensurability of paradigms.In contrast, Bhaskar by describing the stratified world, considers science as a continuous process with the aim of achieving causal mechanisms and structures, discovers and describes new and deeper layers. He explains progress on this basis and believes that sciencehas the potentiality of both change and progress. The present essay discusses the progress theories offered by Bhaskar and Kuhn. Also we compare the epistemological and ontological aspects of these perspectives in order to investigate Khun's inability to explain progress during the revolution in the light of Bhaskar's views.

1-14

Authors: Susan Hacck

Prof. Haack answers a series of questions on pragmatism, beginning with the origins of this tradition in the work of Peirce and James, its evolution in the work of Dewey and Mead, and its influence beyond the United States in, for example, the Italian pragmatists and the radical British pragmatist F. C. S. Schiller. Classical pragmatism, she observes, is a rich and varied tradition from which there is still much to be learned—as the many ways her own work in logic, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of law has been informed by the old pragmatists testify. Of late, however, this tradition has been misunderstood, impoverished, and vulgarized by self-styled neo-pragmatists; here, Haack turns her attention specifically to the conception of pragmatism as essentially a political philosophy, and the near-vacuous equation of pragmatism with “problem-solving.”

55-82

Authors: Robert Hanna

Carlo Cellucci has rightly pointed out that contemporary professional academic philosophy has a serious problem of irrelevance. Performance philosophy and public philosophy are two recent attempts to solve that problem and radically transform professional academic philosophy into what I call real philosophy. Nevertheless, performance philosophy and public philosophy have some prima facie problems. My goal in this essay is to make some headway towards solving these two prima facie problems, first, by briefly describing ways of conceptually clarifying and purposively unifying performance philosophy and public philosophy individually; second, by briefly presenting a mediating theoretical and practical framework that could solve the incoherence problem and the two solitudes problem, and also directly and reciprocally connect performance philosophy and public philosophy: a framework I call borderless philosophy; and third and finally, against the backdrop of that mediating framework, in response to a possible objection to my argument, by briefly proposing a way in which performance philosophy, via borderless philosophy, could significantly enrich public philosophy. The upshot is that borderless philosophy, together with performance philosophy and public philosophy, collectively yield a fully adequate solution to the problem of irrelevance.

1-12

Authors: Gabriel Andrade

Joseph de Maistre is usually portrayed as Edmund Burke’s French counterpart, as they both wrote important treatises against the French Revolution. Although Maistre did share many of Burke’s conservative political views, he was much more than a political thinker. He was above all a religious thinker who interpreted political events through the prism of a particular retributionist theology. According to this theology, God punishes evil deeds, not only in the afterlife, but also in this terrestrial life; and sometimes, he may even use human tyrants as instruments of his wrath. This interpretation especially evident in Maistre’s Considerations sur la France, an early work in his philosophical career. In that book, Maistre interprets the French Revolution as divine punishment, and in that regard, his views bear some similarities to the Deuteronomist historian in the Hebrew Bible, who interpreted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile, as divine punishment in retribution of Israel’s sins.

24-37

Authors: Seyyed Mohammad Ali Dibaji

One important question that the emergence of philosophical or rational Kalam has raised is what rationalism in the so-called Kalami (theological) schools actually means. This paper investigates the answers to the aforementioned question in Shi’a Kalam. Also, we have a comparative look at the philosophical Kalam and the rational one, concluding the identity of Shi’a Kalam with Shi’a philosophy. In this work, we have referred to three types of rationalism: personal, Vahmi (imaginal), and Hikmi (philosophical) rationalism. In short, our answer to the above question would be that, Shi’a Kalam – specially in Khaje Nasir’s works – is based on Hikmah (philosophy), and so, rationalism in this school does not refer but to this approach. This type of rationalism is in contrast to the personal or Vahmi rationalism. As a matter of fact, Those Mutakalims (theologians), who use Hikmi rationalism, don’t try to criticize philosophy or elicit from it; they just try to employ the principles, foundations, and results of Hikmah to explain, justify, and defend their religious beliefs.

1-23

Authors: Hasan Ahmadizade, Tayyebe Gholami

Physicalistic Theology is a term that has no exact definition in theologian views. In the 20th century some of Christian thinkers on theology, like Nancy Murphy and Peter van Inwagen, by accepting a Physicalistic approach on human being, tried to analyze the Christian beliefs about human identity and his immortality. This approach today is called Physicalistic Theology. According to this approach, human is not but this physical body itself and so we can simply analyze the immortality problem. In this article we try to by an analytic and descriptive method, analyze the immortality of human according to the view of Physicalistic Theology. We will analyze the most important reasoning of Physicalistic Theology that is: no-interaction between the material and the immaterial, interaction between the person and the body, and the physicalism in Christian beliefs. One of the conclusions of this article is that according to Physicalistic view, the person that at some time has not been in the world, must exists any time to destroyed forever because the Christians believe to things that cannot justify rationally. The problem of immortality is one of these matters. Physicalistic Theology try to prove the immortality based on the miracles and the absolute power of God.

61-91

Authors: Einollah Khademi, Arefeh Poushian Jouybari

Sacred intellect in Avicenna, a degree of rationality in which the highest form of communication is done with the intellectual world. Reasonable time to the times of human rationality is achieved without difficulty, pain and time, only be achieved by applying guess. The owners of Avicenna's top intellects in human beings are sacred and highest prophet for them. These people are the first intelligible human teachers perceive first and put it to other people. . Bu-Ali about how to communicate the power of the active intellect and innate or acquired its own works differently to comment the funds are somehow retractable. To prove his philosophical question of the nature and functions of the sacred intellect as much existence of intellect, perception as well as all forms of The Holy Quran verses seeks help.

117-141

Authors: Somayeh Rafighi, Mohammad Asghari

Today, phenomenology, with an emphasis on direct explanations with regard to the lived experience of people is interest of different areas. With emphasis on body, Merleau- Ponty's phenomenology is considered in medical science. In his phenomenology, Merleau- Ponty gives new definition of body and names it lived body. Lived body is against of mechanical body and is the central of subjectivity and being- in- the – world and included all of existential aspects of man. Such definition enable doctors to consider all of existential aspects of man besides his physiological and same understanding of the disease based on the patient lived experience. This paper attempts to examine the implications of this new concept of the body as it is described in the medical field

159-181

Authors: Masoud Olya, Mani Rashtipour.

Leibniz’s philosophy has been subject to many studies, but few have addressed aesthetic aspects of his theory. What Leibniz has written concerning aesthetic issues is scattered all through his works, and were we to understand his aesthetic ideas we must bring these dispersed parts together for explanation and interpretation. In the present paper, I attempted to extract Leibniz ideas pertaining to aesthetics, and to introduce, on their basis, a unified aesthetic theory of his, and demonstrate the importance of this theory for his epistemology. First, I brought into light Leibniz’s general ideas concerning aesthetics, and then, due to the epistemological-psychological significance of sense perception in Leibniz’s philosophy, I inquired into it in detail and attempted to clarify the place of sense (and aesthetic) knowledge in human knowledge according to Leibniz. Finally, in the last part, I ventured to divide Leibniz’s approach to sense (and aesthetic) qualities into objective and subjective aspects and investigated each separately.

199-213

Authors: Hassan Fathzade, Samira Taheri

The age of the sign is essentially theological. The system that is based on a basic concept, a concept that shapes the circulation of signs, is essentially theological. This central concept has named in each thought differently: the reality, essence, existence, truth, God, Logos, Nous, End etc. In This logocentric system(s), there is a transcendental signified that means and proves the chain of signification. Deconstructive reading of Derrida showed that there is no signified outside of the chain of signification that makes language to have bound. This revolutionary idea collapses hierarchical significative oppositions, and thus makes signifiers to be rank and homologous. By erasing the oppositions of signifiers, it is nonsense to talk about death of God; there is no death, and no life. We're always in the middle of an eternal play. Word (Logos), yet constantly erased and written and rewritten. A/theology is the absurdity of this claims that theology has terminated; a new a/system for those who lives in borders.

1-21

Authors: Malihe Aboie Mehrizi

he article deals with the examination of method of hypothesis in Plato's philosophy. This method, respectively, will be examined in three dialogues of Meno, Phaedon and Republic in which it is explicitly indicated. It will be shown the process of change of Plato’s attitude towards the position and usage of the method of hypothesis in his realm of philosophy. In Meno, considering the geometry, Plato attempts to introduce a method that can be used in the realm of philosophy. But, ultimately in Republic, Plato’s special attention to the method and its importance in the philosophical investigations, leads him to revise it. Here, finally Plato introduces the particular method of philosophy, i.e., the dialectic

45-74

Authors: Mahdi Assadi

The essay tries to evaluate Wittgenstein's resolution to the riddle of Russell's negative facts. That is, when we say, for example, "Tehran is not the capital of Ireland" is true, what kind of truth–maker should we consider for the negative proposition because of its truth? Surely, a negative truth–maker is so problematic and counter–intuitive. Therefore, Wittgenstein has tried to show how it can be returned to the positive truth–makers. Thus, the paper first analyzes Wittgenstein's general resolutions to the nonexistent. Then it focuses on his special resolution to the negative facts riddle, i.e. Tractatus 2.05: "The totality of existent atomic facts also determines which atomic facts do not exist". Finally, after refuting some philosophers' criticisms, it shows his resolution's positive points and possible lacks.

93-113

Authors: Masoud Omid

One of the most important questions on Kant’s philosophy is the meaningfulness or meaningless of metaphysics. This article tries to answer two questions on Kant’s philosophy: 1- Is the metaphysics, in the philosophy of Kant, meaningful or meaningless? 2- Is the meaningfulness or meaningless of metaphysics, for Kant, so important for contemporary philosophy? In this paper, firstly, I argue that we can call Kant’s approach to Metaphysics not as a linguistic one (including; language metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of ordinary language or linguistics) but it is a transcendental epistemology. Secondly, in terms of problem-based, the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of metaphysics not only is not the basic problem of Kant, but his philosophy in a clear, distinct and independent manner, involves not such an issue. Thirdly, on the problem of the meaningfulness and meaninglessness of metaphysics, it could be accepted that Kant's philosophy seems to have the backgrounds, indications, and implications For the second question, it could be distinguished two levels of meaningfulness or meaningless in Kant's philosophy: linguistic and nonlinguistic levels. The linguistic level are considered from two directions, i.e., the parts or components (words and metaphysical propositions) and the whole (as the science of metaphysics). In the linguistic level, in one hand, I argue that the metaphysical words or propositions are not meaningless, but on the other hand, the proposition that “Metaphysics is a science” is a meaningless proposition. In the nonlinguistic level, metaphysics due to not reaching to the ends and goals seems meaninglessness as well.

133-162

Authors: Omidreza Janbaz

Rorty, who influenced Habermas by his linguistic turn, believes that the debate between realism and antirealism belongs to the tradition which we have already departed from. In fact, in his view, the linguistic turn principally make this distinction difficult. In contrast, Habermas believes that the decision between the realistic and nominalistic positions is a fundamental choice, which plays a crucial role in epistemology, ontology, and the corresponding concepts of truth and reference. The main concern of Habermas as the heir of the realist and the idealist traditions, is to show the simultaneous presence of idealistic and naturalistic elements of knowledge in explaining cognition. For this purpose he refers to a pragmatic account of knowledge. Habermas replaces what has been achieved pragmatically, as the internal realism, with the transcendental idealism. Internal realism, for Habermas, has two essential duties; on the one hand, to stand against relativism as a new form of skepticism, and on the other hand, to oppose the metaphysical realism in its dogmatistic form. The difficulty of Habermas's task, in explaining his realistic view, is to reconcile two priorities; the ontological priority of the objective world, with the epistemological priority of linguistic life-world. This article describes and criticizes the way Habermas develops this view.

173-205

Authors: Seyyed Jamal Same & Mohammad Javad Safian

anguage is among the most controversial philosophic issues in twentieth century. Martin Heidegger is one of the philosophers of this epoch who has emphasized on language and its abilities. Present essay tries to consider the position of language and its relation to Heidegger’s ready-to-hand ontology in his philosophy. It argues that this ontology effects strongly Heidegger’s notion of language. Ready-to-hand ontology is a kind of practical encountering things in the world which makes no distinction between subject and object. Present essay examines language as one of the most important things in-the-world in horizon of this ontology. Relationship between ready-to-hand ontology and language is pursued in two periods of Heidegger’s thought. In first period, it concentrates on some parts of Being and time, and in second, on some other works of him. The question is whether this ontology opens a new possibilities approaching to the language? Here we try to answer this question as much possible.

231-252

Authors: Iman Shafi Beik

Socrates is in search of a specific knowledge that by achieving it, one would both realize the moral virtues and practically become virtuous. Based on morality on knowledge, Socrates unifies his philosophy with his way of life, and discovers a criterion by which he could criticize the customary morality, religion, politics, and rhetoric of the Greeks, and expose their moral defects. The common defects that are the subjects of his moral examination and rectification include: the belief that committing injustice is better than suffering it; revenge and reciprocation (the lex talionis: a gift for a gift and an evil for an evil); popular piety based on the belief in the deceit and strife among gods, and deceitfulness and callousness of the gods towards human beings, and commercial transaction between gods and humankind (i.e. gods’ receiving sacrificial gifts from human beings in exchange for providing their needs); allowing the superordinate to exploit the subordinate; and lastly, the method of persuasive and deceitful rhetoric.

273-302

Authors: Reza Samim1; Farhad Soleimannejad

his philosophy with Iranian mysticism. Such identification is fundamentally flawed and contradicts Nietzsche's ontological principles and moral values. Some of the Iranian commentators, expert in Nietzsche's philosophy, identified Nietzsche's thought is pregnant from the epic universal values, not the mystical patterns. Understanding of Nietzsche's Philosophy is possible with the help of Shahnameh and Iliad not mysticism. The reason of this fundamental error lies in the fact that these Iranian commentators fail to distinguish the subtle differences between mysticism and epic, and this failure, has led to their mixing Nietzsche's thought with the Iranian mysticism. Epic and mysticism are related in the differences not the similarities. Although there could be some similarities between the mystical worldview and that of epic, they are merely outward and superficial. In effect, in the matter of epistemic, moral and ontological principles, epic contradicts mysticism. At the best, mysticism can be considered to be the negative correspondence of epic and called “Negative Epic”. Nietzsche's thought has been affected to a greater extent by the Greek culture than and prior to the Iranian traditions. Nietzche's symbolic recourse to Zoroaster cannot be a cogent basis for these commentators' claim. Moreover, Nietzche's grasp of Zoroastrian worldview is so much blurred and incomplete. He appreciates the Greek culture not the Iranian traditions. Therefore, autonomy, voluntarism, appreciation of life and denunciation of passivity are the set of values and principles associating Nietzsche's philosophy with epic. These are exactly the principles disregarded and even denied in mystical thought. In other words, Nietzsche's philosophy can be considered the rebirth of the epic in the sphere of philosophical thought.