journal of Philosophical Investigations

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.