Topic of the Issue: PHILOSOPHY AND COGNITION
Issue editors: Yulia Vaseva and Doroteya Angelova
CONTENTS & Abstracts & Keywords
Angel S. Stefanov – Science as a Value and Values for Science
Abstract: The theme „science and values“ is general enough to encompass different topical facets. Here, I am concerned with two of these, related to the answers to the following questions: „How is science, as such, construed as a value today?“ and „Are there certain types of values that in some ways determine the conceptual paths for the growth of science?”
Keywords: evaluation of science, postmodern views of science, values that determine the growth of science.
Asen Dimitrov – Popper and Hierarchical Causality as a Blueprint of Intelligence
Abstract: The paper discusses three major points:
1. Concerning the matrix of intelligence, as a solution to the problem, Popper proposes a Darwinian model based on a hierarchical idea of causality (downward causality);
2. Underlying hierarchical causality are systemic properties, whether they be holistic or reductionist;
3. Intelligence is a hierarchical causality imposed by an external agent – i.e., whenever an external agent is able to impose its system characteristics upon the object of its impact.
Keywords: Popper, blueprint of intelligence, hierarchy, downward causality, indeterminism, Darwin, natural selection.
Anton Donchev – The Positive Role of the Subjective Factor in Science: A Defence against Popper's Criticism of Subjective Probability
Abstract: Karl Popper developed his own axiomatization and interpretation of mathematical probability, commonly known as the propensity theory of probability. In arguing for his theory, he strongly criticized the so-called „subjectivist“ interpretation, which views probabilities as representing personal degrees of belief in the truthfulness of a proposition. Popper maintained that the subjectivist interpretation turns probabilistic statements into empirically unverifiable tautologies. I propose three arguments against this critique. First and foremost, the revision of personal beliefs, when available empirical evidence is given, is in fact the core of the subjective interpretation of probability. Secondly, it is relatively easy to show that the complete elimination of the subjective factor in scientific research is an utopian ideal. No philosophical interpretation of mathematical probability is able to shield scientific research from the inset of prior information – at least in the form of auxiliary hypotheses or theories. However, the subjective interpretation is the only one that explicitly includes the subjective factor in its calculations. Thirdly, the subjective factor may have a positive role and be extremely useful in science. Finally, I propose that we avoid using the relatively outdated terms „subjective probabilities“ and „subjective interpretation“ in probability theory. These elicit bad connotations and evoke scepticism in scientists from the natural sciences. In order to avoid ambiguity, it would be well to employ the commonly used modern terms „prior probabilities“ and „Bayesian interpretation“.
Keywords: probability theory, Bayesian probability, Karl Popper, subjective factor in science.
Mila Marinova – The Neurobiological Basis of Human Values
Abstract: For centuries, the problem regarding the origin of human morality and human values was considered to be a field reserved for philosophy, anthropology, religion and the other humanities. Three or four decades ago, neuroscience made certain discoveries that challenge normative moral theories. This article aims to present some of the best known examples of research indicating the empirical origin of morality and human values. I propose the idea that the basis of human morality and values can be traced successfully to their neurobiological origins. The evolution of morality and human values has a long history, and their nature is not easy to explain.They originated as primary emotions and developed into higher brain functions, ultimately resulting in our capacity for moral abstractions. The nature of morality and human values can be successfully investigated in the perspective of neuroscience without postulating a new normative ethics or relying on extreme reductionism.
Keywords: morality, human values, neuroscience, brain functions.
Engelsina Taseva – Some Specific Aspects of Value Rationality in Science
Abstract: Usually associated with the notion of scientific cognition is the notion of scientific rationality. But science is bivalent – it is a synthesis of cognitive and social components, factors, functions, results. It develops under the influence of broader cognitive and social contexts. It is natural that, within science, cognitive rationality is closely intertwined with specific forms of value-normative rationality. This significantly, and often decisively, affects the process of the production of scientific knowledge and its impact on society.
Keywords: rationality, value-normative rationality, cognitive values, objectivity.
Ventseslav Kulov – On a Logical Error Related to the Terms „Knowledge“, „Justice“, „Freedom“ and „Democracy“
Abstract: The article is focused on four key philosophical terms. It is presumed that the conclusion drawn from their study can be generalized.
The two premises of this study are that the terms „knowledge“, „justice“, „freedom“ and „democracy“ are polysemantic and that a semantic relationship exists between the various meanings of each of these terms. The author's main thesis is that, for some reason, this semantic relation is usually exaggerated. The semantic similarity between the different meanings of the terms in question is erroneously perceived as a logical relationship, and each of these meanings is erroneously treated as a species of the respective common genus (a species of knowledge, a species of justice, etc.)
The article consecutively analyzes the different meanings of the terms „knowledge“, „justice“, „freedom“ and „democracy”; the author concludes it is useless to generalize these meanings. To dwell on knowledge, justice, freedom and democracy in general in a text, without specifying the meanings implied in them, results in an insurmountable lack of clarity, which makes the whole text senseless.
Keywords: philosophical terms, knowledge, freedom, justice, democracy, polysemy, vagueness.
Abstract: The theme „science and values“ is general enough to encompass different topical facets. Here, I am concerned with two of these, related to the answers to the following questions: „How is science, as such, construed as a value today?“ and „Are there certain types of values that in some ways determine the conceptual paths for the growth of science?”
Keywords: evaluation of science, postmodern views of science, values that determine the growth of science.
Asen Dimitrov – Popper and Hierarchical Causality as a Blueprint of Intelligence
Abstract: The paper discusses three major points:
1. Concerning the matrix of intelligence, as a solution to the problem, Popper proposes a Darwinian model based on a hierarchical idea of causality (downward causality);
2. Underlying hierarchical causality are systemic properties, whether they be holistic or reductionist;
3. Intelligence is a hierarchical causality imposed by an external agent – i.e., whenever an external agent is able to impose its system characteristics upon the object of its impact.
Keywords: Popper, blueprint of intelligence, hierarchy, downward causality, indeterminism, Darwin, natural selection.
Anton Donchev – The Positive Role of the Subjective Factor in Science: A Defence against Popper's Criticism of Subjective Probability
Abstract: Karl Popper developed his own axiomatization and interpretation of mathematical probability, commonly known as the propensity theory of probability. In arguing for his theory, he strongly criticized the so-called „subjectivist“ interpretation, which views probabilities as representing personal degrees of belief in the truthfulness of a proposition. Popper maintained that the subjectivist interpretation turns probabilistic statements into empirically unverifiable tautologies. I propose three arguments against this critique. First and foremost, the revision of personal beliefs, when available empirical evidence is given, is in fact the core of the subjective interpretation of probability. Secondly, it is relatively easy to show that the complete elimination of the subjective factor in scientific research is an utopian ideal. No philosophical interpretation of mathematical probability is able to shield scientific research from the inset of prior information – at least in the form of auxiliary hypotheses or theories. However, the subjective interpretation is the only one that explicitly includes the subjective factor in its calculations. Thirdly, the subjective factor may have a positive role and be extremely useful in science. Finally, I propose that we avoid using the relatively outdated terms „subjective probabilities“ and „subjective interpretation“ in probability theory. These elicit bad connotations and evoke scepticism in scientists from the natural sciences. In order to avoid ambiguity, it would be well to employ the commonly used modern terms „prior probabilities“ and „Bayesian interpretation“.
Keywords: probability theory, Bayesian probability, Karl Popper, subjective factor in science.
Mila Marinova – The Neurobiological Basis of Human Values
Abstract: For centuries, the problem regarding the origin of human morality and human values was considered to be a field reserved for philosophy, anthropology, religion and the other humanities. Three or four decades ago, neuroscience made certain discoveries that challenge normative moral theories. This article aims to present some of the best known examples of research indicating the empirical origin of morality and human values. I propose the idea that the basis of human morality and values can be traced successfully to their neurobiological origins. The evolution of morality and human values has a long history, and their nature is not easy to explain.They originated as primary emotions and developed into higher brain functions, ultimately resulting in our capacity for moral abstractions. The nature of morality and human values can be successfully investigated in the perspective of neuroscience without postulating a new normative ethics or relying on extreme reductionism.
Keywords: morality, human values, neuroscience, brain functions.
Engelsina Taseva – Some Specific Aspects of Value Rationality in Science
Abstract: Usually associated with the notion of scientific cognition is the notion of scientific rationality. But science is bivalent – it is a synthesis of cognitive and social components, factors, functions, results. It develops under the influence of broader cognitive and social contexts. It is natural that, within science, cognitive rationality is closely intertwined with specific forms of value-normative rationality. This significantly, and often decisively, affects the process of the production of scientific knowledge and its impact on society.
Keywords: rationality, value-normative rationality, cognitive values, objectivity.
Ventseslav Kulov – On a Logical Error Related to the Terms „Knowledge“, „Justice“, „Freedom“ and „Democracy“
Abstract: The article is focused on four key philosophical terms. It is presumed that the conclusion drawn from their study can be generalized.
The two premises of this study are that the terms „knowledge“, „justice“, „freedom“ and „democracy“ are polysemantic and that a semantic relationship exists between the various meanings of each of these terms. The author's main thesis is that, for some reason, this semantic relation is usually exaggerated. The semantic similarity between the different meanings of the terms in question is erroneously perceived as a logical relationship, and each of these meanings is erroneously treated as a species of the respective common genus (a species of knowledge, a species of justice, etc.)
The article consecutively analyzes the different meanings of the terms „knowledge“, „justice“, „freedom“ and „democracy”; the author concludes it is useless to generalize these meanings. To dwell on knowledge, justice, freedom and democracy in general in a text, without specifying the meanings implied in them, results in an insurmountable lack of clarity, which makes the whole text senseless.
Keywords: philosophical terms, knowledge, freedom, justice, democracy, polysemy, vagueness.
Jaakko Hintikka – A Spectrum of Logics of Questioning
Abstract: The leading idea in this essay concerns knowledge-seeking through questioning. Asking a question and receiving an answer (an interrogative move) is radically different from a logical deduction (a logical inference move). However, from a strategic viewpoint, the two steps are parallel, in the sense that the principles guiding the choice of the best questions to ask are analogous with the strategic principles guiding the choice of the best logical inferences that can be drawn from given premises. Another main insight that the interrogative approach yields is the possibility of a rational, and even logical, theory of discovery. In that case, the problem of justification becomes redundant; nevertheless, we can develop an interesting and rich theory of discovery, of which the centerpiece is the problem of optimal question selection.
Keywords: logics of questioning, interrogative games, interrogative model, interrogation, logic of experimental inquiry, dialogue.
Rosen Lyutskanov – Jaakko Hintikka. Logic and the Philosophy of Mathematics in the Second Half of the 20th Century
Abstract: The present papers attempts to summarize Jaakko Hintikka's contributions to the development of logic, semantics and philosophy of mathematics.
Keywords: Jaakko Hintikka, non-classical logic, philosophy of mathematics, analytic-synthetic distinction, surface and deep information, Kant's philosophy of mathematics, game-theoretical semantics, interrogative model of inquiry, independence-friendly logic, limitative theorems.
Abstract: The leading idea in this essay concerns knowledge-seeking through questioning. Asking a question and receiving an answer (an interrogative move) is radically different from a logical deduction (a logical inference move). However, from a strategic viewpoint, the two steps are parallel, in the sense that the principles guiding the choice of the best questions to ask are analogous with the strategic principles guiding the choice of the best logical inferences that can be drawn from given premises. Another main insight that the interrogative approach yields is the possibility of a rational, and even logical, theory of discovery. In that case, the problem of justification becomes redundant; nevertheless, we can develop an interesting and rich theory of discovery, of which the centerpiece is the problem of optimal question selection.
Keywords: logics of questioning, interrogative games, interrogative model, interrogation, logic of experimental inquiry, dialogue.
Rosen Lyutskanov – Jaakko Hintikka. Logic and the Philosophy of Mathematics in the Second Half of the 20th Century
Abstract: The present papers attempts to summarize Jaakko Hintikka's contributions to the development of logic, semantics and philosophy of mathematics.
Keywords: Jaakko Hintikka, non-classical logic, philosophy of mathematics, analytic-synthetic distinction, surface and deep information, Kant's philosophy of mathematics, game-theoretical semantics, interrogative model of inquiry, independence-friendly logic, limitative theorems.
Boryana Angelova-Igova, Petya Milanova-Dikova – The Body-Machine
Abstract: The article discusses how the body is regarded as a machine by the Contemporary school of philosophy. The body-machine is depersonalized and converted into a tool. It has has two functions – a symbolic one, whereby it is used as a model and tool by Panoptic power, and the function of servicing real machines. The article specially focuses on athletes' bodies. They are very often described as machines. The problem with the body-machine, the depersonalized body, is that a faceless body can be used as a tool, a means of control. But at the same time, it is not a person and is without human rights.
Keywords: body, machine, panopticum, philosophy of sports
Abstract: The article discusses how the body is regarded as a machine by the Contemporary school of philosophy. The body-machine is depersonalized and converted into a tool. It has has two functions – a symbolic one, whereby it is used as a model and tool by Panoptic power, and the function of servicing real machines. The article specially focuses on athletes' bodies. They are very often described as machines. The problem with the body-machine, the depersonalized body, is that a faceless body can be used as a tool, a means of control. But at the same time, it is not a person and is without human rights.
Keywords: body, machine, panopticum, philosophy of sports
Iona Pelovska – The Question of Cinema: Myth, Prophecy and Technology
Abstract: This article proceeds from an overview of the troubled relationship between cinema as industrial technology and cinema as artistic language. The capacity of cinema to conjure up tender, thought-like environments allows it to abide as a trans-mediumatic abstraction, which extends the questioning of cinema beyond the technologically cinematic and to the pre-technological moving image. The interpolation of language, thought and embodiment reveals a view on language as mediumatic, and on cinema as a linguistic medium that can simulate a cognitively faithful reality which actualizes dream, the original disembodied moving image, in sensory experience. Thus cinema re-enacts a pre-technological environment while advancing the language of technology embedded in the cinematic machine.
The libidinal ways of solar and chthonic energies, the symbolic and the physical, interpolate in mytho-poetic thought; art and science culminate in the ways these energies unfold in the experience of the movie theatre and illuminate human hybridization, from ancient anthropo-bestiality to the techno-human condition. Poetry and reason, as the two ways of language, outline an epistemology that foregrounds the primacy of poetry in symbolic and physical being. This discussion aims to open an avenue towards resolving the tensions between the symbolic and the material launched in historical discourse by Platonic thought and radicalized by the cognitive effects of industrial reality. (This essay uses the method of Tensegrity – a means of dynamic methodological triangulation that allows for open threads and poetic interventions – which I have introduced in Poetry and Reason: Means and Meanings of the Moving Image (Pelovska 2015)].)
Кeywords: cinema technology, mytho-poetic language, cinema poetics, techno-human.
Abstract: This article proceeds from an overview of the troubled relationship between cinema as industrial technology and cinema as artistic language. The capacity of cinema to conjure up tender, thought-like environments allows it to abide as a trans-mediumatic abstraction, which extends the questioning of cinema beyond the technologically cinematic and to the pre-technological moving image. The interpolation of language, thought and embodiment reveals a view on language as mediumatic, and on cinema as a linguistic medium that can simulate a cognitively faithful reality which actualizes dream, the original disembodied moving image, in sensory experience. Thus cinema re-enacts a pre-technological environment while advancing the language of technology embedded in the cinematic machine.
The libidinal ways of solar and chthonic energies, the symbolic and the physical, interpolate in mytho-poetic thought; art and science culminate in the ways these energies unfold in the experience of the movie theatre and illuminate human hybridization, from ancient anthropo-bestiality to the techno-human condition. Poetry and reason, as the two ways of language, outline an epistemology that foregrounds the primacy of poetry in symbolic and physical being. This discussion aims to open an avenue towards resolving the tensions between the symbolic and the material launched in historical discourse by Platonic thought and radicalized by the cognitive effects of industrial reality. (This essay uses the method of Tensegrity – a means of dynamic methodological triangulation that allows for open threads and poetic interventions – which I have introduced in Poetry and Reason: Means and Meanings of the Moving Image (Pelovska 2015)].)
Кeywords: cinema technology, mytho-poetic language, cinema poetics, techno-human.
Georgi K. Marinov – Intelligent Design and Modern Evolutionary Biology
Abstract: In the last few decades, intelligent design (ID) has been the focal point of opposition against evolutionary theory, which attempts to present itself as a scientifically valid alternative to the purely materialistic understanding of the evolutionary process. So far, it has had almost no success among professional biologists, but has occasionally been more warmly received by non-specialists within the academic community and by the general public, even though the main goal of the ID movement – to introduce the teaching of ID in schools as an official alternative to evolution – remains out of reach. Biologists are the ones most resistant to ID ideas, not because of a rigid ideological commitment to materialism on their part, but rather because the main ID arguments are based on a combination of deep misunderstanding and dishonest misrepresentation of evolutionary theory. The article discusses these arguments in detail and gives a brief introduction to the history of the ID movement and its underlying motivation.
Keywords: intelligent design, evolution, population genetics, religion, creationism.
Abstract: In the last few decades, intelligent design (ID) has been the focal point of opposition against evolutionary theory, which attempts to present itself as a scientifically valid alternative to the purely materialistic understanding of the evolutionary process. So far, it has had almost no success among professional biologists, but has occasionally been more warmly received by non-specialists within the academic community and by the general public, even though the main goal of the ID movement – to introduce the teaching of ID in schools as an official alternative to evolution – remains out of reach. Biologists are the ones most resistant to ID ideas, not because of a rigid ideological commitment to materialism on their part, but rather because the main ID arguments are based on a combination of deep misunderstanding and dishonest misrepresentation of evolutionary theory. The article discusses these arguments in detail and gives a brief introduction to the history of the ID movement and its underlying motivation.
Keywords: intelligent design, evolution, population genetics, religion, creationism.
Anton Donchev, Mila Marinova, Lilia Gurova – The 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science
Abstract: The article offers an overview of the 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, held on 3-8 August 2015 in Helsinki. It includes a brief outline of the history of these congresses, with special attention to its trends of development and comparisons between the last five of them. These trends are indicative of the changes taking place in the development of philosophy of science over the last 16 years. A special focus is put on the main topics of the congresses as well as on some of the most significant presentations. Finally, the paper provides information about the Bulgarian participation in the latest congress, which reveals a significant increase compared with the previous ones, which inspires hope that the ascending development of philosophy of science in Bulgaria will continue and its presence at international forums will become increasingly visible.
Keywords: congress, clmps, logic, philosophy of science.
Lyubomir Sirkov – Round Table Discussion on „Can Egoism be a Virtue?“
Stefan E. Nikolov – The Nobel Committee Paid Tribute to Narrative as Literature
Nonka Bogomilova – Intellectuals Facing the Sphinx of Time
Kiril Popov – The Pantheism of Fernando Pessoa
Abstract: The article offers an overview of the 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, held on 3-8 August 2015 in Helsinki. It includes a brief outline of the history of these congresses, with special attention to its trends of development and comparisons between the last five of them. These trends are indicative of the changes taking place in the development of philosophy of science over the last 16 years. A special focus is put on the main topics of the congresses as well as on some of the most significant presentations. Finally, the paper provides information about the Bulgarian participation in the latest congress, which reveals a significant increase compared with the previous ones, which inspires hope that the ascending development of philosophy of science in Bulgaria will continue and its presence at international forums will become increasingly visible.
Keywords: congress, clmps, logic, philosophy of science.
Lyubomir Sirkov – Round Table Discussion on „Can Egoism be a Virtue?“
Stefan E. Nikolov – The Nobel Committee Paid Tribute to Narrative as Literature
Nonka Bogomilova – Intellectuals Facing the Sphinx of Time
Kiril Popov – The Pantheism of Fernando Pessoa