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Epistemological Considerations (epistemological + consideration)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON NEUROIMAGING , A CRUCIAL PREREQUISITE FOR NEUROETHICS

BIOETHICS, Issue 6 2009
CHRISTIAN G. HUBER
ABSTRACT Purpose: Whereas ethical considerations on imaging techniques and interpretations of neuroimaging results flourish, there is not much work on their preconditions. In this paper, therefore, we discuss epistemological considerations on neuroimaging and their implications for neuroethics. Results: Neuroimaging uses indirect methods to generate data about surrogate parameters for mental processes, and there are many determinants influencing the results, including current hypotheses and the state of knowledge. This leads to an interdependence between hypotheses and data. Additionally, different levels of description are involved, especially when experiments are designed to answer questions pertaining to broad concepts like the self, empathy or moral intentions. Interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks are needed to integrate findings from the life sciences and the humanities and to translate between them. While these epistemological issues are not specific for neuroimaging, there are some reasons why they are of special importance in this context: Due to their inferential proximity, ,neuro-images' seem to be self-evident, suggesting directness of observation and objectivity. This has to be critically discussed to prevent overinterpretation. Additionally, there is a high level of attention to neuroimaging, leading to a high frequency of presentation of neuroimaging data and making the critical examination of their epistemological properties even more pressing. Conclusions: Epistemological considerations are an important prerequisite for neuroethics. The presentation and communication of the results of neuroimaging studies, the potential generation of new phenomena and new ,dysfunctions' through neuroimaging, and the influence on central concepts at the foundations of ethics will be important future topics for this discipline. [source]

Die Theorie der Intentionalität Meinongs

DIALECTICA, Issue 2 2001
Arkadiusz Chrudzimski
The most striking feature of Meinong's theory of intentionality is his thesis that every mental act has its reference-object "beyond being and non being". This theory seems, at first, to be a clear example of the so called object-theory of intentionality, as it introduces special "postulated" entities in the target-position of the mental act. Closer examination, however, reveals in Meinong's works important elements of the mediator-theory. Meinong speaks of auxiliary incomplete objects situated "between" the subject and the object of reference and "mediating" the intentional access to the (complete) reference-object. Moreover, even if the object of reference is of the simple nominal form, the mediating structure involves essentially propositional entities (objectives). In the paper we attempt to give a set-theoretical interpretation of Meinong's theory in the frame of which we could eventually do without the incomplete mediating objects. Yet, some general epistemological considerations suggest the indispensability of such incomplete mediating structures. [source]

Cladistic and phylogenetic biogeography: the art and the science of discovery

JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2003
Marco G. P. Van Veller
Abstract All methods used in historical biogeographical analysis aim to obtain resolved area cladograms that represent historical relationships among areas in which monophyletic groups of taxa are distributed. When neither widespread nor sympatric taxa are present in the distribution of a monophyletic group, all methods obtain the same resolved area cladogram that conforms to a simple vicariance scenario. In most cases, however, the distribution of monophyletic groups of taxa is not that simple. A priori and a posteriori methods of historical biogeography differ in the way in which they deal with widespread and sympatric taxa. A posteriori methods are empirically superior to a priori methods, as they provide a more parsimonious accounting of the input data, do not eliminate or modify input data, and do not suffer from internal inconsistencies in implementation. When factual errors are corrected, the exemplar presented by M.C. Ebach & C.J. Humphries (Journal of Biogeography, 2002, 29, 427) purporting to show inconsistencies in implementation by a posteriori methods actually corroborates the opposite. The rationale for preferring a priori methods thus corresponds to ontological rather than to epistemological considerations. We herein identify two different research programmes, cladistic biogeography (associated with a priori methods) and phylogenetic biogeography (associated with a posteriori methods). The aim of cladistic biogeography is to fit all elements of all taxon,area cladograms to a single set of area relationships, maintaining historical singularity of areas. The aim of phylogenetic biogeography is to document, most parsimoniously, the geographical context of speciation events. The recent contribution by M.C. Ebach & C.J. Humphries (Journal of Biogeography, 2002, 29, 427) makes it clear that cladistic biogeography using a priori methods is an inductivist/verificationist research programme, whereas phylogenetic biogeography is hypothetico-deductivist/falsificationist. Cladistic biogeography can become hypothetic-deductive by using a posteriori methods of analysis. [source]