Home – Home – Jornals – Philosophy of Sciences 2017 number 4

The correlation of the general and the singular in Spinoza’s ontology was studied through the analysis of the related texts in his “Ethics”. I have found out that in Spinoza’s view, the general defines thinking which he qualifies as an attribute of substance, while the modes of the attribute of extension, i.e. of the body, are related to the area of the singular. At the same time, I have revealed that Spinoza defines bodies as the solitary as well. The analysis of the content of the Spinozian concept of the solitary made it possible to ascertain that the philosopher thought the solitary as a synthesis of the singular and the general.

The article deals with the hermeneutical component of the methodology of interdisciplinary studies. We consider the classical noetic-noematic structure of intentionality and reveal the form of its modification with reference to the problem of interaction of consciousness and quantum mechanical processes in an observer’s figure. Intentionality serves as an ontological and methodological principle of relation according to which states of quantum systems, active states of consciousness and classical alternatives are mutually defined. We formulate a methodological principle of conjugation of holistic notional configurations of various disciplines which bases on Husserl’s phenomenological philosophy and Whitehead’s process metaphysics.

The article deals with the interpretation of the concept of logical constants at the time of logical atomism by Russell and Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and also in modern logic. A thesis is advanced that philosophical discussions with respect to this concept resulted in the conclusion that the syntactic expressive means of logical languages were suitable for formulating semantic concepts. We show that the analysis of the concept of logical constants played an important role in the semantic tradition of analytic philosophy.

Kolmogorov’s contemporaries Borel, Frechet and Levy believed that Kolmogorov’s request for the prox It is known that the efficiency of application of the probability theory, mathematical statistics and Bayesian networks depends on using the independence property. The article shows that there are no universal approaches to definition of independence. We believe that A.N. Kolmogorov’s and Yu.V. Shachkov’s opinion that the lack of philosophical study of the category of independence impedes providing a general definition of independence in mathematics is correct.

The representation of the structure of scientific knowledge levels as a set of the empirical, theoretical and meta-theoretical causes the problem of their relation. There are two possible solutions of the problem: demarcation (segregation of levels according to their meaning and determination of boundaries) and synthesis (negation of the independence of levels, reveal of the general). The article supports the synthetic solution, which is due to the following points: first, there are no definitions and essential features of each level; secondly, the thesis of the theoretical loading of experience and criticism of the standard concept of observation show the failure of segregating the empirical level. The introduction of the concept of «reflexive transformation» of the theoretical and empirical shows that a demarcation line between them is just conventional.

The author proves his belief that using any interpretation of the anthropic principle in scientific knowledge, especially under the tendency towards unification of physical theories, counteracts this very tendency. Nonconformance of the principle to scientific standards is the most obvious when developing concepts of the multiplicity of universes. Therefore, the anthropic principle is just of world-outlook interest, which makes researchers to focus on a false idea of anthropocentrism, but it has no scientific and methodological value.

The paper considers history of neurocomputing and ideology of parallel compiting as an alternative to digital computers. Such technologies are used not only to recognize images, but also to manage complex technical systems, e.o. in nuclear and defense industries. Significant advances in neurocomputing, especially in the defense industry, should cause concern because of some fundamental properties of neural networks and machine learning algorithms. In its most general form, this property can be called intellectual opacity. Despite the attractiveness of connectivism as a philosophical generalization of neurocomputing technology, we should not take it into account as a constructive classical type of rationality theory. It is as a heuristic natural philosophical wiev on the nature of the mind.

The article considers how Spinoza developed his conception of the essence of substance. We show the reasons for his anti-religious position and reveal the philosopher’s view of the nature of transcendence of substance. We trace how Spinoza eliminated the Cartesian dualism and came to ontological monism. We show that Spinoza’s concepts of substance, nature and god are equally important and identical, but it is the concept of substance that plays a key role in his philosophy. The concept of god used by Spinoza has nothing in common with traditional ideas of god.

At various times, many researchers dealing with the philosophy of geology drew attention to the fact that the principles of geological knowledge were very different from those of classical natural science, in particular of physics. This feature of geology gave rise to the problem of its scientific status. In the 20th century, two philosophical schools dealing with geological knowledge, viz. Anglo-American and Soviet-Russian (Marxian) ones, tried to solve it. This article presents an attempt to look at the problem of scientific character of geological knowledge in the view of semantic features of the concept of «geology» in various periods of the development of this discipline. We want to show that the problem of geological knowledge concerns not only the degree of its correlation with science standards, but also a considerable polysemy of the notion of «geology». We believe that the latter fact makes difficulties for understanding geological knowledge, as well as puts obstacles in the way of mutual understanding between philosophers and methodologists of geology keeping to different approaches. The article focuses on clarifying different meanings of the term «geology» and correlating each of these images of geology both with methodologies of human sciences and that which is traditionally related to the field of natural sciences in order to determine the scientific status of each «geology».

The most pressing issues of the philosophy of the scientific experiment were discussed at the international conference "Philosophy of scientific experimentation PSX5", which was held on September 22-23, 2016 in the capital of Serbia at the University of Belgrade in the format of a workshop. The meetings took place in the historical building of the university administration. On the part of the university, the organizers were the head of the philosophy department Slobodan Perovic and the director of the Center for Bioethics Studies Voin Rakic. This conference, the fifth in the series, was devoted to the interrelationship of various aspects of experimentation and scientific policy. In particular, discussed epistemically optimal ways to organize a scientific laboratory, the issue of epistemic division of labor in large, medium and small laboratories, including the results obtained from the use of computer simulations and quantitative methods. The focus of the philosophers were the experiments and the data produced by them in the biomedical (and partly in the physical) sciences, and the concomitant dilemmas related to science policy and philosophical approaches to resolving such dilemmas. During the conference, 12 reports were heard.

The subject of study are variations in relation to the place of basic and applied scientific research in American research universities that are the «home of basic science» in the United States. They arise from the fact that, on the one hand, on its original mission of a research University is, first and foremost, are the «home» of basic science and academic «scientific ethos», which is cultivated on a University campus among faculty and students. Uninterested basic researches are the basis of university education. On the other hand, applied research is becoming an important factor in the development of national defense and industry. A number of periods are destingwished: World War II and the subsequent arms race therein with Government orders when there is heavily weighted toward applied research; «golden age» of fundamental research after the launch of the Soviet satellite; the period of student unrest and politicized campuses; the period of active participation of universities in the development of knowledge-based technology and improve the economic competitiveness of the country, accompanied by the shift towards applied research. It is shown that the flow of «disinterested» basic science research continues to exist and is highly valued today yet, that academic basic science with her ethos and the type of problems is necessary for the production of scientists and relevant knowledge.