The concept of »systematic knowledge research« is being developed. Systematic knowledge research assumes an irreducible variety of types of knowledge. The focus lies on researching the intersections and interactions of the different types of knowledge. Clarifying the mechanisms of interaction of the knowledge types in everyday life, sciences, technologies, and arts represents a cross-cutting issue for philosophy and all scientific disciplines, technologies, and arts as well as an independent research subject. At the same time, expansions and re-orientations of epistemology are (...) connected with systematic knowledge research. What exactly knowledge research is capable of achieving and why it is of value is spelled out in this paper. Five examples shall illustrate knowledge research in action. (shrink)

The debate between the amodal and the grounded views of cognition seems to be stuck. Their only substantial disagreement is about the vehicle or format of concepts. Amodal theorists reject the grounded claim that concepts are couched in the same modality-specific format as representations in sensory systems. The problem is that there is no clear characterization of format or its neural correlate. In order to make the disagreement empirically meaningful and move forward in the discussion we need a neurocognitive criterion (...) for representational format. I argue that efficient coding models in computational neuroscience can be used to characterize modal codes: These are codes which satisfy special informational demands imposed by sensory tasks. Additionally, I examine recent studies on neural coding and argue that although they do not provide conclusive evidence for either the grounded or the amodal views, they can be used to determine what predictions these approaches can make and what experimental and theoretical developments would be required to settle the debate. (shrink)

It has been argued that the approximate number system (ANS) constitutes a problem for the grounded approach to cognition because it implies that some conceptual tasks are performed by non-perceptual systems. The ANS is considered non-perceptual mainly because it processes stimuli from different modalities. Jones (2015) has recently argued that this system has many features (such as being modular) which are characteristic of sensory systems. Additionally, he affirms that traditional sensory systems also process inputs from different modalities. This suggests that (...) the ANS is a perceptual system and therefore it is not problematic for the grounded view. In this paper, I defend the amodal approach to the ANS against these two arguments. In the first place, perceptual systems do not possess the properties attributed to the ANS and therefore these properties do not imply that the ANS is perceptual. In the second place, I will propose that a sensory system only needs to be dedicated to process modality-specific information, which is consistent with responding to inputs from different modalities. I argue that the cross-modal responses exhibited by traditional sensory systems are consistent with modality-specific information whereas some responses exhibited by the ANS are not. (shrink)

Although much has been written on Descartes’ thought on animals, not so much has originated in, or has taken full account of, Descartes’ views on emotions. I explore here the extent to which the latter can contribute to the debate on whether he embraced, and to which extent, the doctrine of the bête machine. I first try to show that Descartes’ views on emotions can help offer new support to the skeptical position without necessarily creating new tensions with other central (...) aspects of his philosophy. And second, I sketch the type of theory of animal passions which Descartes could have accepted. The general conclusion I draw is not that Descartes did not hold the view of the bête machine but rather that we can find within his thought a solid stream of ideas, which became stronger towards the end of his life, that points in the opposite direction. (shrink)

Der vorliegende Aufsatz diagnosiziert im Sinne Nietzsche eine Krise des traditionellen Wahrheitsbegriffs, in dem Wahrheit als metaphysische Wahrheit verstanden wurde, die den Wahrheitsbegriffs, in dem Wahrheit als metaphysische Warheit verstanden wurde, die den Wahrheitsträgern zeitlos, zeichenunvermittelt und interperationsunabhängig zukommt. Die Kritik an diesem Verständnis bedient sich sowohl der Unterscheidung zwischen einem engen und einem weiten Sinn als auch der Gegenüberstellung einer alten und einer neuen Rede von Wahrheit. Letztere wird mit Hilfe eines drei-stufigen Modells der Zeichen- und Interpretationsverhältnisse entfaltet. Dadurch (...) gelingt es, Wahrheit als Funktion von Zeichen- und Interpretationsprozessen zu konzipieren und in ihrer Rolle zur Geltung zu bringen. Dieses neue Modell der Wahrheit erlaubt darüber hinaus einerseits eine Reformulierung älterer Aspekte der Wahrheitsfrage, andererseits aber auch die Neubestimmung der Wahrheit als zeichen- und interpretationsprozessual, historische, genealogisch und gradierbar.The article startes from a Nietzschean inspired diagnosis of the crisis of the traditional concept of truth, understood as timeless metaphysical truth, unmediated by signs and independent of interpretations. The critique of this notion makes use of a distinction between a narrow and a wide concept of truth as well as contrasting two construals of truth: an old and a new one. the latter is elaborated by means of a three-leveled model of signo-interpretational relations. This enables us to bring to the fore a notion of truth as a function of signo-interpretational processes. In addition, this new model of truth makes it possible to reformulate some of the old aspects of truth, while at the same time allowing for a new conception of truth as signo-interpretational, historical, genealogical, and gradable in character. (shrink)

An argument recently proposed by Chirimuuta seems to motivate the rejection of the claims that every neurocognitive phenomenon can have a mechanistic explanation and that every neurocognitive explanation is mechanistic. In this paper, I focus on efficient coding models involving the so-called “canonical neural computations” and argue that although they imply some form of pluralism, they are compatible with two mechanistic generalizations: all neurocognitive explanations are mechanistic; and all neurocognitive phenomena that have an explanation have a purely mechanistic explanation.

Marxists regard works of art as meaningful, and look for political meanings even when they are not addressing political subjects. But where does music’s meaning lie? The conventional view is that music is non-referential, capable only of supporting other artforms or of expressing emotions. Adorno rejects the idea of music as a language of emotions, and does not believe that music has universal grammatical and syntactical rules. Yet he claims that music has language characteristics which make it as political as (...) other artforms. What does he mean, and is he right? To answer those questions, we need to know how he understands language. This article examines how Adorno's view compares with the Marxist theory of language and consciousness developed by Valentin Voloshinov, and explores the extent to which approaching music from this direction might clarify a Marxist understanding of music and contribute to solving the thorny question of musical meaning. (shrink)

A concepção padrão de prova é uma concepção lingüística de prova. No entanto,literatura recente reivindica a legitimidade de provas heterogêneas, isto é, que incorporemrecursos visuais ou gráficos. Tal reivindicação implica em um melhor exame da distinçãoentre representação lingüística e representação gráfica ou visual; concomitantemente, elatambém comporta uma análise da dualidade entre discursivo e intuitivo em filosofia dalógica e da matemática. Neste breve artigo examinamos dois exemplos canônicos de provasheterogêneas, salientando, no entanto, seu caráter discursivo. Em uma também brevesecção final introduzimos (...) com caráter conjetural o conceito leibniciano de representaçãoecthetica com vistas a repensar a distinção entre lingüístico e gráfico. (shrink)

Systematic Knowledge Research is the approach used to describe the peculiar profiles of various forms of knowledge. It investigates the points of overlap between the various kinds of knowledge forms, and it elucidates the mechanisms of interpenetration between those forms. Systematic Knowledge Research grasps the dynamic of various forms of knowledge and their interplay, and describes the practices and the manifestations of knowledge. Knowledge Research provides analyses and suggestions for modeling each of the five fields as well as their interconnections. (...) These objectives make a difference between Systematic Knowledge Research on the one hand, and traditional theory of knowledge and varieties of science studies on the other. Knowledge Research meets the current desideratum to systematically broaden and revise the house of epistemology. (shrink)

A vernacular fifteenth-century sermon tells us, in order to warn of the threats to spiritual welfare posed by dance, that cyclic motion and centering of sensory impressions – amongst them intimate conversation – are essential elements of dance. When blending out the parenesis, implicit poetics of medieval dance can be distilled from that sermon. The way how these essential elements of dance are used for generating disruptions within literary plots will be demonstrated in three literary texts dating from the thirteenth (...) to the fifteenth century: Disruptions in connection with dance occur when contrary concepts of motion clash with each other, for example the linearity of the chivalrous way through the Other World with the cyclicity of round dances. ‚Der Württemberger‘, however, collides two contrary concepts of time which can be paraphrased as spatial metaphors, namely the linearity of earthly life which collides with the cyclicity of eternal damnation, a collision symbolized by the expulsion of life out of the dance of the death. Finally in ‚Ritter Sociabilis‘, dance generates a virtual space which subverts the courtly society. The protagonists of all these texts differently manage to resolve disruptions, namely by redemption, by repentance, or by continuing disruptions which they have caused themselves. (shrink)