E-LOGOS, 2018 (vol. 25), issue 1

History of Philosophy

Republic, Plato's 7th letter and the concept of Δωριστὶ ζῆν

Konstantinos Gkaleas

E-LOGOS 2018, 25(1):43-49 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.454  

If we accept the 7th letter as authentic and reliable, a matter that we will not be addressing in this paper, the text that we have in front of us is "an extraordinary autobiographic document", an autobiography where the "I" as a subject becomes "I" as an object, according to Brisson. The objective of the paper is to examine how we could approach and interpret the excerpt from Plato's 7th letter regarding the Doric way of life (Δωριστὶ ζῆν). According to Plato, the Sicilian life (Σικελικὸν βίον) that was allegedly a blissful...

Philosophy of Science

The Problematic Parts of Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Vendula Kovářová

E-LOGOS 2018, 25(1):16-25 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.451  

The paper deals with some problematic parts of Kuhn's famous title The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which was probably one of the most quoted book in philosophy and history of science in the second half of 20th century. Even though it is definitely very significant and distinguished text, some parts of it consist of vague and ambiguous formulations that were (and still are) the source of criticism. This article identifies the issues in the Kuhn's Structure, introduces their previous solutions and suggests new solutions. The main issues concerns Kuhn's theory of paradigms and the extension of scientific revolutions.

Ontological relativity and metadata

Jakub Novotný

E-LOGOS 2018, 25(1):33-42 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.453  

The concepts of data, information, or metadata are tied to the theory of information, which is at the general level part of the modern scientific tradition and is based in many ways on the tradition of analytical tradition. The paper brings a recapitulation of these foundations and a recapitulation of the development of analytic philosophy, including the outcome in language relativism given by the turn in this philosophical tradition. Language relativism is also related to the issue of data and metadata in the paper. Metadata is by no means an absolute description of data objects, it is always dependent on other metadata in the background and context....

Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy

The asymmetry objection to political liberalism: evaluation of a defence

Terence Rajivan Edward

E-LOGOS 2018, 25(1):26-32 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.452  

This paper evaluates Jonathan Quong's attempt to defend a version of political liberalism from the asymmetry objection. I object that Quong's defence relies on a premise that has not been adequately supported and does not look as if it can be given adequate support.

Two Principles of Justice

Magdaléna Steinhauser Wesserlová

E-LOGOS 2018, 25(1):50-71 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.455  

The paper is focused on the problem of justice John Rawl's in Theory of Justice.The content of the contribution is conceived as an analysis of the two principles of justice, while is focusing on their focal aspects. The paper is trying to clarify the importance of two principles of justice by research of content of the first and second principles. In connection with the second principle, the aim is not only to clarify the implication of fair equality of opportunity, but also the relationship of the second principle with the principle of effectiveness and the relationship of democratic interpretation of justice with the principle of difference....

Epistemology

Beyond Witches, Angels and Unicorns. The Possibility of Expanding Russell's Existential Analysis

Olga Ramírez Calle

E-LOGOS 2018, 25(1):4-15 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.450  

This paper attempts to be a contribution to the epistemological project of explaining complex conceptual structures departing from more basic ones. The central thesis of the paper is that there are what I call "functionally structured concepts", these are non-harmonic concepts in Dummett's sense that might be legitimized if there is a function that justifies the tie between the inferential connection the concept allows us to trace. Proving this requires enhancing the russellian existential analysis of definite descriptions to apply to functions and using this in proving the legitimacy of such concepts. The utility of the proposal is shown for the case...