E-LOGOS, 2020 (vol. 27), issue 2

Philosophy of Science

Science, Pseudoscience and Parascience

Filip Tvrdý

E-LOGOS 2020, 27(2):4-17 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.474  

Finding the demarcation criterion for the identification of scientific knowledge is the most important task of normative epistemology. Pseudoscience is not a harmless leisure activity, it can pose a danger to the functioning of liberal democratic societies and the well-being of their citizens. First, there is an outline of how to define science instrumentally without slipping into the detrimental heritage of conceptual essentialism. The second part is dedicated to Popper’s falsification criterion and the objections of its opponents, which eventually led to the abandonment of “naïve” falsificationism. Then I present two promising...

New Styles of Reasoning in Contemporary Philosophy and Science

Jitka Paitlová

E-LOGOS 2020, 27(2):34-45 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.477  

The paper discusses the unexpected trends in the most modern forms of philosophy and science. The traditional differences in the roles of philosophy and science can be traced back to Kant: natural sciences refer to possible experience; philosophy as metaphysics does not affect experience at all. Today, there are very different trends. Some physical theories (such as string theory) have a highly theoretical character and cannot be proved by empirical experiments. A new approach has been developed in philosophy too: experimental philosophy, which makes use of empirical data to inform research on philosophical questions. Are these approaches just contradictions...

Philosophy of Mind

In Defense of Semantic Externalism

Panu Raatikainen

E-LOGOS 2020, 27(2):57-70 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.479  

The most popular and influential strategies used against semantic externalism and the causal theory of reference are critically examined. It is argued that upon closer scrutiny, none of them emerges as truly convincing.

Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy

Philosophical Aspects of Collaboration During World War II

Václav Velčovský

E-LOGOS 2020, 27(2):24-33 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.478  

The aim of this paper is to interpret collaboration during the World War II as a phenomenon. The first part of the text is focused mainly on its philosophical aspects (concepts of limit, interaction and guilt), mainly on the basis of Jaspers, in the second, they are applied to the Czech context of the World War II and the transitional justice. The scheme of collaboration will be created, respectively the collaboration is put among other life strategies. Thanks to this interconnection, the paper might provide an interdisciplinary view of the issue. Given the current developments in the world and in Europe, the issue is certainly not out of date.

War and Philosophy: A Study of Mutual Interaction

Michal Rigel

E-LOGOS 2020, 27(2):46-56 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.476  

War has been a subject of ethical and philosophical reflections for centuries. This resulted in many examples of tangible impacts on the character of war (i. e. ban of certain types of weapons or methods of warfare along with other restrictions inspired by the teaching of the philosophical theory of the just war, etc.). However, an unresolved question remains: in which way the long-term interaction between the two has affected philosophy itself? There seems to be no human activity where the phenomenon of war would not play a significant role, and the philosophy should not be supposed an exception. It is mainly in the field of political philosophy (and...

Miscellany

Let’s the Pictures Speak about Themself: Contribution of W.J.T. Mitchell on Philosophy of Image

Anastasia Jessica Adinda Susanti

E-LOGOS 2020, 27(2):18-23 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.475  

This research examines the contribution of W.J.T. Mitchell, especially on the philosophy of image. Image has been so long treated as an object. W.J.T. Mitchell located image as a subject that produced self-reflection, even capable to create a theory about themself. The contributions of Mitchell on philosophy of image are manifested on his concepts: pictorial turn, the distinction of image and picture, mixed media, meta-picture, and bio-picture.