مجله فلسفه علم
سال دهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 20، پاییز و زمستان 1399)

The history of atomism has begun from Ancient Greek. Greek atomism was materialist, causal, and Mechanical. Atomism whether the ancient atomism or modern version (after the seventeenth century), is regarded as a materialist theory. In medieval time, in the Islamic world, an atomistic theory was offered to explain nature by mūtikallimūn, (Muʿtazila and Ašʿarī). Opposite of Greek atomists, Muslim atomists were theists and they were called mūtikallimūn for begin devoted to Islam and Quran. Nonetheless, they have developed a theory that is similar in some aspects to the other atomistic theories; however, they were radical about God’s omnipotence. In this paper, I investigate the metaphysical structure of Kalām atomism in the respect that they are based on which belief, after a brief introduction. And then I analyze that those theist theorists developed a scientific account in physics, which protected their religious beliefs. I examine how the theory results in materialism and the exclusion of metaphysics, but not entailing atheism.

Mathematical entities, in physics, are used to represent the ontology of theories. But there is a distinction between mathematical entities and physical entities which mathematics refers to, and ignoring this distinction leads to strange and false conclusions. This paper aims to realize, in a realistic interpretation, what the wavefunction, as a mathematical entity, refers to.. It is emphasized that the confusion of the wave function as a mathematical element with the physical state leads to a strange conclusion that the dimensions of the physical space are in direct correspondence with the mathematical dimensions, or the configuration space is a real physical space. Moreover,It is suggested, that determination of the ontological status of the wave function needs a theory to connect and explain the relation between local beables and quantum state.

From a phenomenological perspective, we review the concept of empathy in medicine to identify the theoretical obstacles which have prevented reaching intersubjectivity and proper understanding. Where medicine has failed are: attending to subjectivities of patient and physician, recognizing the dynamic nature of empathy and acknowledging context-dependency of empathy. We also review the problematic practical consequences of this theoretical failure including serving medical paternalism, hindering medical practice, and being used as a tool for counterbalancing inadequate health budget and serving political power. Thus, using and interdisciplinary approach, we argue why the concept of empathy in medicine needs to be reviewed under the light of phenomenology and progress in line with second wave of medical humanities; put philosophy at its core to once again integrate proper understanding of the patient with the concept of medicine .

Evaluating the conformity of Newton’s methodological statements with his actual practice of science is the prime goal of this article. The importance of the question is that despite much researches about Newton’s scientific method in the last quarter of a century, there is still not even a rough picture of what that method looks like. I have surmised that part of the explanation for this inscrutability lies in the fact that Newton’s words and deeds may, for good reasons, be on the whole not quite coherent. Thus, I want to raise and answer this question: Is it possible that a large share of the inscrutability of Newton’s method rests on the fact that some of Newton’s proclaimed methodological rules do not quite cohere with his practiced rules. But more so, in some cases, these two kinds of proclaimed and practiced rules may simply be inconsistent. For this, I have mainly relied on scrutiny of Newton’s two classic works, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and Optics, and some of his relevant correspondence.

In recent decades, the life sciences have come into the world of narratives and literature with two approaches: the evolutionary and the cognitive ones. The present article, with some references to the second approach, is mainly concerned with the first one. Theories developed in evolutionary paradigm mainly consider human tendency to literature as an adaptation in the process of human evolution at different individual, group, and cultural levels. These theories are criticized in the present article. Theory of extended mind holds the relationship between mind, body and the world around us very intense. Another claim is that extended mind theory has a particular capacity for explaining literature. As a final claim, the paper deals with Evo-Devo biology and uses its explanatory abilities to explain the role of literature in human life and evolution.

Applying computational rules has a major contribution in the coordination of architectural proportions and elements. Geometry science and its applications is one of the main features in Iranian architecture. The start of its development was in the eighth and ninth centuries and continued until the tenth century. At this research for using the perspective of ninth century mathematician and thinker, Al’Kashi, is considered as measuring, calculating and regulating these elements in Timurid era. One of most important achievement of Al’Kashi is trisecting the angle and the circle which is the complimentary of the trigonometry and conic sections of Khayyam. The purpose of the research is to answer if calculations and ideas proposed by famous mathematicians such as Al’Kashi have the ability to use in architectural industry. The theoretical foundations of the current research are on this basis whether there is connection and relationship between theoretical and practical discussions of geometry and architecture. In the paper, based on the manuscripts left by Iranian mathematicians, the roots of their computational and graphical rules which the researchers consider them as the Menelaus theorem are evaluated by Python programming language in Rhino software. The results show that Al’Kashi's calculations and drawings were not just a practical-theoretical exercise and trigonometric rules have been used in static and stability of architectural features.

There are two main approaches on evolutionary epistemology: analogical or Spencerian approach, literal or Darwinian approach. In the first approach, one attempts to argue that process of culture and science growth is analogue to main process of organisms growth in biology which based on natural selection; while in the second approach, one attempts to argue that not only growth and evolution of animals and humans physical body is product and result of natural selection, but also growth of their mind structures is result of natural selection. The main question of this essay is that if the Ruse's claim and his arguments in rejection of analogical approach are strong enough or not. Many thinkers support this approach, including Karl Popper, Kuhn Thomas, Stephen Toulmin, Campbell Donald and David Hull. Ruse believe that although there are analogies between growth of organisms and growth of human knowledge, but there are also significant disanalogies between them which makes analogy between this two fields are weaken, so analogical approach is not defensible by Ruse. We agree with the core of Ruse's claim, that is, the analogical approach in evolutionary epistemology is implausible, but we believe that his arguments in refuting some versions of this approach such as kuhn's version and Camdell's, are failed.

Deep learning technology, philosophical challenges and approaches Abstract The unprecedented human’s advancement in generating and storing piles of data, and exploiting such large amounts of data for building reasoning machines has manifested as a technology known as “deep learning”. This technology is inspired by the brain’s connectivity structure and is empowered by deep artificial neural networks. In spite of numerous benefits offered by their great power in reasoning like experts or creating things like skillful people, this technology imposes some ethical challenges to human’s life. This article tries to present the ethical challenges of deep learning technology that threaten humanity and tries to address them by employing a rational-philosophical approach. Although deep learning technology imposes several ethical challenges on our lives, it is still possible to benefit from big data without sacrificing our ethical values provided we gain awareness about and preparation against such challenges. 

In this study, we shall assess the claim concerning the negative effect of sin and positive effect of grace on proper function of reason and cognitive faculties through the lens of the Calvinist tradition and the Reformed Epistemology. Although the noetic effect of sin has already been discussed probably by tracing the role of the non-epistemic factors in acquiring knowledge in general, approaching the issue by focusing on ‘scientific knowledge’ is novel and, to the best of my knowledge, has not been attempted before. This study will be developed by means of an evaluation of Stephen Moroney’s project. Through a critical survey of the views of a number of prominent Christian theologian, he tries to develop a model for the cognitive influence of sin. In our review of his work from the canons of Critical Rationalism, we shall try to show that Moroney's conclusions are inconsistent with his explanation of the effect of sin on the natural sciences. Our main arguments are as follows: what Moroney describes as scientific knowledge from a Christian point of view is more a technological awareness rather than scientific knowledge proper. Furthermore, it is the scientist who is affected by sin and not his scientific claim.

"Medical humanities" seems to be a paradoxical phrase primarily. How these two distinct and separate fileds of knowledge have been linked is due to the problematic state of medicine. In the first part of the article, we will analyze medical humanities based on the controversies in this field, and in the second part, the critical meta-medical studies will be proposed as an alternative to medical humanities. To answer the first question, we have used the controversies studies. The contemporary trend of medical humanities began with the critique of modern medicine in the late sixties and early seventies, which was concerned with the growing development of biomedical sciences and dehumanization of medicine. The pioneers in this field found a solution that could be linking the humanities to the field of medicine. The medical humanities has established by reforming the curricula of many medical schools , and gradually expanded to clinical research and clinical practice. A careful review and analysis of medical humanities literature identified five main issues in surface layer: broad and different conceptions and definitions, discipline vs. field, multidisciplinary vs. interdisciplinary, medical humanities vs. health humanities, classical humanities vs. critical humanities and medical humanities vs. medical philosophy. In the final analysis in the deep layer, two elements can be distinguished: one is dichotomies and the other is drives or processes. Dichotomies can be classified into several general groups: methodological (instrumental-critical and concrete-integrated), epustemological (natural sciences-humanities, specialist-commoners), ontological (human-human sciences, art-science) and praxiological (health vs. clinical, care vs. cure). In the case of drives or processes, we can mention medicaliztion, bureaucratization, technicalization, ethicization, scientificization, specialization, individualization. But as we mentioned in the final analysis, both approaches has suffered from serious limitations. In the second part of the article, two questions will be addressed: What is the defensible critical approach in medical / health sciences and what are the proposed critical meta-medical studies as an alternative to medical / health sciences? Modern medicine and humanities and social sciences have the same origins, and therefore sociology, psychology, etc., as medical humanities, cannot humanize medicine. Hence, a critical theory should be considered that critiques both social sciences and medicine at the same time; Like Foucault, Gadamer and Habermas. Critical meta-medical studies, such as the cross-disciplinary umbrella, pay attention to the fundamental questions of medicine and, of course, inforce the discipline to a critical appraoch, both among themselves and towards the goal of medicine.

With the dramatic advancement in physics and its sub-fields such as cosmology and quantum physics, teleological arguments for the existence of God, especially the fine-tuning argument came to the spotlight in theological discussions. Along with the widespread support for this argument, various challenges also have been raised against this argument by critics. The measure challenge seems to be of the most promising of these challenges. It calls into question the use of probability calculus in the argument and asserts that the axiom of ‘countable additivity’ has been violated in such probabilities and they are, hence, non-normalizable and illogical. Facing this challenge, two strategies are normally put forward by the proponents of the fine-tuning argument. The first strategy is to accept the challenge and try to circumvent it by normalizing the probabilities. The second strategy depicts non-normalizable probabilities as a usual phenomenon in various sciences such as cosmology and statistical mechanics and as such, considers it a rather justifiable anomaly in probabilities utilized in fine-tuning argument. In this article, in addition to reviewing the measure challenge as well as the two aforementioned strategies, we will discuss and defend a third strategy that has not been widely addressed by the proponents of fine-tuning argument. In this strategy, by raising ontological questions about the measure theory, we argue that the axiom of countable additivity is not a binding axiom and may be forsaken or be replaced by an alternative axiom, namely finite additivity.

The theory of quaternary elements along with the natural system is one of the cornerstones of Greek philosophy, especially from Aristotle. With the translation and transmission of Greek sciences, this theory came to the Islamic world and formed the theoretical basis for most of the Islamic sciences. Of these, Islamic science has been widely used in the field of Islamic sciences. In this paper, we try to show the effect of this theory in two parts: scientific and technological. The part that can be considered as the development of Aristotelian naturalism based on the natural system, and the part that is in the field of technology and technology, and the natural system has an inspirational role for it.