Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon, like many early modern thinkers, treated the human intellect as though its fundamental tendencies were largely uniform across individuals. He gave little attention to variation among persons or cultures, nor did he consider that cognitive dispositions might differ as a consequence of genetic differences, education,Continue reading “Excursus 028 – On Individual Variations”
Author Archives: Hossein Jorjani
Excursus 027 – On Teleology
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In Aristotle’s philosophy, the final cause (causa finalis) referred to the end, purpose, or goal for which a thing existed. Together with the material, formal, and efficient causes, it formed one of the four fundamental modes of explanation in Aristotelian natural philosophy. Francis Bacon rejected theContinue reading “Excursus 027 – On Teleology”
Excursus 026 – On the Asymmetry Between Verification and Falsification
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In Aphorism I:46 of the Novum Organum (1620), Bacon observed that the human intellect naturally favors confirming instances while overlooking or explaining away contrary evidence. He therefore concluded that, in the establishment of a true axiom, the negative instance possesses greater evidential force than the affirmative.Continue reading “Excursus 026 – On the Asymmetry Between Verification and Falsification”
Excursus 025 – On Epistemological Distortion
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The epistemological distortion identified by Bacon in Aphorism I:45 of the Novum Organum (1620)—the tendency of the human mind to impose order and correspondence where none existed—has numerous modern analogues. In theoretical physics, critics have argued that some highly mathematical theories risk allowing formal elegance andContinue reading “Excursus 025 – On Epistemological Distortion”
Excursus 024 – On the Anthropomorphic Mind and God
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s discussion of the human tendency to impose imagined order upon nature, as presented in Aphorism I:45 of the Novum Organum (1620), has been interpreted by some later commentators as extending to the formation of anthropomorphic conceptions of God. This should not be understood as aContinue reading “Excursus 024 – On the Anthropomorphic Mind and God”
Excursus 023 – On the Significance of The “Man is the measure of all things.”
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Human perception of even the most apparently straightforward phenomena—such as color—varies significantly across individuals. Differences in sensory physiology, neural processing, developmental history, and learned categories mean that two people may both call an object “green” while experiencing qualitatively distinct sensations. Similar divergences appear in brightness perception,Continue reading “Excursus 023 – On the Significance of The “Man is the measure of all things.””
Excursus 022 – On the History of Systematic Cognitive Bias
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Although Roger Bacon’s offendicula provided an earlier catalogue of obstacles to knowledge, Francis Bacon’s doctrine of the idola represented a much broader and more systematic theory of cognitive error. His Idola Tribus, for instance, echoed ancient reflections—from Stoic and Epicurean traditions—that universal human nature distorted perception,Continue reading “Excursus 022 – On the History of Systematic Cognitive Bias”
Excursus 021 – On Recollection, Implicit Learning, and the Origins of Knowledge
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s account of how knowledge is acquired, as presented in Aphorism I:37 of the Novum Organum (1620), resonates with other non-dogmatic conceptions of learning, both ancient and modern. Socrates, by contrast, maintained that knowledge is possible. Although he acknowledged the limits of his own knowledge, heContinue reading “Excursus 021 – On Recollection, Implicit Learning, and the Origins of Knowledge”
Excursus 020 – On Communication across Paradigms
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The phenomenon of conceptual scaffolding may be clarified by analogy with coordinate transformations in linear algebra. When moving from one coordinate system to another, a point or vector is represented differently according to the basis in use. To understand the new representation, one must initially mapContinue reading “Excursus 020 – On Communication across Paradigms”
Excursus 019 – On Intellectual Inheritance, Conceptual Anagenesis, and the Three-Generation Heuristic
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Ideas are transmitted through intellectual lineages in a manner that resembles biological inheritance. A concept may pass from one thinker to another, retaining its name while gradually altering its function, scope, and internal meaning. In studying the history of ideas, one must therefore distinguish between verbalContinue reading “Excursus 019 – On Intellectual Inheritance, Conceptual Anagenesis, and the Three-Generation Heuristic”
Hossein Jorjani 