Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 06 Philosophical inquiry necessarily depends upon definitions. New concepts are introduced, familiar concepts are refined, and distinctions are drawn between phenomena that ordinary language may treat as equivalent. Yet even a carefully formulated definition may leave the reader uncertain about what the author actually intends it toContinue reading “Excursus 128 – On Definitions and Their Instances”
Category Archives: Philosophical Excursus
Excursus 127 – On Multiple Levels of Explanation in Social Science
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 02 Social phenomena have traditionally been explained through a variety of conceptual frameworks. Historians have emphasized historical contingency and institutional development; sociologists have focused on social structures and collective processes; psychologists have investigated cognition, motivation, and individual behavior; economists have analyzed incentives and resource allocation. Each ofContinue reading “Excursus 127 – On Multiple Levels of Explanation in Social Science”
Excursus 126 – On the Methodological Limits of Classical Sociobiology
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 02 The emergence of sociobiology during the second half of the twentieth century represented one of the earliest systematic attempts to interpret human social behavior within an evolutionary framework. By emphasizing that human societies are products of biological evolution, it stimulated valuable dialogue between biology and theContinue reading “Excursus 126 – On the Methodological Limits of Classical Sociobiology”
Excursus 125 – On the Geometry of Ideas
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 31 Human beings have a natural tendency to arrange ideas along a single axis. Political doctrines, philosophical systems, and even scientific theories are commonly represented as occupying positions on a line, with one doctrine at one end and its supposed opposite at the other. Such representations areContinue reading “Excursus 125 – On the Geometry of Ideas”
Excursus 124 – On the Relationship Between Disciplines and Their Subject Matter
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 28 It is often assumed that each academic discipline possesses its own distinct subject matter. This assumption is misleading. The boundaries separating disciplines frequently reflect differences in conceptual vocabulary, explanatory emphasis, and historical development rather than fundamentally different domains of reality. The same phenomenon may therefore beContinue reading “Excursus 124 – On the Relationship Between Disciplines and Their Subject Matter”
Excursus 123 – On the Epistemic Uses of Imagination
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 27 Imagination has long served as an indispensable instrument for understanding reality. Yet it has not always been employed for the same intellectual purpose. Mythology, satire, and science fiction all construct worlds that differ from ordinary experience, but they do so in order to illuminate different aspectsContinue reading “Excursus 123 – On the Epistemic Uses of Imagination”
Excursus 122 – On the Interpretive Authority of Early and Late Writings
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 27 When philosophers and scientists write repeatedly on the same subject over many years, an important methodological question arises: Which writings should be given the greatest interpretive authority when reconstructing the author’s position? A useful comparison may be drawn from the natural sciences. A scientist may publishContinue reading “Excursus 122 – On the Interpretive Authority of Early and Late Writings”
Excursus 121 – On the Interpretation of Early Philosophical Writings
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 27 The growing scholarly interest in the early writings of major philosophers and scientists reflects a legitimate desire to understand the genesis of their ideas. Early manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, and unpublished reflections often reveal conceptual beginnings, abandoned alternatives, and the gradual emergence of positions that later becameContinue reading “Excursus 121 – On the Interpretation of Early Philosophical Writings”
Excursus 120 – On Dialectics as a Heuristic Rather than an Explanation
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 27 Dialectics may be understood as a method for apprehending movement, contradiction, change, and the plurality of reality. In this sense, it serves as a heuristic framework for inquiry rather than as a substitute for empirical explanation. The distinction resembles the relationship between hypothesis formation and scientificContinue reading “Excursus 120 – On Dialectics as a Heuristic Rather than an Explanation”
Excursus 119 – On the Many Meanings of “Empirical”
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 23 The terms empirical, empiricism, and their derivatives have acquired multiple meanings throughout the history of philosophy and science. Although these meanings are historically related, they are not identical. Consequently, the mere assertion that a claim is “empirical” does not, by itself, specify either the method byContinue reading “Excursus 119 – On the Many Meanings of “Empirical””
Hossein Jorjani 