Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Throughout the history of philosophy, scientific achievements have often enhanced the prestige of philosophical systems associated with them. The success of mathematics, physics, biology, or other sciences may lend an appearance of authority to philosophical arguments that invoke their concepts or terminology. Yet scientific prestige andContinue reading “Excursus 101 – On Scientific Prestige and Philosophical Authority”
Category Archives: Philosophical Excursus
Excursus 100 – On Human Diversity and Philosophical Idealization
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Scientific inquiry frequently employs idealizations. Their legitimacy depends upon whether the features omitted are irrelevant to the problem under investigation. In classical mechanics, for example, a planet may often be represented as a point mass without significantly affecting the accuracy of gravitational calculations. Such simplifications areContinue reading “Excursus 100 – On Human Diversity and Philosophical Idealization”
Excursus 099 – On Kant as a Model of Philosophical Responsibility
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Immanuel Kant’s enduring significance lies not only in the originality of his philosophy but also in the methodological attitude from which it emerged. Living during the period in which Newtonian mechanics represented the most successful scientific account of the physical world, Kant regarded this achievement notContinue reading “Excursus 099 – On Kant as a Model of Philosophical Responsibility”
Excursus 098 – On an Additional Criterion for Evaluating Philosophers
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Philosophers are commonly evaluated according to such criteria as originality, logical consistency, conceptual clarity, influence, and historical significance. These are all important measures of philosophical achievement. Yet they do not exhaust the criteria by which philosophical work may be assessed. Philosophy has never developed independently ofContinue reading “Excursus 098 – On an Additional Criterion for Evaluating Philosophers”
Excursus 097 – On Events and Processes
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Many historical and scientific developments are commonly described as if they consisted of discrete events: revolutions, paradigm shifts, qualitative leaps, breakthroughs, or discoveries. Such expressions are often useful as descriptive labels, but they should not be mistaken for explanations. Closer examination frequently reveals that what appearsContinue reading “Excursus 097 – On Events and Processes”
Excursus 096 – On Selection in Scientific Inquiry
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Every scientific inquiry begins with selection. No researcher can investigate every problem, read every publication, examine every hypothesis, or pursue every promising idea. Scientific work is therefore conducted under conditions of scarcity: time, attention, funding, personnel, and institutional resources are all limited. Selection should not beContinue reading “Excursus 096 – On Selection in Scientific Inquiry”
Excursus 095 – On Manifestations of Change
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Change often referred to as movement in philosophical literature, is one of the most fundamental features of both nature and thought. Yet philosophers have often emphasized different manifestations of change and, in some cases, treated one particular manifestation as though it exhausted the phenomenon itself. TheContinue reading “Excursus 095 – On Manifestations of Change”
Excursus 094 – On Formal Logic and Changing Reality
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Formal logic and dialectical reasoning are often presented as mutually exclusive approaches. This opposition, however, concerns not the validity of logical inference but the domain to which different forms of reasoning are applied. Formal logic, in the classical tradition, operates upon abstract concepts according to principlesContinue reading “Excursus 094 – On Formal Logic and Changing Reality”
Excursus 093 – On the Two Stages of Historical Inquiry
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Historical inquiry is often presented as a branch of the humanities, whereas the natural sciences are regarded as fundamentally different modes of investigation. In practice, however, modern historical research increasingly proceeds through two complementary stages that draw upon both domains. The first stage seeks to establishContinue reading “Excursus 093 – On the Two Stages of Historical Inquiry”
Excursus 092 – On Structured Inference
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Much of classical statistical inference derives its strength from repeated observations and probabilistic regularities. An equally important source of scientific knowledge, however, arises from structure. In many disciplines, inference succeeds not primarily because observations are numerous but because they are constrained by systematic relationships. Such constraintsContinue reading “Excursus 092 – On Structured Inference”
