Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 The interpretation of intellectual traditions often proceeds through successive layers of commentary. A philosopher may be studied through later philosophers, a scientist through historians of science, or a political thinker through subsequent schools of interpretation. Such mediation is both inevitable and frequently valuable. Yet it alsoContinue reading “Excursus 084 – On the Distance Problem”
Tag Archives: Francis Bacon
Excursus 083 – On the Canonization Problem
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 The history of science is often presented through the achievements of a relatively small number of celebrated individuals. Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and a few others have become canonical figures whose discoveries symbolize entire scientific disciplines. Their prominence is fully deserved. Yet an exclusive focusContinue reading “Excursus 083 – On the Canonization Problem”
Excursus 082 – On the Age Problem
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Scientific knowledge is historically cumulative. Theories are revised, methods are refined, instruments become more powerful, and standards of evidence evolve. Consequently, any philosophical account of science must distinguish between the historical development of a scientific discipline and its present methodological state. This gives rise to whatContinue reading “Excursus 082 – On the Age Problem”
Excursus 071 – On Intellectual Traditions as Evolving Populations
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Historical influence should not be confused with direct textual transmission. The doctrines associated with major thinkers seldom reach later generations solely through the original texts. More often they are transmitted through successive generations of interpretation, teaching, commentary, translation, adaptation, and institutional practice. As a result, theContinue reading “Excursus 071 – On Intellectual Traditions as Evolving Populations”
Excursus 066 – On the Four Epistemic Modes of Modern Science
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 Since the Scientific Revolution, observation and experiment have traditionally been regarded as the two principal sources of scientific knowledge. Observation acquires data from naturally occurring phenomena without deliberate intervention, whereas experiment generates data by systematically manipulating conditions to test specific hypotheses. These two modes formed theContinue reading “Excursus 066 – On the Four Epistemic Modes of Modern Science”
Excursus 063 – On Knowledge and Power
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 The relationship between knowledge and power has long occupied philosophers, political theorists, and historians of science. Yet the two concepts are easily conflated. Knowledge may confer power by enlarging the range of possible actions, but it is not itself a form of political domination. To distinguishContinue reading “Excursus 063 – On Knowledge and Power”
Excursus 062 – On Science, Technology, and the Uses of Knowledge
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 Discussions concerning science often fail to distinguish between scientific knowledge and its practical applications. The distinction is fundamental. Science seeks to understand, explain, and predict natural phenomena. Technology applies such knowledge to achieve practical ends. Although the two are closely related and frequently develop together, theyContinue reading “Excursus 062 – On Science, Technology, and the Uses of Knowledge”
Excursus 055 – On Mental Faculties and the Division of Academic Disciplines
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 The traditional division of the human mind into faculties such as sensation, perception, memory, imagination, understanding, reason, judgment, emotion, and will should not be understood as a map of sharply separated regions within the brain. These faculties are better regarded as functional distinctions: analytical categories usedContinue reading “Excursus 055 – On Mental Faculties and the Division of Academic Disciplines”
Excursus 040 – On the Allegory of the Cave and Induction
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The orthodox interpretation holds that Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is not an account of empirical inquiry but a metaphysical drama of intellectual ascent: the shadows signify ignorance, the cave represents the sensible world, and liberation symbolizes the soul’s turn toward noēsis and knowledge of theContinue reading “Excursus 040 – On the Allegory of the Cave and Induction”
Excursus 039 – On Bacon’s Asymmetry of Induction and Deduction
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s principal target of criticism in Novum Organum I:30 was the upward movement from particulars to general propositions. He argued that the traditional method, which he termed inductio vulgaris (“vulgar induction”), merely gathered instances, leapt prematurely to universal statements, and then relied on syllogistic demonstration toContinue reading “Excursus 039 – On Bacon’s Asymmetry of Induction and Deduction”
Hossein Jorjani 