Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 10 – 13 Whether something can properly be called dialectical depends first on what “dialectic” is intended to mean. The historical continuity of the word does not establish continuity of its function or criteria. As discussed in Excursus 087 and Excursus 117, dialectic has served epistemological, soteriological, and ontologicalContinue reading “Excursus 149 — On Explanatory Architecture and the Boundaries of Immanence”
Tag Archives: Gurvitch
Excursus 146 — On the Secularization of the Absolute: From God to Society
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 09 – 13 The decline of theological and metaphysical explanations does not necessarily eliminate the explanatory position once occupied by the Absolute. The occupant of that position may change while something of its structural function remains. God once provided an ultimate ground from which the order of the worldContinue reading “Excursus 146 — On the Secularization of the Absolute: From God to Society”
Excursus 144 — On Authorial Intention and Intellectual Consequence
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 09 – 13 What a thinker intends to accomplish and what the thinker’s work makes possible are not necessarily the same. This distinction is particularly important in the history of ideas, where concepts and arguments may acquire consequences very different from those intended by their authors. Gurvitch’s discussion ofContinue reading “Excursus 144 — On Authorial Intention and Intellectual Consequence”
Excursus 136 – Science, Wissenschaft, and the Changing Boundaries of Knowledge
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 09 The English words science and scientific appear so familiar that a contemporary reader may assume their meanings remain approximately constant whenever they occur in an older philosophical or sociological text. This assumption is unsafe. Words translated as science have belonged to linguistic and intellectual settings inContinue reading “Excursus 136 – Science, Wissenschaft, and the Changing Boundaries of Knowledge”
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””
Excursus 109 – Reality, Knowledge, and Epistemic Mediation
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 08 Every newspaper reports yesterday’s events. Every photograph shows a moment that has already passed. Even looking across a room takes a small amount of time for light to travel from the object to our eyes. Scientific knowledge is built upon observations that are obtained, interpreted, andContinue reading “Excursus 109 – Reality, Knowledge, and Epistemic Mediation”
Excursus 088 – On the Historical Functions of Doubt
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Philosophical doubt has never constituted a single method or pursued a single objective. Although many traditions have employed questioning, criticism, and the exposure of contradictions, they have done so for fundamentally different purposes. The history of dialectic is therefore also a history of changing conceptions ofContinue reading “Excursus 088 – On the Historical Functions of Doubt”
