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 Early manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, and unpublished reflections often reveal conceptual beginnings, abandoned alternatives, and the gradual emergence of positions that later becameContinue reading “Excursus 121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”
Tag Archives: history of philosophy
Excursus 115 – On Reading Earlier Philosophers Through Later Traditions
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 08 Throughout the history of ideas, later intellectual traditions have frequently interpreted earlier thinkers through conceptual frameworks that arose only afterwards. Such reinterpretations may illuminate genuine continuities, but they may also obscure important differences by attributing to earlier authors concepts, intentions, or doctrines that belong primarily toContinue reading “Excursus 115 – On Reading Earlier Philosophers Through Later Traditions”
Excursus 111 – On Ultimate Unifying Principles
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 08 One of the recurring features of the history of philosophy is the search for an ultimate principle capable of unifying the diversity of reality. Although different philosophical systems identify this principle in different ways, many assign to it a comparable structural role: it serves as theContinue reading “Excursus 111 – On Ultimate Unifying Principles”
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 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”
Excursus 087 – On Three Historical Functions of Dialectic
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Histories of dialectic usually distinguish among philosophers, schools, or historical periods. Equally important, however, is the function that dialectic serves within different intellectual traditions. The same term has been employed for fundamentally different purposes, and these differences are not always made explicit. Three broad historical functionsContinue reading “Excursus 087 – On Three Historical Functions of Dialectic”
Excursus 054 – On the Hermeneutics of “Dialectic”
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 The term dialectic has accumulated multiple and often incompatible meanings over the course of its history. Contemporary discussions frequently employ the term without specifying which dialectical tradition is intended. As a result, ideas drawn from thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, Engels, Lukács, Sartre, Adorno, Gurvitch, Bhaskar,Continue reading “Excursus 054 – On the Hermeneutics of “Dialectic””
Excursus 007 – On the Term “Notion” (Notio) in Bacon and Aristotle
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s use of notio (“notion”) retained the Aristotelian conception of a form in the soul or intellect (μορφή ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ), yet fundamentally transformed its epistemological function. In Aristotelian psychology and logic, a notion denoted the intellect’s grasp of the universal—an abstraction derived from sense perceptionContinue reading “Excursus 007 – On the Term “Notion” (Notio) in Bacon and Aristotle”
Excursus 004 – On Bacon’s Use of the Term Dialectic
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In the Novum Organum (1620), Bacon employs the terms “dialectic” and “dialectical” in a specifically syllogistic sense: a scholastic structure of reasoning that proceeds syllogistically from received axioms. The term therefore designates a formal apparatus of argumentation—major premise, minor premise, and conclusion—rather than dialogical exchange orContinue reading “Excursus 004 – On Bacon’s Use of the Term Dialectic”
Hossein Jorjani 