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”
Tag Archives: knowledge
Excursus 073 – On Four Sources of Epistemic Incompleteness
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Human knowledge is often described as provisional or incomplete. This incompleteness, however, does not arise from a single cause. At least four independent mechanisms may prevent knowledge from attaining complete correspondence with reality. Two of these arise from the nature of reality itself. First, reality mayContinue reading “Excursus 073 – On Four Sources of Epistemic Incompleteness”
Excursus 070 – On the Distinction Between Epistemological and Ontological Claims
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 19 Discussions of scientific inquiry often emphasize that knowledge is acquired, interpreted, and communicated by human beings. This is an epistemological claim: all knowledge is produced within particular historical, linguistic, and social contexts. It concerns how human beings come to know the world. Such claims should notContinue reading “Excursus 070 – On the Distinction Between Epistemological and Ontological Claims”
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 030 – On the Changing Landscape of Scientific Inquiry
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In Aphorism I:61 of the Novum Organum (1620), Bacon argues that disagreements with earlier philosophers concern not the destination—truth itself—but the path by which it is reached. He illustrates this by observing that a lame man who follows the correct road will eventually outstrip a runnerContinue reading “Excursus 030 – On the Changing Landscape of Scientific Inquiry”
Excursus 025 – On Epistemological Distortion
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The epistemological distortion identified by Bacon in Aphorism I:45 of the Novum Organum (1620)—the tendency of the human mind to impose order and correspondence where none existed—has numerous modern analogues. In theoretical physics, critics have argued that some highly mathematical theories risk allowing formal elegance andContinue reading “Excursus 025 – On Epistemological Distortion”
Excursus 023 – On the Significance of The “Man is the measure of all things.”
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Human perception of even the most apparently straightforward phenomena—such as color—varies significantly across individuals. Differences in sensory physiology, neural processing, developmental history, and learned categories mean that two people may both call an object “green” while experiencing qualitatively distinct sensations. Similar divergences appear in brightness perception,Continue reading “Excursus 023 – On the Significance of The “Man is the measure of all things.””
Excursus 018 – On Epistemology and Cognitive Science
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s taxonomy of idola was an early attempt to systematize the sources of error in human thought. While his classification emphasized cultural, linguistic, and experiential distortions, modern cognitive science reveals an additional biological dimension to these sources of error. Perceptual and cognitive processes are constrained byContinue reading “Excursus 018 – On Epistemology and Cognitive Science”
Hossein Jorjani 